326 Something to Give Up (1/2)

At some point during the beating, the light had disappeared from his eyes, leaving him unable to see the arrival of the following punches, which seemed to never stop. What was left for him to endure were the quick bursts of pain, from which he only found shelter the moment he lost consciousness.

After what felt like thousands of years, a small wisp of light passed through his eyelids, and entered his eyes with enough intensity to wake him up.

The first thing he noticed, was that he couldn't move. Every bone in his body was pulverized, and his flesh was squashed like a rotten pumpkin under the sun. Every breath brought him incredible pain, comparable only to the twinges that came from multiple parts of his abdominal area. The only parts of his body left somewhat intact, were his head and neck, which he was able to move by only a few centimeters.

When Sewah opened his eyes, all he could see was a vast expanse of darkness. No stairs could see in the night sky, and the light that had woken him up came, along with a moderate heath, came from a campfire about three meters away from him.

”What are you doing.. Daniel..” He asked with the tone of a person who was on his deathbed. ”Why don't you just kill me.. You have the system.. You won.. you don't need me.” While half dead, Sewah was still able to feel Daniel's presence. He was sitting of the grass right next to his powerless body.. Looking at the fire crackle and dance in the night.

Daniel did not respond, and instead remained quiet.. Causing for Sewah's pain to be overcome with a fairly good amount of anger. ”I will never stop trying.. You know that.” He added with a hateful tone to obtain a reaction, but without any success.

The two remained quiet for a few seconds, until finally, Daniel broke the silence and said ”You know why I allowed you to bother them?”

”Of course. You wanted me to t-ghh.. To teach them a lesson about the c-cultivation world..” Responded Sewah while trying to endure the sharp pain that came from every single part of his body ”Next time find a fucking assistant elsewhere.”

”Them?.. That's only part of it.” Responded Daniel while picking a small rock from the ground, and morphing it into a piece of charcoal which he threw into the living flame.

With the small amount of power that was left in his body, the muscles of Sewah's face moved into forming an indignated expression. ”Ha-argh.. You wanted to teach me something too?” He asked while feeling his hate towards Daniel grow bigger than ever. While he could take a beating from anyone and not care, he couldn't stand to be humiliated by the person whose only reason to be alive, was his mistake.

A faint sigh escape Daniel's lungs, as he watched the starless sky while in a pensive state.

”I don't know.. I always thought there had to be a moment in which you were a decent being.” He said while slowly moving his hand up to his face, and scratching his scruffy beard. ”.. 'He is cynical, but he has no reason not to see me through the good side of this path..' I used to tell myself.” He then slightly turned his head to the side, just enough for Sewah's face to appear in his peripheral, and added ”.. but then I've learned that you couldn't care less about what I did with this 'gift'. As long as I did enough for you to grow powerful enough to kill me.”

Daniel's first memories of Sewah were not as bad as one would believe. He was abusive and rude, and constantly belittled him, but there was always a method to do good that came along with that personality.. And Daniel couldn't help but feel thankful for that.

With time, after seeing that Daniel would thread the right path on his own, Sewah had distanced himself by him, and lied in wait.. In wait for the right moment to present itself. Of course, for Sewah, obtaining Daniel's body was not an option. He was born along with that power, and had always lived with it. To let go of it and live as a consciousness trapped into another person's mind was pure suffering.. And Daniel had failed to notice that.

”Iewah truly screwed one of us over.” Said Daniel while brushing his palms over his legs. After this last sentence, he said nothing else and went back to focusing on the fire in front of him.

For ten long minutes, neither of them said a single word. Sewah felt the power come back to his body, but since he had no comprehension of healing essence, he was not able to heal himself. He could only lay there, as close to dying as he was to living. Daniel, on the other hand, was moving around the burnings pieces of wood with a thin and long stick.

Aside from the crackling of the flames, it was silence. A silence to which Sewah wished he could escape from.. but he knew that there was more that Daniel had to say. So he painfully turned his head towards him, and while enduring the pain that came from his chest, he said ”Put an end to this torture. If you have to say something, just say it.”

”Do you want me to kill you?” Asked Daniel out of the blue. His tone was extremely serious, and sounded like that of a person asking if it would be okay to open the door for him. There was no doubt that, if Sewah responded yes, Daniel would have killed him on the spot. However, before Sewah could respond, he added ”You have lost a part of your power, and I know it makes you feel powerless.. but you still have your li-”

”Fuck you, Daniel. You know nothing.” Responded Sewah in clear anger.

From his voice Daniel could still feel how the loss of his power was a huge burden on his mind. So he ignored Sewah's outburst, and instead said ”You can't be a children of Iewah anymore. You are a cultivator.. Bound to die because of your stubbornness, and thirst for conflict..” he then paused for a few moments, before adding ”If you were unwilling to live that way, or to live with this sort of regret.. I could end it here and now.”

The deafening silence once again dominated their surroundings. This time, for more than an hour. While Daniel was waiting for an answer to the hardest question that could ever be asked to a person, Sewah's mind became clearer than ever.

Ever since Daniel had taken back control over his body, his whole being had focused on the objective of eliminating Daniel's consciousness, and take the body and the system back for himself. Be it when he was a flimsy wisp of consciousness threatened by Daniel's mind power, when he had spent a year and a half trapped in stone, or when he was in the powerful body of the oni leader.. Not for a single moment had he given up that idea.. Until now.

Daniel's speech had made him realize that, willing or not, he was a cultivator like any other now. A cultivator whose destiny wasn't written in the stars, and that had to work hard for his power, as opposed to be born to wield one. A cultivator who had to constantly look for his own back, or risk finding a knife planted in it.