"You want me… to train you?" Cript asked/repeated.
Shortly after my encounter with Clockwerk in my Kite Cooper Timeline, I figured it was time to start and get this out of the way. I need more than my usual brand of self imposed training and studying.
"Yes, yes I do." I nodded. "Cause I'm starting to hit a wall with my own training and studying...and Clockwerk proved that when Vincent's been training the old metallic bastard."
Rolling their eyes, Cript looked past me and at Heart who was still coiled around my torso. "Did you get dragged here?"
"At first but I guess some proper training could help, if mostly to have something to do." Heart replied simply.
"I guess, still, I don't usually do students… excluding my first six kids I've only had three students before." Cript stated.
"Why don't you usually take students?" I inquired. "Something bad happen or don't like taking them?"
"More like I don't know what to do with them. If that makes sense. It's not like teaching them isn't the issue, the issue is that all my students, the few I have had, are like me. Prodigies that bypass the usual training and teachings stupidly fast. And, given you are already Admins, what the hell can I teach you?"
"Fair…" Heart said, slithering off me. "What about Lord? He trained you didn't he?"
"Well, yeah but trust me, you don't want his training." Cript said.
“You don’t, cause his form of ‘training’ is to be vague as hell to the point of it being worse than saying nothing, dump you into whatever time period he wants without your powers and saying ‘good luck’.” I frowned, having experienced that thing because of Lord. “Even though I got a sexy Behemoth wife out of it...it was still bad.”
"I mean… besides that, maybe… I can think of some people who can help but… give me a moment." Cript said, a snap of their fingers and they were gone. A few minutes passed before they showed back up, Lord in tow and with five others. Four men and one woman. "Alright, so Lord has agreed to help, and I pulled these five assholes from purgatory to help as well."
"Hey!" Said five replied.
"Shut up, you know it's true." Lord replied.
"And this asshole promised not to be a vague bitch." Cript said, pointing a thumb to Lord.
"Begrudgingly." Lord added.
“Sweet.” I nodded while turning to the five people. “Okay, so who are you five if I may ask?”
The first to walk up was a blond man, wearing what was essentially a makeshift toga made from old, dirty and tied together fabrics. "I'm Zechariah." He said.
Next was a man dressed in what appeared to be a civil war soldiers uniform, and spoke with an old fashioned accent to boot. "Hazard at your service." He said with a grin and a salute.
Next was a different one. He wore a black leather jacket, jeans and a mohawk of dyed green hair. Despite his appearance, he carried himself with clear nervousness. "Toxic." He replied simply.
Next was another man, blond and dressed in world war two American soldiers uniform. He have a salute as well. "Instinct." He said as monotone of voice as Maud Pie.
Lastly was the woman. Her hair was completely flat and straight, her body type was the perfect hour glass shape, she wore glasses and a lab coat. "I.Q." She said… oh I could listen to that voice all day.
"King, Heart, meet my past lives." Cript stated.
“It’s nice to meet you all.” I said with a smile.
"You're past lives?" Heart asked.
"While Vincent made my body, he used an already existing soul. One that the Psychopath possessed Angel I now married was attached to." Cript stated simply.
“Neat.” I nodded. “But...question, was IQ the one that saved Den? Cause I remember when I relived her memories she was saved by a female you in the middle of a classroom.”
"No that was just a parallel timeline I made to let you experience what Den went through so you could better understand her." Cript stated. "These five have been in purgatory since I became an Admin, because having them in my head got real old, real fast."
“So...why dump them in Purgatory when you could have made Starfish Clones and let them do what they wanted?” I asked.
"Because since they are my past lives and still also parts of my soul, they have all my fucking powers and abilities…" Cript groaned. "Plus as far as anyone cared they've all been dead from between a thousand to sixty years or more so, not much left for them in the land of the living."
"Plus, they're annoying." Lord added.
“Considering how much of a pain in the ass you can be sometimes.” I started as I looked over the other five. “Well, I wouldn’t be too surprised. But I must ask, why are...at least four of you named so specifically?” I inquired.
"That's not Important." Hazard said. The others all gave a nod.
“If you say so.” I shrugged. “So, how are we going to start?”
"Allow me." Lord said, giving a clap as we were suddenly in some kind of pocket dimension. There was a large house nearby, forest for as far as the eye could see, and a fair sized clearing nearby. "Alright, so which of you two actual bitches is going first?"
“Rude, but I might as well go first cause I asked.” I said honestly.
We walked over to the clearing. Lord stood right in front of me, raising a single hand. "Now then. Hit my hand."
“Gee, isn’t this familiar.” I joked. “Last time we had one of these exercises, Eclipsa sent Jericho through a wall.” I said as I brought out Skysplitter. “Just hit your hand? No other rules I should know about?”
"Don't hold back." Lord said simply. Something about his tone… worried me. "After all, you know what Jericho, Cript, even some of what Vincent can do. You don't know what I can do though."
