Luciel woke to the smell of burning. He hadn't come to his senses just yet, so he thought nothing of it and kept his eyes closed.
A new wind of life blew over him, just like he wanted. He imagined how Bambi would react to his awakening. She had always been an unpredictable variable, wearing many faces throughout the day. He had seen them all — to the point he could recognize which was real and which was fake.
However, Luciel couldn't concentrate. The burnt smell seemed to be stronger and more invasive. Still, it didn't faze Luciel. In the Outlands, these kinds of unpleasant smell came and went every minute.
'Forget it. I need to get some sleep.'
He felt like he hadn't slept at all because of the dream. Then again, he could not stop thinking about that dream and the old man. What was the meaning of it all? That man didn't even bid farewell. He just went up and left.
'Annoying guy, that geezer.'
His thoughts were truly jumbled together like a knot. But what's worse was that damn smell! He just caught a whiff of it — the faint aroma of blood he could never not distinguish.
Luciel finally opened his eyes.
'What in the world…?'
The first scene he saw was the ceiling of the cabin blackened to a crisp. Thin cracks ran through the wooden beams above his bed. The wool blanket beneath him was warm.
'Too warm…'
It didn't make sense, considering they were up north where winter eternally presided over the land. Not to mention the reality bending ability of the Hollow that amplified weather, no way could something be this warm.
Luciel lifted his hand and saw faint wisps of smoke curled from his fingertips.
"You absolute fucker."
His head snapped toward the voice.
Bambi stood by the far wall, arms folded, body covered by her own blood. He sat up with difficulty, and asked with a slight tremor in his voice.
"What happened?"
Her eyes were fixed on him with an expression he had never seen before.
"How do you feel?"
Her unusual taciturn behavior indicated something was wrong. Luciel turned away and scanned the room.
'Oh crap.'
Could it even be called a room anymore? The walls had burst outward and burned down to their frame, as if a bomb had detonated inside the cabin. Fortunately, the pillars supporting the ceiling still held its ground, or else he and Bambi would be flattened like pancakes.
Well, he would. Bambi was a Guardian Resonator; she'd probably walk it off and complain about her hair.
Luciel dusted char off his arm.
"Fine. You don't look so well, though."
Bambi snorted.
"Yeah, no shit. I thought my cremation couldn't have come earlier."
She seemed fine, so that was a relief. Luciel was silent for a moment before getting off the bed. For some odd reason, Bambi retracted like she had just seen a devil.
"Why are you standing so far away?" he asked.
The way she looked at him suggested that he was the one who caused all of this. He slightly felt bad about it.
Bambi sighed as she gave him a serious look.
"Defensive measures. You triggered an Awakening Echo. Do you even know what that is? Of course you don't. Luciel, you blasted the whole damn house! Congratulations! I knew this day would come. We gotta go to the COR to register you."
She rattled off without taking a breath.
Luciel blinked. He caught maybe half of that.
"Slow down. I just had a crazy dream. Another crazy scene is the last thing I need right now."
Bambi suddenly ran toward him and grabbed his arm. Her expression had changed from seriousness to excitement in a matter of seconds.
"So? Tell me everything. I lost my sleep because of you. You owe me at least that, right?"
Luciel shook her hands off and lightly shoved her down onto his bed.
"Wipe off your blood first. It smells. Sticky too."
Bambi pouted but complied. In a single snap of her fingers, the blood lifted off her body, merged into a faint transparent grey wisp, and vanished.
"It doesn't even smell! It's colorless and odorless. I swear you make that up every time."
Right, Bambi was an Elf who could control blood like a Vampire, an extinct race only mentioned in myths. Her blood had special properties of being colorless, odorless, and poisonous.
It was easy to forget how dangerous Bambi was since they were allies. Sometimes, he had to remind himself from time to time that she could kill a room full of people without lifting a finger. A walking, pouting catastrophe.
Luciel sighed, then sat down onto the bed next to her.
"I met an old man in a battlefield. He told me about a brave man who sacrificed himself for his world and handed me a sword. I grabbed it, and then the whole place went up in flames. Me included."
Bambi titled her head. She seemed amused by the story.
"Sounds like a bedtime story my grandmother used to tell. Something like, Legend of the Olden Flame, or something. An old warrior, a destined sword, a chosen one. Very original."
Luciel shook his head in disbelief.
"Glad my near-death experience amuses you."
She laughed heartily and slapped his back.
"It does, actually."
He let out a groan. After a moment, he looked down at his hands.
"I feel nothing different, though. Awakening, that is."
"Duh. Of course you feel nothing. You're still in the Awakening phase."
Bambi reached out, grabbed his hand, and raised it in front of his face.
"See this? Got yourself your own Stigma. Search for the Soulscape and open up the Encore. Echo Essence will flow within your body and enlighten the Stigma."
Luciel stared at her.
"Can we not use these technical mumbo jumbo?"
Bambi gripped his arm tighter, murmuring:
"Patience… patience… patience…"
"Hey, hey! Let go, crazy woman!"
After a minute of struggle, Luciel was freed from the shackles of Bambi. He hissed through his teeth, rubbing his arm to ease the pain.
"Anyway, how do you find the Soulscape?"
She leaned back on her hands.
"You meditate. Look into yourself. It's hard to explain because it's very conceptual. Basically, us Resonators don't just feel the physical. We feel the metaphysical beyond our flesh. You know how we can enter our Soulscape, right? That's the realm of the soul. Once you find it, the Encore should open up automatically."
Luciel digested her words slowly as he closed his eyes. Unsure what to do next, he focused on the darkness stretching out infinitely. After a while, when only silence remained, a blinding spark appeared at the end of the dark path.
'Seriously, why is there always gotta be something at the end of some road?'
However, unlike the dream, he didn't have a body to move here.
'Metaphysical, huh.'
Bambi probably meant the consciousness or intent of the soul, which pointed towards the idea of separating soul and body — an ominous concept, to say the least. But it didn't hurt to try.
He switched his focus onto the little spark of light. Then, unknowingly, he recited an excerpt from a book he read during his period of boredom.
'Through the essence of nature, the echo separates the body and soul into two, three, ten, millions, yet both of them are of the same origin. The law of asymmetric convergence dictates that no matter how far they drift, soul and body will always seek reunion, for one cannot exist in completion without the other.'
As the words surfaced in his mind, nausea washed over him. The spark pulses and became much clearer, as if he was actually seeing it instead of just blinding radiance.
Luciel then realized it: he can perceive images in the darkness as if he had a new set of eyes. The feeling was as strange as it could be. He could see within the darkness as clearly as daylight, yet every sensation from his physical body had vanished completely.
'So this is the soul.'
After sight, the sound came. A low, constant hum that came from everywhere and nowhere at once.
Then came the touch. The sensation arrived like pins and needles flooding a numb limb. The ground beneath him was cool and earthy, but it was just weight pressing down onto it. He had no legs, no feet whatsoever.
Luciel felt whole yet empty at the same time. He looked down at his non-existent torso and legs, then stared at his non-existent arms. Well, not entirely non-existent: faint wisps coursed through where his body should have been.
By the time he processed everything, the spark had somehow drifted right up to his face, pulsing more intensely, as if inviting him in.
'This must be the entrance.'
Without hesitation, Luciel dove into the light.