Free Web NovelChapter 13: I... Am Nash.
[Warning, the following passage is graphic. Read at your own discretion.]
"Wait-- no!" Nash yelled, trying to push his back up against the tree. But the beast grabbed one of his arms, examining it carefully.
It rubbed its nostrils against his forearm--each exhale so hot that it genuinely seared his skin.
"Grrgghhh..." Nash was closing his eyes. He’d hoped that by laying idle, the thing may pass over him. But it kept smelling his arm up and down. Then it transitioned to Nash’s chest. Then, his other arm.
Nash relaxed his body and stilled his breath. His lungs still cried--shaken by how violently air had been ejected from him. But he grunted through the pain.
Crrkk!
Without so much as a moment of warning, the rabbit bent his right elbow opposite from how it should bend.
"AAAAGHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Sharp knives stabbed through his flesh. Red warmth gushed down his forearm, all the way to his palm--pulsating with his heart. "AGGGYYAAAAA!"
The pain was so white-hot he couldn’t think. It banged like a hammer. It was as if a searing pan were taken to his arm and held against it.
Even though his eyes were so clouded with tears that he could hardly see, he just barely made out a white object protruding where his elbow had been. His bone, jutting through skin.
"Uhh--ghhh... uuhh--ghhhh... please, oh god, please..." Each breath was fainter than the last. The rabbit wasn’t fazed by any measure. Instead, it twisted his damaged arm, pulling on it.
Each tug was another dozen blood vessels bursting. "GGGHHHYYYAAAAA!" Nash convulsed wildly, kicked the ground, and even tried to punch the beast’s hand. But it didn’t budge an inch.
Bone crunched as his skin tore. Searing hot agony filled Nash’s mind and scrambled his brains. His forearm was fully released from his upper arm.
Nash, struggling for air, lifted his left arm to caress his right, but the pain was so rampant that even the slightest shift in position was enough to send an endless wave of fire through his body.
His screams turned into cries. Blood poured from his severed arm like a geyser, yet even through all of that, the rabbit nibbled on the arm.
Nash breathed out, taking the moment of respite.
"No... wait... please... wait!" Like it’d noticed Nash calmed down, the rabbit went in again. Such fear entered Nash that a wet puddle pooled from underneath him.
The warmth just barely made it through the boundless torment. He pissed himself, eyes rolling back from trauma.
But the beast didn’t let him pass out. It gripped his other arm, even more tightly than last time.
This time, Nash tried all he could to pull his arm free. But it only added to the sound of tearing muscle and bone.
Grrrrk!
Just like that, his left forearm was ripped free from his upper arm. Even worse searing pain entered him. Before, it attacked him in waves, but this time, it became dull.
Like feeling your blood boil and cook your body alive, nerves fired off wildly and without rhyme. It was all he could do just to pull his mind together. "AGGGGHHHH, AHHHHHHH."
He shook his head left to right like that would free him of the torture, but nothing. He whined, clattering his teeth like a madman. The pain, the blood, the overworked lungs, it all compounded into a terrible, ugly cry. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
His face scrunched. "Why is this happening to me?" he asked, desperate. He was looking at the sun. It burned his eyes, but he couldn’t notice through the pain filling his body. If anything, he hoped he went blind--that way, he wouldn’t have to confront his fate headfirst.
"Lysandra... this... Koff... is all her fault." Every word was closely followed by blood, but Nash still forced them out. "I’ll... I’ll k-k-kill her... I fucking swear to god I’ll--!"
His ribcage cracked against a quick and violent force. The rabbit burrowed its fist deep into Nash’s chest cavity. It was only for a split second, but Nash could feel the squelching of flesh inside of him before the lights dimmed.
*****************************************
Instant silence. No pain, no blood, not even any light. There was simply... nothing.
Before, he could feel himself floating in a pool of vast black liquid, but there wasn’t even that.
He could make out his "self," but there was no body to latch on, nor eyesight to use. It was all he could do to maintain his sense of self, let alone think.
Yet, the hatred festering within him was so great that it overpowered even death. ’Lysandra...’ He grit his metaphorical teeth, taking in the solemnity. It made his rage worse. ’I’ll kill you. I swear, I’ll watch you and everyone else burn.’
[Condition ’1’ met.]
’You... for the first time, I see you. This place... is you. You aren’t the World Voice, are you?’
[...]
[...]
[...]
’But I understand now. Everything about this world, about me. For the longest time, I denied it, but I never did truly belong.
My entire life, I was spectator to my own story. Forced to give speeches I hated, to accept defeat against those I hated. I was a puppet to my own play.
But I see it now. I was never meant to be the "puppet." I was meant to be the puppeteer, who, on their very whim, can crash the whole thing.
And I’ve enlightened myself.
No longer will I accept my environment to control me. From here on, I alone will be in control.’
[Condition ’2’ met. Beginning Protocol ’White’.]
Nash’s mind went blank. Despite his consciousness being the only lingering element in this realm, that too begun to dissipate. freeωebnovēl.c૦m
’What’s happening to me?’ he asked.
[Your awakening. Do you accept?
Yes/No]
The prompt appeared before him, real and visible. He searched for arms to use, but they weren’t there.
Then he realized that here, he was the arm.
Feeling as his thoughts bubbled into reality, he promptly clicked the prompt.
’Yes.’
The realm twisted, churned, and shattered into millions of pieces. The only thing that remained untouched was Nash himself--rising up through it all.
Light begun to touch his eyes. He felt it. The power filling him.
[Obtained Core Skill: Merciless]
No longer would Nash submit himself to others. The world that once felt so big became terrifyingly small.
The years of struggle, months of study struggling to grasp even the most fundamental components of magic--they all flowed into Nash.
His mind rushed, flickering between concept after concept.
He opened his eyes, revealing himself before the world again. Alive and well.
He...
No, that’s wrong.
I stood up, staring dead into the beast’s eyes.
"I am no longer of the House of Borne. No, I... am Nash."
