A small boy was kicking a pebble while walking down a dirt pathway. He would chase after it mindlessly and do it over again. The wind would blow in gently and dishevel his honey brown hair. He was surrounded by lush mounds and trees. In the distance there were forests that populated the base of the mountain range. Everything seemed peaceful as the boy laughed at his own amusement. A distance behind him was a woman carrying a basket of fruit. She hurried her steps toward the jubilous boy.
“Damien, wait for me. Don’t you dare go wandering off!”
Her voice penetrated deeply into Damien. He stopped chasing the pebble that flew into the depths of the grass.
‘What’s going on? Where am I?’
Damien turned around and saw a woman hurrying over. She was wearing a long flowing white skirt with a red gown. Her hair was the same color as his was currently. As he looked up to her face he saw nothing. It was as if a mosaic covered it, hiding the truth behind it.
Damien felt like he could recognize her but at the same time he had no recollection. It was a weird contradicting feeling that was eating away at his brain. The lady came up to Damien and gave him a smack on the back of his head. Not hard enough where it would hurt, but enough to make someone understand.
“I told you to not run off! You make me worry unnecessarily. Here.”
She offered her free hand to Damien who unconsciously accepted the offer. He felt a warmth that he had only felt with his grandfather. They walked side by side down a path that seemed everlasting. Damien slowly lost himself as he embraced the warmth. He stopped to think about it and quietly accepted that he felt comfortable and happy.
It seemed like they had been walking for eternity. He would be offered a fruit that he would gobble up with gratitude. After an unknown amount of time had passed, Damien halted his steps. Forcing the woman to stop as well, she looked back at him.
“What is wrong, honey?”
Damien let go of her hand and backed away.
‘This is not my reality. What am I even doing? I can’t stay here, I have a goal I need to accomplish!’
Damien looked back to the lady with a mosaic face and steeled his softened will.
“I’m sorry, but I can not continue on this road with you. None of this is real anyways, but I am glad I experienced it.”
A tear rolled down Damien’s face and he continued through gritted teeth.
“For the time I spent with you, I felt like I truly had a mother.”
Once the tear hit the floor he looked back up. Once he got to her face he was able to see a beautiful and bright smile that outshined even the sun. Before he could examine the rest of her face that was now in plain view, the woman began to fade away into nothingness.
Damien reached out but grabbed nothing. The world around him slowly deteriorated as well. The mountains in the distance slowly scattered into fine particles. He watched it as it ate away at the world until there was nothing left. Damien was left alone in a pitch black world.
He walked around the void wondering how to get out. After what seemed like hours of walking and thinking Damien sat down.
‘There’s no exit and no end to this place. There has to be a trick on how to get out.’
He went into deep thought analyzing any method. He tried several to no avail. He could not even use Dao Magic in this void. He decided to clear his mind of all thoughts and just silently cultivate. Once he began he felt no change in his body, but that didn’t discourage him.
Eventually there was a movement in the void. White flames started to appear and congregate through the void in random spots. The white flames kept appearing, filling the void entirely. Damien, not knowing of any changes, finally decided to avert his concentration and open his eyes.
“What the hell….”
The scene shocked Damien to the core. He felt like he was inside the inferno's gate and he would be burnt to nothingness. The flames were surrounding him in all dimensions. Everywhere he looked had flames so dense he didn’t even think about running through them. All Damien could do was stay in his original position and hope nothing harmful would happen. In time, the flames engulfed all the space in the void ultimately reaching Damien’s body.
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‘Is this it? But I don’t even feel the heat nor is this reality. Wait. Maybe it’s just…’
Damien reached his hand out to the coming flame, piercing into the inferno. He opened his hand leaving his palm exposed. The white flames became agitated and they danced fiercely as if they were coerced by a storm. The excited flames were then forced to gather on top of Damien’s palm by a mysterious force.
After an unknown amount of time all the white flame seemed to have merged into a single flame. The white flame was so densely packed it appeared like there was a miniature sun experiencing solar flares on Damien’s palm. The void was no longer pitch black, instead it was a space filled with whiteness.
Damien felt nervous holding it in his palms but he felt no danger from it. He couldn’t look at it directly without it blinding him. As if it sensed the situation Damien was in, the white flame lost its shine. It dimmed down revealing a very familiar sight.
“It can’t be… it’s my Flame Core.”
The white flame that was now floating atop of Damien’s hand was an identical match to his core. Bewildered from these events, questions started to bubble up within Damien.
“You… are you the cause of that illusion?”
The white flame shined with a bright light as it were affirming his question.
“What!? Can you understand me?”
