Chapter 113: Meeting the Famed Ancient
Richard’s consciousness flared to awareness, not in his new physical body, but in a vast, boundless expanse of pure, blinding white. There was no discernible up or down, no end to the shimmering, featureless void.
Disoriented, he struggled to recall the last moments before this impossible reality: the terrifying future vision where every decision he had planned had turned to ash, all because he had held back. He had been consumed by a silent, internal rage. Now, he was here, suspended in nothingness.
"Where am I?" he shouted, his voice echoing into the profound silence. "What is this place?!"
His frantic calls were met by a gentle, ethereal voice that seemed to emanate from everywhere and nowhere at once. [ A’thera. K’nal’tar. Z’rath-el. ] it resonated, the words subtly translating in his mind: "Calm down. You are in your mind space."
Richard spun, desperate to locate the source, and then saw it. A figure materialized, human in outline, but shimmering with every conceivable color at once, overlaid with pure white. It had no face, no discernible skin, just an ethereal outline of pure light. As he watched, more figures began to shimmer into existence behind the first, their forms equally incandescent.
My mind space? Richard thought, bewildered. This... this is my mind?
He voiced his confusion aloud. "Who... who are you?"
As the new figures solidified, their voices merged, speaking in unison, a chorus resonating with an ancient, gentle power that vibrated through the white space. [ Nu’tharr. Ta’kel s’vash, nu’tharr. ] they declared. "We do not have a name, or rather, we. The question you should be asking is who you are."
Richard, flustered, stammered, "I’m Richard. Richard Santamo."
But the voices replied, their tone soft yet firm. [ H’kalla. Y’drah z’kal. V’ar-ra h’kalla. ] "No, that’s your material name, a name, a material identity. Who... are you?"
Richard opened his mouth to respond, then paused. The voices added, "That question was the first question the existence asked itself when it gained sentience, when it became aware of itself." Completely bewildered by the philosophical depth and cosmic implications of their words, Richard abruptly changed the topic.