As he stood away, his legs shaking, he looked around, trying to find anyone he could answer his question but all he saw from Renna, Jason, Percey and the instructors and the senior students was pure fear on there faces as if they had seen something that was not real, and that had frightened their souls to the core.
No answer forthcoming, Dharen looked down at himself, noting that he was far more dirty than he had been originally, as well as far more bruises and scratches than he remembered having prior to the fight. But aside from that he really did feel and seem fine, well aside from the gap in his memory of the entire fight that he had just had.
"That was…" Renna had finally broken the silence, leading to Dharen staring at her to see what she would say about what had just happened, for some reason Dharen felt that if he did not find out what it was, and what it was now, something bad would happen in the future, something far worse than scaring a group of people that was.
"Dharen, if what I think is right… You just entered into a state of mind called Battle Sleep. It is like… Your subconscious takes over and fights for you, with something else. Not many could do it, it was restricted to I think five of the Dragon-Kin clans. But still, those clans had vanished or were wiped out…"
Hearing her words, Dharen could not help but feel more frustrated. He had been given so little information and it just seemed like one more thing that the Dragon-Kin had lost to time as their Imperium had collapsed. He would be lying right now if he said that he did not feel much resentment towards Renna, as for all of the information that she had given there were just as many questions that she had given him as well.
"I see then, I take it that I can leave now, instructor?" He had glanced at the instructors as he spoke, seeking their approval as he clearly had won his fight, far more than what would probably have been needed to pass the exam.
Leaving through the crowd of people that formed up his class, who all were trying to ask questions seeing his appearance. Dharen suddenly found himself walking on a road that he had not been on before, it led into a small hilly region, of which many buildings stood, glittering under the sun.
He quickly remembered this place, from what Jason had told him, not that he ever overly had any kind of desire to come here. It was the holy hills, so named for the presence of the many temples and shrines that dotted the hills to many different Gods. As practise of all religion was allowed in the academy not that many people did remember that with the rise of the new faiths.
Feeling like no one else would be able to give him the answers that he wished to have, he slowly carried on walking up the road, to where the temples lay on the windswept grassy hills.
There truly were many temples up here, in many different forms and styles. There were many Gods from what he had been told, or rather they were called Deities, it was a mark of power as much as anything else. But also that power came with blessings and followers and faith. So yes these Deities, the Gods of this world were completely and utterly real and physical.
Although it did seem to Dharen that the Deities or Gods, whatever they were meant to be called, did come in and out of fashion, some had nearly disappeared from common knowledge, and as he looked around at the varying temples and shrines, he could spot many that seemed to be decrepit and falling apart unlike how they should have been, such as like the pure white and pitch black churches, that seemed to be the most prominent at the current moment.
Aside from those, he could spot a very dragon themed temple, for which he took as the Dragon Cult, the odd form of ancestor worship that most of the Dragon-Kin belonged to, but that never had, and most likely never would feel right for him. He understood the need of remembering and understanding your ancestors, but worshipping them did not feel right at all, though if he had ever said such things to Renna she surely would have beaten him up until he changed his statement.
Looking around more, he suddenly noticed that there was a light coming from one of the older temples near the back, walking towards it out of curiosity, he could see that in its prime the temple would have appeared and looked to be beautiful. It looked like it would have been made of marble, with the iron braziers lit and covered in incense. But now, it was run down, cracked and most of all plants were growing over many parts of this temple.
The design of the temple itself did seem to evoke some kind of memory to him, but he could not place where he had seen such a temple before, though it should have been when he was still living his far more normal life back on Earth.
Walking inside, he found it just as run down, with the many braziers all looking stone cold, and covered in far more rust than what it should have been. Aside from that, the interior of the temple was filled up with Alcoves each containing a statue, as there were many more shrines that filled up the vast temple, that seemed to be far bigger inside than on the outside.
Looking around further, he finally found what had been giving off the light that had caught his eye before, that being that to his surprise, two of the braziers in the temple were lit.
Walking over to them, he could not see any traces of a person having been here and having lit them, but here they were all the same, emitting light and warmth.
The two had flanked one statue in particular. The statue was of a lady, but she wore a helmet and a small chest piece over what looked like a toga, aside from that she carried a shield and spear in each of her hands. He could imagine she was some kind of war goddess based off of her appearance, probably extremely fierce. Though once again he could have sworn he knew who the statue was meant to be depicting.
It was as if some of his memoires had been blocked and this did truly scare him far more than most of what he had seen so far, and who would not be scared?
Then turning around, he nearly walked straight into a lady who was standing behind him, her grey eyes staring into his own as if she could see into soul. Aside from that, the clothes she wore…she looked like a statue, but that should not be possible…
Then she spoke, "So Dharen…"