Rise of the Cosmic_Emperor-Chapter 830 Well, Of Course, You’re Grateful.
In her ethereal form, Svetlana fell to her knees with the hand of her son's soul still against her temple. Back in her lounge in the Doxon Duchy Palace, her body had also fallen to its knees and was echoing her painfully yells of anguish.
What Svetlana was feeling was the sort of pain that went past being physical... It was all emotional and hurt more than any physical injury the Duchess had ever experienced.
As Hal had told her, what she was feeling was indeed the pain her son had felt in his last moments but that was not the whole truth.
Thing was, as painful as it had been for the dead Hal, all he had experienced would not have been able to cause Svetlana to break down and crumble as she had done.
Svetlana's soul and mind were much too strong.
Even while on her knees, the imprint on her soul was teeming with strength and power. Whatever her dead son had experienced was absolutely nothing to her soul strength and immense mental fortitude.
However, there was a reason Hal had called himself a medium for her son's anguish as he made sure to amplify it all.
Svetlana was bowed over in the lounge and Hal (his body) had taken his hand off her head and was simply staring at her with an expressionless face.
Tears streaked down Svetlana's face and her hand was clutching her chest tightly. With each shaky tearful breath she took, she wished for death. She wished for the pain to end. f𝐫ee𝘄ℯ𝚋no𝐯𝐞l.c𝘰m
When a soul goes to the Nether realm and has been separated from its body, it loses the ability to be independent, to act, and just wanders.
Until it is ready for reincarnation (a decision made by the consciousness of the Nether realm), it will not lose its memories which are considered imprints on its soul.
While she was still dealing with the emotional pain, Svetlana began to be fed with her son's imprint in the playback of all his experiences.
Svetlana saw through his eyes how he naturally grew up in the shadow of Rad Payne due to not having his father's favor and lacking the ability to cultivate.
Svetlana lived her son's life through his eyes. Kinda.
The soul passed every single one of its imprints (memories) into Svetlana after which it took its hand off her forehead and turned wordlessly toward Hal.
"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..." Svetlana murmured. The more memories were fed into her head along with the anguish still coursing through her soul, the more remorseful the Duchess felt but neither Hal nor the soul of her son paid her any attention.
Had things been allowed to follow their natural paths, it would likely be many hundreds of thousands of years before Svetlana's Son's soul got a chance at reincarnation.
Hal did not wish to leave the Nether realm without giving things a conclusion and for that, he had two options;
Options A: He took the soul out of the reincarnation cycle completely by absorbing and refining its essence similar to what he had done with Cirk's soul. This would completely erase the soul's existence.
Option B: He sped up the process and pushed the soul into reincarnation faster than normal. This was the option Hal chose with no real reason.
He erased every Imprint, every bit of identity that the soul could possibly cling onto. Basically reverting it to a fresh state as though it were a newly created soul.
Nothing would ever link the soul to the life it once lived and nothing would ever remind it that it used to be called Hal Payne and lived a life of misery.
However, Hal took things a step further with his chosen option by granting the soul good fortune that would remain existent for as long as Infinity (Hal's created Concept) existed.
When Hal picked the soul and chucked it through the path into a new life, he had no say in what world the soul became reborn in or what life it would live but the good fortune he bestowed would always follow.
Whether the soul decided on a normal life upon gaining a body or decided on the life of an expert, it would always find good fortune.
"Am I being sentimental?" Hal asked himself a bit and then he sighed, pushed the events out of his mind, and returned his attention to Svetlana's soul still on the ground and screeching with anguish.
He floated in front of her but said nothing and just silently watched her as the memories continued to be played back to her. He then conjured himself a throne made of Nether Energy and promptly sat in it.
In the Nether realm, they were like that (Svetlana screeching and Hal expressionlessly watching) for a week or at least the equivalent of a week since there was no sun or moon in the nether realm. It just existed in its gloomy, deathly state.
