It didn't take long for me to feel it, the pain was there, the confusion was there, but it was the mind-numbing horror that dealt me the biggest blow.
CRACK!
As the old man's eyes lost some of their glow, I felt something crack inside me before a torrent of memories rushed into my brain and I screamed through the process of it all.
I
I-
I remember!
CRACK!!!
BOOM!!!
Another loud sound of shattering glass rang out as the silver mirror shattered into multiple pieces. This was followed by a loud explosion from above as the sky seemingly shattered, reflecting the mirror. The large crack that spanned for thousands of kilometers spewed out boundless darkness from within which sucked in the stars around it before a giant pupil-less eye that covered the entire crack appeared.
All around the planet, people could see the crack running through the sky that sucked in the stars and the giant pupil-less eye that appeared from within.
The eye exuded a solemn grimness and anyone who stared at it for long would experience mild headaches which developed into full-blown migraines before finally developing into dangerous hallucinations that seemingly killed the person after a while.
Within the first minute after the eye appeared, thousands of people died.
I felt my soul trembling as I looked up at the sky. It felt like the eye was staring directly at me, pulling me towards it with a tempting gaze.
I quickly snapped back to my senses before looking at the old man. His body was turning into motes of light that were been pulled towards the sky by some strong force. He was still facing me with that sad look in his eyes.
"Why did you do this!?"
I yelled at him as I realized the full consequences of what he was doing.
"You will definitely fail! It will swallow you whole! That bastard is way high up in the hierarchy for you to do anything to it! Have you ever heard of a mite killing a giant? It is impossible no matter what tool or knowledge it possesses!"
The old man just smiled as more pieces of his body collapsed and were sucked into the sky.
The middle-aged man outside was yelling and banging at the barrier, I could see tears flooding down his eyes as he watched the old man vanish away.
The old man watched him for a moment before speaking to me again.
"The soul is a path to ascension I said? What a joke!"
He laughed bitterly.
"If I were to be honest, this is just a path of salvation and atonement for me and nothing more."
He said sadly.
"Countless people will die for your atonement! How will you atone for that?"
I yelled at him but he just laughed.
"That is none of my business, I will be dead anyway!"
"But I have put contingencies in place, yes, and a lot of them! My sacrifice will not be in vain, and neither will theirs!"
As he said this, various blue motes of light came out of his body, unlike the white ones that were getting pulled upwards without resistance, these ones resisted!
They fought laboriously to reach my bottle prison, a few of them managed to pass through the glass container and merged into my soul.
WHOOSH!!!
This action seemed to infuriate the pupil-less eye as the pull suddenly intensified and the remaining motes of light were pulled up so fast, that they turned into a blur. The old man also started disintegrating much quicker.
"That should be enough anyway."
The old man said calmly. His figure getting fainter by the second.
"Thank you for everything"
He added once more.
"I would prefer if you didn't thank me. You have started something that would definitely end in a tragedy."
I grumbled as I stared at his disappearing figure.
"No matter."
The old man laughed heartily.
"I'm sure it will all work out somehow!"
His voice got fainter as the last of the motes of light disappeared into the crack above.
BANGGG!!!!!!
The crack in the sky exploded violently and multiple extra space cracks appeared over the eye. The entire planet seemed to rumble violently as an unnatural power swept through, knocking out every single living being on the planet at the same time.
From the birds flying haphazardly above the plains to the deep-sea creatures that have never felt the embrace of the sun.
From the girl crying for her mother to the man trying to move his family to safety.
From the long blacked-haired man that was flying frantically, fervently calling out to his lord to the crying blue-robed man pounding desperately at the invisible barrier as he watched the last traces of his father disappear towards the stars.
Every living being on the planet, every living being with a soul, went blank.
I watched quietly as the limp form of the blue-robed middle-aged man dropped to the floor with a low thud. Suppressing a sigh, I focused my attention on the reaction happening deep within me. I could feel my soul's primal hunger for something tangible to latch on to.
I wouldn't last long like this.
Extending a bit of my strength, I focused on the cork of my glass prison and popped it open. Feeling the air outside going through my ethereal form, I slowly floated outside the bottle and headed for the shattered mirror on the floor.
The cravings on the floor had disappeared, wiped without a trace by some power. Only the open briefcase filled with random curiosities, the shattered mirror covered in flecks of blood, and the empty clothes that once belonged to the old man remained.
I controlled my soul to land gently on the mirror, attaching myself to the specks of blood that showered it. I could feel something reacting within me, the motes of light that I had previously absorbed moved on their own accord and got to work.
A blinding white light appeared that was accompanied by a searing pain but I persisted through it. It was understandable that the process would be painful.
