Once again, darkness swallowed him whole, consuming all of him. This time he felt no floating, no sense of time slipping by. Rather, the darkness was absolute, and he did not know how long he stayed in it.
But, after some time, the darkness finally dissipated. Like white paint thrown against a black canvas. The world around him flared back to life, colors returning as the darkness was peeled away entirely.
While all of this sudden change washed over him, he felt nothing of it, neither cold nor warm. And instead of wondering about what had just happened, Alex's eyes were fixed straight ahead, drawn to the vast view that stretched before him. He could not help but take a step back, though he managed only two before both sides of him were firmly seized by Molly and Lily, one twin gripping each of his arms. Their holds were tight and unrelenting. He shifted his eyes toward them, and both had frozen in their stances, their eyes seemingly sparkling as they stared at what lay ahead.
Unable to contain his own curiosity, and the fear threading quietly beneath it, Alex turned his head forward once more, toward the view that looked as though a portal had been torn open from nowhere, revealing a battlefield soaked in blood of varying colors and strewn with bodies of what appeared to be beings like him and humans. His head throbbed faintly at the thought of humans, he wanted to know what exactly made someone human.
Like before, the name of things came to him naturally, though he could not trace where it originated from. He did not know how vast his own knowledge was, or from what source it flowed. But one thing was certain: he needed only to look at something and he would instinctively know what it was called. Sometimes more detail followed, and sometimes less.
He shook off the thought before it weighed him down further and fixed his eyes ahead once more. He was still within that same white cave, yet something had shifted after the world had gone dark. The golden-framed gate at the far end had given way to an open window of another world beyond. He wondered whether the gate itself had not changed at all, and instead the twins had carried him somewhere else entirely. His gaze moved to them. Both were staring at the battlefield with eyes he could not quite name, their irises swirled with seven vivid colors all at once, something he felt hard to digest.
Aaah. It hurts. His head throbbed again.
The battlefield continued to rage before him, and oddly, he felt no fear. And, rather he felt a pull toward it, a calling that drew him forward, and he took a step toward it before strong hands caught him once more.
"No," they cried in unison.
Alex nodded and turned his attention back to the battlefield. Is this real? That was all he could think as his gaze peered at the war torn beings. The sky blazed dark red and the battlefield was filled with people, what looked like millions of them, and he was seeing them from far above, their bodies small yet somehow tremendous at the same time, as though distance alone was insufficient to diminish them. Each wore armor of varying make and fit, shaped to their bodies, all armed with weapons that could cleave through Alex in a single stroke.
And they were all shouting and marching willingly toward their deaths as they threw themselves against their foes. The enemies were beings of varying colors and varying numbers of limbs, with eyes that did not conform to any number he could name. They wore no armor, their skin was of every dissipated hue, some green, some deep brown, and they opened their mouths as wide as their bodies would allow, launching themselves into the slaughter with manic, exhilarated laughter.
The armored ones that resembled him, and some that resembled him only slightly, also surged forward with their own battle cries. He heard their shouts. He heard their pleas. And he heard the last sounds they made as the color drained from their eyes.
That was only the beginning, and not the end of what he witnessed. A figure emerged from somewhere behind the armored ranks, taller than any man had a right to be, so tall that if Alex were to meet the man up close then Alex would have to strain his neck just to hold the man in view. The man wore no armor. Instead he was dressed in a vibrant red doublet over loose trousers, his clothing rippling in a wind that seemed to answer to no one else. He did not contain a single fear and rather wore a smile just as vivid as his doublet, and his long black hair swept back from a face so finely made, so sharp and striking, that even the scar running across his forehead did not mar it but rather deepened it, etching into his beauty something unforgettable, something that made him unique.
Alex felt his breath stop as the man's vivid red eyes found his eyes. For one suspended moment, the world seemed to halt. The battle cries fell silent, the carnage at the periphery dissolved, and there was nothing but the man's red gaze bearing down on him from across the impossible distance, wearing a slow and languid smirk.
Then, like a man without a shred of hesitation, he hurled a spear directly toward Alex. It materialized in the span of a heartbeat and came flying forward with every passing second, closing the distance with terrible certainty. Death. Alex was certain that this would be his Death. Am I not already dead? Flashes of his own hands being torn from their sockets surged through him, and the world began to distort, warping like the surface of disturbed water. His legs started losing their strength.
