Hold your breath, for as long as you can, and close your eyes.
As the thuds of your heartbeat start to take over the concentrated silence, you feel invincible.
You’re motivated – and to you, there’s nothing that can get in the way,
Suddenly, that thud gets a little bit louder – like all the blood inside of you is pumping against your eardrums and then –
Your brain starts communicating with distress signals – something isn’t normal here.
You don’t feel like yourself anymore. There’s a force that’s preventing you from doing anything beyond survive – and all you want to do is figure out a way around it so that you can feel better. Of course, unwilling to make the compromise, you fight back in your own head.
You can’t stop me. You won’t break me.
Gasp.
And then you take a deep, deep breath. You’re frustrated, because it was never in your plans to inhale in the first place, but –
We all manifest a character inside of ourselves. Because it’s by our own design, we immediately feel like we’re in control until something completely out of our control makes its way into your path – like Ether and that cross of hers.
Just like the brave that thought they could hold their breath without something far more powerful causing interruption, you’ve built up quite the ambitious ego, Kaine.
In a way, you started holding your breath the second that you decided to play headhunter for the sake of expanding your Embrace.
We all get big heads in this game though. Take it from me, I should be very dead by now.
But those that wish to challenge the impossible are not typically on the fast track to learning their lessons. They end up living this endless cycle of inhaling and exhaling like any boring mortal, believing that some sort of persistence will get them past the point of suffocation – and a fascinating example of this was when you had that puffed-out chest of yours on display at Ring King. You stood there, in front of Ether with your foolproof threats – and she push all the air right back into your lungs.
And with something as simple as a crucifix?
You manifested a character inside of yourself without ever respecting its lack of structural integrity, you blood-sucking nincompoop, and guess what?
She shattered it – along with the side of your face with a rollerskate, all of things.
You know, your concept of insistence is dangerously familiar to me.
It reminds me of someone that tried to do that to me for a very, very long time.
I watched them suck in every bit of abusive confidence within them and then control me with it.
He never thought the day would come when someone would outplay him – until he did.
For as much as Ether did to wear down your path, she didn’t finish the job.
And until that happens, those that wish to challenge the impossible will never learn until the impossible kills them for good.
Needless to say, come 281, my hands are tied.
I apologize in advance.