Chapter 133 (1/2)
Rumble, ruuumble-
Bang, ka-boom-
A world of darkness where not even a speck of light existed, was illuminated brightly.
The navy blue-colored divine Flames continued to drive away the darkness. As if Thomas was still struggling in his own way, the darkened world continued to fight back using various illusions, but none of them worked on Su-hyeun.
From the very start, the grade of their magical energy was too different.
<< For sure, the skill itself is a cheat alright. >>
Rumble, boom-!
In the meantime, he burned away the dark aura trying to attack him from behind. To think that there was still some leeway left to counterattack despite such a humongous magical energy was causing all sorts of chaos within it…
Not just its scope, but even the skill’s durability easily exceeded his expectations.
<< Well, even then… >>
[Third Eye- Neutralization.]
The Third Eye in Su-hyeun’s forehead split open wide. It scanned its surroundings, the space belonging to the world of darkness.
<< The dude controlling it is only so-so. >>
The pitch-black darkness enveloping his surroundings was forced back even further as the skill’s effect dissipated at double the rate.
“Ahhhk, aaaahhk!!”
There was a scream in the distance. The voice belonged to Thomas.
His real body began reappearing, meaning the effects of the darkened world had dissipated almost completely now.
Step, step-
Su-hyeun went in the direction of the voice. He figured that it’d be easier to locate the real body and suppress that. And so, after taking several more steps, he could clearly see Thomas’s silhouette.
But then…
“Please don’t hit me. Please don’t hit me….”
Thomas was currently curled up into a ball, murmuring something. Since Su-hyeun’s hearing was pretty exceptional, he could clearly hear it. Weirdly enough, Thomas didn’t seem to be addressing him, though.
<< Don’t hit me…? >>
Su-susu-
Suddenly, illusions began rising up in front of Thomas. Su-hyeun wondered if the world of darkness was throwing up yet another traumatic hallucination in his path, but that wasn’t the case.
The hallucination of the darkened world created two people. Their faces were unfamiliar to him.
“Please don’t hit me. Please don’t….”
One of the two was a little boy. Same reddish hair as Thomas, but only about ten or so years old. And the boy was getting mercilessly punched by an older man with tattoos all over his body.
“I’m sorry. It’s my fault. It hurts.”
Why was the boy getting hurt like that?
The illusions soon changed. This time, it was an even younger Thomas, along with a young woman.
“Thomas, can you live with your papa now? You can live happily with him, right?”
“Is that old man my papa?”
“Yes. He’s your papa, now. That’s why, Thomas my son…. You must listen to what papa says, okay? Mommy will have to go somewhere really far for a little bit.”
“Please don’t go, mommy! Please stay!” Thomas clung to his mother and pleaded with her.
But a young boy didn’t have the necessary strength to stop a grown woman. And so, Thomas ended up living with a new ‘daddy’ who didn’t share a single drop of blood with him.
The man being a new father wasn’t the issue. No, the real issue was with him physically abusing Thomas because the boy’s mother ran away.
She abandoned her own son and instead chose her life.
“Daddy, I’m sorry. Daddy….”
“Who’s your goddamn daddy? You motherless bastard!”
Slap, pow-!
The days where the boy got hit far outnumbered those that he didn’t. Indeed, the latter instances were very rare.
The man would hit him just because their gazes met, after all.
Even then, Thomas stuck close to his new daddy. Because, he had no place to go.
Even after getting older, even after becoming an adult, it remained the same story.
His body didn’t hurt anymore, not like when he was little kid. But, his heart suffered hundreds, no, thousands of times more.
But then, one day, a new place Thomas could go suddenly materialized.
[Welcome to the Tower of Trials.]
His life changed from that day onwards.
Thomas didn’t return from the Tower of Trials. He didn’t want to return in the first place.
He ate, slept, and lived within the tower. Thomas, severely beaten and abused from a young age, ended up with a mind of a child trapped in the body of an adult man.
Shu-ruru-
Silhouettes of the adult version of Thomas, now possessing the powers of an awakener, and his ‘new daddy’ appeared on the other side next.
The ‘new daddy’ started lashing out at Thomas once more, while saying, “How dare you run away from me like your mother?”
But this time, he couldn’t win against Thomas’s strength and got flung away, instead.
“P-please, don’t hit me. Don’t hit me.”
Here was a man who could’ve been crushed to death with just a single flick of Thomas’s hand. He now possessed more than enough strength to do it.
Even then, the ‘new daddy’ came across too scary, too big, in Thomas’s mind.
And also….
“Please don’t hate me, daddy….”
The new daddy was forming a new type of expression as he stared at such Thomas. That day was the very first time he heard his new daddy speak in a gentle, affectionate voice.
“I’m sorry, my boy. Did it hurt a lot?”
“I love you, my son.”
The next day, Thomas received an awakener evaluation test, accompanied by his new daddy, of course.
That’s how he became an S-rank awakener. He must’ve been feeling happy about something, because for the first time ever, Thomas started smiling brightly.
Who knew whether or not that smile came from genuine happiness? That smile, as far as Su-hyeun could see, lacked so many things.
“Now listen well, my boy. If you enter the Ranking Wars and pass the preliminaries, Gordon Rohan will give you lots of money. You know what’s money, right?”
“Money?”
“That’s right. Son, all you have to do is to get that money, and give it to your daddy. Can you do that, son?”
“Son of a….” Su-hyeun groaned.
The illusions appearing before Thomas’s eyes were ‘traumas’ borne out of the darkened world’s effects.
Indeed, the skill, the darkened world, hadn’t disappeared yet. It was still resisting Su-hyuen’s power. And this was a reaction from that. The darkened world couldn’t penetrate his defenses and, instead, started nibbling away at its caster’s mind.
It seemed that Thomas wasn’t in full control of the darkened world yet.
“Well, now I don’t feel like fighting anymore, all thanks to that imbecile.”
Su-hyeun had been wondering why this dude seemed a bit mentally challenged compared to how he looked, and, as it turned out, factors innate and environmental in nature combined to cause this phenomenon.