Chapter 604: I was in Hell… looking at Heaven

'No, no, no, no, nooooooo, damn it… no, fuck.'

'They are not strong enough yet; they can't defeat Mason Vex, DAMN IT…'

'I HAVE TO FUCKING BREAK FREE, OR THEY WILL ALL DIE…'

Axel Nomrad roared through his very soul; even if it broke him, he had to break free right then and there, no matter the cost.

Glitch!!!

The moment when Mason cut off Axel's tongue and caused a massive tear in the joint between his two jaws.

Blood exploded in his mouth; pain hit his brain unlike anything before; his eyes started to flicker between Black and Blue in a mad rhythm.

He was close to losing his consciousness, close to having his mind devoured by the boundless rage nestling within his Demon Bloodline, for a mere human had dared to put him through such torture; it was absolutely and utterly unacceptable.

As much as he wanted to lose himself in the fury of his….

As much as he wanted to lose…..

As much as he wanted…

'What??? What's happening…'

'Arggghhh, fuck!!!'

'No, no, no, no, no… how is this happening…'

'Why or how is this happening all over again!!!'

'How many times has it been, in the same loop…?'

And right then, Mason skewered a long and sharp needle right into Axel's one eye, part of it even piercing through Axel's brain…

Amid the blinding pain, his awareness of the perceived time loop was pulled away.

Glitch!!

The moment when the Vex Patriarch cut off Axel's tongue and caused a massive tear in the joint between his two jaws.

The Demon felt like….

Glitch!!

The moment when the Vex Patriarch cut off Axel's tongue and caused a massive….

Glitch!!

…

Glitch!!

..

Glitch!!

AXEEEEEELLLLL!!!! WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!!

AXEL!!!!! BREAK FREE!!!!!

The Runecaster felt his eyes pulse madly between his Demonic and Human Eyes. He felt his mind on the verge of collapse….

Being corroded, devoured by the decimating fury of his Ancestral Demon Bloodline.

Suddenly, amid the blinding pain, he noticed it: the distant echo of an unknown female voice calling to him with utter desperation.

He held onto that voice, that imperceptible anomaly in this dreaded loop. Thus, he became aware of the endless repeat of the events once more.

The moment when Axel became aware of the harrowing paradox he was living through.

Mason shoved a long iron needle right through one of his eyes again and...

Squelch!!!!

That's exactly what happened again, for the umpteenth time. The blinding pain caused his rampaging bloodline and ocean of despair to grow stronger, and the corrosion specifically targeted Axel's perception of the everlasting loop.

But Axel did not let that happen this time; instead of fighting back against the corrosion, he poured his remaining willpower and mental focus into those thoughts.

The Demon roared in his mind with incandescent fury, searching for the corner of his mind that pulled away and locked out all awareness of the harrowing paradox he was living in.

Crack!!!

Like a glass wall shattering, an unknown seal in Axel's mind broke apart, and the loop's memories flooded his mind. Every single moment that he was on the verge of being saved...

The unexpected appearance of his Grandfather,

The arrival of Alric Stragoy

The appearance of his father and his Demonic Thralls.

The appearance of his friends, and countless more….

He had not lived through the loop merely 5-6 times; no, it was hundreds, maybe thousands, or maybe…

His mind failed to grasp the extent of the repetitions he'd endured, as if it were endless.

The corrosion of his Demon bloodline grew more violent than ever. Axel became privy to more memories of the loops.

But the Demon didn't care and kept going, focusing only on those memories, determined not to make the same mistakes he'd made in the countless past loops.

Flicker!!!!

Flicker!!!!

Flicker!!!!

His eyes at this moment were flickering like a bulb turning on and off so fast that it was disturbing, and then finally, with a devastating bang that reverberated through his mind.

Axel finally broke free….

His eyes snapped open.

And right then, the expected and familiar sensation of pain from having his tongue cut off never arrived. But his mind and body had become so used to the sensation, the repetition, that it felt unnerving for a moment.

But he was more or less in the same position, his figure pinned to the wall of the Dark-Torture chamber through the hammering of countless sharp iron nails, which also increased his pain sensitivity by 100 times.

The dark substance injected by the Dark Elven Concubine of Leonidas still locked his strength; the Anti-Rune element still swam through his destroyed Rune circuits.

