In the middle of Invictus' hallucinations, came upon him another strange scenario. He had met with the goddess of space and time as they stayed afloat across planets and stars.
His first thought about the scenario was him having hallucinations again. He tried biting himself, but he did not wake up. Invictus just felt pain, an excruciating one since he bit himself as hard as he could.
"If you are real and not some made-up image of my mind, how come you didn't meet me inside The Oubliette?"
Invictus knows what he was asking the goddess and still goes on with the dumb and annoying question.
"I'm sure you're aware of your current situation inside that waste dump, right? It's too gross in there. Also, I am claustrophobic."
Their conversation continued for several minutes until the goddess herself became bored of the chitty chattering.
"Ahh, how boring!" She suddenly snickered, interrupting Invictus' storytelling.
"It was you that wanted me to tell you a story. It's not my problem that it was boring... For you."
"Heh, you dare raise your voice to me. Don't you want that gift anymore?"
The goddess heard Invictus' agonies and cries, his promises and regrets.
"I am bound by the king's restraints. Once I get out of that hellhole, I will bring Estaria to its own destruction! However, without my magic, I am just a mere human. Even a third-rate mage might trample me all over. So, I need your help!"
The goddess was laughing, satisfied enough with his words but not quite fully contented with Invictus' words.
"You're lucky, mortal," began the goddess, slightly grinning at the
the brightened expression on Invictus' face. "It's not so often I intervene with this world's conflict and all. However, the Estarians really, really, did you dirty this time. I've been watching you, Invictus. All that pain you have to endure, your struggles, the persecution, it breaks my heart. I was moved by your story, so now I am here to give you immortality!"
Before Invictus could even thank the goddess, he was brought back to reality. Immediately, he checked his body if something had changed, but there was none.
"Giving you immortality is the only thing I can do for you. You won't die, even if you get beheaded, poisoned, or be it any form of death."
The soothing voice was coming from inside his ears. He had looked around to see if the goddess really did meet him in person, but she didn't.
"However, since I wasn't at my full power when I granted you immortality, it became partial. Invictus, remember that the only way for you to die is by starvation. If you want to live, eat! You have endured so much suffering in the past. Doing it for the second time will be an easy thing to do. Everything is all up to you now. I am watching from above. Don't disappoint me now, mortal."
And then the voice disappeared. There was once silence inside The Oubliette.
"You want me to eat, but what am I supposed to consume here?"
All that existed in the dungeon was liquid waste mixed with grease and bodily fluids from the corpses that rotted away inside The Oubliette.
As he pondered his thoughts, struggling to realize what the goddess meant by eating and enduring for the second time, Invictus eventually stumbled across the solution.
"Does she mean...? N-No way! That will surely be painful! And what nutrients will I get from this malnutrition body?!"
Yes, the goddess wants Invictus to eat himself so that he won't die without achieving what he ought to do. Crazy as it may sound, that was the last resort Invictus had to survive inside The Oubliette as he figured out how he would escape the dungeon without the help of others.
"How should I do it?! I--I can't just bite off my flesh, right? Something I need to find something that will help me cut off my arm."
Through the disgusting liquid wastes, Invictus put both of his hands, hoping that he would find a tool or anything useful.
As he dabbled in both of his hands on the greasy liquid wastes, coming across some bones and even a skull that has no jaw.
He didn't freak out at any of the discoveries he had while scavenging for something useful.
"I--I can't reach the bottom!"
The inside was too narrow. He can barely move around as he lowers himself. So, instead of using his hands, he made use of his numbed feet
"This is pointless! I can't feel anything from my lower half, and raising my leg is impossible!"
No matter how much he moved his feet around the liquid waste, he could barely sense anything from it. He could not even feel his legs moving
underneath the waist-deep dump.
All he could do was feeling frustrated and anxious about hurting himself just so he could eat. Never in his life had he once thought that he would come to the point where he would have to eat a part of his body just to survive.
Hesitantly, Invictus does not know if he should do what he needs to do or not. He may have high pain tolerance, but only gnawing on his flesh with little strength left in him would surely make things hard for him.
"I can't!"
Invictus was not mentally prepared to inflict harm on himself. He could not bear the fact that he would be eating his own flesh just to survive because he always had enough to eat. Even though they were considered evil and a plague to Estaria, he never once skipped a meal by having nothing to eat.
"Are you gonna die here then?"
It was Uria's voice coming from all over the dungeon. Her tone was not the usual calm and demure. It was rough like something was stuck in her throat.
"Are you not gonna avenge us? Did you already forget what they did to our daughter?! To me?!"
For Invictus, Uria sounded like she was blaming him for what occurred to them. His helplessness in front of everyone as they burned to death reminded him of how pathetic he was at that time.