Alvin continued speaking.
"Yes, even though we are currently in control of ourselves and our free will, with a command from the one who marked us, we would become mindless slaves, blindly eager to fulfill that command, even at the cost of our lives. In short, we are both slaves."
Teyat asked in shock.
"Sir, I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't understand what's going on!"
Alvin, resigned to the fact that he was a slave, smiled hopelessly and told both himself and the young man before him that they were slaves.
Then, he walked towards an old, faded brown cupboard leaning against the wall at an angle.
As Alvin walked towards the cupboard with his hands clasped behind his back and calm steps, he spoke again.
"You're a slave too, because the mark on my neck is also on yours."
Teyat, still not understanding what was going on, spoke in bewilderment.
"What? What mark? I don't know what you're talking about, could you please speak plainly, sir?"
Ignoring the confused words, the elderly Alvin reached the cupboard and opened its doors with both hands.
Even from Teyat's viewpoint, he could see that the inside of the cupboard was occupied by cobwebs, and he noticed a few other things too.
In shock, he saw inside the cupboard a plain, white robe hanging on a rusty hanger and a small, broken, and dirty mirror.
Alvin, calm and composed, took the small, broken, dirty mirror in both hands, closed the cupboard doors, and with a small smile on his face, turned around and began walking towards Teyat, holding the mirror out towards him.
As Alvin walked towards him with the mirror, something strange began happening to Teyat's body, mind, and soul. It felt as if something was draining his energy, but at the same time, he couldn't take his eyes off the mirror approaching him.
Teyat's appearance—neither too long nor too short hair, wavy downwards, with a red and pale but attractive face—was something he could no longer notice, as he was practically hypnotized.
Though his energy was being drained and he felt increasingly exhausted, for some reason, it felt as if his mind was being manipulated by someone, hypnotizing him.
As the mirror in Alvin's hands got closer, Teyat could feel something being violently drained from his strength, mind, energy, and soul, as if he were being completely depleted.
Alvin, with a warm and sincere smile on his face, took four more steps to reach Teyat.
He was now standing directly in front of him.
•
Even though Teyat felt great unease and fatigue within him, on the outside, it was as if nothing was happening. He stood there, entirely focused on the mirror, hypnotized.
Suddenly, from the broken, small, and dirty mirror in Alvin's hands, a black drop—like the mark on the foreheads of those from the Line of Darkness—appeared, and in the background, a sea made of black waters emerged. Then, the black drop fell into the black sea.
'Plop...'
As the black drop hit the black sea, Teyat's hypnotized mind regained consciousness, and with great shock and exhaustion, he collapsed to the floor.
His eyes widened in terror and surprise as he looked up from the ground, breathing heavily, staring at Alvin's innocent and smiling face with fear.
Suddenly, a violent and deep pain surged through him—not in his mind, not in his heart, nor physically anywhere else, but in something beyond the mind and heart, something deeper.
He screamed in agony, and though he was already on the ground, he threw himself down even harder in pain, writhing uncontrollably. He clutched the area near his heart with tremendous force, as the pain seemed to come from there. His eyes, wide with a blend of pain, fear, and shock, bulged as thin veins spread across them.
Teyat's entire being wanted to escape this torturous and horrifying suffering, as he was truly experiencing the pain of all pains.
Writhing on the floor in excruciating agony, with his eyes wide open in terror and his hands squeezing his chest near his heart, blood began to pour uncontrollably from his mouth.
The torment Teyat endured was so severe that an average person would lose their mind and die within seconds of experiencing such a horrific torture.
He considered escaping with the 'Stealthy Darkness' technique, but the pain was too overwhelming for him to even think straight.Worse, the 'Stealthy Darkness' technique, or any of his other current techniques, were entirely useless in this situation. He couldn't even move from where he was.
The reason for this brutal, merciless torture was because a soul, far more powerful than his own, was cruelly overpowering and suppressing his, attempting to seal and destroy the strength and heritage of his soul.
It was as if this unknown soul was trying to destroy his soul but was unable to do so because his soul was the 'Soul of Darkness' inherited from the child of the Dark God.
Moreover, there was yet another soul within him, an entirely separate entity from his own...
[The chapters titled "Two unlucky slaves" are chapters I have written before, so count them as missing. "Don't ask why you don't delete it then...]