Reincarnated into a Snow Griffin-Chapter 55

The shadow I’ve been dashing towards happens to be a gate, a tall gate just as red as the flowers, painfully so, but once I stop in front of it and look up towards the omnipotent tall presence, it takes me a while to notice that things have changed once more and that, pass the gate, a new landscape unfolds, almost as if the gate is a portal of some sorts, revealing what lay beyond between its red poles.

Surging among the flowers, the building that I step into is actually surrounded by a bamboo forest, with a small wall with a little roof made of bricks covering the edges and yet not taking the view away.

However what calls to me is the building at the end of it, and not even the voices that call and scream around are enough to take my mind away from what lays in front.

"You bastard! Traitor! Do you think you can get away with this?"

"Oh, I do, I very much do so... Even more when I bring this one as a gift to your father! He won’t be please with you doing things behind his back, oh no he won’t..."

The other clicks his tongue, annoyance and anger increasing, words gritted past baring teeth.

"You dare defy me!"

"You? Defy you young master? You are nothing compared to the grace of your father, and I bet he will utterly enjoy this gift real nice..."

"Tsk, to think my power rests on my father’s shoulder only is pure stupidity! I still have my own powers and title to behold! Now fall back at once before I severely punish you!"

"Ahh, I wonder what gifts will I receive from giving in such a beauty... it has been a long time since he was satisfied after all." I don’t know who this man is talking about but I can tell what intentions he had with me, and for once I’m sensing the price I may pay for having such evolution, and just how much so it could cost me, a destiny worse than death, far too similar to mothers, and that not only angers me but makes me shudder in disgust, and yet as I look around, trying to fight back and barely seeing the outlines of what truly lays within, a mere sniff of that flowers scent overcomes my attempts and cover my vision with its extending field of spider red flowers.

"He is mine, do not dare lay your hands on him!"

I get closer and closer towards the building enough so to see its details now, past the zen white sand garden with little rivers, red bridges and crooked trees, looking up to its tall ceilings and pointy rooftops with the edges bending upwards, round pillars holding the structure in place as well as an outdoors porch.

As I walk up towards it the wind brushes the bamboo forest in a creaking symphony of bending thickets and flustering leaves, but as calming and yet eerie such unnaturally silence place may be, its effect did not last long for the voices would not stop talking, sounding far and yet close in my foggy mind, words mixing together as I give each step forward as if stepping on muddy ground, slippery and unstable as I keep moving up.

The sweet smell increases as I see the spider flowers grown in the speed to the naked eye, blowing all around and even extending up and twisting around the construction in front of me, circling the pillars and reaching out towards me, almost as if hundreds of pair of hands were stretching out trying to consume me.

The pressure inside my head increases and the sweet smell is nauseating, to the point of making my eyes ache.

I stop in front of the double doors at the center of it all, with the looming building in front of me, my mind as foggy as when I first woke from the beating I took up above, a mix of awareness and yet dizziness that makes me a little high and thoughtless.

"So mighty, so fiercy, of course I did not intend any... rudeness towards young master... but you speak very high for a person that has no better intentions than myself, uhm?" The other says with clear mockery.

"...Don’t be ridiculous, you just had to do your job, and now you will lose your life because of your greediness!"

"Oh really? I may, I may! But how about I show him just what your intentions were before that uhm? I wonder just how he will feel about you after that... And how all mighty young master is truly different from master to be worthy of such exquisite gift..."

"You wouldn’t dare!" The other barely manages to grit the words out pass his anger at this point.

Laughter sounds at the back of my head as the one responsible for all this mess seems to enjoy the outcome of his actions, and as much as the pressure grows and I can faintly hear footsteps, flustering of sleeves, swords clashing, is almost as if my mind is consumed by the red of the blooming flowers and their honeyed smell, enough so that, no matter how much I fight it, no matter how the other is pushed back, the effect is still present and prompts me forward, one small step at a time, slowly pushing my arm up and intertwining my finger at the nook of the door.

My gaze is attracted by the shadows moving past the sliding door and I can see beyond the thin cover of paper it is made of, and even if the voices are high and my heart is pounding, even if, at the back of my mind my instincts told me not to open it, that something really bad awaited for me at the other end of it, at that point I was so drunk on the sweet smell of the flowers and the dizziness had stretched out, I had no strength not stop my body from moving even if I wanted to, and I’m left to watch in horror as my own hands reach out and pull the cover away to reveal what lay inside.

At first I could not see well in the dark, but as my eyes adjusted and the vision unfolds before me I’m left to merely stare at it.