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/Over an hour later…/
/Seep… Drip.../
"..."
Slowly but with a still hand, Tina moved her knife across Dale's palm, creating a symbol that was gradually covered in red.
Lines upon lines, sharp and scribbly that led to other equally strange symbols, interconnected to form a large array, like some sort of sickly text directly out of a Demon's book.A ritual cast in blood, the skin was the canvas, and blood was the paint.
Dale saw himself as the victim of some sort of horror movie.
'So this is how all of those felt as they were tortured by the villains…' He thought amidst the intense pain that plagued his entire body
It was the only way for him to keep his cool, amidst the growing pain and madness he felt as his body was unresponsive to his control, the only thing he could do was think and think and think, the more he did, the faster time seemed to pass.
Not looking at Tina as she worked on his body was also a good idea, albeit the scare of feeling the sharp edge come and go wasn't pleasant.
Tina's knife didn't go deep, her target was only the first layer, and even when she needed to go deeper, she perfectly avoided any of his vessels, though that didn't mean it was any less painful... Or bloody.
To maintain the injuries due to Dale's extreme regeneration, her knife was coated with something... Poison that would eat away at his body, countering its will to stitch itself back up.
It was also this time that she realized... He had grown stronger, his regeneration had become fiercer.
But she prepared for that, and hence, her knife grew sharper.
Tina obviously knew where she should cut… And it just happened some of those places were right above nerves…
Her knife felt extremely light but extremely painful, and sometimes, he wouldn't even feel the pain before she got up and moved somewhere else.
His skin would then constantly burn, a pain similar in nature to when he badly pulled his skin from his thumb but elevated by ten.
Not to say his own blood that inch by inch drenched his body in red streaks, as if he was standing in a red rain.
Where it not for the fact he wasn't an average person, he would've lost his consciousness by now.
Though even if he were, there were several things preventing him from closing his eyes for long.
Right now, Dale was her sculpture, a block of stone for her to carve away.
And she was the sculptor, her tool in hand and a vision in mind.
That was how it was.
"..."
'Child…'
'Endure... Just a bit more...'
Dale wasn't the only one in pain, Tina was as well.
Because Dale could not move, the only thing he could do to display his pain was move his eyes around… And crying.
Dale was a strong guy, but a man should be allowed to shed a tear every once in a while.
And so he did, silent tears crossed down his cheeks as Tina passed her knife around his body.
Seeing this wasn't easy for the granny who doted on him, it made her feel horrible.
But she had to go through with it now that she started it.
'Just a bit more, hold on.'
…
/Cut... Slash... Cut.../
A slash followed by a cut, her knife blurred into streaks of light, Tina eventually turned Dale's entire body into a morbid display of Art.
""...""
From afar, Testros and Sarferato witnessed this scene, with the latter closing his eyes as he remembered an old friend.
'I wonder if they're related.' He thought as he remembered her face, now just a blurry mess, even her voice was mixed in with others
Was he even remembering her? Or was this someone else?
'The last witch died many decades ago, but she was alive before the Wall fell.'
'Unfortunately, there were no candidates to succeed her... And I always thought she was just being stubborn...'
'But now that I'm being remembered for their work... Not everyone would be able to stay sane after doing something like that to someone else.'
'She was just as brutal as that woman over there… Her rough personality made a bit more sense now.'
"Hum..."
His hand itched, a marking had also been etched in it.
'It's been a long time since it reacted to anything... It could also be just my old traumas... As a child, I had an immense fear of them.'
'I still remember when I was a teenager, one of the Witches would often tell a story of when she wanted to give me a sweet and I ran away screaming and crying to my parents...'
'The embarrassment at the time... I miss them.' He thought as he looked at the skies
'Receiving this mark... Wasn't easy.'
He could faintly recall images of the past.
Those with the potential to bear the mark would also be entitled to receive one back in the day.
And he was no exception.
He may not remember the pain, but he remembered the many nights he was unable to sleep properly due to it, and now… The kid was being carved all over.
The Ritual Knife of a Witch wasn't just sharp, it was enchanted with whatever strange spells she decided to engrave upon it at the time.
Not to say the concoctions she spread around its edge. .
Some are passed down from master to student across generations, and like the Artifacts from the Karkavan, they would grow from interacting with the twisted forces Witches are known to be masters of.
Either naturally or forcibly.
It's more than just pain, it cuts straight into one's Spirit and inner body so it may carve a connection between the Outer and the Inner.
Ancient Magic that existed before even the Old Empire, or one that grew together with it.
A strange practice no one can really trace its origins properly.
Some may even say that Witches are more brutal than even Devils and Demons themselves, or that they originated from the latter in some way or another.
It's not hard to say what the people of the past felt before they started to hunt them all down, witnessing such scenarios and being on the receiving end of their blade was likely not a pleasant experience.