"Run," he heard, and he struggled to find his footing. When his vision cleared enough to see again, he gasped with surprise as he found that the spear had not reached him at all. It had buried itself through a humongous red dragon instead, driving the creature down to the earth below. Once again the window before him shifted, and the man's red eyes found Alex's eyes once more. The man muttered something, though whether the words were meant for Alex or for someone nearby, Alex could not tell. Then suddenly the world bloomed into black color once again and his vision was swallowed completely.
I want to be strong like him. Alex thought as his vision turned dark and it saved him from the lingering pain that had seemingly soured through his head when the flashes of his own arm being torn apart had filled his mind.
***
When Alex opened his eyes again, he dropped to the floor, yet felt no pain from the fall. Something had changed once more. He rose to his feet and turned slowly in place, taking in where he was. There was no white cave waiting to receive him this time. Instead he stood inside a black expanse, though calling it black felt inadequate, because stars were swirling everywhere around him in every direction, so close that he felt if he took a single step he might close his fingers around one. He reached out and tried, and his hand met only an invisible wall.
"Hehe." A soft giggle pulled his attention to one side of the space where Lily hopped and smiled, bouncing between unseen barriers as though it were the most delightful game imaginable.
Molly stood a short distance away with her hands rested at her waist, her gaze fixed on a tangle of golden threads drifting in the air before her, lines that crossed and looped against one another in a glittering mess, disappearing into the far dark in every direction with no visible origin or end. One thread in particular caught his eye because it was broken, its two severed ends hanging limp, their frayed tips curled against the floor below. And he noticed it not only because of that, but because Molly was watching it with an expression that sat poorly on such a small and chubby face.
He did not know when it happened, but he found himself already moving toward the golden threads. They seemed to pull at something in him, and he felt an inexplicable need to touch them, to close his fingers around the broken one and tie its ends back together.
"Big sis, come play with me," Lily called from the side, her voice light and buoyant, still wandering the space and bumping into the invisible walls with cheerful persistence. Each collision only made her laugh harder before she darted off to find another.
Why does she remind me of someone? He could not say why she made him think of a small girl with azure hair, and though the face was blurred, he felt he knew her. And, the harder he pressed for it, the more his head ached.
He shook the thought away. Lily caught his eye, she nodded at him, then sprinted in another direction, collided with the wall, and tumbled backward onto the floor. She did not cry. She only laughed.
"Who was he?" Alex asked, turning toward Molly, who still wore her sadness openly. "And what kind of battle demands millions of people?"
Molly turned to look at him, and the sadness only deepened. "He is $....%..!...#" She shook her head at the end, watching his face as the words blurred into noise that no effort of concentration could resolve.
"That battle ....%%%@!^^." Her words distorted again, dissolving into something entirely beyond comprehension no matter how fiercely he focused.
"It is not time," Lily added, shaking her head slowly. She now sat cross-legged on the dark floor that also glittered with distant stars.
"Yes, you cannot know about %@.@#..." Molly continued, and then let the words trail off, her expression falling into something like quiet resignation.
What could he not know about? The question gnawed at him. He wanted an answer, and the frustration of being kept from it pushed at the edges of his patience.
He thought of the golden-framed gate he had stood before and had not entered, and a pang of something close to regret moved through him. He felt he was missing something vital by following the twins, though following felt like the wrong word, since they had simply made him disappear from the gate's threshold without his consent and brought him first to watch a battle where millions fought and the earth ran crimson and other colors, and where one man had noticed him across every impossible distance and hurled a spear at him so casually and so fast that it would have killed Alex had it actually been thrown at him.
And things did not just stop there. As now the twins had magically brought him to this starlit black space where golden threads knotted the air into a tangle with no beginning or end, and one thread alone lay broken on the floor with its two frayed points laying on the floor.
"You will know with time," Molly said.
Before he had fully absorbed the words, he realized his body was already moving. His body had already leaned down and his hands were already reaching toward the broken thread, and when he was only inches from closing his fingers around it, Molly struck his hand aside and snatched one of the severed ends herself. Alex was still trying to understand when he had begun walking, when he had leaned forward, when any of it had happened. And, while he was trying to make sense of what had taken control over him, Lily appeared beside her sister and caught the other end of the broken thread. Both small bodies shook with the effort, their faces drawn tight and strained.
