For I Am A Side Character - 89: Attaining the Body of the Dark.

Its hard…

As of now, I’m currently in the process of training to attain the fourth skill of the basics, known as the [Body of the Dark.]

And I could feel it…

One physical pain over the other…

I could feel my skin being ripped open…open enough that I knew that my bones were out, visible as it could be…my bones breaking to the sheer force of a mallet falling down on my back…my blood dripping down into the container, being stored…

This was the process of attaining what my master called… “The Body of the Dark.”…

And I hate it…

The way they did it. How Cecil carried a mallet filled with blades at its end, hammering down on my skin…every inch of it, all to a point that it would dig down to my flesh and grating it as he pulls apart the mallet…I was being grated like an apple, flesh deep…and the force of the mallet pushing down on my flesh was strong enough that I knew my flesh was being mushed and mushed all to a point that it was nothing but mash of meat piled on myself…

I didn’t know how I was alive, but Master used a technique on my body to keep my conscience awake…my mind awake to the experience of this pain…

It took us five hours to peel away my skin and mash my flesh using this mallet…

It was torturous, but I didn’t shout my pain…I kept it inside of me thanks to my experiences in attaining the Ethereal will of the dark. Pain isn’t sa absent as it should be in this line of work.

*THUD!*

One strike from Cecil’s power, could easily tear away a mountain…and it struck my body at the speed of a crashing thunder…

That night, in this small dojo, one could have imagined that it was raining thunder all night long…

But it was just my brother doing the process of creating the Body of the Dark…

And I counted it…

My brother struck me 1000 times before finally being finished with tearing away my body…

After hitting me 1000 times, all of what was left of me was my organs…who my master described was miraculously intact. Normally, my intestines would have spread out, my heart would have fractured, my liver would have bursted, but everything was keeping itself together…

Hearing these descriptions made me feel nauseous, but I couldn’t feel anything after the 687^th strike…all I could feel from that moment on was the vibrations of each continuous struck-down of the mallet…

Master said that this was the only way…

To truly attain the Body of the Dark, one must reform the body physically and infuse each flesh torn apart with a ‘Metal’ worth my soul and flesh.

He said that this form of technique was a type of creation crafted by the house of shadows to create bodies made to imitate metal…

They said that once a student undergoes this form training, it was recognized that they have the capacity to fulfill the role of being a member of the house of shadows…

And it matters just how much one can take when receiving the physical torture of the mallet.

Master said that if a student can only withstand 100 hits, his body is as sturdy as iron.

If a student can withstand 250 hits, his body is as hard as a Titanium.

If a student can withstand 500 hits, his body is as grand as a Diamond

And if a student can withstand 1000 hits, his body can only be reborn using “Void Metal”.

To reach a level of void metal, the strongest form of strength there is…one is surely going to rise beyond even near-death itself.

***

If I asked myself…why did I do this?

Isn’t it painful?

Wouldn’t the emotional scars remain?

And as an answer, all I could say was yes…

Yes its painful…

Yes it will leave a scar unseen to the eye, yet not the mind…

But this is a sacrifice for the assurance to the future…

If the pain today can relinquish the pain of tomorrow, then so be it…

If I can gain a stronger body today to fight for tomorrow, then so be it…

I can’t throw away an opportunity when its given right in front of my face…

To this process of tearing away my old body…it will reform into a new higher form of strength.

So yes…if pain is all the sacrifice needed to be made, then I’ll gladly do it.

I’ve seen the result of this much pain simply for the preparation of the future. Back when I was fighting the S-ranked boss…the pain I endured gifted me with the strength to face off against a High-Ranking Demon…

My pain…

My efforts wont fail me, that much I know.

***

‘Hmm, he’s able to withstand a thousand hits…its no longer an exaggeration to assume that he’s will and spirit are simply a coincidence unbounded by the fate of an unknown.’

‘To think that on the first day I saw his soul…who found itself to have no path, now here…I can see it. His spirit is well and alive even with no flesh to bind his bare organs…and its stronger than ever…even stronger than Cecil himself. Who would have thought.’ thought Master Yagami who stared at the body of his student.

As his Master stared on Soril’s bare open body, Cecil arrived not long after, carrying a piece of item wrapped in a clothed mantle.

“Is that the void metal?” asked Master Yagami as he turned to watch Cecil looking nervous over Soril’s conscious body.

“T-this is a first for me…I didn’t actually believed that he would survive the thousand hits.” said Cecil as he was amazed by the achievements reached by Soril’s perseverance.

“Hmm, if I can remember it, you’ve only achieved the Diamond state on your first attempt right?” asked Master Yagami as he remembered the past.

“Indeed. Although a disciple can always retake the Body of a Dark in time to strengthen his body, I have never heard of a disciple capable of reaching this state in just one process.” said Cecil who was a bit terrified of Soril’s capability.

“True, back then In the creation of this guild, the only master who reached nearly this far was a man who reached up to 800 hits. Hmm, but back then, we didn’t have the process of being able to keep our minds intact.”

“We should hurry, the longer we dally, the worst things might happen for him.” said Cecil who was worried for Soril.

And on it went.

Soril was placed in a special room. One made specifically to train under the process of creating the body of the dark.

The room was dark with no sense of light to open the room, and with not a single light passing through even in its smallest crack. The only way that Cecil and Master Yagami were able to do the procedure in the dark was by using their enlightened domain.

Now, the first step of the process was complete.

The second step was underway.

Cecil was on hold of seven parts of the void metal…

One for each part.

One for the head.

A pair for each limbs, with two for the arms and two for the legs.

One for the center body…

And one for the organs…

As Cecil was able to distribute each metal to each part, in this process… it was all up to Soril to receive these metals and ‘Accept’ them into each and every part of his body.

