Chương 109: The Nibelungen Wish

A holy lighted being floated directly above my head. A soft, warm glow filled the dark cellar like the first rays of dawn breaking through an endless night, chasing away the heavy shadows for a brief moment. The light was gentle yet overwhelming, pure and golden at the edges, shifting into beautiful hues of silver and starlit blue as it pulsed softly.

"Fear not, as your wish is going to be fulfilled," it said with a light chuckle. The voice boomed inside my brain without a single tone actually being spoken aloud. It was everywhere and nowhere all at once, gentle and deeply amused in its tone. It sounded like an old friend who had waited centuries for this exact moment of release, the sound wrapping tightly around my thoughts, warm and knowing, carrying the weight of ancient patience and quiet joy.

I lifted my head slowly, squinting against the bright shine as my eyes stung from days of darkness and tears. The being then transformed from pure, amorphous light to its real design. It was a divine being named Altburn, a 1. 20-meter-tall translucent Nibelungen being, as it introduced itself to me. It was completely glass-like and see-through, featuring a smooth head with two glowing white eyes and a subtle, smiling mouth.

Inside its transparent torso, glowing, blue, thunder-colored veins pulsed rhythmically with black, star-like dots that constantly expanded and retracted. It floated mysteriously against a backdrop of cosmic space filled with stars and vibrant nebulas, a world of its own that was utterly otherworldly in nature, sitting far above the very heaven of our world. The sight completely stole my breath.

It felt like looking into the heart of the universe itself, beautiful, terrifying, and alive in a way nothing in our world ever was. Its face was happy to be freed. It stood directly before me, the subtle smile widening into something almost playful.

"My name is Altburn. I apologize, young warrior Erumes Flamma," it said, the voice still sounding incredibly gentle inside my mind.

"I needed to reconnect with my celestial presence, where my true spirit resides. It has been… a very long time ago since I've been trapped in that open vase you see before you. Over six hundred years of pure silence in our playground of this very Orbis Terrarum, while the other seven had their fun. I could do nothing but sit in this vase and play with myself into the never-ending boredom. You don't know how much you helped me today, re-establishing myself with my own self in the celestial realm.

I feel all the new information on what I've missed out on ramming into my mind." The entity floated with a slight tilt of its translucent head, the white light in its eyes flickering in sync with the cosmic nebulas behind it.

"My kind could not find me or open me, as they never intended to help me to get free in the first place. We Nibelungen are not a pack-minded exsistence; individuality is our cycle of live. You cannot imagine the loneliness of waiting in the dark, listening to the world move on without you, hearing every scream around, and every potential wish-seeker being missed out upon."

The blue, thunder-colored veins inside its glass-like torso pulsed rapidly, and the black, star-like dots contracted into sharp points before expanding outward once more. Altburn seemed to absorb the sheer weight of six centuries in a single breath, his playful, jester-like grin softening into an expression of genuine, ancient awareness. As he kept talking, questions built up inside me like a flood ready to burst. Who are you really? What is this place? What did he mean with my wish? What are you truly?

But before I could speak a single word, my whole body started changing shape. Pain exploded everywhere all at once as the Nibelungen finally put his full attention onto fulfilling my wish, targeting the one who had recently thrown me off the bridge and into the flooding water.

"So your wish is just to get slightly stronger because you want to get more recognition of others? So be it a small wish," Altburn said unimpressed. With his hand extended, he unleashed a barrage of celestial sparks, firing them directly into my body in an instant. At that exact moment, it felt like every single bone was being remade from the inside out, every muscle torn apart and rewoven with raw fire, and every nerve set alight.

My hair fell out in clumps, the dark red strands drifting to the wet floor like fallen leaves in a storm. I landed hard on the wet surface, rolling in absolute agony and screaming until my throat felt completely shredded. The Nibelungen just smiled and laughed like a mad jester, its translucent body shaking with pure glee.

"Oh, the entertainment! The beautiful chaos of a mortal wish! How I missed it! Scream louder, reckless boy, let it all out for me! This is the price of wanting more!" Five days of continuous pain followed. I lost all track of time inside that dark cellar. The rain outside never stopped, as Altburn let it continually drop down to fill the space, but not really, for it remained the exact same amount of water inside.