Even though the situation remained just as bad, an invisible weight seemed to have lifted from his mind. The mad corrosion of the Demon bloodline was nowhere- no… in fact, it was still there, but not as violent as before.

As Axel finally looked forward, he saw Mason Vex's familiar face staring at him coldly, and then…

Bang!!!

A powerful punch landed right on his face; the sheer force of that fist almost made his face cave in. Axel's face started bleeding once more.

And then again… and again and again….

Mason Vex continued battering his face…

The runecaster felt like he was on the verge of breaking once more, this time not because of the ever-so-familiar corrosion of his mind, which remained at work but only with less intensity.

Rather, his mind was already partly shattered by it all.

Too heavy with uncertainty about his current predicament.

He could not tell whether the entire loop was a hallucination or real, or whether an extraterrestrial force beyond his understanding was somehow forcing time to repeat.

It was too much; even if he felt like he escaped the loop using all of his mental power, the existence of which he still did not understand the slightest, Axel was still being tortured by the same hateful enemy.

It was all too much for him; it felt far more taxing on his psyche than even the events in the trial world.

Previously, he could hold on to his sanity by a hair's breadth because a part of his indomitable Will persevered.

However, now… he had exhausted everything. That was the true reason he felt like dying…

His face, which was already battered beyond recognition, twisted further, and tears fell from his closed eyes.

It felt like he was in his last moments, but in those last moments, the thoughts of only one person overflowed in his mind.

'I wonder what she's doing…'

'I don't know what would happen to her… I??'

'I wish I could just see her, just one last time…. Oh, I wish it so, so much,' said Axel in his mind in despair.

And Axel could not help but feel it was ironic that, in the thousands, if not multiple thousands, of loops, every time he was saved differently, he had never once seen Sophia's face. Not even once; she never came to save him in those false realities.

His heart bled at the thought; he wished he could have seen her beautiful face even once amid those countless repetitions. Just once….

Rumble!!!!

Thunder rumbled in the skies, powerful enough to cause tremors through the building.

The light from a single source in the corner of the Dark chamber, dimly lighting the room, flickered imperceptibly. The shadows cast by the radiance seemed to grow deeper... a dark scent spread through the surroundings.

Axel suddenly heard a sound, as if something were streaking through the air… no, something powerful, piercing the air at an unimaginable speed.

The Runecaster looked upward, and Mason sensed something powerful approaching, then scoffed, "This entire structure is covered in countless anti-detection rune artefacts and defensive formations; nothing would be able to go through all those…"

CRACK!!!!

BOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

But his words were utterly worthless as a 30-meter-long dark spear oozing with the element of Darkness tore through the ceiling and all the defensive artefacts and mechanisms set outside it. As if they were nothing…

The spear missed Mason Vex as he moved away from its target spot well before it struck, sensing the danger.

Wearing a furious expression, the Vex Powerhouse prepared countless artefacts ready to retaliate; no matter who the enemy might be, he was unafraid.

*

I closed my eyes hurriedly as a cloud of dust and debris from the sudden shattering of the dark chamber's stone roof filled the room and brushed against my skin.

As the dust and debris slowly cleared, ignoring the pain coursing through my veins or the sense of danger I was feeling, I opened my eyes once more. Struggling to see….

I arched my neck, as if responding to an invisible call. Feeling a slight pull on my mind from something above….

And when I finally saw the figure of the person who truly came to save me….

My heart, which had stopped beating amid the endless wave of despair, started to pulse once more…

She was the one person who would truly come to save me on my worst day,

The only person who would do anything for me…

The only person in this world who truly cared for me….

The one whom I betrayed….

The one person whom I longed to see when I breathed my last…

A pitch-black battle dress hugged her entire body up to her neck; her face was beautiful beyond imagination. Her red eyes were like a monster's.

She oozed black smoke like a Dark butterfly brought to life from some unknown, harrowing tale.

But to me, none of that mattered; to me… she was as beautiful as the day I met her….

In that moment, I yearned for her more than ever, because… in that moment…

I felt like…

I was in Hell… looking at Heaven.

So, I called out to the one I deemed my Heaven, with a broken voice, "Soph…. Sophia...."