Gigolo Diaries-Chapter 21: Breakthrough
While the pressure from the battlefield had significantly brought him closer to perfection he still wasn’t there yet. All he needed right now was a little more and he would enter the realm he had always dreamed of.
His mind flickered to one place he could get similar pressure from, and without wasting an extra second, his feet began moving as he ran to the wide river.
He had no plans of wasting this chance. If he let the moment go then he might regret it. Nobody was paying him any attention, they all had their own affairs to deal with, so he was able to slip away silently.
Most of the beasts in this area had dispersed because of the calamity of a fight that had taken place a few moments ago, so it wasn’t difficult for him to maneuver his way through thick branches and overgrown shrubs.
It didn’t take long for him to get there and without bothering to look around, he took off his clothes and jumped in. Curling himself into a ball as he fell to the bottom. The waves crashed against him as the atmosphere grew thicker.
None of that stopped his descent as gravity pulled him down with its relentless force, until finally, his body hit the cold granite.
At this point, he could barely think straight as that crushing pressure came upon him again. But this time he welcomed it with open arms.
It was painful, but he could feel his goal at the edge of his fingertips.
He waited, enduring the pure anguish in hopes of accomplishing his dream. But that hope slowly faded as minutes passed like mere seconds. When it finally hit the twenty-nine-minute mark, he was reminded that he needed to breathe.
But if he left now, there was a fair chance he would lose a lot of progress.
He didn’t move, not even when his lungs tightened and his vision turned blurry. He stayed at the bottom slowly enduring until it felt utterly hopeless and every fiber of him screamed to give up.
He didn’t, and as the pressure finally reached the breaking point, he felt something break, but it wasn’t him. The wall had finally dropped down. And with a sharp searing pain, the last set of impurities finally left his body.
A wave of crimson residue flowed from his pores and was carried away by the moving water. The change didn’t stop there, an overwhelming pain came over him as he felt his body absorb all his nexus as the true transformation began.
His bones twisted and stretched beneath his flesh causing him to gnash his teeth, but he could feel them getting stronger, as they morphed. His flesh and blood too were undergoing a transformation as his heart began pumping at an impossible rate.
It felt like he was going to burst, but he didn’t and in the end, his heart finally calmed down.
Then the last part of the transformation began, as his skin tore apart from his flesh. Eros’ eyes bulged, but he endured. In a short amount of time, his body formed another layer of skin as the former was broken apart by the rushing river and carried with the current.
Then when it all finally ended, a wave of weakness washed over him as his body had drained him of every single drop of nexus he had.
Without even celebrating this transformation, he swam up with all his might.
The surface seemed so distant at first, but when he finally reached it he couldn’t be happier. He took in large bouts of air as his head throbbed in pain.
It didn’t stop there, in the quickest succession possible, he gasped multiple times. And after what felt like an eternity, the haze that had covered his eyes finally disappeared and he regained himself. He slumped to the ground as a genuine smile was woven on his lips.
"Finally," he whispered. He stretched out his hand towards the sun and opened his palm so it blocked its glare. ’I’ve done it,’ he mused inwardly. ’If only they could see me right now.’ he let out a resigned sigh as he knew his wish couldn’t possibly come true. After all, they were all dead.
A sharp glint flashed within his pupils as his palm closed into a fist, crushing the sun within. The deep hunger for revenge he had tried so hard to hide these days stirred once more. They might have forgotten about him, but he didn’t forget about them, and the more strength he got, the closer their day of death drew nearer
He stabilised his mind and didn’t dwell on his thoughts of them, his main goal now was to recover.
Right now, he didn’t even have the strength to move a muscle, so he just lay there for more than thirty minutes, staring at the clouds in endless motion with the burning sun.
His strength slowly returned, and although his face was still pale and his limbs shivered with weakness, he could still move.
If he were strong enough, he might have tried practicing the Dragon Blood technique now or even using the Yin and Yang sword. But just taking a step forward was enough of a chore. His body felt so weak that he could hardly stabilize himself on the ground.
His body swayed towards a nearby tree which he used to regain his balance.
After a few seconds, he pushed against the tree so he could stand upright. He soon heard the sharp sound of creaking wood which caused him to look back at the tree. To his surprise, the tree cracked under the little force and his eyes widened as he stared at the crack running along the body of the tree.
"Wow," he muttered in a daze, staring at his hand like they weren’t his.
He huffed lightly, gathering the little strength he had left, and prepared to strike at the tree. This way he could gauge how much his strength had increased. Although he was in a weakened state right now, he felt he could at least shake the tree a bit with a strike.
Deciding to land a palm strike, he stretched out his fingers, positioning himself in front of the tree.
He sucked air into his lungs and pushed his palm forward, it landed on the tree in an instant.
