After my eyes were smashed, my eardrums exploded, my bones broken, throat stopped working, air started to become thinner, and couldn't move my body--- I started to react less and less about the pain. Its not that I became immune to pain, its also not because I got used to it, it's just that I stopped caring.
I became indifferent about the pain and torture that my body is currently going through. Slowly, without me knowing, I became calm, and more rational.
Inside my mind, after I felt my right leg got skinned, chopped to pieces while making sure that all the veins are connected, and was soaked in some kind of acid as it slowly dissolved, another explosion happen and the sound of chains breaking was heard. Of course I cant hear or see anything anymore, its just a sound created by my mind about something. What that something, I don't know. But I felt like its something important, like a seal, or something that restrain me.
Anyway, every time I overcome a torture and still managed to stay sane even after waves of unbearable pain, an explosion would always happen in my mind like it was breaking something. I'm not really sure, but I feel like I'm surpassing my limit. What that limit, again, I don't know. But every time I felt that, I would always be happy.
After all, in a world of darkness and silence, with pain and torture--- a new sensation that gives a relaxing feeling, even if its just a moment, and its not that strong, its still enough to make me feel good. Its like walking in a dessert while thirsty, and after a long suffering, one finally found an oasis. Its like ascending to heaven from the deepest part of hell. Unfortunately, from what I can remember, that explosion only happened six times.
While I was thinking idlely, I felt a huge force slammed my chest, breaking and destroying the remaining fine bones in me. Some of the broken bones stabbed my lungs and grazed my heart. At the same time, blood filled my lungs and throat, making me cough blood a couple times while trying to maintain my life by breathing more air.
Even though I'm feeling pain, to be honest after reaching this point, I'm more amazed at how strong my body is. After all, I already lost all of my limbs, most of my senses are now dead, except of course when it comes to feeling pain, almost half of my body was already skinned, my balls were burned and crashed, my dick was sliced to tiny pieces like a fcking spaghetti, all teeth was forcefully pulled out, gums and tongue burned (or maybe dissolve by some acid. I don't know, I cant feel it anymore), my stomach got cut and some of my innards are displayed in the open, I could even feel the air blew with it, as it was slowly dissolved (or maybe eaten by some small insects. I feel like they're almost the same), and etc etc.
After a couple minutes of torture, I again felt a chain in my mind that's being stretched to the limit. And as the torture reached another climax, the seventh chain broke and an explosion was heard. As the waves of the aftermath spread inside my mind, my fatigue and stressed mind, regain its desire to survive. This weird and frustrating situation I'm in, is making me feel like a retard.
I would be hurt, endured, and would be tired of living. Then, an explosion would happen, my mind recovers its calmness, and the cycle would repeat. Get hurt, get depressed, then recovers, get happy, then get hurt, get depressed--- switching moods is the first step to be a retard.
As I was relaxing a little bit, I felt my body dropped to the bloody ground, and a few sharp objects stabbed my chest and intestine. But since I already experienced the worst, I didn't react. Maybe noticing my behavior, the fcker got tired and stopped attacking. Even after a couple of minutes, I felt nothing.
Did he get bored? I asked. And of course no one except me heard it.
When I thought that everything is over, I felt a hand grab my face and slowly lifted me up. Then, for some reason, even though I know he's only touching my physical body, the feeling of his hand slowly closing to my soul became the new source of terror. And as expected, the moment his hand touched my soul, I felt a much more unbearable pain.
A pain that transcends the physical body. The kind of pain that could make one's very existence get closer to the brink of destruction!
Immediately, I felt my body moved and tried to struggle. But since I cant control it, and since its already broken, nothing really happened except making my whole being longed for a quicker death. As my desire to die became stronger and stronger, I again felt an even more stronger chain in my mind being stretched. And when the pain in my soul became even more unbearable, the chain was stretched to limit until it slowly snapped. The moment that it did, all the pain disappeared and I felt like the world stopped.
Weirdly enough, the senses that I thought died started to became active again. And as it did, my consciousness that wont black out even after my mind and body broke, and my soul damaged--- showed some signs of shutting down. My mind slowly became relax, and even though I know its impossible, I can feel something warm and soft wrapping my body.
Reaching this point, all the negative feelings inside me disappeared. Together with it is my mind and soul dissolving into nothingness.
