White.
When Bloed recovered his consciousness, everything around him was white.
Bloed frowned. He looked around to see if he could find anything. Left, right, up, and down, but besides a blinding white, he could see nothing else.
There were no traces of Liu Ying, Aya, Elwha, the elves, the humans, or the giant worm.
"… An illusion or a dream?" Bloed muttered to himself.
Closing his eyes, he tried to activate his psychic energy to return to the real world.
One second later, though, he wrinkled his brows.
Nothing happened.
Even although he was sure he was inside some kind of illusion, he could not get out of it.
"What the hell?"
Confused, he thought of other methods to escape. But at that moment, the white nothingness around him started taking shape.
One second later, he was in a wasteland, surrounded by dust, stones, and chaotic mana.
And in front of him, a middle-aged man was standing with a complicated expression.
"Uncle Sebastian, why are you doing this!?" A child's voice sounded, surprising Bloed.
'That voice…'
It belonged to himself.
To his younger self.
Bloed was stunned. He tried to control his movements, to control his voice, but it was as though he was an observer inside the body of the little child.
And the man in front of him–
"I'm sorry, your highness. It's the king's order. The royal family can't have a manaless child."
Bloed's eyes shook.
This scene, he remembered it clearly.
It was the day when he was sent to the Exiled Lands.
Bloed watched the scene with a complicated expression. He watched how the royal's butler gave his younger self a storage ring, how Sebastian explained to his younger self where he was, and how Sebastian's mercilessly crushed his hopes.
"… From today onwards, you are no longer a member of the Skywsword family. Glenn Skysword died tonight." Sebastian said coldly.
His younger self cried. He shed tears bitterly alone in the mountain, hoping for this to be a kind of joke.
At this point, Bloed closed his eyes.
Then, he spoke out.
"… I was so weak back then."
As soon as his words sounded, the scene around him crumbled.
The mountain, the sun, the stones, the wasteland, everything disappeared.
Bloed then opened his eyes again.
This time, though, he was not in the wasteland.
Instead, he was inside a white room.
'This is… The spaceship?'
Just like before, Bloed was unable to control his movements. He was just an observer, following the movements of his younger self.
But soon, Bloed's eyes opened wide.
In front of him, a beautiful woman with short brown hair in a bob cut, black-eyes, and a sharp gaze, appeared.
Bloed's body shook. This...
The woman sickly appearance, her fragile body, the wheelchair she used to move.
Everything was the same as back then.
"Nice to meet you," The woman smiled and introduced herself. "My name is Camilla Norman."
Suddenly, the scene froze.
Bloed's eyes were fixed in the woman. She was just like he remembered her, beautiful, smart, and filled with wisdom.
His mother.
His first love.
The woman that shaped him into the man he was today.
"Mom…" Bloed blurted out, despite the fact he was supposed to be unable to speak.
Then, he extended his hand and touched her cheek.
Unfortunately, he could not feel the warmth he expected to feel.
"After all, you are not the real thing."
With a bitter smile, he closed his eyes.
Instantly, the scene started to crumble around him.
The white walls, the metallic ground, and the AI hovering behind Camilla.
Finally, only Camilla remained.
But soon, she disappeared as well.
When Bloed opened his eyes, the scene had changed again.
This time, he was in front of a medical room in the spaceship.
Bloed already knew what scene was next.
The day when his mother died.
However, the scene froze as soon as it started.
"This is so distasteful." He said with a bit of killing intent in his voice.
And once more, the scene started to collapse.
This time, though, it did not manage to take the shape of a new scene.
Because Bloed did not want to see anymore.
With a snort, the string of psychic energy invading his mind and seeing his memories was broken.
Then, he returned once more to the white space.
This time, though, the white space was different than before.
Because at some point, the place had been tainted.
Black, red, yellow, blue. Many colors started to appear in the white world.
Not just colors, but also doors, streets, paths, houses, rooms, and many other things.
The scene was chaotic and bizarre, as though someone would have drawn the mind of a psychopath and brought it to the real world.
While Bloed was looking at it with furrowed brows, someone called out at him.
"So you managed to get out of your memories, huh. Impressive."
Startled, Bloed turned around only to see a familiar white-haired and silver-eyed woman.
"Miss Elwha?"
"How are you, Mr. Bloed? Congratulations on escaping from your memories. Not many people are capable of that." The princess of the elves said with a smile.
"My memories, huh." Bloed nodded. He then looked at the chaotic mess around him with a confused expression. "Where is it? What in the hell is happening?"
Elwha walked until she was beside him and smiled. "This, Mr. Bloed, is the result of that idiot touching the [Heart of the Forest] without the proper preparations."
"Heart of the Forest?" Bloed asked confused. "Do you mean the purple crystal?"
"Yes." Elwha nodded while looking at the chaos around her with a grave expression. "Heart of the Forest is the name we gave to treasures like these due to their ability to give birth to new Great Trees. Hearts of the Forest are objects filled with enormous amounts of soul power, that if handled mistakenly, can cause grave consequences."
"Like this?"
Elwha nodded before putting on a wry smile. "This phenomenon is called [Soul World]. The Heart of the Forest created it after it was touched to defend itself, absorbing the minds of all the people nearby and constructing this based on their thoughts. Fortunately, this soul word is rather simple. It looks like we were lucky."
"Lucky?"
"Yes. Because this Heart of the Forest doesn't seem to have a mind of its own or it's very undeveloped. Due to that, it doesn't have control over the soul world. Otherwise, it would have not been so easy to escape from your memories."
Bloed nodded in understanding. "Is there a way to get out of here?" He asked.
Elwha looked at Bloed and nodded.
"There is." She said with a smile. "We just need to reach the core of the soul world and destroy it. After that, the soul world will crumble, bringing us back to the real world."
"Then, where is that core?"
Elwha smiled bitterly and pointed to the chaos around them.
"I don't know. We need to search for it inside the chaos around. Unfortunately, finding it is not so easy… In fact, it's rather dangerous."
Bloed tilted his head in doubt. But before he could ask the reason, something crawled out of the ground in front of him.
Surprised, Bloed looked at it. It was a strange monster with three eyeless heads, long tongues, and a disgusting appearance.
At that moment, Elwha finished her words of before.
"Because soul worlds are filled with [Nightmares]."
...
P4TRE0N: patr-eon.com/aidnovels