Volume 4—Chapter 94: The First Surges (5)
Sometimes, a person’s origin can have more than one story. For some, it begins at birth, but for others, it may have started long before they were even aware of it. Yet that person might not remember it at all. What is an origin, anyway? It feels like an abstract concept. Perhaps, it only begins to matter once people start paying attention to it.
Take an artist who was never appreciated when alive but hailed as a genius after death. Only then did his origin matter. While he lived, he was just another person drifting through time. Yet his death became a catalyst that gave meaning to his life, reshaping how people saw his beginning.
Then what is the origin to begin with? I guess it varies depending on the context. Then… what about mine? Did it start in my previous life? Or in this one? Or somewhere else?
I look at my hand. That vivid dream still lingers, making me question everything.
“Having doubts about your existence?” A voice echoed, calm yet unsettlingly familiar. My voice.
“Who are you?” I finally asked after hearing it multiple times.
No reply. Just silence. For a moment, I wonder if I imagined it.
I get out of the infirmary bed. My body still aches, and my head feels heavy.
I walk toward the window… Huh? Wasn’t it sunny earlier? How long was I asleep?
“What are you doing out of bed?” That voice again… but this time, it’s a woman’s. Elizabeth-sensei?
I turn my body… only to freeze.
The person standing there looks exactly like me.
“Irana? Did you cut your hair?”
“I’m not Irana.”
Then… who is she? The voice?
“Are you… me?”
“You could say that.”
“Am I still dreaming?”
“Dreaming? No. This is reality.”
“Reality?”
“So I’m asking you to stop right now.”
“Stop doing what?”
Before I could take another breath, a deep rumble shook the air.
Thunder?
“I SAID STOP!”
“Stop doing what?”
The girl who looks like me suddenly fades, her form dissolving like mist.
Then the ground trembles. An earthquake? What the hell is happening?
I glance around as everything begins to fracture like a shattered mirror. The walls, the windows… each surface splits with thin glowing cracks. They aren’t cracks from something breaking, but more like… tears in reality itself. From within them, a bright violet light seeps through, flooding the room with an eerie glow.
That light… it feels strangely familiar, almost nostalgic.
“You realise what you’re doing?!” The voice again, echoing from nowhere and everywhere at once.
I step into the hallway. The same cracks run along the walls and floor, pulsing faintly. My heartbeat quickens.
Am I still dreaming? Right… this must be a dream. A lucid dream, maybe.
If that’s true… I can do anything.
“No! Listen to me, this is reality!”
A dream that I can control, huh? This could be fun.
I walk up to the window, the sky outside tinted grey and lifeless. Let’s see how far I can go.
Without a second thought, I leap out.
For a moment, I close my eyes and wait for the fall.
When I open them again…
I’m floating.
“Whoa… this is actually… really cool.”
I slowly ascend into the sky, rising higher and higher until the city spreads beneath me like a painting. It’s breathtaking, a view I’ve never seen before.
What else can I do? Flying around can’t be the only thing in this dream. As I wonder what to try next, I feel something tug at my ankle. I look down.
Vines…a thin green vine is wrapping around my feet, trying to pull me down. Yet, no matter how they strain, I remain floating in place. I follow their trail downward and see a figure standing on the ground.
Elizabeth-sensei.
Huh, that’s new. Her expression, though… I’ve never seen that look on her before. Normally, she’s calm and gentle. But now… that face… disgust.
I raise my hand, and the vines vanish into nothing. After all, this is just a dream. I can control everything here. Besides, there’s no way this is reality. Elizabeth controlling vines? Yeah, impossible.
Still, I don’t get why she’s looking at me like that. Well, whatever. This might be fun.
I slowly descend and land in front of her. Maybe I can talk to her.
“Sensei? What’s with the sudden hostility?” I ask, tilting my head.
She doesn’t answer.
Another wave of vines lashes toward me.
“I see, no talking then? So it’s a fight?”
I grin and twist away as the vines strike the ground where I stood.
“Oh, come on! What did I do to make Sensei so mad?” I say playfully, laughing as I dodge another attack.
“Has this student been doing something naughty?” I add with a chuckle, spinning midair as the next vine whips past.
Then… Elizabeth-sensei suddenly froze mid-motion, lowering herself to the ground and pressing one hand against it.
Huh? What’s she doing now?
A tremor ran through the earth, followed by a deafening crack. From the torn ground, a massive tree burst upward, its trunk twisting like muscle and bark fusing into a shape far too human. The thing had a face… Rough, hollow eyes and a mouth carved into its surface.
“Whoa… is that a tree golem?”
Roots coiled and branches lashed out, tearing through the air. I jumped back instinctively, barely dodging as splinters and dust flew past me.
Okay, Aria, think. What’s the plan here?
If she can summon a giant tree monster, then I can… no, I should be able to make something too, right? Let’s see… what could match a walking forest? Something big, something powerful, something…
Or rather, I realised how stupid that line of thinking was.
Why even bother?
With a small sigh, I snapped my fingers.
The giant tree golem froze, its body cracking apart into glowing fragments before fading into nothing.
I brushed the dust off my sleeve and looked back at her. Elizabeth-sensei stood there, eyes wide, disbelief written all over her face.
Her reaction was priceless.
A small grin formed on my lips.
“Now that was easier, wasn’t it?”
Author's Note
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