I looked around, hoping to find sothing—anything—that wasn’t just darkness. But no matter how hard I strained my eyes or where I directed my gaze, everything around was an oppressive void, a suffocating darkness that swallowed all traces of light and form.
And then there was the cold... a sharp, rciless chill that crept through every inch of my body. It was so intense that if I were still capable of feeling anything, I’d probably be on the verge of madness.
If I had bones, they’d be freezing now—shattering into icy shards with every passing second. I can’t quite explain it, but I felt like voices were coming from the darkness around . So many. Too many to count—trying would’ve been as pointless as asuring infinity.
It was as if the entire darkness was made up of whispering voices, tangled together in a web of sound. But the strangest part was that they didn’t say anything I could understand—no words. They sounded more like echoes of forgotten feelings, sorrow, and mourning… as if the shadows themselves had mories.
And there, in that endless blackness—so thick it seed to block even light—sothing floated gently in front of . The figure held its hands over its eyes, as if trying to hide from the world, forming a strange cocoon with its arms.
A dark cloak covered most of its body, but the face remained visible: pale and calm, standing out starkly against the shadows. Atop its head, two ram horns curved backward in elegant spirals, like remnants of an ancient ritual lost to ti.
Its body shimred in blended tones of white and purple, creating an ethereal, almost hypnotic contrast. It was wrapped entirely in a flowing purple cloak that moved softly, as if alive, radiating a flickering, fla-like Aether that shimred in the air around it.
Though I couldn’t see its eyes directly, I instinctively knew—they were exactly like mine, except for the pupils, which glowed a deep violet, like bottomless pits that reflected an unfathomable power.
The reason I knew all this was simple: the person floating in front of at that very mont was none other than Nekra. At first, I was confused to see her in a place like this—it didn’t seem like the kind of environnt where I’d expect to find her. But that confusion didn’t last long.
Nekra had once told she lived in a place like this. Still, hearing about it is one thing... being here and seeing it with my own eyes is sothing else entirely.
At one point, I genuinely wondered how anyone could live in a place like this. It felt like the cold grew stronger with every second—even though, deep down, I knew it had already reached its peak. The complete lack of physical sensation, the fact that I couldn’t feel a thing, was, in the end, a hidden blessing. As I drifted in thought, I noticed a subtle movent from Nekra. Her body shivered slightly, like an inner alarm had gone off, breaking the silence around us.
A mont later, she opened her eyes—those beautiful eyes I had seen countless tis back at the facility. But this ti, sothing about them caught off guard. There was a new intensity, a glow that hadn’t been there before... sothing that made hold my breath for a second.
Unlike usual, when her eyes would shine so brightly they were almost blinding, this ti her gaze was completely dull—void of any emotion. I was so surprised I instinctively took a step back, overwheld by sudden doubt: was this really Nekra? It didn’t seem like it. Sothing was deeply wrong, as if I were standing in front of a stranger wearing a face I knew by heart.
I couldn’t see even a flicker of emotion in Nekra’s eyes. It was like sothing inside her had died—or maybe it was never there to begin with. For a mont, I wondered if I was hallucinating.
The Nekra I knew was like a playful pup—always seeking attention, always wanting to have fun. And now, faced with this silent, empty figure, my mind just froze. The confusion ran so deep, I didn’t even know where to start unraveling what was making feel so lost.
While I was lost in thought, in that thick and absolute darkness, sothing unexpected happened—a sudden warmth, comforting and gentle, began to spread around , like it was trying to hold in a silent embrace.
The icy feeling that had made my bones ache began to fade, lting slowly like frost under sunlight. I blinked, confused, trying to make sense of what was happening, and couldn’t help but feel stunned when I looked at Nekra again. She looked… different.
Her once dull, lifeless gaze now held a faint glow. There was still a certain emptiness in her eyes, a silent sorrow, but now there was sothing else—life.
It was like a tiny spark had ignited deep within a dark, quiet ocean. And then, in the very next instant, a bright light burst out, flooding the space for just a second, like the whole world had taken a breath with her.
When the light faded, I found myself face-to-face with Nekra. I blinked again, still confused. I couldn’t describe what I was seeing or understand what was happening around . Everything was shrouded in a haze of strangeness, as if logic had been suspended.
And yet, in the middle of all that confusion, one thing remained undeniably clear: this mont—being here with Nekra—and the previous mont, when I was talking with Althea, were happening at the exact sa ti.
It may sound absurd, but I knew — with the sa certainty I know I’m breathing — that the dark place where Nekra was and the radiant space where Althea stood didn’t follow the sa tiline. They were overlapping realities, coexisting without touching, each governed by its own set of rules.
In other words, even though my past self-had reached Althea before encountering Nekra, the truth is that I was visiting them both at the sa ti — even if, paradoxically, I wasn’t physically present in all those places simultaneously.
