Painful Transformation

"You're blind aren't you?" He said in a slow manner and in the next moment he grabbed Aiden's face between his fingers.

Aiden felt a biting cold on his face as the cold and metallic feeling of the Soul Sovereign's armor invaded his senses.

He shuddered as he heard the Soul Sovereign's raspy voice "It appears that my message eludes your grasp, I didn't tell you to give up. Nevertheless, since you're so blind, I'll help you see!"

"Whoosh!"

Aiden suddenly felt the world around him collapse, before stabilizing once again, and in that moment he found himself in a familiar hospital room, his mind hazy and clouded.

"Beep!"

"Beep!"

The mechanical sounds of a pulse monitor could be heard inevitably drawing one's attention, the room was big, bathed in the smell of drugs and disinfectants, and in that room was a familiar woman.

Aidan's gaze softened a bit at the sight of this woman, his balled fists loosening and his annoyance clearing up like it had never been there in the first place, but just as he was about to fully relax.

"Grugru!"

The ground suddenly started trembling, as the building shook intently, prompting Aiden to run towards the window as he looked around in confusion.

He wasn't the only one though, thousands of confused people walked out of their stores, vehicles, and homes as they looked above them trying to discern the problem.

Aiden suddenly had a very bad feeling, like a lump in his throat that wouldn't go away.

He suddenly felt the hell energy around him rising rapidly, and then he heard it.

"Crack!"

A deafening crack similar to the sound of glass breaking filled his ears.

Quickly Aiden looked up and all he saw were falling shards reflecting the sun's light in a grandiose manner.

It took a while but Aiden finally realized what those falling shards were, "the barrier," Aiden muttered as his face paled.

"Bam, Bam, Bam," Aiden heard something behind him prompting him to quickly turn back, his gaze filled with dread as he saw his mother convulsing, and just before his eyes she stopped moving.

"Beeeeeeeeep!"

The pulse monitor let out a long and unending beep that seemed to disorientate Aiden even more, sending him deeper into the rabbit hole of confusion.

Aiden's mother wasn't the only one experiencing this.

As the deafening cracks continued to echo through the air, everyone crumpled to the ground.

Aiden, his gaze diluted, didn't run to his mother as he knew exactly what was happening, there was no way to save her.

Ordinary people, unaccustomed to the torment of hell energy, succumbed to the brutal reality, as they convulsed on the ground.

Once a normal human experienced hell energy shock for the first time, it would lead to instant shock but with the help of medical equipment, it was possible to keep them alive in a comatose state.

The second time on the other hand meant instant death, no questions asked.

Aiden's mother, having experienced hell energy shock twice had lost her battle, her life extinguished by forces beyond her.

In a daze, Aiden left the hospital room, his mind living in this moment of grief.

Avoiding the convulsing employees Aiden wandered out of the hospital, where the world had fallen into disarray.

People stared blankly at their fallen loved ones, some weeping inconsolably over their lifeless forms.

As Aiden walked he stumbled upon a taxi, its driver convulsing in the front seat from the overpowering energy.

Aiden, undeterred, pushed the incapacitated driver aside and drove slowly through the shattered city.

He wasn't the only survivor though. Around the shelter, chaos unfolded.

People who wore clothing marked with black and white crosses ran rampant, they were Contractors.

Contractors, immune to hell energy shocks, seized the opportunity for mayhem.

Looting, fights, violence, and vandalism painted a grim picture of humanity's unraveling.

Among the chaos, some normal survivors, inexplicably spared, stood helpless, and Aiden watched the expression on their faces reflect their feelings of sadness and grief.

In just a few minutes after the barrier shattered, he saw people steal, he saw people rape, he saw people jump down from buildings, he saw people cry, like an unraveling, a sick and twisted unraveling.

With the barrier gone the sky seemed clearer, clear enough to see the smoke rising in the distance.

As Aiden drove he saw chaos, and something about him seemed to despise this atmosphere, who wouldn't, but it wasn't the people's suffering that irritated him, it was some kind of familiar feeling.

It didn't seem natural, this whole scenario seemed like the work of some higher power, but that wasn't all.

"Roar!"

A roar could be heard in the distance as a massive pink lotus flower could be seen from afar, casting an eerie light on the desolation.

