Chapter 6 – Memories

Sai was surrounded by darkness. It was like he was floating in the night sky, but the stars were missing. Suddenly a bright silver flash and Sai could see something. He was inside of his own mind and still surrounded by darkness, but a picture appeared out of nowhere and Sai gasped surprised. “What is going on…?” he thought and decided to observe the picture. As he took a closer look, the picture suddenly shot into his spiritual body.

With a flash the picture turned into reality and Sai could see four children running around an almost ruined house. They were having fun, laughing and playing. They seemed really close.

The scene changed with a flash and Sai saw that the children grew older. They were currently fighting a big group of children, who were more or less the same size as them. After minutes they barely managed to win and started to cheer loudly while embracing each other. Sai felt bitter, as this scene kind of reminded him of his older brothers, who killed his parents and were now missing.

The scene changed again and the four friends were standing straight, while watching an older man roaring something. Around the four friends were countless other creatures like them, every single one was concentrating on the older man with green-golden clothes. All the creatures were wearing identical clothes and after the roars of the old man ended, they all roared something back, while punching their chest with their fist. Determination, anticipation and the desire to fight could be seen in every single gaze. Sai didn’t understand a word, but he could understand the meaning, without knowing the language. These people were going to war. They were warriors, just like the warriors of his own tribe.

Suddenly the scene changed and Sai was on the battlefield. The four friends were shooting something out of long black sticks. Every time they pulled the trigger a small fire dragon shot out of the end of the black sticks. Countless enemies were hit by strange metallic looking balls and the four friends laughed loudly. Pride was filling their eyes and they were grinning all over their faces. “That is, what a warrior is supposed to be, even though they are using these black sticks, which is really kind of cowardly!” Sai thought and felt respect.

The scene changed, a village could be seen and the four friends were walking straight into it. Sai’s instincts told him, that there was something fishy here. The four friends stepped into the seemingly abandoned village, as suddenly huge balls of fire were exploding behind them, blocking their retreat. “A shaman?!” Sai thought shocked and was observing concentrated, but he couldn’t find anyone with totemic powers. He only saw countless creatures appearing from the roofs and out of hideouts in the ground. All of them started firing these strange black sticks and two of the four friends instantly died. The blood splattered everywhere, as they were falling to the ground, screaming. Sai watched in horror, as one of the friends jumped behind a wall, trying to get cover and the other remaining friend exploded in a giant ball of fire. The last remaining friend watched everything and suddenly his eyes became dull and lifeless. He stepped around the corner and was almost instantly hit by three of the strange black projectiles. The last remaining friend fell to the ground and rage and a little bit of relief appeared in his eyes.

The scene changed and Sai saw a man, who was tied to a strange four legged metal thing. This man was the last remaining friend. “He didn’t die…why did they let him live??!” Sai thought confused. The man was surrounded by some other men, who were torturing him, cutting wounds in his body, burning him, laughed at him. His body was covered in countless wounds, but no one cared. “Disgusting…those people are no warriors!!” Sai thought in horror and tried to turn around.

The scene changed, showing the man being freed from his shackles. A long time must have passed, because the body of the man was full of scars. The last remaining friend was, together with other similar looking people, transported to a giant village. “What is this….how can something be as big as this??!” Sai thought shocked and his gaze tried to cover everything at the same time.

The scene changed again and Sai observed how the man walked through the giant village, with a broken gaze, without a sign of actual life. He was walking through the city every day, every night, for countless days. Every day was the same, and Sai could feel the emptiness inside of the body of the man. Someday, something changed and with a bang the broken mind of the man was turned into one entity again. The eyes of the man became clear again and he turned around and shouted something, which Sai couldn’t understand. Suddenly the ground beneath the man opened up, swallowed him and closed without a sound. The man got pulled into the earth, while screaming.

The scene changed again and Sai was shocked as he witnessed how the man jumped into a sea of molten stones while shouting something to the heavens. “This man…is incredible” Sai thought, as he saw the prideful and determined look in the eyes of the man. Somehow this man seemed familiar.

The Scene changed, showing a big crater with countless patches of flames everywhere inside. The flames were burning with a faint golden light and seemed wild. Sai turned around and to his surprise, a man stood there. It was not the same man, who jumped into the sea of lava. The man in front of his eyes was a lot more muscular, no scars were seen on his body. Long black hair floated from his back and his eyes were coloured ice blue. The piercing gaze of the man was concentrated on the surroundings, as he shouted something again. Suddenly with a strange flapping sound, something jumped out of the most concentrated flock of flames in the middle of the crater. Sai couldn’t spot what it was until it landed directly in front of the man.

