Pain. His head hurt. Kirian tried to blink it away, to sleep it off. He had a hang over, that had to be it. He had to be drunk to have this bad of a migraine. He felt that his eyelids were far too thin because he could feel the radiating light on the other side of them as if it was a scorching beam directed right at his eyes.
Placing his hand over his face he tried to ignore the feeling of nausea that radiated through him. He was struggling with the idea of waking up. He had felt worse than this before so he knew he was acting like a baby, but still; headaches were worse than anything else.
Kirian rolled his body to try and escape the light that was trying to blind him through his own eyelids, and now his hand. He couldn't figure out why it was so bright in the room. He never kept his room bright.
"System, dim the lights." He grunted. He was used to voice commanded lights. He waited for the usual feeling of relief as the lights slid down and the room grew dark. He waited. After a few minutes he groaned. "System, dim, the, lights." Kirian snapped. He waited some more and still nothing happened.
"What the actual fuck..." Kirian finally groaned and began to sit up to do it himself. There was a panel on the wall of his room by his door that controlled all aspects of the room from the floors temperature, the wall color to the brightness of the room and even the humidity. The panel was used to access even the doors. That triggered a brief moment of hesitation; hadn't he broken the panel? That could be why it didn't work. Did that mean the headache was from his beating for doing it?
Kirian opened his eyes but had to freeze. He looked around. He was on a bed that was much smaller than the emperor sized one he'd had in his room. It was also made out of what looked like mahogany. The frame extended into the air to form a full cover over his head. Delicate drapes hung off the top that were made of red and white silks. His pillow was square, which threw him off to no end, and the entire room looked like something out of one of the Elite Koa's costume parties.
The room was decorated sparingly but elegantly. It held a weird set of shelves that were all squares of different sizes. Some of the spaces were occupied by plants and vases, a few more had scrolls tucked into them and the remainder were just empty. It was decorative and well made.
There was a small table towards the center of the room that was meant to sit at judging by the pillows surrounding it and the tea set placed on it. There was a board game set out that Kirian didn't recognize nor did he care to, he didn't have the patience for board games. As his gaze went around the room more he spotted an incent burner with lit incents in it. That explained the faint wood and saffron scent that he could smell in the room.
"What the hell... This isn't my room..." Kirian frowned. A sharp, intense, pain suddenly stabbed through his head. He cried out and gripped his head as memories began to flood into his brain. Some were his original ones from the moment where he'd died.
The image of Seth's shocked face morphing into rage before everything went black went through his head. That was right, he had died. Kirian was supposed to be dead. Those weren't the only memories that assaulted him though.
The memories were of a loving family, a kid brother that looked just like his brother used to. In these memories his father wasn't a drunk alcoholic and his mother wasn't dead. He knew they weren't his own.
Still, the memories surfaced in his head as if they were his. He saw himself joining some sect? He was learning swordsmanship and some form of martial art called cultivating. He was a studious child, diligent in his learning.
More pain flashed through his head as the memories continued to hit him one after another. They were coming so fast he could barely keep up. Something about a challenge. He passed... a fragment of some blade chose him. He absorbed it. He caught his head between his hands and pressed the heels of his hands into his temples.
Memories of some terrible thing called the Qin Mausoleum, an ancient evil, some new evil, bad Qi... all kinds of things he didn't understand. By the time the painful memories stopped hitting him he got a recap of what he could only assume was the recent memory for this life.
In the memory he took a brutal blow to the head during the fight with some sadistic looking creature that only Askal could dream up. It was warped and twisted, it's veins bulging out of its arms as he was attacked. It had a weasel face and was violently attacking him. He dodged one attack but was thrown back by another and hit his head on a rock. Then it went black.
Kirian took a deep breath and let it out. Slowly, several minutes went by but his head finally began to stop hurting. When he opened his eyes again he was still stuck in the strange room that matched the strange memories.
Kirian had been tortured for years. He was used to some very fucked up punishments. Years of his life were spent under the rule of a sadistic elite who constantly threatened him with death. He had finally been pushed to the point of suicide.
After all those years of torture this room set him on edge. He could feel his heart rate pick up. His mind went to the worst case scenario... Seth had survived and so had he. They had found a way to revive them both and this was Seth's latest punishment. He had probably given him over to the most twisted Elite of them all; Askal.
