The runes that ssed with my head, the blood dripping onto my forehead...
"H- hey!"
This place was definitely not a harbinger of good things.
This guy had really brought here to sacrifice or sothing!
"Shut up, kid!"
His voice echoed through the room, which began to shake as if an earthquake were happening. It was so angry, so furious... that I swallowed my words and froze.
"Say one more word and I swear I'll change my mind and kill you right here! Just keep looking up, idiot!
Unable to find anything to say, I did as he said and focused my eyes completely upward.
Blood droplets continued to fall on different parts of my face, and the runes around accelerated, becoming even more chaotic.
Then...
"H- huh?"
I found myself sowhere else.
A dark place.
The coldness of the stone altar, the warmth of the blood drops falling on my face, none of that was here. I wasn't lying anywhere; in fact, I wasn't even sure what my position was.
I was just... floating, sohow.
I tried to look around, searching for Chris.
Aside from Chris, I was looking for anything I could see.
But it was so... dark and numb here that I wasn't even sure if I was actually turning my head in any direction.
"Hey! Is anyone there? Where am I?!"
I could hear my voice. Though it wasn't clear if it was echoing inside my mind or if I was actually hearing it with my ears.
And then...
'Ah, you succeeded.'
A voice clearly echoed in my mind.
A voice that wasn't mine, but one I knew quite well.
"Lithoa!"
'Stop yelling, kid. I can hear you even if you speak inside your head. Why are you raising your voice?'
…
Was I yelling?
"Okay... but you know very well that I have questions."
It had been a while since I'd heard his voice, so talking to him now felt strange, inevitably. Still... it felt like he knew the situation I was in.
He was the one who pushed to interact with his family, saying that doing so would make stronger. He was, in a way, the reason I was here.
So he must know.
'Forget your questions for now. You'll understand everything when it's over, and Chris will explain the things you don't. For now... close your eyes and do as I say. Otherwise, you'll be here forever.'
Forever...?
Where am I to begin with?
"Sothing you can't perceive is searching for sothing in your body. Because it can't find it, you're waiting in this darkness, and if it continues to fail, it will soon imprison you here, considering you an enemy. That's why you have to give it what it's looking for."
"What... is it looking for?"
'Your connection to . A part of . Any sign of whether you co from my bloodline. So relax, ease the search. Clear your mind and let the thing in the darkness enter. Open your soul to it so it can see , recognize .'
What… does that even an?
How can I open my soul to sothing I don't even know what it is, sothing I can't perceive?
Did I close my soul in the first place?
'Do as I say, Adrian. Ti is running out.'
If only it were as simple as saying it!
Still, I closed my eyes, though I wasn't even sure they were open because of the intense darkness around . I tried to empty my mind, to clear my thoughts.
Trying not to think of anything seed impossible; that was a thought, after all. Still... I did my best.
Finally... I tried to imagine, swallowing hard.
That my soul was behind a locked door, that I reached for that lock... and opened it.
That I allowed anyone who tried to reach it.
Nothing else ca to mind. I didn't know what it ant to open my soul to soone.
But...
It worked.
Because, shortly after, I felt sothing.
It was a rather uncomfortable feeling.
It was as if sothing... was wrapping itself around my body, looking inside as if it were transparent.
It was as if I wasn't alone in my mind. There was sothing else there besides and Lithoa. It was reading my thoughts, searching for sothing, just like Lithoa said.
But then I felt a much deeper, more intrinsic difference.
And the mont I felt that strange thing, the darkness I was in changed.
I found myself in front of sothing.
It was like a white... sphere. It resembled that ball-shaped glow that Lithoa took the form of when he occasionally erged from my chest. It was sothing about three or four tis the size of my fist, constantly rippling as if its outer contours were indistinct. It had a misty aura spreading around it. There were structures that looked like blue veins extending towards its center. They had gradually enveloped the sphere, as if becoming one with it.
I felt a strange... connection to the thing in front of .
It was as if it were a part of .
"You have an interesting soul."
I paused abruptly at the voice I heard.
I had spoken to it just a mont ago.
It was the sa voice.
But... it hadn't echoed in my mind.
I heard his voice with my ears.
He had co from right next to .
I slowly turned my eyes to my right.
And... I saw a figure.
It was indeed a man standing right next to , taller than . He was dressed quite ordinarily in a white shirt and brown pants.
All his hair was gray; there wasn't a single spot on his relatively long hair that didn't have that pale white color that signifies old age. His short beard had also taken on that color.
But his face... was different. He looked like he was in his forties; his face didn't show the heavy old age that his hair did. He had few wrinkles as if he had just begun to age. He nevertheless had a serious face. Although he appeared calm, he also gave the impression that he could beco angry at any mont.
His ocean-blue eyes were fixed on the sphere in front of ... on my 'soul'.
"Lit... hoa...?"
Even though his lips parted, his eyes did not leave my soul.
"You're right, Adrian. This is how I looked when I was still alive. But I'm a little different from the person in your mind, you should know that too."
And at that mont, I realized that his way of speaking and his attitude did not match the 'Lithoa' I knew.
The person in front of ... was truly soone different.
"H- huh? What?"
"I watched your entire life from the beginning to here after you opened your mind to . I know why you're here, who you are, your goals... everything. I also know you carry my soul."
As he said this, he slowly raised his left hand and pointed to my left rear side over my shoulder.
When I turned my face there...
My eyes widened, my lips parted, and I just stood there with my mouth open. I stared at the thing in front of , unable to utter a sound.
It was many tis larger than mine, standing there as if it were the size of an apartnt building.
There were no blue vein-like structures on it. It was pure, seemingly unaffected by anything.
"I had clearly stated that I would not reveal my lineage to anyone outside my family."
I was still reeling from the impact of that enormous spirit when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I spun around abruptly and found his ocean-blue eyes fixed on . Now that they were looking at , and not my soul... they were much clearer.
They were exactly like Chris's eyes.
"But I saw your interactions with myself, your conversations with Chris, your 'past'."
His expression was emotionless.
"You have potential. You can help the real Lithoa realize his dream."
But even in that emotionless expression, there seed to be an expectation.
"That's why I'll make an exception."
It was as if he wasn't actually emotionless... but he was just trying to appear that way.
"You don't carry my blood. Therefore, you will suffer greatly. You might wish for death. But I think you can endure it."
Then... his expression changed. The corners of his lips turned up slightly, and the coldness in his eyes seed to give way to...
Hope.
"I'm sure you won't disappoint , the real , Adrian. Keep doing your best."
Then... darkness enveloped everything again.
Everything vanished once more.
But it didn't last long.
I found sothing else in front of .
No, everywhere...
Surrounding .
Knots, connected to each other, constantly changing color.
Countless thread knots, seemingly stretching into infinity, enveloping everything.
I swallowed involuntarily.
The image before was dazzling.
So much so that it made forget what I had just experienced for a mont.
But this fascination didn't last long.
Because after a while, I saw one of these knots move.
Slowly, along with the entire structure it was connected to, it was approaching .
It was pulling all the darkness around it toward along with itself.
Finally... it touched .
And in that mont, I understood what that 'Lithoa' was talking about.
Because when the knot touched , my body trembled with pain.
Because when the other knots reached after the first one, my soul writhed in pain just like my body.
Because each of the knots that wrapped around my body, slowly working their way inside , caused separate pain.
It was a kind of pain that made feel like I was being torn apart, preventing from even making a sound, let alone screaming.
And it continued without stopping.
Without caring about the passing of seconds, minutes, hours.
Even as days, weeks passed, it never stopped.
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