Darkness.
An endless darkness.
One I've never seen before, never felt before.
No... I rember... I rember this feeling. I found myself in such darkness before, long before. It was a void where I couldn't feel my body, I couldn't feel ti, I couldn't see or hear anything.
When I ca here before, I was scared. I was afraid I would go crazy, I was afraid I would lose my own self.
And now...
Nothing.
What I feel inside is literally nothing. Sadness, happiness, anger, all kinds of things... Nothing.
Is that... normal?
With these thoughts, ti moved forward.
Or not.
Finally, in all this darkness, I realized sothing.
A voice, a low voice. As if soone was humming.
The voice beca more distinct as ti passed. Because it was the only thing I could focus on, I didn't think about anything else, so after a certain amount of ti... I could understand what it was.
It was a lody. It was a sad, gloomy but peaceful lody. It sounded familiar, like I had heard it many tis before, but no matter how hard I tried, I could not place it in my mind.
As the lody slowly beca easier to understand, I listened to it completely. The more I listened, the more peaceful I felt, and the more I listened, the more I realized that in this nothingness where I could feel nothing, there was a strange feeling sprouting inside .
It was a feeling that was slowly trying to reach the surface from the depths of my soul. It was warm, comforting even. It seed to move rhythmically with the lody. It was spreading slowly but steadily, as if controlled by it.
Eventually, the feeling beca more pronounced. It was trying to seep into ... pulling toward it. However, after a while... it suddenly paused. And with its pause, I noticed sothing else in the darkness, sothing that existed outside this lody. A light, a light that was slowly expanding and getting brighter and brighter.
I turned toward the light, without thinking... not even realizing that it was a strange thing in this strange space that I could turn toward it.
It was right in front of , the source of the light. It was the only thing other than that existed in this endless darkness. It was as if it was resisting the darkness, the silence, the 'nothingness' of this place.
I reached out my hand to it, I touched it.
Then, it also touched .
The endless darkness suddenly lit up with a dazzling radiance.
*******
I want to die.
I want to die.
I want to die...
I didn't think about anything else as the liquid spread through my veins, literally dissolving my whole body slowly.
With tears in my eyes, unable to think straight, I looked at the people in lab coats standing in front of .
One of them was looking directly at . Even in all the chaos I was going through, I could pick him out, maybe the person I hated the most here.
Jared, Jared Huffab.
No... I don't know this person. How can I hate him when I don't know him?
I don't understand... What's happening?
It didn't take long to forget my thoughts, though. I couldn't think of anything but him as the pain enveloped my whole body.
Slowly I felt myself changing. Slowly, but steadily, I felt myself becoming soone else.
*******
Finally, after a while, sothing different happened.
I felt as if the liquid was touching my heart. Its flas seized it, then it was drawn through my whole body and directed toward it.
It was happening for the first ti.
Although... What was happening before so that I knew it was the 'first ti'?
It's... pointless... strange...
Who am I?
I couldn't think of an answer to my question. With every second that passed, the pain was getting worse and worse, dulling my sense of self.
I kept struggling, I wanted to get up from the chair where my hands were tied and suffocate myself. Yet, I couldn't. I just waited, screaming as the liquid burned my heart, changing it.
So I felt that I had lost sothing, that everything inside that made who I was was slowly slipping away.
*******
This ti the liquid changed targets again. And this was also the first ti. This ti... the target was my brain.
I felt sothing strange, sothing I had never felt before, a void, a void that slowly spread through and swallowed everything in sight.
I lost count of the number of tis I fainted and woke up as the liquid burned my brain, just like it did my heart. Maybe my throat had been torn apart by my screams because I couldn't scream anymore, but I kept going.
Even though my throat was torn, I kept screaming because there was nothing else I could do. Then... I felt sothing new, sothing strange sprouting inside , things filling my mind that I had never known before. Things I shouldn't know.
The liquid spread all over my body again. Its presence beca indistinct as if it had finished with my brain, as if it was slowly disappearing. But, after a short period of ti, I understood.
The liquid was not disappearing, its presence was not becoming indistinct.
It had chosen another target, sothing non-physical.
*******
I felt my soul slipping away, like my heart, like my brain, it burned slowly but painfully.
The pain I had suffered before was nothing compared to this. I always thought I was used to pain, every ti I ca here I thought how much more I could suffer this ti.
This was different.
This was very different.
I felt myself separating from my body as my soul was on fire. I felt myself dying and resurrecting over and over again as my soul was slowly disappearing. I felt the emptiness inside growing wider and wider as my soul was slowly changing.
Eventually, the pain beca aningless. Maybe I was tired, maybe I was numb, maybe I was still screaming but I didn't realize it.
