Aksa opened his eyes to find himself in an endless space. There was nothing but water under his feet, reflecting the cloudy sky and the golden sun of the sunset.
No matter where he looked, he couldn't find the blood moon anywhere. In fact, he couldn't find anything in his sight.
"Where… Am I?" Aksa turned his head around as he spoke, his eyes full of confusion. The last thing he remembered was him going to sleep after he finished eating.
"Is this another one of Zephyr's weird tricks?" Aksa questioned before he started calling for Zephyr's name, but he got no answer.
A frown appeared on his face as he stood still, trying to understand what was happening. However, the silence that filled the place was making him nervous, so he started walking.
For a while, Aksa didn't stumble upon anything different than what he was seeing. He also noticed that the clouds didn't move one bit, and the sun remained in the same place he had seen it earlier.
Then, he came across something. A long mirror that matched his height was the only thing that changed in that space.
In it, he saw himself, but younger, wearing the same shabby clothes he was wearing before he met with Kael.
His skin was pale like skin, and his eyes were completely dead, with tears slowly flowing down his face, but even with that, his empty expression didn't change.
Aksa stretched his arm, trying to touch his younger self in the mirror, but he was left disappointed as he could only touch the reflective glass.
Aksa frowned as he let out a deep breath. Then, he closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, his younger self had disappeared, and he saw Zephyr's reflection in the mirror.
"What do you want, Zephyr?" Aksa asked in a calm voice.
"I see your heart has softened, my child." Zephyr ignored Aksa's question and started talking, "It's disappointing how a little kindness made you forget all the suffering you've experienced."
Aksa remained silent, looking at Zephyr with narrowed eyes and clenched jaw. He then watched as Zephyr stepped out ot the mirror.
Zephyr then passed by Aksa, who was still watching him, looking at him from the corner of his eyes. Zephyr then stood behind him, grabbing his shoulders before saying, "Tell me, my child... what do you see?"
Aksa turned his eyes to look at the mirror again. This time he saw himself smiling, wearing clean and comfortable clothes while standing in the shadow of a large tree.
"Is this what you want to be, my child? A lie?" Zephyr asked as he got closer to Aksa's ear, "Perhaps–It's comforting, no?"
The mirror then shatters into pieces before the scenery suddenly changed. That empty space that Aksa was just standing in now switched into what could only be described as a battlefield.
The debris of collapsed buildings and the corpses of dead people now surrounded him from all directions, with the blood moon appearing again behind the overcast that filled the sky as if staring directly into the boy, whose hands were now coated in blood.
"We both know that this is who you truly wish to become," Zephyr whispered in Aksa's ears as he watched him look into his hands.
The shattered pieces of the mirror then started levitating until they were high enough for Aksa to see them.
Once Aksa looked at them, his eyes widened. In every piece he looked at, he saw one of his memories. He could also hear his voice in each one of them. His screams of pain. His muffled crying.
Aksa extended his arm, reaching for one of the pieces that showed him trying to wake his mother before he knew she had died.
"Why are you showing me this?" Aksa asked as he looked at the memory.
"So that you can remember," Zephyr replied as he looked at the piece Aksa was holding, "I want you to never forget what this world did to you, my child."
"I-I don't understand." A defeated look appeared on Aksa's face as he spoke, "I feel horrible when I think like this, when everyone I have met so far has treated me with kindness, even though they didn't even know who I am."
"Kindness can never be trusted, my child," Zephyr replied as he started walking away from Aksa. "Remember, my child. Hope is just a lie."
Aksa's vision began to blur as he heard a faint voice in his ears.
"W…p..d"
"Wa…id"
"Wake up, kid!"
Aksa jolted up, gasping for air as he looked at Kael, who was holding his body with body hands as he was shaking it to wake him up.
"We have a problem," Kael explained, his eyes full of panic.
"W-what's wrong?" Aksa asked as he looked at him, confused.
"All the dead bodies in the city have turned into mutants," Kael explained as he let go of him, "Grab your bow and follow me."
Although he was still confused from the sudden shift from that dream to this, Aksa managed to give him a nod so Kael could go first.
As he watched Kael rush outside the room, Aksa felt something in his hand. When he lifted his hand to see it, he saw the piece of the mirror he was holding in that dream.
"How did this end up here?" Aksa mumbled as he looked at the piece in puzzlement. However, he knew he couldn't waste time on that, so he just slid it under the bed before standing up to grab his bow.
Once Aksa stepped back into the town, his eyes opened wide in shock as he saw that everything around him was on fire, with a horde of mutants running around its roads.
"What happened here?" Aksa asked Kael who had been waiting for him at the end of the staircase, his panic obvious in his voice.
"The same thing that happened to the lands outside the town," Kael explained as he took off the wrap that was around his hand, "The blood moon ash lit on fire and some of it mixed with the dead bodies."
As he turned his blood into a bow, Kael and Aksa rushed to the town square, only to find that the tent had caught on fire.
While the guards were fighting the horde of mutants back, the medics were trying to put out the fire.
However, the number of guards was too low since the rest of them had accompanied the town residents to the capital, and only those assigned to protect the medics were left. Thus, they were quickly pushed back, with some of them even dying at the hands of those monsters.
Kael gritted his teeth as he turned his blood into three arrows, holding them all at once as he pulled the string of his blood arrow.
"This is gonna take a while," he said as he let go of the arrows that pierced through numerous bodies of mutants ahead. The arrow passed through them like a hot knife cutting through butter, making them instantly drop to the ground.
Aksa didn't waste much time and quickly prepared his bow before taking a stance. He started shooting the arrow at a terrifying speed, with each one improving his accuracy to the point where he was hitting every shot.
Kael was surprised at how fast Aksa had improved since just a few hours ago when they were in the swamp, but instead of asking him about it, Kael decided it would be best to take advantage of the situation.
"I'll handle things here," Kael explained as he made new arrows. "Go check on the medics."
"Huh? How am I supposed to do that?" Aksa quickly asked, looking at Kael as if he had gone crazy. "Wouldn't it be better if you went there?"
"No, I need to stay back and relieve some of the stress from the guards" Kael explained as he pointed at the guards struggling to fight back, "I'l open up the way for you, and you should be able to handle the rest on your own.
"But I'm–" Aksa tried to argue, but he was quicly cut off.
"Just. Go. Don't think about it too much, okay?" Kael said.
Aksa didn't know what to say so he just nodded and started running towards the mutants. Some of them noticed him running straight ahead, so they quickly shifted their focus to him.
Aksa immediately started firing his arrows at them, trying to push keep them away as he ran. Yet, some managed to reach close to him, making him panic.
However, Before they could reach him, Kael's blood arrows started raining on them, dropping them to the ground one by one.
Aksa turned his head, facing Kael who gave him a nod as he made more arrows. Aksa nodded back and continued running.
Before he could reach the medics, One of the mutants suddenly jumped, landing directly on him and pushing him to the ground.
It immediately started attack him with it mouth, constantly biting as it tried to reach his neck, but Aksa managed to dodge its attacks, moving his head out of its way at the last moment.
He then grabbed its neck, trying to push away as he started thinking of a way to get himself out of that situation, but the mutant refused to stab as it started swinging its hands, scratching his face while trying to attack his eyes.
Aksa then heard Kael voice calling him from afar, "Use your knife, kid!"
Aksa immediately remembered the knife that kael had fiven him just a few days before, so he moved one of his arms, trying to search his body for it.
But, no matter where he searched, he couldn't find it.