“There was a preacher who constantly spread the good word of his cult to anyone that passed by his line of sight.”
“Nobody usually paid him any mind. They all heard the same spiel from other evangelists and none of them were swayed by his speech in particular.”
“One day, a man took a seat right beside the cleric during one of his sermons. The speaker, determined to win this man over, proceeded to preach to the man about his sect.”
“The stranger appeared to listen intently to the clergyman’s lecture, with the listener smiling and nodding along to every sentence uttered.”
“Just as the preacher was about to offer the man a spot in his religion, the other man stood up and left.”
“This process repeated itself for several days, with the preacher continuing to teach the man about his faith, only for the listener to bail before anything could be arranged.”
“The sermon giver eventually preached to this man so much and so often, his voice gave out.”
“Coughing up a storm, he proceeded to ask the stranger for some water. Instead of helping, however, the man only continued to smile and nod at him.”
“It was then that the preacher realized he was talking to a deaf man this whole time.”
“He’s not the only person that had his message fall upon deaf ears.”
“You preach of pain setting people free, Grimskull. In your pursuit to make the onlookers understand this, you inflict it upon them and yourself to get the message across.”
“Most of the people you practice what you preach on will simply smile and nod, taking in every bit of pain as a means of gaining freedom.”
“But there is a man who will smile and nod for a completely different reason.”
“You won’t be able to inflict pain on him, for he hasn’t been able to feel pain for a long, long time.”
“That man is me. Much like the deaf man unable to hear the preacher’s message, I cannot feel what you claim will supposedly set me free.”
“The fire I escaped from might’ve taken everything I’ve known and loved away from me, but it also turned me into the resilient monster that stands before you.”
“It gave me a natural armor that cannot be penetrated by normal means. Anything you could do won’t bring me the salvation that you preach.”
“Even if you could, it wouldn’t hurt me any more than losing my wife and kids did. In comparison to that, what you’re offering is but a pinch to what those bastards did to me.”
“So go ahead, try to brutalize me to your heart’s content. Just know that I’m an unfeeling man, Grimskull.”
“An unfeeling man that’s trying his best not to laugh in your face as you demonstrate futilely that pain can save him.”
“An unfeeling man that knows that a trial by fire is the only true path to freedom.”
“An unfeeling man that knows that you just might get burned by preaching about pain.”