The air hummed with tension until a deafening explosion shattered the fragile stillness.

Amidst the ruins, the Soul Sovereign materialized behind Aiden, his raspy voice cutting through the devastation. "Is this enough?" he asked, a haunting question hanging in the air.

Aiden didn't turn back and just drove the taxi in silence for over an hour.

"What is this irritating feeling?" Aiden finally spoke, and the Soul Sovereign's raspy voice responded. "This is Matter energy, from the Matter Sovereign."

"Matter Sovereign?" Aiden echoed, and the taxi was enveloped in silence once more.

"Matter is just the most renowned," The Soul Sovereign said breaking the silence before darting in.

"While she is called Matter, we are called Soul, while she is called Chaos, we are called Order, and while she is called End, we are Origin."

"Is that so?" Aiden muttered, before saying. "You said that the last participant stole the Soul armor, aren't you some cosmic being or something why couldn't you stop him?"

"The reason the last participant was able to steal the Soul armor was that he had Chaos energy or Matter energy," the Soul Sovereign spoke as he added.

"Though my semblance may exude power, my reach remains confined, a mere specter residing within the recesses of your subconscious. With the Matter Sovereign now in possession of the Chaos armor, it stands to reason that she has wrought its transformation to harmonize seamlessly with her chosen successor."

"Whoosh!"

The Soul Sovereign suddenly appeared on the front seat, as the still convulsing taxi driver was randomly teleported to the back seat, looking out the window he said.

"The Chaos Sovereign's successor grows stronger, but you are still this weak, once the Matter Sovereign passes her tenth baptism, an equivalent to your tenth gate you lose."

"Why would I lose?" Aiden asked before darting in, "It's not like we have had some kind of disagreement before, I don't even know this person."

The Soul Sovereign suddenly turned to Aiden giving him a long stare as he said. "The reason why the game is lost when she passes her tenth baptism is that far beyond the threshold of the tenth gate lies a power that transcends mortal constraints, a realm reserved for the ascendancy of gods."

"It is here that one could harness True Soul energy, while she, in parallel, commands True Chaos energy. Alas, bereft of the Soul armor, passage through the tenth gate remains an elusive dream."

"True Soul energy? Aren't I wilding it now?" Aiden asked in confusion, but the Soul Sovereign just chuckled.

"Let me simplify it so your little brain can understand. If you had even a strand of True Soul energy, Three Face wouldn't be able to poison you, if you had even a strand of True Soul energy a wave of your arm would be energy to destroy your solar system."

"You can't wield True Soul energy without the completed Soul armor. Your foe on the other hand doesn't have this disadvantage, so you have to defeat her before she undergoes her tenth baptism, if you don't, true to her nature, she will destroy everything."

After hearing this Aiden didn't say anything anymore, and neither did the Soul Sovereign, this persisted for a few hours until Aiden spoke.

"You know, since this is all fake, a scenario orchestrated by my own consciousness, your words really lack credibility, I don't know if I can believe you."

"Haha," a raspy chuckle escaped the Soul Sovereign once more before he said.

"Oh, but you do know Aiden, more than anyone that what I say is true, but you are right about one thing, this whole world is fake, merely a reflection of the distant future, so why don't you return to the real world, if you're lucky your breakthrough will come with a change, also, I find the way you consume souls quite wasteful, there is a way to consume souls without killing the target."

With that Aiden suddenly felt his world distort once more before clearing up.

---------

(Reality)

As the world cleared up Aiden's eyes took a while to adjust, before he noticed what seemed to be a reddish glow.

The air smelled of minerals and sulfur, making Aiden uncomfortable as the hot air caused beads of perspiration to flow down his forehead.

"Ahhhhh!"

Aiden suddenly let out a scream of agony as the illusion of an open gate echoed in his mind.

Before he could take in his surroundings he was suddenly hit with a wave of pain, terrifying and agonizing pain.

Mai who was still battling with her injuries was caught off guard by Aiden's sudden scream.

Unlike Aiden who had gone through different situations in his head before arriving back to reality, Mai had been here the entire time.

To her, only a few minutes had passed since they survived the raging currents when suddenly Aiden started screaming.

Mai, both surprised by Aiden's durability and quick recovery watched as he convulsed and threw himself around like a fish in a frying pan.

