Chapter 59 Making deals 03
I felt the single skinny ring I had made to start my fourth circle snap in an instant and that was the only reason I lived. Mana was sucked from my body to complete the contract. The same amount that a sixth-circle mage would have. I didn’t have that much as an entire circle's worth of magic was sucked free in about ten seconds. I sat down and began meditating.
It was a losing battle. I could feel my mana draining faster than I could recover it. Even in this mana-rich area with six collectors depositing mana, I couldn’t recover fast enough to equal out the drain. I refused to quit and let the contract fail though as I kept going, fighting against it. When I ran out of mana the pain ramped up to unimaginable levels. It made it almost impossible to meditate but my indomitable will made it at least possible.
I kept gaining mana which was drained the second it entered my body. As I felt my organs start to shut down the contract finally was fulfilled. I coughed up blood as Solomon’s eyes fluttered and he fell over unconscious. Superman who had been watching asked. “What happened?” I wiped the blood that was leaking from my eyes and nose off my face as I gave him an answer.
“He’s been starving for years. What do you do when you’re fed a big Thanksgiving meal? He’s sleeping peacefully for the first time in over a century.” I felt like shit and was fading in and out of consciousness. Sleeping on my feet. I let them both know. “I’m… Gonna take a nap now. Don’t let this big guy run around until I wake up.” I barely made it to the bed before I collapsed.
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“I knew it!” I couldn’t help but speak out loud that one of the fan theories I had about Ben Grimm from The Fantastic Four was true. It didn’t make sense that his power was the only one that couldn’t be toggled on and off like the others. A quick mental check let me know that it was based on a mental limit he placed on himself. All I had to do to fix… I should probably tell him what I want first.
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I walked into another hospital room after having tracked down someone I needed to make sure they weren’t part of the mind controller's plans. With a knock on the door, I walked in with a big smile. The miserable look on her face as her broken leg was raised turned to that of shock then fear as she recognized me. I started the baffle just as she burst out into screaming.
“Hey now. None of that, I just want to check your head real quick to see if you know anything about the person I actually want to murder. You’re fine and I’ll even heal your leg if I find anything of value.”
Alice stopped screaming as I flooded her body with enough endorphins it was like she was on morphine. I began by checking her memories and the mental compulsions set on her. It was truly sickening. I thought that the extra mental compulsions on Cassandra were bad but it was clear that the longer the person worked with the mind controller the more he would implement.
Many contradicting ones were causing immense stress on her already destroyed psyche to try and solve themselves. Most of his compulsions were for his own protection. She wouldn’t be able to recognize him if he entered a room. If the man said certain code phrases she would bark like a dog or act like a rabbit or… The darker ones didn’t need to be mentioned. He even gave her the compulsion to lure potential super-powered people through… Well, it was best to not say.
As I unraveled them I made sure to look through and see his face from the beginning. With this, I knew what he truly looked like before he gained many superpowers. I could only smile as my plans and a pattern of his methods came into my head. With this, I could start destroying his mini-empire one mind-controlled victim at a time.
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How did everything go wrong so fast? One day he managed to mind-control most of the city's superhero and criminal organizations and the next all of his plans lay broken and scattered to the wind. The main two who he used to strengthen himself were killed and that was the start of his downfall. He managed to have one of the men he had under mind control figure out who did it.
Another one of us, of the hundred, thwarted his plans and he couldn’t let that go unreciprocated. His original plan was to get one of the man's female companions to lure him to a different location to mind-control him next. Using the same methods he had used against many others he thought everything would have gone smoothly but the man saw through it in an instant.
Not only did the man break his mental compulsions on those two the man started to systematically tear down any he came in contact with from then on. As if a hound with the scent of blood he was relentless. Out of stubborn pride, the mind controller refused to leave the city as it would have shown he lost… Now he had grown to regret not leaving the moment his other men were killed.
His networks were crippled and in the few instances he saw the man working he wasn’t destroying them. No, he was taking over his criminal empire one brick at a time while freeing those under mental compulsions who then quickly turned against him. If he hadn’t moved locations the same day he tried to mind-control the man he’d have been found out.
He could only lay low for now until things blew over and then he would ambush the man when he finally dropped his guard. No matter what powers he picked he couldn’t be good at everything. The mind controller only had so many powers because he had a team unwittingly working nonstop to get him more powers.
He wasn’t sure which sex slave he wanted to sample. He had grown fond of the heroes and villains under his control. The man felt that raping people you knew from comics was just a different level than other women. He loved trying to choke them to unconsciousness just as he orgasmed. The man loved making the heroes feel weak. He loved to do more evil things to the villains because in his mind it's what they deserved.
A sudden explosion as half of the wall of one of the buildings was ripped off and three men entered. The main problem person he had been thinking of how to destroy, was a giant undead zombie and an orange stone man. He tried to use his mental powers against the three but they were useless against them. With a smirk, the man asked. “So, you’re probably wondering how I found out about you. Ben, can you go and rescue the damsels in distress two floors down? I have to talk to him for about ten to fifteen minutes.”