When Fade opened his eyes, there was an infinite emptiness around him.
An endless, flat expanse...
The sky was hazy, neither night nor day.
The cold water, reaching up to his ankles, was gently rippling; but there were neither waves nor wind.
In a void, he was completely alone.
There was no light. But he could still see.
There was no shadow. But there was a chilling darkness inside.
Time seemed to have stopped.
He took a step. The wave in the water expanded only around itself and then faded away.
At that moment, he saw a reflection under the water.
His own face... but expressionless.
And then a child's scream echoed, muffled and deep.
Fade lifted his head.
There was no one around.
But suddenly, images began to stir on the surface of the water—like a memory, blurry, brief, and fragmented:
A small child was running down a dark street.
A hand was tugging at him.
Then a scream.
And everything was fading away.
Fade's face tightened.
Was this... his childhood?
However, he thought that his parents had died in an accident.
He had been told so.
But there was no car in the scene he saw, no siren sound from the accident—only darkness, escape, and something hidden.
And then...
Another image appeared on the surface of the water:
A young woman—Fade's mother.
Her eyes were teary, a baby in her arms.
There was someone behind her... an unfamiliar silhouette.
But it had no face, it was faint and shaky.
The woman said, "We need to get rid of him." "When he comes, everything will be over."
Fade's eyes widened.
This voice...
This face…
This moment was not in his memory.
"You've started to remember..." said a voice, with a muffled whisper coming from underwater.
"Truth is not revealed by time..." "it unfolds with courage."
Fade knelt down on his knees.
He bowed his head. Were the drops falling into the water tears, or were they the leakage of a memory with a ruptured vein?
The sky darkened a bit more.
As if the more his mind opened up, the more this void gained reality.
But there was still something under the water.
Deep down, another memory...
And Fade knew that in the midst of this void, he would confront hidden darknesses, not lies about his past.
Fade, as he knelt on his knees, suddenly the surface of the water began to recede.
The water beneath his feet deepened like a whirlpool.
It was as if it was calling him inside.
Instinctively, he lost his balance and fell down.
He didn't drown.
On the contrary... hecould breathe.
He fell into a dark, dim memory.
This was no longer just an image, not just witnessing a memory—it was like being there in person.
An old house…
Wooden walls, shelves filled with books, and a faint candlelight.
A place familiar to Fade from childhood, yet somehow known.
In the dark, there were whispers coming from behind a door:
"We can't keep him here." "When the time comes, he will learn too."
"But he's still a child, he can't do it." We would lose him.
"Even if we lose, we have no other choice but to take that path."
The door was slightly opened.
Inside, Fade's mother and father were there.
They were living.
And they looked much older, much more tired.
His mother's eyes drifted to the window.
To the point where Fade is...
She looked directly into his eyes.
"Can you hear us, Fade?"
"Don't learn everything yet." But remember: This path will lead you to us. Just follow the right shadows. "Don't... completely trust what your grandfather tells you."
The door slammed shut all of a sudden.
The inside of the house was wiped clean.
And Fade returned to the void in the water again.
Lying on his back in the water, he fixed his eyes on the sky.
The darkness was now more familiar.
This void was no longer just the voice of death, but also the voice of a truth.
Fade stood up.
There was a strange expression on his face.
Complex.
Sadness, hope, and anger were intertwined.
But now he knew:
His mother and father were not dead.
They were hiding.
And they had a reason.
This path is not just to reach the darkness;
to reclaim a home, a truth, a family.
But most importantly...
His grandfather was hiding something.
Fade's path was now clearer. But it was even more dangerous.
Fade, as he moved through the void, the water at his feet receded.
He was now walking on dry ground—but it was unclear what the ground was.
Neither stone nor soil.
As if he were walking on just a thought, a fragment of a memory.
The silhouette that appeared in the distance was initially just a shadow.
Then it took on a humanoid form.
He didn't have a face.
There was a huge gash on his chest.
The inside of the crack wasn't dark; it was lightless.
He didn't have a name, but his presence was familiar.
And then he spoke:
"Who are you?" Who are you to knock on the door of this path?
Fade clenched his fists.
As always, he was ready to fight.
But there was a heaviness in his body.
His breathing became shallow.
It was as if this entity was not only pressuring his body but also his soul.
Fade made the first attack.
It was fast.
It was devastating.
But the moment he hit his target, the enemy's body disintegrated.
And he appeared behind his.
He grabbed Fade's throat with one hand and lifted him into the air.
"You are weak."
He knocked Fade down with a single blow, and he couldn't get up.
On his shoulders, on his knees... there was an unbearable weight on his chest.
It was as if all his past, fears, and suppressed pains were piled on top of him.
Every breath was painful.
"The power you thought it was, was an empty dream." Courage worked until it saw the truth. Now show me how incomplete you are."
And at that moment...
Fade's childhood self appeared in his mind.
A child hiding behind his mother, crying, and scared.
He had suppressed that moment.
He had forgotten.
But now he was here.
He couldn't escape.
Fade squinted his eyes.
He tried to resist.
But that being whispered in his ear:
"You cannot know your enemy without knowing yourself."
And then, pressing against Fade's chest, he plunged him completely into darkness.
For a while… he lost consciousness.
When he opened his eyes, he was back in the water-filled void.
His body was trembling.
He was covered in blood and sweat.
A sentence slipped from his mouth:
"I... I'm not strong enough."
But this was not a confession of defeat.
This was the beginning of true power.
Fade wouldn't wait for the day to meet that being again,
would prepare.
He didn't want to be strong anymore.
He had to be strong.
Fade was still trembling, kneeling on the water's surface.
There was a suppressed scream in his throat, but he couldn't let it out.
When he started to get to know herself, he realized that the biggest battle was not outside, it is in the inside.
At that moment, a wave came up from the water.
And from the darkness, The Watcher of the Abyss appeared once more.
But this time, he didn't attack.
He slowly stood in front of Fade.
His voice was now deeper, colder, but just as clear:
"You've been defeated."
But I didn't destroy you.
Because in you, I saw the ones who will be reborn by tearing themselves apart."
Fade lifted his head.
"Why didn't you kill me?" he said.
The crack in the Watcher's chest glimmered slightly this time.
From within the crack, Fade's childhood voices, forgotten memories, and dark fears echoed.
"Because you can still be trained."
The things I'm going to show you are not weapons...
I will teach you how to forge the sword of your soul.
Fade got up with difficulty.
The water around his feet trembled slightly.
"Why are you doing this?" he asked.
The lookout tilted his head slightly to the left:
"Because this path is not just the path of death."
This path is the path of truth.
And those who can bend and rise before the truth... will eventually be free.