Rise of the Omnimage

Sorin sat alone for what felt like hours recirculating his aether feeling the sense of everything around him like he went from blind to seeing again.

With his storm sense upgraded as much as if was there were very few things that it couldn't penetrate or see through so he laid his head down on the table and just watched as different people walked around him. The area around him was filled with little cells just like his own with what he assumed were conscripts being offered things or threatened.

Over the course of the next hour Sorin watched as many conscripts were let out after appear to sign something. There were quite a few who didn't and stayed in the cells.

He watched as a man began walking toward his door. The man paused took a deep breath in then out, then walked in.

"Mr. Ekart, you have been nothing but trouble for us in almost every category." The charismatic voice said.

Sorin looked up pretending to squint as if waking from a nap. "Well, you were not the one taken from your universe, family, and home to be enslaved by a seemingly hostile empire. Then forced to go through this whole process with nobody to actually rely on to get you back home because nobody here truly cares if you get back or not."

Sorin said affecting a very sarcastic tone.

"Well when you put it that way I can understand your frustration." The man said who opened up his brief case pulling out different pieces of paper.

"In front of me are three offers. These offers are actually realistic for you to live out our life in this new universe as a citizen and live remarkably well." He said pushing them to Sorin.

"On this first one, you do your time as a conscript and when that time is up, the Empire pays you an extremely large one time lump sum and agrees to never talk to you again."

He reached for the second piece of paper.

"On this, the Empire offers you the chance to attend this very academy to learn as a cadet and become a commander of your own forces and live a military life within the empire. You have demonstrated a cunning mind, resiliency, and tactical genius as well as elite levels of growth. You will be paid well and even get the opportunity to become a hero to the empire."

He reached for the final piece of paper.

"This is the last offer and we offer it to you after receiving permission from Duke Phorcys Aegis, he has offered to sign you himself as a free citizen of the Empire. A writ will be drawn up upon signing this to give you a title of nobility.

You will become a noble under the 3rd Region under Duke Phorcys who has offered a daughter to you for marriage, including Lady Euryale Aegis.

There is a requirement, you must serve as a vassal of the duke and must manage an area for him, fight for him when called, attend the academy here, graduating with distinction, and provide at least one male heir."

Sorin took the pages and read over the long contracts that the man in front of him summed up.

"You have been straight forward with me and not tried any amateur manipulation tricks. I expected someone to try the many other manipulation tricks, but just buying me was further down the list. Unfortunately I will have to decline all these offers as generous as they are." Sorin said stacking them and politely handing them back.

"Any reason you want to give why?" The man asked.

"No." Sorin said simply leaving the man to look on expecting a longer answer.

"No?" The man eventually said.

"No. There is no reason I want to give."

The man nodded getting to his feet and putting the contracts in the folder.

"Very well. I wish you luck in what follows."

The man left leaving Sorin alone once more. He wondered if the others got the same contacts. Linx would have definitely had a hard time resisting the first or last contacts if offered. Cain he actually didn't know. The man didn't really talk much about what he wanted.

The door opened again as three men walked in. Sorin didn't even try to fight them as they put a collar back on, cutting off his senses once more then hauled him out of the room. Sorin was taken to a tile room that resembled a showered with a drain. He was strapped to a metal table.

"Well I'm glad I didn't take the deals. Doubt you all would have honored them." Sorin said.

Before he could even prepare he was punched in the stomach.

"The only time you speak is when you say you are leaving your current team." The first man said.

Sorin moved his hand in a back and forth motion until he saw one of them loom down at it and when they did he gave them the one finger salute.

They looked at eachother confused, then one shrugged and punched him in the stomach again.

Over the next who knows how long, Sorin was subjected to all sorts of tortures from nail pulling which was horrific only to be force fed a healing drought, then water boarded, then locked in a box in the fetal position for hours at a time...which Sorin admittedly didn't find that bad as he just went to sleep. He was burned, cut, electrocuted, then put into a freezer all of which given minimal water and no food.

None of them seemed to work for Sorin. He kept the imagine of his wife and son firmly in his mind and kept going.

Sorin was finally dumped unceremoniously into a room devoid of all light and sound. As tortures go it wasn't the worst.

He sat down wanting to figure out the collar around his neck. There was a very real possibility it wasn't going to be the last time he had to deal with them because of this empire.

He found the same firm barrier stopping his aetheric interaction with the world. He saw the collar opens and closes at the from of his throat. He felt with his hands and scraped along the color and found the tiny seem where the collar joined together. With his internal aether he created a tendril and felt around seeing if there was a similar weakness in the barrier. He didnt feel anything, but kept at it. After a great amount of time went by, Sorin had no idea how much he finally gave up.

The collar wouldn't let anything through. He became frustrated and rammed his aether like a spear into the barrier only for nothing to happen. He began spinning it like a drill and pressed into it then to his suprise something actually happened.

The smallest fleck of whatever the barrier was made of came off and went into his aether and vanished. If he hadn't been paying half as much attention as he was, he would have missed it.

He slammed his aether back into the barrier drilling and saw a few more flecks come off, but at such a tiny amount it would take him a while to get through it. He pressed even harder and harder.

Warning!

AP under 10

9/13800

Sorin stopped and saw the barrier had more damage, but not much.

He pulled up his HUD...or tried to He just received a message

Warning!

HUD disabled due to aether repulsion field. Emergency messages are all that are available to user.

Sorin just sat and looked at the red text in front of him. He was completely cut off from his skills and the system itself.

"What a clever means of controlling people."

He was tier 3 and 4 so he was curious how people at tier 10 and above got locked down if he could cause some damage to that aether repulsion field.

The door opened blinding Sorin. He was grabbed by a couple people and dragged outside where the sounds around him were incredibly painful to his unadjusted ears.

They put him back in the office he was before the torture began.

"Do you want more or will you leave the team of Lady Aegis?" A man asked him.

Sorin politely lifted his hand and gave him the bird. "You guys suck at all of this. I'll take more."

The man nodded and began to smile.

Sorin might have said that, but it was out of bravado and in no way honest about how he felt. He didn't know how he was going to keep going, but he would if it meant having even the smallest chance at getting home.

The man reached forward with a small remote and Sorin's collar fell away.

"Congratulations Mr. Ekart. You have completed You will be escorted out to get washed up, healed, and fed appropriately." He got up from the table and started walking out but stopped.

"You were her last hope you know. The others of your team didn't make it. She will be informed a single member of her team made it through. This part of the exam is why our academy only graduates less than 20% of our students per year."

He then walked out.

Sorin felt aether flood his body again rejuvenating him and healing the damage.

*bleep*

Sorin pulled the notification up and smiled.