Galaxy's First Ruler

AHHHHHHHH!!!

Aldrich's emotionless eyes stared at Meuric, who was letting out blood-curdling screams.

Meuric's heavy muscles ruptured with a shower of blood. Many of his bones got broken, and blood came seeping out of his eyes and ears. None could say that this scarred face boy was even a person at that point. It was as if Aldrich was a butcher, skinning a badly mingled wild game in front of him.

There was a time Aldrich had tried to Banish Pain out of the transferred form of Boomie, the Blood Devil. At that time, he had thought that it was the Pain that had caused Boomie's senseless rampage. But after having an initial mastery of the Law of Devil, through Sha's memories of the True Devil Aldrich, he had come to know the Emotion called Pain.

It was deeper than just a reflex of the brain, and its roots were deeper than what he had thought. As he had found out, there were two parts of this emotion, real and ethereal. Aldrich had felt physical pain many times, especially after becoming a Dreamer. His encounter with the Banished Golden Devil, the Being behind the Black Veil, and Aldrich killing himself, all contributed to it. But the ethereal part had remained elusive to him before parting from his parents.

Aldrich had always remained estranged from those emotions. Although he had almost mastered the psychology of a human mind, he hadn't dived into an emotional state himself. It was like Aldrich knew what hunger and thirst were, and how they worked, but without feeling them himself, how could he have known the exact state?

At a tender age of 13, to pass this conundrum, Aldrich had made himself starve and had gone without drinking water for days. Only when he felt like he would die in the next hour did he satiate his hunger and thirst. 

This… was Aldrich's way of enjoying his summer camp unknown to anyone.

But Pain was different. There was no forcing it, and there was no mastering it. Aldrich got to know this the hard way after he failed to banish Pain. But then, when he gazed at the lone figures of his parents in the mirror before leaving the earth, he got a hint of what Pain was.

Yet, it wasn't enough…

The ability of Aldrich to calm himself instantaneously in any situation became a bane rather than a boon in this case. The concept of Pain needed to be experienced, not like a jerk, but like the push of an ever-flowing river. And this opportunity came when Sha got snatched away from him. If Aldrich hadn't recognized her as a member of his family, he wouldn't have ever known the true Pain.

But…

After knowing it, Aldrich had rather felt letting it remain elusive to him forever. If this was the price of Pain, then he would rather not pay it. Alas, that time had already gone, and it won't return, at least not that easily. Even though he didn't want it, the concept of Pain had become clear to Aldrich.

And all concepts that he understood were Aldrich's bitch.

The Rumok on Aldrich's right hand kept flashing, and little by little, Aldrich took out a hint of his pain and transferred it to Meuric. Although his face was like a manifestation of a calm Devil, Aldrich's mind was entirely focused on the task. He had to make sure to not infuse pain to a point where Meuric will go into a sudden shock and die in the next moment. And for it to work every time, a breaking point must be found first.

If Sha were here, Aldrich could transfer all of it to her. He had already discovered that she couldn't feel pain. But if she was here, he wouldn't have needed to do it, anyway.

Ahhhhh…. AHHHH... Ughhh!!!

Aldrich saw Meuric wriggling under the lashes of the agonizing pain. From what he had understood, he could transfer this pain to only those who could feel the entirety of it. Which meant a being who could feel physical and ethereal parts of Pain. It immediately discarded non-living things as an option. And those who didn't have high intelligence could never have the will to bear the ethereal part, no matter how strong their body was.

For this, Aldrich had decided to experiment on Dreamers first. And when he felt those emotions at the door of death in Meuric's words, filled with conviction, he found the right target.

'It's better than forcing someone to be my Recordless…' Aldrich thought.

At first, he indeed had planned to make Bolut his Recordless. But he doubted that, with Bolut's personality, he could outlast even one round. With this equivalent exchange of imparting knowledge to Meuric, at least he could negate any Karma.

Aldrich had been wary of this equivalent exchange since he had got the Broken Faith. When even someone like HIM followed it, Aldrich would have been the biggest fool to not act on it, too. As he saw Meuric's eyes almost rolling to the back of his head, and the shudders in his body vanishing, he cut off the transfer.

'Hmm… Only 1 percent…'

Yes, this resulted from only 1 percent of the pain any single action of Aldrich's caused him. But it was enough to make Aldrich raise his eyebrows. Meuric was only a Common Ranked Dreamer, and this amount of pain was enough to make him lose consciousness by now.

Huff! Huff!

Meuric was like a deer who had just escaped from the grip of a lion's jaw on his throat. His entire body was bloody, and his limbs looked as if they were made of jelly. With half-dead eyes, he stared at Aldrich and moved his lips. No sound came out, but Aldrich knew what he was asking.

"Is… this price… enough?"

Aldrich took out a Baron Ranked HP potion and dropped it into Meuric's mouth. As the potion took its effect, healing even Meuric's crushed bones, Aldrich laughed out using Rumok.

"Haha! It was just a test. A lifetime of reward demands a lifetime of price, Meuric Boid. And you…"

A hint of an evil smile returned to Aldrich's face as his words entered Meuric's mind.

"… You have barely passed it."