Crusader King-Chapter 144: Two-faced lie(8)

Cades felt fear, he felt heavy, he felt disgusted, and he felt something that was indescribable, a feeling of malice, of hatred, of being despised by himself, and soon after he realized, he realized that he, deep down, had already known of the origin of the being that was now standing in front of him, he had already known that he was Cades as well, and now, he had realized something entirely different.

Whatever he might be called now, he hated Cades, but he didn't want to kill him, and whether or not Cades was going to get out of this scot-free or not, that was something good, it meant that it would be more difficult for that thing to beat him, be it that he didn't have much difficulty with it in the first place, but still, it would be more difficult to restrain him than to kill him, a small chance of escaping in the worst case.

But he couldn't ask about why he was let alive, he could only ask about one thing, one thing that was detrimental to running away should the need arise, and he was fairly certain of that, as he felt the anguish from his opponent, an anguish that made the air heavy and hard to breathe, an anguish oozing with overconfidence and something else, an intent hidden, something that the actual Cades had no idea of how his opponent was doing, he could only feel that the last part of this feeling he was feeling was something else. frёeωebɳovel.com

Either way, he asked his question, the opposing Cades still within his personal space and ready to attack him at any moment should the need arise, his eyes still unblinking and looking at him wit weirdly violet eyes that Cades had never really seen on himself before.

"Where are we?"

His other self, still looking at him with indifferent, unblinking eyes, the area still drowned in the same feeling as before, the only difference being that the actual Cades took a few steps backwards so that he wouldn't be all up in his own face, a feeling he last felt back when he was still at home, on ehetria, and looking into the mirror caring about how he looked, though, admittedly, he didn't really care about it all that much, just enough to take care of his hair, something that was relatively important to him, and also something that he was now practically indifferent towards.

Cades looked at it, looked at himself, looked at the hair, the skin, and finally, he began to understand just how he must've looked all this time while going through all that had happened, and he understood why Manug had been so terrified when they had first met, and even more so why he had asked him to clean himself up.

But still, something he began realizing now, was that this being in front of him, it's mind worked similarly to Cades, and Cades was certain that it was obvious as to why he had asked about this place, Cades was certain his other self already knew what he was trying to figure out, and it must've already been prepared for any attempts he had been able to think up with his limited knowledge about this place, wherever he might be.

"If anything, you should recognize this place, this endless expanse of wooden planks and heat, this hell illuminated by that never-moving red giant behind you, this place, it was build by you, created by you, it is the illustration of all your current thoughts, your current chaos, your everything, well, I guess our everything. This place is your, or rather, our, consciousness, it is where we, the true us, resides within, it is.. our being.. if you may."

Cades continued to try and walk away as he had first begun talking, however, he started to feel something move behind him, and as soon as he blinked, his other self already stood behind him, continuing to talk, already knowing what Cades was going to ask next, something obvious, he was going to ask how the hell they would get out of here, that, his other self already knew, his other self was another Cades after all, and Cades was very much capable of predicting his own actions most of the time, perhaps another reason for why he had lost so easily.

"As for the question you were going to ask after digesting this new information, for now i'll have to spoon-feed you everything about this place, won't I?"

The actual Cades took another step backwards, and the other Cades took another step forward, pointing at his head as if to mock him, but Cades soon after realized what he was insinuating, he was insinuating the use of psychological knowledge, and indeed, Cades had previously tried to say that word with such a gesture when he had forgotten it, and he had studied a bit about psychology, having read a book that he had found on the streets back when he was bored once, but not enough to really make connections, and his other self seemed to already know this as he continued, ignoring the actual Cades silence and continuing on with his own realization that he had most likely discovered while the actual Cades had been unconscious for an unknown amount of time, his mana clashing within him.

"This place is full of philosophical conundrums, it is pure understanding of intent, something you seemed to be better at than me from what I had been able to tell up to now whenever I was watching your battles, not that I wasn't able to understand their movements, seeing as you were only really fighting a spider, well, I did also watch you past battles though.. "

He paused for a moment, his eyes now, finally, blinking, as if remembering all their failures that he had to witness, as if he remembered how he was almost beaten by a mindless beast within a thick, powerful forest, as if he was remembering the fights on the wooden island, and many more, but then, finally, he continued on, now, hopefully, finally, explaining how they could continue on from this place.