When the mana circle got blanketed by that black mist, there wasn't telling what was happening inside that thing, judging from the screams of the young boy , one could only imagine the worst of the worst.
Worried about him when, Noir with the intention to end the whole thing tried to take a step forward, Elythria shouted,
" No, do you want all of his suffering to go to waste? This screaming might be the trick of the curse.
Think! boy, Augustus is strong. He will return for sure."
While the surroundings outside were in stress, August on the other hand was in a state of nothingness inside.
Inside the illusion created by the curse, surrounded by the black mist, when he opened his eyes, he found himself lying on a liquid surface. When his vision became less blurry, the liquid was to be clearly seen, being surprised he said, " blood!? "
The floor was covered with the blood flowing on the surface, more than enough to make a person lose his sanity.
As he recalled the warnings given by Elythria, August knew that it was nothing more than a mere illusion.
Watching him not being affected by the visuals of his surroundings, the curse tried to do more.
Trying to remain calm when August stood up drenched in blood, he saw a sharp blade coming his way. Since it came very fast, he was unable to react on time resulting in him losing his left arm and the immense pain behind.
As his arm got cut off, blood of his spilling all over the place. It would have been difficult for anyone to remain calm in that situation despite knowing that this was merely an illusion. Also the pain was more intense that could easily be mistaken for the real thing.
August didn't give up on that, in the face of immense pain, he gritted his teeth while holding his screams back.
Following that, numerous blades originating from that cluster of infinite dark, targeted at him with the same speed as before --attacked him.
There was nowhere to go, nowhere to run or hide. He knew he had to take that head on while reminding himself that this was just an illusion.
One blade aimed at his left leg, did it work perfectly, with a clean strike it severed his limb. The others were also of the same intensity and precision.
As the blades passed through him, leaving him with a severed, sliced continuously bleeding - body of his in unimaginable pain behind. With two severed limbs and numerous cuts on his body his condition wasn't something the human body could tolerate.
The similarity between the first strike and those numerous ones was that he knew that all of it wasn't real. But the difference was he ' didn't ' scream on the first and on the last one he ' couldn't '.
The pain had reached up to the point that he wasn't able to feel his limbs anymore.
Lying there in the pool of blood, with his own spilling as well, drenched in it.... the boy was about to lose his consciousness but even with the last of his senses he was trying to get out of the illusion.
Watching him resisting, even when faced with this cruelty of death, the curse placed another layer of illusion around him.
With a shock when August opened his eyes again, with that pain he was still feeling but to his surprise his body was alright.
' I have to resist this, i have to resist this.... '
Reciting these words in his mind the boy suddenly felt being tied by something. Watching the strange thing he saw a serpent-like creature crushing him up to the bones under its immense coiled pressure.
In addition to the one before, the pain of his bones crushed, ribs shattered was something new to be felt.
In the attempt to withstand the unimaginable,
he continuously reminded himself,
" This is not real, this is not real..."
Even with that he managed to remain conscious, resisting the feeling of pain by continuously reminding himself about the reality with the blood spilling from his mouth as his jaw crushed, with limbs as his bones shattered.
Watching the boy still resisting before it, the curse got more aggressive and made another layer of illusion around him.
In the third layer of illusion when August opened his eyes, with his confused mind ,abnormally beating heart, uncontrollably shaking limbs and even him unable to close his mouth.
Pain was still there but his body didn't even have a scratch on it. He knew that this was another illusion created by the curse but it was rather calm.
Then he heard a strange ominous voice saying his name [ Augustus ] With the voice coming from everywhere it was like echoing from all of his surroundings.
{ How ?... How will you repay ? }
The voice said in a hissing tone.
" Repay ? For what ? " He asked gathering the last bit of his strength.
{ How ignorant.... You! You seriously don't know? Why are you acting this way ? Why ? Why did you do it ? }
" Why did I do what ? " August shouted.
{ Why did you.... take the lives of innocent ? Why did you kill them ? }
" They weren't innocent, those were inhumane wild creatures " August replied.
{ Fool! I am saying why did you kill the innocent people ? Why did you kill your own kind ? }
With all of his sanity, August knew the curse was trying to deceive him. But only this time, what the voice said -- felt like the truth.
