Chapter 161: The Unknown Wanted To Be Touched
Adversity makes men, and prosperity makes monsters.
In Dwarkam, those who were in prosperity were monsters for those who weren’t.
However, what Zane was seeing was a true monster.
And for all its worth, the monster was seeing Zane too.
All its three eyes focused on Zane and before his soul could leave his body, the scene changed again.
A room.
A crying boy.
The boy was a newborn.
It cried in the arms of a woman whom Zane couldn’t see.
The moving images only focused on the naked crying baby.
Zane watched the kid and soon, he stopped crying.
He opened his little eyes and just like that monster, it stared at Zane.
Zane frowned.
He didn’t feel fear but he felt something strange. He couldn’t name the feeling.
Before he could dwell deeper, the scene changed once more and this time, the Citadel appeared.
The image zoomed in and entered inside the institution.
It moved forward and stopped right in front of the golden slab.
Zane watched it closely and after a few seconds of stillness, it zoomed in again.
The slab turned bigger and bigger and since it was happening all around Zane, he felt like he was going inside the slab itself.
As the zooming carried on, golden light engulfed Zane.
He squinted his eyes and the golden light only increased.
In a second, it became impossible to keep his eyes open as the gold stung his pupils.
As the zoom reached its deepest inside the slab, the light shone the brightest.
Zane felt it deep inside his skin and as if that wasn’t enough...
"Zarkovian."
"Zarkovian."
"Zarkovian."
"Zarkovian."
A name resounded inside his ears.
If, it was supposed to be a name.
Whispers rang of only one word.
As if someone sat inside his ear and repeated the same thing over and over.
His hands went to his ears on their own as he shut them off.
Now his eyes and ears didn’t work as he kept falling.
His speed increased.
He felt the fall in his stomach and he stopped fighting.
He had no way of fighting it anyway.
Things weren’t in his hands anymore.
The more he struggled, the more he was reminded of his powerless self.
Even after covering his ears, the whispers kept ringing and through his eyelids, he sensed the golden light was still alive.
It was starting to invade even through his closed eyes.
"Make it stop!"
He shouted.
For the first time, he spoke in whatever void he was.
Not even spoke. Shouted.
He demanded.
But his words weren’t heard in the real world, how would they be heard in a world he knew nothing about?
So his shout did nothing as he fell down faster than ever.
But the next second, his speed slowed.
He was falling head first, his legs above and his head below.
He was upside down.
But as his speed slowed down, he came to his standing position and following that...
TUD!
He was on his feet again.
He was on land again.
He finally felt something concrete below his feet.
Feeling the golden light vanished, he opened his eyes again.
The whispers also died down.
He uncovered his ears and tapped his foot.
The darkness was still there but now a small gray flicker glowed in front of him.
Now he could also walk but before anything...
What the hell was that?
He asked the system.
He tried to make sense of the scenes he saw before moving forward.
But he received no reply from the system.
Conflux?
He called it again but the result was the same.
Silence.
I don’t know if something stopped you again but this couldn’t be good. I want to leave now.
The last time the system wasn’t talking was in the Cathedral and now here.
Zane almost died in the Cathedral and if something like that was about to happen here, he wouldn’t want to be a part of it.
He dashed forward.
He believed he would find something for sure.
His gaze danced all around while running, looking for any kind of light or an exit.
This space couldn’t be endless.
Something had to be there.
But after a while, Zane found nothing.
He stopped, taking a breather.
It is like nothingness.
Surprisingly, he wasn’t tired.
He only stopped to rethink his thoughts instead of mindlessly running forward.
He looked around once more but again found nothing.
The same darkness.
The same gray flicker glowing in front of him.
He shook his head.
But then he frowned.
"Wait."
He stared at the flicker.
"It was also there when I first stepped on the floor. And it is still in front of me after I ran so much. How?"
Zane narrowed his eyes and the only possible answer for the flicker to still be in front of him was...
"I am running in the same spot."
But then another answer popped up.
"Or maybe this is following me?"
Zane hadn’t touched it before nor thought about it as he didn’t want to invoke anything in an unknown place.
But now it seemed that this place wanted Zane to touch it or at least see it closely.
You always go away at the wrong time, Conflux.
He shook his head and brought his eyes near the gray flicker.
It was in the shape of a flame.
It had a gritty texture.
And it flickered left and right like a real flame.
It glowed in gray, resonating its original color and when Zane paid more attention to it, he scowled.
I am not sure if it’s possible but... is it ash?
Zane could only think of it like that.
The texture. The color. The lightness.
All of it indicated the gray flicker as ash.
Should I touch it?
Zane raised his hand.
But stopped.
But then raised it again.
The flicker was the only thing around and Zane wasn’t sure if he would ever find the exit.
The flicker was the last and the only thing he could interact with.
He clenched his fist.
He tightened his jaw and with pursed lips...
Let death be kind.
He touched the flame of ash.
