7 Back into the light

What is going on? I don't feel that pain anymore. Does anybody hear me? I… How am I alive? What is happening? Everything hurts… I'm unable to move almost… Help! Somebody!

Damn it… It's my mind I can't speak.

"What do we do with him?" A pitched woman's voice. I don't know who that is… Only that it's a woman.

"What do you think? we will send him 'there'." Now a manly voice. A little more to the elderly side.

"Are you sure?"

"Even if he is a useless trash he still is our... for god's sake it's the very least we can do for him." Who am I again? I couldn't hear that word properly...

"Ehhh… Ok. I can agree since Leon already did something... Damned brat. Why did he not wait…" The woman's voice gave out an annoyed expression.

"Let's just send him to the 'place'." The voices are so pitched… Who are those people? Wait. Do they know Leon?

"Good idea." The woman agreed and in the same instance, I heard a weird noise of quickly expanding veins and slowly surrounding my body, after that... I disappeared. Now the memory has faded away and I'm back on the same carriage.

"This is what happened. Not everything though." The carriage driver said and coughed while doing so.

"How do you know all these things?" Is he… With them?

"Well... I was the one observing what was happening to you before, during, and after the evaluation." He proudly explained.

"Why didn't you help me then?!" I shouted really loud and angry.

"It's not my business. I was only curious about what would happen to the young lord of the Moonshine family hahaha, not a lord anymore though." He laughed out loud.

"Bastard…" Old bastard… Nothing else to say.

"Yeah yeah, I heard it already multiple times and it was always the same hahaha. But now be quiet we are getting close to the place." He looked back at me and put a finger onto his mouth.

"What place? Where are we going?" I can't be quiet in this kind of situation. I had to ask.

"Soon you'll learn." I hate this guy...

"You know what? Fuck you." What is that answer anyway? Soon you will learn. What does that even mean? When?

"Watch your tongue kid I can cut it off for you if you want." He is irritated and almost shouted.

"…" I stood quiet for now. He… Can kill me.

"That's what I thought." After around ten more minutes I swallowed my spit and started a conversation.

"Can I ask you a question?" I cooled down and asked him.

"What is it?" He ignored what I said before… He is a little weird.

"Well, there was a girl I met some time ago. And she told me that she would wait for me at the "top". Do you know what she means?" It may be a weird thing to ask… But I want to know what she meant.

"Hmm. I would say that she is waiting for you at the top of the academy, that's my guess." He shrugged.

"Good for her since I can't even enter…" I looked up at the sky and gasped loudly.

"Yup good for her, and don't be sad. You won't need to be even sad about it soon. Since it's that place. Besides your personal emotions, many women in recent years are looking for a powerful man to make even more powerful children y'know. So that they can live a prosperous life. They would even whore themselves for authority..." He also gasped. "Women these days…"

"..." That's weird… Well it does make sense that they want to live a good life but to whore themselves for it.

"We are almost here."

"Can I finally know where we are heading?" Another question unexpectedly left my mouth.

"I answered one of them and I'm not obligated to answer the next one."

"I really hate you, you know?" This guy...

"Well, I don't care about it. I'm only doing my job. And if I don't want to answer, I don't have to."

While we were on the track. For a long time already I saw the landscape changing dramatically over a matter of seconds. From sand dunes to grasslands to forests it looked beautiful and weird at the same time. How do we see so much on this trail?

"Look until you can kid we are in the Hall of memories. The road where dreams and memories of many powerful people of the world have made their own entire realm. And now we are going straight through them all."

The old man looked at me from a different angle. As if he understood that these were my last incredible sights for the rest of my life. So even his heart can become soft as he saw me interested in it...

"Why did they do this kind of thing?" The landscape changing every second looked amazing. How does that work? And… Why?

"Hmm, I think it's somewhat related to being forgotten forever. There are people in this world that always wanted to make something that will be remembered for ages. So all of them found this passage and created these portals so that every traveler going this way can see something related to their lives."

"And now… We are going here. The many sorcerers made their minds of creating this one tunnel. These realms are the things that are related to what their past was related to. This is the story of the powerful wizards and sorcerers of the world… I wonder what level of power you need to create a memory realm like this."

"We will probably never know. Until we will become the ones able to do that same thing. This is the path that leads to 'that' place… So that the ones who are supposed to be dead can look at one of the most astonishing things this world has to offer… "The hall of memories". It's here for an eternity. And every man can see it." He explained while also looking around.

"That is a very meaningful place for people. People like me…" A lot of people who would see something like this. They would think their lives are done. I think that there is so much to see… That for some there woudln't be anymore.

