A piercing pain shot through A-Tuo’s back, as though countless sharp needles were weaving beneath his skin. He held his breath, trying not to focus on the steadily growing feathers, but whenever he moved even slightly, these feathers seemed to come to life, growing and invading his fragile flesh.
The feathers abruptly pierced his muscles from his back, taking root deep within his bone marrow, as if controlled by some invisible force. Each feather spread across his back, traveling through his nerves, transmitting a strange cold and pain to every inch of his skin. It felt as if millions of tiny poisonous thorns were moving through every cell of his body.
He looked down at his hands, noticing his fingers turning pale and growing progressively colder. He tried to reach out to grab something to steady himself, but his fingertips became increasingly stiff, as if he had no strength left to hold onto anything.
“No… no, I’m still alive…” A-Tuo tried to tell himself, but his voice was hoarse and weak, almost disappearing into the boundless darkness.
Suddenly, his gaze focused on the mirror behind him. He saw the feathers on his back, shimmering in the moonlight, like countless decaying eyes staring at him, silently watching his every move. Each feather seemed to have its own consciousness, no longer lifeless, but a parasitic entity, mercilessly consuming him.
A-Tuo tried to move, but the feathers on his back made it impossible to breathe. He felt as though he was bound by countless cold chains, his limbs stiff and immovable. In that moment, his body felt like a corpse, with only the feathers still alive, continuing to grow and spread.
"You will understand in the end." The voice echoed again, this time clearer, with an ancient and chilling threat. A-Tuo's mind conjured a blurry face—the professor's face—but also like countless unknown faces intertwined, all bearing the same coldness, as if they had all experienced this kind of pain.
"You can never escape."
A-Tuo's eyes widened, and he suddenly turned around, but everything before him became blurred. He suddenly realized that no matter how much he tried to escape, he was merely trapped in an inescapable cycle of fate. He watched the feathers on his back, seeing countless barbed quills penetrating his muscles, hollowing out everything inside him, completely consuming him.
Suddenly, a feather shot out from his back like a sharp arrow, piercing through his spine. His back let out a tearing sound, as though his bones were being ripped apart in agony. He endured the unimaginable pain, his chest constricting, as though the entire world was collapsing.
“No!” A-Tuo struggled to shout, but he couldn’t hear his voice. All his strength seemed to have vanished, leaving only the endless pain and the sound of feathers erupting from his body.
His back was no longer his back, but something beyond description, as if being squeezed by Death’s finger, twisting and distorting. He felt himself breaking down, both physically and mentally, piece by piece.
"You will understand in the end, this is all fate's arrangement." The voice was no longer the professor’s, nor any familiar voice, but one from a deeper, darker place. It awakened his fear of death from the deepest part of his soul.
"You can never turn back."
He saw that part of him was no longer human. His fingertips, his arms, even his heart, had been replaced by feathers. It was not the texture of feathers, but something alive, like rotting maggots squirming beneath his skin. At the root of each feather, there were eyes staring at him with irresistible malice.
He struggled to shake off the constantly growing feathers, but found himself powerless to tear them off. Each feather was firmly embedded inside him, transforming him into part of some hellish entity. A-Tuo's mind was left with nothing but dead silence and pain, his eyes no longer holding any light.
In that moment, he understood: he was already dead, but his soul had not yet been completely consumed.
At that moment, he heard countless ghostly whispers echoing in his ears, as if the judgment of death was about to descend.
ns3.137.188.121da2