“I think I do...an old Delete Hunter if some dead Delete memories I had to relive meant something.” I said as I held Skysplitter in both hands as power surged through me. “Here goes something…” I muttered as energy surrounded Skysplitter as I swung the empowered weapon as hard as I could into Lord’s hand.
Upon contact, Lord gripped my weapon by the blade. Sparks of clashing power flew as a whirlwind of energy bleeding off circled us. He didn't seem to be struggling. His armor while sparking seemed to hold and eventually it all subsided. He let go of Skysplitter, looking the hand that gripped it over. "You held back." He said plainly.
“In what way?” I asked carefully.
"Every way." He answered. "While true, you didn't hold back, for Skysplitter, one weapon, and one form of energy does not make an all out attack."
“Alright, fine.” I said while taking a step back and bringing out my King’s Greatsword, the Culmination of all 13 of my weapons. “Let’s do this again.” I said as I took a deep breath and used all the buff skills I had currently as the ground started to crack and float around me. As I felt all the energies from my weapon start to make it glow as it harmonized together, I dashed forward and swung as hard as I could into Lord’s hand again.
The clash of energies created a pure vortex of power, keeping Lord and I in the storm. Like before he gripped the blade of my weapon. I could see his armor forming cracks and repairing them as fast as they appeared.
When it all subsided, he let go of my weapon and looked his hand over. "Better, but you are still holding back." Lord replied.
“Is it because I’m not using Code at this point?” I asked. “Or is it something else?”
"It's everything. King, I need you to completely offload all your power, all your energy, all your strength into a single, agonizingly painful attack that will leave you at death's door if you could die. I expect you to practically pass out after it's over, and to try and get back the Fuck up. Otherwise, you will never kill Void Key."
“Would be a first for me…” I said as I held onto my greatsword. “Simple enough, just put literally everything into one swing…” I muttered, feeling like this is a little more complicated as I tried to put everything I had and more to this next swing. “Just put my entire being into one swing…” I muttered as I tried to focus everything I was and had into my weapon.
Charging the attack, I tried to think back to similar times when I did something similar. Fighting Core. Fighting Vincent. Fighting Void Key. I funneled everything into my body, my sword. The air felt heavy. The ground began to disintegrate around me as my fur began to wave and glow from the excess bleed off
My bones began to feel numb and my muscles began to ache. Grunting, I raised my sword, focusing on aiming my swing, and attacked.
Lord grabbed it once again, the cracks running down from his hand to his wrist and seemed to stop there as whatever self repair he had kept it from going elsewhere. The vortex was akin to an atomic bomb of energy.
When it was over I hit my knees and breathed deeply. Everything is sore.
I looked up, seeing Lord looking at their hand. “You need improvement.” He said plainly.
“Well...of course…” I panted heavily. “This is...the first time I did an attack like that…”
“Well, let’s see now.” Lord said, suddenly picking me up by the under arms and looking me over. “Hmm. Bruised bones, various torn muscles, reserves drained and while not completely empty, close. Vital signs are elevated but not life threatening. This needs to be changed.” He hummed, dropping me suddenly. Ouch.
“Ow…” I groaned. “The hell…”
“We need to start first with your pain threshold and endurance.” Lord muttered.
“Oh… Shit…” Cript said, gulping. Okay now THAT has me worried.
“I have a pretty good pain threshold and endurance.” I frowned.
“No, you don’t.” Lord said, gripping me by the scruff of my neck and dragging me into the forest. “We’ll be back in… maybe five to seven hundred years.”
“No…” I started as I tried to keep myself from getting dragged into the forest. “Halp!” I pleaded.
“Youll do fine!” Heart called out. “She’ll be fine right?” They asked Cript.
“Eventually…” They said plainly.
Fuck!
I screamed, howling as the wire sliced my scalp off.
Lord. Is. A. Sadist.
He dragged me for a literal year through those woods, into a cave… then hanged me up by barbed meat hooks through my back. “It’s barely been two years.” Lord said, wrapping the wire around my leg, pulling as it cut into my skin and began to reach bone.
“Go suck a fat one.” I growled.
“You said you had a good pain tolerance and endurance.” Lord replied, the wire reaching my bone and began cutting in. I whimpered. “Torture, while unpleasant, is a possibility. Better you endure and press on from these nightmares now, then enduring them on the battlegrounds.” He said. I howled as the wire broke through the bone, my limb dropping to the bloodstained cave floor. Whatever ‘training’ this is, my regeneration is slower, only healing me overnight rather than instantly, so the next day, it starts over again, different and twisted.
“Still fucking sucks…” I groaned. “God damn sadist…”
“Please.” He said, the wire now being twirled around my… thigh. “This is just the beginning. Depending on how long it takes, you have four hundred and ninety eight to six hundred and ninety eight years left.” He said, pulling fast. I kicked with my still whole leg against him, but all it did was hurt my own foot.
“Yeah, the ‘beginning’.” I growled. “Unlike you, pain helps me make sure I can still feel thing’s, and this isn’t ‘pain training’, this is just straight torture.”
