I couldn't remember exactly when I started having nightmares. In all honesty, it was no exaggeration even if I was labelled as someone with psychiatric issues when I was still a child. I couldn't even attend kindergarten. What else would've happened if a very young child who wasn't even fully grown said that he dreamt about decades worth of memories? What more so if the content of that dream was a series of unbearable hellish memories?
- Father! Look at this! It can move! It's so amazing!
- This is… It's a body. How could such a grace be bestowed to us?
- So noisy. Be quiet everyone. Ahhh, oh my God… What have I done? No, more than that, to think that even I had become a fallen... Is it Father's will? Did I really make such a grave mistake to deserve this?
That's right. If I looked back at my memory, that was the very beginning of the memory. I was in bewilderment as I glanced at my own body. But that was obviously not me. I shared the same feelings and senses with him, but he was actually the one moving his body. I referred to those nightmares as memories because all I did was live through his life experiences without being able to do anything.
I, no, he was flustered. And he was greatly saddened. All he did was show a little bit of curiosity. And it was only a small, a really small interference. But even with just that, he was banished to the world down below.
"Why... How could you, Father… Was a moment of mercy and a moment of hesitation such a great sin?" He mumbled at the incomprehensible situation.
He knew that the infinite and eternal knowledge he had amassed himself was cruelly blocked and he was in a clouded state. He knew that he wouldn't be all-knowing anymore, and that he would be imprisoned in a human's body, which felt like he was being suffocated.
As the first humans to walk the earth, the two children, Adam and Eve, ventured around with astonishment and joy, but he couldn't do the same. No, rather, he was in despair as though he had fallen into hell. But he wouldn't have known that the long years that he had to go through moving forward would be a cruel hell beyond his imagination, even though he had lived through eternity…
*
"Hoooo…ahhhhh."
I jolted awake with a deep breath. Along with a cognitive ability that seemed to widen indefinitely and a glaring sun-like soul energy that seemed to dissipate like dust, I was welcomed by pain coursing through my whole body and a limited vision that impaired my field of sight. It felt like I had fallen from heaven to hell.
"Ahh, you're back?"
The demi-human girl across from me greeted me delightfully. Seeing that she asked 'You're back?' instead of 'You're awake?', it seemed that she figured out my condition.
'If this goes on like this, won't the demi-humans find out what's going on with me?'
If that really did pan out, it would literally be a disaster. The demi-humans would try to kill me in the most painful way with all their might.
'No, no matter how I look at it, Cheong Won would be concerned, so they probably wouldn't do that… They won't, right?'
I tried to look at the coming future with hope, but it was too much of a wishful thought. I destroyed more than fifty fighter jets and Gigas, ruining the overwhelmingly advantageous war situation that the demi-humans had. But that wasn't all, was it?
'Those peculiar fighter jets... On the contrary, it was much easier to shoot them down as compared to the other Gigas, but something didn't seem right. The only reason I was able to easily take care of them was because they were weak at close-range combat.'
I ended the battle by destroying all the newly appeared fighter jets that were shooting beams of light and gave off an extremely dangerous feel.
The moment they started firing, they would fire dozens of shots in one sitting. But perhaps because of the pretty long charging time, by the time I destroyed almost all the fighter jets, only two or three jets managed to shoot. So, the hidden trump card that the demi-humans possessed only managed to bombard the air before I totally annihilated them.
But if they found out from this current situation that I was the one who connected to a Gigas from the outside…
"Phew, I should've invaded all the way till the enemy camp." I sighed lightly.
That's right, that was my objective. According to Ares, I had to save myself. Plus, the actual battle situation wasn't bad, so I could've driven the enemy away like a storm. While I was making a mess out of the situation, if our army gathered the troops and pushed forward, it might've been possible for them to infiltrate Great Sky.
Snap!
"Keukkk…"
However, that wasn't possible.
"You all right?"
"No, not really.. thank you for your concern… Kuuughhh!"
My body's condition was in a wreck now. My ability to control a Gigas from a distance was based on Ares' Ability. But even so, it was impossible for it to not have a burden on me.
Kraaaghhhh!
I vomited blood. Wow, this wasn't even a movie, so the fact that I puked blood meant that I was really in a dire condition. It hadn't been long since I last received treatment, but there were bits of internal tissues mixed within the puked blood.
"Huff...huff… No, wait, what's going on with me? How did I receive such internal injuries?"
"It's the torture chamber."
At her abrupt remark, I stared at the Legion girl. Come to think of it, when we first met, she looked at me and asked, 'Why do you have that torture chamber around you?'
"The torture chamber you're referring to... Whoo. What is it?"
She took a light breath and replied my question, "It's revolving around your whole body. Every time you use your power, your insides would convulse and burn away your strength. Using excessive force will make the things inside you pop out."
The moment I heard her words, I remembered what I heard when I was under torture.