I writhed endlessly on the floor, curled into a tight ball with a pain so surreal on all limbs and all veins, before uncurling once more to endure the next wave. I kept screaming until my voice gave out completely to the tone-deaf divine being. I begged profusely, then I cursed in depravity. I prayed to anything that would listen, only to receive a deaf tone in return. Altburn floated above me the entire time, laughing softly at first.

Then, he whispered encouragement that felt both comforting and cruel, as he fully enjoyed my pain and ravaged in absolute delight.

"Endure, Erumes. Strength of the divine is born in torture's fire. You wanted more power, and I want more entertainment. This is just a small price for wanting a wish. Feel every second of it. Let it forge you. Soon you will become a new person." I still cursed him through gritted teeth. The pain was abnormal, everywhere and nowhere all at once. I could not even describe how it did what it did to me.

"Make it stop! I can't… I can't take it anymore!" Tears streamed down my face without end over the days. Memories flashed, trying to overfill my mind, but thanks to overloading my brain so many times in the past, I became numb at least to that specific mental force. My sudden numbness pissed off the Nibelungen a bit after the first two days, as it robbed him of some of the psychological entertainment he was craving.

My hair continued falling off in thick, dark red clumps, the strands drifting slowly to the wet floor like autumn leaves caught in a dying wind. My eyes dropped down, tears and blood mixing as a terrible pressure built steadily behind them. My bones were breaking and shaping, breaking and shaping in an endless loop of pure entertainment for Altburn. Each snap and grind sent fresh waves of agony through me. The cracking sounds echoed in the small cellar like thunder trapped inside a bottle.

My ribs reformed, my spine twisted and straightened, and my limbs lengthened and compressed, only to repeat the torment all over again. Altburn floated closer, his translucent body shaking with delighted laughter.

"Yes! Yes! Feel it all, reckless boy! This is the true price of wanting power! Look at you breaking and remaking! Beautiful you will become, absolutely beautiful entertainment after six hundred years of silence! I, Altburn, have returned to the mortal realm!" I screamed until my voice failed anew, curling even tighter into a ball, but the force of the divine entertained uncurled me against my will. I punched the stone floor until my knuckles split open again.

The pain was everywhere, deep in my marrow and pressing hard into my soul. Yet, somewhere in the blinding haze, I felt the physical change taking root. The power was building, and the numbness was fighting back against the torment. Altburn's laughter only grew louder, fueling my rage even as my body continued its endless cycle of breaking and reshaping for the five days nonstop. I sought no food, nor felt any need to relieve myself. There was only the everlasting pain. On the fifth day, I gasped back to reality.

There were no visible changes at first. My hair had already grown back completely to its original state, dark red and spiky just as before. However, I had grown two centimeters, now standing at 1. 76 meters. My body felt much lighter and significantly stronger, as if I had completely doubled my Animo amount. Power hummed deeply inside my grown and thicker veins, a roaring river of fire and soul that felt both intensely familiar and entirely alien.

Altburn explained the situation as he wandered lazily around me, his translucent form glowing softly in the dim cellar.

"Thank you for the entertainment, Erumes Flamma, my reckless young boy. It truly was delightful to see, even if I had to force you into more pain every now and then." He chuckled softly.

"By the way, I forcibly made the wish hurt you for many days simply because I needed to be relieved after being imprisoned for over six hundred years. And as I connected with my celestial self, I can only laugh at the man who failed to get more than one of us imprisoned in his wasted life. Hahahaha! What an oaf... that old coot was speaking of promising me he would imprison us all for eternity!"

The ear-drumming laugh was hard to endure, coming from a Nibelungen, a being that truly could not be understood by standard mortal minds. Then, suddenly, his playful face straightened into a serious expression.

"Hear me, and hear me well, Erumes. You are now a Betrunkener. Other Betrunkener can see your aura, and you can now see theirs."

