2 Chapter 2: Waking up

Isaiah didn't know what to feel. He didn't know what emotions felt like anymore. As soon as he blacked out, he felt like he was falling. He wanted to scream but no voice came out. After what felt like an eternity, the sensation finally stopped.

Once the boy could finally look around, he saw nothing. He literally could see nothing as everything was black except for a small white dot in front of him. The boy wanted to call out to someone, anyone. For a five-year-old, there was only one person he could call out to his mother. So that's what he did. He called out. Unfortunately, no sound was emitted. Knowing not what to do, Isaiah did the only natural thing. He started walking towards the dot. He walked and walked and walked without stopping. Soon, he felt pain like he had never felt before. It was like his very being was on fire, but for some reason, he continued to walk. This boy who didn't even have the chance to experience the world was bearing a pain not even meant for adults. Then he started seeing this. No, more like he was being shown something.

V̶͈͗̃̅O̸̤͕͒̈́͛̍I̷̥͈̦̾̂͑͠D̷̢͆̉͛͜͜

He was being shown something not meant for normal mortals even more so for a five-year-old. And, just like every knowledge, there was a price. The boy was feeling scared so he discarded it. He could see the dot getting larger as he walked.

E̵̢̠͚̺̅̂̃̈́̌̎͜͠M̸͕̗̭̭͍͑̌̓̊͗͜P̶̨̫͔̠̍͗͜T̶̨̩̜͖͋͋̈́̃͐̐̕Ì̴̹̼N̶͍̤͈̼̝̉́͋́͘͠E̴͓̹͇̹̓͒S̶̨̛̥̜̖̣͈̎̓̉̍̚̕Ş̵͚̤̳́̈́̐̆̅̕͝

Once more, something else was shown for his immature mind, therefore he had to discard something else. He discarded his sadness before taking more steps. The dot became a circle the size of a ping pong ball, but it still seemed far away. Isaiah continued to walk.

N̸̢̦̙̩͙̰̯͂Ǒ̴̺̤͔̥͂̇͌͘͜T̷̼̎H̶̡̄͒̑I̵̳̟̲̲̺͑N̴͇̝̝͕͕͈͆́̊͘͝G̵͕̭͔͈̰͚̾͛̌N̴̢̛͙̟͈͇̬͎̈́̒̀́̓̚Ȇ̶̡̮̠̱̭̉̔S̴̥͎̳̥͎̔̐̀̉̔̋Ṣ̵̨̞̙̝̔̓͌̏͛̾͝

The pain was growing more intense as more knowledge was filling him up. To compensate, he had to discard his anger. As a strange emptiness appeared in him once more, it was filled with knowledge once more. As he continued to walk, Isaiah could see the circle getting bigger as he came closer to it.

C̵͈͊̽͊Ř̷̯͒̾̉E̴͕͍͈̟̩̘̜̓́̈Ǎ̶̧̛̻͉͚̼̭͕̔̃̄͒̚T̷̼̰̋Ȋ̶̛̺͔͆̒͝Ó̵̻̅̈́͘N̵̨̛̦̟͌̌̆

Once more he was shown something else and this time Isaiah has decided to discard his common sense. He didn't realize, but as the knowledge set itself into him, the shape of his body started to lose its human form. But he continued. Something inside him pushed him to continue to walk towards the light. He saw it getting closer and he felt like he was almost there.

D̶̖̘̩̭̿E̸̺͓̠̭̎͑͜͠Ą̷̨̮̬̜̖̦̈́͋̉̾͂̚͝T̷͈͐̎͛̄͋H̶̳̓͝

Without fear nor common sense, he only had pain. He wanted it to stop so much. Therefore he continued to walk towards the light. As the knowledge entered him, he felt like he was about to explode. So he discarded most of his memories leaving only those of his mother. As the knowledge of his left disappeared, it was replaced by comprehension. Finally, he reached the light. At this point, he felt like disappearing, therefore, he raised his metaphorical arms and touched the light and the latter exploded.

Left was right. Evil was Good. Up was down and Down was up. White was Black and Black was White. Time became meaningless as the past, present and the future all became one.

Ṯ̶̼͗H̸̬͉̿̎̀Ȩ̴̘̰̋͝͝R̸̨͎̓́̋E̸̫̝͇̕ ̶̢̧̭̓Į̵̲̹͋̆͘S̸͉̺͙͆ ̸̞̈́́Ǹ̵̠͎̥͝Ŏ̴́ͅ ̷̫̈ͅC̵̥̕Ṟ̸͠Ë̵̈̌ͅÅ̴̼T̸̤̦̑͠I̶͍̯̎͛O̶͉̚͜N̷̖͍̑̏͠ ̵̛̯́N̶͙͖̲̈̇̍O̸̠̺̓R̸͇̲̄ ̶̨̛̯̲D̶͕̂È̷̛̬̞̚Ṡ̵̫Ṱ̸͍̄̔R̵̮̘̫͋͘U̵̜̓̌̉Ć̴̦̯͝T̵̢͈̺̒I̶̦̘̪͒̄Ó̴͉N̷̡͍͗

