Phase 32 “The Crocked”
It happened to him so suddenly, and the pain was so intense that he could not bear to remember it. In addition to having his dignity crushed beneath his feet, he was also subjected to physical and emotional abuse, as well as torture. He could not remember a time in his entire life when he felt more embarrassed about himself than he did just at this exact second. He had the intention to skin himself while he was still alive in the belief that this would bring him back to his former dignity. After that, he had an epiphany about it. Everything existed solely within his head. Not at all; rather, he was coerced into remembering everything from his prior life as well as being made to do so against his will.
It seemed as though a strange energy surrounded him for a few moments before images started popping into his consciousness. He yelled and cried out because of the pain, but it was more bearable than the pain he had been drowned in previously. Despite this, the suffering caused him to scream and cry out. He was aware of his true identity, both in this life and in the life he had lived in the past. He was the bishop who put the shaman under his seal.
After gathering himself, he attempted to perform a magic trick that he had learned a very long time ago. As soon as he finished, everything around him became completely pitch black, and the delusion vanished. As a result of the shaman's use of dark magic on him, all that he claimed to have experienced was, in fact, merely an illusion in his mind. He repeated the last spell, and after this one he was able to fully reawaken himself. He gently opened his eyes and cast his gaze in all directions.
They were in a square room; he spotted the shaman a few meters away, doing some stuff. He realized he was tied and he discovered Kaien beside him; also tied to the stoned bed. He quickly muttered some spell that broke him free and so was Kaien. The shaman was surprised and before he could flick. Allen used another spell to bounce the old man a few meters away.
“Kaien!” Allen tried calling Kaien but did not receive a response. He later found out that Kaien was also under the influence of the shaman’s magic and cursed the elderly man. Kaien was slowly losing blood from his wrist. Kaien was under different spell than Allen previously. Allen's sanity would finally be lost, and he would be left as a hollow husk of a human body as a result of the hallucination that was created just for the purpose of mentally destroying him. Kaien was subject to a lethal enchantment that would torment him to the point when he took his own life. To make matters worse, the wound he felt in his head would manifest as a physical injury in the outside world.
“Kaien, please hear my pleadings and return to me!” Allen let out a scream as he attempted to enter Kaien's mind using a spell he had previously learned in his past life. He tried and tried, and he was almost successful in bringing Kaien back to the actual world when the shaman attacked him and forced him to crush the stone block behind him. Allen was able to sense that one of his shoulders had become dislocated. Despite this, he did not give up and launched another assault on the shaman.
They continued to counter each spell with another until the shaman eventually brought several zombies, at which point Allen was overwhelmed. Only one of the spells that he remembered from his previous life was capable of destroying all of the zombies at once, but that was the only one he could think of. Even if it was fatal, there was still a chance that Allen would survive. When he spoke, a sudden burst of light appeared. The shaman was taken aback as he constructed a barrier around himself, and his creation collapsed to the ground, lifeless.
However, the effect was excessive. Blood was pouring out of Allen's nose and shoulder wound simultaneously, and he had the sensation that his skull was about to explode. His vision deteriorated and he coughed up some blood. After all, the spell was drained from his physical form; every spell requires a source, and that source is the energy of the person who casts the spell. On the other side, the hit had an effect on Kaien, causing him to wake up while simultaneously bombarding his head with visions. He did not scream but rather froze in despair as the pain eventually ceased hitting him and he finally recalled everything that had happened.