"It hurts... Father, please stop."
I whimpered, my voice cracking under the weight of fear.
"Stop crying! How dare you cry?" he bellowed, his fury unrelenting.
The sting of his alligator belt tore through the air, striking again and again. The sharp, biting pain consumed me, each blow heavier than the last.
I can't take this... please, someone, save me. I don't want this anymore.
And then, suddenly, it stopped.
I opened my eyes, and there he was—me.
But not the me I knew.
He stood tall, unwavering, his eyes dry and defiant as Father's belt came down again and again. No tears. No pleading. No fear.
And as I watched, trembling on the inside, I realized—he had taken my place.
That version of me—him—was different. He was always calm, composed, and unwavering. He did everything right, or at least what Father thought was right. He made Father happy.
"Keep your aim true," Father said, his voice firm but not cruel this time. "You've got this."
Bang!
The shot rang out, echoing through the trees. The deer collapsed, a clean hit.
"Good," Father said, nodding his approval. His rare smile, brief but genuine, flickered across his face.
"That's how it's done. No hesitation. No mercy."
"Yes, Father."
Father walked over to the fallen deer, pulling out his hunting knife.
"Come here," he said, beckoning. "It's time you learned to finish the job. A real man doesn't shy away from blood."
He was everything I couldn't be. Everything I was too afraid to try to be.
He bore the brunt of everything I feared. And for that, I was thankful.
Yet, as the days turned into weeks, and the weeks into years, the gratitude began to sour. I was thankful, yes, but I was also trapped.
Watching him live my life, I began to wonder—if he had taken my place, then who was I now? A ghost? A prisoner? Or just… nothing?
I didn't know. I only knew that somewhere along the way, I had stopped being me.
It was odd seeing my face getting palmer and palmer. He had been stabbed by a thug.
If he died then what would become of me?
The fear gnawed at me, but as I watched him.
He looked almost… satisfied. Despite the blood and pain, he wore this strange, distant look as though he had found peace.
Hell, he even tried to numb it all with cocaine.
When he died, something dark stirred in the air.
It surged forward, pulling us both into its depths.
We were drifting in an endless abyss, pulled deeper by an unseen hand.
A voice—smooth, ancient, and echoing from every direction—spoke.
"You find yourself in quite the peculiar circumstance. A soul split apart."
"W-who are you?" I stammered
"I am a being born before time and space—a fragment of existence itself. The new gods couldn't destroy me, so they did the next best thing. They sealed away my essence, the thing that makes me... me. Only a being with divinity can unseal it. That's where you come in."
"How about that? Becoming a god? Taking back the life taken away from you."
The voice mused.
The cruelty, the suffering, the pain that seemed to have no end, and for no reason. What if I could change that? What if, as a god, I could make the world more gentle? What if I can take back what is rightfully mine.
"What do I need to do?"
-------------------------------------------
When he used **Soul Transfer**, we would merge back before entering the body of the worm.
The moment we entered, I would be detached again, severed from the connection.
When he used the ability when it under cooldown, we merge together and then splint.
Since we couldn't enter the body of the worm, a mental plane was created.
The voice had called it a god's domain.
I am standing by the river when I saw him.
I called out to him.
"Don't you have to go home?"
-------------------------------------------
"You don't remember how to go back home?"
I shook my head.
The faceless child tilted their head, then laughed softly.
"Alright, I'll help. Follow me."
Together, we moved through overgrown pathways, the weeds tugging at my ankles. Eventually, we stopped behind a thick cluster of bushes. The child crouched down, brushing aside leaves to reveal a small, narrow tunnel beneath the garden wall.
I stared at it, unsure.
"I don't think I'll fit through that."
"Silly. What are you talking about? You've always used this tunnel."
Without waiting for a response, he slipped inside.
Reluctantly, I dropped to my hands and knees and crawled after them. To my surprise, I fit—though it didn't feel like the tunnel had widened. It was more as if my body itself had gotten smaller to fit the tunnel.
We emerged into a forgotten corner of the garden and made our way toward the villa
"What's your name?"
I froze. I don't remember my name.
"Don't you think you should tell me your name first?" I said.
"You know my name."
"No, I don't."
Instead of answering, he pointed toward something half-hidden by the overgrown garden. Moonlight glinted off its surface, revealing the outline of rusted metal bars.
"Remember that?"
A cage.
Oh, the bear cage.
"My father used to keep a bear here, back when it was still legal. His shouting echoed through the halls for days when he had to get rid of it."
"It's for the best. Some things shouldn't be kept, no matter how much you want to." I said.
"And yet, he kept the cage."
The faceless boy went inside the cage.
He walked to the center, crouched down, and began kicking at the floor. For a moment, there was nothing but the dull sound of his footfalls against the wood—then a hollow _thud_.
A hidden door, without hesitation, he climbed down into the shadows.
I followed him.
It was pitch black, but oddly, I could see. My eyes adjusted to the gloom, and the first thing I noticed was the books—scattered across the floor.
Then I saw the chains.
"What is this place?"
The boy turned to me.
"You don't remember?" he said, almost amused.
"This is where you were born."
He stepped closer to the wall and slipped his hands into the manacles, the metal clinking as if they recognized him.
"And where I died."
"Now I ask of you. What's my name?"
"Minh Dương, Radiant Morning Light."
"And what is your name?"
I opened my mouth to answer, but no words came.
"What is your favorite food?"
Again, silence.
"What is your favorite hobby?"
I tried to think, to pull something out of my mind, but nothing surfaced.
"Who do you love?"
I couldn't answer.
"Who do you care for?"
This time, the words came unbidden, automatic.
"Father told me to take care of Mother and my little sister."
"I am you… yet you aren't me."
"Fuck you," I snapped. "You're you, and I'm better."
He tilted his head, as though considering my words.
"Do you believe that?"
"You know it too. You're the one who created me, remember?" I shot back
"Very well."
In an instant, his form began to shift, growing taller, stronger. The boy was gone—what stood before me now was a fully grown figure, radiating power and menace.
The chains on the wall rattled violently, then broke free with a deafening crack. They moved like living things, coiling around him as he stepped forward.
With a swift motion, he hurled the chains at me, and they wrapped around me like serpents, tightening with an unnatural strength.
"Let us become whole once more."