No Pain, No Gain 3

When Carl saw that Polemos was lifted off the ground slightly he chanted another line.

"Blood falls, and Blood rises, Blood for the Beast!"

Then Carl grabbed two more low-tier Mana Stones and placed them in two squares. The moment he placed the two stones the blood red tendrils started to move slowly as they pulled Polemos and started to stretch him out.

The moment the tendrils started and tried to move Polemos he screamed in agony as the pain intensified as the tendrils weren't gentle as they pulled regardless if Polemos wanted to.

It was hard not to twitch, pull back, or scream as everything he tried didn't help but, from time to time when his hair moved the Death Bells chimed helping to sooth his mind the best it could. Unfortunately it lessened it only slightly as the longer the tendrils washed the further the pain intensified.

A good sized puddle of blood was below Polemos as he continued to scream in pain. The pain started to lessen if you could even call it that as Polemos was fully stretched out like a scarecrow.

'Fuck, it hurts, it hurts so much. This better be worth all the pain and suffering. If this is the amount of pain an individual goes through when they Mana Wash their marrows, then the brain must be worse. At least the Death Bells are helping if only slightly it's a nice refreshing feeling, then back to pain.' Polemos was trying to keep his mind from falling into madness from all the pain he was feeling.

'How much longer do I need to go through with this Mana Washing'

When that thought went through Polemos's mind, the tendrils started to do something that even Carl didn't expect and worse. He couldn't do anything to stop it as if he did the array would have a backlash killing Polemos and possibly Captain.

The tendrils of Mana were taking a slightly darker tone and trembling. When the trembling stopped the tendrils took on a red black color as it started to dig further into Polemos's bones and marrow.

Before Polemos's mind finally snapped he heard a cold and soothing voice that one could fall asleep for eternity spoke to him.

"Fall and focus on my voice."

Polemos tried as he focused on the cold and soothing voice as it brought him comfort as well warmth.

The moment the red black tendrils drilled further and deeper was when Polemos's mind finally snapped and he went limp but the tendrils didn't care as they continued to Wash and dig further.

Polemos slowly opened his eyes as he was regaining focus, when he was able to properly focus and see he was shocked by what he saw. It wasn't the inside of Carl's tent as the entire sky was dark with silver lights that flashed and flickered at random intervals. But what surprised him was when he felt his head laying on something incredibly soft while a refreshing yet cold smell was in the air.

Polemos had a smile on his face as he felt the softness behind his head and the cold yet refreshing smell lingering in the air. But a cold and soothing voice entered his ears, making his smile twitch as his purple eyes shook slightly.

"Comfortable."

"Yes." Polemos spoke without thinking.

"I'm glad." Replied the cold and soothing voice as she continued.

"I don't wish to be rude, but should I call you Jason or Polemos? Oh and where are my manners? I'm Death and welcome to the inside of your head."

When Death finished her introduction Polemos looked in the direction of the voice and saw a beautiful and angelic face, with a beauty mark near her left eye. Her pure black hair flowed like a waterfall, with a lovely smile on her lips.

"Beautiful. Polemos."

Polemos spoke without thinking as he looked at her beautiful pure white eyes.

But when he spoke, Death heard no hesitation, only honesty in his voice as her smile deepened.

"Are you scared of me?" She asked as she was interested as there wasn't any falsehood behind his simple response.

"Yes." Polemos again didn't lie and honestly answered.

Her smile deepened further.

"Why?" Death asked one final question.

"Death is something that comes for us all. It's a beautiful but scary truth that we all must acknowledge. And I've already experienced your scariness once already but your beauty right now has me in utter awe."

Polemos slowly reached towards Death's face as he wanted to embrace her cheek in his hand. Death didn't dodge but looked deeply into his eyes as he spoke and ignored him reaching for her face.

When Polemos embraced her cheek he felt a cold but soothing feeling spreading across his palm as she even leaned towards his hand, as she continued to look into his purple eyes.

They held that position for an unknown time, then Death closed her eyes as she took his hand into hers as she sighed with reluctance in her cold and soothing voice.

"I wish this could have lasted longer, I'll await our next moment, Polemos."

When the last syllable left her mouth Polemos found his eyes become extremely heavy as he couldn't fight them to remain open.

Polemos awoke with a groan as he realized he felt wet and sticky all over his back and tried to move but regretted it the moment he tried as he felt nothing but pain throughout his body. Then he heard a deep and bloody laughter from Carl.

"Looks like yer alive, by the way don't move as you're in massive pain right now."

Polemos groaned out as he slowly brought himself to a seated position and spoke.

"Wouldn't call it massive, I would call it annoying personally. How long was I out?"

Carl shrugged as he tried to guess.

"Both the moons should be heading on their descent by now and the sun should be up shortly after. But I could be wrong." Then rubbed the back of his head as he had an embarrassed look on his face.

When Polemos saw Carl's face he could help but ask.

"What the hell happened?"

"I just woke up like 5 minutes ago. The whole Mana Washing your marrows took on a twist that I didn't expect and honestly I thought you were dead." Carl spoke with an embarrassed look on his face but Polemos also noticed his eyes looked in a different direction.

"Yeah, yeah unfortunately I'm not, and don't worry if I died from something like this then shit happens man. Plus care to explain what happened then because I don't remember what happened after it went dark." Polemos had a longing look in his purple eyes as he looked at the blood he was laying in as his hand unconsciously grabbed his black scale necklace.

"How's Captain?" Polemos asked as he continued to grab the black scale necklace.

"Oh Captain, passed out asleep. He was barely able to last till the end and somehow broke to the next Mana Stage. Finally becoming a Magician." Carl had a smile on his face and laughed slightly as he couldn't believe Captain also increased his strength.

Polemos had a wondering look in his purple eyes when he heard Carl mention the word Magician as this was the first time hearing the next Stage in Mana. But the moment he tried to ask Carl to explain what the Magicians stages were like he felt his body become extremely heavy and his mind felt really tired.

Polemos fell forward on his face, covering himself in blood, as he was already in a deep sleep in a pool of his own blood like it never bothered him at all.

Carl only shook his head and sighed when he saw Polemos fell forward and was asleep as he cracked his burly neck while his arms crossed his chest.

"There it is, normally one doesn't awake after they Mana Wash their marrow." Carl had a wondering expression on his face but he shook his head and thought otherwise as he remembered that cold and dark feeling before Polemos passed out.

"Just what is going on?" Carl said aloud before he started to clean up everything in his tent placing both Captain and Polemos on cots as he started the long process of cleaning up the marrow washing array and the blood.

Carl wasn't able to finish until the sun was high in the sky.

When he was all done he sat behind his desk as he pulled out an old wooden pipe placed in his mouth and lit the end with his thumb. He took a long and deep drag and slowly released all the smoke through his nose as he pulled out a new journal and wrote about everything that happened to give it to Polemos when he woke up.

Carl was about halfway through writing in the journal before he heard a groan come out of Captain. When he saw Captain slowly moving around he took another long drag from his pipe releasing the smoke as he smiled and continued to write in the journal.