Aiden on the other hand didn't care. All he felt was heat, a boiling heat that made him want to tear everything to shreds.

It was his soul energy, the energy stored at the depth of his bones was heating up, and he couldn't do anything about it.

Unlike other times when his soul energy helped him heal, that wasn't the case for this scene.

As the overpowering soul energy heated up every inch of his skeletal system, Aiden's movements had long since become involuntary.

"Ahhhhh!"

"Bam!"

"Bam!"

The sounds of repetitive thuds, which were suppressed by Aiden's screams livened the quiet cave.

Aiden, the source of a symphony of pain and agony had become nothing more than a specimen for Mai to gaze upon in wonder and astonishment.

She wondered what was causing him so much pain that he wiggled like that, accumulating faint cuts and bruises from the hard rocks around the cave.

Aiden's outward appearance right now looked disheveled and unkempt, his soul armor was scratched with many tiny holes on the back.

His entire body was wet, a trait they both shared, but even with that she couldn't understand what was causing Aiden so much pain.

"Ahhhhhh!"

The pitch of Aiden's screams increased, but Mai didn't say a word, she just stared at Aiden with a scrunched face.

"What the fuck is wrong with you," Mai cursed in her mind, even though Aiden seemed to be in pain, he wasn't the only one in that ordeal.

Because of Aiden's reckless behavior, she had broken her spine.

She too was suffering, and Aiden's screams increased her suffering by a large amount. She didn't for once think that they had gotten this far thanks to Aiden's recklessness.

As Mai pondered Aiden's plight, she noticed a strange stillness in the air.

Aiden had stopped screaming, instead, he lay motionless on the ground like a corpse.

Now that he was still she noticed something that she hadn't before.

"Steam?" She muttered in confusion as she squinted her eyes at Aiden's body.

Indeed his body was now emitting a kind of darkish steam from his pores, easily distinguishable from the cave's water vapor.

The cave was suddenly filled with the smell of cooked meat.

And Mai, knowing the source felt like throwing up.

Aiden on the other hand didn't understand what was going on.

He could feel a thin veil of soul energy around his brain, stopping it from sending signals to his body, he couldn't feel his brain explicitly, but he could feel the soul energy and the subtle vibrations those signals made as they hit the veil around his brain.

This was an odd feeling for Aiden but he couldn't enjoy it, and neither did he have the time to.

The reason for this was simple, although the veil stopped his brain from sending signals to his body, it made no attempt to prevent the opposite.

This meant that his body could still send signals to his brain, in fact, the veil of soul energy seemed to amplify that signal making Aiden painfully aware of everything that was going on in his body.

Of course, Aiden would come to find out that the actual process was much more complicated than he thought.

"Cack!"

Aiden suddenly heard a crack echo against his ears, as his bones moved on their own, slightly shifting his muscles as they did so.

"Crack!"

Another sound echoed in his ears, but Aiden couldn't speak.

If he could the only thing that would be escaping his mouth was a scream of agony.

Aiden could feel it all, his muscles resisting as his bones twisted in the wrong directions, the changes were more rapid in his spine as Aiden could practically feel large reserves of his soul energy gathered there.

"Crack!"

Another crack could be heard as his pelvis broke in half, but before Aiden could savor the pain, he felt his pelvis heal up again.

"Crack!"

This constant circle of destruction and healing put Aiden through more pain than he'd felt in his entire life.

Mai watched as Aiden's body twitched and twisted involuntarily until he was facing the ground.

Aiden had stopped moving, and no one was happier about it than Aiden himself, but he seemed to have celebrated too soon as what followed was even more shocking.

"Ripp!"

Aiden's armor was suddenly ripped open from the back as though some kind of alien parasite was bursting out of him, the force was so great that it forced Aiden from a lying position to a crawling position.

Blood and flesh splashed on the floor, as different bodily fluids leaked from every pores of Aiden's trembling body.

Mai watched as a dark material extended from Aiden's backside a moment she would never forget.

Because of the mist, Mai couldn't see clearly enough to discern what this long flexible thing was.

But she could roughly measure it, it had the width of three fingers placed side by side, and as for the length, that was difficult to discern because the flexible material seemed to be extending and retracting at the same time.