“In war, the two go hand in hand.” He said, another yank and another painful kick from me, and my thigh now joined my leg on the floor. “I take no pleasure in this you know, but this is necessary if you wish to meet and surpass Cript. This was his training too.” Lord said, taking the wire to my other leg now.
“This still fucking sucks.” I growled. “Just be glad I can’t die or I’d have died from bloodloss or pain induced shock a year ago.” I frowned. "And that's not because I have low pain tolerance."
"If you say so. At least you're already doing better than Cript did at this point in the training."
"Why? Because he didn't sass the shit out of you during it?" I asked.
"Because it had only been a year since his torture at Andy's hand." Lord stated simply. The tug and burn of the wire made me whimper as he pulled against the bone. "He still had all that trauma so fresh in his mind. He did agree to my training, I never forced him. But he forever regretted it. It was thirty years before he did so much as scream when I entered."
"Right…" I started. "I still sadly remember Andy's torture when Cript made me relive that day."
"Joke as much as you want. Kick, scream and sass. The only way you will pass this part of the training, is to experience every form of physical pain, and not even flinch, not even change your breathing."
"Cause of course…" I grumbled.
"Be honest with me." Lord said, the crack and my involuntary flailing signaled my last leg was also removed. Now for the thigh… "Do you honestly believe you could train someone this cruelly? To out them through every form of pain, for their benefit?"
"And for what sane reason would I?" I asked bluntly. "This would drive some people literally mad from pain, and I have...sadly seen someone go Mad…" I sighed. "Turned the entirety of that reality to dust…"
“Because to help them realize their full potential, to surpass even you, they must suffer. To overcome the worst any can inflict on you physically, mentally, emotionally, and walk away as strong as you can become. Able to endure everything without fear, and never lose.”
"Then you're gonna need to do worse than this if that's what you want to do." I told him. "Cause I put myself through more pain and have to deal with it and this isn't much."
“Everyone starts at the beginning. You are no exception.” Lord replied simply, now pulling the wire, my final thigh hitting the ground with a meaty thud as my now legless form wiggled about.
"Fine." I rolled my eyes. "This is gonna be long and stupidly boring."
“Would you prefer diversity?”
“Would it be worse then what’s going on now?” I inquired.
“Heh, and they call me a sadist.” Lord said, removing the wire and standing up to my eye level. “If you’d prefer, a mixed lesson plan can be arranged.”
“I...probably shouldn’t.” I said carefully.
“The choice is yours, as are the consequences. Either way, when this training is over, standard of mixed, you’ll grow to regret asking, and hate me purely.”
“Let’s...just keep it to standard cause I’d rather not figure out how worse this can get...you probably already have something horrible that makes this all seem weak as is…”
“What I have planned for your… finals, will definitely make you cry.”
I gulped, feeling him take the wire and wrap it around my arm near the shoulder.
Sixty Years Later
For the first time in what felt like forever, I felt gravity drop me as Lord pulled me off the hooks. The Physical training consisted of everything from weapons, poisons, insects and the like all taking various bits of me apart day after day. Some took weeks or months. Eventually, I could ignore it. An axe to the gut. I felt it, but I can ignore that. Poison causing me endless vomit and intestinal distress… I don’t even hack up, it just flows out. Maggots eating me from the inside out. Meh. My organs slowly removed outside of my body yet I’m still alive as they all scream in pain… I don’t raise my voice.
“You did well, and far quicker than Cript at this phase.” Lord said as wounds in my sides I had grown so accustomed to healed rapidly. It felt weird not having them there.
“Eh…” I muttered. “So...what next?”
“Next, Psychological torture.” Lord said.
“So what? Are we going to do some Russian Sleep Experiment type thing or are you going to strap me to a bed, put me in a hermetically sealed room, and cut off all my senses for god knows how long?” I guessed, both of which are pretty much the best ways to do such a thing.
“First. We start simple.” He said, snapping his fingers as an electric shaver was now in his hands. He flipped it on. Snapping his other hand, a camera appeared. “Even I’m actually wondering how much of you is fluff.”
“Uh...should I warn you now that my fur is part pocket dimension?” I asked nervously. “Cause that is a skill that...I did kind of grab because I still have...a fuck ton of skill points.”
“I’m aware.” Lord said.
When it was over there was easily a hundred or more pounds of my fur in the corner of the room and I was shaved bald… I looked weird. I felt weird.
Click. Click. Click. “And send.” Lord said.
“Oi!” I snapped as I leaped after him to not send those pictures.
He side stepped and I crashed into the wall.
Click. “Sent.” He said. Fuck… it’s not bad enough I’m shaved and I’m naked now my naked shaved ass is… wherever he sent those!
“Do you know how fucked things are going to be if people see this!?” I panicked, remembering that I’m the face of the kingdom and of me being like this...sweet jesus.
