"You need to take care of yourself after I leave. Don't act like a hooligan and start vaping and taking weeds."
A sweet lodious voice echoed in my ears.
I stood in a faint white room.
My body was trembling, yet my hands were tightly holding onto my mother's.
Her frail, thin hands felt so fragile in mine. Her once vibrant face was now pale, the skin almost translucent, and her eyes though tired still held that sa warmth I had always known. A faint smile curved on her lips, kind yet sorrowful, and it made my heart ache with a pain I couldn't fully describe.
I choked on my breath, barely able to keep the tears from falling. "I wish I could protect you more."
"I wish I could be a better son who doesn't trouble you anymore."
"I wished I was good to you and would be a good son, but I failed miserably and only now am I realizing how much I had neglected you. I was just a selfish guy who always thinks of himself without understanding your trouble."
I whispered, my voice slowly breaking, but she squeezed my hands gently, offering comfort despite her pain.
"It's okay, my child. It's not your fault, and you were a good child who never brought any trouble."
"You were brilliant and deserve more than what you have."
Her voice was soft, but her words carried a heavy weight. "This world is cruel and unforgiving. If you expect too much, you will be betrayed. But that doesn't an you shouldn't expect anything," she said, her tone calm and steady like she had seen this all before.
I couldn't stop the tears now; they flowed freely as I looked at her face, at the fragile woman I once thought invincible. "But, Mom... what should I do after you leave?" I asked, my voice cracking, the question leaving my chest heavy.
Her smile widened, but there was sothing sad in it, a hint of resignation. "Everyone cos alone and goes alone. The only thing they leave behind is their legacy, my dear," she said softly, her voice almost like a lullaby.
"I died worthless, but don't die like that. Leave sothing behind for people to talk about."
I felt a lump form in my throat, a deep ache filling my chest. "But... how?" I could barely get the word out through my sobs.
She trembled slightly, her grip weak but steady, and her gaze was unwavering. "Whatever you do, do your best. Do what you truly want, and live without regret."
Her words paused for a mont, her breath catching in her throat, as if sothing was pulling her away. "And always be... tru... en..." Her voice trailed off, and the light around us started to dim. The room faded into shadows, and her words beca a whisper lost in the dark.
The chill in the air sent a shiver down my spine. My heart pounded in my chest as the darkness closed in around , swallowing us both.
"Mom!" I cried out desperately, but there was no answer. Only the cold, overwhelming silence as the light completely vanished from her eyes, leaving nothing but the echo of my sobs in the void. ...
"MOOOOOM!"
I woke up gasping for air, with my heart still pounding from the nightmare. As I looked around, I found myself in a worn-down, decayed room. The walls were cracked and broken, looking as if they could fall down any mont now.
The ceiling was covered in dark stains, and there was a faint sll of mold in the air. I sat on an old, rickety cot that creaked under , and the mattress was thin and uncomfortable. Dust coated every surface, and broken furniture lay scattered around. A single window let in a sliver of dim light, casting eerie shadows across the room.
"HAA... HA..."
"It was a dream..."
My heart, which had felt quite numb after I assud Lukas's identity, felt squeezed by agony. Rembering and reliving those unwelco mories still haunted , even though I had escaped that world.
Gasping heavily, I wiped off the beads of sweat on my forehead and wondered what was going on. All I rembered was being surrounded by a group of specters who wanted to consu .
"Activating Spectre Vision was the worst choice I made."
Realizing this, I felt sothing amiss. Sothing inside was strange. As I closed my eyes and tried to sense and trace mana, I finally saw sothing.
Till now, this guy had a rudintary level of mana that needed further polishing and refinent, but now I felt my body's mana had increased a lot.
What felt strange was a mass of dark, thread-like energy lingering in my mana veins.
Unlike pure mana, it was cold and heavy, settling inside. I rembered it to be the sa energy I saw hovering above the corpse of a dead specter, and after touching it, I got overwheld by a burning sensation.
To satisfy my curiosity, I tried to channel and harness the energy, which made feel like a fishbone was stuck in my thread.
"Ahh!"
I hissed in pain, and my body jolted, snapping my eyes open as cold sweat washed over .
"This hurts..."
I stared down at my body and saw white bandages wrapped around it.
What the hell happened?
"I don't rember having so much injury."
"Lukas, you woke up?"
I turned around and saw Saber sitting on a chair near the window, yawning heavily. It seed he had been here and sleeping quite well until my screams woke him up.
"What happened to ?" I demanded coldly.
"I don't know a shit. You were just screaming and rolling around in pain out of nowhere. Thank God we were saved; otherwise, we wouldn't even have ashes to be buried," Saber spoke dazedly.
My lips twitched a few tis. That was a bit of a dramatic way to say it.
"Who saved us?" I asked, rembering only glimpses of the monster, and it was only then I noticed Saber's bruised face.
The rest of his body looked fine, but his face... It seed he had been beaten.
"Don't ask that... It's a witch... An old woman using disguise to go around as a young girl to seduce n," Saber grunted, rolling his eyes.
"FUFUFUF! I heard you were talking about ."
A sharp voice rang out, and crimson mist coagulated behind Saber.
The next mont, Saber's eyes opened wide, seeing a shadow, and he scread, "I was joking... Joke... It was a joke between friends."
Screaming frantically, he turned back only to see two bloody pairs of eyes locking onto him that appeared out of nowhere, scaring the shit out of him.
"KYAAAA!"
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