"Let me help you," Alex said, extending his hands toward them.
"No, do not touch us," Lily cried, and every trace of her giggles were gone.
"You cannot bear the causality," Molly added, both of them trembling as they worked.
He stood and watched them, their small hands struggling with the thread, clumsy but determined, and he believed he could have done it more easily and more cleanly had they let him. But they refused every offer and glared at him when he did not immediately step back, and whatever causality meant, it clearly meant something terrible enough that they had to push him away. So, he did not try to help them. He withdrew his hands and simply watched.
Slowly, painstakingly, the thread was tied. Their hands came together and the knot formed between them. Then, just as small and exhausted smiles had begun to take shape on their faces, the thread snapped from an entirely different point.
The smiles died. Their faces held a weight that seemed too heavy for children to carry. As if they simply could not accept the defeat, they began again, this time their rainbow-hued hair fizzling up into the dark air around them, their eyes beginning to glow, spilling a seven-colored smoke that curled and drifted around their eyes.
They looked like the literal incarnation of something divine. Flashes of thought moved through him about gods, about how gods were beings of great power. He thought maybe praying might summon some help for the twins. But something sharp hit his head, a flash of a boy with black hair tinged blue at the ends came to his mind. It was blurry. The image showed the boy weeping in a bed and praying with his hands clasped together. The image struck his head with such force that he pressed both hands to his head and stumbled sideways.
Trying to keep himself upright, his left hand shot out and grabbed around one of the golden threads.
The world stopped.
Darkness filled his vision. And soon enough, the darkness was filled with memories. Memories of him, memories of the boy with black hair tinged blue at the ends. Azure eyes. Fair skin. The boy's entire life began to unspool before him, starting from the days he could slowly understand the world around him.
He remembered his mother's hands guiding a spoon toward his mouth. He heard his father's patient voice teaching him and training him. The memory moved at an extraordinarily fast speed. But he saw everything despite how fast the memory moved.
He remembered the day he first talked to his father about the status abnormality effect. His father dismissed the thing and told him that it was nothing. Only for that nothing to reveal itself as the reason he could not level up which in turn caused him to never unlock a class.
He remembered the first time he met the princess. The friendship that had taken root between them. He remembered finding out that he had healed his mother when he had just been born and had barely taken a few breaths. He remembered finding out that others his age had long since left level one behind while he remained stuck at level one. Days folded forward faster. Memories arrived like heat.
He finally remembered his little sister. Ariana. The memories flooded his mind. He saw himself running behind her and teasing her and playing with her. He felt the feelings he felt for the whole month he had spent terrified to hold her when she was just born. He was simply too afraid to hold her in his arms. He was afraid that his hands would cause harm to someone so small, and at last he finally remembered lifting her into his arms for the first time and the overwhelming feeling he felt.
A warm trickle slid down Alex's cheek.
More memories came flooding in. The way Ariana would hide around corners to frighten him. The years spent confined within the walls of the home. The first day he stepped outside. The first day he stepped inside the academy. The entrance examinations.
He remembered the mocking stares settling on him from every direction. He remembered running around the battle royal, he remembered how Lucian played with him and toyed with him.
He remembered how his sister threw herself at him the moment he emerged from the battle royal. He remembered her vow, to beat the elf who had beaten her big brother.
The world once again blurred fast.
He saw the emperor dissolving the marriage agreement between Alex and the princess. The days that followed were heavier than the last.
He remembered himself weeping and falling unconscious. He remembered entering the academy as a student, not a candidate. He remembered seeing the princess after their marriage agreement became void. He remembered Nack and Eldric humiliating and beating him.
He finally remembered how he had confessed to the princess that he loved her. Another tear flew down his cheeks.
He saw Eldric beating him inside the restroom. And, he saw extending his hand out toward the yellow gate. And then at the end of it all, he saw the goblins. He remembered how his arms were wrenched from their sockets, and how he was tossed to the ground.
At last, he remembered drawing last breath.
"AAAAAaaarrrrghhh!!!" A cry tore through Alex's throat. It was raw and filled with emotions. Tears poured freely down his face as everything that had ever belonged to him came rushing back all at once.
***
On Patreon, you can read 50 chapters ahead. Your support would greatly help me continue working toward completing the story.
Patreon link: https://www.patreon.com/imissmysun
PS: I will be back next week, till then signing off! Have a great weekend!