“DRAGON!!” Sai screamed shocked in his mind. “How can there be a dragon…I thought they were long since extinct…the elders said that the dragons got hunted from some unknown godly beings….how can this be?!” Sai asked himself and observed how the dragon and the man were conversing.

The dragon talked for a long time but afterwards tears could be seen in the eyes of the man and they seemed to come to an agreement. The dragon presented something on his claw, which the man took with a doubtful gaze. It looked like a chain. Sai couldn’t recognize it, he had never seen something like this before. The dragon summoned a vase out of no where and with a quick swipe from one of his magnificent claws, he cut a deep wound onto his chest. Blood started to flow out and the Dragon put the vase underneath the wound. The blood flowed into the vase and after some time, the wound closed. The blood filled vase floated down to the man again. The man stared deep into the eyes of the Dragon and after a moment, a determined look once again appeared in his eyes. He put the vase towards his mouth and started drinking the blood, as if he was dying of thirst.

After a moment the dragon sighed deeply and a giant wave of white and golden flames shot out of his mouth enveloping the man completely. It looked really painful to Sai, but he could only feel excitement from the man. After an unknown period of time the flames stopped and the whole vase was empty. With a bang flames started to come out of the body of the man, surrounding him and his body started to change again. The former long black hair, curled up into a little into a strange looking hairstyle. The body changed from skin to white scales and back. The flames started to flicker in a silver colour. The most striking change was the white thing, seemingly coming out of the man’s face. “I see….it is a face above another face…” Sai thought. Slowly the flames vanished and the man opened his eyes.

A silver light flashed in his eyes and he looked a lot more dangerous and wild than before. “This is the creature that jumped into the side of the Zecais…then…are these parts of his memories? What is happening….?” Sai thought.

The scene changed, showing the man with the second face hunting magical beasts. Sai was getting more and more impressed by this man. After the man killed a big scorpion he witnessed him drawing a strange pattern into his fore arm. At first he couldn’t determine what it was supposed to be, but after some time he recognized a scorpion tail. Sai was getting excited “This is the technique to inherit bloodline techniques…??! How come no one tried this before?!” he thought and tried to watch every single step. To his displeasure he couldn’t memorize even one of the moves the man made, to make this pattern. It was as if someone was erasing the movements from his mind.

The scene changed and a fight was shown. The man was fighting with the ghostly stinger floating above his arm. His enemy was a giant blood red bear, who looked extremely dangerous. The fight didn’t take long and the man was barely able to win.

The scene changed again and again, countless times and every scene would show different beast species fighting with the man. He was visibly getting stronger with every kill. Sai was surprised as he saw himself fighting with the Zecais. The man was watching him with interest. At first he wanted to turn around, because it seemed like Sai wouldn’t fight back, but after Sai roared he turned back around and watched the attack. Respect was in his eyes and he decided to move, straight in the right time.

Suddenly everything became black again and Sai was back in the starless night sky. With a loud cracking sound something inside of his mind broke. “What is going on…?!!” Sai thought alarmed and tried to find the origin of the noise. He couldn’t see anything, but his instincts let him feel into his mind. And to his surprise he could feel something. He could feel his soul melting together with something that looked like silver flames. His former dark red soul became a bright silvery-red ball of fire and underneath it emerged a blood red sea. Sai felt full of energy. “How…!?” he whispered. All of a sudden something broke into his mind, settling itself in a corner. It was not tangible, Sai couldn’t determine what it was, but he felt life coming from the strange phenomenon. He also felt a slight connection with this mysterious thing and as he tried to observe it closer, countless memories streamed from the mysterious thing into his mind. It was a language. More importantly it was not a language spoken telepathically but through the collaboration of the tongue, the vocal cords and his mouth. It was magical. No beast had ever tried to talk with his mouth, not because they couldn’t possibly do it, but because no one had the idea.

“So his species is human…and the second face is called mask…interesting…!” Sai thought excited and got ready to explore more of the new language, when suddenly he was woken up with a flash.

He abruptly opened his eyes and stared directly into the eyes of the ‘human’, who was studying him similarly. Both said something at the same time: Sai with his mouth and the ‘human’ telepathically. “Who are you?!”