'I don't know what kind of ability holder you are but you'd better not even think about using it. Unless you want to see your internal organs sticking to the floor.'
"What you meant by torture chamber was... That's what it was huh. Well, then again, I didn't think that the torture chamber you meant was something like the ones where I had to lie down and be hit by a cudgel."
I looked around and smiled bitterly. Thinking about it now, it was a pretty leisurely prison. There were no guards, and it was not a very confined space. Though there were steel bars, it was just a little sturdy, nothing more, nothing less.
In other words, if it was a person who possessed superpowers, they would be able to escape whenever they felt like it. If that person could distort space and transform their body, something like steel bars wouldn't be able to prevent their escape. But what if that person couldn't use Mana at all?
"That reminds me... Seems like I've been using Mana all these while. Well, to be able to respond to Ares' power from that far away, it would at least take this much power."
In fact, I had never been specially trained to handle Mana. I didn't know much about it, and to be honest, I wouldn't have been able to awaken Mana without the Thousand Spirits Tea that Major General Chun Hyun-il treated me to.
But as soon as I got on board the Gigas, I found myself handling Aura naturally as if I was just breathing. It was something I could do just by being conscious of it, so there wasn't a need to ask for guidance or anything of that sort.
'Now that I think about it.' I stared at the Legion girl. Because through her, I recalled my broadened senses. What was that sensation? Strangely, she was friendly to me. Did she help me on purpose?
"Hmm. Though it's a bit late for this, but… What's your name?"
"I lost it."
"You lost your memory?" I asked as I thought, 'Did she mean that she couldn't remember her name?'. She looked at me as if I was spouting nonsense.
"Why would I lose my memory? I lost my name."
"...What the hell are you even talking about?"
"Hehehe. 'What the hell are you even talking about'?" [1]
"..."
I was speechless at the sight of her mimicking my words. My words weren't getting through to her. She was strangely eccentric and I wasn't sure what she liked about me so much that she couldn't get her act together when she saw me. The sad and mournful vibe she had when I first saw her on the Albatross ship was nowhere to be found.
Boooom---!!!
However, at that moment, there was an unexpected explosion nearby. I raised my head in surprise, but my condition was so bad that I couldn't even approach the steel bars to assess the situation going on outside. Just raising my head made my head ring and my hands and feet trembled.
"Keukkk! You bitch! I'll fucking kill you!"
"You fool! Don't move recklessly and just shove it in!"
"Huh? But Great General-nim. Shouldn't we at least drag her to jail?"
"I haven't been able to implant the torture chamber anyways, so what use would those steel bars even be! That bitch would have to scurry around to realize that she wouldn't be able to escape the Vengeful Ghost's Stomach, so even if we prepare for a surprise attack, the next person we'd bring in would be the Captain-nim, so just shove it in!"
"Affirmative!"
Booooom!
With some sort of tremendous commotion, something seemed to have crashed with the wall and sent tremors down here. The something that crashed against the wall collided against the wall again like thunder, and it seemed like it was running towards the source of the sound I heard. But at that moment, the voices of the demi-human disappeared with a clanging sound.
"Open up! Hey you morons! Come at me! Let's fight!"
I heard a familiar voice. Even though she was full of temper, she had a pleasant voice that sounded as if a bird was chirping. It wasn't my favorite voice, but at least at this moment, it was quite nice to hear that voice.
"Cel?"
"Huh… Dae-ha? Are you here right now?"
To the sound of a bang, a visage that was pounding at the wall ran towards me. As expected, it was the Imperial Princess of the Leonhardt Empire, Celestia.
"Hi."
"Ugh! What the hell is this? Are you all right?"
"Haha, would I be all right in the state I'm in now?"
I sweated so much that my whole body was soaked and I even threw up blood, so it was extremely obvious what I looked like right now. I wanted to tidy myself up if I could, but the situation I was in wouldn't permit me to do so as even raising my head was difficult.
"Cheong Won that bastard, he threatened the demi-humans to not touch a single hair on my body, but it seems like he didn't give a single fuck about you. But if that was the case, why did he bring you here? If he wanted to get someone else to do his dirty work, he should've just mentioned to the demi-humans to eliminate you thoroughly."
I sighed deeply at the sight of her tilting her head as if she was in confusion, just like what the demi-humans were going through right now. I was too exhausted to get myself together.
"Ahhh, wait a minute. I'm going to sleep for a bit… So you take a rest there."
"Hmm? Ahhh, I'll heal you. I'm capable of healing you."
"No, disregarding the fact whether you can heal me or not, the steel bars here..."
Tang tang tang!
However, at that moment, a flashing golden light that seemed to be drawn in a straight line cut apart the steel bars that were blocking my way like they were straw. Celestia walked into the prison I was in, and I stared at her with a blank expression.
"…You're strong huh."
"Did you just realize that now?" Celestia laughed and gave me a hand.
1. She's being annoying and repeating after Dae-ha.