Online Game: Starting With SSS-Ranked Summons-Chapter 599: End of an Era.

Arthur surveyed the three men before him, deciding the most appropriate torments for each.

"Bloom," Arthur commanded, "put James and Raymond into a dream with their worst nightmares. Make sure my face is prominently featured in every scenario. Let them experience their deepest fears on loop, with me as the architect of their suffering."

Bloom's eerie cackle echoed through the blood-soaked bunker, the plant monster's flower head swaying with malevolent glee.

"With pleasure, Master. Their minds will shatter beautifully under the weight of endless terror."

Golden pollen released once more, this time targeting specifically James and Raymond. The particles drifted toward the two men with inexorable purpose.

James, still frozen by Arthur's spatial manipulation, could only watch in horror as the pollen approached. His eyes widened with desperate panic, trying futilely to move, to escape, to do anything.

The moment the pollen made contact, James's body went rigid. His eyes rolled back, consciousness plunging into nightmare as Bloom's psychic assault seized control of his mind.

Then he started screaming.

"NO! NO PLEASE! NOT THAT! ANYTHING BUT THAT!" James's voice cracked with absolute terror as his mind experienced horrors only he could see.

"I'M SORRY! I'M SO SORRY! PLEASE MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP!" The S-Rank awakener who'd maintained composure through countless battles reduced to broken sobbing within seconds.

His screams continued, rising and falling in pitch as different nightmares cycled through his consciousness. Each one featuring Arthur's face, Arthur's voice, Arthur dispensing justice in increasingly creative and horrifying ways.

Raymond received the same treatment, pollen enveloping him as Bloom's power dragged his consciousness into personalized hell.

"AHHHHH! GET AWAY FROM ME! DON'T TOUCH ME!" Raymond's screams were even more pathetic than James's, the guard's mind breaking faster under the psychic assault.

"PLEASE! I WAS JUST FOLLOWING ORDERS! I DIDN'T MEAN—AHHHHH!" Whatever nightmare he experienced made him thrash violently, his body slamming against the floor as dream-torture manifested physical responses.

Both men continued screaming, their voices creating a symphony of terror that filled the bunker. The other survivors—the ones Arthur had spared—watched with pale faces, grateful beyond measure that they weren't experiencing the same fate.

Charlotte stood beside Arthur, watching the screaming men with conflicted expression. This was brutal, horrifying... but she'd promised to support her brother's justice. And these men had earned this fate through their choices.

Arthur turned his attention to Donald, the only one of the three not yet subjected to nightmare torture.

Donald stared at his screaming companions, then looked at Arthur with dawning horror. Sweat poured down his face as understanding crashed through him.

He was going to wish he'd died. Whatever Arthur had planned for him would make the nightmares look merciful.

"You," Arthur said quietly, approaching Donald with predatory grace, "get special treatment. Personal attention. Because you were the catalyst, Donald. You made the initial decision to exploit Charlotte. Everything that followed traces back to you."

Donald tried to back away, but Arthur's spatial manipulation locked him in place just like it had James earlier.

"Please," Donald whimpered, his bureaucratic composure completely shattered. "Please, I'll do anything. I'll be your slave!"

Arthur smirked, "I don't need a pathetic slave like you." 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

CRACK!

Arthur's hand moved at an insane speed, gripping Donald's right arm and twisting. The bone broke cleanly, the sound sharp and final.

Donald's scream joined the symphony already filling the bunker, his voice cracking with agony.

"That's for the first second you kept me separated from Charlotte," Arthur explained conversationally, as if discussing weather rather than torture.

Before Donald could process the pain, Arthur moved to his left arm.

CRACK!

Another break, another scream.

"That's for the second one."

Arthur worked, breaking bones. Right leg. Left leg. Ribs, one by one. Fingers, individually. Each break accompanied by explanation, cataloguing the suffering Charlotte had experienced while Donald sat comfortably in his office.

Donald's screams eventually gave way to hoarse whimpering, his voice destroyed from constant agony. His body was a broken mess, bones jutting at unnatural angles, his consciousness hanging on through sheer unwanted determination.

Then Arthur reached into his spatial storage and withdrew several very rare health potions—powerful enough to heal catastrophic injuries, restore broken bodies, undo even grievous wounds.

"Can't have you dying yet," Arthur said with dark satisfaction, pouring the first potion down Donald's throat.

The effect was immediate and agonizing. Bones snapped back into place with wet grinding sounds. Flesh knitted together. Nerves reconnected, sending fresh waves of pain as healing forced broken body parts back into functional configuration.

Donald screamed anew as healing proved just as painful as the breaking had been.

When the potion finished its work, Donald lay gasping, his body fully restored but his mind fractured from the experience of systematic breaking and forced healing.

"Again," Arthur said simply.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

Arthur broke him again, bone by bone, explaining each injury as connected to Charlotte's suffering. The cycle repeated

After the fifth cycle, Arthur noticed Donald's eyes had gone somewhat vacant, his mind beginning to fracture under the repeated trauma.

After the tenth cycle, Donald was sobbing continuously, begging incoherently for death, for mercy, for anything but another round of breaking and healing.

Arthur continued for fifteen cycles total before finally stepping back, surveying his work with critical eye.

Donald lay broken—not physically, since the last healing had restored his body—but mentally. His consciousness had fractured, his personality fragmenting under the weight of systematic torture.

But he was still aware. Still conscious. Still suffering.

Finally, after what felt like hours, Arthur turned to Bloom.

"I'm bored now," Arthur announced. "Do the same to Donald that you're doing to the others. Eternal nightmares featuring me as the source of his suffering."

Bloom cackled with obvious delight. "Oh, this one's mind is already so beautifully broken, Master. The nightmares will sink in deep, find all the cracks, spread like infection. He'll never escape."

Golden pollen drifted toward Donald's broken form, and the bureaucrat's eyes widened with fresh terror despite his fractured mental state.

"No... no please... not that... anything but—"

The pollen made contact, and Donald's broken sobbing transformed into screaming that matched James and Raymond's in intensity and horror.

Three men, all trapped in personalized nightmares. All experiencing Arthur's revenge eternally, their minds locked in psychic prisons where they would suffer until Arthur decided they'd suffered enough.

Which, given Arthur's cold expression as he watched them scream, might be never.

Arthur surveyed the three screaming figures with cold satisfaction before turning to address the survivors who'd been spared.

"You are to return to your post, you will continue to fight for this place and your families. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir!"

Charlotte watched them flee before turning to her brother. "What about these three? Are they just going to scream here forever?"

Arthur smiled darkly. "Yes."

He looked down at the screaming men without pity.

"Welcome to immortality, gentlemen. I hope it's everything you never wanted."

James, Raymond, and Donald continued to scream in pain. Every nightmare, every weakness being exploited.

Arthur then turned towards the president that was working for him now. "Remove my name from the terrorism list. Strengthen the ties with these following countries, China, Palestine, France, Canada, and Philippine's. These are our allies now, anybody who goes against them goes against us.

"Yes, master!"

***

Author's Notes: Hey guys, Sorry for the late upload. As you all know, I've been writing a new book, and i've also been really busy IRL. I would have loved to do both at the same time, but unfortunately my circumstances do not allow. I will try to keep regular updates 5-7 chapters/week until this novel ends. This novel has a special place in my heart, and i do not wish for it to remain unfinished.

Sorry for letting you all wait for so long.