Chapter 143: Two-faced lie(7)
The response caught Cades off guard.
He had not expected that, in truth, he had not expected any kind of answer, at most, Cades had thought he might get a nod or a shaking of the head, denial or approval, not the beings thoughts about the matter, and he very clearly hadn't expected the being to ask him to greet it and introduce himself, be it that it hadn't asked the second thing specifically but instead just insinuated, either way he was shcoked for just a little bit, at least while the being was still talking, resulting in him not even noticing how eerily free and at the same time similar the speaking patterns of the two was.
Actually, there was only really the difference of the freedom in how they spoke, the defeated was subdued and careful, fearing for his life and having been broken many times by the realm he had been stuck within, the victorious free and without care, having not been broken but instead just not caring, being a much better fighter.
Had he thought about it at another time and in another situation he might've realized that the way he was talking with it was eerily similar to the way he, himself, often talked within his own mind as well, something that did however, almost subconsciously, make him lower his guard, both due to the way he spoke and due to the expectation of a simple greeting.
And after hesitating for a bit, trying to look past the sharp blade in front of his eyes and at the other him that looked as if he was currently sticking to the ground with the new active, had it not been for the way gravity worked, Cades began to talk, this time intend on greeting his other self, and establishing a way to find out what the hell was actually happening right now, and perhaps, hopefully, also survive the first encounter with this being.
"Hello Cades.. I am.. Cades.."
He wasn't certain if that would work, but indeed it did, and as soon as he realized that, he began to get a little more confident, he began to ask questions, something he had wanted to do all along while being stuck on this uncomfortable wooden ground, he wanted to quell his own curiosity about the creature, a curiosity that stemmed from the longing for knowledge and power, the secondary only having begun to sprout recently, that had been driving him subconsciously since the time he had been stuck on that island, on that hell that could only be described as a wooden world.
Perhaps it was stupid, perhaps it was almost suicidal, but he still asked a question, a question that would've made most beings have quite the horrible first impression of him, even including the being that sat in front of him, or at least Cades assumed that even when he asked that question, but he still knew he would not be able to live with himself if he didn't ask the question, so he still asked, be it in a lower voice.