Ace didn’t know as well.
His composure was broken and he saw no reason to continue to keep on a calm mask when his inside was getting torn by pain.
Everything hurt. From his flesh to his bones and his burning blood, the needles that he called hairs, and his fingernails that were now small blades digging into his fingers.
And his head. He was depressed and yet felt so much at the sa ti. Everything burned and rolled, twisting into lines of angry red pain.
It was painful. Very much so.
Fucking painful.
To the side, shadow Lord’s face fell and he took a jerking step forward. "No! This is my years of sweat and you want to eat it like that? No way! You’ll only waste this power!"
Ace raised his head. His eyes were now consud entirely by red. He smirked and then he opened his mouth. He roared.
Ace roared.
No, more like a shout of pain and tornt.
A shockwave, physically condensed wind, blasted out of his mouth. The ground shattered and the force slamd into shadow Lord, ramming into him like a speeding train.
There was a brief mont of cracked bones and wet slapping of flesh and then shadow Lord was sent back, skidding across the ground and causing great craters as he went.
Ace’s back bent in a hunch, his eyes closed.
Inside though, inside his head, everything was different. Words and mories assaulted him and everything around him was dim and dark.
"Do you know the first sensation of mankind? It was pain. The hungry pain that consud humanity. The pain of hunger, of loneliness. The pain of helplessness. Pain of hatred. Everything is backed by pain."
"Even after the first stars were created, there was pain. They felt the pain of burning out. The world, it was built with the pain."
The voice that was speaking was cold with resignation. It hit the dark like a gong and made it tremble. Ace frowned. He was inside his own mind.
A mory?
"Everyone feels pain. Our flesh bore the mark and our souls sing its songs. Pain. The first emotion. The emotion even the primordials cannot run from."
"Pain is the final emotion. The emotion that continues to death. All lines lead to pain."
"Ace Eros. You have been chosen to carry the world’s pain!"
Ace shuddered.
He could see himself from above as if he was a bird observing what was on the ground, and yet he could see as normal.
He was sure he was in the mory of his host.
The place was a dark hall and three n stood in front of him. They wore dark cloaks that covered all of their bodies, their hands enclosed in dark leather gloves.
But it was their heads, their faces.
They wore human skins. Human faces that were ripped free of their own and then plastered on their own.
Ace could feel two emotions. As himself and as the host.
But with a silent roar, the emotion of the host swallowed him and he beca one with it. He saw through the host’s eyes. He saw the human masks looking down at him. Three of them.
One for his father. One for his mother. And one for his brother.
They were skinned alive, their faces removed and then worn. He could still hear the screams and whimpers of his family, their faces removed but their lives preserved.
The faces smiled. "You have been chosen, Ace Eros. You are lucky to be chosen to witness the true truth of the world—Pain!"
And just as they said, they let him feel the pain.
They created a large magic formation on the ground and put him in the middle of it. It’s a prison because he could not go past it. It was where they showed him what pain was.
The three people. They had different powers.
One was a healer. The other had ntal powers, and the third... he seed like the most normal until he removed his cloak and showed the glittering blades arranged on his body.
The normal one would step into the formation and then carve his body. He would rip his flesh and crush his limbs. He would skin him and rub salt on his bare inner flesh.
They would seat him on nails, hot piercing.
Then they would heal him until he was whole again. A brief mont where the pain would lessen. An illusion because the ntal man would drill into his head and plant mories.
He would plant good mories and happy ones. Then he would rip them free and tear it all from him.
ntal and physical torture.
Again and again until everything blurred.
Ti beca aningless. He didn’t get numb to the pain. No. There was sothing that was planted in him that made it so he could feel everything every second of the pain.
And not only that.
The room was a giant place used for torture. A lot of people were brought there and tortured. Thousands. Their pain would be collected through the formation and drained into him, the chosen one.
Ace Eros forgot who he was as the host’s emotion drowned him. He forgot that he was in a novel or not. All he could think about and rember was pain. Pain. And pain. More of pain as if it was what defined his very being.
’Who am I?’
’What am I?’
’Am I Ace Eros or Ace Eros?’
’Which one am I?’
’The one that ca from Earth or the one that was in the novel?’
’I... I don’t know.’
’Am I pain? The true thing of the world? The only emotion that matters? The all-consuming? All-devouring? The first emotion and the emotion of the end. One of the first and ending power?’
’Who are we? Are we Ace Eros or Ace Eros? Are we pain or are we not? We do not know!’
There was only darkness. But in that darkness, folded over on each other, was a dark red throbbing of pain. And deep in that was the figure of Ace Eros.
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