A young man laid on his back in a field of flowers which seemed to go on forever. Asleep, his face looked peaceful. However, if anyone else had been there, they'd find he looked almost...irritated? While he was around 180cm tall, his soft features betrayed any attempt to hide his youth. He wore a pale green robe and his arms were spread beside him defenselessly.
This peaceful scene seemed to go on for an eternity before a change came to the young man's face. His face suddenly twisted and he clenched his jaw. His arms wrapped around his body and he was soon in fetal position, veins started to protrude on his forehead and he began to shake in pain. He grabbed his head and began to roll through the flowers, while he was clearly in great pain, he didn't make a sound....even the flowers made no sound. After a few moments, he rolled onto his back and sat up straight with a jolt.
"Every time I wake up....it's like I couldn't breathe....I don't understand" the boy said as if he was still asleep.
'How many times is this'
Luc moaned as he massaged his temples waking from one dream into another.
In the last dream he'd been an enormous primordial tree! He lived for eons, saw legendary figures rise and fall, was worshiped by gods and mortals alike, before finally facing a tribulation to extend his life once more...which ultimately he seemed to fail.
At this time, he was possessed with the same feelings of longing that plagued him prior to his repetitive appearance in this place. He was trapped in a circle of dreams. He'd only experienced each individual dream once, however, this place was like a waiting room he returned to before going into the next dream. Even though he'd been forced to shed his mortal attachments in various ways to end each dream sequence, the emotional numbness would seem to wear off a touch when returned here.
He was currently sitting in a familiar field of white roses, a dozen metres from a woman who seemed to never notice him. She looked up from her book and the first few times this had happened, Luc could have sworn she'd been staring straight at him.
The woman couldn't be compared to any woman Luc had ever met before. She was dressed in a flowing white robe and sitting under the oak tree, she looked as if she'd melded with nature, a piece of jade would simply lose it's luster in comparison and any of the so-called 'top beauties' in the city would take their own lives, rather than be compared to this otherworldly queen. For some odd reason he could not fathom, Luc had never felt any attraction to her, all he felt was a need to be closer to this fairy who exuded such a majestic presence.
Just as Luc lost himself to the serenity of the scene, he bit his lip and stared fiercely at the woman. The other times he'd come here, he'd been unable to exercise any form of free will.
His time in the last dream had changed him. In the last dream he'd covered the world with one hand and had only been destroyed by his own pursuit for the pinnacle!
"I DON'T NEED YOU TO NOTICE ME, LET ME OUT OF THIS PLACE!!". He'd faced this woman three times already. On each other occasion he'd been left with his hand outstretched in futility, falling into a world of darkness and thorns.
Suddenly, the serenity of the field was disturbed. The bright sky grew gray and cold, the woman's face began to grow vicious as the plants began to writhe and magically grow around her. The thorns of the roses pierced her skin, but the woman showed no sign of noticing any pain. As plants slowly lifted her up and away from Luc as he sank into a mass of roots and thorns,
As this happened, Luc's lungs were filled with a roaring pain once more, this pain and struggle to breathe seemed to proceed the transitions! Luc's eyes began to blur, this time the drowning sensation came much faster than before. This time however he had free will! He rotated his spiritual core and felt much more in control of his spiritual energy than he'd ever felt before!
Luc felt indomitable in this moment! While some of the thorns continued to charge towards him, the remaining flowers seemed to spring to his defence! The roaring pain in his lungs dissapated instantly and Luc took a fierce breath and naturally commanded the remaining flowers to form a platform that carried him out of the thorns.
If Luc could see himself in this moment he'd be astounded! Standing atop the platform of Flowers he looked like a deity! He raised his head defiantly at the woman, he intended to leave this place right now!
As Luc prepared to exercise his new found power in this mysterious realm, he finally noticed the woman's face!
Rather than having a blank detached expression as Luc had gotten used to, the woman lifted her head and peered directly into Luc's defiant eyes, as if searching for some type of answer.
Luc was truly perplexed. "YOU COULD SEE ME!!!" he roared. He couldn't explain the waves of anguish and potent feeling of betrayal that wracked his body. He thought he'd grown truly numb through these detaching experiences, in this moment however, all his emotions flooded back into him.
His senses were thrown into turmoil! The power began to wash away from him and the thorns began to dominate the flowers as Luc began to slowly sink once more!
A flash of shock crossed the woman's face for a moment, however, this shock was soon replaced by a loving smile that silenced Luc instantly.
*bump bump*
"Huh?" Luc was shocked, this entire time, besides the sound of his own thinking, he'd been unable to hear anything....but he was certain that was the sound of a heart?
*bump bump*
The woman's body started to glow and was surrounded by the vibrant green spiritual particles which were flowing away from Luc as well as solid silver spiritual particles coming from her own body!
This astounded Luc, the ability to call forth spiritual energy from oneself was no easy feat and with the density she'd produced Luc assumed she'd have to at least be a Dispersion level master, perhaps even a Reformation rank archon!
"So you're still alive...." she said in a voice that could only be compared to a harp.....in a language Luc was sure he'd never heard before. Against his will Luc stretched out his hand once more as vines and thorns began to cover his body.
This time however, the flowers reacted to his action and flew towards the woman at amazing speed! Luc was determined! If he was to return to another vision he'd make sure he at least struck this woman!
The woman sniffed in disdain "Poor mongrel!" the melodic voice blasted out again, the harp like voice raising multiple octaves, the word 'mother' resounding in Luc's ears.
Her body exploded in a flash of luminscent green light, destroying all of the vines that had pierced her. The resulting mass of spiritual energy charged towards Luc. Knowing he was only in the Flowering stage, this energy storm would be more than enough to kill a battalion of Lucs. He raised his arms in front of him and tried to channel spiritual energy in defence.
*Bump dump*
"Follow your Karma...." the melody sounded once more, clearly fading as a flash of light encompassed Luc's vision.... "I need to rest..." the harp trailed off into silence once more as the sound of his heart faded away.
The light was followed by an all too familiar dark world accompanied by a familiar floating sensation. While he knew he'd been unconscious, Luc was able to sense the damage he received when he suppressed the awakening of his bloodline.
In each dream he'd lived a part of the great old tree's life, the last vision had been the longest and showed the most majestic moments in it's existence! Having experienced such a reality, the meager reality of an orphan disciple was much harder to acclimate back to than one would imagine.
Luc took this time to try and piece together everything that happened before the cycle of nightmares, he was grasping at the fragments of memories from a life that now happened eons ago...
"No!" he screamed at himself; forcibly dispelling some of the fog that blocked his memories. "It was my bloodline awakening ceremony" he thought..seemingly uncertain. Images began flooding into his mind once more....