Chapter 10: A Dream Or A Glimpse Of The Future?

As Aden lay on his bed, beads of sweat gathered on his forehead. His expression was troubled, and his callused fists clenched the bedsheet.

Incoherent mumblings slipped from his mouth from time to time, his head occasionally thrashing against the pillow.

“Let…me..go…” He mumbled, defiance creeping in his sleeping form.

To any normal person, it would be dismissed as nothing more than a bad dream. But his master, seated beside him with an unreadable expression, knew better.

’Mental backlash from poor usage of Resonance,’ he diagnosed internally.

Faint shadows lay beneath his beautiful eyes, and his large frame seemed a little less upright than usual. His thumbs rubbed against each other occasionally as he watched.

“I wonder what he’s going through… should I intervene?”

The backlash from overexerting Resonance usually ranged from vivid dreams to temporary disability, emotional detachment, or—worse—death.

And Aden was a special case. He couldn’t be sure whether those consequences would manifest more mildly or to a far greater extreme, but the expression on Aden’s sleeping face suggested the latter.

After a bit of contemplation, his master extended two of his fingers and placed them on his forehead.

His eyes slowly shut as he let out a cold breath.

“Bear with me, Aden.”

A dull blue glow surrounded his finger, and his face slowly grew blank.

The darkness behind his closed eyes fractured and gave way as he forced himself into Aden’s unconscious.

A bloody battlefield strewn with body parts welcomed him. The screams of women and war cries of men filled his ear drums, causing his face to wince slightly.

“What in the world….”

He took two steps forward, the sounds of flesh being mushed under his feet leaving him with a little discomfort.

His eyes moved swiftly in hopes of finding his student.

The terrain was rocky and uneven, filled with poch marks of explosions and magical attacks. Warriors could be seen fighting mid air, their attacks creating brilliant sparks of light and devastating effects.

He moved through the chaos with practiced ease, occasionally pausing before ruined structures, his eyes narrowing.

’Where could he be?’

He walked for miles, dodging stray attacks, wiping the blood that spilled on his hands as he stepped into their puddles and constantly surpressing the growing sense of unease within him.

“Why does this place look so familiar?” He mumbled.

“HAHAHA”

A loud cackle snapped him from his thoughts. His eyes locked onto the source, and he moved toward it at a brisk pace.

Different resonant affinities clashed in the sky, streaks of red, blue, purple and black all fought for dominance against one man.

Long silver hair, deep blue eyes, a manic expression painted on his face and a ferocity that belonged to no other than—

“Aden…”

A cold wind blew past his face, his heart shook and his jaw unknowingly clenched.

He tried to deny the fact that the boy who always pushed himself to become better would fall to such…. madness.

More explosions sounded around him, but the manic laughter didn’t depreciate one bit, if anything, it only grew more wild.

The air warped around Aden. Every affinity that rushed toward him was swallowed whole, vanishing without a trace.

“What?!” a female warrior screamed, her face contorted in terror. “I—I can’t use my affinity!”

“There’s no resonant energy left in my body!” another shouted in panic. “He absorbed everything!”

Their figures suddenly dropped, plummeting as gravity reclaimed its due.

“BWAHAHAHA! You fools!” Aden’s voice rang out. “Your meager affinities exist only for the exaltation of the gods!”

His master stood rooted to his spot, even the dull thuds and cracks of bone couldn’t pry his eyes away from the floating figure.

Aden’s laughter stopped abruptly. A cold expression took over as his finger slowly rose.

“Now you shall understand how worthless your lives truly are”

The pain filled cries of the warriors reached the old man’s ears, but he knew he could do nothing to save them—only watch.

A massive sphere of energy coalesced at the tip of Aden’s finger, radiating heat waves that rippled across the battlefield. The clashing, naturally repelling forces within it promised even more devastation.

With a simple gesture, the sphere plummeted toward the incapacitated warriors.

Their cries grew frantic. Some crawled desperately to escape its range, while those still able to run sprinted as fast as they could, passing directly through the old man’s body as he stood frozen, powerless to intervene.