“FIrst off, I’m aware. Second, I don’t actually care. Shit like this happens sooner or later.” Lord waved me off. “Plus, it’s working. Humiliation and Panic have already settled in.” He said, snapping his fingers again as I was now feeling… a lot… weaker actually. What? “Now I leave the rest of this part to these two crazy bitches.” Lord said. I looked over at the sudden door in the wall open as Rune, Rune, and Lyra all walked in. “You nutjobs got a hundred years.”
“Thanks.” Lyra waved as he rapidly left, the door they walked through vanished as he exited through it. “Okay, got his list of Super Nope, Total Nope, and Maybe Nope sexuals?”
Both Rune’s nodded. Lyra pulled out a video camera. “Good.”
I hate you Lord...
“No, no and no…” I started as I backed away carefully.
“Oh relax, we’re gonna start with the Maybe list.” Rune, Heart’s Rune, said, snapping her fingers as several feathers appeared in her hands and a bed with lots of leather belts appeared behind me. “We gotta work our sexy wolf up the list of sinful pleasure~”
“Works best with this once since you’re already shaved naked too.” My Rune added.
“Also, just as a quick side note.” I looked up at the sky. “When we get to ‘total and super nope’, fuck you no I’m not into any of that shit.” I said beyond the fourth wall to get that story straight.
“Quit breaking the fourth wall and get on the bed.” Lyra stated, that camera of her’s suddenly on a tripod… with various other camera equipments, microphones, and an editing stand. “Let’s start this series already!”
I REALLY hate you Lord!
It was, infact, exactly one hundred years. Each day, a new… kink, fetish. Filmed and published. Things I swore I’d never do. Things I swore I’d never climax to… All filmed, in various angles, and I never felt so simultaneously violated and dirty in my life… I will admit I am very sexually relieved… But I’m not gonna look at Rune and Rune the same ever again… I was thankful Lyra didn’t participare, rather she filmed. Oh, yeah, and at one point I learned this was also LIVE STREAMED!
“Bright side, we earned way too much Rem for charity.” Lyra said as her pop up porn studio was being packed away.
“I hate...all three of you...so goddamn much.” I told them bluntly.
“Love you too~” The Rune’s said, each kissing my cheeks as I cleaned myself of all the… mayonnaise. Yes, actual mayonnaise!
“Fucking disgusting.” I growled as I tried to get cleaned up properly. To make it worse my fur didn’t even grow back!
“Oh don’t be such a baby.” Lyra said as everything was packed and the ‘studio’ and the Runes all left. “They have wanted this for a long time. I know you didn’t enjoy it but they did. Do you love them enough to live with that?”
“I’m glad they had fun, don’t get me wrong but…” I shook my head. “Never mind, I asked for this crap so I need to have boundaries I don’t to cross get absolutely destroyed and have all my fucking effort as the ‘face of the kingdom’, that was everyone elses fucking idea, absolutely destroyed in one fell god damn swoop.” I sighed out.
“Technically it was over a hundred years, and if it helps you’re still one of the Faces of the Kingdom.” Lyra informed. Snapping her fingers she handed me a magazine.
’Top Faces of The Family! Royal King has competition in the dirty alleyways with a new Photo Shoot by number six’s Scandalous movie scene!
“You’re shaved ass was also met with fair reviews, many declaring it some spank worthy mountains.” Lyra chuckled. “Our subjects are perverts.”
“Even though I originally didn’t want to be seen as a porn star practically…” I muttered bitterly.
“The fact you agree to so many filmings begs to differ.” Lyra said, snapping her fingers as all the mayo was gone. “I’d say till next time but even I know this was a one and done deal. So, see you on the sets you want to be on then.” WIth that, Lyra left and Lord entered.
“Fuck I can still smell it.” He said, snapping his fingers as his helmet now gained features like a gas mask. “Eh, better.”
“That’s why I said ‘originally’ Lyra…” I shook my head. “Are we done? Cause I can barely feel pain and any semblance of decency about myself is completely shattered…”
“Not even close.” Lord said. He tapped his foot as the whole room was now iced over.
As a Dire Wolf… this normally wouldn’t affect me. But, I’m still shaved naked, naked, and nerfed so, for the first time in so, so long, I began shivering. “This will be another hundred, then after this, you get your fur back… then deal with extreme heat.” Lord said, leaning against the wall behind him as I sat shivering on the ground.
“I’d literally die of hypothermia if I wasn’t deathless.” I frowned. “Seriously, at what point is this worth it to anyone that isn’t immortal?”
“I don’t know. I never trained a mortal before.” Lord replied.
“Yeah...of course…” I grumbled.
Time passed, I knew that, but the cold… at some point I began to feel it but also a complete numbness. My skin now so pale blue and my breathing constantly frosted with every exhale. Lord was here, constantly, just watching. I couldn’t even sleep. The desire was there, I felt the exhaustion but nothing could get me to sleep.
“Alright...now’s the russian sleep experiment…” I groaned as I just wished to go to sleep, considering how cold I was I’m surprised I wasn’t feeling warm or haven’t started hallucinating or worse.
