Chapter 505: Island of Devil’s Maw (11)
Cha Cha Cha. That was the sound of the axe falling on the tree and the sound of it falling on my ‘body’. Even though it was a bit slow but it was at least working and that… was enough.
When I was still a person, I would never believe that one day I would be so desperate for death. But now death is the only thing I ever wanted…
Al long time ago, I was someone who had no love for life because I had already had everything. I came from a rich and extremely powerful family. From young, I understood, I did need to work or contribute to get any needs satisfied. The only thing I needed to do was to open my mouth and demand.
My early youth was spent in public school, I believed that was because my parents wanted me to experience the life from the perspective of the commoner. I was glad to have been given that experience because I thought me many things, in fact one could say… it had changed my life. During that period, I would often hear the parents of my schoolmates tell them this, “do not lose at the starting line.”
Now many years later… thinking back, it was the saddest thing I have ever heard in my life. If life was really a race, then the first to cross the finish line would get nothing but an earlier appointment with death. The truth was there was no startling line because this was not a race. Only they were running, people like myself, we were born on horseback… we do not need to run and we would never be crossed by the others. But sooner I started to understand. The starting line that these people mentioned actually had nothing to do with me; they were hoping… their own children would not lose to the other racers.
But… even that, I could not say I agree with. The condition of one’s birth aside, ‘talent’ was a factor that could not be forced. Intelligence, appearance, talent, was similar natural gifts that could not be obtained by the commoners no matter how hard they tried. The only thing they had going for them was their diligence. But they failed to see that. They waste their time and energy, submerging themselves in self-aggrandizing illusions and meaningless hedonistic pleasure, wasting their youth away.
They are pitiable and yet… do not deserve any pity.
When I was a young adult, I left that environment and went to a place that someone like myself should have gone to in the first place. I saw a different world… one that was false, cruel and disgusting. The place was filled with people from the same background as I am. They were rich, temperamental and full of themselves. They made me miss my days at the public school, at least there, I had a few where I could call my real friends.
Time passed and I grew up in the best environment that my family believed they could provide me. When you’re Rome, do as the Romans do… Eventually I was sucked into the whirlpool around me and slowly got used to making faces with different kind of person, I also learned how to silence my conscience and dealt with annoyance in my life…
Finally, at the age of 43, I became the kingdom’s chancellor. I was the country’s youngest chancellor in history. I had so much power in my hands and a groupie that would have my back. My wealth could rival a small country and I was at the prime of my age. Men envied my life and women envied to be a part of my life. I had everything.
…
And naturally, what I would consider from that position… was how to maintain what I had forever. I started to reach out to control the country’s academy of science and magic in silence. Even the commander of the Royal Arcana Unit was my people. The whole country’s resource was in my service and they were all slaving… to help me how to achieve immortality. But… a decade passed and my mind started to dull and my physical body started to fall me. Even though I treated my body as a shrine, ‘illness and aging’, the devil came as expected. And the research into immortality was still going nowhere.
I started to stray from the path that was already getting darker. I visited the dark magic societies, the demon race and even personally visited the barrens beyond the confines of the country to search for exotic treasures. These were taboos among taboos but what did I have to lose, after all, the research into immortality itself was already an offense to begin with. The fear of aging and death made me throw caution to the wind.
With this premise, I have found them…
“Barren Kill Brothers”, a scary duo that only existed in legends. According to rumors, they were part of the Xin clan, or rather one of them was from the Xin clan… Of course, that was no important. The important thing was they were genius at alchemy. Even the commander from the Royal Arcana Unit told me that if there was anyone in the world who could come up with the spell for immortality, it would be this pair of brother.
I was overjoyed and hope started to sing in my heart. But now looking that… perhaps that was the prelude of despair.
I found the brothers, Arthur and Andrew. They took many valuable treasures from my personal treasury as reward but I did not feel a pinch of pain. As long as I could gain immortality, gaining more wealth was easy as pie. On my 54th birthday, the alchemy that I had been waiting for finally had been completed.
Everything from that day was a blur. I could not remember the exact detail, the only memory that I had was that transitory sense of pain and terror. When I recovered my consciousness, I had arrived at this place—Island of Devil’s Maw. This was not my world, those two wicked liars had sent me to a different dimension to proffer me before a demonic god. The Executioner, the highest deity of the Xin Clan. I was made into a sacrifice and transported into his dimension and forced to kneel before him…
Then I found out a truth that was extremely laughable, sad and at the same time, so scary—the Executioner was just yet another prisoner on this island. But for this prisoner, to deal with someone like me was so easy. My magic was child’s play before his eyes and they dissipated like smoke.
I was ‘sewn’ by the god into a giant mocking tree. Every needle every thread… went in and out of my body. He applied a curse on me. I… got what I wanted, immortality. I could not even kill myself, this was true immortality.
Time became senseless, who knew how many years had passed… I slowly became absorbed into the tree behind me. Initially, I thought the mocking words of the tree was meant to be a form of torture but eventually… I got used to it. Until the day, it died. Even the mocking tree could not live forever, they too would die. When the time came, they would cease talking and became a normal tree.
That day, I cried but no tears came. From that day onwards, my sole accompaniment was endless loneliness. Even one mocking words became a dream of luxury.
I was reminded of a song from a drunk poet that I overheard when I was walking down the street, “Wine, Women, Avarice and pride, they are all flowers in a mirrors and moon in the water. Fame, honor, position and power, they are all clouds in the sky.”
I have lived a long enough life. But the only hollow that shall not be filled is human desire. Human beings had ignored the most important thing but went searching for those illusions. So when they died, they left nothing behind but regret. I have paid a lot for my greed but thankfully… it is going to be over soon.
Ah… It’s about to break soon, just a few more chops.
The things that I am seeing now, these clear memories, are they from my long life…
Hmm? Are you Death? Perfect, I have been waiting for you for so long… for far too long.