As I calmed down, the situation grew clearer at least, I tried to make sense of it. The persistent voice kept urging me to engage my consciousness, supposedly to save myself. Yet what it actually meant remained frustratingly elusive.
Was this some kind of cultivation practice? How come… I'm too pathetic for this.
Every attempt I made to turn inward led nowhere. There was no core. No pulsing energy. Just a hollow void where something essential should have been. The Wind Master had once tried to guide me, and with his help I'd even reached a basic level. But after my escape to the mortal world, I'd lost everything: skill, foundation, mentor.
Now I struggled with how to focus at all… or whether I should simply surrender to the Darkness holding me captive.
I chose the latter.
No questions. No resentment. No reproaches.
Just silence.
It wrapped around me gently, cradling rather than consuming. I'd never known such ease. Darkness came in slow, rolling waves, and I let myself sink. Bliss hovered close, inviting.
"Hey, hey, hey, where do you think you're going?!"
The sudden intrusion jolted me. I wanted to drift back, but the voice seized me, dragging me toward a place I no longer wished to be.
"What were you thinking, bastard?" it snapped. "Come back. Now!"
Its commands fell on deaf ears. I wanted out. Out of this noise. Out of this torment.
"What's wrong with you?!" The voice cracked with frustration. "You're damned if you willingly plunge into the Abyss! Has your mind been clouded by some absolute nonsense?"
"For how many lives have I been denied the freedom to go wherever I please?" I shot back, anger rising fast and sharp. "And now I finally have a choice, a choice to follow."
Why did I say that? I had no idea. The words spilled out before I could stop them.
"If you find me so offensive," I added coldly, "then I suggest you return and continue being angry without me."
I didn't listen to anything else.
Then the Darkness receded abruptly, peeling away and leaving me exposed, alone with my companion's misery.
"Come back, asshole," he swore. "Listen to my voice. Reach for it. Just stay with me, you ungrateful dog!"
"Enough," I snapped. "You don't need to repeat yourself. I ignored you the first time."
Unease gnawed at me, but what I wanted most was peace. Care. Quiet.
"So stop torturing me."
"You cling to ignorance like a moth to flame," the voice sneered. "Drawn only to destruction. What a shame."
I ignored that too.
Instead, I drifted into memory.
Once, only once, I'd felt this same tranquility. With the Wind Master, by a lake in the Great Soaring Mountains. Silent reading. Gentle winds brushing the water's surface. A private refuge, untouched by expectation or fate.
Now, sinking into the Darkness, those feelings returned.
"Cursed Heavens, where are you going again?!" The voice struck through my mind like lightning. "Come back this instant and prepare to endure my revenge! I'd beat you to death myself if I had a body! You're not going anywhere, not today, not ever, until I reclaim my rank!"
"Indeed," I muttered. Right. A demoted demon. How could I forget his miserable state?
"Demon again?!" my companion roared. "I swear I'll be relentless once we get out of here!"
"Endure my recklessness while we're still stuck," I replied lazily.
In response, I heard something like a sigh.
Then it hit me.
"Wait," my thought went slowly. "You're here… without a body?"
"Not just me," he snapped. "You're without one too."
*Thx for reading.