“I… I can’t do it! Meow!”
Lilia shook her head frantically, her voice filled with resistance.
Dodging over 100 self-moving Magic Energy Spheres with her eyes closed?
This wasn’t training; this was an execution!
“You can’t?”
There was a hint of a smile in Lucia’s voice.
She ignored Lilia’s protests and raised her hand, snapping her fingers.
Hum —
Over 100 purple light spheres were suspended throughout the room.
The electrical arcs at their cores suddenly brightened, and they began to spiral irregularly in the air, all aimed at Lilia.
A scorched scent filled the air.
Lilia’s face paled with fright.
She could feel the space of the entire bedroom being locked down by a force, cutting off any possibility of her using magic to escape.
This place had become an enclosed execution ground.
“Remember, close your eyes.”
Lucia’s voice was right by her ear, every word carrying a tone of command.
“Give it a try; it’ll be fun. If you dare open even a crack…”
She paused, her voice dropping even lower.
“I can’t guarantee what the punishment will become.”
Lilia’s body shook violently.
She watched the spheres drawing closer and closer, then looked at the woman by the bed.
The expression on Lucia’s face — anticipating a good show — was more dangerous than all the spheres surrounding her combined.
Lilia bit her lower lip hard, almost drawing blood.
‘Forget it. I can’t escape. Isn’t it just closing my eyes? Isn’t it just being tortured?’
She threw caution to the wind.
Steeling her resolve, Lilia squeezed her eyes shut.
Instantly, the world turned pitch black.
She couldn’t see a thing, but her senses of hearing and touch became exceptionally sharp.
She could hear the sizzle of the electrical currents as the spheres moved through the air.
She could feel the ripples of magical energy they emitted, pricking her skin over and over.
“Now then, the game begins,” Lucia declared.
Whoosh —
A sharp sound of something cutting through the air came from the left! Lilia’s cat ears twitched.
In the darkness, she relied entirely on the sound and the magical trajectories her skin sensed to determine the direction of the attack.
Without thinking, she exerted all her strength and threw herself clumsily to the right!
Bang!
The sphere grazed her arm and flew past, hitting the spot where she had just been sitting.
A small hole, emitting black smoke, was immediately corroded into the black silk sheets.
‘I dodged it!’
Lilia’s heart raced as a wave of relief washed over her.
‘So… it’s not entirely impossible!’
Before the thought could even settle…
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Piercing whistles rang out from all directions at once! At least four or five spheres had sealed off all her paths of retreat from different angles! Lilia’s mind went blank.
She could barely manage to judge one attack, but with four or five coming at once, she couldn’t react in time.
She could only rely on her survival instincts and roll wildly across the soft, large bed.
Bang!
Her right thigh went numb, and a dense, crawling itch erupted from deep within the bone.
Her entire leg instantly stopped obeying her and went limp.
“Meow!”
Lilia cried out as she lost her balance and fell heavily onto the bed.
Bang!
Her back took another hit!
A wave of cold exploded through her, making her feel as if her spine were about to freeze and crack.
Bang!
Immediately after, a searing heat radiated from her backside.
It felt as if a red-hot iron had been pressed firmly against her, burning so much she nearly bounced off the bed.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The attacks became increasingly dense, giving her no room to breathe.
The light spheres had come alive, chasing after her.
Lilia was in a total frenzy.
Her body had become a chaotic torture chamber.
Her left leg was numb, her back was freezing, her backside was scorching, and an agonizing itch shot through her arm…
A cacophony of conflicting sensations ran wild inside her, nearly tearing her nerves apart.
She twitched, rolled, and dodged passively on the bed.
Tears gushed uncontrollably, mixing with sweat to drench her cheeks.
Broken whimpers squeezed out of her throat.
“No… no more… meow…”
She finally broke down, giving up all resistance and slumping onto the bed.
“I give up… please… I give up… meow…”
She buried her face deep into the soft pillow and wailed, her body trembling violently from her sobs.
However, her desperate pleas for mercy did not bring an end to the game.
Instead, the attacks of the spheres became even more precise.
One by one, they landed unhurriedly on her back, her legs, and her tail.
Each hit brought a brand-new form of torture.
Just as Lilia felt her consciousness about to be submerged by the endless pain, her own cries and pleas reached her ears through the pillow — so miserable, so pitiful.
‘This voice… that pervert Lucia must be enjoying this. She must be sitting by the bed, admiring this pathetic, begging sight, feeling incredibly smug!’
No.
That wasn’t right.
Why should she?!
Rage and shame surged in her heart, washing away all the pain and fear.
‘I can’t cry! Crying won’t help! That pervert will only get more excited! The more I beg, the happier that woman gets! I can’t let her have her way!’
Lilia suddenly lifted her head from the pillow.
There was no longer a trace of pleading on her tear-stained face.
She wiped away her tears haphazardly with the back of her hand and “stared” intently into the empty darkness ahead, her teeth grinding.
She gave up on listening with her ears.
She gave up on feeling with her skin.
Those senses had already been thrown into disarray by the mess of punishments; they would only lead her to make wrong judgments.
She forced herself to calm down, pulling all her chaotic focus inward and sinking it deep into her body.
She reached out to the only thing that still belonged to her — her mana.
And then, she “saw” it.
A whole new world unfolded within her perception amidst the darkness.
The light spheres flying around her body were no longer vague sounds and chaotic ripples.
Instead, they were clear, purple ‘lines’ composed of magic energy.
They intertwined and darted about, tracing lethal trajectories through the air.
And the source of all those lines was connected to a single energy core radiating a terrifying aura — Lucia.
It was her.
She was controlling everything with her will.
‘So that’s how it is…’
Something seemed to click in Lilia’s mind.
She had always relied too much on her eyes.
But for a mage, sometimes eyes were the greatest deception and shackle.
True “seeing” should be done with the spirit, with the soul!
Driven to the brink of collapse by the torture, she had forced open a new door.
[Mana Vision]!
Whoosh —
At that exact moment, another light sphere shot silently toward her face from an incredibly tricky angle.
If it had been a moment ago, she definitely wouldn’t have been able to dodge it.
But now — an instant before the sphere reached her face, Lilia’s body jerked to the side in a stiff yet precise movement.
The purple sphere flew past her cheek.
The searing airflow singed a few strands of her silver hair.
She was unharmed.
Lucia, who had been watching the show with her chin resting on her hand, froze.
The amused expression on her face vanished, replaced by a look of scrutiny.
‘This little thing… she actually comprehended the Mind’s Eye on her own under these circumstances? Just how many surprises is she hiding that even I don’t know about?’