novelraw Chapter 88: Voice
Chapter 88: Voice
"Haaah... I’m hungry."
Reaching into her pouch, she pulled out simple provisions bread, a small container of milk, and some dried fruits. Nothing luxurious. Just survival rations. She ate quietly. The bread was dry but filling. The milk soothed her still-bitter throat. The dried fruits added a faint sweetness. After finishing her meal, she placed everything back into her pouch and leaned her exhausted body against the cold wall behind her. Her head tilted back she closed her eyes but rest did not come her body was tired but her mind was not.
The darkness pressed in around her...Cold...Silent...Endless.
Kei hugged her knees slightly as she leaned against the wall, her breathing finally beginning to slow. But her thoughts, they refused to quiet down.
’What will happen now...’
Her fingers curled faintly into her clothes.
’Where are we...’
The space around them felt suffocating. The shadows seemed thicker than they should be, swallowing even the faintest traces of light.
’Can I survive this...’
Her throat tightened, it’s too dark...She had never liked the dark.
’I don’t like this feeling...’
Her chest rose and fell unevenly
’I’m scared...’
The admission echoed softly within her own mind, fragile and small.
’Where will we go after this...’
No answers came, only silence, her eyelids grew heavier, her thoughts, once sharp and racing, began to blur at the edges. The emotional exhaustion weighed on her more than any physical wound ever could. Slowly, gradually, her breathing evened out. And at last Kei dozed off once more, her body surrendering to sleep after the relentless mental ordeal she had endured.
Elsewhere, within that endless dark expanse, Kelly slowly opened his eyes. The moment his vision cleared, a strange sense of familiarity washed over him. This place... he had seen it before. It was the same boundless darkness he had found himself in during his battle with that translucent Beast. Yet something about it felt different.
Kelly flexed his fingers slightly, the faint motion echoing through the stillness. A quiet realization crept into his mind. The strength flowing through his body now was far greater than what he remembered possessing back then. It wasn’t just a slight improvement it felt as though his power had surpassed his former limits entirely. But that wasn’t the only change. A deeper sensation stirred within him, one far more subtle yet impossible to ignore. Compared to the last time he had stood in this dark void, his existence felt... complete...Whole...It was as if something that had once been misaligned had finally been corrected like every scattered piece had been carefully returned to its rightful place. Everything about him now felt set right.
"Why do I keep coming back here...? What is this place?"
Kelly’s voice echoed faintly through the silent darkness. The words slipped from his lips in a tired murmur. At this point, he was simply exhausted. So many things had happened to him one after another, each more incomprehensible than the last. Events kept unfolding around him while he remained completely in the dark, unable to understand what was truly going on. It felt as though he was nothing more than a leaf drifting along a raging river, dragged helplessly by the waves of fate. And he hated that feeling.
The last twenty-four hours alone had been some of the most unbearable moments of his life. The suffocating helplessness He was experiencing, reminded him painfully of the day his grandfather died. Back then, just like now, he had been powerless. Unable to control anything nor unable to change anything.
One crisis barely ended before another appeared, never giving him a moment to breathe or even process what had just happened. Before he could understand one situation, he was already being thrown into another life-threatening danger. At this point, it was safe to say, Kelly had completely had enough.
But then, as if fate itself had finally taken pity on him...A voice answered...Soft...Gentle and Sweet as honey. The sudden sound drifted through the darkness, catching Kelly completely off guard.
"It’s your Soul World."
"...!"
The moment the voice reached him, Kelly instinctively jumped back several steps. His body moved before his mind could catch up, muscles tightening as he raised his guard and slipped into a fighting stance. His eyes darted through the darkness. Someone was here. But before he could speak before he could even comprehend anything, something else happened.
A brilliant beam of light suddenly tore through the endless dark. For a brief moment, the radiance swallowed everything around him. Kelly instinctively narrowed his eyes, raising an arm to shield his face from the blinding glow. Then, slowly...A shape began to form within the light. First came the outline of a throne...Massive...Ornate and Grand beyond anything Kelly had ever seen.
It resembled the throne of a king no, something even grander than that. Intricate designs curved along its surface, radiating an aura of ancient authority, as though it had existed long before the concept of kingdoms themselves. And seated upon that throne, was a woman, or rather... something that looked like one. Kelly strained his eyes, trying to focus on her figure. But no matter how hard he looked, her appearance refused to become clear. She was hazy...Blurry. As though a thin veil covered her entire existence.
It was like trying to look at someone from afar without wearing glasses despite needing them, her silhouette was there, undeniably present, yet every detail slipped away the moment he tried to focus on it. Her face...Her eyes, even the shape of her body. Everything seemed slightly out of reach, as if reality itself refused to render her completely.
But the most terrifying part... wasn’t her appearance. It was her presence, the moment Kelly truly felt it his heart skipped. An overwhelming pressure filled the space around him, invisible yet suffocating, like the air itself had suddenly grown heavier. It pressed against his chest, his shoulders, even his thoughts.
If he had to describe it...There was only one other time he had felt something similar. The moment when the men who had hurt his grandfather had pulled a gun on him. That same crushing feeling. The helplessness of a child standing before something he could never hope to fight. Kelly felt it again now.