This process wasn’t painful as one could imagine, it simply needs the strong mind and the strong soul to simply compell the metal into his body.

To do so, Soril needed silence.

So once Cecil was able to distribute each metals to each part, they left him all to his own.

And there, laid his open flesh to the metal void.

Soril could feel it.

The silence in the room…

The coldness of each touch made by the metal even without his flesh.

And a whisper…

‘…’

‘…Soril’

It called to him…

It called to his name…

‘…S…Soril…’

It called to his name…

A metal with no mouth was speaking in his thoughts.

But not long after, Soril’s consciousness faded into the dark.

“…” to what may seem like nothing but a boy who feel to his comfort, to where he fell asleep just like any other night…

What actually came before here was his…Death.

Soril Remus had died that night.

And what visited him in his death was a beast who walked in four legs…

With horns as twisted as that of the void and eyes that spiraled in the darkness of the night, what visited Soril this night was a king invited by the void of Soril’s spirit. A beast who resembled that of a deer, but whose fur shined like the stars.

The king who whispered his name and took his life…

He was king granted a grand name…

[The Void King]

The one eternal beast who gave the powers of the dark unto the House of Shadows…and the King who was the very sworn enemy of the Demons.

An existence who was eternally a threat to each living demon. An entity that spoke on that of a level of a God.

As this king stood before the corpse of Soril Remus, his eyes turned over to the very soul of his being…

“Strange, this soul does not belong to this world.” he said as his voice echoed across the room.

But as he said these words, all of a sudden, another spirit came and approached the king. The one spirit who was the king of all kings…

It was God.

“You are right to assume this, Void King.”

“God…to what honor do I owe you the pleasure of coming here in my ritual of this boy’s rebirth?” asked the Void king as his gaze turned away from the bright figure of God.

“That boy is under my will, I wish that you do not take too much away from his soul as you normally would in accordance to your laws.”

“You favor him? Why?” asked the Void King who turned ever so curious to the God’s favorability over the boy.

“That boy is currently undergoing a mission in the efforts of protecting this world from the Demon’s invasion.” said God.

“I thought you already gifted another child with that responsibility? Why choose another?”

“…” God was silent on that question, and in his silence, the Void King quickly caught on.

“…I see. So the First child failed to protect this world.” said the void king.

“This boy was lucky enough to be granted the chance to learn your ways…the ways of the house of shadows. If you want him to fully comprehend the abilities to be used against the demons, I suggest that you favor him as well. Ease up on the penalties of his soul.”

“Hmm…I see. So this boy has a higher chance of wiping away the demon race. If that is the case, I’ll take your word for it.” said the Void King.

Although the Void King’s voice seemed soft and fluid, his entire presence slowly turned to that of a Deadly beast who was staring down on a soul favored by God.

“…Very well, you have my word.” said the Void King who felt God’s presence disappear all to quickly.

Now, the Void king was all alone…and below him was a soul under the watch of God’s eyes…

“If God truly favors this boy…who am I to doubt his words.”

With that said, the Void king proceeded with the process of reforming the boy’s form with the Void metal placed on each part of his body.

And with a strong deep breath, the void king devoured his soul like a vacuum. And soon after, his presence quickly changed…

The room turned darker even when there was no light in sight.

Having to suck Soril’s soul…

The void king proceeded to mend each metal to his body.

The void metal quickly turned to a mist that was barely visible to the human eye and it mended itself into Soril’s body. Slowly but surely, each mist of that Void metal perfectly aligned itself into the boy’s body. And soon enough, the flesh was reforming back to its original shape. It didn’t take long before Soril’s body was completely recovered and with a last line of detail, the void king exhaled the pieces of Soril’s soul back into his own body.

The process was complete.

Seeing as how the boy was still unconscious, the Void King proceeded to step on his heart and he placed his emblem as a mark that he now owns his body.

“This now marks you as my property.” said the void king who waited for Soril’s eyes to awaken.

And not long after, Soril’s eyes did awoke.

And the Void King smiled…

With his sharp teeth in display, his ominous presence simply turned every fiber of Soril’s body to react.

He reacted in a way a soldier would to apprehend an enemy.

With a strong swipe of his hand…strong enough to tear away a tree, it simply did nothing to the king in front of him…

Like a mist that passes through everything, Soril could not grasp what was standing over his body.

When he got up from his reformed state, he saw the mist of a beast, the void king standing by the side, watching his every move.

And from the Void King’s reaction, he nodded in satisfaction as he saw just how well Soril was able to adapt to his reformed body.

“We’ll meet again soon.” said the Void king as he soon disappeared into the dark like a ghost in the wind.

What was left was Soril looking in a daze.

“W-what’s going on?” he asked himself.

But soon enough, he felt a strange feeling occur all over is body. He couldn’t help but fall to his knees as he sweated profusely.

“Khk…”

He waited as the strange feeling soon died down…

Looking over his entire body, he remembered what happened.

He knew that his body was left to nothing but a mush of meat, but now here he stands with a strange feeling all over his body which was miraculously restored.

‘Was it because of that beast?” he asked himself…

Soon enough, the energy in his body recovered and he made his way out of the room.

Walking out, he was greeted by a shocked expression of his brother and his master standing outside of the Dojo.

“H-how is this possible?!” said Cecil who looked as if he saw a ghost.

“…” While Master Yagami simply remained in silence, but was as pale to the realization in front of him. Despite him being blind, he knew that what stood before him was Soril.

“Is that you, Soril?” asked Cecil.

“Huh?…It is…why are you acting like that?” asked Soril as he was a bit bewildered by their reactions.

“Come, get inside.” said his master calmly.

“We’ll explain everything inside.” added his master as he soon walked with a gripped hand.