Luciel found himself standing in a vast, silent expanse, like an endless void. The only light came from his own body, its wisps of radiance dancing around him. The air carried no scent, no temperature, not even a prickling feeling. It was the emptiest place he had ever seen.
'I'm finally in the Soulscape.'
It looked exactly as how he would have described his own soul — barren, quiet, and absurdly spacious for something that had nothing in it. It was wasted space, frankly.
But maybe, after this, the space would start to fill.
Ever since that unexplainable dream, nothing had made any sense to him. He was just accustomed to taking things as they came, and he considered himself to adapt well in most situations; that was why he never felt genuinely surprised or in awe.
But even this series of events baffled Luciel.
And somehow, it gave him a sense of exhilaration he never thought he could have. He felt a smirk forming on his non-existent lips.
A brand new life was waiting for him. He felt vindicated that the world had rewarded him for his efforts to keep living. But at the same time, it all felt too easy. A seed of doubt bloomed in his heart. It wasn't that he thought he didn't deserve it; he just wasn't used to things coming so easily.
In any case, Luciel waited for the Encore to crack open as Bambi said it would, but nothing happened. The abyss answered his call with silence.
'You gotta be joking.'
He knew Bambi wouldn't just lie out of nowhere. Putting aside her unserious demeanor, she was possibly the most knowledgeable person he knew. This must be a unique circumstance.
Since the Encore didn't come out to greet him, Luciel decided to find it himself. He scanned the darkness of his soul thoroughly, slowly treading toward a random direction.
He reacted to any modicum of disturbance in the air, any ripple in the black waters beneath his incorporeal feet. Yet no matter how hard he looked, the Encore continued to evade him. It went on for… who knows how long. He'd already lost count of time.
The possibility of being trapped and dying here was increasing by the minute.
'Don't exaggerate now.'
Right. Pessimism was never the way. He'd been through worse than this. If anything, the Soulscape soothed him with a mesmerizing allure he could not describe. Since it was his Soulscape, he felt everything that made up his existence. Yet at the same time, the state of nothingness permeated through him.
The constant contradiction felt like watching his fictitious father and mother battle to prove who loved him more. It was nice, in a way.
Luciel figured just walking around wouldn't work. Just like how he found the entrance to the Soulscape, he needed an anchor of intent to find the Encore. From what he had learned about the world, coincidence was an excuse, a lazily crafted word people used when they ran out of answers. Everything had an origin, a cause, or a pull.
Maybe that old man had something to do with it.
'Curses. Do you not want me to awaken, crazy old man?'
He couldn't help himself letting that geezer catch a stray. It was just a way to vent out his frustrations.
'Ah!'
A sudden revelation slipped into his mind. The sword that the old man had given to him — it definitely had something to do with this space.
With a solution in mind, Luciel anchored himself to the Soulscape's intent and searched only for the sword. He emptied his mind, leaving nothing but the image of that beautiful blade.
He imagined the glint of the blade would carve a path for him within the abyss. As the image settled into place, his radiance gathered along the line of his intent. The wisps around his body stretched forward like silk. The black waters rippled once more, then calmed into a smooth dark mirror.
Luciel studied his reflection, invisible yet glowing. The mirror held his glow with perfect clarity, and the void held his gaze with equal patience. He stared until the silence started to stare back.
'If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.'
The quote resonated with him deeply because it captured his struggle against creeping nihilism.
The waters seemed to receive his sentiment. It trembled and released a single ripple that traced a thin line across the surface. Brightened by silky strands of light, the path surged forward like a cut of moonlight, leaving behind notes of tranquil water. They gathered along the line in orderly rows, each one echoing the others in sequence, pointing deeper into the void.
The scene was so ethereal that Luciel wished he had a camera to capture it.
He took his time, soaking in the beauty of the unknown. Would humans be able to witness this if not for the Shattering? No. It was a necessary evil, one that helped people understand themselves better. Looking at the world now — ugly and unforgiving, nearly six hundred years later — the four-thousand-year history of the Common Era had met its deserved end.
A fruit was bound to rot, and the tree was bound to bear another. That, to Luciel, was natural.
He stepped forward, slowly following the lit path. With each stride, another line of moonlit water unfurled ahead of him, and the darkness parted like curtains. It continued on and on, until a hum grew in his ears.
It carried the familiar sound of steel and heat, one that he had the chance to experience in a rundown smithy. It was unmistakably the sound of that sword.
After some time, Luciel finally slowed.
The path ended at a circle of still water. The silk of light curled toward it and spun around a single point inside the dark.
'The sword.'
There it was.
A vertical line rose from the center of the circle. It was standing in its exact position when it appeared in his dream. The light spiraling around his body escaped from him and ran toward the sword. It clashed with steel multiple times before coating the blade, then the hilt, then the entire circular surface.
No matter how long Luciel studied it, he could not deny its excellence. It was simply an artisan sword of the highest caliber.
The moment of truth was upon him.
Feeling nervous, he swallowed hard before stepping into the circle. The hum became louder and louder, as if urging him to take the sword and leave already.
'Not that I don't want to leave, so relax.'
Luciel shook his head.
With total confidence, he reached out to the sword. His fingers closed around the grip perfectly, feeling as though the sword was made just for him. The leather sat comfortably in his palm. The balance settled at the center of his hand.
It felt complete. He felt complete.
In one decisive motion, Luciel pulled, freeing the blade from the ground.
The waters immediately shuddered and stilled again. The hum vanished into oblivion.
He held the sword at his side and stared at the steel.
'Is it over?'
Then, the still water beneath him sunk.
'Why did I even say that?'
Luciel tumbled and almost fell to his backside, but he acrobatically landed and distanced himself from the circle.
He lifted his gaze, holding his sword close like a once-in-a-lifetime treasure.
A point of light rose from the center where the water retreated. It hovered at waist height, small and concentrated like a miniature star, yet he felt like it carried supreme authority over the whole Soulscape.
'That's… my Encore.'
It looked exactly like a small, newborn star the size of a football. Cinders appeared to flicker around it. They drifted into orbit one by one, each one circling the star like the Sol system.
Luciel tightened his grip on the sword and studied the star. It was bright red, but its glow was dim. It burned without heat, constantly shifting between faint and vivid. The cinders were barely keeping the star alive.
It looked unassuming, and not at all impressive, but he had never cared about looks. In fact, he felt the same tingling intuition from the star as he did from the sword — inconspicuous but exceptional through refined lenses.
That, or maybe he had to defend his own soul. Who else would?
'Let's go back.'
Now that the Encore had appeared, he could intuitively see a way out. As he ingrained the exit in his mind, the still water beneath him began to drain. The mirror thinned into a sheet, then mist, and finally vanished. The bright red star shrank to a pinpoint and sank through his chest.
Without any ground, Luciel fell endlessly.
The fall ended with a gasp. Reality caught him by the neck and hauled him upright.
"I'm back."