There was no sound. The sphere struck the ground, and the warriors’ bodies began to crumble, their eyes frozen in horror. The battlefield itself seemed to dissolve around them, leaving nothing but a stark white void—just the old man and Aden standing amidst it.

A carefree—almost pleased—smile spread across Aden’s face as he approached his master.

“Did you enjoy the show?” he chuckled, a cold amusement underlying his tone.

His fists clenched until they turned white, thin webs of blood forming along his knuckles.

“Who… are you?” his master demanded, each word dripping with barely restrained anger.

“Hoo hoo hoo… I’m your student, of course. Don’t you remember me~~?” Aden said, closing the distance, his eyes wild with manic intensity.

His master’s teeth clenched. “Don’t play games with me.”

“Hehe, but I’m not~” he chuckled. “I am me and you are you. Does that not make us me and you?”

Struggling to keep his composure, he asked. “What is this place?”

A long silence followed.

Finally, Aden spoke, his voice lower than usual:

“Who knows? It could be a glimpse of the future or a mere dream…”

The answer only deepened his confusion, but before he could voice another question, Aden spoke:

“Well, time’s up! Leave my home.”

There was no room for argument. In an instant, his body was hurled out of the white void.

“See you later, Kaelthorn.”

His eyes widened to their limits, his mouth forming a word—but before he could speak, everything shattered, and he jolted awake.

“Haa… haa… haa…”

Sweat drenched his body. His heart pounded frantically in his chest, his hands trembling violently.

But before panic could fully consume him, he forced himself to calm down, though dread gnawed at every fiber of his being as he waited for his student to awaken.

Three hours passed. Finally, Aden began to stir. His master sat up instinctively, eyes scanning every microexpression as they flickered across Aden’s face.

Then a shrill scream tore through the room. Aden’s broken hands gripped the sides of his head, eyes wide and unseeing.

“So much blood! So much blood! That wasn’t me! It wasn’t me! It wasn’t me!”

His master’s heart tightened at the pitiful sight. Moving briskly, he gripped Aden’s shoulders and carefully pried his hands away from his head.

“It’s okay… it was just a dream,” he whispered.

Aden didn’t respond. His mouth repeated the words he had awoken with, over and over.

He finally looked up, sheer terror in his eyes. “I didn’t kill all those people… I didn’t…”

His master pressed Aden’s head to his chest, nodding firmly. “You didn’t. I believe you.”

But the words couldn’t reach him. His mind replayed every scene from the dream:

Kaelthorn watched as Aden’s body twitched violently, hands clawing at his head. Panic radiated from him in waves that made the old man’s stomach tighten.

The screams died out. Kaelthorn gently laid Aden on the pillow, noting the slightest pause in the boy’s movements. A hesitation in his posture told him the ordeal had shaken him far more than Aden would admit.

’If he lives with this trauma, there’s no way he’ll be able to advance in his training without losing control,’ he reasoned.

’At the same time, he could use this as an opportunity to grow….’

Sighing loudly, he ran his hands through his hair, his head thrown back.

“Argh..who am I kidding? Even the strongest mental attacks weren’t as disturbing as this. There’s no way he can handle it…unless he has no memory—!”

The cabin fell silent. Kaelthorn buried his face in his palm as he fell into deep thought.

The setting sun rays reflected a ring in the corner of his eyes.

Kaelthorn raised his head, his eyes set on the ring that rested on Aden’s index finger.

His eyes studied the patterns closely, the gears in his mind turning as it tried to match it to any knows magic circles or spells.

“It’s nothing. Just the Redwyn emblem…”

Despite his words, a nagging suspicion remained in the crevice of his mind.

He fell into deep thought once more, trying to decide the best path of action for himself and his student.

The moon descended majestically in the sky, it’s army of stars following suit, but Kaelthorn remained in his mind.

“There’s no other way,” he mumbled.

His eyes determined, he walked towards Aden and stared at his sleeping face.

“I’ll have to seal your memories.”

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