home

search

chapter 37: the Psychological Torture

  Black Angel sat in the shadows, his dark wings unfurled, casting an imposing silhouette against the dimly lit room. The soft rustle of his wings was the only sound in the space, almost as if even the air around him feared his presence. His piercing red eyes gleamed with a cold, calculating fury. He had been silent for days, contemplating the events unfolding, and today, he had summoned his most trusted ally, the one creature whose existence was as twisted as his own—High Rise Devil.

  High Rise Devil emerged from the shadows, his form an unsettling fusion of man and bird. His skeletal frame was adorned with sharp, jagged feathers that glimmered like broken glass in the faint light. His face, a disturbing blend of human and demonic features, was framed by dark, feathered tendrils that swayed with every step. His sharp, predatory gaze met Black Angel’s, and without a word, he took a seat across from him.

  "Are we ready for the next phase?" High Rise Devil’s voice was smooth, but there was an edge to it, the unmistakable chill of a predator sizing up his prey.

  Black Angel’s lips curled into a smile that was more a grimace of satisfaction than amusement. "We’ve been preparing for this moment for too long. The military prep has turned out better than expected. Over ten million soldiers, forced into service. But that’s only the beginning. You’ve seen the Tallorans. Over one hundred thousand of them now. Machines designed to kill, built to destroy."

  High Rise Devil nodded, his eyes glinting with a twisted excitement. "The world is on the brink, and soon, we’ll have more power than we could ever imagine. But there’s one thing standing in our way…"

  "Danny," Black Angel finished, his voice dripping with disdain. "Mike’s brother."

  High Rise Devil's wings fluttered, his form shifting uneasily in the chair. "I had hoped the boy would fall into line, that he would remain weak, an afterthought, just another casualty of war. But now? Now, he’s a force. A weapon. They’ve enhanced him, made him a cyborg. He’s become a living nightmare."

  Black Angel’s expression darkened, his gaze far away as he thought about Danny’s relentless drive for vengeance. "He wants us dead. He thinks he can stop us, destroy us. It’s laughable. But dangerous. His hatred is consuming him, and we can use that."

  High Rise Devil’s eyes narrowed. "How? He's unpredictable now. He’s not the weakling Mike was. I don't think we can control him like we did his brother. He’s different. Stronger. But we need to finish him off before he gets any stronger. He knows too much. He could expose everything we’ve worked for."

  Black Angel’s wings shifted, and the air grew heavy with his presence. "We don't need to control him. We need to break him. Psychological warfare, manipulation—his mind is his weakest link. His need for revenge will be his undoing."

  High Rise Devil smirked, his long, talon-like fingers tapping the armrest of his chair. "I see. You plan to use his rage against him, twist it until he breaks. Draw him in with promises of destruction, then crush him under the weight of his own emotions."

  "Exactly," Black Angel said, his voice almost a whisper. "We make him think he’s winning, make him feel like he’s in control, but in the end, he’ll realize the truth—that he is nothing more than a tool, just like his brother. The moment his quest for vengeance consumes him, he’ll be lost to us. And when that happens, we’ll finally end him."

  High Rise Devil chuckled darkly. "And if he doesn't fall into our trap?"

  Black Angel’s eyes flickered with a dangerous light. "Then we make him suffer more than he ever thought possible. We bring him to his breaking point, slowly, so that when the end comes, he’ll beg for it."

  There was a brief silence between them as both demons thought about Danny's growing power. The world had no idea what was coming for it. But Danny—he was a different kind of threat. One that would need to be dealt with quickly and decisively. They couldn’t allow him to become the force he was destined to be, because the consequences would be catastrophic for everything they had built.

  High Rise Devil stood, his talons scraping against the floor like a predator ready to strike. "Let’s make sure he regrets ever coming after us. His brother’s death was the first step, but it won’t be the last. We’ll make him wish he’d never been born."

  Black Angel stood as well, his massive wings folding behind him as he walked toward High Rise Devil. His gaze was cold, unwavering. "We’ll break him, piece by piece. And when he’s finally nothing but a broken shell of the man he was, we’ll deliver the final blow. But we must make him suffer. He has to feel the weight of what he’s lost, just as Mike did."

  The two demons shared a silent moment of understanding before Black Angel spread his wings and turned toward the exit. "Prepare for what’s to come. Danny won’t know what hit him."

  High Rise Devil’s smile was sharp and sinister. "Let the games begin."

