Autophagy

'Fuck...' Song Lei cursed. He found a cloth and tucked it in his mouth. In just a second, he felt a sharp pain in his head. Then he saw some weird visions. They were events that never really happened. It was a bit like imagining embarrassing scenarios for no reason. The problem was, those visions were horrific. Him being devoured by a monster. His dad killing Ai in front of him. Him killing Jia Feng...

Visions and the sharp pain continued for some time, then it all stopped.

"Is it over?" Song Lei thought to himself. Suddenly, he collapsed on the floor.

'Where am I?' He thought. He was in a dark space. It wasn't that there was no light. For example, Song Lei could see his hand just fine. Rather, there was nothing to see other than himself in this place.

After spending a few seconds in this dark space, he woke up.

"*Yawn... What was that?" Song Lei asked out loud while yawning. It felt like he had slept for a few hours of time and woke up. 'Is it over no-..?'

*Thud

He fainted again. He was in the same dark space he was in just before.

"What?" He asked. He couldn't comprehend what was happening. He woke up again. His mouth twitched while smiling. 'This is going to be hard,' he thought. Then he fell asleep again.

Again and again... Waking up, sleeping, at one point, he couldn't even separate one from another. Flickering in and out of consciousness was slowly tearing his mind up. Everything he felt was amplified. Hundreds of times... Thousands of times... Millions...

No matter how much he woke up, it wouldn't end.

Bloody tears started gushing out of his bloodshot eyes. He felt like his brain was on fire as his blood pressure kept rising. He couldn't form proper thought anymore as the time concept started distorting for him. He spent countless billions of seconds waking up from that dark space.

His veins bulged and his eyes expanded like they were trying to pop out of their sockets.

"K- Kill me..." Song Lei whispered. Isabel couldn't understand so she went over to his side. In real life, only a few minutes had passed. She wanted to do something for him but she couldn't. First of all, she had no idea what to do. Furthermore, Song Lei had told her to never interfere no matter what happens to him. She couldn't choose what to do.

She got on her knees and brought her ear to Song Lei's mouth to understand what he was saying. When she finally understood him, she bolted backward.

"Killmekillmekillmekillkillkillkillkillkilliklll."

Song Lei hadn't felt something this horrific in his life before. Every second of his existence was an unimaginable pain to him. Initially, he was feeling like would die from exhaustion. But later on, he was scared that he would never die. He wanted to evaporate. Become nothing so he wouldn't have to go through this pain anymore. His sister, Jia Feng, Damien... He just didn't care anymore. The only thing he wanted was to disappear forever...

He stopped. Song Lei stopped whispering and closed his eyes for a single moment. The pain was gone. He was the only person who knew what he had experienced in these few minutes. Explaining it wouldn't be of any use as words couldn't convey how much pain he had experienced. Even so, he didn't break. He didn't let himself go and managed to pull through it somehow.

Song Lei wiped the blood tears off of his face and straightened up. His movements were sluggish and he would stare at the same place for a few seconds every time he turned his head. He looked inside the room for some time and tried to remember.

'Right...' He thought. His name and memories slowly came back to him as the pain he had experienced just now was pushed away into a faraway corner of his mind.

He turned his head towards Isabel and smiled.

"Thanks for not interfering," he said. As Isabel looked into Song Lei's eyes, she saw indescribable pain in them. Just a few moments ago, there was a young man with pure emotions and hope in those eyes. But now, his eyes were like someone else's. They were deep like black holes. There was pain in those eyes, settling just next to his pure soul.

"No problem," Isabel said. Two lines of tears slid down her cheeks as she started crying silently. She cried for this young soul. As whatever he had experienced was probably of unimaginable hardship. She cleaned her eyes and spoke, "Is it over now?"

Song Lei closed his eyes for a moment and thought. He opened them again and said, "No. There's still a bit more to go. I've come this far. Keep watching."

Isabel was initially going to refuse but when she saw his reassuring smile, she decided not to do so.

All this while, Song Lei was thinking about what would happen next. From what he could deduct. The Tri-force skill was purifying him. It was a bit like those martial artists expelling black substance from their pores in wuxia novels. Albeit much, much worse.

'From what I could understand, it first purified my body, then it purified my mind. It seems to go in order of my stats,' he thought while clasping his hands over his head. 'The only one left is soul.'

He kept waiting for tingling to come. Pain to fill his body. He had probably already experienced the most possible pain he could endure. Any more than this and he would truly collapse.

Song Lei kept waiting but nothing seemed to change. After a few minutes of waiting, something other than a tingling came. Everything went dark. There was a mirror standing in front of him. He got up and touched it. It was a normal mirror. There was nothing weird about it. Suddenly, he heard spotlights turning on. Blinding light shone on him.

After getting used to the blinding light, he heard another sound. It was an instrument. A violin was being played from seemingly nowhere.

"What is..-" Song Lei was about to say as his words were cut off by the new instrument. This time, it was an electro guitar riff. He turned back to the mirror and looked at his face. His reflection was pretty much the same, except his eyes. His eye sockets were empty. The creepy smile of his reflection made his hair stand on its end. Then, another instrument started playing. This time, it was a drum. Song Lei turned away from the mirror and tried to locate the source of the light.

Suddenly, a cacophony of sounds exploded. The guitar, the drum, the violin, sounds of a computer fan, noises of countless guns, exploding shells, screams of the innocent, evil laugh of the sinners, a church bell ringing, god calling his name, cries of a newborn, sun's voice...

Everything went silent. Only one remaining was that faint violin sound, slowly creeping its way into Song Lei.

"What... is that melody...?"

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