The only thing that could accurately describe what Zen was feeling was chaos. He briefly felt his mind beco blurry and fuzzy. Unlike what you’d expect, this was actually pretty common for him, and even more so since he got the system.
A few minutes later he suddenly felt like he was rolling down multiple unimaginably high flights of stairs.
A few minutes later he suddenly found himself on the ground, his head aching like crazy, however he felt like he could hear a faint voice calling out to him. He briefly managed to open his eyes and the first thing he laid his eyes on was what looked like a red pebble.
He couldn’t explain how or why, but his instincts urged him to take it in his hands ,to... devour it, but not in the normal way. Zen only managed to briefly touch it when he was once again pulled into his subconscious.
"Hahahaha! Finally!"
A minute later, Zen suddenly opened his eyes and found himself in a strangely foreign but familiar location.
It looked like a scene out of a fairy tail.....or perhaps a nightmare. It was a large island surrounded by nothing but crystal clear oceans, and a few smaller islands near and far. On the island, upon the rocks close to the sea was a massive gothic style castle over two hundred ters tall and around 80 ters wide. On top of it was seven distinct towers each with a tower spire piercing the sky.
The sky was dark with only one nearly nearly unnoticeable star in it, proving little to no illumination. Strangely though, Zen didn’t need any to see clearly. It wasn’t like night vision or being able to see in night like it was day,it was more like the he could sense his surroundings: The water,the castle, the islands, even the darkness itself.
"Why am i here?"
Zen knew this place, he had seen it multiple tis. This was his happy place.
Growing up as a child, whenever he had any problems he would simply close his eyes and take a deep breath, when he reopened his eyes he would find himself here,where he felt at ho. He even accidentally ca here a few tis in his sleep.
As a child and even now, he never questioned it , he just believed it was a side effect of what they did to him, however, he never thought of it as just a fantasy of a child,if he did, the he never would have done what he did to them.
Zen looked down. He was currently standing on the ocean,a fair distance from the island with the castle.
"Good to see this hasn’t changed"
With nothing else to do, Zen started walking towards the castle at a fair pace, walking on the gentle waters like solid ground.
Zen was halfway to the castle when the sky was suddenly covered by dark clouds and It suddenly started storming heavily.
"Heh-heh" a female voice reverberated throughout the entire realm.
Zen looked around with mild surprise. This had never happened before.
"Who are you? I didn’t allow this,how are you doing this?"
Out of the storm clouds a figure slowly floated downward, but still stayed high enough to be unreachable by Zen.
Zen looked closely at the mature looking woman, analyzing her physical features.
She had smooth long silver hair in soft curls that reached her back. Her eyes were glowing in a nacing red and she was in a dark velvet wrap dress with long sleeves, and red shoes.
"So you’re the fool that thought he could capture . Big mistake kid" Lilith said arrogantly looking down at Zen.
Despite this big talk, she discreetly looked around and worriedly whispered to herself.
"He’s just a child... but why is it so big?"
"What does the size matter?" Zen asked, surprising her
Lilith was visibly suprised that Zen was able to hear her despite the distance between them, but quickly composed herself.
"S-so you’ve gotten to a level of control where you can sense what happens in this realm. Not bad,in fact, very good for your age...however it doesn’t change a thing. You’re about to find out what happens when you bite off more than you can chew,kid"
The storm suddenly picked up as the wind and rain moved even more aggressively.
"What are you talking about? Who are you?"
"Hmm...i suppose it’s only fair you know the na of the entity about to take your body and soul"
Zen suddenly felt the water beneath him beco liquid again as he fell through the water. He quickly swam up back to the top. As so of the water entered his mouth,he suddenly realized it wasn’t water anymore.
"Blood?"
Lilith’s red eyes glowed with even more intense light as she opened her mouth to reveal a pair of fangs.
"I am Lilith Valeria ,ruler of blood, and the first vampire queen"
The entire atmosphere changed as the storm clouds in the sky turned red and started raining blood instead of water. The original calm oceans were imdiately turned into seas of blood, and were filled with cyclones, whirlpools and other sorts of terrors.
