A Spark (6) - 39

A/N: So remember when I said that there would be a mass release for all y'all's support in helping me win WPC, well, it's today. I'll be releasing 3 chaps for TVADE today, 1 chap for the fan fic, and a chap for WRDIN. Let's hope I don't run out of ideas, and, enjoy the chap!

Well, I was only stuck there for a short period of time, as, after some painful moments later, the pressure built up from the continuous winds pushing through the narrow cave, and I was blasted through the tiny spot, my asshole getting invaded, as I tore my entire uniform to shreds, five deep gashes carving themselves in my body from my chest and upper back all the way to my thighs and buttocks.

"Shit! @&$%#*$#^%!"

Taking a few minutes just to cuss, I vented my anger out on my frayed clothes, ripping them into long strands.

Of course, this was for a purpose, as I then calmed down and used these threads to act as makeshift gauze for the time being, covering the five gashes with them.

As for the fractured bones, bruises, and minor cuts that I had attained from hitting my body against the walls of the passage a bunch of times, well, there was nothing I could do about them.

Gritting my teeth, I knew that I couldn't do anything except push forward, so I did, as I looked around at my surroundings.

I was in a medium sized cavern, a pool of water filling almost the entirety of it except for the beach I was standing on, bioluminescent algae casting a pale glow on the walls of the cavern, the water's slight movements creating ethereal illusions on the walls.

The soft sand was soothing to my cut up feet, and once I reached down to touch the water, I realized that it had a healing effect, as it traveled up my arms, then across my body as it closed all of my open wounds and immediately turned bruised, purple skin back into a healthy color.

As I basked in the feeling of being healed, I suddenly felt a sharp pain, as I opened my eyes to look in the water, only to see the reflection of the water extending into a sharp spear to pierce my forehead as I saw that a second spear had already pierced through my right ear.

Then, I felt something invade the front of my skull, before blacking out.

...

Opening my eyes to find myself lying on a ghastly beach, a low mist hanging over the water, disguising the waves until the moment they crashed, the gray clouds in the sky blocking out all bright lights, I couldn't help but feel a sense of deja vu.

'No, I have been here before, it was when I!...'

"Tsk, a man? I thought I specifically designed it so that only a woman could get through..."

Hearing a childish voice, I was immediately broken out of my previous line of thought and asked the figure in a frenzied voice,

"How did I get here?!!!" I asked, my eyes opened wider than any human should, as I groped blindly in the direction of the voice.

"..."

"Take me out right now!" I shouted into the fog.

"Young man, you stumble into my humble abode, and then ask to be released, I don't think so."

Hearing this voice coming from three directions at the same time, I knew that this fog was slightly "special", but still, this place...

"Relax, the nature of this place makes it so that it shows each person that enters it an image special to them, signifying the worst fears they have ever faced. For me, I see my hometown burning down, as the enemy soldiers kill everyone without hesitation. This scene is replayed over and over again, but what about you, what do you see?"

Suddenly sounding like a wise old lady, the loli's voice brought me enlightenment.

'So this is where my darkest fears lay... that makes sense.'

Looking around, studying the place around me once again, I closed my eyes, and allowed myself to fall into my memories.

...

Fifty Years Ago - Earth:

"You can do it, ??????, this is the last test that you must face."

"But Auntie, why is this test easier than all the rest? There isn't even any killing..."

"??????, I'm sorry, but I can't tell you anything, just know that this is hundreds of times harder than learning how to kill."

"Harder?"

"Yes, harder, now, be a good boy and lay down, we'll be starting the process now."

"Okay, Auntie."

I looked down at my old self, back when I was still at the facility, hundreds of wires and tubes stuck into my body, hooking me up to tens of machines, as I laid down on that metal table.

There was my "Aunt" sitting there in the corner of the next room over, as she curled up into a ball and cried.

As if omniscient, I floated around the facility, following the familiar halls and arriving in front of me room, no, my cell.

Phasing through the wall, I found the plain jail cell that I had spent almost the entirety of my childhood in.

I looked up at the window, heading over to it just to let a breath of hot air out on it, fogging up the window which was as cold as ice in this facility.

And there, I saw the messages that I had written, hundreds and hundreds of lines overlapping each other, as I wrote these letters, hoping that someday, someone would see them.

'In the end, only I ever saw them...'

Letting myself bask in a moment of solitude, I quickly left the room and found my young body again.

I quickly positioned my ghostly body over that of my younger self, closing my eyes only to open them and find myself in the gray space, the actual one this time.

Turning up, I heard a low rumble in the sky, as a voice broke through the barriers of my subconscious.

"Angel, your task: Survive a million years in this space, Hyper Limbo." (A/N: Same concept as in Inception, but not just Limbo, it's Hyper Limbo.)

Then, after that voice left, time blurred into nothing, as it sped up, slowed down, and sometimes completely stopped, all at the whims of the subconscious of the old me.

And, as the singularity of nothingness passed by, he grew crazy, eventually going into a coma inside his own dream.

His mind had completely broken down, and was being remade anew as we spoke.

So, when he woke up, well, he had completely changed.

He had shed all of the layers of naivety that had covered him, and now, he was a real cold-blooded bastard.

He truly was someone I detested, but, it was understandable, he had no family after all.

There had been no one to support him at all times back then, and honestly, I was a little jealous of him.

After all, that was how he had grown stronger, by completely breaking down his mind and rebuilding it.

My wants were tangling with my needs, I knew this for a fact, but I couldn't stop myself from wanting the comfort of a family, even if they were holding me back.

Anyways, the old me had finally emerged from his cocoon and had fully embraced his identity as "Angel".

With this, I knew how I would awaken a stronger power, one that would allow me to rival that of Eva's and Vasilie's.

Opening my eyes, I found myself back on the "fake" ethereal beach, the one that held the loli's voice.

"It seems like you have completely resolved and understood this place in the making of the essence of your being, why it was important to you, why it is your greatest fear."

"But now, remember how I said this opportunity was supposed to be for a female? Well, I guess I have to do this!"

Feeling something hit me hard in the chest, I was instantly thrown back hundreds of meters, before crashing into the ground.

As my consciousness waned, I could only get out one more thought, the essence of what I had learned in this space.

'My place of deepest fear, the holder of the demons in my heart...

...

...

...

...is my own subconsciousness.'

And with that, I blacked out.