Those many destructive, massive 'humanoids', slaughtered over a single night. Those massive white-coloured blades emerged from the land, pierced through their body, lifting them above the surface. Two days passed since that haunting message, which appeared from the stone slate at the so-called location of the dimensional seal.

There was no reason for Rize to stay on the mountain any longer, I had asked Rize to return to the capital.

'I can still come with you,' I remember her saying. 'People do not survive on these mountains. You don't even know where you're going. I can help you.'

'There is no need for you to accompany me,' I had said to her. 'Steve did not ask you to accompany me. Once you're recovered, you'll leave this place and visit the Capital.'

I wandered in the area for two days. Good for me, there were some naturally formed canopies and caves to protect me from the Ice storms. As I walked deep in the mountains, the weather got worse. I walked up a cliff for a better look and ran my eyes as far as I could. All my eyes saw was the vast spread blanket of ice, stretched till and beyond the horizon, still no signs of human settlement.

My eyes caught a small cave at the bottom of the valley. The sun, which was barely visible due to the snowstorm, was sinking behind the horizon. I descended the valley, making my way through the flora of the mountain. The snow was slippery most of the time, but there were ample amounts of shrubs to maintain the body's balance. I reached the cave and entered inside.

It was a small cave, if compared to the previously found caves, but was enough for me to spend the night. I wrapped my trench coat tighter and placed myself on the snowless ground, resting my back on the cave walls. My hands, subconsciously rubbed against each other, creating some warmth and my eyes closed.

Soon after some time, my eyes opened with a jolt when my body sensed a strange Qi, an unknown life force nearby. I quietly, but cautiously got on my feet and focused my senses to detect a clear vibration. The Qi was strong, which was difficult to maintain in such harsh conditions. I followed the vibrations, trying to get closer to the source.

As the intensity increased, my pace slowed down and I peeped from behind the big boulder. My eyes caught the sight of a strong, healthy-looking man standing in front, facing the opposite side. His life force was strong and constant. There was a child in front, he was on his knees some distance ahead, dressed in a brown cloth and a brown wraparound.

Does he have no life force?! I noticed.

The kid backed off by a step, his body trembled in fear. At first, my mind was confused about why the kid was scared of the other man. But the picture became more clear when I sensed a strong Qi vibration - an intention to harm.

My body subconsciously moved out of the cover from the boulder.

"Hey, hey!" I shouted. "I lost my way. Could you help me, man?"

"Stay out of this." his Qi increased as he said in a louder voice.

"I just need some directions," I said, trying to distract the man from the kid. "If you help, I'll be on my way."

"Stay away!"

The strong-looking person in front shouted and hastily turned around. My body froze in place, looking at the man. It had black eyes with a red pupil, a half swollen face and a deadly Qi. The left half of his body was dark and the colour was gradually spreading all over the body.

Oh heavens no. I said to myself. He's possessed.

The entity looked straight into my eyes. His blood-red pupils met my eyes and an intense spark ran throughout my body. Within a blink, he rushed and dashed closer. My hands subconsciously went on the horizontal hilt of my jade dagger and his claws met my blade. The sound of clash echoed in the area and I was pushed back by the impact.

"Stay away!"

The entity shouted again and rushed forward towards me. I stood steady in my place like a stone, my eyes locked on his movements. He revealed his strong claws as he approached closer. As his claws came closer, my blade crossed and took the attack, my body pushed back a little until I crossed my paws. My blade slid, brushing through his claw with an eerie sound, his claw missed my skin and my blade swivelled around his neck.

Within a moment, the entity falls to its knees before finally getting on the ground.

Article 73, lesson 27. Two-step counter. I realised the technique I used. I can't waste more stamina on him.

Its body lay dead on the ground until finally started to disintegrate in the air. I turned around, realising about the scared, trembling child. He laid on the ground with his strengthless body and looked at me as the cold dizziness started taking over him.

"Hey, kid!" I shouted, looking toward him. "Don't close the eyes. Do not close the eyes."

I kept saying, as my body ran towards him. His eyes kept getting smaller until he finally closed them. I rushed nearer and took him in my hands. By his physical shape, he looked around 8-10 years in age. Many thoughts ran inside my mind like, 'how did he come to his place?' and 'was he alone?' but it was not time. I grabbed him closer and took him into the earlier found cave.

'His body is cold,' I said to myself. 'I need to move ahead. But, I can't leave him. And I can't take him until he is warm enough.'

There was no source of the fire. I wrapped the around in his wraparound and removed my trench coat for more coverage. The true nature of cold was felt when I was out of my multifunctional trench coat. The fact that he even survived for so long surprised me.

