He felt as if his head was exploding, another new sensation....he was having a great, whatever this time period was called he was living, perhaps a great chain of events...perhaps just a great time, at least it was better than literally nothing ever happening, that was for sure...
Laughing loudly he bashed his head backwards, hitting the metal, cold as ever, and feeling pain, oh yes, he was warming up, the cold, it was growing littler, little, lesser.
And his laugh spread outward, his freedom was so near, that was for sure...
"Careful, don't hurt yourself too much Arges, we don't know if you'll regenerate once you're free..."
What did that even matter?
When he was free he could do whatever he wanted!
Wasn't that the very definition of freedom?
"Don't make me pipe you down, Arges, I have been holding this back for a little while now..."
He opened his mouth, the first time for what felt like countless centuries and he spoke, his voice inaudible, but his screams still haling through the world, he had spend many years just singing songs Cades had heard at events in his youth or read about in one of those so-called books.
This was his world, this was his fun, this was his promised freedom, and if there was anything he could do, then he would be sure to enjoy it, that was for sure, because he was Arges, he had no second name, he was only himself, he would be himself eternally, he was Arges, not Rondel....
Wait a second...
How did he just think of Rondel...
He wasn't Rondel, he was Cades...
Wait, he wasn't Cades... was he....
Was he not Arges just now...?
His body stopped moving, listening to Cades commands, and soon he also didn't try talking or screaming anymore, quickly recovering all the bodily functions and such and returning to full health after just a few seconds, as always, as why he was stuck in this accursed place.
What had just happened, why was he Cades, and why was he Rondel, why was he not Arges anymore...and just what had the voice calling itself John done just now... why had the voice kille dhim, for lack of a better term...
No, the voice had clearly given him a second chance, Rondel thought, this was his chance to return to life and reclaim a body, perhaps he was in the past, if that was the case he could surely save his sister, he had read about this.
Yes, the voice had revived him, Cades thought, a thought far more powerful than the measly thoughts of an old man stuck in his ways, but still, the voice of thoughts coming form the ehetrian boy was still overthrown by the power of experience.
He was killing me!
Why was I thinking as three!
I am I!
I am I!
You never were you, you always were me, Cades thought, quickly reclaiming his mind that had splintered once more, be it with the help of another mind in this bodily disaster raging within the mind stuck in eternal frost, the subconscious of the original Cades, however complicated this entire thing had now become.
Once more, a laugh resounded, this time old and broken, full of experience and power hidden beneath the surface, it was the laugh of Rondel Keris, believing himself to have somehow been brought back to live, still unsure of whether he truly was himself or something else, and at the same time, Cades immature but overly powerful and disastrously violent laugh, filled with chaos and the blood he had already spilled, resounded and made the old man slightly nervous, despite his decades of experience over the child.
Still, who wouldn't be afraid of a child a good sixty years younger than oneself that was better at what one had done their whole lives, I'll tell you, nobody, not even Rondel who had prided himself on not being scared of children, at least not when his children tried to scare him...
Yet, just then, Cades had backed down, feeling what Rondel had felt just now, love, family, bonds, all things he had been finished with already, well, aside from his wife.
Yes!
Feelings, emotions, stories, tell them to me, let me feel them, let me suffer, a old feeling resounded, not even a personality, not even a being, simply boredom and desperation made flesh, it was Arges, a name the current Cades thought to have quite the ring when he thought about it again...
Yes, he remembered how Arges came to be, he wouldn't be able to just annihilate all those memories, however he was even planning on doing that, he should just become one, devouring the insanity and quenching the flames of madness, the glint in their eyes, with his won power, that should be his greatest goal, that should be what he should be doing now, not fighting against a part of himself, he should collect it and fight against this Rondel after that, this Rondel and his feelings, his happiness...
Yes, he was Arges, and he was Cades, but he was not Rondel, he did not know Rondel, he had no memories of Rondel, and yet, there was something inside him, slowly flooding his mind, but only secondary, like watched through a blurry screen...
A life he had never lived, Rondel's life....
"It is your life, you just never truly lived that life, it was all in the past, and the past has become your future, it happened while you were stuck here, for eighty whole years... oh my, you went insane so many times, if only Rondel had died as a child, just how much better would that have been for you..."
This voice...was it mocking them... was it annoyed he had survived this long... that I had,... no he had... we had... it was simply mocking, how about that...
But why was the voice suddenly so very disgusting and dismissive?
It hadn't been like that before...
John had never before been like this, so why now...
"Calm down and remember, feel it all, become yourself, choose who you are, build your mind, that's what you have to do now, whoever might be occupying the mind right now.." the voice said, trying to lead them to an exit...