A flash of bright light, that was all that Lucius saw after the bomb he had planted in his chest exploded. There was no pain due to the instantaneous nature of his death which he was sure many would greatly be sickened by.
He chuckled as he thought about that, maybe their dreams of him suffering would come true after all because what was in front of Lucius was pitch blackness as far as Lucius could tell. It wasn't as if he could exactly 'see' anything either because while he could feel that he could move his hands, when he looked down there was nothing except darkness.
It was as if he didnt have eyes, even though he looked in the direction he thought was down he couldn't see a single thing except darkness. Back when he was alive he had read many fictional stories where 'Hell' wasn't just a fiery place with red skinned demons with horns and pitchforks.
According to those fictional stories, hell would morph and change itself based on whoever entered it. So everyone would have a hell specifically tailored to utterly break them. And this wasn't looking too different to those stories, because as much as Lucius considered himself a man with impressive willpower, if this was his eternity he didn't think he would remain sane for long.
Back on earth, the longest any human being had stayed in pitch darkness was only a mere 30 days. So soon Lucius would be finding out if he was going to break that world record or not.
…
* 1 year later *
At this point Lucius was barely thinking straight, his mind was sluggish, inefficient and couldn't perform the quick thinking it had been able to do in the past, in fact even thinking was tortuous right now. It felt as if a million needles were stabbing him in the brain everytime he dared to even think of anything.
And one does not suddenly stop thinking, so he had been experiencing this hellish torture every single time he thought of anything. He had stopped counting the exact amount of days he was in this void after he reached a hundred days, at that point he had to focus and steel his mind to think about as little things as possible.
There were times when he would suddenly blank out and wake up some time after, he didn't know exactly how much time passed between any of his blanks as he started to call them. But eventually Lucius started to realise that everytime he had one of his blanks, his mind would suddenly stop thinking of any and all thoughts.
He vaguely remembered something he had read on a blog back on earth where it said with too much inactivity, males can enter a state where their minds stop thinking of anything at all, usually if someone looks at a word then no matter what they do they will always unconsciously read it.
However, once a male enters this state, the word could be dangling in front of their face and they still wouldn't be able to think about it at all. They are somehow still aware of the word's existence but cannot spare so much as a single thought about it.
Females, according to the blog, do not have this state.
This was the state Lucius sought to master as in his mind, this was the only way for him to keep remaining sane. He knew he couldn't go on much longer and this was his desperate attempt to keep any of his sense of self intact.
He had made progress, fortunately for him, he could stay in this unique state for a period of time before he was suddenly back to thinking
The state was his only chance. A place where his thoughts wouldn't burn him anymore. He had to make it his norm and escape the hell of his mind.
…
* 10 years later *
At the exact same spot he had first arrived in this void, lied Lucius, as still as a statue. If someone were to look at his eyes they would see no light in them, he wasn't just dazed either as even his pupils were now gone, his sclera was also completely black giving him an eerie and creepy vibe.
Ten years had passed since Lucius's desperate attempt to escape the hellish torture of his own mind. He had spent years perfecting the state of mental blankness, shutting down his thoughts and conserving what was left of his sanity. It had become a skill, a survival mechanism that allowed him to live in this void without completely losing his grip on reality.
Lucius's appearance had shifted to this after he had completely mastered the state that allowed him to shut his thoughts off, eventually, this became permanent as Lucius saw no way of escaping this place and did not wish to lose his sense of self.
So Lucius made the decision to permanently keep this state on knowing he wouldn't be receiving any help from anybody. At his darkest hour he didn't wish for someone's comfort or hoped somebody would come to save him, he only made the most logical decision to preserve his sense of self.
In a twisted way, Lucius had found a strange, eerie peace. It was a peace that came from acknowledging the futility of his situation, and yet, still finding the strength to carry on. He had transcended the boundaries of human endurance, and had entered a realm where time and space were meaningless.
And he would have stayed like this if a certain entity hadn't noticed his determination.
