Chapter 5: Echoes of the Past
vijay 's POV
I stood amidst the ruins of a city, the landscape marred by devastation. Nineteen enormous circles, their symbols etched into the ground, formed a sprawling array under the harsh sunlight. I was positioned at the center, a spear clutched tightly in my hands. The staff of the spear was adorned with the same nineteen circles, and though their significance eluded me, their importance was palpable. The heat emanating from the spear was intense, almost as if the very air around it had been set ablaze.
Around me, silhouettes of people watched in silence, their eyes fixed on me with an unsettling intensity. It was then that the vision shifted—I drove the spear into my own chest.
The jolt of pain jolted me awake, my heart pounding as if I had just been pulled from the depths of a nightmare. The sensation of being branded with iron seared into my chest, and my ears rang with the distant sounds of chanting and bells. As the pain and disorientation slowly faded, I took a moment to observe my drenched and sticky clothes. The sweat clung to me as I made my way to the bathroom, the sunlight seeping through the crack in the curtains.
Under the hot water of the shower, I tried to shake off the remnants of the dream. These dreams had plagued me for the past six months, ever since I graduated. Initially, they were distant, like scenes from a battlefield viewed through a haze. But recently, the dreams had become more vivid, more immersive. I found myself not just observing but actively participating, often stabbing myself or being stabbed by others. The recurring theme seemed to be a deep-seated fear of betrayal or injury—understandable given my close brush with death at the hands of a goblin.
As I emerged from the shower, steam clouding the mirror, I noticed something strange. The same circular symbol I had seen on the spear was carved into my collarbone. Startled, I rubbed at the mirror, but the symbol vanished before my eyes. I dismissed it as a hallucination, a trick of the mind influenced by the vividness of the dream. Unbeknownst to me, a scar on my back, matching the spear's design, began to fade as I prepared for the day ahead.
Dressed and ready, I ventured into the world, the troubling remnants of the dream still gnawing at my mind.