Autophagy

The monster released a burst of steam from its body, pushing Song Lei away slightly. After doing so, it readied all of its tentacles as if they were a rapier and pointed all of them towards Song Lei.

Song Lei could feel the upcoming doom as he had goosebumps all over his body. His sight blurred as his body was soaked with his own sweat. In his eyes, the monster didn't look like what it really was. Instead, it was more like death incarnate, baring its Scythe towards him.

This pressure broke something inside Song Lei. He felt the points he had put in his soul becoming useless. Against this monster's pressure, he felt like a normal person being haunted by a ghost. Such things couldn't scare Song Lei. However, he still had to somehow deal with the pressure.

Gritting his teeth, Song Lei's mouth revealed a wide smile. His tired eyes, his slightly slumped posture, and the way he did his best to stand upright...

'This is good...' Song Lei thought. All these negative emotions were supposed to drown him, to make him lose his mind. However, for some reason, they didn't have that effect on Song Lei. Instead, he felt an unreasonable joy in it. The more he sunk, the more he felt that awkward joy. The beating of his crazed heart, his erratic breathing, and the slight buzzing in his ear... None of them made him feel bad.

"Throw me everything you got, bastard," Song Lei said with a wide smile on his face. He raised the dagger in his hand. That smile of Song Lei made the tentacle monster uneasy. It was using its strongest attack on a normal human. There was no way that he would be able to put up a fight.

The tentacle monster gathered all of the energy it could muster up. This caused the surroundings to go silent. Everything seemed to come to a standstill. No one could breathe under such pressure.

Seeing that there was nothing that could interrupt its attack, it released all the energy it had gathered in one go.

As if the time and space themselves were torn down, the air crackled and burst around in waves even before the monster started moving. The wave of air made Song Lei's hair flutter. Although it was the sign of his impending doom, its chill calmed his body and mind.

As if the thunder god had descended in the world, a deafening noise resounded across the whole orphanage. Shockwaves spread through. They made their way like an earthquake, shaking every physical being on the premises.

The tentacle monster disappeared from its place. And before Song Lei could even realize what was going on, it appeared behind him.

"Fuc- Blergh!" Song Lei started puking out blood before he could even curse. As he lowered his head to look at his body, he realized that the right side of his abdomen had disappeared. This was a surprise to him. He was waiting for it to be much worse. After all, with such power, the monster could've easily severed his head.

Song Lei felt all the power leaving his body as the pain started registering. The adrenaline that was running through his body started losing its effects.

*Thud

Song Lei hit the ground with no strength remaining in his body.

"Huh... You held out much better than I expected," An unfamiliar voice said. Song Lei mustered all the strength he could and raised his head to look at who it was. Just like his voice, this person's face was also unfamiliar to Song Lei.

"W- William?" Aston muttered. He was currently lying down on the ground because of the pressure emitted by the monster's last attack.

"That's right," the man said with a stoic expression. This person was William. He was the person that had infiltrated into their house during their mission in Brighton. He worked for the Secret Blood Order. He was also the person who contacted Aston to hand out his missions from time to time.

Hearing Aston recognize him, Song Lei tried to speak. However, he couldn't push out any air from his lungs to speak. With time, all of his senses were fading away into the distance.

"Here, give this to him," William said as he threw a bottle towards Aston. Inside it was a green liquid. Aston nodded and gulped loudly as he caught the bottle midair. He then ran towards Song Lei and opened the lid of the bottle.

"Huh..." Song Lei grunted. In Aston's face was an expression he had never seen. It was filled to the brim with all kinds of emotions. Anger, fear, hate, and most importantly, worry... This kind of worry wasn't something Song Lei had seen on Aston's face. The fact that he was worried about him slightly warmed Song Lei's heart. Amidst the sea of coldness he felt, this warmness became even more prominent.

"Take this... You'll feel better..." Aston muttered as he made Song Lei drink the liquid. As he felt the warm liquid pass through his throat, Song Lei felt his consciousness finally giving out...

...

He tried to open his eyes but to no avail. He didn't feel like he had that strength in him. To wake up, to face the world again, to have to deal with his worries...

He was nothing and that nothingness made him feel comfortable. In the cold embrace of not existing, Song Lei felt himself giving up. The easiness of not worrying about anything... The warmth of being devoid of any meaning...

However, he had a lot more things that he had to do. Remembering all of them, he willed up all of his power and pulled himself out of the depths of the sea of unconsciousness.

He started coughing wildly as his senses started coming back one by one. The first thing he felt was the fact that he actually existed. He felt his arms and legs being there. As his proprioception settled in, Song Lei figured out how weak he had actually gotten. He tried to move his body to no avail.

Suddenly, a wave of overloaded senses hit his brain with information coming from all around him.

A slight buzzing, the metallic smell of blood and the chemical smell of medicine, an awkward dryness in his mouth accompanied by a bitter taste in his mouth...

His breathing was calm. He could feel his heart beating in his chest. Although its rhythm was incredibly slow, it beat strongly. So strong that you would be able to hear it from thirty centimeters away.

Finally, he managed to urge his face muscles to work. As his eyelids spread apart, Song Lei felt like he was going blind.

It took him quite a bit of time before he could get used to pure white invading his eyes.

"Ugh..." Song Lei tried to spit out a word, however, the only noise that left his mouth was a grunt. He did his best to slightly look down. He was currently in what seemed like a hospital bed with blue sheets.

The room he currently was in had a white color palette. Turning his head to his right, Song Lei saw a window. He didn't see any trees or building out of it, so he assumed that he was in a relatively high place.

The sky was bright blue with no clouds veiling it. The sun wasn't shining that brightly yet, indicating that it was still early in the morning.

As the buzzing in his ears passed, Song Lei focused to listen to his surroundings. In the distance, he could hear birds chirping and crickets doing their job. It was a calming situation that put a faint smile on his tired face.

Unlike what he expected, his body didn't hurt that much. Although there was a stinging pain in his abdomen, that was it. He had experienced much worse so this was nothing to him.

Suddenly, the room's door was opened.

A person wearing a doctor's suit entered the room with some papers in his hand. This was the doctor that had made Song Lei's check-up on his first day in the orphanage.

Seeing Song Lei awake, the doctor's eyes widened in surprise. He quickly walked to his side and sat next to him.

"Do you hear me?" The doctor asked. Song Lei opened his mouth to speak.

"Yes..." He said with a hoarse voice.

"How are your senses? Do you feel pain?" The doctor kept asking. Question after question, he ran a few quick tests on Song Lei.

"Huh... You have healed fast, incredibly fast actually. I thought that you would be in a coma for a few years," the doctor said as he read through the papers in his hands. "Anyways. Congratulations. You've made it through the hardest part. I will go now. You should rest as there will be some people that will want to visit you," the doctor said as he left the room.

Song Lei nodded slightly.

'I lived through....'