Oh, if only the lad knew. Perhaps another method would have been more favorable after all, but it was far too late for those thoughts now. He couldn't even finish a single line of thought before his mind was clouded by the excruciating agony. It all came in pulses like a heartbeat, making adjustment impossible. Worse yet was the fact that there was more yet to come. Another concoction was funneled directly into his veins, which themselves would rise to the surface of his skin all over his body in future days. Naturally, time was entirely lost to him. That burning sensation of Akashi pushing himself to the surface of this body was the work of mere children compared to the hell he experienced over the course of a week.

The screams found their way out of him eventually, echoing throughout the weathered castle for at least three days straight. No food, no drink, and endless pain that made sleep an impossibility were all he knew for days on end, and it took everything the Celestial part of his anatomy had to offer, just to keep him going. His Mana enshrouded him in a very uncommon manner, looping in and out of his physical form over and over again. Words were spoken to him at some point, but he could not comprehend them. Did his ears even work? Maybe. Maybe these words were simply drowned out by his own screaming.

Eventually though, the outcries would come to a sudden halt. Kou fell completely silent, baring slit pupils in those starry eyes of his while his body became limp...