The fla that enveloped my soul, that changed it, slowly began to recede. This ti the pain really did fade away. I was still awake, I had not fainted.
I raised my head and looked at the people who had been standing in front of the whole ti.
Then I felt sothing strange inside again.
Or rather, I realized I couldn't feel it.
There was no anger.
There was no fear.
No sadness.
There was no joy, too.
There was nothing. I was just looking at the people in front of , my eyes open, not shaking, just waiting where I was, not feeling anything inside . As if I didn't feel anything except the emptiness that filled after I disappeared with that fla.
Then sothing happened.
I understood.
I understood everything.
Or rather, I realized that I understood.
And with that, I heard a voice, a dull voice whispering in my mind. A different voice that sounded as if it was echoing, as if it was made up of more than one person speaking at the sa ti.
'You are awake, human child.'
*******
I found myself in the darkness again, thinking about the things I had seen as the light I had touched was slowly disappearing.
Then I realized that everything about them was slowly fading from my mind, the things I had seen, the things I had heard... There was nothing I could do but wait as each one was slowly being dragged behind sothing, locked away.
The light in front of disappeared completely, most of the dream I was having was gone. All that remained were vague images.
Endless darkness surrounded again in this void where nothing existed.
Minutes passed.
Hours.
Days?
Or weeks?
Months...?
In the darkness, suddenly, there was sothing again. Again, a light.
But it wasn't like before. It was not so attractive, not so bright. It wasn't sothing I could touch. It was also a dim light.
As my eyes slowly opened, as my vision slowly beca clearer, I realized that I could feel my body again. I focused on the dim light I saw in the darkness, and then I realized what it was.
It was a lamp. It was behind a transparent panel on the ceiling.
I tried to move.
"Ugh..."
The mont I tried to try this, intense pain shot through my whole body and I moaned hoarsely, then I realized that my whole body felt too weak.
"W- what's happening..."
As my eyes finally adjusted to the dim light, I looked around and suddenly I was frozen in place.
I was in a small room with gray walls. There was nothing inside. No door, no furniture, no living being other than ... The only thing different was the light behind the translucent panel on the ceiling.
I looked at myself, I was wearing a gray outfit like the walls of the room. It looked like orange prisoner's clothes, only instead of orange it was a dull gray.
As I was slowly getting used to the general pain in my body, I closed my eyes and thought. Then, slowly, what happened entered my mind.
I stood with my back to the wall, trying to digest what had happened.
Ezareth...
I clenched my fist and clenched my teeth, getting angrier as her image ca into my mind.
I will definitely find you, no matter what... I will make you pay for what you did to .
I took a deep breath in and out, then looked around again, thinking.
I'm not dead... I was pretty sure I was going to die, but I'm sowhat alive.
Now... this is both a good and a bad sign.
The good thing, of course, is that I'm not dead. The bad thing is that I have a pretty good idea of where I am. I vaguely rember the door opening and the Southerners entering the room before my vision went black.
So... I'm a prisoner now, and most likely... I'm inside the Caleuche.
I threw my head back and hit the wall, not caring too much about the pain, and looked at my right wrist.
Just as I had predicted, there was a device on my wrist that seed unlikely to co off. It was connected directly to my flesh, to my veins. Even if I tried to touch it with my other hand, it seed to be one with my skin, I couldn't even feel any roughness. It restricted my mana, which was also the reason why I felt weaker than usual.
I lowered my hand and sighed.
Can I get out of here? Can I escape this machine of destruction with the most advanced technology on Lunerra?
It seems... impossible.
Am I going to be kept here for the rest of my life?
So I paused for a mont.
Why have they taken prisoner in the beginning? The people held in Caleuche are usually important people, normal prisoners are sent straight to the South Holar.
Or am I already there...?
Then, at this very mont, I felt a pain radiating from my wrist to my whole body.
I quickly grabbed the bracelet on my right wrist, focused on the pain, and then I felt sothing spreading from where the bracelet was to my whole body. At first, I couldn't understand what it was, and then suddenly my whole body went stiff.
A much more intense version of the 'weakness' I felt enveloped my whole body, and then I collapsed, paralyzed.
I did not faint, but I was still unable to move my muscles.
At the sa ti, there was a sound in the room that I couldn't even understand properly. It sounded like sothing... sliding. Simultaneously, the room was suddenly lit up so that it was completely white.
I squinted against the light, and then I saw a door appear in the middle of one of the gray walls of the room. In front of this door were three people. Three dwarves in uniform.
They said nothing. They ca to and lifted up, they took out of my room, not even caring that I was being dragged, and I went out into the corridor.
The liquid that spread over my body suddenly overwheld . My vision blurred, and before I realized what was happening, darkness descended on again.
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