The black card pulsed against my palm like a living thing, its surface warm with the kind of power that could topple governments or buy souls. Warden Adam's smile was all predatory satisfaction as he handed over what amounted to unlimited authority within these concrete walls.
"One non-negotiable rule," I said, sliding the card into my coat with clinical precision. "Any damage to my clothing results in doubled compensation rates. Tripled if it's intentional."
"Naturally," Adam purred, eyes gleaming with the kind of delight reserved for watching beautiful disasters unfold. "You now have full discretionary power over all prison operations, Doctor. Use it... creatively."
*Fantastic. I've gone from debt-ridden medic to prison overlord in less than a week. My guidance counselor definitely didn't mention this career path.*
The elevator plunged to Sub-Level 6, where the air itself felt wrong—thick with the kind of tension that preceded explosions. The doors opened to reveal something that belonged in a fever dream: a maze of mirrors stretching in impossible directions, each surface reflecting fractured light and distorted reality that made my eyes water.
And in the center of this crystalline nightmare, two identical figures were attempting to murder each other with the enthusiasm of children unwrapping Christmas presents.
**[LIVESTREAM - VIEWERS: 6,247,891]**
→ @BloodRose_666: MIRROR MAZE DEATH MATCH I'M LIVING FOR THIS CHAOS
→ @ChaosQueen: The twins are literally trying to separate by killing each other
→ @ShadowLord donated 750,000 credits: "PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR AT ITS FINEST"
→ @OmegaLover: This is better than any horror movie I've ever seen
Lucian and Damian moved like deadly dancers choreographed by madness itself, identical in every way except for the mirror-image scars covering their bodies like abstract art carved in flesh. They fought with surgical precision, each blow calculated to cause maximum damage while their faces wore expressions of pure, twisted ecstasy.
"Finally," Lucian gasped, blood streaming from a gash across his cheek that matched perfectly with Damian's unmarked face. "If I kill you, I'll be free—"
"—of this cursed connection forever," Damian finished, driving his elbow toward his twin's ribs with bone-crushing force that made the air whistle.
They noticed me at the exact same moment, turning in perfect synchronization like predators scenting fresh prey. The effect was deeply unsettling—two minds operating as one while desperately trying to become separate.
"A new toy," they said in unison, voices creating an eerie harmony that made my skin crawl and my medical training scream warnings about shared psychosis.
Lucian flicked his wrist with casual violence, sending a mirror shard spinning toward my face with bullet-like velocity. The fragment caught the harsh light as it flew, aimed directly at the space between my eyebrows with surgical precision.
I didn't dodge or flinch.
Instead, I activated something new—a gift from my recent integration with Weiss's parasitic abilities. **[MICRO REPULSION FIELD]** flared to life three centimeters from my skin, invisible energy turning the deadly projectile into harmless dust that sparkled in the air.
But the powdered glass settled on my pristine white coat sleeve like contaminated snow, leaving a visible smudge on the fabric that made my eye twitch with barely contained rage.
*Oh, absolutely not. Nobody dirties my equipment.*
**[SYSTEM ALERT: PURIFICATION ENERGY - 78%]**
**[NEW ABILITY UNLOCKED: MICRO-MANIPULATION]**
**[WARNING: EXTREME PRECISION REQUIRED FOR OPTIMAL RESULTS]**
The twins flanked me with predatory grace, moving like wolves who thought they'd cornered a lamb. I pulled out a sanitizing wipe and began cleaning my sleeve with the kind of methodical calm that preceded volcanic eruptions.
"Interesting strategy," I said conversationally, studying their synchronized movements with clinical fascination. "Severing pain receptors to break your neural link. Crude but creative. Unfortunately, you're going about it all wrong."
Damian lunged from the left while Lucian attacked from the right, a coordinated assault that should have been impossible to counter without superhuman reflexes. But I'd already seen what I needed to see—the microscopic tears in their skin where they'd been cutting themselves, perfect entry points for what I had planned.
Golden threads, invisible to the naked eye, slipped through their wounds like silk through water. **[MICRO-MANIPULATION]** activated with surgical precision, weaving through their nervous systems with the delicacy of a master surgeon performing brain surgery.
I sidestepped Lucian's charge with minimal effort and caught him by the back of the neck, fingers finding the exact pressure point I needed with the accuracy of someone who'd spent years studying human anatomy.
The effect was instantaneous and absolutely devastating.
Lucian showed no reaction to my touch, standing perfectly still like a statue. But Damian—standing three meters away—screamed like his soul was being torn apart by invisible claws and collapsed to his knees, body convulsing with agony he shouldn't have been able to feel.
**[LIVESTREAM CHAT]**
→ @OmegaLover: WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL JUST HAPPENED?!
→ @BloodRose_666: He touched one but the other felt it?! PHYSICS IS BROKEN
→ @ChaosQueen: QUANTUM TWIN TORTURE I'M LITERALLY SCREAMING
→ @Anonymous_0001 donated 2,000,000 credits: "MOST INSANE ABILITY EVOLUTION EVER"
→ @ShadowLord: This is beyond science this is pure nightmare fuel
"Allow me to explain the situation," I said, voice carrying the tone of a professor delivering a particularly fascinating lecture to medical students. "I've not only repaired your severed neural pathways, but amplified your sensory connection by approximately one thousand percent. Every sensation one of you experiences is now shared with the other at exponentially increased intensity."