People who requested their services only failed to withstand it, and came back to betray them out of fear, madness, and whatever they developed after the 'torture' they went through in the name of whatever goal they originally had.
That was one of the reasons he respected Dale, as he went through the process of a Witch, so she trusted him and he trusted her, and most importantly, he was sane.
More than many others who received a mark at the very least.
He was not consumed by it, he devoured it, Dale was the vessel all Witches sought to mold, but was his mind as sturdy?
They would have to wait for when she's done, however strong he is… Will all be shown once she's done.
Torture can and will break a man…
He did not wish to be the one to draw his blade... None of them did.
'Stay strong, kid.' They both thought at the same time
/Slash…/
…
'And then… Finally…'
"... I'm done." Tina said with a smile as she got up from the ground, finishing drawing a line on Dale's toes
"Just one last thing before I remove your seal."
She raised her head, looking straight at Dale, his eyes looked a bit distant, but he was still conscious.
"Hum... Dale?"
"... ?"
His unfocused eyes suddenly returned, and this made Tina smile.
"Did you listen to what I just said?"
/Blink…/
Dale blinked his eyes, something that caused him great pain due to the cuts around his face.
A clear no.
"I'll repeat myself then." She said with a smile
"There's only one thing left for me to do, and while I do it, I'll explain what you'll need to do following it." She said as she held her knife, approaching his chest with it
There were several circles full of strange symbols around his heart… And her knife was aiming directly at the center.
"Once I remove your seals, go straight beneath the Cocoon, exactly beneath it."
"Grab this knife and stab it upwards, you'll know where."
"From then on… It's your fight, a battle of resistance, stay your ground for as long as possible and eat as much as you can."
"It may be too much to ask after everything you experienced… But I ask of you to clench your teeth a little longer."
"And for you… To trust me completely."
"..."
/Blink…/
Dale blinked his right eye once, yes.
/Smile…/
A sweet smile escaped her lips, followed by a blur...
/SPLURT!/
"?!"
Tina plunged her knife into Dale's heart without hesitation, causing his eyes to pop open as his entire body grew cold...
Cutting through skin and bone, it felt as if there weren't even none there.
Extreme precision, because she didn't want to divide his damn heart, she only need an entrance hole…
Before he had the time to process it, she removed her knife, placing the shard inside the wound…Deep within the wound with her fingers.
"It's time now, run Dale!" Tina exclaimed as she removed his seals
"!"
From here on out, Dale's memories became a bit fuzzy...
Whenever he tried to record what happened, he would have a slight headache or just be plain unable to remember.
Maybe the lack of Oxygen in his brain caused it to be unable to properly form links between his neurons and record his memories...
Or maybe it was his trauma after an excruciating experience.
/Badum.../
His heart hadn't stopped beating, it was fighting to keep him alive, but each time it did, he felt his entire body quake and his chest ache with the greatest pain he had ever felt in his life.
There was a stone lodged inside his heart after all.
He had no idea how long he would be able to last in this state, but for sure it wouldn't for long.
He always thought it odd how in movies people would die immediately from a heart wound, and here was the feeling…
He would call them pathetic for at least not being able to give their killer one last blow before they fell into the void...
But here was he, his body was telling him to just fall on the ground and rest like all of those pathetic side characters that died for the sake of the Protagonist…
Dale didn't remember where he read it, about how certain injuries could cause a lack of energy and that feeling of tiredness was a sign of his fast-approaching doom…
Either way, he didn't plan on becoming part of a statistic, just one more death...
So the moment he recovered the function of his body, he crouched…
Mostly because it had been a while since he lost control over his legs, so he fell.
Crouching stretched many muscles, causing pain to explode around his body, but it also caused him to wake up completely.
[Stable Emotions 4-Star has activated]
[Fighting Spirit 5-Star has activated]
His two support Skills flared, they had helped him greatly to withstand the pain, otherwise, he would lost consciousness by now.
Maybe it was even a curse, as whenever he was about to close his eyes, the notification played, pulling his tired mind back into reality.
It happened so many times his Skill increased an entire Star, as if to mock him saying that it would never give him respite.
It was petty to see his Skill like that, as it was only trying its best to lead him to the best possible scenario, but Dale needed something to vent on…
He tried to look ahead but his vision was blurry, covered by a mix of tears and blood.
Tina had tried to clean his eyes, but right now, there was no way she could.
Either way, he trusted his judgment and jumped forward, flying past Tina as he approached the cocoon, grabbing the knife from her hand as he did so.
/Land!/
He landed right beneath it, and he immediately stared up.
There, he saw a complex set of runes that stretched into all corners of its surface and a transparent circle with nothing in it… His target.
He just needed to stab upward.
"HUPPP!"
With every ounce of energy he could muster at once, Dale raised his right hand, bursting it all upward.
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Notes
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