Deviant: No Longer Human

With a sudden, harrowing resolve, he reached up to his own face, his fingers trembling.

Squish... squish...

In a horrific moment, he gouged out his own eyes, the blood from his wounds mingling with the crimson pool at his feet.

Yin Yue screamed, her voice a mix of horror and disbelief, as she wanted to stop him. [Wang Xiao! What are you doing?!]

But Wang Xiao was beyond her reach, his consciousness submerged in a vision that transcended the reality.

He staggered forward, holding his eyes in his outstretched hands as if offering them to the angel statue spouting the mysterious water.

His face was a mask of serene agony, his actions dictated by a force unseen.

In his mind, the scene shifted through the cosmos.

He found himself standing in front of a colossal building, bustling with activity.

People moved around him, their faces a blur, their hands holding devices that shimmered with an eerie, advanced technology.

Before him stood seven statues of women, cast in bronze, their beauty otherworldly, haunting.

Visitors circled the statues, capturing their images with the strange devices, oblivious to the profound aura of sorrow that Wang Xiao felt emanating from them.

The reality of his brutal self-mutilation seemed a distant echo to the visions flooding his senses.

His physical eyes were gone, but his spiritual sight was awash with these vivid, unsettling scenes.

As if guided by an ancient ritual, his actions felt both sacrificial and necessary, a plea for understanding or perhaps an invocation for a deeper connection to the divine tragedies he witnessed.

Yin Yue, still reeling from the shock, [Please, come back to me, Wang Xiao. Whatever you\'re seeing, whatever you\'re doing, this isn\'t the way,] she pleaded, her voice cracking with emotion.

Yet, even as she spoke, a subtle change began to occur around the fountain.

The angel\'s eyes, previously just another carved feature, began to glow softly, responding to the offering in a way that defied earthly logic.

The water flowing from its mouth started to shimmer with a luminescent quality, the pool\'s surface rippling with energy as if reacting to Wang Xiao\'s sacrifice.

______

Kekeke... Kekekkekekeke...

"W...what!?"

Wang Xiao\'s eyes flew open in shock. He found himself eerily suspended in midair, enveloped by the same green, luminescent world he had glimpsed before.

But now, an unsettling feeling crept over him.

He glanced downward and realized that he was indeed floating, high above the earth.

Below him, the vast expanse of the world stretched out, but something was disturbingly off.

"My... skin..."

His voice trailed off in horror as he observed his skin, which appeared unusually saggy and frail.

His legs seemed to have aged decades in moments.

Then, with a hesitant turn, he inspected his hands—they were unnaturally stretched out horizontally.

Surrounding him were small, strange beings the size of a fist.

These creatures, though seemingly adorable, had faces twisted into sinister smiles, emitting eerie laughter as they pecked at his skin.

Something was deeply wrong, and a chill of recognition swept through him.

[X... XIAO?]

Yin Yue\'s voice, fragile and trembling, echoed through the strange luminescence, sounding distant yet filled with urgent fear.

Wang Xiao frantically shook his head, his voice tinged with confusion and fear, "What\'s happening, Yue? What happened to me? What are these tiny, laughing creatures?"

Yin Yue, startled, asked, [You can see?]

"Why wouldn\'t I?" Wang Xiao\'s tone deepened with bewilderment.

[....]

Yin Yue paused, her silence stretching into a heavy, thoughtful void before she spoke, her voice barely a whisper, [You don\'t have eyes anymore...]

"Huh?" His heart skipped as her words struck him like a cold splash of reality, sharpening his perception.

He realized that he was indeed suspended in the air, directly in front of the tornado he had seen from afar upon entering this surreal land.

This tornado, a swirling vortex of blue mist, mirrored the essence of the small creatures nibbling at him, which were also crafted from the same ethereal blue mist.

Observing his own body, he saw the drastic changes.

Fragile...

Feeble...

A deeply wrinkled face...

It was as though centuries had folded into mere moments, aging him beyond measure.

His hair, now long and flowing, spilled beyond his feet, its strands kissed with silver.

A thick, white beard flowed majestically down to his abdomen.

Strangest of all was his sight—despite the darkness where his eyes should have been, he could see everything around him with unnatural clarity.

[Wang Xiao, y-you... have been hanging here for one hundred and seven years...] Yin Yue\'s voice broke through, tinged with fear and a profound sadness, revealing the shocking span of time he had been lost to this strange, timeless void.

"!!!"

Wang Xiao felt a bizarre sensation as his eyes seemed to widen in shock, an eerie experience since he no longer had them.

"One...one hundred years," he murmured, his voice shaking as the words left his trembling lips.

From somewhere close, yet seemingly distant, Yin Yue\'s voice emerged, filled with a mixture of relief and urgency. [Yes... I thought you would never wake up...]

"B-But..." Wang Xiao\'s voice faltered, his mind reeling from the sheer magnitude of time that had elapsed.

Yin Yue spoke with increased intensity, breaking through his confusion, [I don\'t have much time... Listen closely. These creatures are using you to refine Aether... Your body is absorbing Aether, which they feast upon to strengthen the soul eater... They\'ve turned you into some sort of purifier since they can\'t directly absorb Aether themselves.]

[This process has drained you so deeply, you\'ve absorbed more Aether than anyone could over tens of thousands of years... You\'re literally breaking apart.]

"..."

Wang Xiao was struck dumb, words failing him as the grim reality set in.

Yin Yue continued, her voice a lifeline thrown in the darkness, [You have to break free! Wang Xiao, muster whatever strength you still possess and break these bonds. Remember the technique you learned from Eleanor for repairing the glass?]

[It\'s exactly the same method she uses to regenerate her own body at the cellular level. Repairing broken glass, healing the cracks—it wasn\'t just a repetitive task; she was preparing you for immortality.]

[I should have told you sooner but never imagined this would happen... Try your best, and you might restore your youth!]