Each day Rolf had suffered so much that he eventually developed a strong tolerance for pain and only a few things could manage to make him flinch. One time while he was left unattended while sparring with Rick, he continued to be beaten even while unconscious and nearly died if it weren't for Becky coming at the right time. He also seemed to be immune to nearly all poisons and to those that affected him he began showing a high tolerance for it. Becky eventually had gotten to some of the strongest poisons in the world and aside from being melted from the inside, his skin and bones rapidly decaying, Rolf had managed to survive, even without Becky's healing at the end.
One of the earliest forms of torture that allowed Rolf to develop his current level of pain tolerance, was the physical torture that Becky had administered. Rolf was strapped to a chair on practically every limb and she began her methods which would include skinning him in random places, pulling his nails out –both from his fingers and toes–, pouring acid and sometimes poison into those wounds which made Rolf pass out many times due to sensory overload and the unbearable pain. Due to Becky's elaborate planning, during the 2 weeks it took her to do all of that thoroughly, Rolf was emotionally absent and his mind was slowly deteriorating, the only thing that made him hold on and not think about the end, was Rhea.
Every single time he was abused, tortured, or hit, the only thing that made him persevere was Rhea. Even during the nights when he could see Rhea, he would still hug her and unconsciously cry, due to Rhea's bigger size it made Rolf look like he snuggled with a fluffy body pillow.
During Rolf's torture, Rhea wasn't idling, feeling Rolf's weakness and a void forming in within his soul, she began killing and training in the frozen forest outside of the kingdom. Due to her discovery of her profound ability, she had learned to use it and mostly bend it according to her will. Slowly making her way up the forest's food chain, she devoured and got stronger, all while making sure that she was home each night, clean, and within Rolf's arms.
Rhea even made sure to be with Rolf during one of the more extreme tortures he faced. One day, Becky had discovered that she could mend limbs and other body parts that had fallen off, as long as it was within a certain time period and that it didn't exceed her mana reserves, leading her to think; 'What would happen if I took out Rolf's eyes? That day she pulled one of Rolf's eyes out and tested her ability, however there was one thing she didn't account for; the intricacies of the human eye. Nearing failure, Rolf's unique constitution had helped Becky repair and fix his eye. Seeing what happened, she tried to replicate it with his other eye. Unfortunately for her, after she began casting the spell, Rolf's core had supplied all the mana to complete the spell and ended up completely dominating and conquering her spell –even destroying her unique leftover signature.
With Richard, Rolf's ability with both swords skyrocketed. If Richard was to go all out to batter Rolf some more, Rolf could now withstand about 10 seconds without getting hit by him. Although not being taught anything, Rolf's natural ability to wield the sword was being refined and was slowly becoming something different, something that may be able to defy reality. His current ability would leave Grant shocked and force him on his toes should he fight with Rolf again. Even after all the times Rolf got beaten, he was slowly learning more and more about Richard's movements and technique, not only that, but his battle sense became horrifyingly formidable– maybe even the number one for his age group.
Like that, Rolf was now 6 years old.
(A/N: 2.5 year time skip)
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During the years some of the massive discoveries that Becky had discovered about Rolf was that every time something on body broke, regrew, or endured, that part of his body became more and more refined by his unique core. One of the most remarkable discoveries was that everytime she ripped his skin off, it would grow back much stronger and more durable. It even managed to work with his bones after Richard broke them or the poisons that would cause them to decay and shatter. In her most current developments, she discovered that his body's strength is even comparable to some metals!
After her discovery she decided to take a risk and contact someone she or Richard hadn't in the past years of beginning experimenting on Rolf– Bjorn. She wanted to use their families connections and ask a bigger favor than just money– and that was for him to train Rolf. After making multiple negotiations and promises, Bjorn had reluctantly agreed.
Now that Becky's "super soldier" was nearing completion, the only thing she had left to do was developing how Rolf's core refined his body; all that was needed now asides from her part, was more training and experience, and who better to do that than the oldest living hero in the Wintry Kingdom than Bjorn Erikson.
Mostly known for defeating a Winter Transcendent Lord beast which were thought to be extinct for hundreds of years. Although hundreds of Winter Transcendent Lord beasts in the northern continent have been defeated in the past during the Hero Emperor's time, the one Bjorn fought was extraordinary. Mutated or not, some believed that it had the strength of a King beast– beasts that took dozens of people who were seen as the pinnacle of the human race to defeat –and caused Bjorn's reputation to skyrocket when he was younger.
