Crusader King-Chapter 150: Two-faced lie(14)

Cades, still standing, still trying to get away from the bloodied, cruel, version of himself that was still walking towards him, now a bit more rushed and with a hint of panic in his eyes, the eyes that now seemed to glow in a weirdly purple light, something Cades had never really noted before, or perhaps even something that Cades had never truly noticed on his other self before, seeing as he, himself, from what he knew, had yellowish black eyes, at least back on ehetria when he had still been an ehetrian with their characteristically long, black pupils and the related iris's, felt true fear course through his veins, not because of the fear he felt from the creak from the endless wooden world in which he had only truly heard the fighting, his own body, and his steps until now, but because of the presence that radiated from the other himself whose clothes now seemed to be covered in much less blood than shortly before, simply having dropped off, as if it had basically no adhesion at all.

But while he was stumbling back, not caring to look down, not even really minding the continuous creaking that now resounded, only really having been terrified and anxious after the first, but realizing that he couldn't do anything about it, he noticed something, or rather, he noted something, only really minding it in the back of his mind, a mere afterthought in his current, bad, condition and situation.

While he was trying to get away from the now anxious looking version of himself, now almost free of the blood but still with the weird look, a sly but smaller smile and a glint of madness residing in his purple eyes as it had always done, now tainted with just the tiniest bit of an orange centre where the pupil should've been, something that Cades thought of as no good sign seeing as the last beings he remembered that had orange eyes were the minions, the imprisoned of that wooden world where Manug had lost his lives by his hands, the world where his other self had been born out of it's ashes, the world that had brought him to the brink of madness, no perhaps even beyond the brink and into the house where he had then drunk tea while throwing away a part of himself, just as that part had now claimed.

The hole his other self had made in the endless floor, the hole that had been open to the abyss, the hole through which the two opponents had came that his other self ahd killed in that oh so curel way, had now closed up, instead the planks there were now uneven, and now that he noticed that, he noticed something else.

All the planks were now shifting, uneven, dangerous, they creaked with every step, a creaking sound that grew louder and louder the more he heard it, and as he heard the sound of the wooden planks he began to hear the scream of Manug once more, he once more heard that endless squealing, the endless roar of anger, the scream he could not udnerstand, the scream that was now without intent, without longing, simply a long-winded sound without breaking, simply a sound that could not be described, but even more so, something else happened.

As he hadn't been looking at where he had been stepping, having been walking abckwards while keeping an eye on his other self, still full of panic, it was to be expected, but either way, he fell down, tripping over the shifting wooden planks, and soon after touched them, those planks that were now covered in a cold, silver liquid, all around him.

He tried to get up desperately, but instead, the ground, the planks under him began to move quickly, his sticking foot active activating without reason, simply causing him to stick, as if something had just been messing with the deepest, darkest depths of his mind.

It was quick, he moved, the wind he hadn't felt in this realm before turning into a wall and almost causing him to go unconscious, his body moving so fast that it felt as if he had split into two once more, his mind swearing that it had seen his own body move forward before his vision could follow, be it only for a singular moment, shorter than time could truly measure, perhaps just a proof that his handling of what could only be called 'intent' had grown quite a lot, to the point that he had once more perceived himself from outside his own body, if the same rules were even to apply to this mysterious place which his other self had claimed to be a part of himself.

And soon after, still moving faster than his very being could ever comprehend, he saw only silver, and lost himself to that world, leaving his other self behind in the endless wooden floor, and leaving for something entirely different, his mind already starting to fracture and travel to somewhere else, heeding a call it did not even hear, understand or perceive, as if led by something that was the same as itself, as if following itself, as if thinking a thought because it had thought up that thought.

Meanwhile his other self perceived the world as quite different, he perceived that his other self had fallen down and suddenly vanished, a gust of wind enveloping him and carrying him a few hundred steps away, softly, gracefully, but in a violent and forceful way that caused his heart to skip multiple beats and after that pound even harder out of fear that it might only beat one more time.

Then, without warning, all stopped.

Cades, the one that had just fought, came to his senses, it was calm all of a sudden after all, and his heart felt at peace, that was until he felt something he hoped to only ever feel inside of a dream or because of his own choosing, a great fear that had been filling his heart ever since the endless abyss of his prison, ever since he had lost his wings, ever sine the heights had become his enemies.

He felt himself falling, the wooden planks turning into nothing and reforming as soon as he passed through them, his feet feeling nothing and his mind racing for a few seconds before even beginning to think again.