Askal was known for his fucked up sadism. He was not like the other elites who seemed to have a method to their madness. Demetri was a cold and ruthless elite, Koa was nice until you broke a rule, and Seth was a sadistic childish Elite. But Askal? Askal was impossible to read.
He had the same white hair and fucked up purple eyes as the rest of the Elites. His skin was ivory white and he was tall and scary. He always wore a mask, they all did, never taking it off where others could see their faces. What set him apart though was the look in his eyes.
Askal always looked like he was missing a few screws. He always carried a baggy with him. Anywhere he went he had that baggy, and in that baggy was always gummy bears. If he liked you, he offered you a gummy bear. Even if he didn't like you he offered you one.
He was always munching on those gummy bears under the mask so it was deceiving to new people. They always thought the gummy bears were fine. Kirian, and those who lived in the bastille long enough, knew better.
Sometimes, sometimes those gummy bears were fine. Sometimes they were cyanide. It was impossible to tell what was in the damn gummy bears and it was always a gamble taking one from him. However, you could not refuse the gummy bears either. He didn't take well to you refusing to play his game of roulette.
Askal was horrifying because you never knew what he was thinking. Much like the uncertainty in what was in his bag of gummy bears, you could not tell what he was going to be like in any given moment. He could be happy one moment and absolutely enraged the next.
His punishments were also horrifying. He was so unpredictable but there was always a certain theme to his punishment. He always tried to root out your worst nightmare, and subject you to it.
Kirian felt a cold sweat break out on his back. His hands shook as he slowly pulled them from his temples to sit in his lap. He was dressed in a white inner robe with no shoes or socks. His eyes were wide with terror. If this was one of Askal's punishments then Kirian was truly fucked.
A loud knock on the sliding partition that served as a door made him jump. He was so on edge that it scared the hell out of him. His head jerked up and he shot to his feet as the single bang turned into several more. Someone was knocking. It was like the sound of death to Kirian.
"Immortal? Immortal are you in there? Are you okay? I heard a noise. Immortal?" The voice outside called out. It was not one he recognized and that put him on edge more. Kirian began to look around the room. He need to get out. He needed to get out of there. Right then, right there.
Kitian spotted an open window he darted towards it without any hesitation. Logic was only half working for Kirian. He had never been the brightest man. If he had, he would have realized years ago that Seth's entire problem was caused by Kirians clingy nature towards others. Kirian liked physical contact and it ended up with a lot of people dead or missing limbs.
That lack of intelligence is what caused him to run. He hadn't realized he had been brought to a new world with a new existence and a second chance. All he knew was that this could be a plot to torture him and he hated pain.
Kirian gripped the windowsill and checked the area around him. He was on the second floor of some building but there was a slanted roof below him that would allow him to slide down to the garden under the window. He heard the knock again and scurried out the window.
Kirian was surprised by how light his body felt. He felt strong, agile, and most of all fast. It was as if he had been training for years. His brain pulled up years of memories of training that he had never done. He took a step onto the roof and jumped.
Rather than going a short distance then falling, Kirian found himself launching through the air towards the back of the garden. Another step propelled him forward even though there was nothing under his feet. He didn't take the time to think about that.
The garden was towards the rear of the building. An ornately stone wall separated it from the street on the otherwise.
The door to the room Kirian had just vacated slid open. The boy on the other side had a direct view of Kirian running away out the window as the cultivator disappeared over the back wall. Unlike Kirian, he was fully dressed with outer robes and his boots on. His robe was stark white with blue flames embroidered around the hem and collar. He looked no older than 15 and the baby fat hadn't fully left his cheeks. He had chestnut brown hair that was long and pulled up into a top knot with a golden hair pin through it. His deep chocolate brown eyes were staring out the window in horror.
The immortal one, a student from the crystal warriors, had finally left the floral palace... only to be gravely wounded. They were not sure he was going to survive, but now all the junior could see was his half naked form leaving the room!
"Oh... wait! XIAO BAI! Come back! Master is going to kill me..." the junior cultivator whimpered as he stared out the window. He realized he had no choice, so he too jumped out the window and chased after Kirian.