The train station of the Emerald City was crowded that day as well, just like any other day. Trains were coming in and going out, and everyone was in a rush to get to their train, while Raiden on the other hand was not. He was about an hour early and had a lot of time to kill. With a sandwich in his hands, he was just looking at people saying their goodbyes to their friends.
There was a part of him that felt sad, that he had no friends. He had spent a significant amount of time in his life in this city but still had no person that he could truly refer to as his friend. There was no one to blame for this, other than him. If he had not been so anti-social he was sure that he would have nabbed a friend or two.
Raiden opened his mouth to eat a piece of sandwich when something happened.
The world around him became quieter, it was like someone had sucked all sounds in the world. He knew something was off. Before he knew it, something grabbed him and turned him around.
He found himself standing in the middle of a crowded street. He was in some sort of market, surrounded by people who didnt have any facial features and were made up of smoke. Hell, everything looked like it was made of smoke.
Where am I? What is this place?
The sound of bells ringing made him turn around. And it is there he saw an ash white tower, with a big bronze bell at the top. He recognized the tower, he had seen it multiple times. This tower was located in Valgoor, his hometown. And sure enough, as he looked around he started recognizing that place, this was the market that assembled at the foot of the tower every other weekend.
Before Raiden could take a step to explore the place, his body started floating in the air, slowly he started rising, and before he knew he had reached the tower's height. His body turned around on its own and then with great speed, he zoomed forward. Leaving behind the Valgoor he started zooming through the dense forest around his hometown, soon the sea came, and his speed increased. Flying above the ocean he started feeling nauseous and scared, as he had no control over his body or his speed.
Raiden started seeing an Island in the distance, but he zoomed past. Like that, he flew past three islands and eventually started slowing down when the fourth island came into view. From the skies, he saw that the island had a huge inactive volcano in the middle. Covered with green vegetation of every kind, the island was rather beautiful, it looked like a pretty place to live in. It is then his body dove towards the island.
There was a settlement on the other side of the island, and his body flew into the biggest building in the place. His intangible body bypassed everything and came to a stop at what looked like a study room. With shelves of various books, and artifacts of many cultures from around the world locked behind glass boxes, combined with leather sofas around the place, this room was the ideal aristocratic study room that he had ever seen. If it weren't for bodies, guts, and blood littered around the place, this room would have been very lavish.
He couldnt see the faces of bodies there as they were made of smoke and didnt have any facial features, just like the market. But from what he could see, this place looked slaughter a house. It was a very gory scene.
"Ready to die?" He turned around, and there stood a tall woman, wearing black armor. With the slits on her helmet, her red Draconic Eyes stared at him.
"Can you.. Who are you?" he asked, unsure of what was happening to him.
The knight calmly walked towards him. Sensing some hostility from the knight, he raised his hands up in the air and got ready to fight. But then he heard a weak voice from behind him, "Fuck… You bitch."
He turned around to find an injured fishman, on his knees, bleeding profusely. The grey skin of the fishman was covered with his red blood. There were multiple bruises on his pot belly, even one of the eyes of the Fishman was missing, and he looked battered.
As if he were permeable, the knight passed through him and came to a stop in front of the Fishman. The knight grabbed the fisherman's head and pulled him up. "May you rest in peace,"
Without any warning, the knight forcefully grabbed the lower jaw of the Fishman and then pulled it out. The stream of blood poured into the knight's visor, it didnt look like it affected her at all.
Raiden's stomach started churning, he started feeling nauseated. He opened his mouth and turned around to send everything in his stomach hurling out. But no matter what he tried, nothing came out.
With a blink of an eye, he found himself on the bench of the station again.
What the fuck was that, he stood up to look around. Trying to find any reason that might explain what he had expirenced. As he couldnt figure out anything, he sat down again, losing himself in his thoughts.
He didnt know what it was, but seeing those particular red draconic eyes, and seeing the familiar bell tower of his hometown, he started having a feeling that going back to his hometown was a bad idea.
Raiden took a posting there, in that small town because he wanted to go back to his roots. But now he was not sure. At first, he even convinced himself that he should go there, he bought a ticket and everything. Now, sitting in front of the train, he could not find resolve to board the train. He shared many bad memories with that town, and he didnt know whether going back there would be a good idea.
Get yourself together Raiden! This is not the time to falter, you are an Inspector now. How many aether wielders would sell their souls to get to the position, you are not throwing it away because of a hallucination.
He pulled himself up, pushing his worrisome thoughts aside. His train had arrived. Pushing his trolley containing his three large trunks and made his way towards the first class bogey of the train…