Some of the details in Becky's agreement with Bjorn had allowed him to control the terms and circumstances of where it would take place. For example, Bjorn made it so that Rolf had to attend training in his household which frustrated Becky a lot as one mistake can cause her plan to flop, he must come alone– meaning his parents or any guardians are not welcome–, and that everything Rolf learns shall be kept between them and they weren't allowed to ask for any more favors for at least 7 years. In exchange the only thing he allowed Becky, was that he would train Rolf as if he was his own child and give him as much knowledge as he could. Due to Becky's insistence and desire Bjorn exploited that to make sure they would get out of his hair for a while and since it was only their kid, dealing with a child would be much easier than greedy and deceptive foxes. Although, Becky was okay with all his demands since afterall, it will only benefit her creation of the ultimate being.
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Currently Rolf was given an entire 3 days off to make sure his body was clean and in good shape to prepare him to go to Bjorn. Should Bjorn see anything wrong with how Rolf was treated, Becky and Richard would be shown what hell on Heimdall looks like, especially since he was a strong family man and treats his daughter the best he can.
Inside Rolf's room was silent. Although if you listened carefully you could hear a small voice through the door.
"~ahh~... ~mm~ …stop it~... it tickles Rhea", Rolf lightly said with a groan.
Rhea and Rolf were laying on his bed while he was petting her and she was licking him everywhere. The bed could barely fit the 2 and Rhea was about the same length as Rolf's height.
Within the years of Rolf's torture, they had surprisingly grown quite a bit. Rolf was now 4'2" with strong, defined muscles with only a small amount of baby fat still on him–mostly on his face. As for Rhea, she too was about 4' (1.22m) long and stood at about 33" (0.84m) tall, and her tail was about 2' (0.61m) long as well.
After licking him some more, Rhea began rubbing her face against Rolf's soft baby cheeks that she still hasn't gotten over. Every night after Rolf fell asleep she would rub her face against his, lick him one last time, and then snuggle with him before falling asleep alongside him. Although she thought he was asleep, Rolf was awake several times when she did that. During his torture, he had fainted many times and eventually learned to control his heart beat– which he could make it sound like he was asleep– since when he was unconscious Becky would usually let him off and continue when he had awoken or until she ran out of patience. Even though Rolf had been awake, he would always let her have her way in the night since he always relied on her and he wanted to do something for her even if it meant letting her do something which he thought was a little weird– albeit he always appreciated her warmth and liked it a lot when she did that.
Just like that those 3 days had quickly passed and Rolf was on his way to Bjorn's household to start real training.
Arriving in front of a large castle surrounded by high and study walls, Rolf had arrived in Bjorn's territory via the many teleportation formations in the Kingdom. Although expensive to set up, their efficiency made up for the cost. They were the quickest widespread ways of transportation, and some large formations can even send someone from a continent to a different one on the opposite side of the world!
Before he could enter through the walls, Rolf saw a big man for a brief second, and then he suddenly appeared on some large platform that looked a lot like a bigger version of the sparring arenas that were in the training hall that Rolf was familiar with. After looking around he saw the man again, but this time with more detail. The man was absolutely towering over Rolf, even his father's height couldn't compare. Rolf guessed that he must be at least 6'6" (1.98m), and he had big muscles with bulging veins. He had a thick, well trimmed beard and a long scar on his face that started near the bottom of his left eye going through the middle of his left cheek and then seemingly disappeared into his beard.
Before Rolf could do or say anything, the man threw him a sword which appeared from nowhere and said,
"Round 1, come at me".
Seeing the intensity of the man's gaze and the seriousness within his deep voice, Rolf knew that this was probably the man that Becky had told him about, Bjorn.
Going along with his words, Rolf took a stance and looked for any openings to attack… but he couldn't find one. Even with Richard he could sometimes find at least one, especially if he were just standing still, but with Bjorn he couldn't find a single one! He looked as if he were a mountain that pierced the sky, Rolf simply could not see the end to him!
Trying to test his luck with attacking, Rolf pushed off the ground and ran in low with the sword he had in hand. He planned to feint his attack towards his legs and then at the last moment he would attack him where he was the biggest, the chest– mostly because that was about the highest thing he could hit with his current height.
Even once Rolf was directly next to Bjorn and began executing his attack, he still had not moved. Seeing that maybe Bjorn had underestimated him, he went for the chest after the feint, and as it was about to hit, he suddenly saw everything upside-down and was falling down from the air. Trying to look for Bjorn, he saw him with his legs extended and his body lower to the ground, Rolf had instantly figured out that his legs must've been kicked out from under him. Unbeknownst to him, Bjorn had gone as far as breaking his legs with that kick, that was the only reason Rolf had ended up in the air.
