Episode 148 – Eternity

*

I suddenly regained consciousness from the acrid smell of burning that stung my nose. My eyes burned.

As I slowly opened my eyes, which I had tightly closed at the moment of being swept up in the explosion, the familiar scenery came into view as my vision slowly cleared.

The high ceiling and walls were covered with dark red moss and vines that could never be considered natural plants, and the windows were all broken, allowing sunlight to pour in along with various vines.

The tiles on the floor were also shattered in a mess.

In the middle of the floor, a corpse, decayed to the point of being weathered, existed only as a trace, barely leaving a mark on the floor.

“Surprised? Ed.”

A familiar voice came from behind me.

However, I knew for sure that the owner of that voice was someone else.

I slowly turned around.

Ulgaros, with Robin’s face, was standing there.

Ulgaros chuckled and said.

“I told you I was hurting. I’d appreciate it if you’d consider it a small revenge.”

“…Ha,”

I laughed in vain.

It wasn’t because of Ulgaros’s petty revenge, accompanied by the sudden act of blowing up my statue, but because of Robin’s appearance that he had taken over.

I knew for sure that it was Ulgaros, but because of the appearance of Robin’s body, the memory of entering this place with Robin on the day I died was flashing through my mind.

From that time, after a long journey, I had returned here again.

Ulgaros raised his head and looked around his castle, spinning around once.

Then, he suddenly looked at me and said.

“Well, you’ve been in and out of here a few times already, but it seems like this is the first time we’re actually talking,”

“…”

“Welcome to my castle.”

I slowly approached Ulgaros.

Ulgaros smiled as he saw me approaching step by step, and spread his arms wide.

I also spread my arms wide and approached.

And then, wrapping my arms around Ulgaros’s neck,

“You should have said something, you son of a bitch!”

I kneed that face, which looked like Robin’s, upwards.

*

Robin regained consciousness and slowly opened his eyes.

He couldn’t remember exactly when he had lost consciousness, or when he had closed his eyes.

Robin’s last memory was hearing the Demon King’s taunts as he took over his body, and the scene of the huge statue modeled after him exploding, and Ed raising the Holy Sword.

Robin couldn’t bear to watch all the fame he had built up being so forcibly tarnished, so he lost consciousness.

And now, he had opened his eyes.

But even though he was clearly awake, nothing was visible in Robin’s sight.

It seemed he was trapped in a dark room.

Robin tried to rub his eyes, hoping they would quickly adjust to the darkness.

However, at that moment, a huge sense of incongruity washed over Robin.

It took Robin a little time to realize this strange phenomenon.

And the moment he finally realized it, Robin was shocked.

He had no hands.

No, he had no eyes either.

To be exact, Robin’s body was nowhere to be found.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t see anything, but that only his consciousness had awakened in a place where nothing existed.

Like when you realize you’re dreaming while dreaming, Robin thought he had regained consciousness inside his unconscious body.

Robin desperately tried to wake up.

However, Robin’s efforts were meaningless in a situation where he didn’t even know how to wake up.

He tried to pinch his cheek, but he had no cheek, and no fingers either.

He tried to shout, but he had no mouth or throat.

He tried to open his eyes, but he had no eyelids or eyeballs.

All Robin had was confusion and vague fear.

That’s when it happened.

Someone’s voice reached Robin.

“Are you awake now?”

Of course, Robin couldn’t answer.

In the first place, does it even make sense to hear something when you don’t have ears?

Was it just an auditory hallucination created by his own fear?

“It’s not a hallucination, I’m talking directly to your soul.”

Robin was startled.

It was as if someone was reading his mind.

It was a somewhat familiar voice.

“It’s me, Robin.”

The owner of the voice was Ed.

As soon as Robin realized that the voice was Ed’s, he was filled with anger.

However, unlike Robin’s feelings, he couldn’t shout or blush, so Robin couldn’t even ask Ed what he was doing.

But Ed surprisingly answered Robin’s question.

“Well, where are you? I don’t really know either, but at least as far as I can see, you’re inside a marble the size of my thumb.”

‘…?’

“What I mean is,”

Ed paused slightly.

He didn’t seem to have any intention of hiding the ridicule in his voice.

As Robin became more and more agitated, Ed said in a giggling voice.

“I extracted your soul.”

Robin’s mind raged, but nothing happened.

Ed continued to speak, responding to Robin’s angry thoughts.

“Well? I don’t even know how to put you back, and more than anything… I don’t even want to.”

“Someone to save you? Is there anyone? Your body is now the most infamous name in the Empire, isn’t it?”

“Let’s fight fair and square? You’re the one saying that? Ha, no. You’ve already lost.”

“Puhuhu, what I mean is…”

“You’re going to live in here forever. Without even being able to die.”

Robin’s mind became faint.

He had to live forever in this form of a bodiless spirit? In this world where he couldn’t see, hear, or touch anything?

If Robin had a body, he would probably be sweating profusely.

