I realized after posting that this chapter was short, so I played with the fonts and characters trying to give it some life. Short and sweet.

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It took a week of very simple directions and simple crafting. As it turned out, the heroes only needed the raw materials required for building houses. With Eric's smithing skill creating nails and the amount of lumber Todd could cut through, creating seven houses was simplicity personified. Some wreckage could be reused, but creating a house suitable for living in was much easier than the heroes were used to. Walls and a roof were good enough, and with their parties and neighbors working together, it was as easy as pie.

After a week of work, the town had a feast for the heroes as a celebration, taking the best meats and grains from miles around. Eric and his group ate graciously, but the others were surprised by the profound quality of the food. They compared everything to the food they were served in the castle, and everything here was much better. The party had music and dancing around a large communal fire, where they burned all the extra wood and scraps from the ruined houses. Everyone had a great time, even Emily, who had been griping constantly about something or other.

The heroes even learned a few more new things between each other. Eric was able to teach them that physical work increased strength and vitality naturally, something even Benny didn't know. Eric also discovered that the Divine Clock was actually a possession of the king, an object that would count down the time until the next wave appears. It was made out of materials that leaked natural magic, and after absorbing enough natural magic, divine weapons would rank up. Eric figured that Elas's natural magic must have been able to increase his rank, something that Benny was very interested in. The Church of the Holy Trinity condemned spellweaving according to Benny, but natural magic was okay with them.

After the festivities, Eric and his group were preparing to leave when Emily approached Eric. "Hey, I heard about what happened at the castle," Emily said nervously. "I'm sorry for everything."

"There's nothing to apologize for," said Eric flatly, avoiding eye contact. "You did what you did without knowing the facts, that's all there is to it."

"Also, about what you said...." Eric looked up at Emily who was looking down at Eric as though he was a lost puppy. "Was your home life really that bad? I mean, I know it's possible, but I've never known someone who could take all of that abuse and still be okay." Eric's group all looked at Eric, wanting to hear more about his past. Eric finished packing his things into his inventory, then he made his trench coat disappear. Eric stood up, grabbed the hem of his shirt, then pulled it off in a single fluid motion.

Emily could only stare at Eric, Lucia felt her compassion reach its limit, Lilly almost puked, Draco gained a new respect for Eric, while Elas felt her knees get weak. Eric was huge, his muscles pulling at his tight skin like balloons that were inflated to their maximum extent. But what everybody saw were the scars and the permanent bruises that discolored his skin a sickly yellow color. There were jagged scars, thin scars, small round scars from what looked like bullets. His body was a testemant to the extreme abuse and mental devestation he had gone through as a child, and with his horrible scars showing he stepped up to Emily with horrible eyes.

"What the flying fuck makes you think I'm okay? I keep slaves because I can not trust people otherwise," said Eric in a hollow voice. "The only reason Elas is tagging along is because I have a countermeasure for when she turns on me. I wake up every morning from the same nightmares that I had every night before, and you seem to think that I am of sound mind? I would laugh if I even knew what my laugh sounded like." With his words out in the open, Eric put back on his shirt in a sour mood. Emily looked at Lucia who seemed to be filled with an unfathomable sadness.

"Does he really have nightmares?" Emily asked, even though Eric could still hear. Emily nodded her head as tears permeated her eyes.

"I've seen him tossing and turning in his sleep," said Elas, "and he's always the first one to wake up. But he never told us that he has nightmares, he just says he's restless." They all looked at Eric, who was packing his bag and ready to go before everyone else.

"You know what, if you're all so serious about it, I'm going to tell you," said Eric sourly. "Just know I don't want your pity."

"I'm curious as well," said John, appearing from a short way down the road. Tyler, Todd, Benny and John appeared from around the side of the building, all of them looking expectantly at Eric. This was more than uncomfortable for Eric, he hated when people wanted to hear his story so badly that they would go to any lengths.