  Black Angel's abilities were not just about brute force or his deadly precision. His true power lay in his ability to manipulate the minds of his victims—twisting reality into an unbearable nightmare. He had long since honed his skill in psychological warfare, and now, he would put it to use on Danny, the one threat who dared defy him.

  As he stood in the dimly lit room, the weight of his wings pressing against the air, Black Angel's mind began to hum with dark energy. He focused, channeling his powers, and suddenly, the world around him began to distort. The room melted away like a mirage, replaced by twisted visions. He closed his eyes for a moment, his thoughts sharpening, preparing himself for the haunting images he would unleash.

  Visual Hallucinations:

  To Danny, Black Angel would appear not as a towering figure, but as something far more insidious. The shadows of his wings would stretch unnaturally, expanding far beyond their physical limits, engulfing everything in sight. Faces would distort in the background, contorted in expressions of agony and fear, their voices an indistinguishable mix of whispers and screams. These visuals would make it impossible for Danny to distinguish between what was real and what was not, breaking his grip on reality.

  At times, Black Angel would use Danny’s own memories against him. He would conjure vivid illusions of his brother Mike, but with a twisted, monstrous visage. Mike’s eyes would glow with a haunting light, his voice distorted and dripping with mockery. "You couldn’t save me, Danny. You couldn’t even protect yourself."

  In one hallucination, Mike would appear to stand over Danny’s fallen body, offering a hand that seemed to pull him deeper into darkness. "You failed me. You failed everyone."

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  These projections would plague Danny, making him question everything, from his own identity to the motivations that had driven him. Each image would chip away at his sense of self, slowly eroding his mind.

  Auditory Hallucinations:

  But Black Angel’s abilities didn’t stop at the visual. His auditory hallucinations were just as potent, able to drown Danny in a cacophony of maddening sounds. The whispers of the past would fill the air—voices from those Danny had loved, those he had killed, and even those he had left behind.

  "You’re just like them," a voice would whisper, its tone cold and menacing. It sounded like Mike, but it wasn’t. "You’ve become a monster."

  Danny would hear the tortured cries of innocent victims he had slain—families, children, people whose faces he couldn’t even remember. Their cries would echo in his mind, relentless and unending. The wailing would morph into something more sinister, growing louder and more deafening until it threatened to break his spirit completely.

  The noise wouldn’t stop. It would follow him wherever he went, feeding on his guilt and his anger. Even the sounds of combat, of metal clashing against metal, would transform into an endless loop of screams and explosions. No matter how hard Danny tried to focus, to ignore the noise, it would seep into his mind, drowning him in memories of death and loss.

  The Pressure of the Mind:

  As Black Angel focused on his powers, he could feel the tension in the air. His voice, when it finally came, was a soft hiss that seemed to reverberate through the very walls of Danny’s mind. "You think you can defeat me, Danny? You think you’re strong enough to avenge your brother’s death? You’re nothing more than a broken tool, a slave to your rage."

  The hallucinations would grow even more intense. Danny might find himself in a field of charred corpses, their faces twisted in agony, their eyes pleading for release. His own hands would be covered in blood, drenched in the innocence of those he’d slain without mercy. And amidst the carnage, Black Angel’s silhouette would loom large, always just out of reach, a constant reminder that Danny was powerless to escape his grasp.

  But it wouldn’t end there.

  Danny would feel the presence of his brother’s ghost behind him, Mike’s cold hands on his shoulders. "You couldn’t save me, Danny," the voice would whisper again, this time full of bitterness and regret. "You couldn’t save yourself either."

  With every step Danny took, the hallucinations would shift and grow more vivid. The ground would tremble beneath him, the very air alive with his memories and fears, until it felt as though the world itself was closing in on him. The more he tried to break free, the tighter Black Angel’s grip on his mind would become.

  The Final Push:

  Black Angel’s power was methodical. He didn’t need to physically break Danny. No, he would tear him apart from the inside. The hallucinations would continue to escalate, each one more torturous than the last, until Danny’s mind could take no more.

  When the time was right, Black Angel would offer the final blow. He would conjure the image of Mike, his brother’s face twisted in rage, his body broken and lifeless. The haunting voice would reach a crescendo, filling every corner of Danny’s consciousness.

  "You could’ve stopped this, Danny. You could’ve saved me. But you didn’t."

  And with that, the weight of the guilt would crash down on Danny, leaving him vulnerable and broken, a shell of the person he once was.

  Black Angel’s grin would be the last thing Danny saw before everything went black.