However, Robin still harbored a curse full of anger that heated his mind.

If he read his thoughts, Ed would be able to hear him.

But Ed mocked Robin as if to taunt him.

“Oh, Robin. I don’t know what such threats mean to me now,”

“Your family? Well, Daniel and Rose are dead, and Banata accused you. Lily was on my side from the beginning, and Edward and Tess are the only ones left, but I wonder if they’ll look kindly on you?”

“Your descendants? Oh, please, Robin. Banata is a demon. There’s no way she’ll give birth to a human child. Tess is also weak and can’t have children, and Edward is a priest, isn’t he? Lily? Well… would that child, who left that mansion since she was young, really raise your family’s name by having children? Wake up, you moron. Your glory is over. Just like your body.”

“The fame you built? It all disappeared when you became the Demon King’s body. Your family? They all left you. Your power? What power do you have now that you don’t even have a body?”

Edward sneered.

It was as if he could see Ed’s figure laughing at him in front of Robin’s non-existent eyes.

“Just like you did to me. I took everything from you too, Robin. But unlike you, I’m merciful, so I left you just one thing.”

“…”

“Your future.”

Robin was puzzled by Edward’s words.

But he was soon able to realize it.

‘…!!…!!..!!!..!’

He felt a terrible pain as his non-existent arms, eyes, hamstrings, solar plexus, and internal organs all burned and twisted at once.

Robin was tormented by the extreme pain.

It was a pain that couldn’t be explained by the word torment, but he had no arms or legs to thrash, no eyes to shed tears, and no waist to twist, so there was no way to explain it other than the word pain.

He felt the pain of dozens of small needles piercing his non-existent eyeballs.

The pain of non-existent limbs being torn off dozens, hundreds of times continued without a break.

At the same time, Robin’s soul screamed inaudibly in the bizarre pain of all ten fingers and ten toes being cut off joint by joint, and a red-hot iron being inserted directly into his belly, searing and stirring his internal organs.

Robin’s mind became infinitely faint, but never broke.

Rather, every time he felt like he was about to lose consciousness, a terrible pain would explode and wake him up.

That was inevitable,

Losing consciousness meant that the body couldn’t bear it and fainted.

But Robin had no body.

This terrible pain was the torture of his soul.

They say that in hell, the soul is tortured,

Robin realized with his whole body, no, with his whole soul, what that sentence meant.

Ed’s voice rang out clearly towards Robin’s suffering soul.

“Shall we toast to your new future that will never end? Oh, sorry, you don’t have hands.”

“Oh, you can’t do that yet, Robin. Why are you doing this? It’s only been a minute.”

“Until when? I said ‘forever’?”

Robin’s soul screamed.

Ed stopped talking for a moment, then slowly recited.

“Sorry?”

“You… did wrong?”

Ed’s voice was filled with anger, so much so that even Robin’s soul, which was out of its mind in pain, could clearly feel it.

It wasn’t a hot, explosive anger, but a cold anger that seemed to tear the skin just by touching it.

Ed was silently watching Robin’s pain for a long time.

Robin had already begun to lose his sense of time.

He didn’t know if it had been ten minutes or an hour.

Judging by his physical sensation, it felt like a year had already passed.

“It’s been two minutes now.”

Oh my god,

Ed said to Robin’s soul, which was desperately apologizing to him.

“Okay, Robin, let’s do this.”

‘…’

“How about 20 years? The period you lived by killing me and selling my name?”

Robin pleaded.

He didn’t have hands or feet, but he begged and begged really hard.

He couldn’t bear it.

No one can endure 20 years in this pain.

Ed sighed and said.

“Then let’s make it 100 nights. I’ll let you go after you sleep and wake up 100 times.”

Robin was puzzled.

Not 100 days, but 100 ‘nights’, like a word used to coax and soothe a child.

The terrible pain kept scattering his consciousness, so it was impossible to grasp the meaning with his flickering, flashing thoughts.

Ed said.

“But, I wonder if you can even fall asleep now?”

Robin finally realized.

Even the time of 100 days was infinitely distant to Robin, who felt like 1 second was like 1 hour.

Time had no meaning to Robin, who had lost his sense of time.

There was only one unit of time that Robin could count now.

‘Eternity’

A body that has undergone constant trials can become accustomed to pain.

What about the soul?

If not emotions that wound the heart and mind, but literally physical shocks and pain are poured into the soul, can the soul ever get used to that pain?

He didn’t know.

He couldn’t even think about it.

Robin miserably called out to Ed.

Please forgive him, please kill him

But after that last word, Ed never spoke to Robin again.

Robin did his best to call Ed.

He called his name, repented of his sins, and even tried to flatter him in ridiculous ways.

But Ed didn’t appear at all, as if he had thrown away the marble containing Robin’s soul somewhere.

Maybe he should scream, twist his body, and cry with his breath drawn in to get Ed’s attention.

But Robin couldn’t do anything.

Forever.

.