章節 22: 22. Serpentine Dragon
Death. A state of being completely outside of the knowledge of the human race. A state that remains unable to be accessed, the fear of all living things. The end of life.
Tristan, in his state of unconsciousness, felt the darkness of what seemed like death loom over his existence. His cognitive functions had gone stale the moment the integration had been complete.
He had fallen into the ocean and the traces of that event vanished when the pillars disappeared.
Thoughts had stayed stagnant in that state, but he had heard voices, or what seemed like them. All those were irrelevant to his strange state of consciousness.
It felt like he remained awake, but at the same wasn't. Words could not explain the darkness and the bizarre state, simply void, yet filled.
An extended period of time passed as the marriage between Tristan and the being continued to advance. What the being had failed to tell him was more time would be required for the both of them to be one completely.
Something changed at some point and that event had been the first sign of his consciousness.
Tristan heard strange voices but remained unable to properly interpret those pieces of information until a tremor unfolded in his mind and what sounded like the dropping of water lit up his mind for the first time in a long time.
"What is this?" Tristan muttered, finding himself in a pitch-black environment.
Lifting his palm he saw that he emitted a soft white glow. A truly confusing event.
The moment he regained that level of awareness, images flashed in his eyes and memories flickered into existence.
All that had happened before he passed out returned with full force. Still, he remained calm.
"What is all this? Am I dead?" He asked himself, doubting the reality of what had happened. The features of the being that had spoken to him were out of the world.
All that had happened to him were extraordinary.
The sound of a water drop gained his attention and he saw white ripples unfold beneath him. Only then did he notice that he stood inside water, or what seemed like the well-beloved liquid.
The ripples unfolded far out of his reach and Tristan became intrigued.
He still didn't understand where he was, but there was space within that place.
Opting not to question what exactly was going on, he took a step forward and then felt his bare feet trouble the liquid he stood in.
In pitch blackness he began to walk forward, hoping to find some sort of light that wasn't his own body and the white ripples.
Trekking for what felt like hours he gave up, allowing confusion and even fear to set in.
"Where am I?" His tone still spoke of calmness. Nothing occurred so he grew desperate.
He felt certain to have walked kilometers worth of distance but no sort of changes had happened in his pitch-black environment.
Thankfully the light he emitted kept him calm… mostly.
Doing what he'd call a frown, he decided to believe that everything that happened, did and that his situation was a result of the entity that had entered him.
"Hey!" He called out, annoyed. A strange confidence now existed in his chest.
"You said I wouldn't die… you said you'd grant me power." His tone grew angry.
"Is anyone there? Where am I? How do I get out of here?" His question rolled forth in one breath, but nothing happened still.
The young man grew hopeless and the thought of being trapped there started to trickle in.
His confidence shook and trepidation arrived. Tristan started to run. Due to the overwhelming nature of his situation, he failed to notice how he never got out of breath and how he lacked a heartbeat. Only with time would he understand what that state had been.
Minutes seemed to pass as Tristan ran with all his might, memories flew across his eyes and regret threatened to set in. He wished he had not made certain decisions.
'Will I be stuck here forever?' The mere thought made all sorts of boldness vanish, replaced by crippling fear.
He tripped on his own feet and stumbled, causing white ripples to erratically unfold all around him. Only then did something finally happen.
"Human?" A profound masculine voice resonated in that environment, echoing with such thunderous might that the light Tristan emitted flickered violently.
The area trembled and the water beneath his feet never stopped flashing with white ripples.
Tristan recognized the voice. That ancient yet vibrantly youthful tone. Its calm yet penetrating intensity. He recalled it with great accuracy and shook in renewed awe.
"You're… real?" His tone had fallen shaky and even more fearful. In his near-death state, Tristan had been quite confident, after all, what worse could happen than dying?
Things were different now, however. Disembodied voices were utterly strange and honestly horrifying.
He believed any human would react that way.
"Indeed…" The disembodied voice responded, tolerating. The being's voice felt both welcoming and commanding.
Truly speaking, Tristan had never heard a voice hold so many meanings at the same time.
Dignified, yet humble. Meek, yet fear-inducing.
"Where am I?" Tristan was quick to ask the right question, albeit timidly.
"This is your.. or rather, our… spiritual world," the voice replied, seemingly closer now.
Tristan felt like he furrowed his brows even if in reality he had no facial features in that place.
"What is that?" He found his curiosity making him stray.
"Your world had not been developed during the time of our meeting. There's still too much you do not know…"
"But know one thing, human. There are powers out there in the vastness of the cosmos. And I happen to be one of them." The entity's voice had gotten more… human.
Tristan also noticed that it felt far closer than before. He shrugged off that detail to speak.
"How do I get out of here?" He didn't bother much about the being's strange declaration.
"Your lack of care towards my revelation is disheartening. You do not believe me," the now mainly masculine but soft voice sounded, its tone holding a tinge of disappointment.
Tristan remained quiet, however. He didn't like that the voice felt close-up
The voice sighed at that point. "Although I currently advise against it. But If you want to get out all you need to do is will it."
"I've already been doing that…" Tristan complained.
"No," the voice rebuked him. "You've been treating this space as a foreign location. The truth is this is where you truly exist. The depths of your existence… your core."
Although it took him a few seconds, realization dawned on him and even if he found it difficult to believe, he could only trust the voice that spoke to him.
A strange sense of comfort sprouted forth into existence, but not from his chest. Rather, that feeling came from all around him and Tristan instantly believed.
"This is me!" He exclaimed. 'But why is it so dark?" He asked, suddenly excited.
'Why don't you will it to be bright," the voice came from behind Tristan's figure and a palm arrived softly on his right shoulder.
Tristan flinched.
"Do not be afraid…" The voice assured.
Slowly but surely, Tristan turned to face the being, and the world around him echoed his astonishment.
"Why do you look... like me?" Appalled, Tristan took a step back. But before the entity could reply, a sharp pain unfolded in his world and Tristan voiced a roar of agony.
His spiritual world trembled violently. The sound of a raging sea prevailing.
"It seems I have moved too soon." The entity watched Tristan's figure begin to float as pain made his mass of awareness flicker furiously.
"You still need time to grow," the being's voice remained soft. "I shall keep this event from you... until you've grown enough to handle our interaction. For now only one of us can act at a time." He sighed, also floating.
Stretching forth his glowing palm, the being caused Tristan's featureless figure to float towards him until he laid his hand on Tristan's head.
"You shall take the front seat now," he announced, and Tristan began to regain his facial features while the being lost his until he was only a faceless white figure.
"You will hate me for this, but I shall also keep memories of your life… You have been dealt a bad hand by this cruel world." He continued.
"You will retain your skills, but only bits of your life will be available."
"A shame that fate chose you to house me… I do all this as an apology for putting such a weight upon your shoulders." He explained, now sorrowful.
As though to finalize the words that had been spoken, the darkness of that spiritual realm lit up with strange purple motes of light which converged on Tristan's forehead to create a seal depicting the image of a serpentine dragon eating its tail.
An explosion of several colored lights unfolded into that dark realm. And at that moment, Tristan's glowing figure vanished; returning to full consciousness, but unaware of the events that had occurred in that realm.
Tristan snapped his eyes open, finding himself inside the ocean. He quickly swam out to arrive on a sandy shore, and only then did he regain full control of his body.
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