*******
A couple miles away, on the top of the condominium building, Mendoza's looking and observing every movement Zerra makes. After all this fcker might overdo it and Gabriel might actually die. If that happens, Mendoza would be fck as well. And even though there's a possibility that he might not get affected, he was not a person who would gamble with his life.That's why its best for everyone if Gabriel continued living.
Beside Mendoza is the young woman he was together with, earlier.
"Is it done yet?" She asked with a slightly shy and worried tone.
Mendoza shook his head, and gently smiled at her.
"Don't worry, its about to start."
Its been a couple hundred years since she acted like brat and throw a tantrum. For the young woman, the way she acted earlier was very inappropriate. After all, its not like Mendoza knows all, and could plan everything. Right now, just the thought that he was forced to play a role in a story that he didn't know, and still managed to nail every moment like a pro is actually amazing on its own. But even so, the feeling of helplessness was something that the young woman could not tolerate. Specially when it comes to the people that are important for her.
Because of everything that she experienced in her life, the desire and her longing for "those people" became even more powerful. Even though they're just mortals, the thought of seeing them suffer after missing them for hundreds of years, made the young woman panic and impatient. That's why she broke down earlier and blame all her negative thoughts to Mendoza, who's doing his best to solve all the problem for the both of them.
"What is it?" Mendoza looked the young woman teasingly. "You're making weird faces, you know? Constipated?"
Hearing that, the young woman rolled her eyes and decided to ignore Mendoza. She might not be as strong as him, but she's still an Immortal. So how could she be constipated?
Mendoza giggled and didn't tease her any further.
He still remembers the first time they met. At that time her name was different, and at first Mendoza thought he was a boy. Then, when he started talking to her, she started crying and told him her problem. They were still both mortals back then, and the young woman was still cute back then.
Counting the years passed since then, Mendoza couldn't help but sigh in nostalgia.
While Mendoza was bathing in the sea of nostalgia, the place where Zerra and Gabriel started to change.
*******
Since Zerra became bored on how unresponsive Gabriel become after his body was broken to pieces like that, he decided to torture his soul. And while at it, he plans on leaving a mark so he could find him anywhere and anytime he wants. In the end, Zerra didn't kill Gabriel, and the reason being is that he didn't want any kind of mishaps happen in the ongoing Project.
After all, even though Gabriel is just a cultivator who just unlocked his second meridian, he's still part of the ninety-million chosen. He might actually become useful in the future, so its better to let him live for a while. When the project is done, he will turn this Gabriel into his toy, and use him to relieve some stress in the future.
However things didn't go according to his plan.
The moment when he was leaving a mark on Gabriel's soul, a sudden force stopped him and repelled his Immortal sense. At the same time, weird things started happening in the body of this young man he's holding.
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Without a warning, white smoke started appearing in Gabriel's body and slowly enveloped him. Zerra wanted to get away or throw the body away from him, but before he could even move, a weird and high leveled formation activated turning the whole space locked and time stopped. This is unbelievable for Zerra.
Unlike normal formation that would use God Runes, heavenly items, and other medium, the formation that activated didn't have any fluctuation in the surroundings. And unlike the normal formation that he knows, where it would emit a pressure, lights, or be covered by Qi, this formation has nothing. Absolutely nothing.
If a normal person or a cultivators looked at this place, they would only see a normal scenery of a forest and a waterfall. The most incomprehensible for Zerra is that this formation has the concept of "Time". Among all the Laws in the universe, the concept of time is one, if not, the most difficult to comprehend. From what he knows, only a few Gods knows something about the topic. But even those Gods wouldn't be able to create a formation that uses Time as a base concept.
At this time, two figures appeared outside of the formation. Both of them are looking at it with surprise, amusement, and confusion on their eyes.
While Mendoza and the young woman are observing the situation, and Zerra glaring at Mendoza with surprise, the situation became even more weird.
The white smoke covering Gabriel's body is slowly turning into a silk like texture, and started turning into a huge cocoon. And since Zerra's hand is holding and lifting Gabriel's body, his hand up to his shoulder was covered by cocoon as well. As it turned solid and more perfect, it became more and more like a huge white egg.