* BOOM *
In a burst of speed, two gigantic entities the size of mountains flew straight towards the position where Lucius's still body was. It seemed as if these two beings could easily withstand the power of the void, however if one were to look closely, they could see very thin and concentrated forms of an unknown energy that shockingly repelled the void.
Of the two entities, only one had good intentions while the other one wanted to prevent something drastic from happening.
"Nemur! This isn't the time for your stupid games! Why are you trying to save this….thing!?" The one with the golden aura and bright silver hair shouted.
"What if it becomes a void borne, what will you do then!?" the silver hair entity questioned with venom in her voice.
"It's not everyday you find a mortal that can not only withstand the touch of the void for over a year and then proceed to create a technique that can protect his mind from the void!" The purple aura entity shouted with glee, his aura practically vibrating from excitement.
"Think about what it could eventually do…..this much potential, it simply can't be wasted. Why can't you see that!?"
" It could potentially become a threat to the natural or-"
"Oh, shut up," Nemur interrupted, his voice laced with amusement. "There are so many beings, mortal even, who can resist the void… Why is this one any different, hmm, Aine?"
Hearing her fellow god say that was the final straw for Aine as she didn't bother replying and launched herself at Nemur directly attacking him, causing the god to smirk.
"I figured that would be your answer." Nemur said as he grinned while throwing out a punch that would have started to distort and even destroy some parts of reality if he wasn't in the void.
Their fists clashed as the shockwave produced from the force of their attacks which should have destroyed multiple universes merely dissipated harmlessly in the void.
"You aren't ready to fight beings at my level yet, little girl." Nemur said while grinning.
Quickly following up with his first attack, Nemur didn't bother with a physical attack this time and only muttered something underneath his breath.
"Enchain"
As soon as those words left Nemur's mouth, purple chains suddenly appeared wrapped around Aine's curvy body as Nemur once again smirked.
"Ez"
Aine gritted her teeth as her muscles started bulging and her aura increased as she tried to escape Nemur's hold.
"Well have fun." Nemur suddenly said as he blitzed towards Lucius's body
"Nemur Stop!" Aine suddenly shouted
"Nope."
Eventually, Nemur reached Lucius's position and grabbed him, causing him to instantly feel everything about Lucius.
Nemur's eyes gleamed with excitement as he held Lucius in his grasp. "Fascinating," he whispered to himself, studying the still figure. Lucius's body was deathly pale, his eyes had long since lost all signs of life, and his skin seemed to have absorbed the darkness of the void.
Yet Lucius was somehow still alive
As Nemur examined Lucius, he noticed something peculiar. He noticed that Lucius's mental state seemed to be in a peculiar balance. His brain, which should have been filled with thoughts and feelings, whether consciously or unconsciously was entirely blank.
If Nemur didn't know better he would think he was holding a husk with no will or soul.
"Cant have such a talent being wasted." Nemur muttered as he and Lucius vanished from the void.
…..
Lucius groaned in pain as he started to wake up from his sleep that he thought he would forever be in.His eyes started to twitch as he struggled to open them, nearly blinding himself in the process. As his mind started to re–energise itself, the memories of his time in the void started to resurface, causing his headache to worsen.
After taking some time to recover from his surprisingly painful headache he started to look around, the bright light from where he was being too familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. Slowly, he closed his eyes once more and calmed himself, about five seconds after he had done that he started to very carefully and very slowly open his eyes lest he goes blind.
'Where exactly am I?' Lucius thought, his head still throbbing from the pain.
In Lucius's view was a blinding white…..space with a giant wheel that had some unknown symbols, most likely a different language.
There was literally nothing within sight except for the gigantic wheel with unknown symbols, everything else was just pure white. Lucius couldn't even open his eyes too wide due to how bright it is, he had a feeling that if he were to actually do that, he would quickly go blind.
Lucius thought to try and minimize his presence as much as possible but quickly realised that it was pointless.
Whatever had brought him here could have easily killed him while he was in his blank state so obviously, killing him must not be the goal of this creature.
He also wasnt worried about any form of torture as he could still feel that he could enter the blank state whenever he wanted. Whoever had woken him up had done him a favour since Lucius felt like if he entered the blank state he wouldn't go unconscious.