In the end, it left confused. But instead of resisting the paradox, I chose to simply watch things unfold. Maybe, that way, I could better understand who I once was... or at least make sense of who I am now.
I watched Nekra, who, despite her blank expression, seed to radiate an unusual kind of joy. It was as if sothing inside her — maybe a long-silent heart — had started beating again.
Her eyes shimred with a new spark as she exclaid, almost in disbelief: “Zentharys! You ca!”
Her reaction was similar to Althea’s when she saw , but Nekra’s gestures carried sothing more restrained — a quiet delicacy that set her apart. Still, I could feel the softness of her cheeks against mine, cold like early morning mist. She pressed her face against mine with an affection that felt almost reverent.
And even though it technically wasn’t receiving that affection, sohow… it still felt like it was. As I lingered on that strange sensation, my lips moved again — on their own, as if simply repeating lines from a long-morized script.
The words slipped out in an automatic rhythm, without even forming them consciously: “Sorry I took so long, Nekra... I... I had to talk to σ̴̪͗-̸͕̊ẽ̶͔̚ğ̶͎̋-̷̼͝g̷͚͑∂∆█° about that, so it took more ti than I thought to co see you”
I blinked in surprise as the words left my mouth. Why? Because of one sentence. It sounded like sothing straight out of a spy movie. Even though I was sure I had said it — and that I had heard it before — I had no idea what it actually ant. It was like reciting a phrase in a foreign language mid-conversation, without understanding a single word of it.
Either way, I turned my attention back to my past self and Nekra. As soon as she heard my words, her chubby cheeks puffed up in a clear sign of protest. Honestly, the only thing I could think was how adorable she looked in that mont.
Without even aning to, my hand reached up and started gently stroking her head. My past self just followed along, almost like we shared the sa impulse. Her face was completely buried in my chest, so I had no idea what expression she was making — which, in a way, made it all the more endearing.
“Do you really have to go?” Nekra whispered, her voice thick with sothing beyond words — as if every syllable carried an ancient, heavy weight that couldn’t be asured.
I didn’t answer right away. My gaze wandered around us — a place drowned in shadow, barren, stripped of any sign of life or presence. It felt like being inside an absolute void. Even calling it “nothingness” in the most literal sense didn’t do it justice. No description seed capable of capturing what this place truly was.
Still, I returned to Nekra’s words. She spoke as if I would never co back — as if this was a final goodbye. The strange part was that I didn’t even know where I was going, let alone what I was trying to reach. Even so, despite that uncertainty, my mouth moved again, as if driven by sothing beyond my control.
“Nekra... you know I have to go. It breaks my heart to leave you here, alone, in this place. I’m really sorry”
My voice ca out soft and tender, almost like a whisper laced with affection. But even that gentle tone couldn’t soothe the anguish tightening Nekra’s chest. With teary eyes and a trembling voice, she murmured: “But... if you leave... you won’t rember anymore. I’ll really be alone... I don’t want that. Please, Zentharys, don’t leave here by myself”
Her words carried a deep lancholy, like every syllable dripped sadness. I felt sothing stir in my chest — an unexplainable pressure that caught off guard.
I didn’t understand why that feeling suddenly overtook , like a wave crashing in without warning. All I knew, with a near-painful certainty, was that I didn’t want to see Nekra suffer.
My mouth started to move again, driven by sothing I couldn’t quite grasp, but before I could say a word, sothing shifted in that pitch-black space. A subtle yet strange motion distorted the surrounding shadows, as if the darkness itself had trembled for a mont.
And in the next instant, two completely white eyes lit up the space as they suddenly erged. I blinked, stunned, trying to make sense of what I was seeing as my gaze slowly rose.
But no matter how high I looked, the creature those eyes belonged to seed to have no end — its presence stretched beyond the darkness, as if it reached all the way to the sky itself.
“I hate this place... I hate everything here” Nekra murmured, her voice tight with emotion. A single tear slid silently down her cheek, tracing a path over her pale skin. Her eyes glowed a deep, intense violet — a burning light, vivid and alive, like embers on the verge of bursting into fla.
And before anything else could happen, violet eyes appeared in the void — eyes so intense they looked like silent fire. They were enormous, so absurdly large that the very idea of scale stopped making sense.
And yet, the entity behind those eyes wasn’t physically present. Only the eyes manifested there, watching us as if they had always been part of this place.
It was as if its presence predated everything — as if it had always been here from the very beginning. In other words, whatever was behind those violet eyes was the endless darkness that surrounded us — vast, silent, eternal.
At that mont, I didn't know exactly what to make of the situation. Yet, for so reason that I couldn't explain, I was pretty sure that it wasn't the first ti I'd t those purple eyes - there was sothing about them, a silent familiarity, like a forgotten echo in the depths of my mory.
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