Zen quickly began to swim the rest of the way to the castle, inadvertently drinking so blood in the process. He suddenly noticed that parts of his body were turning into red crystalline substance with the more blood he drank and the longer he stayed in the ocean of blood.
As quickly as he could, Zen swam out of the ocean, careful not to drink anymore blood, and struggling even more than before due to his astraphobia.
Even though it wasn’t exactly a normal storm, Zen’s instincts said it counted as he occasionally froze and had to force himself to move through it.
He eventually managed to get to the castle which opened up its giant doors to welco him before closing behind him.
Zen imdiately fell to the floor as he entered the gothic style building. He imdiately tried to get his headphones out of his ring to try to block out the sound, but found out it wasn’t with him.
Zen suddenly looked at his right hand and noticed that by now,all the fingers on the hand had turned into the red crystal. He tried as much as he could to wiggle and move them, but he couldn’t.
Zen covered his ears, trying to concentrate, but no matter how much he tried,he just couldn’t. He was about to try sothing else when he suddenly heard the sound of a woman humming a tune.
"Hmm?"
His mind instantly beca blank.
"I know that song"
He temporarily forgot about the situation going on outside and followed the tune to an old record player in the corner of the room, with the sound of a woman humming was all that was playing.
Zen instantly felt all his tension wash away as his mind beca sharp again. For a few seconds he humd along, even singing so of the words, despite not knowing where he heard them from.
Zen quickly regathered his thoughts as he looked around the mostly empty room. He hadn’t been in here a while, but he knew it wasn’t ant to be this way,sothing had changed, and he was pretty sure he knew why.
Still humming , Zen ran at full speed towards one of the walls in the room that for so reason had no doors other than the ones that led in. As Zen was about to crash into the wall,all the bricks began to shift and move to create a door like hole in the wall for him to pass through into the next room. As soon as Zen passed through, the bricks began to shift and move back to their original positions fixing the wall back.
Good to see so things hadn’t changed.
************
A drop of blood suddenly entered one of the rooms through one of the windows and suddenly began to expand and take a humanoid shape until it finally ford Lilith.
"Hmm, where did he go ?"
She started walking around, not particularly in any hurry.
She suddenly sensed that beyond one of those walls was a small room. She had seen many of those rooms, but what suprised her about this one was that it was so small and isolated. Was the kid trying to hide sothing from her?
She waved her hand and the bricks blocking the room shifted out of the way to make a door for her, showing she already had a asure of control over Zen’s castle.
She stepped in and the door closed behind her as the bricks shifted to their initial position.
Lilith tilted her head curiously as she looked at where she was. It looked like it was a room for a child,or perhaps children. There were so nonsensical toys and drawings in the room, confusing her as to why she was here.
She picked up one of the drawings and a spark of emotion appeared in her eyes as she smiled,the shadow of a tear in her eye.
"The kids talented" She mused, checking a few more.
"I don’t have ti for this " She said, dropping the drawings.
Lilith suddenly realized sothing.
"He’s been in here since he was a child?"
She suddenly felt like things could get dangerous if she wasn’t careful. For soone to enter their soul realm at such a young age was almost unheard of. Plus she didn’t even know how long she had been trapped for,it could have been hundreds or even thousands of years, she wasn’t anywhere near her full strength, even if only temporarily.
"Sorry kid, nothing personal"
She turned around preparing to leave.
"Well this was a huge waste of ti" She said, waving her hand.
A few seconds passed and Lilith frowned. The wall wasn’t opening up.
"Maybe for you, but not for " Zen said from the other side of the wall.
The room suddenly started shaking and shrinking.
The walls and ceiling suddenly started moving close together, trying to close in on her
"W-what? How? How did you find ?" Lilith asked, panicking a little bit.
"Like you said before, I can see everything in this place. Your mistake was arrogantly walking into my castle with no knowledge whatsoever"
Zen said while trying his best to will the room to crush her even faster.
Lilith looked around at the walls that were closing in and gritted her teeth. She had been tricked, trapped like a rat. The boy must have designed this room to be suspicious and eye-catching, and expected her to be arrogant and careless enough to enter with no precautions. Surprisingly, Lilith had perfectly deduced everything that had happened.
