Hangfang flew through the air, his breath coming in hitching gasps as he turned back to look over his shoulder. The war ground spread beneath him, a mass of conflagration and blood and broken earth, but his mind was fixed on one thing only — the brutish portent that had just crossed his path. His heart thumped wildly in his chest, a trapped monster trying to escape.
He fought untold opponents, he survived brutal bouts that had tested his boundaries once before, but this… this was another story. For the first time, he had stared into the face of an enemy and seen his own death looking back at him.
There was a cold chill down his spine. "Did I actually just see my death pass before my eyes? The question rang in his ears, but he had no answer. His instincts told him to keep flying, to distance himself as much as possible from that monstrous figure. But deep down, this felt woefully wrong.
Just when panic came close to setting in, a familiar voice rang in his mind, soothing, collected, and oddly reassuring.
"Don't worry. He won't chase you for now. You can relax for a little bit."
Hangfang had to catch his breath. That voice — it always had been there, carrying him forward in his most desperate hours. But this time, something was different. A certainty, an unshakeable confidence in its tone that he couldn't not hear.
His eyes narrowed. "Why do you feel like you already know him?"
For the first, the voice stuttered. A long silence hung between them, thick and stifling. An answer-less echo amplified the distant sound of the front.
Hangfang's suspicion grew. "Are you going to answer me?" now his voice took on a sharper, demanding edge.
Finally, the voice sighed. "It's complicated."
Hangfang scoffed. "Of course, it is. It always is." His hands fisted, an effort to stifle any emotion. "But I need answers. If you know anything about him, tell me. Because at this point, I don't know if I need to be running or preparing to die."
In his head, a low top-up chuckle, half amusement, half derisive, without touch. "If you were going to die today, you would have already died."
Hangfang grit his teeth. "That's not an answer."
Another pause, and then — finally — the voice spoke again. "Fine. Since you pressed… Our body first came alive, and parts of me saw flashes of other memories — memories that weren't mine. And in those fragments, I heard his voice."
A shiver coursed through Hangfang's veins. "You know… you've seen him before?"
"More than that," the voice confessed. "I think I knew him. Or at least, the person that he was."
Hangfang's chest tightened. A tornado of emotions boiled inside him — confusion, discomfort, rage. "And you didn't think that part to mention before?"
"I wasn't sure," the voice said. "Memories can be unreliable. But now… after what we just went through, I know for sure. He's someone from the past. Our past."
Hangfang's pulse quickened. "Wait… Are you saying that he … he might have had a soul exchange, the same as us?"
There was a long silence. Then finally the voice responded. "The possibilities are endless if you've even thought of it."
Hangfang's lips parted, a sharp breath escaping. His thoughts spiraled. If this were true, it changed everything.
"But why?" Hangfang said, his voice taut. "If he's like us, why did he attack me? What could he possibly have the reason?"
The voice hesitated. "That, I don't know."
Hangfang clenched his jaw. "Then what do you know?"
The voice remained silent.
Hangfang growled in frustration, raking a hand through his hair. "Damn it! None of this makes sense! If he's like us, then what does that mean about us? Is he our enemy — or is there something more going on?"
"Good," the voice finally came, its pitch lower this time. "Forget about him for now. You have more important things to worry about — your hand, for instance."
Hangfang's head snapped to the floor. A tingling wave of horror crept up his back when he saw it — his hand, black veins crawling over his alabaster flesh like a contagion. The wound burned, an alien feeling edging up his arm.
"What… what is this?" His voice was as low as a whisper.
"Poison? A curse? I don't know," the voice confessed. "But whatever it is, it's disseminating. And fast. You have to address it before it turns into something worse."
Panting, Hangfang forced himself to remain calm. "Great. Just great." He just couldn't keep things straight. The enemy was gone, at least enough for now, but this wound… This was different.
He looked back over his shoulder to see if anyone was chasing him. Nothing. For now.
"Fine," he muttered as he corrected his flight path. "First found the Black Seed location … But don't think I'm letting this slip. "I have far too many questions and not enough patience."
The voice chuckled softly. "Understood."
With that, Hangfang faced ahead, his wings slicing through the air with newfound urgency. The battle wasn't over. Not even close. And as the ominous dar
kness spreading through his hand, he knew — this was only the beginning.
Follow me on telegram channel name novel nexus