The Laughing Swordsman

It was not easy for people to go through pain like Talon, that was for sure. However, there was a fundamental difference in what made his feat so much more impressive.

He was the one inflicting the pain on himself.

It was one thing to endure pain that was forced, but it was far harder to be the one causing it as well. The simple fact was, the ability to slow it down or stop it all together was far too tempting.

But for Talon, this was how he grew up. Even after he became a guard and nobody forced him to, he continued to increase his pain tolerance.

This was the choice he made.

And that was how Talon was able to cut away the muscles in his eye in the first place. With a burst of willpower, the average person might be able to cut their muscle once. However, after most experienced the horrifying pain afterward, they would immediately give in.

But Talon was able to go through it multiple times.

He held tightly on the handles before firmly pressing them together.

A clear snip rang out.

Blood splattered on the floor and the scissors. A strong sense of vertigo assaulted Talon\'s mind. In reality, a small part of him couldn\'t believe he was able to endure this amount of pain.

But now... it was finally over.

...Well, that was what he thought anyway.

Although no muscles held Talon\'s eye in place, it continued to dangle. It was still attached to the main nerve of the eye, the one that sent the actual information of vision to the brain.

Talon found himself sinking into despair.

He wasn\'t a machine. The only reason he was able to go through so much in the first place was that he had already forced himself through his limits.

The motivation that moved him forward was how close he seemed to be to the goal.

Right when Talon thought he crawled out of the abyss, he was thrown back in.

After a few moments of silence, Talon grit his teeth and continued. He had already made it so far... it was only right to see things through.

Talon brought the blade of the scissors close to his socket. 

But he found a new complication. 

The muscles he previously cut through were near the outside of his eye. However, the nerve he needed to cut through was all the way behind.

...The blades of his scissors couldn\'t just conveniently bend to reach that part.

It meant he would have to force his eye aside and endure the consequences of such an action.

As this realization began to sink in, Talon began to falter. As Oddryl said, the amount of suffering he had to go through in order to stay alive was not worth it.

Life has ups and downs, but doing something like this was just too far.

Talon began to hesitate.

...should he really go through with this?

Why go through so much to survive?...

The hallway was quiet except for the faint splats of his blood hitting the stone ground. Talon slowly pulled his face away from the blades of his scissors.

...He was about to give up.

But before he could, his life flashed before his eyes.

Talon saw himself with his sister, while they were still toddlers.

He saw himself being whipped, but also saw his sister comforting him.

In a flash, Talon saw himself joining the ranks of the guards. He saw himself exercising and the other competitions he had that let him rise in rank.

Talon saw the time he got promoted.

Then... the time he finally saw his sister again.

...

"This place... is really dirty."

Talon was tightly holding onto his nose with furrowed brows. He was following behind a man wearing a black lab coat.

The man shrugged his shoulders.

"It\'s not like we can ask people to clean it, can we? It\'s a secret only the top people know about."

Talon rolled his eyes.

"And what exactly is stopping you from cleaning this place?"

The man looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"You want to try and clean it up?"

Talon took another look at the hallway he was walking through. Countless dried bloodstains, along with mold, covered every inch of this place. There were even a few bloodstains that were still wet.

Talon chuckled.

"I guess you got a point there."

The man sighed.

"Not to mention, even if it was cleaned, it would just be splattered with blood the next day. After all, you know how this place works, don\'t you?"

Talon shrugged his shoulders.

"More or less. Though, once I get my sister, my next stop is far away from this place."

The man laughed.

"Can\'t blame you for that. Unfortunately, I don\'t have that kind of choice."

Talon shivered.

"Sounds terrible."

The man smirked.

"Heh, you might get forced to come back here a few times if the higher ups want you to."

He shrugged his shoulders.

"So you will probably get a little taste of what I go through."

Talon scoffed.

"You really had to remind me?"

The man laughed and pushed open a door.

"Anyways, we\'re here."

Talon was breathing through his mouth, but the scent of blood became so strong he could even taste it.

There were countless metal tables, just large enough to contain a kid on top.

Lo and behold, that was exactly the case. Countless children were bound to the top of these tables with their metal bindings.

The man waved his arm around.

"Agh, quickly find your sister. I don\'t want to stay in this place anymore."

With that, Apollo searched.

Some of the children were already dead, while others had grotesquely infected wounds. But all of them had dull expressions on their faces. It made him more anxious for his sister with every passing moment.

...Until he found her.

Talon rushed over.

She laid there silently, heavily emaciated and barely breathing.

Talon held onto her frail hand and looked into her dull eyes.

"....It\'s my turn to protect you, sister."