The cracking of bones echoed as the serpent's jaw could no longer withstand the pressure of the branches growing inside its maw. It slammed into the walls and dragged its elongated body across the ground in a futile attempt to tear the branches free. As the cracking grew louder, the monster stopped. It looked at the small sphere embedded in the ceiling. In the next instant, its head exploded into bone, flesh, and golden blood.
The branches spread as the beast fell. Roots pierced through bones and stone alike. Blue leaves glimmered softly, creating a strange yet comforting cold atmosphere.
And Nova? By pushing himself off the wall, he managed to avoid falling. Now he hung by his fingers from one of the rocky ledges. He breathed heavily, small droplets of blood and sweat sliding down his chin and falling into the abyss of bones and roots below.
For the next few seconds, a deathly silence followed. He stared at the serpent's corpse lying at the bottom. Seeing it, he felt as though a massive weight had been lifted from his chest.
'Great… I can't go on anymore…'
The exhaustion was too much. His muscles gave out, releasing their grip on the rock. His body plummeted downward and crashed violently into the bones. In the end, his body broke, and his consciousness faded into nothingness.
Warm blood spilled across his body—a sensation far too familiar over the past few days. The dark glow of the portal accompanied the moment, where a corpse and a fallen man rested together in silence.
Once again, Nova wavered between life and death. His memories drifted through his mind as he lay beside the serpent's corpse…
The next moment, he was surrounded by darkness. The whispers he had heard the first time he arrived spoke to him again, but he couldn't understand them. Soon, those ominous whispers fell silent. The darkness deepened, turning into a dark violet hue. Then, he found himself standing atop mysterious blue flowers spread across an endless azure field.
"Again… Where am I? Does this happen every time I'm about to die?"
No one answered. Nova waited, hoping someone would—but this time, he was alone.
"Hello?"
Silence.
"No one? Damn…"
Confused, he thought for a few minutes. After surveying the surroundings and finding nothing nearby, he walked through the field of flowers for the next five minutes. Realizing there was nothing of interest, he grew tired and sat down.
"What am I supposed to do now? Am I actually dead this time?"
The thought was deeply depressing.
"Man… I did everything I could, and I still failed."
At least he tried—and didn't give the world the satisfaction of an easy victory. He fought tooth and nail, with nothing but grit and seeds stuffed in a sock. He killed three Category 6 Aberrations on his own and crossed the lands of an unknown world. If anyone back home knew about this, he'd be hailed as a legendary hero.
For someone to fall into a portal and become trapped was extremely rare. Normally, portals took a long time to close on their own—unless an external force interfered, it was theoretically impossible for someone to get stuck.
Tired of everything, Nova lay back and stared at the dark purple sky. After a few seconds, he said:
"This place… it's too quiet. I think I—"
His golden Serenity aura enveloped him.
"There it is."
His eyes turned dull, all traces of emotion completely erased.
'It's back… but it doesn't make sense for my Spectrum to function if I'm dead. Oh… wait,' he frowned, recalling something. When the aura faded and the light returned to his eyes, memories of future visions flooded his mind. 'I remember hearing that when an Empath gains a new Spectrum, in rare cases, they experience visions tied to its power.'
Nova had never experienced that—he had practically been born carrying the Spectrum of Serenity. But his childhood friend, Miyu, once talked about what she saw when she awakened her own Spectrum.
'When Miyu gained her Spectrum of Anticipation, she said she had a strange dream where she was floating in outer space.'
In that case…
Nova looked at his hand. Surprisingly, he could see through both eyes.
'Then I'm not dead. This is just a vision born from the power I obtained.'
But a field of blue flowers? What did flowers have to do with the Spectrum of Anticipation? Flowers were beautiful, fragrant, and the Light Needles harvested nectar from them. They carried Calem energy pollen that drifted through the field with the wind and had a few minor uses—but that was it.
There was nothing that connected flowers to something as complex as Anticipation.
'A field of flowers beneath a dark sky. This place smells sweet, but also…'
It carried a strange, unsettling, lonely sadness.
'It feels heavy every time I breathe.'
He extended his arms into the flowers, brushing the blue petals with his fingertips as he thought more deeply.
'And I have both of my eyes intact. That only confirms one thing.'
Nova lifted his gaze back to the dark sky.
'Out there, beyond my mind, I'm unconscious. When I wake up, I'll still be just as injured as before.'
It was a bit ridiculous. Nova exhaled tiredly.
'After everything I've been through these past few days, I don't understand how I'm still alive.'
Even so, he wasn't whole. It was likely he would keep losing parts of himself the further he went—but this journey…
Crossing the portal didn't guarantee he'd return home, and that was the biggest problem of all.
'If only I knew what really happened—and who threw me into the portal—I wouldn't have this thorn of uncertainty lodged in my mind.'
Over the past three years, there had been many reports of Empaths falling into portals and becoming trapped on the other side. Unfortunately, Nova had become one of them.
'And that voice I heard when I fell… was it a child?'
With every answer, two new questions surfaced. This time, the questions were overwhelming, and the answers as scarce as water in the desert.
As the thoughts raced through his mind, his eyelids grew heavy, and a strange fatigue seeped into his body. His eyes slowly opened and closed as he tried to resist it.
'Whoever that voice belongs to, I need to go back and uncover the truth.'
Giving in to exhaustion, he fell into a deep sleep. The flowers surrounding him seemed to embrace him as he slept.
A mysterious wind caressed the field with a soft whistle.
Then, blood spilled over the petals near Nova. The wind stopped—along with everything else in the field of flowers. This time, however, something was different.
Four corpses lay beside him.
***
He opened his eye slowly, adjusting to the dim light of the sphere embedded in the stone ceiling, and groaned as pain surged through his body.
All around him, cold snow blanketed the ground, covering bones and jagged stones alike. The monster's corpse lay coiled around the beautiful blue tree at the center of the massive stone dome.
Such a sight felt out of place in such a dark and gloomy place.
'I'm alive… It doesn't feel real.'
Slowly moving his hands across his chest, he examined his body. He could feel broken ribs and searing wounds—but beyond that, he was intact.
'I really need to thank my luck. Without it, I'd be dead a thousand times over.'