"... When the eight limiters snapped, the first seal would be release." Mendoza muttered as he looked at the giant cocoon and silently clicking his tongue. "Even though it's my second time seeing this, its still weirds me out."
"He's going to be okay, right?" the young woman worriedly asked.
"Yeah." Mendoza then smirked. "And it will only turned better."
Hearing that, the young woman sighed and calmly observed the cocoon like Mendoza.
-----
Seeing the two acted like Zerra didn't exist, infuriated Zerra in many ways. He's actually having the urge to kill these two pieces of shit, and feed them to his pet, or maybe torture their souls. The problem is he couldn't move and even when he tried to insert more strength and use his Immortal Qi, nothing happened. The space around him was still as a calm pond. Except for moving small parts of his body, like blinking his eyes, frowning, and opening and closing his mouth, he couldn't move anything else.
Since he could move his mouth, he decided to shout at them and force them to tell him what's going on. But before he could even do that, another change happened in the cocoon. Slowly, a huge sucking force appeared and started sucking Zerra's Immortality. This sudden changed surprised and scared the shit out of him.
Immortals, or Celestial Immortals, are cultivators who surpassed their limits over and over again, and became one with their chosen laws. In certain perspective, they became the representatives or embodiment of their chosen laws. And long as their chosen laws existed in the universe, they will also exist together with it. That's why they are considered Immortals. After all, the Laws of the Universe can exist for gazillion of years without a problem.
Even if their bodies destroyed, as long their souls are fine, creating a new one wouldn't be a problem. If their bodies and half of their souls destroyed, as long as more than fifty-percent of their souls are fine, cultivating and recovering their previous strength wouldn't be a problem.
Losing one's Immortality is different though.
Immortality is the thing that connects them to their chosen Laws. So losing them is the same as becoming mortal all over again. Of course they could just cultivate and try to become Immortal again. But to do that, one must again survive the Heavenly Tribulation. And since they're going to challenge the Heavens all over again, the difficulty level the second time would be a lot scary than their first time. That's why all Immortals are afraid to lose their "Immortality".
The thing is though, taking someone's Immortality rarely happens in Immortal and God Realm, after all, its a lot more easy to kill than waste a lot of time just to take someone's Immortality. And also, unless the Immortals used some kind of Heavenly Artifact, or used some secret method that consumes a huge amount of energy, they wouldn't be able to take someone's Immortality.
Only Demi-Gods can do that. But even Demi Gods would have rough way of extracting it.
This cocoon is different though. The way it sucked Zerra's Immortality was fast, efficient, soft and delicate, without harming the owner of the Immortality. If the Immortality that being sucked isn't his, he would have been happy to observe and study it. But reality is a bitch.
Zerra isn't stupid. Even though he is perverted, he still know how to think with his brain. After all, he might look gentle and innocent, but the truth is, he's an Immortal, and a son of a God and a Goddess. Just by analyzing everything that happened, he knows, this is a trap.
A trap that he happily enjoyed like a fcking retard.
Looking at it in a third person perspective, the most suspicious and most likely the mastermind of this scheme is those two. Mendoza and the young woman beside him. Zerra is fcking sure about this. He still remembers that Mendoza muttered something, and from his tone, he knows everything thats going on. So the only solution is to confront Mendoza about it.
Zerra suddenly remembers the repeated slap he received from this fcker, and his glare towards Mendoza became even more colder.
"Hoy!" Zerra growled. "You fcker, did you plan all of this? I'm reminding you to not be stupid and let me go. Even if I didn't mention that I'm a son of a God, just me being part of this Project should have tell you a lot of things."
Mendoza and the young woman didn't answer.
"Use your little brains, and think rationally here." Zerra frowned even more. "Lower piece of shits like you shouldn't oppose and disturb the Project. Doing so would anger the Highest Authorities of this Universe.. and doing that is something that people like you wouldn't want."
-----
Mendoza frowned but still didn't answer.
The reason is, like Zerra, he also don't have a fcking idea on how and why the fck this cocoon's sucking Zerra's Immortality. After all, he only knows that there would be an eight mental limiters, and once those limiters broke, the first seal inside Gabriel's body would be release.
