He Became A Monstrous Genius After Obtaining A Time Dilation Artifact

Truth Cage

A ritual space where lies become physically painful to articulate.

Kailen lets them speak until the pain forces truth.

The more deeply held the lie, the sharper the reaction.

The duo's mouths, healed by Kailen with an elixir for the sake of answering Kailen's questions with clear words, found themselves in some sort of room with Kailen—an obvious effect of the skill.

In reality, they were still on the plane with Kailen standing across their battered and beaten forms.

However, because of the Truth Cage skill Kailen had just activated, the skill's effect made them perceive they were in some dark, ominous room with Kailen.

The young man was seated at the other end of the room, having reverted back to his normal appearance.

Cutting straight to the point, Kailen asked,

"Who sent you, and what do they want from me?"

He knew this was obviously either the Harkers or Darkhavens at work.

But he wanted to know which of them specifically, for the sake of a surprise he was cooking up for them.

"What's the point even if we tell you? It's not like it's gonna change anything.

Your fucking mother sent us!"

Kailen didn't react to his words.

The skill did the work.

Unimaginable pain.

It assaulted him.

It was not physical.

He felt his very soul, his consciousness, being torn apart.

The pain was one he had never experienced before.

"Arrrrhhhhhhhhgggghhh!"

His screams were deep, guttural, and sickening—birthed from deep within him.

The female, terrified by her brother's fate, voiced truthfully, her voice trembling with undertones of fear.

"Our distant aunt, Enna Harker. She's an instructor at the academy. She wanted us to kill you in the Seragun planes. It would be the perfect place to get rid of you, since most students who venture here end up dying."

"That's right," the male, coming to his senses and terrified of the pain, answered. "She was very close with Zane Harker. This is why she's after you. She wanted revenge."

His pain ceased after he spoke the truth.

He stared at Kailen, gazing at them calmly from across the room, with a fearful expression.

The male of the twins couldn't help but think of what kind of monster Kailen was.

As part of their training as academy students, torture training was something they were well versed in. After all, straight from the academy was the military, where one could be caught by enemies and interrogated with torture methods. If one was not trained in such an area, they would crack and spill crucial information to the enemy.

He was one of the highest-scoring members of the torture class, having even been complimented by the instructor whose class he had paid high amounts of student credits/points to take.

Yet… this pain was unlike anything he had ever endured.

It was unimaginable.

So much so that, if killing himself to stop experiencing the pain were possible, he'd have resorted to that.

"That wasn't so hard, right?" Kailen sighed.

"Last question. Is Francisca Harker in on this?"

Kailen asked.

The female spilled the beans quickly. "Yes. According to what we were told by our parents, who are elders of the clan, the clan leader agreed with his sister to get rid of you."

Kailen nodded.

"Thanks for your time."

Deactivating the video recording, Kailen turned to leave and deactivated the truth cage skill.

The duo found themselves on the plane again.

Were they not in a room just now ?

Had they been hallucinating?

Definitely not. It was all real.

Also, the twins wondered—was he sparing them?

However, reality proved brutal.

Swoosh

Shadow blades stirred from Kailen's shadow expanse, shooting towards them with swift speed.

The blades severed their heads from their bodies, painting the plain in crimson blood.

Their bodies disappeared into the storage ring, alongside that of the gnome.

They would make great shadow creatures in the foreseeable future.

"Time to focus on finding the Solar Achelum herb. I can't go on like this."

Kailen activated his Asura Enlightenment Physique to help him against the scorching heat.

He deactivated his shadow armor, his shadow creatures materializing before him.

"Spread out and search for the Solar Achelum herb."

The shadow creatures nodded, then spread towards different locations on the plane.

Kailen himself was also going to search for the herb.

However, the ominous feeling he had when he stepped on the plane still lingered, even after he got rid of the bastards from the Harker family.

"So my guess was right. They were not the reason why I had that feeling—it was obviously because of something else."

What at all could this ominous feeling be?

Suddenly, the ground started to quake and crack.

Several creatures from beneath the ground appeared.

They were ginormous in nature, bearing human forms from the waist up, and some sort of scorpion forms from the waist down.

Each one of them looked terrifying, holding different weapons—spears, axes, maces, etc.

"Supreme Stage Ascendant level strength? Shit."

Kailen knew he was no match for these creatures.

The echo brochures he read made no mention of these bastards.

This meant that they hid themselves well, and anyone who encountered them literally died stupid deaths—not living to tell the tale.

After all, the echo brochures were simply from the experiences of the few individuals who had managed to survive on the Teragun plane.

The fact that the existence of these creatures was not included in the echo brochures meant that anyone who encountered them had not lived to tell the tale.

Quickly, Kailen wasted no time.

He used Umbral Replacement, appearing at one of the regions of the plane where one of his shadow creatures was.

In his place, a shadow creature appeared, having a stare showdown with the scorpion humanoid creatures.

Their pincers, weapons, and affinities were hurtled towards the shadow creature, who was fortunately summoned into the shadow expanse, then told to explore a different region.

"That was a close one. No wonder many who took this mission died here, and those who didn't die ran back to the academy in fear, failing to accomplish it. After all, they are alchemists and strength is not their specialty."

Kailen found himself in a region full of magma.

The skies were extremely red—so much so that even the large suns that had blanketed them had been obscured by the redness of the region.

"Did I just hop out of the frying pan into the fire?"