Chapter 9: Breaking Point

Chapter 9: Breaking Point

"No," I growled out, hand clenching. "You promised."

The word hung in the air between us, a pitiful shield against Vash's calculated cruelty. My fingers tightened around the hilt of the still-dormant Resonance Blade, knuckles turning white with the pressure. Every muscle in my body tensed, ready to spring forward despite the beatings that had left me barely able to stand.

Elisa clutched the lieutenant's hand, not understanding the danger she was in. Her small face was confused, her eyes darting between me, Vash, and the stern-faced Nyxen who held her. The training room suddenly felt cavernous, the distance between me and my daughter an unbridgeable gulf.

Vash shrugged, the casual gesture a perfect encapsulation of her indifference to human suffering.

"A promise that means less than nothing to me if you cannot perform. Your test is simple. Manifest your Resonance Blade within ten minutes, or Lt. Zorin here will do something quite unpleasant to your daughter."

Her voice remained light, conversational, as if discussing the weather rather than threatening a child. The lieutenant shifted slightly at her words, his expression unchanging but his grip on Elisa's hand tightening visibly. My daughter winced, though she made no sound.

Elisa's eyes widened with fear. Not just fear—realization. Even at five years old, she was beginning to understand what kind of people the Nyxen were. What kind of person Vash was. The innocence that had somehow survived the loss of her mother and brother was being stripped away before my eyes.

"She's a child," I said, fighting to keep my voice steady. "This isn't necessary."

"Necessity is irrelevant," Vash replied coolly. "Results are all that matter. The blade responds to emotion, to will. You have both, but something blocks you. Perhaps this will remove the blockage." She glanced at a timepiece on her wrist. "Nine minutes remaining."

Rage beyond mortal imagining detonated within me. Imagine a hurricane, go and look at some photos of the devastation one can inflict upon a city.

Once you've done that, you might better understand the anger that suffused me now. It was more than a living thing, it was elemental, a primordial force that shattered the block within me. The room seemed to darken around the edges of my vision, the air growing thick and heavy with the pressure of my fury.

My skin felt too tight, as if the anger needed to burst through my flesh. The temperature in the room seemed to rise, the metallic taste of adrenaline flooding my mouth. Each heartbeat sounded like thunder in my ears, drowning out everything but Vash's voice.

"Eight minutes."

I stared at the hilt in my hands, willing it to activate. Begging it. The white jewel remained dull, lifeless. I could feel something inside me, that same warmth Vash had described, churning and building like magma beneath the earth's crust. But there was still a barrier, still something preventing it from flowing into the weapon.

"Perhaps some motivation," Vash murmured. She nodded to Zorin, who released Elisa's hand only to grip her small shoulder. His fingers dug in just enough to make her whimper.

"Stop it!" I shouted, taking a step forward.

"Seven minutes," Vash counted, unmoved. "The clock continues to run, initiate."

The rage built higher, hotter. I could feel sweat beading on my forehead, running down my back. My vision pulsed with each heartbeat, the boundaries between objects beginning to blur as fury overwhelmed my senses.

"Let her go, and I'll do whatever training you want," I said, desperation creeping into my voice.

"This is the training I want," Vash replied. "Six minutes."

Zorin's hand moved to Elisa's arm, gripping it with obvious pressure. Her face contorted in pain, though she bit her lip, trying to be brave.

"Daddy?" she called, her voice small but steady. "It's okay. I'm not scared."

But I could see that she was. Her brave little lie only fueled my anger further. The warmth inside me roiled, seeking an outlet, a direction. I focused everything on the hilt, imagining the blade extending from it, willing it into existence with every fiber of my being.

Nothing.

"Five minutes," Vash intoned. "I expected better from you, Thorne. Perhaps your bloodline is weaker than I thought."

Bloodline. The word tickled something in my memory. The status screen had mentioned a bloodline, something still being analyzed. What did Vash know that I didn't? Why was she so interested in me specifically?

The questions scattered like smoke as Zorin twisted Elisa's arm slightly, causing her to cry out.

"Stop!" I roared, and this time I felt it—a surge of power flowing through me, coating my skin in a faint blue glow. The same energy I had experienced during the attack on our home, during my first beating by Vash. But stronger now, more focused.

