Chương 67: The Gray Shadow

Ru was running along a street in flames. He was trying to reach the white car that suddenly stopped before the giant demon. But as he ran, the road didn't get any shorter, on the contrary, it got longer and longer.

He wanted to scream, but his voice wouldn't come out. His running legs seemed to stand still. He saw his friends get out of the car and shoot at the demon with a rifle. Then the demon crushed the vehicle and hit Vaelan with its fiery tail. Vaelan went flying, his long dreadlocks and leather jacket on fire. Where he landed, his skull cracked and all his bones were broken. Yet he was alive, his groaning could be heard. His lips moved with Clockmaker's whispers. She was reversing time. But because they couldn't go back far enough in time, their bodies were burning again and again.

They weren't dead, they were alive but burning non-stop.

And then "Rui," they said, smiling. "Don't come!"

After they said, "Don't come," everything went black in the burned hollows of their eyes and started all over again.

Ru ran down a burning street to reach them. He was living the moment of their death, and it went on like that, no matter what he did, he could not break the cycle.

All Ru could do was give up and maybe accept death. When he tried to stop, the boundaries of the cycle thinned. Sudden gusts of wind were fanning small, partially independent fires. The fire was moving slowly but surely toward him, scorching houses, gardens, and cars along the way.

He compared the rising flames to lean, thin, tall, hunchbacked giants. Ru's red giants were cheerful despite their herniated discs. They clustered together, holding hands and weaving a circle. A circle of fire that centered on Ru and gradually narrowed.

Ru, experiencing the relief of being reborn together with the fear of dying, consumed the emotional turmoil that dominated his feelings with great breaths.

Ru whispered never stopping, "This time, I will not let you die."

"Not this time, my mates," he repeated, his eyes locked on the flames that consumed his friends.

"I will save you!" he shouted, his voice rising above the roar of the fire.

The crackling of the burning trees mixed with the raging flames. Ru did not stop, even when the mighty noise drowned out his voice: "My mates!"

Flaming branches fell one by one. The cries of animals could be heard. Ru covered his ears with his hands. He didn't want to hear or see anymore. He just wanted his twelfth death to happen even if it was by burning again.

"Like a phoenix?" asked a rather weak and unrecognizable voice.

"Yes, like a phoenix," Ru replied.

The voice asked him another question, "Do you remember his name?"

Ru answered with a question, "Whose?"

"The guardian of the Tree of Knowledge, the sage who hides the seeds of life," the voice said, sounding a bit raised but still unclear.

"Isn't his name Phoenix," Ru asked softly.

"Even a human knows that name," the voice replied.

"I am a human," Ru tried to end the topic.

"You are so ignorant, I wish you were dead," the voice said. This time, it was filled with joy and childishness.

The voice was different from the shrill voices of Ru's little girls because of its beauty and innocence. This factor fascinated Ru.

Ru opened his eyes when he asked the question, "Child?

Ru was in the middle of a dead forest with nothing but shades of gray, and he knew that he was definitely in the middle. The only sounds were the pounding of his own heart and the wheezing of his breath. He licked his lips and tried to rid himself of the unpleasant feeling, cleared his throat, and finally tried speaking again.

"To whom have I spoken? Where are you, child or sage? Maybe a new Misha version?""

There was no answer.

Ru took his first steps as carefully as a toddler. Still, the ashes flew along with his steps. The cloud of dust that formed in front of him looked like a bird, but it disappeared as quickly as it had formed.

"It's clear you enjoy playing," Ru said with a smile. "So be it."

He kicked away the ashes that covered the ground.

He saw the face of a small child in the cloud that appeared.

"It's either me or you," Ru said. He didn't know what to do but knew what he wanted to do.

Ru, a.k.a. Alejandro, had been hovering in the windows of dance classes since he was close to puberty. At some point, maybe in his life, ballet was the dance he watched most because he liked ballet dancers. One day, Alejandro started dancing alone, dreaming of a ballerina girlfriend. He took after-hours lessons from a teacher who thought his performances behind the glass were funny and endearing. He even enrolled in a dance school; he had the potential to become a legendary ballet dancer, but he died in his tenth life.

And Ru, who was reincarnated over and over again, had already forgotten that he had been Alejandro in one of his lifetimes. But he knew how to dance even better than he had before.

"Let's get the ball rolling," he said, picking up a branch from the ground.

Ru turned each step into a rhythmic ballet, using the branch as a sword to guide the piles of ash. He began by tapping his staff on the ground, lifted one leg in a graceful arabesque, and then turned quickly, kicking up dust around him.

Sometimes he defied gravity by slightly bending and lifting his legs. He jumped higher and higher, throwing the branch into the air. He spun it non-stop, creating a massive ash storm around it. Ru's energetic dance was combined with his passion for music. Swirling silent notes, Not only did he influence the formation of clouds, but he also created the illusion of flashing images on them.

Ru's eyes followed the rapidly changing clouds of dust. He interacted with the images as he continued to dance.

