Chase was standing in an eternal plane of crimson water.
"Is it over...?"
He thought aloud, gazing into his own eyeless reflection.
He had several terrible wounds painted over his body, a gash on his shoulder, blood spilling from a large cut on his forehead, and several more gashes on his thighs and stomach.
His body was covered in dirt and mud from his lack of breaks during his terribly intense training.
But the most terrifying part of the lake of blood, was the lack of eyes within the sockets they were supposed to be burning a bright green within.
His eye sockets were simply empty.
"Look at the water..."
A strange and yet calm voice spoke from no specific direction.
After studying the calm waters further, he shrugged.
"It's not moving."
The voice scoffed.
"We have a genius in our wake, it seems..."
Chase still quite confused, feeling as if he had truly died, and too exhausted to really care.
"Haha, real funny. What is it I'm supposed to see?"
The voice chuckled.
"No no, you were correct. It is not moving, it is unusually calm actually."
"Then-"
"Because I want to know why it is calm... Why do the waters not tremble with such a powerful soul standing within them...?"
"I am not powerful..."
"I am not talking about you..."
Chase didn't know whether to laugh at the mocking or completely ignore it.
Then he raised an eyebrow.
"Am I not supposed to be here?"
The voice boomed with laughter, revealing a feminine hint within the god-like tone.
"Not at all!"
"Why?"
The voice stopped, feeling as if it should think very carefully about what she would say and what she shouldn't say.
"Because it is not the time, nor is it the place for this... Zephyr was supposed to train you, yes. But will you tell me exactly he has planted in your mind...?"
"He told me that I should forget any ideas of a combat style, that I should simply fight as the battle requires, and stay mentally flexible."
"Onyx has said this too... Why do you think you need to be mentally flexible?"
"Be-"
"Wrong... Better yet, I will ask why it keeps occurring so often... Why do powerful people keep mentioning flexibility?"
Chase stayed silent for a moment, rubbing his finger against the broken ruin on his shoulder.
"Because the stronger you are... The less the laws of humans come into play, it breaks the mind and cannot handle concepts beyond that of systems and natural organization..."
The voice did not respond, but a small tremble shot through the water, causing a single ripple in every direction.
"Why do you lack eyes?"
The voice asked after a long silence.
"I do not..."
If the voice had a grin on its face, then it would be now. The water started to swirl around him faster and faster, gaining speed as it built up.
"So learn to see without them..."
The voice said, as water began to splash into the air, waves of ginormous proportions started to explode with power over the horizon of crimson water.
When he tried to look at the sky, all he seen was another reflection of himself standing in the water.
"What is this place!?"
He yelled through the quaking of vast amounts of water.
"The sea of the soul..."
The voice trailed off, and he woke with start in the rubble of some sort of mine elevator, at least what used to be an elevator.
However, everything was different.
Vastly different.
'What...'
When he tried to push himself up, it was as if time had slowed almost to a stop.
He was panicking, and all he could hear was the sound of the terribly slow beating war drums.
'War drums?'
'That's right...'
He stood up, feeling the grasp of time slowly rip off of his soul.
He he opened his eyes, and truly opened his eyes that is.
Everything was blurry, and fuzzy as if someone had put a transparent cloth over his eyes.
He could see, but not entirely.
He could see feelings, and sounds, and vibrations, but could not see images or what was really in front of him.
He could see a large mass of power ever so slowly charging at him with slow and powerful stomps.
His blade was in his hands somehow, even though he was sure he had lost it. He didn't know how he had lost it, but he knew that he did.
In fact, all he could remember was being shoved in a hole by his master.
The force of energy was strange, and everchanging.
It took him a few seconds of heavy and slow breathing to truly figure out what was happening.
It was a soul, and a very large one at that.
It glowed with a luminescent color that he wasn't sure existed in this world, and it was terribly angered.
"What do you see...?"
The slow motion voice of his master's telepathy had thrown him off, and he wasn't sure he could talk in the state he was in.
'I see everything...'
He thought, slowly squeezing the handle of Hero's Fang.
When he moved, it was like a large wave crashing into a city.
Everything flashed by in seconds, and he felt his body move without thought or even instinct for that matter.
Slash, slash, slash, dodge, step, slash, duck, slash.
All of the thoughts were like a strange show of stationary images flashing through his mind, but his body seemed to understand it perfectly.
Before he knew it, he stood in a mess of blood and severed limbs.
The creature was screaming and thrashing, as its soul started to shiver.
Chase looked up with reverence at the creature, and some sort of detachment.
"Forgive me... For I have intruded your home and ended your life where you once slept..."
Then he moved again, and it was like a thrashing whirlwind of death.
All he could see was the luminescent after images of the two souls, including his own.
His blade severed the throat of the monster, ripping it from the broken body of the Hollow.
He landed with a terrible pain overtaking his body, he clutched his head and lowered it to the ground.
He couldn't tell if he was screaming, or just opening his mouth and feeling terrible pressure begin to shatter his mind.
Zephyr stood above him, Chase did not know when he had gotten there but it seemed he was yelling at him, trying to get him to move or stand or really anything.
'I- Cant...'
He thought, feeling darkness overtake his sight.