Initially, William took pleasure in the agonizing pain he felt...

After all, he deserved it.

His self-loathing burned even hotter, choking him. He’d wasted too much time, stayed in the same place for too long, doing the same shit day in and day out.

Now look...

The entire fucking world was falling apart!

The stars had disappeared, being replaced by strange new stars.

Horrific monsters roamed the land, attacking and killing god knows however many people.

He didn’t even know if his family was okay!

All that time he could have spent enjoying his life, improving himself and actually achieving his goals. Now he was alone and the world had gone to shit.

As he spiralled down into the abyss, his rage and hatred compounded. His body was soon to reach its limit.

The short, messy light brown that once dressed his head was now burnt, most of it missing. His tired eyes were black with dried blood, the once subtle green irises now had bursts of scorched orange that tainting them. The clothes on his body had disintegrated leaving him naked and wild.

As he noticed the last vestige of his clothes disappear his anger reached its peak. He never wanted to look like this... Others would say he was fine and that itwasn’t that bad but they could go to hell. William knew the truth, therewasn’t a single shred of virtue held in his lazy body.

The splendour and strength that his body was truly capable of, that he’d always known he was capable of. The strength of a true man, a body that could protect himself and others...he’d never get to see it and... It ate at him.

Wild, merciless flames rebelled against the world hell-bent on tearing it apart.

Inside the burning sphere, a hell of his own making he stood alone. Outside, Darkness...Fire and death.

After a while, William barely noticed anything else.

His blackened, charred body felt heavy and numb. He’d long gone past the point of excruciating pain, now there was just a dull gnawing ache.

He existed in a dazed, semi-conscious state.

Though still burning, his body on the verge of collapse, regret consuming him from the inside out, he was determined. “I will destroy every last disgusting spider”.

Just as his decrepit, rapidly disintegrating body charged forward crashing into the sea of rat-sized monstrosities, an explosion of blinding light battered his eyes. A colossal pillar of solid white pierced the sky. As the gigantic tower erupted into being, a shockwave of strange energy blasted through the forest.

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Instantly a tidal wave assaulted the area. The wave of rat-sized little bastards vanished without a trace. If he had more time to focushe’d have tried to figure things out. Perhaps he’d have noticed the lush green foliage that rapidly sprouted from the ground or the trees that swayed in delight as their leaves pulsed with green veins growing brighter and more vibrant. However, immediately after the wave eviscerated those zombie-looking shadow spiders, it overcame him...

All the rage inside of his core, the burning anger and hatred manifested into ravenous hellish fire vanished.

The strange energy smashed into His body, stunning his mind and confronting his soul. He felt like he’d been hit by a truck.

For a long moment, overpowered and stunned he stood there. His cracked, splitting eyes glazed over.

The new energy began to ravish his body. It obliterated his skin, penetrated deep into his tired snapping muscles and bored into his unnatural eyes...His ears, his nose and even his mouth, the energy did not stop.

It was so fast it felt like he’d been struck by lightning. Sharp pain bolted through him, every ounce of burning matter he owned simply ceased to exist.

He tried to scream out but he couldn’t.

As the energy saturated his body, seeping deep into him the pain and panic as certain death loomed over him, managed to sharpen his mind.

He reached for that strange core of bitterness inside of him, this time not out of rage or hatred but out of the simple, primal desire to survive. The core responded...

This time, without malice, but with pure and honest unbridled energy.

The pure energy rushed out, it carried with it an indomitable, forceful, desire to survive, the likes of which he’d never experienced.

The two energies met inside of Williams's body. He braced himself for the inevitable clash and the doubtless pain that would come with it...

He’d certainly have to try his best not to be ripped apart from the inside...

That excruciating pain, pain like a bomb exploding inside of your own body...

It... It never came?..

The energy from his core, pure and honest simply met with the strange, seemingly unstoppable force from the wave and instead....they started to merge?

Giving way to his internal energy, the force from the wave began to change its nature.

It still carried the same unimaginable potency but the attunement of the force seemed to shift. Instead of an all-encompassing power that overwhelmed his body, it started to adopt the nature of his own internal energy. A relentless desire to survive...

He could feel the two energies resonate. From that union, a balanced, thriving and beautiful singular energy surged through his body. Each place the unified energy met started to rebuild and repair...

A few seconds passed and as the energies continued to roam his body an idea struck him... Inspiration that could only be taken on board when a mind had reached its lowest point.

When an individual had accepted that they had to start again and it was their responsibility to get it right this time...

“This was an opportunity right?”

“A chance to come back stronger?”

He’d been too weak for too long, his body needed to change. HE NEEDED TO CHANGE...

Suddenly his core pulsed again, and another wave of energy emitted itself. This time it was born from another desire, similar in nature but with much darker undertones.

“I NEED TO COME STRONGER... I WILL BECOME STRONGER!” William felt the sensation of gritted teeth and balled fists.

“ I WILL NEVER STOP...I’D... I’D RATHER....” His soul blazed with intent, his mind sharpened to a terrifying degree...

“ I’D RATHER DIE THAN STAY THE SAME!!!” William proclaimed his decision, roaring in his mind.

The second pulse of energy, fuelled by the desire to get strongerhad only just started to leave his core. However, just moments after, just as those last words echoed in William’s mind.

An unfathomably deep and dark energy exploded out of his core.

The emotional weight and pain of that self-loathing and hatred came back, stronger than ever. The energy ripped and tore through his body with a vengeance, its existence would not be ignored, it would obliterate anything in its way.

The energy demanded to be heard.

“I WILL BECOME STRONGER OR I WILL DIE!”

The words echoed throughout his body and with them...Came flames...