The initial images that came through the dust clouds depicted an ancient forest. This forest, full of mighty trees and majestic plants, was illuminated by waves of light and was breaking the grayness with the colors that appear sometimes. Star-like patterns appeared on the trunks of tall trees. Some plants and mushrooms sang and even walked. Birds, butterflies, and glittering animals danced around them.

A red dragon with a long neck and scales appeared in the sky. It flew with flames. It looked at Ru with hostile eyes. Ru showed that he was not afraid of it by the wild maneuvers and powerful strikes that appeared in his dance.

Occasionally he saw giants moving around him. Some were friendly, some were hostile. Ru successfully repelled them with his dance and the ashes he scattered.

The most powerful image was when a gray shadow the size of a mountain appeared. Beneath this shadow was a man with a statuesque body. The man seemed to rise from the land he had destroyed, sword in hand.

"I found you, the Gray Shadow," he whispered. Ru felt like he knew the Gray Shadow better than anyone else—better than anything else in the world.

"You are Seneca."

Suddenly, the Gray Shadow moved and plunged the tip of his sword into the ground.

Ru jumped and hurt his foot. From where he fell, he watched in horror as the giant shadow sliced his world in two with its sword.

His soul was shouting "No", but his mind couldn't comprehend what was happening.

Ru stood up abruptly, his fear quickly turning to anger. In response to this move, the Gray Shadow reappeared and plunged his sword into the ground again.

Ru involuntarily looked at the Gray Shadow and continued to feed his image with the dust he had raised.

"I will finish you off once and for all, Seneca," he shouted.

The man in the gray shadow gave Ru a look with eyes that shone with gray light. Ru didn't want to get into the depth of those eyes, which seemed a bit intense. There was also a sense of threat and power in the air.

A different kind of fear was injected into Ru's heart. The feeling that coursed through his veins was beyond the fear of death. He felt like he was about to vanish, he lost his balance. He fell to the ground once again and merged with the dust. It was as if a knife had been plunged into his heart. He could hardly breathe.

This time Ru did not have the strength to get up; he was in a state of struggle on the ground where he had fallen.

"You couldn't beat him," said the reappearing innocent voice of unknown origin.

"Stop," Ru raised a hand as he coughed to catch his breath.

"No, I won't stop this time," the voice said with resentment. "You were so caught up in your ambition to beat him, Ru. You didn't even hear us."

"Huh?" Ru said, wiping his mouth with his hand.

"You were just fighting. And you always, always, always enjoyed fighting," the voice said, this time from above. It was so powerful that it blew the ashes away and spun them around Ru. "For you, there are always and only enemies!"

Ru found himself amid a swirling cloud of ash all around him. He struggled not to get caught in it.

He was making an effort to hold on to the ground, while he was screaming, "STOP IT!"

A moment later, Ru caught a glimpse of him. The boy's angry and tearful face was a pale blue in the whirlwind.

"You didn't fight for me like you did for your mates," the boy with snow-white hair and ice-blue eyes stated firmly. His voice grew louder: "You did nothing, nothing, NOTHING to save me, brother!"

The boy's words were as sharp as ice and his expression as soft as snow. Ru's spiritual armor had been damaged in several places.

"But why," Ru asked quietly. And despite the storm swirling around him, he rose from the ground. He managed to stand upright. He lifted his head and asked innocently, "Why should I be the one to save anyone?"

Then he clenched his fists and hissed through his teeth: "Why me? I can't even save myself! How can I save you?”

And he shouted: "I am not a hero! And I never will be!"

The tornado dissipated, leaving the snowy winds blowing hard.

"I already figured you out," said the boy, hiding his presence behind the snowflakes, his voice a ringing melody of despair and frustration. And he continued: "Your deaths and rebirths are to satisfy your ego. But I'm still here. Don't worry, I'm the one paying for the pain you created, brother."

"Enough of this emotional abuse," Ru said, partially turning his head and trying to ignore his brother. "I want to wake up now! Wake me up now!"

As the storm swept away the ashes of the past, the boy's voice echoed from far away, but from somewhere within Ru: "Yes, King! Or should we say dead kings?"

"What do you mean," Ru asked as the landscape around him darkened. The dust clouds disappeared, the Gray Shadow vanished, and Ru floated in the void of his consciousness.

With one last effort, he raised his eyes to meet his brother's. Ru fell hard as the image reflected in the ice-blue eyes froze, and he felt a sudden pain in his body. He had fallen into the water and was drowning.

Then someone came. A sun was shining above this person's head. He was facing Ru, and the light of the day streamed down his right and left sides in ribbons, giving the appearance of wings.

Nearing the end, Ru was filled with hope. He struggled to take the outstretched helping hand but to no avail. Before he could take the hand, Ru was pulled down again. He struggled one last time and gave up.

"Goodbye, twelfth life," Ru whispered.

Then he felt a mighty kiss of life on his lips.

And every breath he had lost was carefully returned to him.

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