After waiting for the whole night, when my coat wrapped around him didn't make a significant difference, I had no other choice than to take the unconscious child with me. The weather that day was not the best. The chilly storms, mixed with the snowflakes made it harder if not impossible to walk.

The unpredictable winds blew from different random directions, making me move like a doll. My long coat was still wrapped around the unconscious kid. I grabbed him closer to my chest. He was alive as I could feel his breathing. Now when my body was out of the long trench coat, the weather and the cold winds were like a harsh punishment. My waistcoat was wet from the back due to the constant bombardment of the snowflakes.

'I mustn't stop,' I said to myself. 'If I did, it won't be long until I get buried under this accumulating snow.'

Trees in the area were tall, and broad-based, but were not in condition for one to stand under them for cover. The layer of Ice increased as my feet went a bit inside the snow cover. My legs kept moving forward at a constant pace until dizziness took over me and my eyelids started dropping down. My legs slowed, breathing increased, fatigue kicked in and my eyes started closing.

As my body went out of strength and stamina, the cold took over it and I found myself on my knees. I grabbed the child even tighter to avoid his head from hitting the ground and my body collapsed on the ground, on my right arm side. The Ice was cold, but my skin didn't feel it. My eyes slowly closed.

Some time after my eyes were closed, my ears grabbed the sound of small bells, jingling for some time. The sound was accompanied by faint piano music, it was a calm, peaceful wave of music. My eyes opened and I found myself on the cosy couch. I looked around, hunting for sight of the situation.

Was I not in the mountains just now? I asked myself.

I looked outside the window, sitting in the same place. The house looked just like my own. Outside the clean glass window, I saw some people, wrapped in winter clothes, some kids running around wearing their winter caps. The doors soon opened with a click and a figure entered inside, wearing a blue sweater. He turned around to reveal his face.

"William...?"

"The Winter Festival in Zora is really busy this year eh?"He said, tilting his head up to look in my eyes. "You still not ready yet?"

"Why... what are you doing here?" I said, looking at his face with a surprised look. William was standing in front of me, his face, a bit younger and clean-shaven with a small trimmed moustache.

"What do you mean?" He said. "You called me over. You said you would introduce me to your fiance, Mary."

As he said, I realised the whole situation. I remembered this happening to me before. This was me, living in my memory of four years ago. The first night, when I introduce William to Mary, my wife. First, William would refuse to meet her, 'She has my mother's name, how can I not see her as my mother.' I remember him saying.

'Just because her name resembles your mother's does not mean she is the same person.' I remember saying to him in a scolding tone. 'It's happening William, even if you refuse to visit the cathedral.'

"George?" William said, snapping me back. He was still standing ahead. "We are going, right? To meet her."

A thought of doubt licked my mind. I asked myself- is the thing happening and the image I'm seeing real? Looking at William's face, my body was tempted to move toward him and I stood up. No sooner had I taken a step forward, towards William, than an intense spark ran throughout my body.

The image in front of me, faded in the dust as if a sand creation, fading in strong winds. The house I was inside, the people standing outside on the streets, kids running... William. Everyone faded into dust in no time, leaving me alone in a dark endless plane.

I looked around to see nothing but total darkness as far as my sight could reach. A blinding light flashed in front of my eyes, accompanied by another strong spark inside my head and I woke up with a jolt.

The bell jingling sound still continued. My eyes opened. The child was still in my arms, wrapped in the clothes for warmth. My body was moving forward. I looked around to find myself in a cart, it was a luggage cart, pulled by big deers who, apparently were making the jingling bell noises. There was a man sitting in front, in some layers of warm clothing, driving the deers and the cart to the destination. The man noticed me awake and glanced behind, waving a hand to greet me.

"Am I hallucinating?" I asked him, for some reason.

"Well, that depends, kind sir."

"Are you an old, fat man with a broad white beard guiding the big deers who are producing jingling sounds?"

The man, sitting in front, gave a curious yet confused look at me. "Do you also see me flying this cart in the air with my deers?"

I nodded.

"You are imagining things kind sir," the person said. "Your life force is rapidly decreasing, close your eyes... The weather is harsh. Try to rest a bit."

He said, but all I could see was his dry old lips, moving without any sound. My body lost strength again and my head fell on the luggage I was lying on. I had no strength left in my body, I once again grabbed the child tighter to my chest before darkness covered my sight and knocked me unconscious.

