CHAPTER 55: CHAPTER 54: THE END OF THE JOURNEY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WHIRLPOOL OF MEMORIES (2)

the prince did not move or react in any way except to stare at the thing that had appeared before him.

He stared at the creature that had formed from the fog in front of him.

He tried to distinguish any features that might reveal something about its nature, but the black void beneath the hood gave him nothing.

Even so, he forced himself to stay composed.

"You are the reason the Gray One warned me about this place?"

The creature did not move. But from the spot where its eyes should have been beneath the hood, a strong violet light burst out.

It lasted for several seconds and then vanished immediately.

As soon as the light disappeared, its body began to change.

Its limbs stretched, its shoulders broadened, and its skin shifted into a pale gray.

Within a moment, it looked exactly like the leader of the gray creatures.

It even copied his unique accent instantly.

"Yes, if that is what you meant."

The prince’s eyes widened. He stepped back once, then again, his feet scraping against the ground.

"What? What exactly are you?"

The creature shifted again.

This time it transformed into a perfect copy of the prince’s father, the king.

The same stance, the same stern look he remembered, even the same gesture of stroking his beard.

"Good question."

It raised its hand and stroked its chin exactly the way the king used to do during meetings.

"I think I am what you people call a mythical creature, similar to the spirit that once guarded your kingdom."

The prince’s bound fingers trembled.

"How do you know that?"

The creature changed again, this time into a younger version of the prince a child several years younger, exactly as he remembered himself as a boy.

"I can see your memories."

A cold feeling tightened in the prince’s chest. Fear or awe, he wasn’t sure.

The idea of a mythical creature wasn’t shocking by itself. He had heard countless tales about them.

His only real encounter had been with the spirit that once protected the kingdom.

Before it turned into a monster and destroyed the kingdom because of him.

But this creature... it could turn into people he knew, and before that, it had tried to fool him with illusions.

"Why did you appear to me?"

The creature shifted again, becoming the captain of the knights, with the same scar on his forehead and the same sharp eyes.

"You asked for my appearance, didn’t you?"

"I doubt you do anything for my sake." the prince said, eyes narrowing.

The creature answered, now in the form of the gray leader again.

"Partially correct. What interests me is something else. Why did you not fall under my influence?"

"Your influence? You mean those illusions? I don’t think something like that can trick me."

The creature leaned forward slightly.

"Interesting. I have never seen a being completely escape my influence."

"Is that why you appeared before me?"

It nodded.

"Exactly, human."

Then it changed again into a small six year old version of the prince.

"How about we make a deal?"

The prince frowned.

"A deal? What kind?"

"I am curious about you and your human race in general, to be honest."

"And what does that have to do with the deal?"

The small creature raised its hand.

"You will let me consume you entirely. And in return, I will allow your people to pass through here safely."

"And what about Darin? What happened to him?"

The creature instantly shifted into Darin.

"Your companion has already become a part of me."

The prince lowered his gaze briefly. A shadow of pain flickered in his eyes, but it vanished quickly.

He raised his head.

"I accept."

There were no other options. No other escape. And he had nothing left to lose anyway.

The mythical creature extended its hand a human hand in shape, but cold as carved ice.

The prince took it.

The moment their hands touched, black fog spread around them.

The scene faded, then shattered like a broken mirror.

The alleyway of the city appeared again.

The masked man was on the ground, panting, his palm pressed to his eye, the other eye fixed sharply on Orion.

Orion stood completely still.

His eyes remained wide, locked onto the fading vision, refusing to look away.

Then he looked at his hand, watching his fingers turn into black fog.

His entire body began to transform.

For a moment he became the prince.

Then the king.

Then the queen.

Then Darin.

Then the captain of the knights.

Then countless faces people he knew in childhood, people he met in adolescence, people he traveled with in the forest.

Finally he returned to the original form.

The hooded entity, face hidden, the black robe flowing like it was made of smoke.

It looked down at its transforming body for a moment.

Then it turned toward the masked man without speaking a word, simply staring.

The masked man stood, brushed the dust off his coat, fixed his eye patch tightly into place, and lifted his head.

The creature spoke first, its voice a blend of many different voices at once.

"It seems you expected something like this, Mythical Creatures Hunter?"

The masked man didn’t look at it, busy reloading his gun.

"More or less. But I didn’t expect it to end like this. A mythical creature taking the form of a human and living under the illusion that he is that human. Quite an interesting story, honestly."

The creature crossed its arms.

"The prince’s influence on me was tremendous. And then I wanted to experience human emotion. After centuries of consuming their memories, I wanted to feel what they feel."

The masked man finally lifted his gaze toward it.

"And how did it feel?"

"A bit bad and a bit good. But in the end, all my emotions are just borrowed imitations from other people’s memories. That is what you believe about me, isn’t it?"

The masked man didn’t answer. He spun the revolver’s cylinder with his thumb.

"I don’t care."

He raised the gun, arm steady, aiming directly at the creature’s head.

His expression didn’t shift at all. No anger. No sympathy.

"Will you fulfill your part of the agreement now?"

...

Meanwhile, Oliver and the others were wandering through the city.

They walked through the crowded streets filled with the sounds of people and the noise coming from the cafés and shops.

Oliver was the only one among them who understood a large part of the truth of this place.

He knew they were stuck in a city where layers of consciousness blended together, a city that was not entirely real and not entirely a dream.

As for the others, no matter how much he tried to explain, they could not assimilate the idea that they were trapped inside a space formed from the memories, dreams, and desires of others.

And despite that, they walked behind Aria as if she were a tour guide, moving them from one street to another.

Tall stone towers touched the clouds, signs everywhere, sounds of music from an unknown corner, and scents of food none of them had known before.

They entered several restaurants, and each restaurant was stranger than the previous one. They tasted dishes they had never seen in their lives.

One of the dishes was a plate that looked like a crab but had octopus arms, and its taste was a mixture of fresh tuna and grilled shrimp.

They also ate pastries stuffed with meat whose flavor was closer to lamb with a bit of light saltiness.

After their stomachs were full, they went back to the street again, and the noise turned into something calmer when they saw the sea from afar.

A wide harbor, wooden boats moving on the surface of the water, and the sound of waves touching the stone pier.

The scene was extremely enchanting.

All of them except Aria had never seen the sea before.

They stood amazed, their wide eyes staring at the endless blue stretch.

Oliver then turned toward Aria.

"What is that area filled with water exactly?"

She answered without turning.

"It is the sea."

"I do not think something like this is supposed to exist in a city like this."

She lowered her head a little.

"Maybe someone who loves the sea fell into this city, so it absorbed his memories and merged with them."

"And what would bring all these people from different areas here?"

"A group of foolish adventurers or something like that."

Oliver smiled sarcastically.

"And are you one of the foolish adventurers?"

She did not turn to him, she kept staring at the sea.

"Little one did I not tell you to speak respectfully."

He ignored what she said and stared again at the sun sinking in the horizon and its reflection on the sea water.

And while he was watching that view, he caught from the corner of his eyes a woman walking among the crowds.

Her features, her hair, even her steps looked like Eleanor.

He did not think and did not ask, he ran toward her immediately.

Aria turned to him and looked at his back as he walked away as if she had been about to say something.

But in the end, she quietly returned to watching the sunset.

Oliver was pushing his way through the crowds, moving his body between people.

His eyes did not leave the back of that woman who looked like Eleanor.

He reached out his hand to her, his fingers almost touching her shoulder.

But before he reached her, the world around him began to fade.

The streets turned into threads of mist.

And the buildings bent and began to transform, and the faces of the people in the street began turning into fog.