"You do understand how many times you injure me, my head aches even more the next morning," I said, finally able to get up after both my legs grew back. Ethan stood before me with his hands in his pockets and shrugged his shoulders. "Oh, you have to be kidding me."
"It only makes sense since all your pain receptors are ultimately connected to your pain," he said, twisting his body and aiming a spinning kick at my head. I quickly leaned back, dodging it, only to receive a hard punch right in my solar plexus, knocking all the air out of me. "But some things just need to be done, no matter how hard they are. If I don't train you, I doubt you will be able to survive for much longer."
I wanted to say something, but was unable as I dropped to my knees, gasping for air. My diaphragm felt like it had completely collapsed, and each attempt to move my lungs to let the air in was excruciating. All I could do was cough and try my best to get some air in my body, but I was unable to do so. My throat and lungs felt like they were on fire, and I tried my hardest to keep my eyes on Ethan.
Soon, my injury healed, and I took the cleanest breath of air I had taken in a long time. I placed my hand on my chest and coughed a little more. My body felt limp, and I felt high from the surge of much-needed oxygen reaching my brain.
"You…huff…really don't hold back…" I somehow said and got on my knees. This was another little rule of his. Not letting go of the conversation. I seriously don't understand why that was needed, but I don't want to get my head chopped off again. Twice was already traumatizing enough.
I can't even remember just how many parts of my body were broken, cut, ripped, or stabbed. My time in the mindscape felt like an eternity by now. Why haven't I woken up yet? Just wake up, damn it. I am so done with his training.
"You will seriously make me scared of even going to sleep now," I said, getting on my feet, not letting my eyes off of him. Thanks to him, I learnt a lot about vampire anatomy and how different body parts heal or connect back. Much of it against my will. I empathize immensely with the vampires being tested on in the VEO.
"Much better than losing your life," he said, summoning a chair and sitting down. "That should be enough for today. Any more and we will be entering dangerous territory."
"Your definition of dangerous territory is seriously messed up," I said, summoning a couch and letting my body limp on it. Every part of my body was aching, my breath was uneven, and I felt too tired to even move a single muscle.
"I am doing what is necessary since the people by your side are too scared to seriously injure you," Ethan explained, but I doubt that is even his actual reason. I bet he does it because it is fun toying with me, making me suffer. I get where that bastard got his personality from. It's all your damn fault.
"You're making no sense," he said, almost reading my mind, but I was too tired to even react to that. "At the very least, I am wary of not breaking you, unlike Dominic."
"What do you mean?" I asked him, still out of breath. "I thought he just needed my blood to offer to Sarah."
"That is part of the reason why, but he is much more of a cynical man than you think. He doesn't need to show himself before you or even do all this to you to offer you as a sacrifice to her. That would also work when you would naturally inherit my blood," he said, and I understood what he was getting at.
I clicked my tongue and looked away. "The bastard is just playing with us for the fun of it," I grumbled. The more I talk about him, the more my blood boils.
"Save your anger for when you are strong enough to actually put up a fight against him," Ethan said. "As things stand, even a thousand of you won't be able to beat him."
"Talk about depressing," I said and leaned my head against the armrest. "Can I even beat him before it's too late?"
"You have to," Ethan said, and I looked at him. "That is precisely why I am training you. You know what happened when I fought against him in your body. He is not the strongest vampire out there, but he is easily the trickiest one to beat. If you are able to get enough experience and refine yourself to my level, beating him will be no problem. Not to forget, your body will get a lot stronger as time passes."
"What is the catch?" I asked Ethan, and he shook his head. "Don't tell me that there are none. As I have seen, nothing in my life is that easy; there is always a caveat. I wanted to fall in love with someone, but then I also found out the entire vampire population of this damn planet is after my blood. I got more allies on my side, but I have found that even a good bunch of scary strong humans want me dead. I found out my sister was alive and we spent some happy days together, only for her to die right before my eyes at the hands of the same man. And now I get told I will get stronger as time passes, and there is no catch? Come on, don't joke with me. Natsumi-san already said my body will transform much faster than any other vampire or human, and the process will be both mentally and physically draining. My life would have been a lot more peaceful and fun if I were not picked to be your successor or whatever."
"The only reason for that to happen would be if you were not the son of your parents," Ethan said, standing out of his seat. "I get how you feel, kid. I was put in similar positions multiple times in my life."
"But you are The First, in the end, you were able to be strong enough to rule over all the vampires," I scoffed.
"That wasn't what I wanted, though," he said with a saddened look on his face. "If you want to put it that way, then okay. In the end, all I wanted was to help humans evolve to a much stronger and superior form of being, but I was pushed away because of my dreams. Kicked to the curb to even try things out the way I wanted and not how the world intended for me to, and burnt alive for achieving some plausible results. If it wasn't for Sarah, I doubt I would even be here talking to you. I didn't ask for any of that either."
"What's your point?" I asked. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ novel✦fire.net
"Do you believe in fate?" Ethan asked me an odd question. I pondered over the question for a bit.
"I don't know, I understand there are things that were already set to happen in my life, but I can influence them heavily with how I live my life. That's how I see it," I explained.
"I believe fate does exist," Ethan replied in a nostalgic tone.
"Quite out of character for a man of science," I commented.
"Well, you have to thank my wife for that. She used to go on and on about how our meeting and ending up in this situation was fate. How we were meant to fall in love and be with each other all our lives. At first, I used to scoff at her naïve way of thinking, though I found it quite adorable, but as time went on, I think I started agreeing with her," he said and chuckled to himself. "So maybe it was just mere fate that you and I ended up where we are. The fate that made you get wrapped up in this mess was also the same that made you meet your little lover. There is no mortal on this planet that can ever fully take control of his or her fate. Where you end up is where you were always meant to be."
"I guess you are right," I said, sitting straight on the couch and getting on my feet. "Thanks, that helped a little. Now I just have to look forward to the worst headache of my life."
"Nothing is easy in life, kid," Ethan said, and a white light emerged from under us. I started falling from the floor, getting ready to face the consequences of this training. I looked up to see Ethan staring at my falling body and braced myself to wake up soon.
I really hope Ai is awake right now. I will be needing her blood.
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