"Exactly. And after you leave this long tunnel, we will be in a valley closed out by great mountains. We are close to the end so keep yourself happy for the next minutes since… This will be your last day outside and probably… Alive."

"…" I didn't have anything to say I just got sad and terrified of the thought. That in some time… I may not be here… Like Flora. Her image appeared in my eyes again. Her head right before me whole covered in blood... A tear appeared in the corner of my eyes.

While leaving the tunnel I looked behind for the last glimpse of those worlds. But when I looked back in front of us, another amazing view came up. A very big valley surrounded by mountains so high that the peak was swallowed by clouds. And maybe even more than just the peak.

The entrance to the valley is like a small hill so we could see the entirety of what was in the middle of the valley. The middle was just a big grassland with something resembling a castle or a normal wall at the end of the valley.

Within the grassland, there was a village, not far from the hall of memories that probably provided some food to the place at the end of the valley. All closed with only one entrance. The one that we've just passed. But the importance of the village is small compared to the big rice farm. I mean an enormous rice farm raging from the very beginning of the valley almost to the end of it. It looked as if it was the whole economy going on there. I don't know how long it will take us to actually get there but it is surely enough for some questions.

"Can I know your name? You… Carriage driver?" I hesitated if I should actually ask him about something like that.

"Hmm since I'm one of the last people you will probably see I can do at least that for you. My name is Arthur." He answered with no compliance this time... How nice of him.

"How long have you been a carriage driver? And only to this place?" He looks pretty old but is he doing the same job for his entire life or what? I want to know.

"I don't know exactly but, it should be somewhere around 15 years since the first time. I remember that I was still somewhat emotionally invested back then hahaha. I even cried several times. But I never worked differently."

"So even an old bastard like you can feel like a normal human huh." I may be a little picky but I'm just… Very confused. Why is everything happening so quickly? And again, where am I?

"Come on don't make a monster out of me. I'm not that bad." I know. How can I not view you like that? You can just let me go away... But look where I am now. Why am I even here?

"You kind of are. If you saw someone like me a long time ago would you try to help me?"

"I would have that in mind but, as you know I'm only a level two amplification. And reached level 5 on my own and that's all. Even if I did help I was still no match for that guy. I'm almost 40. I'm not as nimble anymore." He has good arguments… God damn it.

"But still! If you said a thing from behind… Maybe I would have enough time to escape!" Arguid with him loudly but not screaming.

"No you didn't, he would just catch you again. It doesn't matter where you run. He is faster and more experienced. Even if I gave you a minute he would still get you"

"It's so unfair…" He is just older. God! I can't even think properly anymore! What do I do?!

"Maybe. But, at least you weren't tortured. You lost consciousness before the spike came close to your stomach. So in theory you felt very little pain." How can you find a positive in that situation! Well, he is somewhat right tough...

"But, who came for me? Why am I alive?"

"Your parents came right after your brother. Then I saw your mother using her darkness to heal you. She didn't shout at your sibling or anything she only said that he should have waited. I wonder what for actually..." He looked up at the sky. "Well, we will never know."

"At least she did that much…" Even if she healed me. Saved. Where am I? Where did they send me?! It's so confusing. My head is spinning from all of this...

"They still sent you here so it's not much different than death. It could be worse actually if there will be someone that likes playing with food." He nodded and it made me feel very tired out of fucking nowhere.

"So there people to take me as a fodder for fun huh? Seems fun to me..." I looked at the sky and thought to myself that this could be the last day of my life when I will feel somewhat free or… Alive.

"I hope if you die it's going to be quick." Yeah, that's helping. How can you say that? What is wrong with him... He is again right but why does he make points like those.

"Those are the words that I want to hear! If you die then die quickly. Thank you very much!" Very notable sarcasm in my voice.

"No problem." How can you be so dense...

"Do you not understand sarcasm?"

"I don't need to if you will be dead soon." He snorted. That damn old bastard...

"I hate you…"

"At your command." He smirked.

It didn't take as long as I thought to get to the gate. It's enormous. Painted in red and the rest of the walls around the inside are just dark brown. The gate was also very high and looked as if it was made by barbarians. Made of wood poles and under and these poles, stone with bricks in many shapes and sizes. To keep the poles from falling down. Besides that, you can see people up there looking inside and outside. I wonder what it looks like from the inside…

We approached the gate. And from up close it seemed even bigger than normal. Bigger than the hall in my city.

"The City of Laylia in the human continent!" Arthur shouted into the wall of wood hiding the insides of 'something'.

"Open the gate!" Could be heard from behind the walls. And many other sounds of rumble and disturbance. I wonder what's inside… The gate then very slowly started opening.

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