Kye's senses were overwhelmed as he slowly came to consciousness in this blindingly bright and unfamiliar realm. His first instinct was to shield his eyes, but even with his eyelids tightly shut, the relentless radiance seeped through, causing his head to throb with pain.
He tried to move, but his limbs felt heavy as if they were submerged in water. Panic began to claw at the edges of his mind as he struggled to make sense of this disorienting situation. Where was he? How had he ended up here?
With great effort, Kye managed to pry his eyes open just a fraction, allowing his vision to adjust gradually to the intensity of the light. As the blurriness receded, he realized that he was lying on a smooth, featureless surface that seemed to stretch endlessly in all directions. There was no horizon, no discernible landmarks, only an infinite expanse of brilliant white.
The air around him felt strangely weightless, lacking the normal sensation of gravity that tethered him to the world he knew.
Fear and confusion continued to surge within him, but Kye forced himself to remain calm. He needed to think, to assess his situation, and to find a way out of this bewildering place.
"Where the heck am I?" Kye expected to get an answer from Lightbringer, or even a sneer, but nothing came, even after a while.
It was only at this moment that he noticed that he didn't have anything on him, except his clothes, of course.
His sword, his halo, his earrings. Everything disappeared. He only had his beautiful white wings with him. And even they, strangely enough, have completely healed. There wasn't even a stain of red on them. His blood that had dried had disappeared as well.
"Argh I hate it now. Where am I?"
And right at this moment, a feeling of dread washed over him. It was so overwhelming that he felt as if his heart had gone down into his stomach before going back to its place.
Thus, Kye could only start to run. As he glanced back, he could see something black. It was so fast that a great part of the bright realm he was in turned pitch black as if darkness had completely taken over.
Kye's heart raced as he propelled himself forward, his wings carrying him swiftly through the ever-bright landscape. The oppressive sense of dread pursued him like a relentless shadow, and he couldn't shake the feeling that whatever lurked behind him was an imminent threat.
His breaths came in ragged gasps as he pushed himself to fly faster. Panic gnawed at him, urging him to flee from this encroaching darkness, to find sanctuary and answers beyond it.
"Shit shit shit come on Kye go faster!"
But as he flew on, the oppressive feeling intensified. The world around him began to distort, the very fabric of the realm warping and contorting. His surroundings, once smooth and featureless, now twisted into grotesque shapes and forms, as if they were reflecting his growing fear.
The darkness closed in, threatening to consume him, and Kye knew he couldn't outrun it forever. With a surge of determination, he decided to change tactics. Instead of fleeing blindly, he would confront this looming threat head-on.
Kye turned in mid-air, his white wings beating against the disorienting surroundings.
And right when the darkness was about to devour him, something unexpected happened.
It stopped right in front of him as if scared to go swallow his body.
Kye took a step back, and so the darkness took a step forth.
He then took a step forth, and so the darkness took a step back.
"W-what's happening here?" Kye could only stutter in fear. The dread he felt came from this very darkness in front of him, but even with that, the latter didn't go past him.
As he was about to open his mouth again to speak, the darkness in front of him started to shake before something like a hole appeared.
And after a few seconds, something came out from this hole, or rather someone.
While Kye was standing on the bright side of this realm, the individual in front of him was standing on the dark side of it.
"H-how?"
Kye could only say this after seeing the person.
It wasn't any of his friends, nor anyone from the academy. It wasn't his parents either, or the people he knew before he came to the military.
No.
It was him.
Kye looked at Kye.
Both of them had the same feature.
Both of them had the same eyes and hair.
The same clothes.
The only thing that changed was the wings.
Kye on the bright side had pure white wings, while Kye on the dark side had pitch-black wings.
The two Kyes stared at each other across the dividing line between brightness and darkness, their eyes locked in a bewildering and unsettling confrontation. The revelation that he was facing a doppelganger of himself, identical in every way except for the color of their wings, sent a shiver down Kye's spine.
"Who are you?" Kye demanded, his voice trembling with a mixture of fear and confusion. He couldn't comprehend how there could be another version of himself standing there, one seemingly aligned with the encroaching darkness.
The dark-winged Kye regarded his counterpart with an enigmatic expression, his eyes holding a depth of knowledge and secrets. His voice, when he finally spoke, was an eerie echo of Kye's own.
"I am you, and you are me," he replied cryptically, his words reverberating in the surreal space between them. "We are two sides of the same coin, reflections of each other."
Kye's mind raced, trying to make sense of this paradox. The realm they were in, the blinding light and consuming darkness, the duality of their existence—it all defied logic and reason.
"No, cut the crap and answer me!" Kye's voice did a 360° turn as he was now determined instead of scared like earlier. Whoever it was in front of him, or whoever it was that pulled this prank on him would pay the prize.
Read lat𝙚st chapters at fre(𝒆)webnovel.com Only