บท 17: Only Good For Punishing You

His entire weight fell on the ground, if he was honest with himself, he was getting really tired of getting knocked out like a weakling.

'Shit.' He meant to say but thought it. Levi didn't know either why he couldn't use his mouth in a mental world.

That was the kind of useless thing he was wondering as his conscious mind continued to slip from his grasp.

"You'll be alright master, you'll be alright, you can beat this." The system tried to console him.

But he felt burning heat — none he'd ever felt before. Even the energy's heat didn't compare to this. That's also when he agreed with the system, what he was going through was because of some god.

'Fuck!' He managed to express.

The system had no idea of pain or the kind he was currently going through. A part of him wished he could share some with it, what was the point of a gift that didn't make his life a bit easier?

One thing he was sure of, after this painful experience he reckoned that he would be immune to pain. He chose to believe that his godly parent wasn't trying to kill him — just training him.

Preparing him for the world outside which he knew wouldn't be so kind to him. It would be tricky dealing with it, as his mission was one of purification and redemption. But how does one go about doing that, when the world is in chaos?

If anything, this world will tempt him further into the rabbit hole that was his old life.

He searched his memories for the conventional happy moments in his previous life. Anything anyone would consider normal was nothing but a horrible experience for him.

'Shit!' As the murders that made his entire being vibrate with excitement showed themselves — uninvited. Like it were a slideshow but for his brain.

He couldn't lie to himself, concentrating on them made the pain significantly low until his conscious mind was engulfed with the darkness he was desperately running away from.

When he awoke he felt like his head had been bashed in with a sledge hammer. He groaned, carefully lifting his head up and the place he was in was unrecognisable.

'How long?'

"You've only have a year left at most, Master." The system said unwillingly.

If he were able to, Levi would've screamed his lungs out in anger. He wanted to enjoy some peace before going out there. Now these monsters were taking that time away from him.

What made things worse for him was the fact the black hole was still there. Warping the space that surrounded it, that only meant this wasn't over.

His Hub had overgrown trees, it was like a world of its own now — a jungle but with no wild animals to speak of.

Levi felt himself to have gotten stronger. The venom was paralysing but it also strengthened more than just his muscles.

He was still testing his newfound abilities when he noticed that the black hole was still there. He lost focus while in the air and fell face first on the grass.

Clearly remembering the pain, a trauma he wouldn't wish to go through again.

'There must be a way to pluck that hole, I can't face anymore of those things.' He was frantic but didn't want to show it.

"I'm afraid there's nothing in Master's power that could make that black hole disappear."

'Well, what about you? Help me.'

"This is even more painful to say, but I'm only good for punishing you."

Levi clicked his tongue. They could've at least given him a system that could give him buffs. He had no idea how the afterlife system expected him to reform if he didn't have overwhelming strength to do it.

'I have to do something.'

He got up and walked towards it. The closer he got the sinister it felt. He could feel the familiarity of Gi but it was mixed with something else, something dark — something forgotten — something ancient.

"Master, what are you doing? Get away from that. I don't know what it is but that's bad news."

'If I do nothing, more of those monsters will come out. What do you think will happen then? I only have less than a year within my hibernation....' He trailed off, 'system, what happens if I can't wake up when the five years is over?'

"I don't know. This is what I know though, us systems are given emotions but not fear. This enables us to help our hosts to stay calm in situations, but even I feel it, I feel fear the closer you get."

Levi froze to ponder the system's words. The distance between them through the naked eye was quite significant, but it didnt feel like that at all. He slowly took a few steps back.

'So the options are go up to it and destroy it, hopefully. Or Wait for those monsters to be vomited out, get stung, sleep for years and miss the time when I'm supposed to wake up?' He thought.

"When you say it like that, the former seems like the logical option."

His heart threatened to break his ribcage and jump out of his chest. He did breathing exercises — these used to help him back in school when kids would mess with him.

To keep himself from losing his sanity he did these.

Levi never thought that he would need these again.

'I wonder when was it that I decided to lock the other me in my mind.' He wondered about unimportant things, distracting himself from the fact that he'd already taken a step forward.

He broke into a run then kicked off from the ground, jumping high up into the sky. The system had taught him kicking and punching, he felt confident that with his newfound strength he could kick the hole into oblivion.

But something he didn't expect happened as his heel planted itself on what was supposedly the top of the hole.

He was sucked in.