Satisfied with his demonstration, Ralph skipped away like a little boy excited to visit the playground. His lips curved as he caught sight of an apparition of a loading bar being filled up with a pale violet color. Well, to say it was being filled up was an exaggeration; the color only managed to smudge the top left corner of the bar.
"It's progress regardless," Ralph whispered to himself.
'Well said, boy,' a hoarse voice that only Ralph could hear responded to him.
"Azazel senpai, you're back already?" Ralph exclaimed excitedly, like a kid seeing his favorite uncle.
'Yes, boy, and I see you've already begun.'
"Ai ai, I only wanted to see if that'd work; I still don't get how my sin works, but I guess I got lucky this time," Ralph said cheekily.
'You're young and new to all this; in due time, everything will become clear, everything,' Azazel asserted mysteriously, almost as if he was trying to convince himself too, which earned an eye squint from Ralph.
"Never mind all that; I'm sure we'll do well together."
In the middle of nowhere, or rather, in a deserted town with broken-down buildings and overgrown flora. In this decrepit area that should have been rather quiet or perhaps suffused with sounds of wildlife. Unfortunately, all of this was nowhere to be found here. One would ask why that was. Was it due to the strange energy that came with the apocalypse? Or was it the goosebumps-inducing and soul-curdling scream capable of causing the coldest of men to shed tears?
Well, everyone is entitled to their opinions, but I'd definitely lean towards the latter. Jacob kept turning, twisting, scraping his body against any hard object he could find. He never could have guessed how long the pain would last. It was as if whoever was tearing out a part of his soul was insistent on doing it millimeter by millimeter, adamant about the meticulousness of his work.
Unfortunately for Jacob, who was at the receiving end of it, he could feel his body getting weaker with every hour that passed. He had been in this continuous cycle of pain for hours, if not days, and honestly, he didn't bother enough to care. His mind anchored down, unable to break, and his body incapable of numbing it out.
He couldn't think; he couldn't act. The only thing he could do was writhe and scream, which he did so much his throat blew apart, and his body disfigured. Unfortunately, the sounds didn't stop; his lungs, seemingly being the ones producing the sound now, complemented it with the gurgling sounds of blood traveling up his respiratory tract.
In short, he was a mess that kept getting worse as time passed. After a couple more hours had passed, relief washed over Jacob as he felt the pain finally stop. His already red gaze grew dark; the sensation of sleep he felt at the moment was the best he had ever felt in his life and he welcomed it without any resistance.
After an unknown period of time, Jacob's eyes fluttered open. However, he couldn't make out the difference between them being open or closed. Sure, he felt the sensation of his eyelids opening and closing; the problem was all he could see was dark or rather he couldn't see again, and then it hit him,
"I...I died...again?" He muttered gently to himself.
"He..he..hehe..hahhaHaHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH"
"FUCK....HOW THRILLING...HAHHAHAHA...I DIED...I REALLY DIED...HAHAHAHAHAHHA"
Jacob laughed manically; he seemed to have finally lost it. The occurrences of the past few days he had been trying to bottle in had finally tipped over. The feelings he had seemingly numbed himself to seemed to be driving him mad. Or maybe it was not, maybe it was the torture that he just went through that broke something within him.
Or perhaps it was something else entirely, something unrelated to all of his recent occurrences, something that had always been in him since the beginning, that side of him that had been mostly dormant. That thing that made him feel less empathetic, less anxious about the thrills of this mundane world, which consequently made him languid and unmotivated to do anything.
It seemed that other side of the coin that was him had finally been stimulated; it finally reacted to something for once. And he felt it clearly now; this excitement was like nothing else. It was euphoria that tipped him over the edge; the dopamine in his head was firing like rockets. He truly felt it all; the rush was liberating.
"HAHAHAHAHAHHAHA....HOW LIBERATING.....HOW BLISSFUL.....HAHAHA.....YES, YES...THIS EXCITES ME"
His mouth curved so much his lips parted, his pupils dilated from the excessive rush of dopamine that occupied his whole eye. With his disheveled appearance and his maddening expression, he truly looked like a demon.
