The Exalt [Cultivation Fantasy]

"Hah!" Oscar woke up covered in sweat. His mouth trembled, trying to form the words to speak out, but he could not speak out as the foul taste of death lingered on his tongue. Even though it was an illusion, the sinking feeling of losing his life felt so real that it far surpassed the time he lay on the cavern ground after fighting Greg.

Death was not a pleasant feeling. Oscar thought as he looked at his pale, trembling hands and felt the weak paralyzing feeling that did not let him get off the bed, unable to move. However, he still had his mind, and his eyes still worked, looking around. "I'm back to the stone house? Is this illusion set to reset when I die?"

Many questions overwhelmed Oscar's thoughts about the illusion, but the one that overshadowed all the others was his confusion about what happened before he died. The sudden invasion of the plant life, as though something purposely directed them to attack, unnerved Oscar. If this is a version of the past with himself in it, then that disaster was real and happened.

"Was Ashen Grove a normal place?" Oscar wondered as he struggled to get up but failed due to the shock of death.

Then the door swung open, and a melodious voice called out for him, "Oscar!"

'That's right. Everything's been reset, so the start is the same.' Oscar struggled to tilt his head but could not.

"Oscar?" Celestina came up to his bedside with worry laden across her face. She gripped his hands with a shocked expression. "You're so cold! You must be sick." Rising to her feet, Celestina bent down and kissed Oscar; the sweetness he felt from her lips overtook the taste of death in his mouth. She stroked his head with a firm smile. "Stay in bed. We can cancel the day with Mother and Father. I'll make a nice hot meal for you."

"O-oh." Oscar's body trembled as he forced himself to sit up. However, Celestina's hands pushed on his shoulders, forcing him down. With an aggrieved expression, he looked at the fake Celestina, seeing she wore a stern expression that made him freeze.

"Stay. In. Bed." Celestina spoke gently but with a tone that did not allow any refusal. She kissed Oscar once more before leaving to cook a meal.

Meanwhile, Oscar performed breathing exercises to regain control of his body. Although he could not enter Ein or Reis meditation, the principle of calming his body and entering a stable state of mind remained. Soon, Oscar got to his feet and off the bed with shaky legs, about to fall over any moment.

"What are you doing?" Celestina noticed the noise from the bed and was shocked to see Oscar on his feet. After several rapid steps, she supported his body to prevent him from falling over, looking at Oscar scoldingly. "Didn't I say to stay in bed?"

Oscar glanced at the Celestina next to him and smiled reassuringly. All of this was an illusion, but he felt a strange calming feeling from her. "I didn't want to burden you too much. Let's eat some breakfast."

"Fine."

As they sat at the table, Oscar stared at Celestina with a contemplative expression. "Celestina, what was the name of our town?"

Celestina raised an eyebrow. "How sick are you?"

"Please answer. I'm trying to keep my mind working." Oscar made up an excuse.

"Our town is name Stonehaven. The fortress in the distance is Oen Fortress. Are you sure you're ok?" Celestina asked while putting food down on the table.

He tried to ask her more questions but could not voice many other questions for some reason. The same invisible force that stopped and controlled his body during the makeout session had stopped his mouth from forming the words. His forceful attempts to ask more resulted in a series of coughs.

"Are you ok?" Celestina asked.

"I'm fine." Oscar smiled weakly at her, knowing her worry was just an illusion, and stared at the knife placed by the table. He sighed and gripped it tightly with his trembling hand while staring at Celestina with a frown. With all his might, he stabbed it into his throat and fell off the chair.

"OSCAR!" Celestina screamed and ran toward him with tears in her eyes. Her hands trembled as they tried to stop the bleeding with a nearby towel. The tears streamed from her face down onto Oscar's peaceful face. "Why? Why? Why?"

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In a gurgling and raspy voice, Oscar answered, "You're not real." The blood flowed bright red like a flood.

"Huh?" Celestina stared blankly with tears still falling.

"I need to get back," Oscar said as his eyes dimmed. Darkness filled his vision, but the light soon returned, and he woke up in bed. He felt weak from dying, but he clenched his teeth and strained himself to move.

His eyes were bloodshot, and his body strained, trying to get off the soft bed. However, Oscar lost his strength and could only breathe heavily. "I need to get used to it. Get used to dying, and I'll be able to do more."

The same routine continued as Celestina entered and made breakfast for him. Once again, Oscar stabbed the knife into his throat to allow the dark, draining feeling of death embrace him. Each time, he woke up back in bed, but slowly his movements improved.