T̴̪̝̹̓H̶̙̝̱̎͌̎Ę̸̟̊̀Ŕ̶̠͚E̷̻̖̔̚ ̷̱̲̉̎I̸̮̖͔͆̑̓S̴̘̀̉ ̵̘̲̗̍O̶̠̮͇̓͠N̶͎͇̜̕͝L̴͖͈̄Y̴̮̏ ̵̨̖͉̄N̸̩͉͝Ó̵̼T̵̨̪͎̀H̶͚̠̰̔̃́Ĩ̵̝̳̍̃N̶͓̫̏Ǵ̸̗͇̰̊̕N̷̹͎͔̚Ẹ̴̢̱͛͌S̵̢̜̼̏̆͝S̸̖͚͋ ̸̠̺̐̐Ă̶̻͙̥͝N̴̯̍D̶̥́ ̶̗̇̿̉Ï̵̭̤T̴̟̾͠Ş̵̃͜ ̷̰́D̶̖̗̳͘E̷̫̞͗̈́Ṅ̴̛̝̮͝I̶̓̈̕͜Ǎ̸̡̙̟̓͒L̴̢̡͓̃ ̵̗̿̔͆Î̵͕͎͉Ṥ̶̤ ̶͓̄Ć̷̜͝͝R̶̙̀̅͗É̸̲̻̀̑Â̷̜̲ͅT̵̞̽I̴̝̚ͅO̴̯̘̿̅N̶̠̑̉͠

Billions upon billions of pieces of knowledge were witnessed by young Isaiah. And he stayed there for what felt like an eternity. Knowledge, not even the gods had access to was being seen by the mind of a five-year-old boy.

After an insane amount of time, Isaiah seemed to snap out of his trance and look at himself. He couldn't see his body as it looked like it has disappeared. At that moment, he felt like he was being sucked up somewhere. Then, the feeling of falling returned. He didn't know how long he fell, but strangely he didn't feel any fear. It's like he had forgotten what it was. Seconds turned into minutes. Minutes turned into hours. Hours turned into days. Days turned into months. Months turned into years. Years turned into decades. Decades turned into Centuries. Until, finally, it stopped.

Isaiah couldn't see anything, but he felt different. He felt odd and at the same time, there was a hint of familiarity. That's when he recognized it. It was his own body! His fingers twitched, his legs moved, he felt his beating heart and the air entering his lungs. He even felt his own thoughts after such a long time. He felt immense relief and joy that tears began to pour out of his shut eyes.

But he knew, he wasn't the same boy he was before everything. He wasn't that sweet little boy that wanted to always be with his mother. The boy who wanted to become a superhero like her. To save people. He remembered the smile she had when she helped people. The sadness she had when she couldn't save them even when he forgot what sadness even is.

Finally, he opened his eyes. That's when his relief and joy turned into horror at how wrong it was. Isaiah looked at what seemed like a wooden ceiling. He felt that he was lying in his bed. He blinked thinking he had to clear his vision. Nothing happened. He blinked and blinked and blinked, but nothing changed. Everywhere there were lines.

The very world seemed like it was cracked and brittle.

The world looked so fragile as spider webs like lines appeared all over his vision on everything. Long, short, thin, thick. All sorts of lines were there. It was looking at the world through a cracked glass that was about to break apart at the slightest touch.

"No," he whispered in a hoarse voice too deep for a five-year-old.

The world felt so wrong for his brain and he knew it. He was not meant to see like this. It was so so wrong. Some people were approaching him, but he didn't pay them attention as he focused on the wrongness of his vision.

"This is so wrong," he whispered as tears began to flow once more.

"Hello there, child." someone said, but the boy didn't pay them attention.

He shouldn't see this. He wasn't supposed to see this. He was not meant to see this. So many things were wrong in this situation. The pulsing lines that he could see seem to call him out and it was so wrong.

"No" he whispered again.

"Young one?" the voice called out again.

"No. No. No. Nononononono" Isaiah began to say before repeating again and again.

He wanted to stop seeing it. He wanted the lines to disappear as they were not meant to see. He wanted them gone. He shakily raised an arm. It felt so heavy, but slowly he lifted it.

"Isaiah?" the voice called out again confused at his action.

Isaiah ignored the voice and continued to lift his arm towards his face. The person beside him tensed at his actions. And at that moment, he reached his hand towards his eye and did the only thing he thought of. He tried to rip them out all the while mumbling "no" and "wrong" over and over. Seeing his action, the person quickly took action and grabbed his arm. At that moment, Isaiah began to shout and scream when he failed and tried to overpower the arm that grabbed hold of his arm.

"NO! NO! NO! NONONONONON. THIS IS WRONG! SO WRONG!" the boy shouted as his eyes were wide open to the vision of the broken world.

"Restrain him!" the woman beside Isaiah said.

Two men in monk clothes appeared from behind her. They spread their hand and orange energy emitting crackling sounds and Sparks appeared in between them before they were transformed into whips that they launched towards the boy's limbs. They grabbed hold of the limbs and attached them to the bed. All the while the boy was thrashing and screaming about wrongness. The woman then muttered something and place a finger on the boy's forehead. Immediately the boy slumped back with his eyes closed asleep.

