CHAPTER 41: Fragmented Mind

Deep within an inky black void, isolated in an endless vacuum severed from both light and time, an oasis lay hidden deep within the heart of this senseless emptiness.

The hidden oasis stretched out over a vast expanse of charcoal-black sand, where a faint sense of light persisted, and time, though sluggish, moved forward.

The vast sandy area stretched out in four different directions, but no matter what direction a person head toward, they would see the same thing at the end, the sandy ground melting back into the lightless void, the void extended up in the air before the four sides joined at the top, forming a barrier over the sandy oasis.

The landscape in the oasis would have been monotonous and repetitive with only grainy black sand as far as the eye could see, if not for craters that periodically appeared.

Some of the craters were deep, and some were shallow, but the one thing they all had in common was that there was almost always a trace amount of a pungent, sticky substance that was either black or red in color inside the craters.

An experienced warrior would instantly recognize the black substance as the blood of a beast, but as for the red substance, even an uneducated slum dweller could say what it was with absolute confidence - human blood.

The fact that there were a large amount of craters and each one had splashings of blood, both human and beast, in this sandy oasis made it glaringly obvious that a serious battle had taken place here.

This theory would be easily confirmed as at the center of the sandy oasis a large crater could be found, and in it was the corpse of a frightful looking beast.

The corpse's body was six meters long, five meters in height, with a two meter long tail that lay limp on the sandy ground.

The beast must have been a terrifying sight when it was in its prime. This was evident in its head, which resembled that of a wolf, and its jaw filled with teeth. Despite their cracked and yellowed appearance, these teeth still bore traces of their past glory, evident in both their length and their sheer number.

The battle the beast partook in had left its body in a horrendous state with a scattering of deep wounds, shattered and fragmented bones, and small, fist shaped depressions. These gruesome injuries now saw the beast's once magnificent, awe inspiring form with an appearance that hinted at its past majesty as it wallowed in a pool of its own pungent inky-black blood.

The mutilated corpse was so attention grabbing that one might not notice that there was another form apart from it located in the pool of blood inside this oasis of sand and death, the form was one of a male human.

The human was of a much smaller frame and stature than the wolflike beast, with thin arms, slightly open sunken eyes, and a naked, malnourished looking body which had a patchwork of different colored skin covering it, some parts a light shade of pink while the other parts were black and gnarled in appearance.

The human's skin bore a likeness that was reminiscent of a case of severe burning that marred the body and left it in a state of scarring and disfigurement.

The burned skin that stretched across the human's chest, highlighted his ribs in a jarring way and showed just how much of his muscle mass and fat stores had been lost.

A repulsive stench that was reminiscent of a poop and piss saturated pit latrine emanated from the man, permeating the surroundings, and fouling the air.

Short rasping breaths could be heard from the mouth of the badly burnt human, and from the slow and irregular movement of his chest, it was clear that he was alive, if barely.

With each passing moment, the breathing of the human got shorter and shallower, and every once in a while a painful sounding raspy cough shook the frame of the person.

It was glaringly obvious that the man was on his last legs, and sooner or later his eyes would close shut, never to open again.

*COUGH*

*GASP*

'Where am I?'

The figure turned blurry eyes and tried to make out what was around him, but with little success.

'Who am I?'

The malnourished human tried to think, but it was like a dense fog clouded his mind.

Panic began taking root in his heart, but after a few seconds of confused terror the man slowly calmed down, then seconds later his breathing steadied and his eyes closed.

The sandy oasis became as still and serene as a graveyard, leaving the now still breathing of the man as the only sound to be heard.

That is...

*COUGH*

...until several minutes later the sound of a wheezing cough broke the peace of the environment, then moments later, the man's eyelids flickered before opening.

'Where am I?'

The man could faintly feel a sticky substance that clung to the raw skin beneath his body, and the sensation unnerved and frightened him.

'Who am I?'

The man was once again about to fall back into the deep black marshes of hysteria, but miraculously, he experienced a brief moment of lucidity.

'Shampa,' the man remembered his name as the smokey haze cleared from his mind. 'My name is Alex Shampa.'

Alex felt some relief at the realization of his identity, but within moments he became confused and agitated anew.

'How did I get here?' Alex browsed through his jumbled up and scattered memories with the aim of making sense of what was going on. 'Wasn't I just leaving from the meeting with Don Enzo?'

As a result of a combination of the horrific internal and external injuries he had received, lack of food and water for weeks on end, and the depletion of his Hani stores, Alex's capacity for coherent thinking and reasoning had regressed, leading to the current situation where his memories were jumbled and inaccessible.

He basically had amnesia as a result of his body cutting off what it deemed 'unnecessary' and going into survival mode.

Alex squeezed shut his eyes and tried to sort through his mixed and fragmented memories.

'Something's coming back to me.'

A scene of him walking toward a long runic train, in the company of two tall youths flashed past his eyes.

Before the memory could fade away Alex grabbed onto it and tried to expand on it.

Surprisingly, he was successful, and more details of the aforementioned memory came back to him.

One of the youth was lanky in stature, had straight brown hair, pale blue eyes, and wore wire-rimmed glasses, with a smile on his face that was akin to that of a snake.

The other youth was a significant amount taller, much more muscle bound and looked way more cheerful than the first person, with shining orange eyes and light pink hair.

They each had a bag slung over their shoulder and seemed to be talking to each other, but from their facial expressions and general attitude, it could be gathered that they might not be overly fond of each other.

'Who are they?' Alex thought as the scene played out in his fragmented mind. 'They look distinctly familiar, like I've seen them before but I can't remember from where.'

Alex fazed out all the other details in the memory and only focused on their faces, he didn't know why, but the more he thought about their faces, the stronger of a feeling he had that they were important.

He scrutinized every facet of their faces and tried to recall where he had seen them.

'Wait! I'm remembering something.'

Then, from out of nowhere, two names came to his mind - Alistair Brown and Agustin Gray.

With the names came a flood of memories that partly cleared the fog around his mind.

Alex's eyes widened, well as wide as someone who is dying's eyes will open.

'I remember now,'

Scenes of him entering the student-filled train, talking with Agustin and Alistair, before eventually entering the inky-black darkness that hid all and put the stillness of the night to shame.

And finally Alex remembered the battle he had with the now dead wolflike beast.

'Ohh, so that's what happened.' Alex closed his hollow eyes. 'Everything now makes sense.'

Alex could feel a dull ache in his head which made making use of his cognitive functions a rigorous and stressful experience.

But despite his discomfort, he refused to stop trying to push through his restricted mind and resumed his reflections.

'Is this what it feels like to die?'

Despite the effort it took and the pain it brought to his face, Alex smiled.

'I thought it would be a lot more painful, COUGH,' Alex let out a hacking cough, then after a few moments to calm down he finished his thought.

'It's like all the pain in my boy is muted, and nothing really hurts.'

Alex could feel his breathing becoming more strenuous, and he knew in his heart that his body would give up in a few minutes, then his eyes would shut.