Chapter 4 – The Chamber
The doors sealed shut behind Jack, leaving the echo of the overseers' applause gnawing at his ears. His burned arm throbbed in rhythm with his heartbeat. For a moment, he just stood in the empty corridor, head bowed, sweat cooling on his skin.
A heavy hand clamped onto his shoulder.
"Move," the guard said. His mask was different from the others—plated black steel with no eyeholes, only a single glowing slit down the center. The grip on Jack's arm was firm, but not cruel.
Jack forced his legs forward.
They walked in silence through twisting halls, each door sealed with glowing locks, until they reached one larger than the rest. The guard swiped a black card across a reader. The door hissed, then rolled open.
Jack blinked.
Inside was nothing like the cells he had known. The chamber stretched wide, a cavern of polished steel walls and segmented floors. Light strips glowed along the ceiling, bathing the room in steady white. Panels lined the walls, each one flickering faintly with holographic prompts. In the center sat a console—a sleek cube of glass and metal, humming softly with a faint blue glow.
The guard released his arm. "Your request has been… granted. This chamber is yours. Use it wisely. Surveillance runs at all hours. Abuse it, and you'll lose it."
Then, without waiting for a reply, the guard stepped back and sealed the door.
Jack was alone.
He staggered toward the cube in the center. His hands hovered over its smooth surface. The hum felt alive, almost like it was breathing.
"This… is mine?" he whispered.
Flyer purred in his skull. A kingdom. Your kingdom.
Jack ignored him, finally sinking down on the padded mat against the far wall. His body trembled with exhaustion. His burned arm ached, but it was the weight of the moment that dragged him down.
For the first time, he had a space that was his. Not a cell. Not an arena. Not a cage where others watched his every move. His chamber.
Sleep hit him fast.
---
When Jack opened his eyes, the glow strips had dimmed to a morning hue. His wrist device buzzed faintly.
06:00 – Breakfast available
Jack rubbed his face, forcing himself upright. His body was stiff, but not broken. He walked to the chamber's side door, swiped his wrist device, and a slot slid open.
The tray that rolled out nearly stunned him.
A stack of pancakes, steaming, butter melting into golden pools. Eggs scrambled to soft perfection. A biscuit—fluffy, warm. Strips of bacon crisped to the edge. Even a glass of orange juice, condensation dripping down its side.
Jack carried it back to the center of the chamber and set it on the floor. For a long time he just stared.
His throat tightened.
On the farm, meals had been simple—bread, milk, sometimes stew if his grandfather had traded well. In the dorms here, food had been slop, barely edible. But this… this was a feast.
Tears blurred his vision before he even touched it.
He pressed his hand over his eyes, shaking. He had killed, begged, fought—and only now did they give him this. Not as kindness. Not as mercy. But as a reward.
His chest ached.
Still, he picked up the fork and ate. Slowly, carefully. Every bite was heavy with memory and pain. When the last crumb was gone, he slid the tray back into the wall slot and sat in silence for a moment longer, breathing.
Then he pulled the small, battered notebook from the waistband at the back of his pants.
He flipped it open to a blank page. His handwriting scratched across the paper in uneven lines.
Current summons:
Damage – raw strike beasts.
Trapper – fungus mines.
Flyer – winged beast, bat-thing.
Digger – burrowing crawler.
Weapons – vine blades, bone spikes.
He chewed the pen's cap, then wrote another list beneath:
What I can do now:
Vine control (weak vs fire).
Monster summoning (unstable).
Energy link (drains me when pushed).
Limited coordination with Flyer.
He stared at the lists. The words mocked him. He had power, yes—but no control. No structure.
He closed the book slowly, set it aside, and pulled the AI cube into his lap. The surface pulsed, responding to his touch.
"Help me," Jack said. His voice cracked. "Where do I start?"
The cube's glow sharpened. A mechanical voice spoke, calm and clear:
"Assessment begins. Summoner category detected. Recommended focus: Coordination. You rely too heavily on single summons. Develop synergy. Expand battlefield control."
Jack frowned. "So… what do I train against?"
"Simulation parameters available. For maximum difficulty, recommend hostile terrain with environmental hazards. Enemy type: fire-based combatant. Terrain: collapsing cavern. Objective: survival for ten minutes without external aid."
Jack exhaled. His burned arm still ached from Brand's chains. "Of course you'd say fire."
The cube glowed brighter. "Shall I initiate?"
Jack swallowed. His hands shook, but he nodded. "Do it."
The walls shifted instantly. Panels slid, locking into new formations. The steel floor trembled and cracked, reconfiguring into jagged stone. Heat rolled from vents, shimmering the air.
In seconds, the pristine chamber became a volcanic cavern. Lava pulsed in glowing rivers between broken platforms. Above, the ceiling cracked open, sending showers of ash and rock.
From the fire surged a figure. Tall, molten, its body dripping with flame. Its roar rattled the cavern walls.
Jack dropped into a stance, vines coiling from his palms.
The AI's voice echoed above the roar:
"Simulation begins. Ten minutes."
Flyer stirred in his mind, hungry. Call me. Call me now.
Jack clenched his jaw.
"No," he whispered. "Not yet. This one's mine."
The fire-beast charged, lava splashing at its feet.
And Jack moved.
The fire-beast thundered forward, each step sending tremors through the cracked stone platforms. Heat lashed at Jack's skin, suffocating, stealing his breath. Lava spit upward as the monster swung its molten arm, a geyser of flame roaring toward him.