A blade of pure white exploded out of the cruciform hilt as I pulled on the wrathful warmth within me. It emerged not gradually but in a violent burst of energy, a meter-long beam of solid light tinged with the faintest hint of crimson at its core. The sudden manifestation was accompanied by a sound like crystal chimes, high and pure, cutting through the tension in the room.

I stared at it for a fraction of a second, awed despite myself. Then instinct took over.

My hand launched out, and with it my furious will carried the power of the Primal Aspect of the Flux. I didn't touch Zorin, didn't need to. Something invisible but tangible extended from me, crossing the room in an instant.

Lt. Zorin's eyes widened as he was lifted up from my daughter by an unseen hand. His body rose several feet into the air, arms and legs thrashing uselessly. His hands tried to move toward his blade, but his throat was constricting under the pressure of my will. His face began to redden, then purple, eyes bulging as he fought for air that wouldn't come.

I realized dimly that I was screaming. A raw, primal sound that barely seemed human. The blade in my hand pulsed in time with my heartbeat, its glow intensifying with each passing second. The blue aura around me brightened, expanded, filling the room with its eerie light.

There was nothing else but the rage. I couldn't see Elisa's horrified eyes as she backed away from the suspended lieutenant. I didn't see Vash's girlish squeal of delight, hands clasped together as she literally bounced.

"Yes! Violent! And lovely! And brutal! Kill him, dear apprentice. Kill him." Her voice was nearly orgasmic in its pleasure. She moved closer, circling me, drinking in the sight of my power with undisguised glee. "Finally! The power in your blood awakens!"

I didn't hear it. All I saw was the world in grayscale, and my prey before me. Colors had bled away, leaving only stark contrasts of light and dark. Zorin's struggling form was just a silhouette, a shadow to be extinguished. The part of me that was still human, still a father and a builder rather than a killer, was buried beneath an avalanche of rage and power.

I would end him terribly. It was the only equation that mattered. My grip on his throat tightened, the distance between us meaningless to the Flux that extended my will across the room. His struggles weakened as consciousness began to fade, his kicks growing feebler by the second.

"Daddy?" A small voice.

Somewhere at the edge of my awareness, a note of fear penetrated the fog of rage. Not fear of Zorin or Vash, but fear of me. Of what I was becoming.

It broke through my harmony. I snarled, the Resonance Blade in my hand thrumming. My hand flexed as if I were physically choking the LT, fingers curling into a claw. The power was intoxicating, filling me with a sense of strength I had never known. After weeks of helplessness, of being beaten and broken, the ability to inflict suffering instead of receiving it was almost too sweet to relinquish.

"Daddy... please... not again."

Not again. The words sliced through my fury like a blade of ice. Images flashed through my mind—the creatures in our home, the blood, the bodies of Lynn and Jackson. The violence that had destroyed our lives. And now Elisa was watching me become something just as monstrous, just as filled with cruelty and rage.

Color exploded within the grayscale world, my anger slain like a dragon in its den. Power fled from me, leaving an echoing emptiness in its wake. The blue aura dissipated, the blade dimmed to a softer glow, and my invisible grip on Zorin released.

Lt. Zorin dropped to the ground, chest heaving. He landed in an ungraceful heap, coughing and gasping, one hand massaging his throat while the other braced against the floor. His eyes, when they finally rose to meet mine, held newfound wariness mixed with their previous dislike.

Elisa ran to me, her small feet pattering across the training room floor. "Daddy!"

I deactivated the blade without conscious thought, the bright beam simply winking out of existence as my focus shifted entirely to my daughter. The hilt fell from my fingers, clattering to the floor forgotten as I knelt to catch her in my arms.

I clutched her close, whispering into her hair, breathing in the scent of her that somehow remained unchanged despite everything. Despite the horrors she had witnessed, despite the new world we had been thrust into, she still smelled like Elisa, like home.

"I am so sorry, baby. So sorry, monkey." My voice broke on the words, shame flooding me at what I had almost done, at what she had almost witnessed. What would Lynn think of me now? What would I have become if Elisa hadn't called out?