The flame shined once again leaving no doubt in Damien’s mind. Damien sat in a meditative position as he held the flame in front of him. He placed his free hand under his chin and began to ponder.
“If you did this, then why?”
The flame floated there with no response. After a while Damien smacked his forehead in embarrassment.
“That’s right, you can’t talk.”
The flame glowed in response to his statement. With a self-mocking smile, Damien thought of an easy solution.
“Okay how about this. You respond with a yes by glowing once and if it’s a no you will glow twice. Understand?”
As Damien expected the flame shined once to indicate that it understood. Seeing this as an important opportunity to understand more about what’s going on he took his time in thinking of what to ask. He thought of many questions he wanted to ask and one he had to ask first.
“Are you my core?”
Damien stared intently at the white flame until it revealed its answer. It shined once and didn’t go again.
“Is this place a part of me?”
His core responded with a yes and Damien was left stunned. All he was experiencing was just inside of him and caused by him.
“Can I control this area and manipulate it how I wish?”
This time the core did not respond at all. No matter how long Damien waited it did not indicate any answer. He decided to ask something that would help investigate the topic he was on.
“Is any of this real?”
Like the previous question asked, the core did not show any change. He asked again and received the same response. Damien had no choice but to move to another question.
“Does everyone have a space like this within them?”
His core finally responded this time and answered with two glows. Damien was getting confused as time went on.
‘It’s a space inside of me, but I don’t even know if it’s real. Not only that, I don’t know if I can be in control here.’
Damien thought of the fact he was sucked into an illusion where he had no control. He shuddered at the thought and felt uneasy in this space. For now he seemed safe so he continued pressing on for answers.
“Do all cores hold a Dao inside them?”
This was a question that was bugging Damien. He remembered how he had gained enlightenment through his core. He needed to understand if this was a normal occurrence. The core lit up twice, rejecting his original thoughts on the matter.
‘Why is it that mine is different? This isn’t something normal. I’m going to have to keep it hidden.’
Damien could only begin to believe that he was someone unique. A seed was planted in his mind that maybe he was the chosen one. From the information he had received he had no other way to frame it. He brought himself down in Wexley’s class and remained humble, but now there was something inside him that could change that.
For now the seed was just planted and had not rooted itself deep inside his mind. Damien felt like he had mainly asked the questions he needed to know, so he ruminated over his situation. Thinking about everything from the beginning Damien suddenly remembered an important aspect about the situation. He thought of the illusion he lost himself in and how he felt that the woman there was like a mother.
‘The core said it was the cause of that illusion. Why would it show me that?’
It had slipped from Damien’s memory and he could not help feel an urgency to find out. Before he could ask his question, the white void started shaking violently.
Tears emerged from the outside as if a huge beast was forcing the space open. Two giant black hands with menacing sharp claws came out of a tear. It grabbed each side and ripped it open. The hands disappeared from sight letting the blackness from outside infect the area.
Damien stared in awe and watched as the scene unfold. When he thought it was over a vibration shook the entire space. It felt like earthquakes were happening every other second. Damien fell flat on his ass and didn’t even try to get up. He watched in fear as he realized that the vibrations were rhythmic like footsteps.
The sound of air being torn apart emerged until a black figure appeared on the other side. It prodded its face on the hole revealing an eye.
The eye was a deep orange that was fiery like an inferno. It stared right at Damien who now felt his soul being ripped out of his body. His breathing became ragged until he couldn’t breathe any more. He began to float up toward the hole the creature was at. Damien believed he would be consumed by the creature and lost hope.
He looked back and saw his core unaffected by the events. Before he would be abducted he wanted to ask about his last question, so he would have no regrets.
“Are you somehow related to my mother?”
He used the last of his breath and then more to even ask it. It was like a whisper, his voice was too coarse to be understood. He hoped his intentions in his question were transmitted. He watched helplessly at his core, desperately waiting for an answer. It wasn’t until Damien almost reached the hole that his core responded. The Flame Core started to glow and Damien received his answer. He smiled with the last of his efforts and accepted his fate.
‘So that’s how it is.’
The Flame Core continued to shine in response to the question. It didn’t stop and in fact it continued to glow brighter. It grew so bright that it returned to its previous state when it appeared to be a miniature sun. The entire space was cascaded with a white light, blinding anyone who looked.
The creature who was on the outside growled in pain as it shut its eye. The voice rumbled the void and the creature disappeared from view. Damien began to fall back down into the white void. He entered terminal velocity as he continued to fall into the light. The glowing light enveloped Damien and brought him into its warm embrace. Soon everything was blinding and all Damien saw was white. He continued to fall and that was when he heard a voice.
“Dr. Gors, he’s waking up! His eyes are moving and he’s shaking!”