The Ocean
Darkness, it's something simultaneously natural for humans but also incredibly terrifying. Yet, it's not the darkness we fear but what lurks within it. Gazing into the infinitely black expanse, few can remain calm, few can, while alone amidst this "nothingness," think serenely and without hesitation. Such was Arlok, his eyes calmly surveying the visible portion of this place repeatedly.
His white eyes were accustomed to this darkness, having seen it countless times. This place is sacred for humans, assuming a unique form for each individual; being present elsewhere is the Core of Eden, the "spiritual realm" of a person.
His eyes glanced down at his feet; they were submerged a few millimeters in the water, an unprecedented occurrence. This had never happened to Carnage in his realm.
Arlok surveyed and the water's surface no longer swallowed the man.
"Why did I unconsciously appear in the Core?" He tried to find something in the darkness, but it was futile; there was never anything here. There was only emptiness filling and overflowing the "infinity."
There were no reasons for Carnage to reach such an outcome, at least not that he knew of.
"Aaah!" A rumble pierced his ears, something he couldn't hear in this place—sounds.
And this sound was terrifying. It overwhelmed the man's body, causing him to arch under unprecedented pressure. But once his roving eyes stopped, Arlok managed to stand steadily on both feet.
His body's radiance spread across a vast distance, yet he couldn't see the source of the noise. But something swam beneath him—it was a whale. A huge black whale impossible to see in these waters, but Arlok felt it.
This place should obey him, or at least it was supposed to. But here, he felt and heard beings that didn't disappear at his will. They continued to make noises that ears couldn't perceive in this world.
The water's surface spread beneath Arlok's feet because he directed his hand there. He created a platform of water on which he stood, slowly ascending towards the "sky."
However, the whale's size was incomparable to what Arlok felt. Its size and dimensions were akin to tens of thousands of ordinary whales. Carnage couldn't see any parts of it with his eyes, only its mouth, a bottomless maw.
The rumbling grew louder, and the whale started swimming toward Arlok. It all happened in moments, yet the man managed to dodge. He extended his hand, and thousands, tens of thousands of watery spears flew towards the whale, piercing its unbelievably massive body. But it didn't stop, yet when Arlok's eyes flickered again, the "Ocean" began to listen to its creator.
The whale's flesh tore apart, water—black amidst the darkness—erupted from this monster's body.
"Come on! Come on!" Arlok tried to clench his fist but couldn't. The spears couldn't destroy the monster's body.
"You bastard!" A projectile managed to pass through Arlok's right shoulder, tearing it apart.
The pain was only the illusion of reality, but Arlok felt the entire spectrum of pain as if his arm had been ripped off for real.
As he lost his arm, the "power" and "strength" pressing on the whale ceased, and it fell into the water's calm surface, disappearing once again underwater.
"Haha!" His body was reconstructing itself with water; he gritted his teeth, lifting his head to figure out what had managed to destroy his arm. But there was darkness, the whale, and the rumble; nothing else existed in this "ocean." Arlok closed his eyes, trying to understand why he was where he couldn't be. Images of arrival began to appear—a shuttle, space, a planet, but nothing that could explain what was happening.
The urgency driven by the desire to meet people seemed unjustified. He was forcibly thrust into the Core, meaning the enemy was capable of such manipulation.
"Is it capable of manipulating the soul?" His body was almost fully restored.
As Carnage attempted to comprehend everything happening, the rumbling intensified, and the whale swam directly beneath him. He blinked repeatedly, trying to concentrate. Amidst hundreds of attempts to see something else, Arlok managed to discern a circle—a white glow above the water's surface.
From the lines forming the circle, white fissures spread across this emptiness. They were both small and immense simultaneously, filling everything around.
"Arlok?" - a familiar voice reached his ears.
The fissures so inundated the space that it cracked, transforming the entire endless ocean into a vast green meadow.
"Yes?" - responded not the "soul" but a young boy before her. Beside him stood the silhouette in a cloak, a man about forty. Gray hair, tired eyes, a curved nose—all representing the man who symbolized the Alliance.
"What do you think is most important in our world?" - the cloak fluttered in an attempt to contend with the wind.
"Orders?" - the boy answered without taking his eyes off the star on the horizon—the Sun.
"Ha! That's an excellent answer for the Council, but not for me…" – a large masculine hand ruffled the young boy's hair. – "Happiness, that's what matters most…"
"No, your words are wrong!" - this time the "soul" intervened in the conversation. Arlok grabbed the Supreme Enturion by the shoulder and turned him towards himself.
"Falsehoods weren't given a voice!" Arlok's white form began to disintegrate, and he was flung dozens of meters down the hill.
"Such power? I can't believe my eyes!" The wind stopped, everything froze except for the Supreme and the "soul."
The Supreme pulled out a strange object from the cloak. It was impossible to see, but it had a spherical shape and shimmered with a multitude of colors. At the same moment, space around the Supreme began to change.
"Indeed, these aren't your eyes. You shouldn't be here!" A red line appeared on the Supreme's body and on the body of the young Arlok, who sat nearby.
A slender female hand touched the strange sphere in the hands of the Supreme Enturion. Her red hair cascaded behind her back. She swiftly and cheerfully took the object from his hands, turned to Arlok. In that moment, the Supreme's body disintegrated into petals of the same crimson hue as the girl's hair.
"We found the second 'key'; only one remains!" Arlok reached out to her, attempting to exert force, but abruptly, everything began to revert backward. As if the flow of time was returning everything to its rightful place.
Thus, Arlok again heard the conversation with the Supreme, echoing repeatedly. He saw fissures and a white circle that "shattered" everything it touched. The whale that became part of this place. The rumble that made hearing the impossible and feeling pain, as if bones, flesh, and brain were repeatedly destroyed and returned to their former form. An ocean, just as infinite and quiet, without a single flaw. And once again, he found himself in the meadow amid a dense green forest on an unknown planet.
"Aria, what was that?!" he said breathlessly as his right shoe touched the grass.
"What are you talking about?"