“You’re race is more durable than the human biology you’re going off of. Even hairless, it will still be a while before anything more starts to happen.” Lord said. I hated how despite how much time had passed, he looked untouched.
“You at least have that armor on…” I grumbled.
“My armor has nothing to do with my resistances. Despite all it can do, it’s purely cosmetic for me.”
I rolled my eyes. “So how long do we have left of this crap?”
“Fifty five years.”
“I’ve been in this crap for forty five years?”
“So far, yes. Though, I imagine to you it has felt like less, right?”
“Can barely tell because you won’t let me sleep.” I frowned.
“I’m not doing that. That, is your Deathless nature. You’re body wants to sleep, to shut down and accept a blissful darkness. Being Deathless, it can’t. It wants to sleep but you can’t accept the final sleep because you will always wake up. So, your mind and body keep going, despite it all.”
“That...would make sense if I wanted to fall asleep and die, but no I just haven’t gone to sleep.” I stated bluntly. “I just want a fucking nap, I’ve been up for forty five years and it sucks.”
“Your body wants to die, and often it feels no different than wanting to sleep. Since becoming an Admin, sleep has always been optional, now, in this state, in this place, you are only alive because of your Deathless nature. Even an Admin under the nullifications I have you one would be dead by now.”
“Cause of course…” I grumbled. “Can’t I at least do something besides shiver here? I’m bored.” I said, cause seriously I’ve been sitting here in a cave completely nude and have been doing absolutely nothing besides shivering and breathing ice. “And if I’m going to be doing this for another fifty years dying of heatstroke, then at least let me do something to pass the time.”
“No.” Lord stated. “As is, me being here is just to check your progress. I can’t let you do anything to pass the time. You’re lucky I’m even talking to you.”
“Remember when I said this was going to be boring?” I asked. “Yeah...this part is boring as shit.”
“How bored are you?”
“How bored would you be if you just sat here shivering your ass off doing jack nothing?” I asked.
“I’d probably hallucinate. See things that aren’t really there. Doubt whether or not the person in front of me is there or not as, not only would I be shivering, sleepless, I’d be alone.”
“You’d also either stop feeling anything or start to feel warm again cause that’s how hypothermia works.” I said honestly.
“Can you even catch Hypothermia being deathless?”
“I should because hypothermia is just the core body temperature being stupidly low, to the point it’s literally killing your nerves and you have a ‘paradoxical reaction’ as you think it’s scorching hot all of a sudden.” I said honestly. “I can’t die from it, but I should have at least experienced the severe symptoms…”
“Haven’t you?” Lord asked. “There’s an old saying among us immortals. If you live long enough to go crazy, eventually, you grow bored of that, and start back at square one.” They said. “Cold, sleepless, tired. Only I know for certain ff you’ve lost it before, if at all… and yet now, you can’t even be sure I’m here now are you?”
“I’d try and pinch myself, but I’m afraid I’d probably snap my arm off because I’m literally frozen.” I frowned.
“That’s the way it is. Those are the questions. Are we really even talking? Am I even really here? How many, if at all, times have I lost it just to loop back around to square one?” Lord said. “Has it actually even been forty five years?”
“Jesus, if this is a hallucination, then it really sucks that even my hallucinations of you are still a cryptic pretentious prick.” I said bluntly.
“If I am, then it’s just you insulting yourself. Toying with yourself, and thankfully not physically, though bets are if you tried it would pop off like an icicle.”
“Can we just get on with it?” I asked bluntly. “Seriously, I’m fucking bored, and hearing you try this psychoanallitic bullshit is starting to piss me off…” I frowned
“You’re not a very patient person are you?”
“I’ve been sitting here, doing nothing, for a long ass time, at least with the other two tortures I was doing something.” I answered. “I can be patient, but unless I’m hallucinating that forty five years past, then I’m pretty sure it’s fair to say I can be bored with doing literally nothing but freeze my ass off.”
“Quite literally in this case.” Lord said. “If you’re so bored, then why not move around? You got enough strength to talk so why not try and walk?”
“It’s a miracle that I can talk.” I said as I tried to move, being stupidly careful not to accidentally shatter my own body cause my entire body might be absolutely frozen.
By some miracle, I stood up. Examining myself, parts of me were indeed frozen solid. Mostly my fun bags, genitals, and tail. "And the wolf walks." Lord said, giving a small laugh.
"Shush you…" I growled. "Seriously...how am I not fully frozen?"
"Well you were hunched in the fetal position so, maybe you kept that area more fleshy. Or, maybe you're frozen like a rock and this is all in your head?"
I walked over and slapped lard as hard as my frozen hand could. "Eat a dick." I growled as I turned around...and saw the scratches on the wall I was resting on. "Oh for fuck sakes…" I growled as I walked over and scratched another tally mark into the wall. "God I'm so fucking bored…"
"So bored you forget and repeat this all over again, seven hundred and nineteen times."
