Witchbound: My Power Grows With Every Trial

Through the haze of the vision, Ren watched it all unfold further.

He was inside Takuma's body now, seeing and feeling everything as if it was happening to him. Something slammed into Takuma's shoulder, pushing him hard into one of the walls. The sudden motion caused his weapon to fall to the ground and roll out of his reach.

He, or Takuma, because it was hard to really tell anymore, caught sight of Shiori attempting to cast an incantation. The spell was already halfway through, snapping shockwaves from within the aura around her, but then a wave of opposing energy surged from the attackers, cancelling hers. And in a matter of seconds, she was being forced to her knees while her arms were being tied back with what seemed like glowing magical restraints. They must have been sealed with some form of voided spell, because her aura died down as soon as she found herself immobilized.

"Shiori!"

Takuma tried to push toward her, but two of the cloaked figures stopped him in his tracks. A third one approached and pressed a palm against his chest. A burning sensation came right afterwards, which quickly spread throughout his entire body like burning liquid flowing through his veins. His eyesight started failing him as well. Through all of that, Ren felt as though he was being pulled in and out of whatever this reality was.

For a few moments, he was able to see Shiori's face again. The restraints still pressed hard around her arms, but her eyes were wild. They were fixed on their attackers with such a fury that, if she could only find a way to unbind herself, she would burn them all alive in one go.

Then darkness fell around them both.

When Takuma's senses returned, he found himself in a completely new environment. It was a chamber with stone walls all around. It smelled heavily of rust and humid air.

He was shackled in a standing position with metal cuffs bound to a wooden platform on the wall. His wrists were bloodied, but he felt no pain. It was more the desorientation affecting him. His arms and chest were bare, stripped of any armor that might have shielded him from what went on in that room.

Across the chamber, Shiori was bound similarly, though much crueler restraints locked her in place. Metallic plates covered her forearms and neck, each one marked by sigils which floated just a few centimeters away from her body.

Takuma then looked around.

Instead of the ninja attackers he had fought at the Sanctum's entrance, Takuma saw only two figures standing in that chamber. They were cloaked in a similar fashion to the attackers, but these individuals didn't appear to be as aggressive. One of them was standing motionless, whispering something, probably an incantation of sorts. Yes, it was the incantation keeping the sigils active, binding Shiori from within. The other one moved next to her and pressed a small and polished stone against her skin.

Shiori reacted to that immediately. Lines of red light ran through her skin, pushing across her arms and her throat like a network of burning threads. She bit down hard, refusing to scream, but it was visibly taking a toll on her. The object melted onto her body, leaving a burnt mark in its place.

"Stop this!" Takuma screamed, pulling from his shackles.

Neither of the two figures paid any attention to him.

A second object was then placed on Shiori's skin. This time it was ragged and black like a piece of coal. It triggered a similar reaction as to the previous one, only this time the strands were completely black, running through her body like thick black oil.

"You're breaking her! What is it that you want?!" Takuma pleaded with what strength he had left.

The cloaked figure standing close to Shiori finally looked at him.

"She will not break. On the contrary, boy... she will be the core Naraku will obey."

As the darker object pressed harder into her body, Takuma felt the Pact link between them react violently. It pulled at his own body as if what she was going through was now being channelled through him as well.

It went like that for minutes before Shiori's head finally dropped forward. It was done.

For a while, nothing moved. The two figures had retreated to one side of the chamber, while Takuma was too weak to move at all. He was conscious and breathing, but his will was broken.

When Shiori raised her head again, her eyes were no longer the same. The gold in them was still there, but the black swirls moved slowly inside the irises, curling and uncurling like smoky trails in tainted water.

The chains at her wrists moved from where they stood, pushed forward by an unseen force that soon exploded into an invisible ripple that crossed the chamber, throwing everything in its path.

Takuma slowly lifted his head in an attempt to reach her in some way, even with his gaze only. He tried to stabilize the Pact from within, but the link rejected him, triggering spikes of pain throughout his body.

The cloaked figure who had spoken earlier approached him.

"You will stay alive. Your witch still needs the Pact to run through you," the voice said.

Through the haze of pain, Ren sensed Takuma drifting in and out of consciousness. Smoke and shadow enveloped Ren again, pulling the scene apart. Then, time seemed to move forward in the vision, so he now found himself standing in a completely different place.

The Clan subordinates who had accompanied Takuma and Shiori to Naraku were now on their knees, with none of their weapons on them. As the new corrupted Shiori passed near them, slightly touching their shoulders one by one, they each opened their mouths in silent screams as a thin black mist rose from their throats. Their faces kept their human form but lost any vitality. Only the eyes were vivid, glowing with the same golden hue as hers did, but corrupted with swirls of blackness. They were Kagemonos now, who only obeyed her.

The Pact was now distorted, bleeding into every corner of Naraku.

Then Ren felt the trance pulling him back toward the present. The images broke into light and shadow until he found himself back inside the Respite. Kagami was in front of him with the golden glow dimming slightly in her eyes. He looked at him intently but said nothing, as if retracing through his mind everything they had just witnessed.