The illusion had shaken his mind from the first day as a loving Celestina had caught him off-guard. The amazing feeling of being together with her and living a simple life full of love touched his deepest desires, weakening his mind. But he had to preserve.

"Master would scold me for having such a weak will because an illusion attracted me with what I wanted. That's what an illusion is supposed to do!" After many deaths, Oscar stood on his feet, still feeling weak but more invigorated. Slowly his mind began to think properly once more, no longer seeing the fake Celestina as a happy dream but as a prison to keep him trapped.

Instead of the fluffy love, he felt earlier with this fake Celestina, rage poured and filled his heart. He directed his rage at the creator of this illusion for daring to use Celestina like this, even if it's modeled from his memories. What a disrespect to the woman he loved.

"Bastard." Oscar killed himself again. But oddly, no one stopped him. The illusion had the power to control his body and tongue, and yet it did not act to stop his continual self-harm. "Are you so arrogant to believe that no one can escape your illusion? Or is there something else?"

He could not grasp the creator's intentions, so he could only continue his rebellions by constantly resetting the day with his deaths. Even though each death felt horrible when it happened, Oscar stubbornly continued. In terms of being stubborn, he would never lose.

100 deaths.

200 deaths.

300 deaths.

The horrible sensation of death never diminished, and the weakness that permeated his body never faded, despite his numerous attempts. Oscar kept telling himself that this death was just an illusion, clinging onto the slightest bit of sanity, or else he'd truly go insane from the constant deaths.

After so many deaths, Oscar persisted through the horrible feeling. He got to his feet and stretched his body, feeling as weary and hollow as before, but his mind soldiered on, dragging his deadweight body forward by sheer will.

"Let's go." Oscar clenched his fist and walked out of his stone house. He didn't want to encounter his fake wife and cause a fuss. There were only two days until the calamity struck, and he didn't know how the flow of time here compared to the real world. "If I'm stuck here for too long, a month may pass outside, or worse, I die."

He rushed through Stonehaven Town as fast as he could toward the town's borders. His feet halted, kicking up a cloud of dust from the sudden stop, and Oscar stared at the peaceful plains outside the town with a few patches of trees.

"This is Ashen Grove in the past?" Oscar could not believe that these nice-looking plains would become the vast forest it was now. However, the lashing vines and sprouting trees remained fresh in his mind despite the hundreds of deaths. Whatever 'it' was, it transformed this place.

The moment he stepped onto the plains, Oscar saw his hands tearing apart and bloating in front of his eyes. Not just his hands, but his entire body was getting bigger.

"Shit!" Oscar shouted for a short moment before he exploded into a rain of blood and guts, leaving a deep scarlet pool where he stood.

He woke up again at the reset time, lying in his bed. The soft mattress and pillow under him with the comfortable blanket did little to lessen the frustration coursing through his veins. He cursed out loud, stomping his feet toward the door and slamming it shut after exiting. "I can't leave?"

Many, many deaths later after Oscar tried to leave the town everywhere he could. He even tried to veer off the pathway to the fortress but ended up in the same bloody mess.

"What is 'it'?" Oscar asked during an unknown iteration of the illusion to his fake wife. After countless tries, Oscar decided to let the first day play out, so at this moment in the night, he was in bed, unwillingly embracing Celestina.

"It?" Celestina asked back.

"When the vines and trees start destroying everything," Oscar explained, but Celestina scrunched her face, unable to answer him. From what he could infer, this knowledge was held back from him. Feeling depressed at the lack of information, Oscar merely shook his head. "Nevermind."

"Ok, then let's continue." Celestina came in close for a kiss.

Oscar cursed that he could not do anything but kiss back. However, his eyes remained clear, and his mind refused to wander off, remaining focused on escaping this sweet hell.

"I'll be off!" The next day, Oscar waved goodbye to Celestina, but after getting out of sight, he quickly ran to the town's edge. Climbing onto a nearby tree, Oscar got a good view of the area and waited. "If I recall correctly, the onslaught happened near mid-afternoon. I'll have to wait a while."

As time passed, with the sun flying overhead and starting into its descent, Oscar snapped his eyes open from his meditation. The ground quaked, and the plains outside were disturbed. The plains became broken, resembling a turbulent ocean with waves of uprooted grass and tossed dirt.

"It's here." Oscar stood up and clung to the tree branches. "What are you?"

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