"Yes apparently." I sighed out. "That's also because my brain is so fucked from the cold and my inability to feel anymore…" I sighed out.
“Guess when Lord gets back you’ll try and slap the real him?” They asked as I sat back down in my spot. “Course, still, you did hit me, so maybe I am the real Lord, or maybe I’m just an illusion conjured up by your bored frozen brain.”
"Done." I started as I immediately got up and walked out if the cave. "Done with this shit, I can't feel shit, I'm bored, alone, and me having a psychotic break won't help." I growled as I'd rather actually get some fucking headway done instead of getting furious at possibly nothing and doing nothing.
I walked out the cave entrance, and blinked as I was suddenly back in the main part of the cave. Lord, real or not, stepped aside, and behind him was twenty seven tally’s. Using an armored finger, he carved a twenty eighth tally.
"Eat a dick." I growled.
When the cold training ended, I actually wasn’t sure if it was over. I was actually halfway through the heat training before I realized it was over, but I was still… basically crazy.
Hallucinations and long moments of talking to Lord, possibly not lord were abundant.
When that was all over, was isolation. Honestly, I didn’t even notice. While I was kept in a dark, cramped space, blindfolded. I at least got to rest. This one was longer, taking two hundred years rather than the hundred the others did. My sleep helped but I wasn’t even able to dream. Still, when I did sleep I felt… calmer, at peace. Despite the deafening silence, cramped environment and all that, something made me feel… relaxed, through this trial.
When that ended, I got out of where Lord had me and stretched. All my joints popped and my muscles were sore. Still, I was out and had my fur coat back.
“You’ve finished the Psychological stage.” Lord informed.
"You sure? Im not sure since you left me as a skeleton for at least a hundred fucking years." I frowned, considering the extreme heat my fur was burned away as my entire body was literally a massive bonfire till I was nothing but bone. "If my pain training didn't involve me being set on fire I'd have been more pissed than I already am."
“Well, you’re about to be even more pissed, crushed and horrified with the Emotional Torture part.” Lord said, snapping their fingers as now I was suddenly cuffed and chained to a nearby wall. Taking a sniff, the cuffs were made from dark Monofilament reinforced by code. Then my legs were cuffed, chained and lastly my muzzle was covered. I could still talk, thankfully, but I can’t open my mouth much.
“The fuck is going on?” I growled, struggling against these chains.
“Knowing you, there isn’t much that can take a toll on you emotionally, you’re already, well, pretty well damaged in that department.”
“Don’t be too kind to me.” I rolled my eyes. “I’ve been getting better.”
“Even so, to start off I’ve compiled a clip show of sorts.” Lord said, clapping their hands. I was suddenly on and chained to a couch, and in front of me was a fancy flatscreen TV. Lord took a seat next to me. “See, the key to your emotional torture isn’t to hurt you, but to hurt others, those you love. To start, we’re gonna watch from their point of view all the pain they have endured since you’ve been around.”
“Yes, thank you for putting what I constantly think everyday into a fucking powerpoint presentation, that makes me feel super special.” I growled.
“Clipshow bitch. We’ll start where it all began, with your parents after your near death experience.”
Oh fuck me…
So… that was thirty years of a painful, tear filled documentary mixed with pain, pride and, well… emotional torment.
“Damn, even I felt some of those.” Lord said.
“Well...at least I wasn’t a complete disappointment…” I grumbled.
I looked over at Lord, who stood up and snapped their fingers. The couch and TV were gone and I was, to my surprise, unshackled. Yes… I can’t move my body. “Now for the fucked up part.” He said
“What the hell do you have in store for me?” I asked. At least I can still talk.
“First, Shift.” He said. Against my will, I was suddenly in my feral form. How in the. “Now sit.” I sat. “Now, there’s not much I can do that will cause you emotional pain, but you can cause it yourself. Just requires some forced motivation.”
“I don’t like where this is going.” I started.
“That’s the point.” He said, pulling a vial with a violent black symbiote creature out. “This is Hatred. He’s a special Symbiote I created with the help of Coco’s repressed memories.”
“Uh...you know something occurred to me...is Symbi here?” I asked carefully. “I hope I didn’t force all that torture on her…”
“Relax, when I brought you here I pulled her out of you. This training is for you, not anyone else. Anyway, as best I could make, Hatred’s mentality and personality is an exact match for Void Key. Was even able to pull a few of the thing’s memories out of her too.”
“And what’s stopping me from just murdering it here and now?” I growled, baring my teeth at the damned symbiote.
“One, you’re nerfed, two, you can’t control your own body, and three, it will die on it’s own after one year.” Lord informed. Wait, just a year? That’s… concerningly short.
“Why...only a year?” I asked nervously.
“Because even by my standards, this is cruel.” Lord stated simply, opening the vial as the symbiote immediately jumped out and latched itself to me. I squirmed as it bonded to my body and morphed my form into something far more… lethal.
”Oh how sweet this is.” I wanted to lurch. Hatred even sounded exactly like that blasted ‘Keyblade’. ”If my original only had this opportunity.”