"It's okay... I'm here." She whispered, her small hands patting my back reassuringly, as if I were the child in need of comfort. Perhaps I was.

Vash observed our reunion with narrowed eyes, her earlier excitement cooling into calculation. Her gaze flicked between Elisa and me, noting our embrace, the way my breathing steadied at my daughter's touch. The way the power that had erupted from me moments ago had been instantly quelled by a child's voice.

"Ah... love." There was contempt in those words as Vash said them, but a curious edge as well. Like a big cat who couldn't quite tell what it was seeing, but didn't like it. She pronounced the word as if it were foreign, something she had read about but never experienced herself.

I understood that perspective now. Even as I look back, I had a hard time remembering that love. The love of my daughter. Such a simple thing. I had come to see it as a weakness. The Path I eventually walked left little room for such emotions, such attachments.

But looking back, why did I suddenly miss it? That pure connection, untainted by power or ambition. The unreserved trust in Elisa's eyes, even after witnessing my rage.

"Well done, initiate. Elisa may return to her studies as promised. You and I have unfinished training." Vash's smile was too white, too perfect, like polished bone in moonlight. She gestured to Zorin, who had regained his feet and stood at attention despite the red marks still visible on his throat. "Take the child back to Lyra."

The lieutenant hesitated, clearly reluctant to approach Elisa again. Vash's eyes hardened.

"That was not a request, Lieutenant."

Zorin moved forward stiffly, extending his hand to Elisa. My daughter looked up at me questioningly.

"Go with him, monkey," I said softly. "I'll see you soon."

She nodded, brave little soldier that she was, and took Zorin's hand without complaint. The lieutenant led her from the room, casting one last venomous glance over his shoulder at me before the door closed behind them.

I remained kneeling on the floor, suddenly exhausted. The surge of power had drained me in ways I hadn't thought possible, leaving my muscles trembling and my mind foggy. Yet beneath the fatigue was something new, something I hadn't felt since the attack on our home.

Hope. Not for rescue or escape, but for power. Power to protect what remained of my family. Power to ensure that Elisa would never again be used as leverage against me. As I rose slowly to my feet, I saw my reflection in one of the training room's polished panels.

My eyes glowed faintly, a lingering reminder of the force I had channeled. For a moment, just a moment, they reminded me of Vash's—cold, calculating, seeing people as means rather than ends.

I looked away quickly, disturbed by the comparison.

Vash retrieved my fallen hilt, examining it with professional interest before offering it back to me. "Now we begin the real training," she said. "Now that you've broken through your mental block, we can develop your abilities properly."

I took the hilt, feeling its weight with new awareness. It was no longer just a piece of metal but an extension of my will, a conduit for the power that had awakened within me.

"What did you mean about my bloodline?" I asked, remembering her excitement during my outburst.

Vash's smile widened fractionally. "All in good time, initiate. For now, focus on what you just accomplished. You manifested your blade. You used the Primal Aspect of the Flux effectively, if crudely. You demonstrated exceptional aptitude for one so new to the Path."

She circled me slowly, her assessment almost predatory. "Though I must admit, your weakness is... disappointing. The child controls you far too easily."

"She doesn't control me," I said, bristling at the characterization. "She reminds me of who I am."

"And who are you, Varus Thorne?" Vash asked, her voice dripping with mockery. "A broken man who couldn't save his wife and son? A reluctant initiate who had to be forced to embrace his power? Or something more, something waiting to be revealed?"

I had no answer for her. Not then. The man I had been was already fading, like a photograph left too long in sunlight. The man I would become was still shrouded in possibility, in choices yet unmade.

"Pick up your blade," Vash commanded, manifesting her own violet Resonance Blade with casual ease. "Show me what you learned today. Let's see if your anger can be harnessed without your daughter's life at stake."

I raised my hilt, focusing on the warmth within me. This time, the blade ignited immediately, a column of white light with that same faint crimson core. It felt right in my hand, balanced and responsive in a way no physical weapon could be.

As I faced Vash across the training room, blade humming softly in my grasp, I made a silent vow. I would learn. I would grow stronger. I would master this power.

And I would never again allow Elisa to be used against me.