A Transcender's Guide To Another World 6 Chapter 6: Hole

Last night, I had a dream. You know the one where you felt like flying? Yeah, that's the one. Except that I was without a body, just my consciousness. Floating around aimlessly, drifting through the cosmos. Without caring for either how or why. Even the concept of 'self' seemed foreign to me. I was just a piece of driftwood being swept away by the flows of s.p.a.ce and time, swimming through what was, what is, and what is meant to be. A mere fragment of what is destined to be swallowed, destroyed, and finally remade. I am one with the universe, whereas the universe is only one of many. And then I saw it, two t.i.tanic ma.s.s of nebula. Each as big as a fallen star. One silvery, another one scarlet. Dancing in a deadly orbit in a trajectory attempted to devour each other with its hazy tendrils. I gravitated towards them, swirling closer like a rubber duck in a whirlpool. Spinning inwards faster and faster, driven by sheer centripetal force and heard a whisper, "I found you."

Suddenly I felt it again, the blinding pain. The tremendous force on my soul, attempting to unravel my consciousness. It wanted to rip me to shreds and spew me out like confetti. As I find myself fading into nothingness, a different, more feminine voice boomed.

"You may not have him, for he is mine!"

Releasing me from pain and catapulting me out of orbit, flinging me away faster than the speed of light. I tried to scream, actually, I did scream, but heard nothing except for the cold silence of s.p.a.ce.

I woke up with a sore throat. My heart raced, and my body drenched in cold sweat. My head pounded so hard that it hurts just to even think. I scanned my surroundings, my eyes darted one place to another, and found Moro and the attendants holding me down. It would seem I'd been thrashing wildly in my dreams and they had to hold me down in order for me not to hurt myself. I've had nightmares before, but what the h.e.l.l was that? It felt too real, especially the pain.

"Are you awake, Mike-sama?", Moro called out.

"I am now, you can let me go now."

So they did.

"You okay?"

"Not really," I answered honestly. My body was still shaking, and they quickly handed me a gla.s.s of water. I took it with both hands and only managed a single gulp.

After calming down, I recounted my dreams to Moro and asked whether he knows anything about my dream. It wasn't as scary as when I explained about it, but my fear is still mostly intact.

When he said no, I clutched my blanket in frustration. After calming down, I got changed and headed out to meet Selana. Skipping breakfast and my routine entirely.

I eventually met with Selana and again, begun recounting my dreams. I had hoped that maybe she would know, or at least heard something about it.

"I'm sorry, but I haven't had the slightest clue at all," she admitted.

I slumped my shoulders in disappointment. No, it wasn't really disappointment. It was actually fear. Raw, cold, primordial fear of the unknown.

Nothing. Myths, legends, stories, rumors, nothing at all that relates to what I've told her. If it were in my world, I would've brushed it off and said to myself it was a horrible nightmare. Plain and simple. This, on the other hand, I had vaguely remembered having experienced it once before at the time I transcended. I'm not dumb enough to brush this a mere dream and be done with it. No, this was something prophetic. Like how fire is hot and how people die when you kill them, something that was absolute.

"Maybe there's something at the ancient archives, but it's written in old Elvish. I'll do some research about it and let you know if there's anything I found."

I apologized to the Princess for barging in, and gratefully thanked her. Hopefully, she'll find something useful. You might think that I'm a p.u.s.s.y, but h.e.l.l, you're not the one who has to deal with giant smokes trying to rip off your soul in a dream. So, I headed back to my villa, where I decided to take a few days off. It's better that I admit my fear and spent a few days being terrified, and got over it. Rather than ignore it and secretly become traumatized forever.

Hah! Take that, fear!

As promised, a few days pa.s.sed, and I've gotten back on my feet. Resuming my daily routine as if nothing had happened. Of course, it goes without saying that I'm still afraid. But it hadn't been as bad as it was before. If you were to ask me to point out which quality I had prided of myself most, it would be my peerless capability of learning. Over the past few days, I had simulated the vision again and again in my mind, building tolerance towards the fear. And so, I went along with my day. Until a hole appeared on the sky.