“Get it out of me!” I barked as I tried to claw at myself to get it out of me.
Struggling as I wanted, I couldn’t move. Eventually even my ability to talk was taken.
“Oh, so that’s how your body feels.” Hatred spoke, almost purring as they stroad round in my body while I was forced to take a back seat. “Now then, shall this lesson begin, dad.” Hatred said, looking over at Lord.
“You’re lucky I even made you, and never call me that.” Lord replied, making me glad at least he hated this thing as much as I did. “One year of life is all you get, and when you die, it will be all consumingly painful.”
“Yes, yes I know, but I’ll enjoy the ride while it lasts.” Hatred smiled, the smile felt like venom on my lips.
With a sigh, Lord began to leave, looking back over at me, or us, before I was left alone, stuck in my own body possessed by a replica of my own worst enemy.
“I hate everything about this…” I mentally grumbled.
“Oh don’t worry, just enjoy the back seat and try and scream and beg. I’m short lived and I want to enjoy it while I can.” Hatred replied, the cave suddenly changing as now, it looked like… one of my family bedrooms? They walked over to the bathroom.
In the mirror, Hatred made me look like a pure black feral Dire Wolf, fangs sharp and needle like, claws like daggers and Void Key’s single eye covering my head. “Hmm, not too bad. Well, it will do.”
”Don’t you fucking dare touch my family!” I mentally screamed as I struggled to gain some sort of freedom to stop him.
“Oh but that’s the whole point King, though I won’t be touching them so much as I’ll be… clawing at them, mangling them, eating them. Maybe some violation of their bodies while alive or dead, but I’m on the fence there. While it would cause you great pain and suffering I’m not one for pointless physical pleasures.”
”I will fucking murder you!” I mentally howled in rage.
“Oh I’m already set to die, but that’s in a year and, I can do so much in a year. Now then, time to visit dear old ‘mom’.”
“Hey King, I’m back.” Coco’s voice called back from the room.
“Speak of the disappointment.” Hatred cooed. “Coming, love!”
”Don’t you fucking dare!”
Hatred laughed. “Watch me.”
The year was torture. I sat back, forced to watch, to feel, to… Taste, as Hatred mamed, shredded, and devoured member after member of my loved ones. Spouses, children, friends.
Hatred lay on the ground, convolving and spasming as their death was claiming them.
They laughed. “You… have been dreaming of… this day.” Hatred spat, their… my maw was so blood stained it was caked with dried blood.
I could only growl in rage as everything kept feeling more and more numb to me, Hatred in its death throes sensing something even it feared encroaching on him. Madness. “Be glad I’m not the one killing you.”
They laughed again. “By… far… It was a good life for something like me…”
I roared, feeling the numbness suddenly touch a warmth. The warmth… I didn’t fight it, it… seemed to lessen the numbness, but not my rage.
“I’m going to fucking murder Lord.” I growled.
They laughed again. “You… aren’t strong enough.” They breathed. I could feel… my body again. A sudden sense of eagerness and… joy, even spiked inside me as I was able to move my tail, and one of my back legs slightly. “You couldn’t even… take back… your own body.”
The warmth, slowly, but effectively, was removing the numbness, but my rage still burned on.
“Shut the fuck up you insignificant parasite.” I growled in absolute rage. “Just fucking die already!”
“Heh, ever impatient.” Hatred replied. My back legs and lower body were mine again.
I felt the warmth absorb the last of the numbness. A sense of… clarity hit me. While my rage kept on, I felt… in control now. My front legs were mine now. I stood up on my own will now, the environment was back to being the normal cave. With a grotesque hacking, the last of Hatred left me, their real form evaporating into non-existence.
“I’m fucking done…” I growled. “This...it’s been too fucking much since we started the psychological torture...but this is one thing taken too fucking far.”
“You aren’t wrong.” I heard Lord behind me. I was ready to slug them, but suddenly found myself in… the fuck?! A Medieval Stock?! Seriously!
“No!” I snapped as I tried to break out.
“Relax, that wasn’t actually them. Fabrications, but that doesn’t make it better either way.” Lord stated. “This one though… it’s the last thing, the final thing that will push you over the edge and finally be able to hold your own against Cript, and hopefully, Vincent and Void Key.”
“No, I’m done, I’m sick of this shit!” I howled in rage. “It’s not like I’m extraordinarily lucky I still have a nervous system, it’s not like it’s fascinating how I haven’t gone completely fucking insane yet! But no, magically there’s one more thing I need to endure besides you licking my taint ya bastard!”
“You act like I don’t have regrets, but you agreed to this. Remember that… Though even this one… I’m especially not proud of.” Lord said, leaving.
I was left alone. I struggled against my restraints, trying to break free when I caught the whiff of something… all consumingly vile and revolting.
“Oh...oh no…” I muttered, my eyes widening as I remembered that terrible revolting smell.