{ Why did you kill those innocent people ? Tell me ....tell me you... murderer }
' No! This isn't true, I didn't kill anyone. Besides those inhumane monsters I never killed anyone. '
These were the thoughts he wanted to express in words.
But the only thing he said from deep within his soul was, " they weren't innocent, I did what i had to do " that came out as a reflex.
Surprised by his own words, August was more helpless than ever.
' what? Why did I say that? I didn't mean to say that '
Falling into the state of self - unconsciousness, struggling with the conflicting-- which he knew were lies but felt like true thoughts. He was in a losing battle at the cost of his sanity.
Giving up now would have resulted in August to be a madman for life.
{ Murderer ! Killer ! You killed them ! You are a monster ! Monster ! You selfish madman ! }
Putting both hands on his forehead as the voices in his head were growing louder, the mental pain was so intense that he lost the will to resist it.
Then at the brink of him turning insane, he felt heat coming from within his body, particularly from the heart. He was instantly relieved when he heard the sound of a bell ringing in his ears.
Recalling it as the previous one, August knew that the second seal has been lifted. Like a breeze of fresh air entered his mind and kicked out the bad thoughts.
In that moment of extreme power his mind was cleared hence breaking the walls of the third illusion.
Returning to the second illusion, he felt like his body was regenerating. All the cuts and bruises healed in an instant hence the walls containing the second illusion were also broken.
As he returned to the initial illusion, August found himself lying there in that pool of blood, but this time he stood up like it was nothing. As he lifted himself off the ground, the blood covering him got wiped off.
A strong amount of wind surrounding him forcing the mist to dissipate.
Opposed with strong resistance, it started to move around. With his improved sense of hearing, August located the real thing between the mist and tried to grab it l... fearing to be wiped off, the curse began to cry...
As it ran from its own domain.
Trying to escape, reaching the boundary of its own created illusion when it saw the goddess standing in front of it, the curse shouted,
" Elythria! Are you behind this ? How dare you go up against the master, what have you done ? You didn't tell him even though you've found this cursed child...He will not overlook this ...you trai..."
Halfway through its speech the curse got pulled back by someone way stronger than itself. Holding it in his palm, August recalled all the suffering it has given as he made his grip strong and killed it like a bug between his fingers.
A black liquid splashed all over his fist, with that after killing it properly August took a breath of relief. With him losing his consciousness and falling asleep in that instant.
Watching the mist before him disappearing, Noir rushed towards him when he finally saw August fall unconscious on the floor. Gently slapping August on his face to wake him up Noir looked towards Elythria when there was no response from August.
Reassuring the young dragon, the goddess nodded in satisfaction as the curse wasn't transferred but wiped out completely.
Since Noir doesn't saw what she had seen, the goddess didn't felt the need to explain it to the young dragon as it would have made him worry or worse of all angry.
There wasn't a need to be fair, August was alright as he overcame the challenge before him successfully.
But the horror she saw was :
At the moment his sane side was turning insane, August with his sheer willpower had managed to defend himself from those thoughts of intense uneasiness. But the suspicions of them being true lingered deep within his soul as he was not able to shut those allegations down completely.
With his mind full of conflicts, blood in the place of tears ran down from his eyes resulting in the black with a hint of red eyes, turning into blood red.
At the same time he managed to lift off the second seal which was only able with the pain and agony of the illusions that the curse put on him -- worked as a catalyst for him to evolve the star power up to the next level.
When that power manifested, August lost the control over his consciousness resulting his mind to go blank up to the point that he fell asleep. From the point onward, the power of ' singularity : the star ' took over him. In the state of deep sleep when he manipulated the gravity around him, it felt like a gust of wind pushing the mist away and resulting in the mist to dissipate.
After the density of matte black decreased around him, being able to move freely he took off his feet as though hovering in the midair with his eyes closed -- as he opened the palm of his hand manipulating the gravity around him once again making the mist to concentrate in his palm only to crush it between his fingers for good.
[ ABYSSAL PULL ]
When the enemy that ' singularity ' had detected was dead, because of the low energy levels, the power lost it's control over the body of the young boy allowing him to fall on the floor.
**********