Anyway, in the Nexus World (the physical world), all that time was much more compressed into just a day.
That said, even though it was only a day in the Doxon Duchy Palace, the impact of it all hit the residents of the Palace all the same.
Svetlana's painful screeches continued throughout the day with no breaks and as she constantly repeated how sorry she was, every member of the Doxon family felt her pain.
On the seventh day in the Nether realm, the radiance of Svetlana's soul had significantly diminished. Her soul power had been greatly reduced and her mental strength had crumbled.
Her constant screams of anguish interspersed with apologies that became more genuine (and not just a plea for the cease of the pain) the longer it went on seemed almost automatic at the end of the seven days.
The final hour of her son's life finally played for her, and as it ended, Svetlana mumbled,
"Kill me... Please kill me... I just want it to end... Please!"
There was no ego to be detected... No falsehood to be noted.
At the cost of likely everlasting trauma, Svetlana had finally learned everything there was to learn about her son and her reactions regarding him would be forever genuine.
She got what she pleaded for... She got an end to her suffering but of course, Hal did not kill her to do so.
In fact, with a snap of his fingers, Hal rid her of the anguish although he did nothing about the Imprint as that would forever be a part of her life. Consider it her inheritance from her son.
As relief finally came upon her, Svetlana looked up and appeared to notice for the first time that her Son's soul was no longer in front of her,
"Where is he? Where's Hal?" she asked.
"Gone," Hal said,
"He has reincarnated. Everything that ever linked you two is gone.
Well, you now have his memories and have felt his pain so I guess that's a link even though it's one-sided" he added with a shrug.
"I will never forget..." Svetlana said in pain.
"No, you never will" Hal agreed. 𝐟𝚛e𝐞𝙬𝗲𝒃𝓷𝒐𝘃e𝒍.c𝑜m
Svetlana looked into his eyes,
"You just tortured me," she said.
"Depends on your perspective." Hal said with a smile.
Svetlana gritted her teeth,
"You tortured me..." she repeated and Hal chuckled and nodded his head enthusiastically,
"Yes I did," he said.
"... And yet I feel grateful" Svetlana added with confusion to which Hal said,
"Well, of course, you feel grateful. It was a necessary discipline that taught you a lesson"
"What was the lesson? To never abandon my child?" Svetlana asked.
"Close but no. The lesson is that you can do anything you want but must have the power to avoid the consequences.
Had you been stronger than me, I would not have been able to drag you here and 'discipline' you." Hal said and as he spoke and stood to his feet, his throne of Nether energy melted away.
Immediately, he took Svetlana with him out of the Nether realm, and unlike their trip to the Nether realm, Svetlana had no cognition of the travel. She was just suddenly back in her lounge and reconnected with her body.
Melinda, Rita, and Emily were still in the lounge and had been there watching Svetlana screech in pain for a whole day.
Melinda and Emily could not really explain why they stayed and watched. They just did.
Rita staying behind though could be chucked off to the fact that she still had a connection (Albeit little) to the Doxon Duchess.
When Svetlana's soul rejoined her body and she attempted to stand but failed on account of being completely sapped of energy, it did not take long for her to be taken away to be cared for by her attendants.
The events of the Doxon Duchy were at an end. It had been cleansed of Haron forces and the only two Doxons who had not yet been brought to Hal's side had now been brought to his side.
Repairs to all damages were underway but neither Hal nor the trio of Melinda, Rita, and Emily was around after Svetlana was taken away to be cared for.
Hal still was not done with the Doxon family or Svetlana (not by a long shot) but all that would have to wait as Svetlana recovered and came to terms with her experiences in the Nether realm.
The ladies were with Hal in the Harem space and introduced Princess Aspasia of the Dystopian Pheonix Clan to the forever goal of attempting to best Hal in sex with the company of like-minded women.
It was about time for Hal to exit the Harem space with Aspasia into the Dystopian Phoenix Clan but he still had time for an Orgy.
There was always time for an Orgy.