~~

My eyes blinked, opened again and I was in a different place. I was standing on a surface, a grassland, spread as far as my eyes could see, with only some countable trees standing, scattered all over the area. I looked around. The place had a gradient light in the sky, as if it was time before the dawn. The sky was clear with only two stars, twinkling brightly right above my head

"Long time no see... Mr Watson." A voice came from behind and I, without any second thought turned around. There stood a woman, dressed in white, looked in my eyes with a faint smile. A face, I would, even if I try, never forget.

"Mary?"

"Your face is like you saw a ghost..." she said, chuckled. "or, maybe an angel."

Back in the Zora, I was fooled once in the mind-realm created using William's mind. But, somehow, somewhere in the corner of my mind, that day, I knew the person in front was not my wife. But at this moment, I could say with no doubt, It was her.

"You... you're alive...?"

"Who says I'm alive," Mary replied. "I never said that."

"Am I dead then?"

"This is a subspace where time and space does not affect." She said, explaining to me. "Your body has changed its nature, which made you capable of summoning this place."

"What do you mean?"

"You created this place. Your mind created this space where you could talk to me."

"And how can a person like me summon such a well furnished place." I asked. "I don't even possess any energy."

Mary chuckled, walked some steps forward. "You always like underestimating the possibilities of life. Does it never bother you how diverse and unpredictable life can be?"

"If I did before, you could have been alive today, with me."

Mary stopped, turned around meeting my glance. "Stop blaming yourself for the past, which even if you try, can't be changed. Death is not the end of life, the body dies and the soul walks on the new journey ahead towards its liberation and ultimate peace. That is the truth of the universe, the truth of existence." She walked closer to me. "And about me... I never left you. I was and will always be with you."

A faint spark ran in my head and I woke up with a jolt. My hands ran through my hairs and on my face anxiously and I woke up, heavily breathing. I looked around and found myself inside a shelter. From inside, it looked like a small house, made of raw wood with very minimal light present inside. A small swinging door window, right next to the door in front, which was close.

It was a different feeling than usual. I felt a strong flow of energy around my body. Like a turbulent flow of a stream, engulfing my limbs, chest and my head. I had something like this feeling once before, when I resonated with the dagger Rita gave me. Except, this time the energy also flowed through my body, and my bones and my veins and blood vessels and every cell present inside my body. Every particle of my body felt a strong change, like the energy was overflowing out of my body.

My eyes went around the room. The door, in front, was closed and I was on a cosy mattress on the floor, covered in blankets with no clothes or inners on me. I once again brushed my hands through my hairs, down my face and on my arms.

"You're finally awake." The voice came from the side. I turned my head around to notice the same person sitting on the chair, some distance away from the bed. That face with a white beard, those eyes with some tiny wrinkles and that gaze. I could not forget that face.

"I wasn't imagining things... you were real."

"What? You think you were saved by someone who's not real?" The man said.

"I didn't mean that..." I paused for a moment. "Where... How is the child?"

"He is fine... warm now. He was asleep for a day before opening his eyes. Now he's resting and will recover totally soon."

"A day has passed?... How long have I been asleep?"

"Right now, it's the noon of third day... so, two days and a half?"

I didn't realise the time passed from me being unconscious in that carriage, back then in the snow storm to now, sitting on a mattress, covered in a warm blanket. For me, it was a time of a small dream where Mary said some really confusing things about time and space.

"Did you, by any chance, have a dream?... where someone, who you deeply cared for in the past, who's not with you now met you."

I turned toward the man with a surprised face. "How did you know that?"

The man exhaled his deep breath silently and leaned forward, supporting his chin with his palms. "Hm... I see, It worked."

"What do you mean? What worked?"

"Your body has gone through some serious changes, which are hard to elaborate, but you might be feeling it... or will feel it some time in coming days. The nature of your body has changed"

'The nature of your body has changed' Mary's words in that strange dream runged inside my head. "What do you mean by 'nature of body'?"

"You see, when I brought you to this tribe, you saved the kid but your body showed no signs of life. After an argument, the tribe decided to treat you with a medicine... which was created using a strange flower. It was their way to pay back the depth, they owed you for saving their child... They called it the flower of life."

"I still don't understand."

"There's a mirror in the corner." The man said. "Check yourself in that."

I confuse mindedly stood up, and helped myself to the mirror in the corner. As said by the man, I observed my new image in the mirror.

I looked a bit younger than my age. My body went through physical change, with newly visible muscles, which I never had on me after I crossed my thirties. My flexibility and the newly appeared strength, which I could feel inside me. The flow of energy inside my every cells - it all made sense now.

I turned back at the person, who did not moved from the chair. "Tell me more about this flower."