  High Rise Devil was a creature born from both the abyss and the sky—half human, half bird demon. His body was twisted, an eerie hybrid of grace and savagery. With wings that could slice through steel and talons sharp enough to rend flesh from bone, he was a deadly force, not just in combat, but in deception.

  As Black Angel’s psychological warfare on Danny intensified, High Rise Devil took on a different role in the shadows. His task was more subtle, insidious in its execution. High Rise Devil had made it his mission to target the people Danny held dear, systematically eliminating them one by one. But he was no ordinary killer. His method was clean, calculated, and, above all, silent.

  He moved through the world like a specter, killing those closest to Danny and leaving no trace of his involvement. Each friend that vanished was just another name to be forgotten, another life snuffed out in the cold dark of the night. The murders were disguised as disappearances—no signs of a struggle, no bodies to be found, just the eerie emptiness left behind by someone who had simply ceased to exist.

  One of Danny’s closest allies, a former soldier named Jace, was the first to fall. High Rise Devil stalked him in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment. Jace was known for his unbreakable will, his sharp instincts. He was no stranger to danger, but he had no idea that the danger stalking him now was something beyond human comprehension.

  It happened on a quiet evening, as Jace walked down an empty alley. High Rise Devil’s wings unfurled in a flash, and with a terrifying screech, he descended from the sky. He struck so fast that Jace didn’t even have time to react. His talons slashed through Jace’s chest, leaving behind nothing but shredded flesh. There was no sound—just the swift, brutal efficiency of a predator executing its kill.

  Jace’s body was quickly disposed of, and all traces of the struggle were erased. The police would never find a clue. His disappearance was chalked up to his lifestyle—maybe a bad deal gone wrong or a random act of violence. The truth was much darker, but the world would never know.

  Then came Sara, another of Danny’s trusted companions. She had been with Danny through thick and thin, a fellow soldier who shared his pain and his rage. High Rise Devil had his eye on her for weeks, biding his time. One night, as Sara worked late at a small café, High Rise Devil watched from above. He swooped down, grabbing her before she could even scream. His talons dug into her shoulders, pulling her up into the night sky as she struggled.

  By the time her body was found, it was miles away, tossed like a ragdoll into an abandoned warehouse. The police called it a random abduction. Her disappearance was blamed on an isolated incident, some sick individual taking advantage of a vulnerable woman. No one suspected the truth—High Rise Devil was already long gone.

  Danny’s friends continued to disappear, one after the other, with eerie precision. Each death was covered up, each life snuffed out with no trace of the killer. High Rise Devil’s plan was simple: take away the few people Danny cared about, and then leave him alone to face the inevitable. He wanted Danny to feel the emptiness, the crushing weight of loss. He wanted him to experience the same despair that had driven Mike to his own tragic end.

  High Rise Devil was not just a killer—he was a manipulator, a master of psychological torment. He knew that Danny would eventually start to piece together the truth, that the disappearances were no coincidence. But by the time that happened, it would be too late. Danny would be broken, stripped of everything he had left. His anger would boil over, and in his rage, he would come after High Rise Devil. But that was exactly what High Rise Devil wanted—he wanted Danny to come for him.

  The Perfect Trap:

  As the months passed, Danny began to unravel. His mind, already reeling from Black Angel’s torturous hallucinations, was now overwhelmed with grief and confusion. Each disappearance hit him harder than the last. The people who had fought alongside him, who had kept him grounded, were now gone. He could feel their absence like a raw wound in his soul.

  But there was one thing High Rise Devil had not counted on—Danny’s determination. He would not let these deaths go unanswered. Slowly, Danny started to piece together the puzzle, noticing the strange pattern of disappearances. His instincts as a soldier and his connection to his lost friends led him to one chilling conclusion: someone was out there hunting them.

  It wasn’t long before Danny confronted the truth. High Rise Devil, the demon bird hybrid, had been behind it all. And now, Danny knew that the time had come for vengeance.

  But the moment Danny made this realization, High Rise Devil was ready. He had anticipated this, planned for it. In his mind, he had already won. Danny was walking into a trap—a trap that would finally destroy him. All that remained was for High Rise Devil to finish what he had started.

  As Danny prepared to face the monstrous hybrid, the haunting question echoed in his mind: What would happen when the last of his friends were gone? What would be left of him? Would he become like the others, a mere shadow of his former self, consumed by the darkness?

  High Rise Devil watched from above, his eyes gleaming with malice. The stage was set, and the game was about to reach its final act.

Recommended Popular Novels