Chapter 330: Soul
Arwin wasn’t sure how long he spent in the ocean of lava. It could have been an hour. It could have been a day. It could have been a year. It could have been ten. The moment his soul was plunged into the sea of molten orange, all conscious thought ceased like it had been stolen straight from his mind.
Not having a physical body should have been a mercy. Pain was only pain. It should have been something that could be pushed through. At least, that was what he had thought.
He couldn’t have been more wrong.
A lack of a physical form meant there was no way for the agony to end. There was no skin to burn away or heart to cease its beating. There was only the molten heat pressing in on him from every direction.
It burned skin that could not burn and pumped through his lungs in place of air. Drowning in lava should have been theoretically impossible. Any normal body would have given out within moments or, at the very least, gone into shock.
Arwin was not granted such a mercy. His thoughts were stripped away from him in waves. They burned in place of his flesh, and no amount of struggling or screaming could free him.
The pain was like nothing he had ever felt. It went beyond agony and into a realm that was something beyond. He could feel his very soul being ripped apart by the scorching heat, reduced to nothingness.
But even that didn’t have the good grace to come quickly. Demise crept toward him with the delight of a sadistic hunter circling dying prey. There was no escape, but it had no desire to grant him peace.
He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t see. He couldn’t even think. Every thought that tried to take form in Arwin’s head melted away before it could get a chance to take root.