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Have you ever beenid out on a bed of ss shardsced with salt and steaming coal topped with pepper only to have every single micrometer of your body be crushed by an industrial road roller, all the while being unable to move, wince, or even scream?
Yeah…
***
"Eugy!"
"My liege!!"
Limb after limb, joint after joint, skin after skin, vein after vein, cell after cell.
Every single block of the body started to copse. Falling off as if being ripped away. There was no time to scream in pain or to even register it. Like a wild hound mauling a corpse, his being was constantly ripped out and thrashed around.
The spirits coiled around the soul, ready to take it along.
The moment they had been waiting for was almost here.
A breeze of air flew.
The space they were standing in copsed and expanded. As if a drawing being erased, the house on the wheels, the ground, the coppice, the air, everything was being torn apart.
"HiIHihih!"
"HAHAHAH!"
The spiritsughed and cackled. A swirling storm of many-colored spirits typhooned into the ce and broke everything apart.
"Woaaah! My liegeee!!""
Bathym and Titania floated, lifted high by the sheer strength of the spirits. All of them aiming to take home one more of them.
The second whip and sses were immediately knocked out, unable to handle all the pressure.
With every blink, the shape of the skies changed.
From red to blue, from green to yellow, clouds grew, and then trees did. The sky was up for a moment, and then down the next.
"Tsk, fucking hell..."
Titania cursed.
A whirlpool of spirits was going straight for Eugene, his body being ripped apart from within.
She could sense it.
That her connection was not gone meant that he wasn''t going to die.
All of this was the result of the chalice, the transformation. In that case, she had to keep him safe.
Her hands pped together.
"Alfheim, I''ll ask for your help this time."
Mana against Ki.
Authority against Divinity.
And Alfheim, against spirits.
No better counter existed in the realms for each of their abilities.
Titania used all hermunication.
The skies of Alfheim trembled at the call of its queen.
The fluttering space seemed to stop.
For a mere moment, it all stopped.
Everything turned a shade of purple, almost as if it was all out of a fairy tale.
In that space, only Titania and the skies existed.
"Alright."
A voice boomed.
The one descended into the mortal realm and a barrier formed itself around the shredding body of Eugene Hall.
Try as the spirits might, nothing would go their way.
They attacked and attacked, but the barrier would return it all.
The collective had begun its battle against the one.
"W-what is happening???!"
Still floating, Bathym had no idea what to do. He couldn''t tell his left from his right, but his thoughts still remained on his liege.
"I don''t know… but he''s not dying for sure… not yet…"
***
The pain continued, it was enough to make me want to rip out my own heart and squash it in my hands just so I don''t have to experience it anymore.
In front of such pain, I stood up.
"Motherfucker…"
Everything around me was ck.
Dark. Completely dark. There was not the farthest semnce of light anywhere around, no sound, no touch, no feeling, no air, nothing.<novelsnext></novelsnext>
Nothing existed.
This was…
The world inside my own head. The ce where my soul resided.
I knew it because I had felt it before. The ce that should have been white like theboratory I was built in was now pitch ck, like a starless night.
This did suit me more, almost profoundly more.
It was tough to as much as separate my lips, but the pain was my closest friend.
I weed it with open arms.
Slowly, very slowly, I raised my feet and took a step ahead.
The jarring sensation of agony made me want to keel over and fall, but I barely held on. And then, another step.
And the same thing repeated.
No matter how much I was in pain. No matter how much I was about to lose.
There was nothing in this world anymore that could make me fall.
No.
There was nothing in this world anymore that could stop me from getting back up.
This ce…
This darkness. Nothingness.
It was proof of it.
My lips slowly curled into a smile as I took more steps around.
Over and over, almost keeling but never doing so. I walked and I walked.
And I walked and I walked.
I walked.
Minutes turned into hours, which turned into days.
Months, perhaps?
But I was not worried.
Or so I thought.
So I thought before I saw the fluttering strands of hair the shade of a blooming hibiscus.
Horns, broken. Wings and tails were ck as the ce around slowly fluttered.
Another person.
Another…
Demon.
Just like myself.
Stood there.
Slowly, ever so slowly, her gaze turned toward me.
Though I couldn''t see her face, I could tell she was smiling.
"Hi there."
I smiled back.
"Hello… Dantalian."
The demon grinned and crossed her arms.
"Boring. I thought you''ll pounce on me right away."
"Why would I do that?"
Dantalian and I stared at each other before she sighed and turned away. Once more, I started walking.
Step by step, the pain hadn''t ceased for a second, but I was getting used to it by now.
As I went past her, she strutted along.
"Do you know you have been walking here for three years?"
"Really?" I asked. "I thought it was just a few months."
"How rxed. Three years, just slipped by your hand."
"Do you think I don''t know how differently time flows in here from the outside?"
I continued taking my steps when Dantalian suddenly grabbed the scruff off my neck.
"You''re going in the wrong direction."
I shook my head.
"There is no direction. Follow along if you want to."