Three golden threads spun from her blessed hand, guiding three psyches through the fading land.
With divine light weaving their path ahead, they left the capital, wandering wounded through days of dread.
Eventually, they came to a halt.
'We've been following these threads for days,' the boy complained, frustration mounting.
'Don't worry. We're close now,' the girl reassured him softly.
'But if it's taken this long, when we go back to our world, how much time will have passed?'
'Don't worry,' she repeated. 'He said when we return, only a couple of seconds will have gone by.'
'Well, that's a relief.'
'Yeah, it is. You know, over these past few days, you've gotten more comfortable talking with us.'
'Well, I don't feel shy around you anymore. I was a bit afraid when we first met, but now I feel more at ease.'
At the front, Jin suddenly stopped, his form tense, as if sensing something ahead.
'What is it?' the girl asked, her attention shifting to him.
'The souls are gathering,' Jin said quietly, his voice a warning.
They moved forward and sensed the souls—shimmering, ethereal shapes drifting through the darkened landscape, clustering around a larger one.
'These look like frogs, like in the barren land,' the boy remarked, squinting at the gathering spirits.
'Frogs? Is that what you see?' the girl asked, her gaze fixed on the strange forms, perceiving something entirely different.
'How do you see them?' Jin asked, intrigued by her reaction.
'Like beautiful, shining butterflies,' she whispered in awe.
'They glide through darkness in silent flight,
Their wings aglow with ethereal light.
Delicate flames in the endless night,
Dancing on air, too bright to touch,
Yet fragile as a dream's soft clutch.'
'Butterflies...' Jin mused.
'And you?' she asked, turning to him.
'Balls of light, like lanterns floating through the sky,' Jin answered thoughtfully.
'So, we each see the world differently,' the girl remarked.
'That's why it's called the Unseen Realm.'
'I wonder why the souls are gathering together,' she said.
'Because of a stronger soul,' Jin replied.
He paused, contemplating the nature of souls. Most of what he knew came from the ancient stone tablets in the Forbidden Land. According to them, not all human souls are the same. The larger the soul, the stronger it is.
'How do they have size? Aren't they supposed to be formless?' he wondered.
Recalling the girl's question, he continued, 'Weaker souls are drawn to stronger ones.'
'What exactly is a soul?' the boy asked, curiosity lighting his voice or thoughts.
'It's... hard to explain,' Jin admitted.
'Let me try,' the girl offered. 'An Awakened is someone who has gained their soul, making them whole. They possess all three aspects of existence: soul, psyche, and body.' She paused, then added, 'My grandfather explained it to me using an example from computer games.'
'Computer games?' the boy asked, confused.
'Yes. Think of it like this: when you play a game, the character you control is the body, you yourself are the psyche, and the computer you're playing on is the soul.'
'Oh, I get it. That makes it simple.'
'What's a computer game?' Jin wondered silently, resisting the thoughts sharing.
After resting for a while in their tireless psyche forms, the boy grew impatient and stepped forward. 'Let's see them up close,' he urged, eager to approach the gathering souls.
Jin quickly stopped him, pointing toward the thick fog swirling near the spirits. 'Don't get too close,' he warned.
'Why not?'
'They're here too,' Jin answered.
The girl looked at him intently. 'How is he able to sense things so far away in this state?' she thought, but her unguarded thoughts slipped through.
'Well, I suppose it's due to my mental training,' Jin lied, reluctant to reveal that he had received a mental boost from his future self. Besides, they would forget everything soon enough, so there was no reason to tell them anything.
She was about to ask more, but Jin's focus shifted to the approaching soul eaters.
Out of the fog emerged the soul eaters, fish-like creatures with gaping mouths.
'Black cats!' the boy yelled.
'What?! Red dragons!' the girl exclaimed.
'Butterflies, then red dragons... Is this girl crazy?' Jin thought, bewildered.
The soul eaters descended upon the gathered souls with eerie precision, their jaws stretching wide as they tore into the formless shapes. The souls, mindless and unaware, drifted aimlessly, offering no resistance as they were consumed. With each bite, the soul eaters grew more frenzied, ripping through the lifeless forms as their faint glow flickered and died. The soundless scene was chilling—a feeding frenzy in the dead silence of the dark, with the souls dissolving into nothingness, leaving the air heavy with an unnatural stillness.
'Does this mean all those people are dead?!' the boy cried, his thoughts trembling.
'No, they're not,' Jin said calmly.
'Th-Then... what is death?' the girl asked softly.
Jin looked at her with his unseen eyes, pondering for a moment before answering. 'That depends.'
'Depends on what?'
'Depends on who's dying.'
Jin turned his gaze to the soul eaters devouring the souls.
'For the non-awakened, death is when their psyche dies. But for an Awakened, it's the separation of the psyche from the soul. As for higher beings... I'm not sure if they even die in the traditional sense.'
