The surroundings looked unfamiliar, and adjusting to the change took him a few seconds. It felt like he had been sucked into a void, and his lungs could not get enough air. Gasping for breath, he tried to look around, but everything was too dark, and his vision was blurry. His ears twitched as he heard something.

His head flicked in the direction of the sound. At first, he felt that the sound was someone rubbing sandpaper against a coarse surface, but then he realized it was a voice. He craned his neck in the direction, but he could not understand a thing. The beings, whoever they were, were conversing in an unknown and weird language.

Before focusing more on the sounds, he felt something grab his leg. Xavier was crawling on all fours, so his body slammed to the ground. He tried to find something to hold onto, but there was nothing. His fingers scraped the ground, chipping away his nails as he felt himself slowly rise in the air. Something was dragging him away, flying off to some place with him dangling upside down. But what was it?

All he could hear was the sound of wings flapping before he was hurled through the air before his head smacked against something solid. Following that, he lost consciousness again and was pulled into a dream.

**

Xavier tried to move but couldn’t. His eyes were shut tight, but he could see the world around him. Though, there was not much to see. Everything was shrouded in darkness.

Another dream.

He could instinctively tell that he hadn’t regained consciousness yet. He was still in a dream. However, it felt too real to be a dream. If he could, Xavier would have pinched himself, but he was still unable to move. Strangely, the restrictions cast upon him in the hyper-realistic dream didn’t apply to the darkness around him. The darkness easily reached for him and slowly entered his body as he watched in shock. It circulated calmly through him, filling every muscle and pore, only to leave his body to return to the darkness shrouding him.

And this went on repeat. A cycle began.

The darkness invaded him with no resistance. It circulated slowly but steadily through every corner of his body, leaving faint traces inside to anchor themselves wherever they passed by before leaving his body again.

[Surrender to me!] A command resounded through Xavier’s mind all of a sudden.

It was not the first time the darkness tried to overwhelm him, but Xavier didn’t obey. He blocked his senses from the eerily cold voice that rang through him.

[You are nothing without me. Only with me can you become strong. Only I can help you attain true power! Without me, you will never get back to your family!]

My family…

The last thing Xavier recalled was falling into the Monster Gate. He was unsure what happened after that, but that was unimportant. He had been separated from his family.

At least Luka is dead.

[I killed him!] The voice hissed.

[You would have died without my help!]

Even though Xavier didn’t like to agree with the voice in his head…it was correct. He would be dead without the darkness tendrils.

Maybe I am already dead and didn’t realize it until now. Is this the afterlife?

[Stupid fool! You are not dead.]

Xavier didn’t like the voice. Who would like a weird creature that invades your mind and tries to take control of your body in the first place? He was not tired of living just yet. Xavier wouldn’t want someone else to control his body even if he was. He didn’t have such kinks.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

[Surrender to me. NOW!] The voice thundered as it initiated another attempt to overwhelm Xavier.

Xavier was just about to scream at the top of his lungs as the surrounding darkness flooded his body from all directions when the scene around him changed.

It was a stark contrast to his previous surroundings—like polar opposites. While earlier, all he saw was darkness around him, now it was white wherever his eyes could see—not pale or cream white but dazzling, shiny white. It was so bright suddenly that his eyes hurt. Xavier tried moving but could not. All he could do was look around without turning his neck.

And he was taken aback by what he saw. A giant, shiny palace that seemed to be made of pure white marble stood a few feet away from him. But that was not what surprised him the most.

Only now did he see what it was built upon. It was not ground but….clouds. Surprised, his wide eyes looked down at his feet and saw clouds beneath his feet as well.

The clouds were solid despite looking fluffy.

Am I dreaming again? Or perhaps this is what the afterlife truly looks like.

For a confused second, he kept staring at the palace before he felt a sharp tug around his navel. And while that happened, the traces of darkness inside his body began to pull away, as if they did not want to go anywhere near the palace. So, they began to push him in the opposite direction. However, his feet stayed firmly glued to the spot. And then he heard voices again.

But they were different than the ones he had heard earlier.

[This time will be different.]

[Do you think that this will change something? How can you even believe in the old prophecies when everyone connected to it disappeared shortly after the prophecy reached the Domains? Don’t be a fool!]

[You underestimate the power of Fate and misdirection. Not everyone is who he looks like; not everything is easy to comprehend, not even for Gods. I am not a fool, but you may think of me as one. I’d rather be a fool on the right track than a self-proclaimed genius who loses his path.]

[At least, we detected the Root of the Origin. To think that the Schema was faulty. That never happened since…]

He could hear the voices clearly, but he could not quite get the gist of the conversation. He could have sworn they were speaking a different language, but somehow, he was able to understand it…to some extent. Somehow, the words were being translated in his head as they were spoken.

But then again, he had no idea what Root of the Origin or Schema meant. Those words could as well have been spoken in an alien language.

Xavier soon began questioning whether it was a dream because it did not feel like one. Something was odd. And then a thought popped up in his head, telling him that it was a memory of something that happened in the past...a memory of something he should have remembered. Yet, at the same time, the memory was something Xavier never experienced. He had no recollection of it whatsoever.

That was because it belonged to a different time and era. However, he was not aware of this fact.

**

Xavier’s eyes suddenly flew open, and he shot up from the bed he was sleeping in. He was drenched in sweat, and the sudden movement hurt a little. He raised his hand to clutch his chest but realized that bandages were covering his entire chest instead of his sweat-soaked shirt.

“Huh?”

He groaned as a bolt of pain shot up his chest, and he tried to figure out where he was. Leaning on the bed for support, he slowly stood on his feet and noticed that he was in a small wooden room with little furniture. There was just a bed, a wardrobe, and a bedside table, nothing fancy.

The door was on the opposite side of the bed, so he slowly approached it.

The wooden planks under his feet creaked under his weight as he stepped closer to the door. As his shaky hand reached for the handle, it suddenly flew open, startling him. Xavier looked ahead to see a middle-aged man standing just outside the door.

But he was no ordinary-looking man. Large black-feathered wings were sprouting from his back.

“A…Fallen Angel?” Xavier blurted aloud, his eyes widening in surprise.

The middle-aged man smiled.

“Have you never seen a Zypher?” He asked, only to shrug lightly, “It looks like you’re feeling better. That’s good. I was already worried that you wouldn’t wake up.”

Zypher? What the hell is that?

Xavier’s eyes narrowed.

“Who are you…and where am I?”