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King of Nothing Part 1

Eternus POV

I've been hit plenty of times throughout my life. I've done every type of trauma you can think of about a dozen times now, and I've always fought through it. So, believe me when I say I've never felt anything like this before.

Even with my body racked with wounds, I still felt this new experience for all it was worth. It wasn't the fear of bloodlust like Fury nor the wildness of my inner demon. No, this pain, this headache I felt, was ingrained like someone put a brand iron to my brain.

"Hello, hello, hel-loooo plebeian, are you still alive?"

At that moment, my eyes turned to the blabbering buffon right in front of me, I tried to find the words for a quippy remark, but that iron only got hotter the more I tried to resist the damn dwarf in my presence. With this "weight" on me, the only thing I could say was a bunch of malformed stutters.

"Oh, so the pleb is alive, though you must be a scrappy one given the words. My phantom pain after the initial shock can have that effect on people. Especially the rowdy ones. Guess we'll have to cool you down till you settle."

When the bastard switched the conversation to another cold tirade, I finally understood what that feeling was. Somehow someway, this dwarf of a man had something that had made my life a living hell: authority absolute—the right to order his subjects with ease, knowing full well that any resistance was futile.

And somehow, he had infected me with that aura, leaving me as nothing more than a weighed down sniveling peasant underneath the royal boot heel that was his power. But this peasant won't stay quiet. So as one of Damage's men approached me, I gave them a venomous glare as I started to rustle.

"Don't you dare," I said with a bloodlust unmatched?

"Oh, so you can speak sentences; good makes things easier despite loving the sound of my voice. Considering current events, you must know my name by now, but yours escapes me," he said in a faux polite tone.

At that point, that mental brand iron grew white-hot as I pushed my ruined body harder than I ever had before. Like some unseen net, I could almost see this phantom pain weigh down on me like a boulder to the back.

I swear I could feel my bones rattle and my skin flare but all the same, I didn't dare let it stop me; all that pain fueled my resolve, even more, my inner demon refusing to back down to anyone. So using that tiny amount of hatred, I broke through the barrier like so many other times and stood above the so-called king.

"The name is Eternus, and I would tread very carefully if I were you. My crew and I are the worst of the worst, but you can call us The Cons for what good it'll do you. Because you're not taking a single cred from any one of us, lest you're asking us to take more than your money," I said rebelliously.

Even with my proclamation loud and clear, Damage's subjects still kneeled, not moving a single inch as I and he engaged in a staredown for the century. Our auras are clashing more violently than any fist.