Side Story: Ivan [Part 3]

"OOH!! Will this also work on a body~~!" The old mage shouted in euphoria as he swayed in the dirty house. Ivan slowly made his way towards the now young boy with a toothy grin covering his face. "Today, I shall start breaking this thing's curse!"

He waved his hand, and the boy floated towards him. "Haha! This fucking thing. It didn't trouble me for any short time — hack! hack!" Ivan broke into a coughing fit. The young boy's mouth curved downwards. This wasn't the first time he saw the old man coughing. Was he sick? Would he die? The young boy was filled with worry, yet he never voiced it out.

Ivan hurriedly put the six-year-old boy on the floor, face first, and stretched his hands outward. "Let's engrave on you first." The boy's eyes went wide. Engrave? Did he hear that right? He had read about engravings. Magic that wasn't instantaneous or used constant energy from the caster was evoked as engravings. Nothing wrong there. But his books also talked about human engravings. Not a single person had ever survived the pain.

The boy slowly felt his senses come back, but it was too late. Before his fear could even clutch his heart, excruciating pain assaulted his back. As if someone had laid out each cell on his back and placed a whole ton of ore on it, he felt his back being crushed. Scalding heat burned them as every single nerve in his body screamed in agony. His eyes bulged outward, and his eardrums blasted out. He could feel his brain overloading on painful stimuli as he finally lost hold of his sanity.

"Ah," His voice resounded. Had someone dropped a pin, his voice would have been buried in there. Just as he spoke, he forgot all the pain he had been feeling. His overheated mind cooled down as he regained complete control of himself.

Why, had he never spoken till now?

"You! Y—you! YouyOuYoUyouYOUyouyoUyOuYouYOuyouYoUUYouy0uyouyouyouyouyouyouyou"

He finally remembered.

"Di...dd... Did you just..."

He remembered the memory that his mind had sealed away.

"You...need to be punished. YES! punishedpunishedpunishedpunishedpunishedpunishedpunished..."

He remembered that one instance...

"[Special Grade Spell: Thousand Years of Hell]

...in which he spent a thousand years in hell.

**

The boy opened his eyes. Barely an instance had passed, but with what he recalled, and what he just experienced. His mind had already lived for 2006 years. But he was nothing like what one of his age should be. He had only known 2003 of torture, after all. At least he had enough sense to think about all this.

His eyes had lost all their gleam as they moved around the room. He gazed over at the grimy coating of the moss-covered floor. Shuffling from book to apparatus when they finally stopped.

The shock he had felt in hell was nothing compared to what he was witnessing right now. There, on the floor, laid Ivan. In a pool of blood leaking from his mouth and nose. Laughing in the arms of death.

"Hahaha!! It works, it works! My trick works! My medicine will work! Hack! Hack! Its cost is heavy but that can be fixed! Hack! Hack!"

The young boy weakly stood up and rushed towards Ivan. His feet stopping right next to Ivan's limp body. The old mage laughed, continually growing weaker and weaker, while the boy stood next to him. Worried, perplexed, sad... And elated.

Ivan laughed and then laughed some more until 2 days passed by...

... and the greatest mage passed away.

**

A week had passed. The young boy stood next to the dead mage the whole time. There was no healing magic anymore, so his throat was parched and his stomach caved in. It was useless. To stand next to him was useless. Just what was he doing? He was now all alone. In this small world, there was no one other than the boy. Maybe he should join the man?

Magic. It was all because of that filthy magic. Ivan died due to magic. Ivan hated due to magic. Ivan went crazy due to magic. If only it didn't exist. If only it didn't exist. If only it didn't exist. If only it didn't exist. If only it didn't exist. If only it didn't exist. If only it didn't exist. If only it didn't exist. If only it didn't exist. didn't exist.didn't exist.didn't exist.didn't exist.didn't exist.didn't exist.didn't exist.didn't exist.didn't exist....

If only...

Creak~

The sound of a door opening resounded in the air.

"Excuse me, is someone—Ahem! Ahem! What the fuck! So damn dusty!"

The old mage maintained a spell around him. As long as he was around, no one could enter the house and no one could leave.

"Ah! Holy Medax! Is that child! Oh, my god!" The man rushed over to the young boy. He had beautiful amethyst eyes and wore a black coat that matched it. The man grabbed the boy's shoulders and dusted him. He placed a hand on his forehead and looked for any injuries while the young boy stared into his deep eyes.

"Hey, hey. Little kid. It's ok now. Tell me, what's your name?"

What was it?

What was his name?

"... Ivan"