"$&#@ €¢%%¢"
Jacob was interrupted by the sickening and godforsaken mash of sounds that drifted to his ears. However, even though he didn't understand what the sound meant, his reaction to it was quite...strange. He burst out into laughter, a maddening laughter that rang even louder than the previous ones.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHA"
"YOU, YOU'RE THE ONE RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS...HAHAHAHA...Y..YOU EXCITE ME.....COME GIVE ME MORE"
Jacob's face forcefully slammed the floors he was standing on; his entire body drove into it like a well-powered drill.
"#$#_ mere fragment, YOU DARE DISRESPECT ME?"
Jacob after dug his way up with wide eyes and a bloody grin; his entire demeanor screamed insanity.
"NOW THAT EVERYTHING IS READY, REJOICE AND PRESENT YOUR BODY TO ME, BE GLAD TO BE THE VESSEL THAT WOULD HOLD THE ABYSS"
"Hehe..hahahaha, you want my body? Hahahahaha...WELL, YOU CAN'T HAVE IT-"
Jacob's body flew across the air; his body hurling away until it was stopped by what may have been a wall.
Cough cough
Blood flowed out of Jacob's mouth, and his body was already out of shape with what it had had to endure, but his facial expression hadn't changed. In fact, he seemed to enjoy it; his mouth seemed to gain more curvature as the time passed. His masochistic self had bloomed in full.
The voice didn't speak for a while, save for the occasional grunts; it seemed it couldn't take Jacob's body casually and was trying to force Jacob to surrender it himself. The mind-breaking torture only now seemed to make sense to Jacob. Unfortunately for him, it had the opposite effect. The thought of this made Jacob's smile grow once more. He was truly enjoying this.
"You want my body, unfortunately, I'm not feeling generous. However, that's not to say we can't reach a consensus. You seem strong, way stronger than the other gods."
A snort sounded off to interrupt Jacob.
"DON'T RUB DIAMOND WITH SHIT, BOY."
"And you also excite me, so let's strike a deal, yeah? I'd give you parts of my body, and you'd grant me power. What'd you say?"
Jacob knew for certain he died to be sent here; he knew there wasn't a time limit for the entity to torture him until he gave out. He understood since he could also feel it, how nothing existed in this space. It wasn't that the place was dark but rather that there was nothing in it; the strings of existence couldn't penetrate this place.
Time didn't flow; space didn't bend. The very fact he could stand, fall, and generally move in this place was because of the entity. The universal influence he perceived was just illusions spun by the entity.
And even though a tug of war with this entity sounded fun, his awakening seemed to have reminded him of something, the image of a smiling little girl with long blonde hair had been stuck in his head since he woke up. He realized now he had a goal and was determined to achieve it. So what he needed was to revive again and the power to enact his revenge.
"A DEAL? WITH A MERE FRAGMENT? WHAT A JOKE."
"Hey listen, I understand you have a goal, right? I also have something to accomplish. I would even gracefully fatten my body for you to receive. But only after I have accomplished my goal. Let me pray to clear this demon in my heart."
"..."
"FINE I WILL WAIT, BUT ONLY FOR TEN YEARS. IN THIS TIME YOU'LL HAVE ACCESS TO THE ABYSS; DO WITH IT AS YOU LIKE...ILL BE BACK FOR MY RECOMPENSE."
Immediately after the voice finished, Jacob felt a searing heat on his chest; it was like he was being branded with hot coal. He attempted to tear off his clothing but seemed to only now realize he was buck naked.
Fortunately, the process was swift and was done in a couple of minutes. When he looked down at his chest, he saw a black circle tattooed to the center of his chest. He tried to make up what it was; he couldn't help but think how bland the tattoo was, but all of a sudden his eyes widened.
'I can see!!'
He exclaimed in his mind; he looked around to confirm his thoughts and his eyes opened further.