Lilith felt angry, not at Zen but at herself, she was the queen of vampires,a monarch, and the strongest of her ti, and she had been caught by a teenager!
She didn’t waste any more ti as a red aura enveloped her fist and she took a strange stance before striking at the wall.
Her fist left shockwaves from its speed and might, but as it touched the wall it all that force disappeared leaving it unhard.
".... what?"
This was starting to get ridiculous. How could this child have a soul realm with such vastness, might, durability and grandeur?
"Fine kid,you forced to do this"
Outside, Zen had both his hands on the wall and his eyes closed as he willed it shut. His eyes suddenly burst open as he sensed sothing with his pseudo omnipotence in this realm.
He suddenly backed off and just as he did,a huge wave of crimson aura burst out from the direction of the room, destroying the room and sending dust and debris flying everywhere.
Zen suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest. It seed whatever damage this realm took,he did as well.
"Huff...huff...you know? I don’t consider myself a racist, but you and that other human have got wondering if human souls are just more powerful and grand. Is this true?"
"..."
"... right,i guess even if you knew, you wouldn’t tell . Then would you at least tell your na? I feel like you’ve earned it"
"... Zen"
"Well then, Zen, you’ve taught a valuable lesson. If I’m going to re-enter the world,i shouldn’t be so cocky, especially towards unknowns".
"..."
"You know? I really like you, Zen? You’re cautious, brilliant,strong, fearless, unyielding,you captured .... and you were around my age when i first decided i wanted to beco vampire queen. If it was possible,or if you were born in my ti,i really would have jumped at the chance to turn you into one of mine, i treat my own well, Zen. i would treat you well, you’d be happy.... everyone would be happy...."
"... sounds like you have a lot of regrets from that ti"
Lilith nodded,a look of sadness on her face.
"Yes, that’s why I need to take you. I don’t take pleasure in killing kids, Zen. I really am sorry"
Lilith was done talking and another wave of crimson energy suddenly released from her body and towards Zen.
*************
Neo suddenly opened his eyes and found himself in an old alley.
"Hmm? How’d i get here"
He suddenly turned around and saw a familiar figure turn around and leave the alley.
His eyes suddenly widened as he saw his sister again after such a long ti.
Go to her
Without thinking, he suddenly ran towards her before suddenly tripping over sothing. He looked back at what he tripped over and was ecstatic to see it was the ability circuit he had sacrificed himself to get for his sister.
He was so giddy, he didn’t suspect anything and happily opened it and brought out the glowing blue crystal.
For a second,Neo suddenly cald down. Aether crystals could literally be anything,so it wasn’t strange for it to be a crystal, but sowhere deep inside, he felt like he knew the one he got wasn’t a crystal,or at least wasn’t so visually appealing and beautiful as one.
It doesn’t matter
Those thoughts only lasted for a second before disappearing completely. Who cared what it was, his precious little angel of a sister was about to finally get what she deserved: a life of freedom, with endless possibilities.
He kept the crystal in his pocket and ran in the direction he saw her going, yelling her na excitedly while waving and laughing. He couldn’t give a damn what people thought about him.
Wait a minute....where are all the people?
Neo stopped for another second before shrugging. He didn’t even have friends or anyone he even remotely liked. You couldn’t care less for anyone but your sister.
Wait a minute....do i have friends?
No
A few vague images appeared in his head. He tried his best to rember anything about them but suddenly realized he couldn’t, he couldn’t even rember the images anymore, like they had been completely erased.
"Wait... what was i thinking about again?"
"Hmmm"
He suddenly caught another glimpse of his sister and rembered the crystal in his pocket.
The crystal
"Yeah, that’s it. I wanted to give her this"
Neo didn’t notice, but his appearance was slowly changing.
His military uniform slowly turned into torn and raggedy clothes, he got a little bit shorter, and his hairstyle which he had changed when he got to the academy, changed to beco plain rough and dirty clothes.
"Hahahaha! Hey,Iris! Wait for ! I got you a gift"
Neo’s trial had begun!
Reviews
All reviews (0)