'So in a way, we're like the undead.'
'Undead? I don't think...' Jin started to reject her idea but then reconsidered. 'Maybe in a way, you're right.'
Soon, the feeding frenzy ended. Once the soul eaters had finished, they drifted away, vanishing into the darkness.
The scene before them left the three psyches in stunned silence.
'Hey, are you alright?' the girl asked the boy gently.
'Uh... yeah, I'm alright,' he replied, his voice uncertain.
'This kid's psyche is strong. A child his age should be horrified by all this. It's too much, even for an adult.'
But the reason he wasn't overwhelmed, despite his tender age, was due to the strength of his psyche. A psyche isn't bound by age; it's the mental fortitude it holds that determines resilience. The boy's psyche had that strength, allowing him to endure what should have broken him.
'He has quite the potential,' Jin thought, impressed.
'It's alright. I... am not afraid, a hero don't fear something like this,' said the boy in tumbling thoughts.
'Really? By the look of it, you're about to cry,' Jin taunted the kid.
'Um... no, I'm not crying...'
'Hey, stop that,' the girl interjected.
The boy, now angry, stepped in front of Jin.
'What's your name?' he demanded.
Jin glanced at him, uninterested.
'There's no point in telling you that.'
Jin wasn't sure if he should get too close to them. It could lead to unwanted complications. To avoid that, he decided to keep his distance and draw a clear line between them.
'Fine,' the boy replied, 'My name is Ru, and I'm going to be a hero of justice.'
'Yeah, right,' Jin chuckled mockingly.
'Don't laugh at me! One day, I'll prove it. I'll make you call me a hero.'
'Oh, well then, I'll be waiting for that day,' Jin replied with a smirk.
'He's got some potential, but I doubt that day will ever come,' Jin thought to himself.
'Don't think for a second he can't do it,' the girl said, 'You'll see for yourself.'
Hearing her words, Ru laughed softly.
'Hehe... I know you'll believe in me.'
They pressed on with their journey, the passage of time marked by the steady rhythm of their steps. After a day's travel, they arrived at the mouth of an ancient cave, its stone walls weathered by countless ages. The darkness that clung to its entrance seemed to breathe, heavy and thick, filling the air with an ominous weight. Shadows swirled like living things, and a sense of foreboding crept into their hearts. The cave yawned before them, wide and jagged, as though nature itself had torn it open. From deep within, an unsettling aura slithered out—the unmistakable presence of a Corrupt, foul and malignant, calling them into its depths.
'W-What is this feeling I'm having?' the girl stammered, her thoughts filled with horror.
'Just as I thought,' Jin mused silently.
'Are you certain all our souls are inside the cave?' he asked her, his gaze fixed on the ominous entrance.
'Yes, I'm sure. My blessing brought us here, and I can sense our souls within,' she replied, her voice trembling slightly.
'But how could all our souls be gathered together like this? It feels... planned,' Jin thought, though he remained outwardly calm, even as unease crept into his mind.
In the Unseen Realm, souls were scattered at random. The odds of them being in one place were infinitesimally small—especially in a place like this. Jin could feel it, the unmistakable presence of a Corrupt lurking within the cave. But what was it doing here, in the Unseen Realm? Corrupts weren't supposed to leave the Forgotten Land. Jin ponderedthe anomaly, his thoughts circling like vultures around the growing suspicion that this was all a trap.
Lost in thought, Jin stood still, weighing whether entering the cave was wise or foolish. He was certain now—this was orchestrated by That.
The girl, sensing his unease and seeing his troubled expression, hesitated, unsure of what to do.
Both of them stood frozen, until the boy suddenly moved forward.
'Hey, where do you think you're going?' Jin stopped him.
'To the cave. Our souls are there, so we need to go and retrieve them,' the boy declared, trying to sound brave, though Jin could see the fear flickering in his eyes.
'There's more danger inside than you realize,' Jin warned, casting a glance upward at the massive eye that loomed in the sky. It hadn't turned its gaze toward them in days, which only deepened Jin's concern. The eye had always followed them before, shifting every few minutes. But now, it seemed to be deliberately avoiding them. Why?
'So what? We'll die if we don't get our souls, right? We should at least try. Dying without even attempting is way worse,' the boy said with forced courage. 'At least we'd die a heroic death.'
Hearing this, Jin let out a small, wry smile. 'I can't believe a kid is saying all that.'
'Hey, stop calling me a kid,' the boy shot back, his tone hardening. 'I've seen ugly things too. I saw my mother... eaten by a monster right in front of me.' His voice fell quiet for a moment, the weight of his loss heavy in the air. 'That's why I want to be a hero. To protect everything I have left. To protect everyone.'
'So, you lost your mother,' Jin thought to himself, sighing through the mouth he no longer physically possessed. 'I suppose that makes us the same.'