"My earliest memory is my parents arguing," said Eric, "and then my dad left with a woman who said she hated me and my sister. Once my dad left, my mom was left with all of the debt and the mortgage. She got angry, so she took it out on me with her fists and her words. I learned how to cuss and fight back, but that never helped back then. I got good at fighting back, but that just made my mom leave, too. So I was ten with a house, a debt, and a little sister to take care of. We had no money, no food, and nobody to take care of us. I had to grow up real fuckin' fast, get a part-time job when I was in elementary school and start payin' taxes.

"We were always hungry back then, but my sister always told me that I had to eat more because I was so much bigger. She wouldn't accept sharing food equally, she always made me eat more or else she would throw it away. I used to beat kids up for their lunch money because I never had my own. Some lady saw me fighting once, then she told me I could make a ton of money if I was willing to fight for her. She became my sponsor for illegal underground fighting, and shit was she right."

"I went from a hundred dollars a week to a grand every night! It didn't matter if I won or lost, but weapons and illegal moves were allowed, so I did my best to win. I didn't see my sister a lot after that, trying to hide the cuts and bruises, trying not to limp from the broken bones. It was good for a while, we were pulling in enough money to live comfortably and I was actually getting the house paid off. I knew the sponsor was holding back a ton of money from me, but I didn't care, as long as I could live comfortably with Sarah."

Eric was silent for a long moment as he put his head in his hands, his hair draped over his head. "Then my sister got sick. I got more violent in fights after that, trying to get more money to keep up with the hospital bills. She was on seven different drugs at all times, the doctors told me all of these procedures they wanted to do, but I told them only do what would make Sarah healthy. I came in every day, injured or not, always telling her that 'everything was going to be alright'. I was going to take care of her, then we would go home and rent a movie or something."

Eric slammed his fist into the ground, sending out a shockwave that shook the feet of everyone present. "But nobody would cut me some fucking slack!" Eric pounded his fist repeatedly, taking out his frustration on the ground as he shouted, "Nobody would help us! Not the doctors, not my sponsor, not our own fucking parents! They watched as Sarah died, they didn't even try to help her! I was her gaurdian, her brother! I couldn't even...." Eric was openly crying now, but his head was down so that nobody could see his tears.

"Do you know what that's like," Eric shouted accusingly, suddenly standing up with clenched fists and red eyes. "To tell someone it's going to get better when you know it's not! To lie that the pain would go away when they woke up, when you really know it would ONLY GET WORSE!" Eric realized that he was throwing a temper tantrum, so he relaxed his muscles and focused on not crying. He took some time to return to his calm state, then went back to sitting against the tree.

"So, my sister died," he recapped, wiping his face to hide the tears some more. "After that, nothing really mattered anymore. I stopped going to school, going to fights, paying the bills. My sponsor was getting angry with me, sending gangs after me to try and get me into the ring. She must have been holding out more money than I thought, because she eventually sent something like an army after me." Eric summoned his chains, looking at them with a vague nostalgia. "That's how I got these, I guess. Turning them into a weapon."

There was a heavy silence after Eric revealed his past, but he just sat there with his head down. Everyone looked at him, their minds blank as they expected him to do something else. Eric's huge mass didn't move, but the sound of sniffling and soft whimpers made it clear. Without a word, Lucia stepped forward to put an arm over Eric as he cried, then Lilly stepped forward to do the same. One-by-one, Eric was sorrounded by his party members who offered their sympathies to the ailing man.

There was nothing the heroes could have said, so they each left after watching Eric and his party get together to share in their sadness. After the session of tears, Eric's party packed up and they headed out, with Eric back to his usual self. He hiked ahead of the pack, a feeling of uncertainty sorrounding him as he tried to reason with himself. Finally he stopped and turned around, and he liked what he saw. He could see concern in Lucia's eyes, Lilly had deep compassion when she looked at him, Draco held a very strong respect for his strength, while Elas saw him as the same mountain of a man as always.

Eric smiled, and then continued walking without saying a single word. This was something he would never admit to, but what he hated most about recounting his past was the looks of pity that come afterward. That pity would remind him he was broken, that he had fallen from grace into the tar pits of hell itself. It was his greatest fear to see that look of pity in the people he regarded as his closest friends. But they didn't pity him, because they knew what it was like to be the universe's chew toy.

Eric felt new somehow, as though this was his baptism of tears.

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