Actually, this is the second time Mendoza see someone breaking a seal like that and forming a cocoon to cover the host. But, at that time, there was no sucking happened, and everything was peaceful from the start to finish. So how the fck would Mendoza know why this cocoon's sucking like a a hungry beast.
Mendoza can only sigh silently.
Like Zerra, Mendoza also realized that everything was planned and the two of them are nothing but puppets that are moving and dancing at someone's palm. This feeling annoys him, but since Mendoza and the young woman arrived in this place, he already been at this awkward position where he was forced to participate in a story that he barely knows the plot.
Anyway, Mendoza isn't that worried about Zerra.
Mendoza only knows some fragmented informations. But within those informations is about Zerra. And from what he knows, if this was a novel, he would describe Zerra's situation like this: A vicious and a low class villain like him would probably last for a couple hundred more chapters without a problem.
-----
As Mendoza stayed quiet, Zerra started panicking.
The sucking force of the cocoon is slowly becoming stronger and faster the more time passed. And from the looks of it, it would only take about half an hour to completely suck his Immortality dry. If that happened, he didn't know how he would explain it to his parents. Remembering the faces of his parents when they became angry, and the punishment they usually gives, he would prefer to be cut into pieces than to experience those again. So without hesitation, he again tried his best to get out of this closed space that surrounds him.
Even his Immortal Qi couldn't be circulated, his Immortal sense, Mental Sense, Spiritual sense--- everything. He tried everything, even using a Heavenly Artifact, but again, like before, nothing happened.
Minutes passed and his Immortality continued decreasing. At the same time, his strength and senses are starting to get weaker as well. Things are getting bad, but Zerra couldn't do anything. As he became weaker, his realm also started decreasing. His original Immortal Lord strength, are now on the level of Mid-level Immortal.
"Hey! Hey, help me here." Zerra's face contorted. "You know something about this, right? Right?!"
Slowly, Zerra's original arrogant face started to look scared. And from acting high and mighty, his voice and the way he talks became milder and softer. When its about half an hour passed, his face started to become even more twisted and he already forgot everything and started begging for help. He even promised to pay Mendoza and the young woman everything they want! As a son of a God and a Goddess, he has many things that could lure cultivators like moths getting attracted to flame. He promised everything, and in the end he lowered his pride to the bottom, and promised that as long as they helped, he would be their slave! Just to help him escape. That's all he wants!
Unfortunately, Mendoza and the young woman didn't move. They just stood there and watched Zerra acted like a clown.
By the time Zerra's Immortality totally vanished, he directly went mad and started cursing the two by saying many things. He insulted and shouted at them like they're the most lowest lifeform in the whole fcking universe. But even when he shouted like that, the two didn't react.
When Zerra felt that he again became a mortal, he thought that everything would be over. But to his, and Mendoza's, surprise, it didn't. The cocoon kept sucking something, but since Zerra's Immortality practically gone now, it started to suck something else. To everyone's surprise, it started sucking Zerra's soul. And the sucking force this time is a lot faster than before. And based on Zerra's calculations, it wouldn't take ten-minutes to completely suck it whole. When that happen, forget about something as fancy like Reincarnation, becoming something like a fcking amoeba would be even considered as a fcking miracle!
This time Zerra is practically and literally crying like a fcking baby and begging the two to help him. He was even planning on swearing using the Heavenly Oath to prove that he's sincere and serious this time. He would give and do everything they want as long as they helped him out of that closed space.
The way he begged is actually quite sincere, and those who see him would instantly pity him. Sadly, the two still didn't move. And even if they did, they probably wont be able to do anything. So with all they got, they decided to watch and see it until the end.
Actually, Mendoza is quite calm.
After all he knows that Zerra wouldn't die. That's until he saw the last bit of Zerra's soul being sucked by the cocoon before finally calming down. The moment it did, the closed space formation vanished and Zerra's lifeless body fell down just like that.
Mendoza is honestly confused.
Even after inspecting and studying Zerra's body repeatedly, and using his Immortal Sense to cover the whole planet while not letting even a speck of dust escape, he still found nothing. Zerra is dead, and except for a thumb sized soul remaining inside the body, nothing remains. Zerra is deader than dead.
At this moment, Mendoza felt like he was watching a movie adaptation of a novel. And then while he was enjoying the movie, he realized that the plot of the movie is completely different from the novel.