The array enveloping the first floor of Solus’s tower was something they had developed in case Lith managed to find a mana geyser while being on the brink of death.
It allowed Solus to harness the energy of the mana geyser to heal all kinds of wounds almost instantly and to share part of her life force with Invigoration. The final result was a powerful healing field capable of beating death as long as the subject’s mana core was intact.
In Fallmug’s case, however, Solus wasn’t giving him any life force. Lith refused to have her tainting her noble spirit with such a human faced monster.
Fallmug’s spine recovered and so did his limbs. He was seconds away from fainting due to exhaustion when Lith used Invigoration to restore his life force. Lith wouldn’t let him get any respite.
Even healing was an excruciating process since Solus was performing it without any kind of anesthesia. The bone fragments would dig through the flesh and blood vessels to return to their original position, opening new wounds at their passage.
Fallmug could feel his body constantly get torn apart and reconstructed.
“How does it feel, Ezio?” Lith waited for him to have completely recovered before crushing his windpipe with a fist to the throat.
“How does it feel to be helpless against someone much bigger and stronger than you are?” Fallmug couldn’t even breathe, let alone reply. His vision blurred before the array allowed him to breathe in fresh air again.
“How does it feel walking a mile in your children’s shoes?” A flick of Lith’s finger and one of Fallmug’s nails flew off, spraying blood through the room as he screamed in agony.
“Your voice is definitely high pitched for a god.” The nail was still regrowing, biting the flesh on its way when another flew off.
Fallmug kept screaming, holding his right hand to defend it, just to have the fingernails on the left hand be ripped off all at once. The pain almost sent him into shock, but Solus’s healing and Lith’s life force saved his life again.
“Any last words?”
“You will not get away with this. If I disappear…”
“Then what? Who would even care? Your wife? Your children? Your family?” Lith stomped on Fallmug’s kneecap with enough strength to almost cut the leg into two.
“The Kingdom will never…” Fallmug attempted to say as soon as the pain allowed him to.
“Wrong!” Lith stomped on the other leg, cutting him short and making Fallmug grateful to the gods for giving him only two legs.
“The Kingdom wouldn’t give a damn, but death is too good for the likes of you. I will turn you into your wife.” Lith’s fingers shapeshifted into claws, piercing Fallmug’s eyes all the way to the brain.
“Just like she is your plaything, you shall be mine. I will beat you an inch from death every single day and then send you home unscathed. No one will hear your screams.” Lith slammed his opened palms against Fallmug’s ears, destroying his eardrums.
Fallmug lost control of his bladder as his world was now pitch black and devoid of sound. Solus only healed his ears, to make him feel like Zinya did every day of her life.
“No one will witness what I’ll do to you.” Lith’s knee struck Fallmug’s nether regions, turning his genitals into toothpaste.
“No matter who you ask for help, they’ll just think you’re crazy. No one will believe you.” A jet of Origin Flames set Fallmug ablaze as Solus kept the healing speed fast enough to keep him alive despite the flames eating his ever regenerating flesh.
Lith went outside, using his army amulet to create himself an alibi. The amulet pinpointed his position while he asked for updates from Commander Berion. The army would be his witness, stating that he was at his own house if anyone asked.
When Lith returned to the tower, the flames were gone and Fallmug was unconscious.
“His body couldn’t take any more punishment without eating.” Solus said.
“Well done.” Lith’s voice was joyless. He hated the idea of letting him live, but his disappearance would make Kamila ask questions he didn’t want to lie about. They brought Fallmug back in the tearoom and prepared a new alarm array, this time above a cupboard.
“I always keep my promises.” Lith said while embracing Zinya and giving her another stick to replace the one she had consumed.
“What about Fallmug?” She asked.
“He is alright, but I doubt he’ll touch you again for a long, long time.” Between his studies at the academy and the time spent with Jirni, Lith was an expert about the human body and mind.
It would take Fallmug days to recover from the physical exhaustion, but the mental trauma would last much longer, whereas he would return the following day to bring Zinya to the academy’s hospital to prepare her for the procedure.
“If anything happens, you know what to do. Remember, if anyone asks, I’ve not been here.”
“Thank you so much.” Zinya buried her face into his chest.
“He might be a monster, but he’s still the father of my children.”
“Believe me, they are better off with their mother. Giving guys like him a second chance will bite back at you sooner or later. I’ll pick you up tomorrow, so rest easy but keep the trigger always with you.
“Once you stop hearing my voice, count up to ten, and then use the handbell to summon the house staff. Fallmug just had a stroke.” Lith let her go and disappeared inside the Warping Mirror.
When Zinya started to scream for help, no one came. The house staff thought Fallmug was beating her in a particularly vicious manner since she usually never yelled. Like anyone else in the house, Zinya knew that it only made things worse.
‘Oh, right. They must think that if they get in here, Fallmug will pick on them too.’ Zinya thought.
“Help, Fallmug doesn’t respond.”
When the servants arrived, they had to help Vylna first. She was still bleeding from her injuries and required a healer whereas aside from being unconscious, Fallmug was fit as a fiddle.
The beating had taken less than half an hour and before returning him to his home, Lith had erased all proof of what had happened with darkness magic and even ironed the man’s pants and shirt.
Fallmug would be unconscious for days before his body and mind could overcome the trauma. Lith had made sure of it. Once he was back to Lutia, Lith kept researching the procedure to heal Zinya until it was time to go back to Kamila’s home.
When she arrived, Kamila instantly noticed he was once again in a gloomy disposition, but after what had happened yesterday, her heart was at ease.
“What’s the matter, babe? Another failed experiment?” She sat on his lap, trying to kiss him, but Lith stopped her. She was shocked, it had never happened before.
“I wish. It’s about Zinya. Her dirtbag of a husband found out about our visit and tried to get even with her.” Lith couldn’t stand the thought that a man of the caliber of his Earth’s father was still breathing even though he had all the opportunities to kill him.
It made his face dark and his voice sour.
“Oh, gods! Why didn’t you contact me immediately? Is she alright? We need to go…” Kamila tried to stand up, but Lith grabbed her hand, with a firm but gentle touch.