Shocked, Bjorn had quickly went to cast a healing spell on Rolf's legs, only to see a healing spell appear with part of Becky's signature on it. Surprised, both were curious about each other. For one, after Rolf had fallen, Bjorn was already in front of him about to cast something until a weird expression formed on his face, Bjorn was stunned by how weird he found Rolf to be, especially after Rolf didn't show any pain when his legs were broken. After curiosity killed the cat, Bjorn casted a diagnosis spell upon Rolf's body and his face quickly turned pale. However, not even a second later he sighed and smiled towards Rolf.
"The name's Bjorn Erikson, I'm your indefinite teacher from now on", Bjorn said amicably.
Nodding, Rolf only said with a cold deadpan, "I'm Rolf".
"Good, we'll train til around nightfall and afterwards you can go home, and we'll be doing this about 3-4 days a week" Bjorn said with the same smile.
Rolf kept the same expression and nodded, which only fed Bjorn's idea of what happened to him and what the Einherjar household was up to nowadays.
Sighing, Bjorn took Rolf to another building, and there they continued with some physical training and even more sparring.
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After sending Rolf back home, Bjorn was now entering another teleportation formation.
Entering a large hallway and corridor, Bjorn was greeted by several servants as he made his way towards a large hall. The hall was grand and exquisite and could easily hold at least a thousand people. At the end of the hall was a large throne, decorated and bejeweled. Sitting upon the throne was a young looking man with a shortly trimmed beard and a crown adorned with jewels upon his head. Completely ignoring the several lavishly dressed people lined up against the aisle in chairs, Bjorn shouted at the man on throne,
"What do you think you are doing Arne?! Do you know what's happening in your kingdom?!?".
Before Arne could say anything, he was interrupted by one of the lavishly dressed people,
"How dare you speak to his majesty like that, just beca-"
"ENOUGH!", Arne commanded.
"You are all dismissed until further notice", after Arne sent those people away he spoke again,
"Didn't I tell you, you need to call me your majesty in public, Uncle?".
"Honorifics, or no honorifics, you are still my nephew after all, I still remember when you would visit and you would always love to pis–", before Bjorn could continue, Arne interrupted him.
"Fine, fine, what do you need, Uncle?"
Taking on more serious face Bjorn spoke in a serious, grim manner,
"I just took on the youngest from the Einherjar family as my student, and I can clearly see that he has been mana poisoned endlessly for at least a year. He even has already developed an extremely strong tolerance to the abuser's mana and pain in general. If it wasn't for his unique and strong constitution he would probably be long dead by now. So my question is what the hell are you doing that you can allow something like this to happen?!?"
After ending with a shout, Bjorn just gave Arne a cold stare while awaiting for his response.
"I'm aware of this, and with it I have more evidence to get rid of the corrupt nobles that are not only in his house but as well as many others. I've decided to sacrifice Rolf for the greater good. I know what I'm doing is wrong but as I know Rolf's name and his experience I won't allow any other person to suffer. I'm doing what I have to do as this kingdom's ruler", after Arne spoke, Bjorn was flabbergasted.
Not only did Arne have a plan to eradicate the corrupt nobles, he even knew about some of the disturbing deeds that were occurring– more specifically Rolf's case of mana poisoning. Bjorn had no words to describe his feeling right now, not only was Arne thinking much farther ahead and all for the kingdom, he did at the price of many others and the sacrifice of Rolf –a child– for the betterment of others. As a family man, Bjorn was conflicted but he knew if he was placed in Arne's seat he wouldn't hesitate for a second to save a child in need.
"I'm disappointed", without saying anything more, Bjorn turned around and left the hall to return home.
Sighing Arne could only lament at his choice and could only continue with it so that some of his people's sacrifices were not in vain.
—--------------
As Bjorn was making his way to the teleportation formation he thought,
'With his insane inner talent and potential with the sword and magic, we better hope that this kingdom won't be doomed once he unlocks his true potential'.
Bjorn did not only see the mana poisoning in Rolf when he scanned him earlier that day. Bjorn saw that despite seemingly lacking talent in magic and above average sword talent, his soul was being refined and started cracking; cracking in a way that only Bjorn himself had experienced a handful of times. As a soul magician, he learned that every time his soul was seemingly about to "shatter" or "crack" everywhere, he knew that a breakthrough was nearing and for someone unaware of their soul, they would soon discover it and become a force to be reckoned with, and Rolf's soul was..
Rolf was truly abnormal and with his unique core… in full honesty, Bjorn inwardly thought that Rolf may as well be Heimdall's Grim Reaper.
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(A/N: gotta throw a dog a bone sometimes right? There's ur hints. (also just a reminder, Heimdall is the planet's name)