I could feel a connection to a plane filled with that unnatural distorted power appear at the edge of my consciousness. I didn't hesitate to pull it closer and drag as much power from it as I could. The effect was immediate.
Multiple points of light made a rough outline of a human body quickly filling it up with more light which transformed into pale white bones. Muscles appeared afterward and wrapped tightly around the skeletal system, completely the rough outline of a man.
At this point, I already possessed some control of my new body. Ignoring the pain as the various points of light worked around me, I reached for the shattered mirror and looked into it.
Through the blinding light around me, I could barely see the color of my new eyes that were staring back at me. A deep amber color that was more red than yellow.
I chuckled internally.
'It's unfortunate that he's gone, one of his questions has already been answered!'
"Ugh…"
I heard a small groan and turned my gaze, the middle-aged man was already stirring. I looked down at my body that was just getting covered in layers of skin. The process wasn't complete, but no matter.
I picked up the black trench coat from the floor and put it over my body. The nervous system was already complete and I could feel traces of the biting cold already. I placed the silver mirror, clothes, and other miscellaneous things that had spilled out back into the briefcase and closed it.
I stared at the briefcase for a while before reaching out a finger, tapping some seemingly random areas around its wooden exterior.
Feeling an abrupt change in the aura of the briefcase, I smiled.
The imprint was right.
I opened the box and looked at the silent contraption of machinery and inscriptions. There were no bursts of electricity or dark auras this time around, just cold steel.
I snapped it shut when I heard the middle-aged man groan once more. I walked over to the white leather book and picked it up, placing my previous glass prison into a random pocket on the trench coat.
This book bound in white leather, seemingly ordinary was the start of everything in a way. Maybe if it had never existe-
No, the deed was done.
I turned to look at the middle-aged man who seemed to have gained consciousness for a moment before reaching out with my mind for the connection to Foutier.
Dragging on the distorted power, I felt a pull from space itself as I was dragged to my destination. Dragging along the numerous motes of light around that were furiously putting the finishing touches on my body.
There was work to be done.
.....................….
The middle-aged man stirred into wakefulness, his head throbbing with intense pain. He instinctively felt an emptiness and sense of loss deep within his soul but it took him a moment before he reorganized his memories and realized what had happened.
He shakily got to his feet and looked around the empty scene with blank eyes. He didn't speak, didn't move, he didn't even think.
He stood in that position till the sun started to rise in the distance, bathing the mountain-top in beautiful rays of light as they refracted through the snow.
The sound of a large predatory bird in the distance snapped him into consciousness. His dead eyes lazily scanned his surroundings with unprecedented calm greatly contrasting to the emotions he was feeling at the moment.
His eyes noticed some movement in the distance, a large regiment of the steel corps was approaching from the city. The beetle's black carapace shone dimly in the soft light of dawn.
His gaze met that of the woman that led the regiment, her frosty blue eyes containing endless questions within.
He wouldn't be answering her anytime soon.
With a wave of his hand, he vanished into thin air.
The steel corps couldn't find any traces around the mountain top and soon left afterward in disappointment with the blue-eyed woman leading them back to the walled city.
Neither she nor the middle-aged man knew much about what happened up there and the conversation that was held between the old man and the soul, neither did they notice the presence of an extra entity on the scene.
The being had appeared with the first light of dawn, emerging from the stars and descending to the top of the snow mountain.
It was clothed in a curious white garment that was alien to this world, thick and baggy in the most unreasonable places with straps and metal plates around the arms and neck. Its head was a large glass dome that at first seemed to be opaque until a closer look revealed the swirling darkness within, countless shining stars were seemingly placed haphazardly within.
It was like a universe in itself.
The being looked at the middle-aged man lost in a trance, then at the regiment of the steel corps getting ready to head to the mountain top.
He watched as the middle-aged man shared a look with the blue-eyed woman before vanishing away, and the look of disappointment on the woman as she left without finding any clues.
He watched as a pale sickly man with long black hair that reached his waist appeared, thoroughly searching for anything he could find with a desperate, almost maniacal look in his eyes before leaving in disappointment after a few hours.
The days passed, the world recovered and the being watched.
On a particularly starry night, countless days after the event that shook the world. The being suddenly shook from its apparent slumber and sighed.
"The vicissitudes of living things are constant through the eons even as times change and circumstances differ."
Its voice was ethereal, seemingly present and absent at the same time like it traveled through a great distance before reaching the ears.
"History always repeats the mistakes of the ancients and the world has to weather through countless suffering."
"But living things learn, adapt, persevere. It is only through that does a 'future' exist."
The entity stopped its personal monologue and raised its head to look into the sky, a quiet chuckle escaped its lips after a while.
"So now it is the soul? How amusing!"