Chapter 216 215. Who Am I? (3).

After (???) later.

"It has been at least an unknown number of years, with a minimum of a few thousand. Goddammit, why? What have I even done to suffer things like this? I definitely lived... normally, I think? But I shouldn't suffer for a few thousand years for whatever goddamn reason. If it were the first time, it would have been a bit understandable, but..." He mumbled while laying on nothingness with both of his arms blown off, his right leg blown up to his knee, and quite a few half a fist-sized holes in his abdomen.

No, it wasn't understandable at all. Maybe his mentality had naturally developed to be too tolerant to such absurdities, of course, since it definitely wasn't his first-time spending years alone in pain while trying to hold on to his sanity, but this time it looks like he finally lost the very few emotions he held on to from all of the times he had been in situations like this. Because he didn't show a single ounce of emotion, not a single change appeared in his face as he spoke to himself, and not even a twitch in his face muscles, indicating that he had somehow turned completely expressionless.

And that wasn't all there was to it; he seemed to have lost even a few of his emotions. He didn't know what and how it happened, but his "torch of emotions," which had eight different colours, had now turned into completely pure white flames; he wasn't able to incite any emotions in himself, only a calm, cold, and indifferent flame that would burn anything and everything if told, remained.

CRE-CREAK

SHING

Cold smoke rose from his body as if somebody poured cold water on something very hot, and out of nowhere, crystallized, translucent golden-coloured limbs grew back, with pitch-black flames lit on them. He floated in nothingness, and with a small poof, they turned human-like. It seemed like he still preferred to be in his human form, though even he wasn't sure why he was doing that.

"What even is there to do now...." He mumbled apathetically, and another himself materialised out of nowhere. He had his hands behind his back as he floated "above" nothingness with a majestic aura surrounding him. Looking at his doppelganger, he, too, floated "above nothingness" and took the same stance as his doppelganger.

WHOOOMMM

BOOOOOMMMM

They both instantly appeared in front of each other and punched at each other; both of them read each other's moves, and before the punch even connected, they halted, and their moment, which halted abruptly, caused a massive ripple of "everything" that existed in that pure white space he was in; there wasn't even an ounce of "air" in that space, but it was filled with different kinds of mana, and the attributed mana was one of them, and it was also what he was using to breathe.

As he continued to breathe in the mana in that space, instead of filling his core to the brim, the mana inside his body was leaving, and though he knew this fact, he wasn't doing anything about it because he got the feeling that he didn't require mana from now on and waited for his body to run out of all the "world energy" which his body subconsciously stored. Even he couldn't believe that he had that much mana stored in his body.

He then started to doubt again because everything he had done up until now was going to waste—all those years of suffering he had been through to acquire them—and all of it would go to waste if he didn't have mana now, but...

That made it all the more exciting to him; it didn't matter if all of it was going to waste; it was a new experience, something he wasn't ever able to experience ever, all those repetitive lives, a past life before this new life, he had never experienced something like this in any of them, so of course, he wouldn't let this chance go.

And back to continuing his fight.

BOOOOOMMMM

Again, a loud "boom" sounded, and the mana in front of them began to tremble, but their hits had yet to even connect to each other. He and the doppelganger were punching at each other only to halt right before they actually hit, because they read each other's moves and knew that as soon as the hit connected, one of them would die, not from the hit they were throwing at each other, but from the next hit that would come at them if the first hit connected.

A jab, right uppercut, left uppercut, right hook, left hook, knee kicks, elbow hits, shoulder charges, kicks on each other's upper and lower bodies, clawing at each other, slashing and attacking with swords, spears, shields, axes, hammers, bows, daggers, and gauntlets, mana attacks, magic spells, dragon magic, and all the other mana techniques he knew, since both of them were the same, everything seemed like a very well-co-ordinated act, but if even a single one of hit them instead of cancelling each other, they would have died at least a trillion times.

'One last push.' He thought and used all of his remaining mana in his attack. He raised his hand above his head with his palm tensed, and all of the mana in his body cruised to his palm.

"Frost devil, partial manifestation, 100%" He mumbled, and his right arm froze, turning crystallized translucent light golden with pitch-black flames lit on it, and...

CRA-CRACK (5x)

His already crystallized arm began to bulge, and since there wasn't anything in his arm to tense, the hardest and strongest crystal he had ever seen in all his life began to crack, and because of his strong regeneration, which had become even stronger in his time in that white space, it began to heal those cracks, but instead of completing healing, the cracks started to expand. Since the "insides" of his arm would be the first to heal, due to there being nothing to heal, it began to regenerate a new crystallised arm, making it expand unknowingly.

And when his arm was about to completely shatter, he girted his teeth and the magic power which cruised through his arm began to pour out from his fingertips, shooting out before forming a massive pitch-black coloured pillar whose end wasn't quite visible, though he couldn't quite get the glimpse of the golden coloured divinity, he knew it was somewhere inside of that pillar. And when all of this was happening, would the other him stand still? No, but he was forced to do so by the sheer amount of pressure the mana he was wielding gave off; he himself was feeling an excruciating amount of pain.

One had to understand that he would only start to feel a sting like pain when a normal human was experiencing pain at the level where they would want to die instead, like removing their body parts while somehow still keeping them alive; if it was at least at the bear minimum of this level, then he would start to feel pain.

PING

And with a strange sound, the pillar stopped altogether; absolutely nothing moved; and the space turned white and black. Though it was as white as ever, it seemed bearable; he could see the other him like a sketch, which included himself. He raised his head and saw the pitch-black pillar become a spider-web-sized, 3-metre-long line in his hand.

He stared at "it," which had strange pitch-black chains connected to it; it was more like something was trying to hold "it" in place. He didn't waste any more time; he clenched it, girted his fang-like teeth, which cracked before blood that was dyed black began to pour out; his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears started to bleed while millions of sword scars "opened up" on his body.

SPLURT

All of the blood disappeared as soon as they dripped and he tried to slash with whatever was in his hand, he pushed in forward with absolutely everything he had, as he even used 'Frost Devil,' subconsciously, as he tried to slash down, and 'it' didn't even budge, until....

CLUNK