CHAPTER 428: TRAIN

I was lying in bed with Ai clinging onto me. She had her head resting on my shoulder and her arm and leg wrapped around my body. Her cold body was slowly making my eyes heavy. It was still pretty hot, given that we are already in September, but the cold will soon be on its way here, and I don’t know how I could adapt to her temperature then. Well, that is a worry for another time.

I looked at her peaceful face with a little grin, slowly moving as she took deep breaths in her sleep. She was still slowly snuggling me in this state. Is this a default setting for her? Looking back up, my mind wandered onto the other topic that I couldn’t think much about for a while.

Yuna.

My head started to flood with memories of the little time we spent together, including when that bastard killed her. I grit my teeth and covered my eyes with my hand as little tears started falling down my face. Ugh, I knew this would happen sooner or later, but it still hurt just as much as it did the first time. I was unable to protect her, again, and that bastard took her away from me, again.

Just how much do you plan on tormenting us, you fucking sadist? How long will you keep going after my family and Ai’s? Why is it that some psychopath like you has to be involved with our lives? Your mere existence is the reason for our pain. Do this world a favour and quietly die off somewhere.

Even if we didn’t spend too much time together, Yuna didn’t hesitate to fully trust me and came along with me because she was worried about me. If only I could have been stronger enough, if only Ethan would be the one taking control of my body instead of me. If only that were the case, maybe she would not have died.

"Thinking that way isn’t good for you, kid," I heard Ethan’s voice.

"You say that, but that doesn’t change what happened, does it?" I spoke.

"What you are saying has no logic behind it. Do you just want a reason to be angry about? Come on, this isn’t like you," he said, and something in me snapped.

"Who are you to even say that?! You haven’t known me for that long, so stop acting like you know everything about me!" I yelled at him, but he stayed quiet.

He is in my head, so there is no immediate damage he can do to me. I’m sure he would get all scary and talk in a cold voice now to me, asking me to calm down and remember who I am talking to. I don’t care who you are, you may as well be a deit,y and I don’t give a single fuck.

"Become strong," he said in a calm voice, surprising me. "You had to go through a lot, so I will spare you this one time, but if you don’t have what it takes, this will happen again. Over, and over, and over, all because you were too weak to protect yourself or anyone dear to you."

"Do you really think I don’t know that? Do you seriously think I sit here all day not hating every bit of my existence for being too weak to do anything? Ai had to go through some of the most horrible pains anyone could feel for I don’t know how long. Yuna is dead, and Meme and his team are too. This wouldn’t have happened if I were too weak. Do you seriously think I don’t understand that?!!" I snapped back yet again. "I know I am still too weak, I know I can’t stand on my own two feet, and now I am sitting here, turned into a creature no one has any understanding about, with strength and instinct I can’t control. Do you think I don’t know that?"

"You think sitting here and complaining will be the answer to your problems?" he kept speaking in a calm tone. "I understand how you feel. I have lost people dear to me, too, many times, and do you think when was the time that I stopped that from happening? It was when I was strong enough, when I didn’t spend time cursing other people for being stronger than me, and put in the effort to be strong. Kid, I have broken more bones, failed more organs, and had more concussions than every bread you have had in your entire life."

"..."

"I’m not asking you not to hate the person who did this to you. Hate him, with every matter of your being. If anything, I can say for a fact that is what Dominic wants. That is the kind of man he is. You didn’t almost die that day; you were spared. He gave you another chance to go away and come back stronger. Don’t spend that time on just cursing him," he said, and I felt up rage slowly building up in me hearing that bastard’s name. "Go to sleep."

"Huh?"

"You only interact with me properly when you are in the mindscape, right? Go to sleep, your training continues from today," he said, and his voice disappeared from my head.

I closed my eyes without another word and tried my hardest to go to sleep. Thanks to Ai being the best person to have holding you, it wasn’t that hard. I appeared before the black space yet again, and Ethan stood before me in a different outfit than his usual. He was only in a shirt and some shorts, which really showed how buff this man was. I mean, if you give more than a thousand years to something, you have to end up looking like that.

"You know, in the usual coat you wore, I thought most of the size came from how baggy it was. Consider me mistaken," I said, impressed. "How did you even work out that much, though? Aren’t vampires extremely strong?"

"When you are the king, getting weights heavy enough isn’t much of an issue, and Sarah really liked me with big muscles, so there was no way for me not to train," he said and got into a fighting stance. "Train your mind, get the sense of battle drilled in it. Your body has to move before you can even think; that is the key point of fighting a vampire."

"Wait- "

BOOM

"You thought," he said, and in a flash his nails were right in front of my eyes, missing them only by a millimetre. If they were any closer, I can’t even imagine the amount of pain I would be in. "So, you will be punished."

"ARGH!!!" I shouted as he stabbed his finger in my eye. I stumbled back, holding my eye, and dropped down to my knees. It hurt, far worse than I imagined. My entire vision just went black on one side, and the other saw nothing but red. Arrrgh, no matter how much I hold onto anything, the pain is not stopping.

"And this was for talking to me in an insolent tone," he said, wiping my blood off his finger as I continued to scream in pain. "Oh, calm down, you are not actually hurt. The pain isn’t real."

"Arrrgh...you say that b-but it still hurts like hell," I said as my eye quickly grew back, and all the pain I had completely vanished. "Huh? What?"

"This place is just of your own making; whatever you want will appear in disappear by your command. That includes every sensation," he said, and walked towards me. "You don’t even have full control of your own mindscape, so how do you plan on beating someone as sly as Dominic? Get used to pain, kid. This is the only thing that keeps you grounded in reality. It’s the only sensation that will never be a delusion. It hurts because something broke. Don’t let it break you. You are not a being who is allowed to be in this reality, so conquer it. That is who you are destined to be."

"You know I never asked to be like this?" I said, standing up, wary of his presence.

"Neither did I, but here I am creating an entirely different species that feeds on humans. Complaining will not take you anywhere. Now, be ready," he said. I got in stance and whip-like kick, hit my shoulder, throwing me right off my feet. I covered a good amount of distance before I could hit the ground, only to see Ethan appearing before me. He had his palm open and thrusted it right into my chest, breaking every one of my ribs.

"COUGH!" I wanted to scream due to the pain, but no air came out of my mouth as my lungs got crushed under it.

"Your trainer is easy on you because she is worried about actually injuring you. You will never learn to fight with your life on the line like that," he commented, standing over me. "She doesn’t have the heart to fully hurt you because she loves you, but that isn’t what you need. You don’t even know how much time you have before Dominic strikes again. Be prepared for hell, that is what you have to fight through if you want even a light chance of defeating him."

Yeah, he will kill me for sure.

"You can never fully die in your mindscape, so don’t worry, but I’ll make sure you beg for that death."

Okay, that is worse.

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