The darkness gradually dissipated, and Cael Avenis found himself in a world he could never have imagined. The ground beneath his feet was cold, almost frigid, and the air was heavy with oppressive silence. The last vestiges of light that had engulfed him morphed into a strange glow, distorted, almost like an illusion. He was now in another realm, yet he had no idea what he was supposed to do here.
All around him, fragmented memories floated in the air like particles of dust suspended in the void. They were fleeting visions, images he couldn't fully grasp. But what he did perceive was unmistakable: these memories belonged to Lys Ardia, the quiet girl from school, the one who had intrigued him for so long.
The abandoned field in which he stood was a tangible metaphor for Lys's heart. Everything seemed frozen in an instant where emotions, heavy and silent, filled the space. The flowers, wilted and dying, mirrored an ancient pain, buried deep within. The twisted trees seemed to testify to a past violence, as if time itself had been warped here, in this world. A place made of suffering and suppressed memories.
In the distance, a glass door stood almost invisible, like a promise of a secret to be uncovered. It was there, in front of him, but Cael knew that he couldn't access it until he faced what surrounded him.
A distant murmur shattered the silence of this warped reality. It was a voice, soft yet authoritative, like a guide through a dark labyrinth.
"If you want to love her, you must understand what she buried here."
The words echoed in his mind, filling every fiber of his being with a gravity he couldn't ignore. Love. He knew, in some inexplicable way, that this was what he felt for Lys, despite the distance she kept between them. But to love her, he had to understand what she had lived through, what she hid behind her cold and distant facade.
The call of the past was inevitable. Cael had no choice. If his quest was to understand Lys, he had to dive into the depths of her soul. He had to confront the pain she had left behind.
His eyes fell on the first fragment of memory that materialized before him. A soft, shimmering light, delicate to the touch, like a shattered pane of glass, floated in the air. He approached it, extending his hand, and the moment his fingers brushed against the light, a blinding flash filled his vision. And suddenly, he was there, in another time, in another place.
Lys as a child, standing alone in the rain.
She was by herself. Her frail, small body huddled under the relentless downpour. Cael could see the distress in her eyes, the isolation that surrounded her. She extended her hand, not toward him, but toward someone else. Someone he couldn't see. A shadow that ignored her.
The sound of the rain hitting the ground was all he could hear, heavy and sorrowful. Cael felt a dull pain, an empathy he had never known before. This little girl, this was Lys, but it was also a part of her he didn't yet understand. She carried a suffering she had never shared with anyone.
"Do you see me…?"
The voice, faint and broken, echoed in his mind. It wasn't the voice of the child, but that of the Lys he knew—an adult, distant. Cael felt a pressure in his chest, as though the pain she had lived through was now inscribed in him.
He wanted to move forward, to extend his hand to her, but before he could react, the memory fractured. The image of the little Lys shattered into thousands of fragments of light, and the scene around him collapsed into a sea of darkness.
A deep rumble pierced the air, a vibration that seemed to emanate from the very heart of this reality. The ground trembled beneath his feet. Cael staggered back, but the scene transformed, and a monster emerged from the shadows. Its form was indistinct, a mass of roots and living darkness, a creature made of pain and anger.
"First Circle Boss: The Living Silence."
The creature stood before him, its empty eyes reflecting the pain he had just touched. Cael had no weapon, no defense. All he had were his emotions, his own feelings. And this entity, this "being" from the past, was nothing but a metaphor for what Lys had lived through—a manifestation of her fears and wounds.
He wasn't ready for this. He didn't even know if he had the strength to face this monster. Yet the voice in his head, calm and determined, urged him to act.
"You don't need a weapon. You have everything you need right here."
Cael didn't understand immediately, but he realized that this voice wasn't telling him to fight. He needed to understand.
He took a deep breath, trying to clear his mind. Fear, anxiety… all of that was useless here. The Living Silence wasn't a physical enemy. It was a demon of emotions, regrets, unspoken words. If Cael wanted to move forward, he had to understand what Lys had buried in her heart. The answer wasn't in a fight.
"Lys…"
He whispered her name, addressing the creature, this pain. Suddenly, the twisted silhouette of the Living Silence flickered. As if, by speaking her name, Cael had found a link to that suffering, a path toward what she had lived through.
The roots that made up the creature began to crumble slowly, disintegrating like sand. The Living Silence extinguished, but a new wave of emotion surged. This was only a small victory, but a victory nonetheless.
The field around him calmed, and the image of little Lys vanished, carried away by the winds of the past. The glass door, almost invisible, materialized once again, closer this time. But it wasn't the same. It had changed.
Cael now knew that he was only at the beginning of his journey, a journey that would take him through the heart of Lys, where each emotion, each pain, would be a trial. But he was determined. More than ever. He had chosen to move forward, to understand, and perhaps to love.
End of Chapter - To Be Continued...