"Also, with every wish, no matter how big or small in scale, comes a real price, and it is not the pain you felt... that was just for my divine amusement. Since your wish was tame overall, your price is this: every one hundred days, you have to fight someone equal to or stronger than yourself. If you do not adhere to this, you will feel that same pain all over your body from all areas you can imagine, just as you experienced it during those five days, only slightly stronger. Yet, it will still be endurable.

"Also, since you freed me, once you make it to the celestial plains via our oath of teleportation: Ich wil hintreten in die himelschen vêre." It spoke those words slowly, old and powerful inside my mind, burning them in like a blacksmith engraving a weapon.

"That is the language of our kind. Keep it close, like any other Betrunkener. Only those words will bring you to those plains. You can apply it to yourself or someone else, as long as you touch them and speak the oath aloud. But our realm, the celestial plains? That is a world of its own. Pronounce it like: Ich wil hin-treten in die himmel-schen feere." It warned that I would need a fully prepared mind, body, and Animo, or I would perish and never make it back."

"You should have a minimum of one hundred thousand Animo in your base form, or you will die on your very first breath there. Beings in that realm are divine in nature, vastly more powerful than this playground of a world you reside in, that is for sure." The words sank into me like stones dropped into a bottomless well, and a cold chill ran straight down my spine. The weight of what I had just unlocked pressed heavily on my chest. Godly beings.

A realm beyond anything I had ever imagined, holding the kind of power that could crush me with a single thought. My heart raced, part excitement and part sheer terror. Altburn's glowing white eyes seemed to pierce straight through me, seeing every doubt, every fear, and every desperate hope I carried for the friends I had lost and the strength I still lacked.

"Hahahaha!" It laughed in a jestful way, the sound echoing inside my skull like ringing bells in an empty cathedral. All that information poured directly into my brain, flooding my thoughts with vivid images of cosmic plains, towering figures wreathed in starlight, and powers that made even Jiong Sang's 152, 000 Animo look like a infant's spark. I felt small, so incredibly small. Yet, something deep inside me stirred, a spark of defiance, of hunger.

Altburn added, "Once you meet me there, I will give you your second wish without any pay. No curse, nor price. It is completely free of charge. But think very carefully, Erumes, about what you wish for. Your future is looking very interesting after all and there are already many wishes you want to utter i belief but that would be too soon." Its voice softened for a moment, almost fond, like a teacher watching a promising but reckless student.

As it said those final words of parting, it vanished right before my eyes as if it had never been here at all. The cellar immediately felt colder without its light. Emptier in its very design. I sat there for a long moment, breathing hard. The weight of the new power, the new curse, and the new promise all settled into my bones alongside the lingering pain.

"What have I done?" I whispered in disbelief of all. A mix of awe and dread filled my chest. Yet beneath it all burned a fierce determination. I would not waste this. I would become strong enough to protect what was left, to face the shadows that still hunted me, and to make sure the losses had meaning within my newfound, reconstructed body. I then took my steps up, not even realizing at first that I was air-walking. It was a skill I could not perform before, but now I could do it effortlessly.

My power felt overwhelming.

"I AM COMING FOR YOU, BRIDGE GUARD!" I roared into the empty temple.

"For a deep payback!" The words echoed violently, my voice sounding stronger and clearer than ever. The pain of those five days had truly forged something new inside me. I stepped out of the ancient temple. The heavy monsoon rain had finally stopped, and bright sunlight broke cleanly through the parting clouds. I rose straight into the air, floating as the wind caressed my face. Power hummed in every single cell of my body.

The doubled Animo felt as if a massive river had been extended from the lake of my fire and soul attribute deep inside me. I laughed, a wild, relieved laugh as the remaining tears dried on my cheeks.

"Finally… something is mine. After all the loss, after all the pain, I have this new body." The journey back to Zhenhai would begin soon. But first, I had to deal with the bridge Guard. I had to face the man who had put me down here. I would show him exactly what a new Erumes Flamma could do. The power surged through me, light, strong, and ready for war. I flew fast toward the horizon, watching the ruined purple temple fade behind me, falling back into the wilderness as if it had finally completed its ancient task.

A new, unstoppable fire was burning in my heart as I flew to confront the very man who had kicked my ass five days ago.