A sudden wave of consciousness pulled me back, but I couldn’t feel any pain in my body. In fact, I couldn’t feel anything at all. I was surrounded by darkness, flying or maybe falling at a speed far beyond my wildest dreams.

Behind me, a trail of light was shining to my passing, brightening an area filled with pillars that looked like they were made of frozen lava, like the molten veins in the volcano, but much-much bigger.

Then I saw it, or more like felt it. I couldn’t see quint, however, I felt it stronger than ever. It was nowhere but also… everywhere. I didn’t have a hand, but I touched it. I didn’t have a nose, but I smelled it. I didn’t have a tongue, but I tasted it. And then, there was another sense, one I couldn’t describe more than just a feeling like the one I get from my own Quint core, and it was stronger than all the others combined.

It was weird…

‘Where am I? What am I? Why can I do that?’

I couldn’t answer any of my questions, but every passing moment felt as like I was learning more about Quint and that sixth feeling. After what seemed like hours, far below in the distance, a light appeared, and before I knew it, I was heading that way.

As I focused, the scene unfolded; a group of fire battling a terrifying creature made of fire and shadows. It was gigantic compared to the group, and so much scarier, like the demons in Papa’s stories the heroes always had to defeat, but now now that I was seeing such a thing, I wasn’t afraid.

Rather, it was the opposite. I felt as if the creature was small and insignificant, no different from the small group of people.

The creature turned its head, and despite the big distance between us, it looked as if it saw directly at me. Its scary eyes, which seemed to be able to devour one with a simple look, showed fear, causing it to petrify on its tracks like a statue. One man from the group looked like he was shining, wind waving furiously and something really really fast reached from his sword opening the creature’s back, while another man held a purple sword, jumping and cutting the creature’s head at the same time the wind attack landed.

The next moments seemed to fast-forward and before I knew it, I was above a giant gate—much bigger than the gate I found in the volcano—and the same group stood still, all looking up as if they could see me. None of them looked familiar except one—the man with the purple sword, which had turned silver now, but I couldn’t figure him out from my spot

Before I could see any closer, the largest one of the group, who was also missing an arm, walked slowly to the gate. They yelled at each other, but I couldn’t understand what they were saying and slowly the rest began to follow him. All except the smallest one of them that held the rock—my rock.

“Why is he holding my rock!? It’s mine! Give it back! Give my rock back!”

He lifted his foot off the ground, and my shouts transformed to a loud thunderous cry that echoed to the walls, freezing every member of the group in place. They started yelling at each other again, and the small man took out a gem and threw it to the ground. Immediately, the cavern filled in a deep red smoke.

Quint rushed from my core to my mouth and beyond that, taking form into giants fireballs, scattering in all directions. And throughout all that, I felt and understood its movement.

The light dots moved with immeasurable speed and crash with one another. To their collision, tiny sparks formed as a result, but they disperse. Instead they changed trajectory, meeting other light dots again, and again, more and more sparks coming to life. That notion continued until it was ready to be released, and guided into multiple circular motions, the sparks triggered and fire exploded.

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I was moving again, flying inside that smoke in search of the small man and my rock. It didn’t take long for me to find someone, but it wasn’t the one I was looking for. It was the two men who finished off the creature earlier. Again, I felt the quint take form inside my throat, but instead of fireballs, it was white flames directed at them.

Moments before the flames could reach them, the familiar-looking one pushed the other away and took the hit head-on. As I reached closer and had a clear look at him, I was shocked.

“Papa, no! Run! Get out of there!” I yelled, but he didn’t listen. How could he? I couldn’t either. I could only feel saying those words.

He dropped to his knees, but just as his hands were about to give way to the unending flames, the fire stopped and I flew over. He looked like he was in so much pain, but before I could see any further, the scene changed, moving forward again.

Now I was standing on top of a half-destroyed pillar, watching as the big man fought the small one over my rock.

“Give it back! It’s mine!”

Quint rushed for a third time, and the flames from before were unleashed on them, growing bigger and bigger as they traveled. At the last moment before the flames could reach, the small man took the big shield to hide himself behind, but the other was left defenseless, and by the time the fire was out, he was gone.

Suddenly, Papa jumped from behind the small man and took my rock back. Before the man could attack Papa, a gust of wind cleared the rest of the smoke, and both of them turned to look. I felt the rush of quint and the fire taking form again.

The man, terrified, ran for his life.

“No!” I screamed.

The reason for all this pain and suffering had already left the gate, but Papa was still there, lying defenseless with my rock in his hands. Time seemed to slow down as the fire reached closer to him. In the white flash, the previous man, the one Papa had saved earlier, jumped in front of him, and for the first time, I heard a voice.

Papa’s voice.

“No! No! Seth!” He begged and cried out in a way I had never seen Papa before.

“That... was... Seth..? T-that’s what happened in that dungeon? But Papa said he gave the phoenix his egg—”

The scenes from the past and what had happened to the present all clicked together. I hadn’t taken a rock. I had taken the Phoenix’s egg!

When the fire stopped, there was nothing left of Seth. Only Papa held his hands high to show the egg, but by this time, I was slowly drifting away.

The scene cracked and broke into pieces, and I was flying away to what looked like a starry night, before reconnecting like a puzzle to a new scene.

Now, in front of me was… me.

I was crying over Papa and Theodore, but I was looking from the outside like I was the phoenix. I saw myself pulling my hair and repeating the same words.

Just like before, the phoenix fired the same attack at me and the egg protected me with its own white light, while everything else around me burned to ash, the floor breaking down.

Suddenly, my mind was flooded with emotions, but they weren’t mine. They belonged to the phoenix.

Anger, disgust, surprise, and wonder. The phoenix cried out, slowly reaching closer to me until landing, wrapping its wings around the other me.

Now that I could look at it from the outside, it looked just like how the egg was wrapped around in the feather, only this time with four wings, and much more thickly.

There was a silent moment.

The phoenix cried out and what looked as white fire from inside, from the outside, the wrapped wings held a giant ball of light, that shone as bright as the sun, if not brighter.

Suddenly, I felt my body again. It was weird because I could feel it, but also couldn’t, as if I was very far from it. Still, it felt heavy. Very heavy.

Then the dark aura reached from my pendant.

While the other me was falling unconscious, I could see it all. Inside the small sun, like a dark moon, it spread and the two powers clashed, one to devour, the other to protect me. Then the other me fell unconscious and at that moment, the pendant cracked. The dark moon grew bigger, reaching the size of the sun, and the two lights of white and black flickered. White-black, white-black—they kept changing and changing and changing, getting faster and faster and faster until—

Just as the white light shined, everything turned dark, and I felt myself being pulled away. The heaviness intensified and a sharp, cutting pain came from my left eye.

A distant voice echoed, “I… you… prepare…”

“HUUUH!”

My eyes shot open as I sucked deep breaths.