Jack dove aside, the blast scorching the air where he had stood. His vines lashed out instinctively, but the fire seared them into ash before they even touched the beast.
Too hot. Too fast.
Flyer hissed in his mind, furious. Weak! Call me!
Jack ground his teeth. No. Think.
His burned arm throbbed as if mocking him. He glanced at the rivers of glowing lava snaking across the cavern floor, at the steam hissing where drops of molten rock struck hidden pockets of moisture. An idea sparked.
Water.
Jack spread his hands, vines sprouting and weaving together—twisting, wrapping, layering until they formed a thicker cord. Not a simple whip. A reservoir. He clenched his fist, forcing the inner fibers to swell, trapping pockets of moisture within the vine's hollow center. Thin strands stretched over the surface, slick with condensation, like a skin of dew.
A living water-sheath.
The beast roared and charged again, its claws leaving trails of flame in the air. Jack snapped his new whip forward. The outer layer hissed as fire licked across it, but the inner core held firm, droplets of water sizzling, slowing the burn.
The whip cracked against the creature's shoulder. Steam burst where water met molten skin, and for the first time, the fire-beast recoiled.
Jack's chest heaved with sharp breaths. His lips curled into a grim smile.
"Not so untouchable now."
The beast bellowed, molten eyes flaring brighter, and lunged again. Jack twisted aside, vines sprouting into jagged spikes at his feet to slow its steps. His whip lashed, wrapping around the creature's arm. The inner reservoir burst against the heat, releasing a rush of steam that clouded the cavern in white mist.
The monster thrashed, blinded, its flames crackling angrily.
Jack crouched low, sweat pouring, his whip still hissing in his hand.
He only had seconds before the steam vanished. He needed to press the advantage.
Jack's water-wrapped vines burned away again, steam exploding around him. The cavern swam in white mist, choking, blinding—he could barely see his own hands. His lungs heaved as if he were already drowning.
Five seconds. That's all I get… His thoughts spiraled. I need more. Enough water to end this. Enough to kill.
The steam pressed against his skin until every inch of him felt submerged. His heartbeat slowed. His body shivered as something else pushed through. His vision blurred, colors bleeding away until the world became liquid.
And then—clarity.
His eyes flared a deep, unnatural blue. His lips curled into a calm, almost blissful grin. The voices inside his head went quiet.
From his body, the smoke of his summons shifted, liquefying into a rolling tide of mist. It coiled, condensed, and shaped itself.
A beast emerged.
It crouched on all fours, its body shaped like a dog but grotesquely stretched, bigger than any man. Where its tail should've been, only smooth flesh. Its head was long, unnatural, like some warped hot dog split with dozens of slits that widened into teeth-filled maws. No nose. No eyes. Rows of gills flared along its ribcage, sucking in the heavy mist.
Jack's voice shifted, layered with something not his own—higher, feminine, echoing through the chamber.
"Hello, beast. Welcome to sea… and now you will die, like the useless humans who once tried to kill me."
The water-demon's chest expanded. Its gills drank in the steam, pulling the cavern's moisture into its body. The slits along its head stretched open.
"Time for water blast."
With a sound like the ocean breaking through stone, the beast unleashed a torrent—an immense, pressurized blast of water roaring from its maw.
The lava beast shrieked. Steam screamed into the air as boiling water struck its molten flesh, hardening it, cracking it. Its body buckled, skin turning black, brittle, stiff.
It writhed, flailing in agony, its flames extinguishing, its molten roar fading into a hollow cry.
Then, with one final screech, the lava giant froze solid. Hardened rock split and crumbled, collapsing into lifeless rubble.
The chamber trembled. Steam thinned, revealing Jack standing with his new creation crouched beside him, its gills still hissing.
His blue eyes glowed softly as the feminine voice whispered from his lips once more:
The last shards of the lava beast collapsed into dust and stone. Jack's water-born summon snarled, then dissolved into a mist that seeped back into the chamber's vents.
The floor rumbled. The molten rivers sank away, the fractured stone pulling itself back into polished metal. Steam evaporated into nothing, and the cavern became once again the pristine, white-lit chamber.
Jack's legs buckled. He dropped to his knees, gasping. His eyes dimmed from unnatural blue back to their usual shade. Sweat poured down his face as he clutched at the floor, lungs heaving.
Every muscle screamed. His mind spun with voices—Flyer growling, Maw whispering, and now a new, haunting echo from the oceanic beast that had taken shape.
Then, silence.
Jack rolled onto his back, chest rising and falling like he'd been drowning. He stayed there until his breathing steadied, the aftershocks of power slowly ebbing.
Finally, he sat up and looked toward the cube at the room's center. Its faint blue glow pulsed, waiting.
"AI," Jack rasped, forcing his voice steady. "Tell me all the data you collected in the fight. Put it into a notebook inside your mainframe… something I can check anytime. I need to know what I did right, what I did wrong, what needs fixing."
The cube brightened in acknowledgment.
"Command accepted. Fight analysis compiled. Notebook created within central system. Categories: Summon Stability, Vine Durability, Environmental Adaptation, Energy Drain, and New Manifestation. You may access data at will."
Jack wiped his forehead with his arm, exhausted but satisfied.
"Good," he muttered. His lips curled into the faintest smile. "Then… I'll keep getting better."
He leaned back against the wall, notebook safely waiting in the AI's memory, and let his eyes close—just for a moment—before the next challenge.