Chapter 656: Finding His Path
Laz opened his eyes as the book fell from his hands. Confused, Laz looked around as though only understanding where he was for the first time. Something about the place felt wrong, but not in a scary way. More like, after the vision Laz had seen, there was something else wrong, something missing.
"What is it?" Laz said to himself as he closed his eyes. He had wandered his way out of the Library and was currently standing in a nameless hallway. Spreading out his senses, Laz felt the area around him as he tried his best to sense what was and wasn’t there. Then, as though he had gotten an answer, Laz began to move, letting the feelings and hits lead him along as it wished.
Laz settled into an almost trance light state as he moved, through hallways, stairs and secret passages that lead him as it wished.
Once the sensation faded, Laz opened his eyes and observed what was around him.
In the massive room was a large pool of water, it’s sparking blue like crystals in the sky. From somewhere underneath was a collection of lights that made the pool glow in the otherwise darkness of the room. It had both a haunting and yet serene feel to it, one that was both intense and detached. Laz stared at the water and tried sensing something from it, but nothing could get past the surface of the water.
Not knowing what to do but knowing that some secret was here made Laz unsure what to do next, so he walked to the edge of the water.
"Hello?" Laz said, at a loss of what to do.
No response.
"Is there someone there? Something? Uhh.... Open says me? Open sesame? Yeah... of course that didn’t work. Rosebud? Wait... where the hell did I even hear that one? I could try knocking but something tells me that would be worthless as well. Am I suppose to climb in or something?"
Laz was looking down at the edge of the pool and noticed a step, then another one below it and another below it. It wasn’t just a pool it seemed.
Laz leaned over the pool and put a finger in, feeling the water was actually strangely warm and inviting.
"I must be an idiot," Laz said as he began to strip, storing his clothes in the storage ring still on his hand. He then stepped into the pool, one step after another. Off to the side of the steps, Laz could see one single ledge and moved over there to sit down.
"It’s like a giant bath?" Laz said, relaxing only a little bit as he let the water wash over his body. He was tired, his body dirty and his mind a mess. Too many things had happened in the last few days and he hadn’t had the time to get so much as a break.
"I remember reading those novels where the heroes never needed water to get clean. I suppose I could use the black flame to clean myself... but then I would just smell like burnt dirt... Ah... this feels... amazing," Laz said as he laid his head back and closed his eyes. He had thought something would happen once he stepped inside, but he still didn’t feel a tinge of danger not any reason to be alarmed.
As he let the tension leave his body, he suddenly felt tired, like the strings that were keeping him moving and awake had suddenly been cut and he couldn’t help but go slightly limp within the water.
"The path isn’t one that can be found for while those paths exist, they are ones that have been made by others and they all end somewhere. Instead, one must forge a path for themselves, one that fits their needs and wants. For only on the path that one has forged for themselves does there exist no end and no beginning. Walking forward, I have built a world, given it light and life. I have given it rain and wind, but it is still an empty world with only the barest shades of life and death. Only once the cycle had been complete can there be true life. Do I wish to exist for all eternity? No. Do I wish to be stronger than all others? No. Then what is my path? What shape does my god seed take? It is the instant and the endless. It is the beginning and the end. It is the all and the nothing. What I seek, within the abyss... is the abyss itself...."
Laz’s thoughts drifted through a black unending nothingness full of everything.
This was the seed he built, the place where his desires lay, endless and eternal.
While absorbed within this revelation, Laz didn’t notice the head of a massive black snake that had lifted out of the depths of the water, it’s eyes breaking the surface to stare at this intruder into it’s sanctuary. It moved slowly, cautiously towards the strange creature. Oddly, it’s head was the size of the creature, it’s fangs longer than it’s arms and it’s flesh covered in scales as hard as diamonds, and yet it still felt some fear while staring at this naked, defenseless being.
It came right up to him, trying to decide if to attack or if it should run back to hiding before the scaleless creature awoke.
It didn’t have the chance to decide as Laz awoke from his epiphany.
His eyes blazed as his Asura transformation overtook him. With a golden gaze that looked upon everything, the world seemed to spread out before him. The suffering of the races as the beast tide flooded southward, destroying all in it’s path. The bloodbath the crazed Emperor had engaged in within the palace of the capital, his lips and hands covered with the blood of his devoured children and the few brothers who refused to surrender to him. The Empress as she stood within a hilltop fortress, her daughters hard at work preparing the defenses as survivors and refugees poured in, escorted by the legions who still survived, having fled from the capital as the violence of the Emperor attacking his family spread out, razing most of the non warded buildings to the ground. The shadow dragon as it lay in the town, it’s own teeth and mouth stained with many kinds of blood from it’s feasting, it’s captured minions and those following it freely eating to their hearts content.
Suddenly the Emperor, Empress and Shadow Dragon suddenly looked in the direction of the black castle, a strange feeling of unease coming upon them.
Laz focused on the Empress.
*I’m coming,* he said to her before his vision and view faded, only for his eyes to focus on the massive black snake head that was currently right in front of him, it’s eyes blinking as it realized that he had awoken.
With his body transformed, Laz suddenly felt like this skin fit him best, as though the feeling of being in this form was now natural, much more so than when he simply appeared human.,
As for the black snake in front of him, it was already a god, but Laz felt nothing from it other than hesitation, as though several conflicted feelings were going through it’s head at once.
Laz couldn’t help but reach a hand forward and lay it on the snakes head, petting it as though it was some sort of puppy. While it hesitated at first, it soon closed it’s eyes and seemed to hum, as though it were happy.
"So what’s a beauty like you doing in a place like this?" Laz asked, not expecting an answer. As for why he called it a beauty, it just felt right, as though he knew the snake was actually a female.
The snake seemed taken aback at this and while it opened it’s mouth several times, it closed it just as quickly.
"That’s ok darling. No need to tell me. After all... I’m the one who invaded your home. Sorry about that," Laz then laughed a bit, thinking it was weird that he felt the beast understood him.
Strangely, the snake shook it’s head as though saying it wasn’t a problem before closing it’s eyes for a moment. When it opened them again, there was a swirling darkness within that seemed to want to draw Laz in. His own golden pupils immediately began to resist, but he forced it to calm down as he still sensed no danger.
Looking deeply into it’s eyes, he was transported back in time, according to the snake’s memories.
It remember the heat, the feeling of safety, being within it’s shell, being feed and warm. But just as it was getting ready to wake up, move it’s body and escape from the shell, there was a lot of shaking. It felt like it’s whole world was about to break apart and it couldn’t help but wrap itself even tighter within it’s ball and hope that it would be safe.
The shaking lasted for so long that eventually even the shell around it began to crack and break. Just when it thought it was going to shake apart itself, the shaking stopped. Popping it’s head out from a crack in the shell, the snake had found itself within this pool of water, surrounded by the many bodies of it’s siblings. All of them had somehow been killed due to the shaking, or had been smashed by something heavy and large. They now all floated within the warm water of the pool while it alone survived.
It was newborn though and very hungry. Without anything else to sustain it, it began to eat the bodies of it’s brethren, using them to feed itself and make itself stronger as that’s what it’s senses told it to do.
When all the dead had been eaten, it felt sleepy and laid down, floating to the bottom of the pool where it felt not only immense warmth, but also security and safety.
And there it slept for a long time, digesting the almost immortal bodies of it siblings until it awoke once again.