I struggled as the smell grew and footsteps began getting closer. My panic grew and grew, and the warmth that was within me rapidly tried to relax me, but failed ultimately. Still, it never left me.
All too soon, the face of someone I killed long, long ago met me. Their perverse smile giving me chills. “My, you have quite the figure, don’t you.” Gideon said.
“No!’ I shouted as I struggled against the stockade. “No! Not after the shit I had to endure for a fucking year! Not this again!”
I panted. Gideon… I won’t say… I can’t… But I repaid his… cruelty. A second death, far, far more painful than the first. I didn’t stop until his blood and code were nothing more than paint on the wall.
I don’t know when or how it happened, but I felt all my powers back and once I broke free I obliterated the violator.
The warmth, ever present with me, still rested there. Keeping me… somewhere in the area of sane, but my nerves were completely on edge. Paranoia, rage, and… complete and utter dread still filled me.
I heard footsteps. Slowly, I turned, seeing… Lord…
He raised a hand. “Don’t. Hold. Back.” He said, simple and monotone.
“I hope King’s alright.” Symbi said worriedly to Heart, the fusion symbiote passing around for fear of her mate.
“I’m sure they’ll be fine.” Heart said, only for everyone to suddenly see the Forest that Lord dragged me off to suddenly explode in a massive amount of force. “See? Perfectly fine.”
“I’M GOING TO FUCKING MURDER YOU!” I roared in absolute rage after clotheslining the armored fuck straight into the god damn ground.
Lord’s armor, despite all the cracks and shattered pieces, still held and repaired rapidly. In a swift jump, he stood back up and turned to face me. “Good. Use that.” Lord replied.
I rushed in, delivering another hard punch to Lord. He caught the fist but his armored arms cracked and began to bleed off some form of energy as my arms, shattered and broken from the impact, instantly healed and I slammed them again into their armored torso.
Skidding, Lord’s armor returned to normal but I rushed back in and delivered bone breaking, power draining, burning punch after punch to them with enough force to scorch the ground molten with every impact.
Broken arms, gushing wounds, and energy empty. I. Did. Not. Care.
I roared in hate, rage, and pain as I delivered one fast, all power draining uppercut into Lord’s chest.
The impact cracked, then blew their armor apart.
I stood, watching as their armor fell to the ground, limply as I stood over them, breathing rapidly. I was in agony and I didn’t care.
I stood there for a long time, the adrenaline and eventually pain fading. I looked at my hands, then over at Lord’s still limp armor with the gaping hole in the chest and missing helmet. I… did that?
“Wow…” I muttered as I softly grabbed Lord’s limp armor...and then punted it as hard as I fucking could and sent it flying. “THAT’S WHAT YOU GET YA SADISTIC FUCK!” I howled.
“Congratulations, you’re limitless now.” I turned, seeing… a hispanic teen, maybe seventeen or so, black combed hair and brown eyes. “And about fucking time.”
“And you can suck my ass.” I growled. “I’m done...I’m going home, taking a long ass shower, and being stuck in the Sweet’s Dimension until the heat death of the universe.”
“Fair enough. Still, good job. Few people can say they killed me.” Lord stated.
“Wait...you’re not Deathless?” I asked, which kind of surprised me considering how...long lived Lord is.
“Well, yes and no. Like the Admins of Life, I reincarnate after death. Even from a Void or Code based one, I just get reborn. Usually I get my memories and powers back in fifteen or twenty years or so. This form was just born in southern California so the me you’re talking to now is still me, just hitched a ride with a Time Walker cause I’m not wasting fifteen years just to talk to you lot again.”
“Fine…” I sighed out. “This sucks…”
“Relax, I’m done being your teacher now. You passed, you raged, you perma killed Gideon which is an added bonus, and now, after a rest period, can learn shit from those other assholes.”
“Fine…” I said as I dragged myself to where everyone else was...I’m so fucking tired.
Upon my arrival I walked into the house, into the shower for a good ten hour shower, then grabbed Heart and wrapped them around me in a safety blanket fashion. “I don’t know what happened… but I could feel it.” Heart said.
“It...it was awful…” I answered, immediately bawling my eyes out as I hugged Heart tightly.
They tightened themselves around me, and then took my head into their arms and hugged me. “I felt… so much rage and… at the end there…” They said, that warmth ever present with me feeling… here. “I helped the best I could. Lord cut you off from a lot while there but I was able to form a link still.”
“Everything...started feeling numb…” I started. “Like...not me losing my sense of touch, which I’m still lucky to have after all of that...like...everything in my life meant nothing and nothing could help me…”
“I know… I carried it with you…” Heart said, giving me a kiss. “When this war is over, want to retire somewhere alone, just you, me, and Eclipsa?”
“Please…” I said sadly. “I’m...I’m so done everything…”
“The second Vincent and Void Key are dead, we’ll just be us three… like we always tried to be. Happy, and together.” Heart said, holding me as their heartbeat lulled me to sleep… sweet, dreamless, calming sleep.