For the next two days, Isaiah would occasionally wake up and would try to rip his eyes out. It happened too often, that they assigned someone to monitor him twenty-four seven lest he rips his own eyes out.

For, he was not supposed to see death.

Inside the room, a bald woman was observing the newest guest of Kamar Taj. In fact, there was has been no new people in the last three years after the Disaster of Kathmandu. It is what the news was calling the tragedy of July 2000. A series of bombings happened all around Kathmandu. The media depicted it as the actions of terrorists, but she wants so sure that it was not the terrorist. It was also concerning that it happened so close to Kamar Taj, but she had already investigated and it had no relation to magic.

"How is our young patient, Ancient One?" a man in monk clothes with a dark skin tone asked when he entered the room.

"He is fine right now Master Mordo. But he is the most peculiar case I have encountered in my life." the Ancient One replied as she observed the boy intensely with frowned eyebrows.

Mordo looked at his master in surprise,

"What do you mean, master?"

His surprise was justified since the woman has lived for a very long time.

"I don't know. I tried looking into his future to find anything about his condition, but there was nothing. It's like Fate doesn't affect him."

"Really?"

"Hm," she replied. "Every action he takes may have an incredible impact on the future. He can literally forge his very own destiny."

"Incredible." Mordo let out. "Then do you know why he was trying to rip his eyes own?"

"I think. At first, I was just as confused, but then I noticed something different from his body."

"What is it, master?"

"Let me ask you a question. How do sorcerers cast their spells?"

"We cast spells by making contracts with the beings of the dimensions we want to draw energy from. We can also cast spells using dimensional energy." the disciple replied.

The Ancient One nodded,

"That's right. Those are for sorcerers like us. But there are other kinds of sorcery like the chi the martial artists of Kunlun mountain use and many more. Or magic like the Asgardians uses where they use their magical power to connect with their domain. But one thing in common with everyone is that we all have personal energies which is basically the life force. Most don't use life-force for spells since it can be dangerous except if you cast internally like a martial artist with Chi. But there are some cases, where humans can use their life force for more."

She then pointed at the sleeping boy,

"In the case of this boy, it seems like his very soul can convert his life force into magic energy."

"How is that possible? Isn't that dangerous?" Mordo asked with a baffled expression

"It could be for a normal person, but that doesn't seem the case for young Sharpe here."

"Then what about the eyes?"

"I'm getting there. As I said, it seems like his very soul converted his life force into magic power using some sort of pseudo-nervous system inside his soul. It constantly converted his life force into magical power until the container of said power is full and ready to be used. I theorize that if he uses it up, it would start converting again. And some of these circuits go to the location of his brain and eyes connecting them. And magical power was being supplied through them."

"Does that mean that whatever he saw was enough to make him gouge his eyes out? What could he possibly have seen to do such a thing?"

"I'm afraid that's something only young Sharpe could answer us." the woman said.

What she didn't tell him was how she felt a sense of dread and fright when she tried to analyze the boy's soul. She discovered that his soul was insanely powerful and he had an immense amount of mana in his body. Much more than she had ever encountered a boy of his age and she had many people with this type of magical power. There was also the fact that this boy seems to be able to connect to something she had never encountered and could only imagine the possibilities. Only the boy could tell her what happened.

She internally cringed when she had seen the state of his soul. She also didn't mention how it looked so different from the other human souls. It felt like it was broken down and reshaped. But she was a hundred percent sure that the soul of the boy is still human.

Another day had passed and, as the sun rose on the horizon of Tibet, Isaiah finally opened his eyes once more. But he couldn't see anything. He raised his hand slowly towards his face and felt a cloth covering his eyes.

"How are you feeling child." a woman's voice was heard.

Isaiah turned his head towards the source of the voice.

"Hello?" he called out.

"Hello there. We have placed the cloth so you would not try to gouge your own eyes."

"Oh. Wh-Who are you?" he asked with a hoarse voice as his throat started irritating him.

"Why don't you drink something first to quench your thirst."

Isaiah nodded.

"Here," the woman said as he felt a cool glass touch his hand.

He held out his hands and a cup of water found itself between them. He, then, greedily drank the water. Once finished, the cup was taken from his hand.

"Now, my name is the Ancient One and you are in Kamar Taj."

Isaiah nodded before asking another question.

"How long was I there?"

"There?"

Isaiah opened his mouth and wanted to explain, but couldn't. How could he explain the very idea of what the hell happened to him?

Seeing his hesitation, the Ancient One placed a hand on his and gently said,

"It's okay. You don't need to explain anything for now. And about your question, you have been in a coma for three years. Last week marked your third year in a coma."

"Coma?"

"It means that you weren't able to wake up."

'I was asleep for three years?'

"Today's date is July 20, 2003."

Isaiah's eyes widened in shock behind the clothes at the time he had spent in a com in comparison to the time he had spent in that place. He suddenly felt drained of energy and the Ancient took notice of it.

"Rest well, young Isaiah. It has been a very tying day for you," she said.

The boy nodded before falling back asleep.