Will reached the golden sphere. Everything slowed down. It wasn't even in Will's head. The world or well this realm slowed down. It felt like an hour had passed and at the same time, it went by all too quickly. The blood of drops from the Listener in sweatpants slowly floated through the realm. Slower and slower. Eventually, they stopped. Will couldn't think.
He tried to come to terms with this reality but thinking was also impossible. His thoughts slowed down as well. Now, he just witnessed the scenery.
In an instant, Will was not slowly falling into the abyss anymore. He wasn't frozen in time. He just saw a tree. This time the tree was growing in the correct direction.
'Did I lose consciousness? How much time passed? I can't tell. Perhaps I lost consciousness but it is equally likely that I didn't and was just transported here. Now that I think about it. At what am I looking currently?'
The tree was old. Somehow, Will felt that the tree was older than billions of years. At the same time, it looked so alive. Will looked closer.
'Wait a minute. This ... this is that damn tree. But I can't see the tiger. Is it blocked by the leaves? It is hard to tell. I never got a good look at my surroundings and a change in perspective is making it hard to tell. I mean of course it is but why am I seeing it? Did I not escape?'
'Alright, it seems that I've got some time to reflect a little and think about what happened in the last hours. Or the most confusing part, the sphere. Why couldn't the Listener and the girl fall on the sphere? Were there some sort of conditions to fall on the sphere? What did I do differently than those two? Well, I helped the girl and she didn't help anyone so perhaps... No that can't be it.'
'The man in sweatpants helped us too and he couldn't get access. I fought and killed Shadows ... No the man did that as well. I mean I certainly struggled more with that situation than that Listener. Now that I think about it. For them, this situation was oddly similar to their normal life. Fighting constantly in conditions that could be compared to one's personal hell. For me though it was new.'
'Yes, I am used to suffering in this world. I mean I see it every day but it's the first time that I did not escape the carnage. So I had to adapt while they did not. Anyway, this won't get me anywhere. Let's think about this golden thing again.'
'If it is a T-crystal then I should have gained an ability by now. Shouldn't a voice inform me about that? Hmm, maybe it's not that easy because it's an ability from a crystal and not the natural way. Or is it just different? Perhaps abilities gained by a crystal don't come with a voice that tells me what my ability is.'
'I should have listened to one of those interviews. Those Listener interviews on shows are just too boring to listen to I guess. Doesn't matter I think they said that a voice congratulated them and told them the name of their ability. No one said that they heard a voice when they gained the ability by a T-crystal. At least I think so.'
'Well then. Am I waiting to just be released? Maybe it isn't a T-crystal after all. I could have been wrong with my assumption. What would that mean to me? Was there no chance of escape from the very beginning?'
As if to answer his thoughts an unfamiliar loud and deep voice resounded inside his head.
It could have also been outside his head Will could not tell because the voice was just too loud. So, it seemed as if the voice was inside his head.
"I am very sorry my friend. You gained my talent. So, I hereby order you to destroy Eden."
The voice was so loud that it hurt Will. Yet, the pain could not drown out the voice. At the same time many thoughts shot inside Will's mind.
'What? What does the voice mean by "my talent"? Also, did it just order me to destroy Eden?'
Will could not comprehend it. He tried to but suddenly another form of pain distracted him. He screamed internally unable to open his mouth and unable to move his body. He just screamed. There was seemingly no end to the pain. It also was not directed at any part of his body. It was more like Will's entire being went through the pain. His soul felt like it was burning while an entity scratched its name on the surface of Will's soul.
It hurt so much Will thought he was going crazy but slowly the pain faded away. The letters were slowly accepted and sunk deep into the bottom of his soul.
Will could finally breathe again. He tried to swallow but his mouth was too dry for that. Only now could Will think about the words again. The most horrible as well.
'I ... I can't destroy Eden.'
He chuckled a little at the thought of it.
'I don't have the power to do that but let's just assume that I had the power to destroy Eden. So, probably the power of a god.'
He laughed again.
'Yeah right, even if I had the power of a god. I would become the enemy of the world, of humanity. No, I can't destroy Eden. I will not destroy Eden.'
As soon as he thought those last six words, he felt the flames around his soul starting to burn again. A quick pain arose inside of him.
The pain forced him to his knees even though he wasn't actually standing on anything. He couched violently to get rid of the pain.
'What was that? Was it because of what I thought? No, it has to be something else. There has to be something else because I will not destroy Eden.'
Again the same sort of pain arose in his soul. Will gain clarity on the rules. So, he tried to face the grim reality. The reality is that he could not even object to the idea of Eden's destruction.
'This is going to be a big problem. So, I can't object but I don't think that I have to go about destroying Eden immediately right?'
Will awaited the same pain again but nothing happened.
'Nothing happened. So, it's probably more like if I have the chance to destroy Eden then I absolutely have to. But if I don't have the power or the opportunity then I don't have to do it immediately.'
'However, right now it is not something I have to do immediately and can probably just go on with life. Hmm, that's not too bad. So, now that I have the ability I can just go or how does this work?'
Will looked at the tree again because there wasn't really anything Will could do. Again.
The tree looked just like before nothing changed.
Yet, Will couldn't help but think that something changed. It wasn't the tree but the background changed its colour. The entire black void slowly changed from deep black to grey. It continued to change.
First, it was the colours but then contours appeared as well. The whole scenery changed. Walls appeared, buildings with glass facades and finally Will could see humans.
Will wasn't standing in a dark empty void anymore.
He was standing in an enormous complex with huge skyscrapers that seemed to never end. That was actually an elusion created by the designers of this place to hide the fact that the skyscrapers were used as pillars.
The whole complex was beneath a giant dome built of special metal and glass. It looked like the entrance to the world and in the centre was a tree. Not as enormous as the tree from the void but still at least 100 metres high.
Until now Will had only heard of this place. The entrance to Eden.