To demonstrate my point, I traced a single finger along Lucian's spine—barely a whisper of contact, lighter than a feather.
Damian convulsed on the mirrored floor, overwhelmed by tickling sensations magnified beyond human tolerance. His laughter turned to desperate sobs as his nervous system overloaded with input it couldn't process.
"Stop," he gasped between fits of involuntary laughter that sounded more like screaming. "Please, it's too much—I can't—"
I pressed slightly harder against Lucian's shoulder blade, applying pressure that wouldn't normally register as more than a gentle touch. This time, both twins collapsed simultaneously, their shared nervous system unable to process the amplified pleasure-pain signals flooding their consciousness like a tsunami of sensation.
**[CHAT EXPLOSION]**
→ @BloodRose_666: SENSORY OVERLOAD TORTURE THIS IS PURE GENIUS
→ @ChaosQueen: They're literally feeling everything times a thousand I'M DYING
→ @ShadowLord: Physical empathy weaponized I'M COMPLETELY OBSESSED
→ @OmegaLover: The way they're both shaking like leaves I can't handle this intensity
"The beauty of quantum entanglement," I continued, adjusting my glasses with clinical satisfaction while watching them writhe. "You wanted to be separate individuals, free from your connection. Instead, I've made you more intimately connected than any two beings in human history. Every breath, every heartbeat, every microscopic sensation—shared and amplified until you can't tell where one of you ends and the other begins."
The twins lay trembling on the mirrored floor like broken dolls, their earlier bloodlust and violence replaced by terror so pure and absolute it was almost beautiful to observe. They'd gone from apex predators to helpless prey in the span of minutes, reduced to quivering masses of overstimulated nerve endings.
"Please," Lucian whispered, tears streaming down his face as he struggled to form coherent words. "Make it stop. We'll do anything—"
"—anything you want," Damian finished, his voice breaking with desperation that made him sound like a lost child. "We'll be good. We'll obey. Just please—"
From the observation window above, I could hear Adam's delighted laughter echoing through the intercom system like the sound of a god enjoying a particularly entertaining show.
"Magnificent," his voice crackled with static and genuine admiration. "Using their quantum entanglement as both punishment and control mechanism. You continue to exceed my expectations, Doctor. Such a delightfully twisted monster hiding behind that clinical facade."
*Monster. Right. That's definitely going on my LinkedIn profile under 'core competencies.'*
I was preparing to leave, my work here clearly finished, when Lucian's hand shot out with desperate speed, fingers wrapping around my ankle with surprising strength. But there was no aggression in his grip—only desperate, fanatic devotion that made my skin crawl.
"Wait," he gasped, eyes wide with something that looked disturbingly like religious worship. "Your mental signature... it tastes like his. Like the traitor who broke our original bond years ago."
Damian nodded frantically, still shaking from residual sensory overload that left him barely coherent. "Subject 04 will recognize that flavor the moment you enter his domain. Father Elijah will try to sacrifice you to his god the instant he senses what you truly are."
*Wonderful. Another religious fanatic with homicidal tendencies and delusions of divine purpose. This job just keeps getting better and better.*
**[SYSTEM ALERT: SSS+ PRIORITY WARNING]**
**[SUBJECT 04 - FATHER ELIJAH: ENTERING DEEP HYPNOTIC TRANCE STATE]**
**[CRITICAL WARNING: DO NOT LISTEN TO HIS CONFESSION UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES]**
**[FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL RESULT IN PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTAMINATION]**
**[FATE WORSE THAN DEATH CONFIRMED]**
The system's warning flashed across my vision in urgent red text that pulsed like a heartbeat, each word carrying an intensity I'd never experienced before. Whatever was waiting for me in the next cell was dangerous enough to make my supposedly omnipotent system genuinely nervous.
I looked down at the twins, still clinging to my leg like lost children seeking comfort from a parent who'd just finished disciplining them with extreme prejudice. Their earlier madness had been replaced by something far more unsettling—complete and utter dependence that bordered on worship.
"Thank you for the warning," I said, gently but firmly prying Lucian's fingers from my ankle. "I'll keep that information in mind during my next consultation."
As I walked toward the exit, I could hear them whispering behind me—prayers, promises, declarations of loyalty that made my skin crawl with their desperate intensity. They'd become my devoted followers in the span of minutes, broken and remade in my image.
*Two down, four to go. And the next one apparently wants to feed me to his imaginary cosmic horror.*
The elevator doors closed with a soft chime that sounded like a funeral bell, carrying me toward whatever theological nightmare awaited on the next level. Through the speakers, I could hear something that made my blood run cold—Latin words spoken in a voice that seemed to bypass the ears entirely and speak directly to the primitive parts of the brain that remembered when humans were prey.
Father Elijah was waiting, and according to the system's increasingly frantic warnings, he was preparing something that would make everything I'd experienced so far look like a pleasant afternoon in the park.
*This is definitely several pay grades above what I signed up for. Way, way above.*
But the black card in my pocket hummed with promise, and my curiosity had always been stronger than my survival instincts.
Time to meet the priest and see what kind of god he served.