Luke opened his eyes in an endless black void.
He tried to move but he couldn't feel anything. It felt like he was disconnected from his body.
"Where am I?" His thoughts rang out. He was disoriented and confused.
He tried to recall how he got there...
And then the memories came rushing back like a flood. He remembered. The attack. His parents leaving to fight. The bunker. The fight with Elder Cho. Awakening the spear seed. The black masked man. And his eventual failure to protect Arya.
"Ahhh!" He screamed. The frustration, guilt and pain that filled his thoughts rang clearly in the void. He didn't care about himself, about the fact that he was in this strange space. All that mattered was that he had failed Arya.
After a what felt like an eternity, he stopped screaming.
He didn't have a choice. He didn't know long he had spent in this void like state and after screaming for so long, he was spent of all his emotions. All he felt now was emptiness.
"Is this my punishment? To remain conscious in this void like state forever?" He chuckled hollowly. "A fitting hell indeed."
His thoughts were disjointed and he couldn't keep track of how long he'd spent here. it could've been a day, a month or a decade.
He had nothing to do after having poured out all his grief screaming so he reverted to the natural human state.
Boredom.
Even through the guilt, he was still scared of the all-consuming loneliness and boredom that was promised to him in this void. He would go mad from it, and even that would be fortunate.
He tried to look around to understand the surroundings and his circumstances.
He was truly in an endless void. All he saw was darkness and he still couldn't move or feel anything.
But he did notice something peculiar.
Far in the distance, there was a shining white orb. It was still a fair distance away but it was glowing while unmistakeably drifting towards him.
Noticing the glowing orb drifting towards him, a spark of interest lit up in him.
The orb moved ever so slowly, it felt like it carried an unbearable weight.
But still he waited, watching it with interest and fearless curiosity. It wasn't like he had a choice anyways. The movement of the orb was the only change in this empty void and it was his only escape from a slow consuming madness. Even if it killed him, it'd be better than staying here for eternity.
Eventually, the orb drifted close enough for him to investigate it.
It was a transparent gel-like substance that emitted a soft glow.
The gel had a white sheen and it seemed like it would come apart anytime soon from it's weight.
Luke looked into the gel and was immediately stunned.
Inside the transparent gel was a transparent liquid filled with static dots like stars in a universe.
The weird liquid suspended a person that looked exactly like him—except older.
The person was curled in a fetal position. He looked unconscious, like he was in a peaceful sleep. Even more strangely, it's forehead shone with a brilliant glow that radiated into and through the orb.
Luke was shocked by this sight and trying to process it when an irresistible force suddenly pulled him in, dragging him towards the orb.
What-!?" He reacted in panic.
He tried to resist but it was useless. He couldn't move here in the first place.
As soon as he crossed the threshold of the gel-like substance into the orb, the replica sped towards him like a speeding train.
Panickedly seeing that he couldn't do anything about it, he braced himself for impact, but even then, he wasn't ready for what came next.
"AHH! Not again!" He screamed.
It felt like a scabbed limb amputation was torn open, only to force the amputated limb back in.
Only this time, the amputated limb felt like raw liquid fire.
He screamed. Screamed and screamed.
Memories. Memories that he didn't recognise flashed through his mind. Parents that weren't his. A strange neurodegenerative disease. A life spent hating itself. The rooftop. The fall. The release.
He felt it at the very core of being. He was changing. Morphing. Accepting the replica and becoming something new.
But he didn't care.
All he wanted was release from the pain.
He didn't know how long he stayed there, screaming, writhing.
And then suddenly he felt cold. Very cold.
But the cold was a welcome contrast to the searing hot pain.
Luke passed out finally from the relief.
The cold continued it's job, wrapping around the merging souls, flowing into the crevices, fixing the cracks. It acted as glue, holding the two damaged souls together as one.
Suddenly, at the middle of the merged soul's forehead, a blinding light flashed once.
If Luke were awake, he would have noticed that the object that gave off the light looked very much like a seed.
***
Back in the physical world, the Phlego Clan's fortress was destroyed and devastated.
The huge mountain was empty except for dead bodies that littered the place.
Obvious from the wounds on the bodies, it was clear that most of them died to an overwhelming force.
In a mansion, deep in the inner sanctum of this fortress, the body of a young boy lay amidst the rubble. Flames consumed the place but his body remained unscathed.
Except the wound on his chest.
But suddenly, white transparent feathers began to cover his body and immediately, the temperature in the surroundings, once scalding hot cooled to a chill.
All the injuries he sustained began to heal at a rapid pace.
His black hair began transforming... From the left, his black hair began changing to an ice blue and from his right it changed to a deep red. Once it was completely transformed, it transformed into a shining white before immediately returning to black.
And then...
BADUUM!
His heart beat rang and he woke up with a gasp.