While completely unaware of the uproar he had caused, Ethan now stood in a familiar place: a world of darkness that extended as far as the eyes could see. Except he was now fully aware, his thoughts concise and clear, unlike the last time he had been here.

  This place again...

  Ethan stood in place, unbothered by the long, blackened road stretching before him and the dim light taunting him. As he knew this was but a dream, he felt no compulsion to heed to whatever held him in this make-shift prison's wishes.

  Although there was no ground under his feet but unending darkness, Ethan sat down regardless and waited—waiting for something to happen. He knew that whatever entity holding him here had its own plans for him. He saw no reason to play along at this point.

  And so he waited...

  And waited...

  Waited...

  ...

  Boredom was like a blade trying to slice away at his resolve, urging him into action, yet he persevered, if only out of spite. He had no intentions of giving them the satisfaction. The world had remained still for what seemed like an eternity, with only the dim light in the distance, until it all changed one day.

  The light began to dim, slowly at first but then increasingly faster, until it finally became completely dark, extinguished. Ethan frowned yet didn't move a single muscle, merely observing the change.

  He now stood in complete darkness. There was no light or sound, yet he felt a sharp shrill trying to rip through his eardrum. It was mild at first, barely perceptible. Yet, as time passed, it grew in intensity until it became almost unbearable. Surprisingly, Ethan felt no pain, just an overpowering discomfort. He put both hands on his ears, trying to block the sound, but to no avail as if the sound came straight from his skull.

  Is this what the books refer to as an auditory hallucination? Am I going crazy?

  The Endless Library contained countless books on many different subjects. One of them pertained to a subject of human psychology: isolation. It stated that the brain, used to the many stimuli it experienced daily, would become accustomed to them and, if it were to be found lacking, would hallucinate such stimuli to keep itself sane. After all, the human brain cannot conceive of a world where no such stimuli existed.

  Is this a punishment for not following the rules, or is it trying to break me?

  Faced with his own hallucinations, Ethan found it difficult to remain sharp and distinguish between what was real and what was not. Even the all-encompassing darkness stretching out before him began to shift and turn as if something living, even though he knew full well there was no light for his eyes to see. He may as well have closed them both.

  He even seemed to have imagined the cawing of countless crows as well as the batting of their wings. He felt a soft breeze against his skin, even though no such winds existed inside this void.

  That’s it... I’ve started to lose my mind...

  But even then, Ethan had no intentions of ever getting up; even if he wished to, he couldn't find the strength. It felt like his whole body was submerged underneath an ocean—an ocean of air pressing down on him, preventing movement.

  Ethan frowned. At first, he believed his mind had shut down, disabling his ability to move, or that his muscles had atrophied from his lack of movement. But, his senses remained sharp. He could feel his every nerve in much detail—too much even. In fact, the mere wind stroking against his bare skin proved uncomfortable, as if his brain had focused its full attention on the only thing it deemed real.

  Something’s very wrong here...

  Ethan sought to rise to his feet or at least contract any of his muscles, yet it felt like the signals from his brain were blocked somewhere. He could only receive feedback, and not emit anything, as if his nerves were only one way.

  As he contemplated the meaning, the crows' cawing grew deafeningly until he finally saw some appear in the distance. They were black on black, their outline blurring against the darkness, yet were unmistakably crows, except for one thing: their eyes. They shone a dull red, tiny blood pearls shining in the darkness.

  There were countless blotting out the sky with their wings, and the nonexistent ground rumbled under the sound of their cries. Ethan sought to cover his ears, but he was refused. He could only suffer the torment of their voices, growing stronger at every moment, until finally, his ear drums ruptured, causing a sharp pain straight into his brain, yet the sound never faded, almost as if it was beamed straight into his mind. Blood fell from his ears, staining the cloth on his shoulders.

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  The crows grew ever-closer until they finally surrounded him, landing onto the void itself as they created a cage of feathers and blood-red eyes all around him. There were thousands or even more. Ethan couldn't count them all. And even though he knew this wasn't reality, he couldn't help but feel a shiver down his back, only to be accentuated by his current state of mind.

  “Who are you!” Ethan shouted at the crows.

  His voice was uneven, owing to the fact that he couldn't hear himself with his ruptured eardrums. The crows offered no reaction, so much so that he began to doubt he had even spoken.

  “What do you want from me?!” he added.

  Once again, they only stared back, except for one.

  A single crow took flight from his perch of darkness, only to stop next to Ethan's leg, where his hand rested. He tried to swat it away, yet his limb refused to move. He could only stare at the creature, defiance in his eyes. That was until he felt the creature's beak pinch the skin on the back of his hand.

  It clamped onto it as if a sharp vice before ripping a piece of it apart. Ethan felt an intense pain spread throughout his body, amplified by his heightened nerves. The pain was such that he almost blacked out, yet he was denied release. He remained utterly aware all throughout.

  Ethan saw a piece of his flesh being gobbled up by the crow, only to look down and see a mass of blood, muscle and tendon now uncovered on the back of his hand. With fury in his heart, Ethan stared into the crow's blood-red eyes, only to see something akin to glee. It was then that rage turned to fear as he came to a sudden realization. He couldn't help but look at the countless other crows patiently waiting their turn, terror rising in his heart.

  However, once the crow was satiated by this morsel of flesh, it disintegrated into particles of black light instead of returning to the fold. Although they were now in complete darkness, both the crows and that light were surprisingly visible against the background as if they were a different kind of black: one with more substance than mere void.

  As the crow dissipated, the light instead congregated into something undefined—for now, only a tiny mass of light without much purpose. Ethan was intrigued by the process, but before he could ponder further, a second crow stood before him, perched on his right shoulder.

  Without much anticipation, Ethan felt the sharpened edge of its beak rip through his ears, severing it in two. Blood flowed once again, splattering all around. With all his might, he sought to strike at the creature or at least scream his pain, yet he was denied. His body refused to listen to him. He was just a piece of meat for the crowd hungrily watching him.

  Just as the piece of his flesh disappeared down the crow's throat, the creatures exploded into another mass of black light, adding to the first still suspended before Ethan. Although it began to take shape, it was too soon to tell. At most, it resembled but a single stroke of ink against a black canvas. Nothing legible... yet.

  The process repeated itself, every single crow taking their turns in an orderly fashion, swallowing a piece of Ethan's flesh. The process was torturous, maddening even. Even when the crows had ripped his nerves apart, reaching the bones, he could feel them digging through his flesh regardless. As if pain was the point, a punishment inflicted on him.

  Ethan wavered on the cusp of unconsciousness several times, drifting in and out of it, only to be denied release. Every time his vision would fade, he would be snapped back to consciousness by another jolt of pain, only for the process to begin anew.

  However, the human mind was always a marvellous thing. Despite the agony this flock of crows offered, he grew accustomed to it with time, so much so that he stopped paying attention to it. If there was merely one thing on his side, it was that he knew this wasn't real. No matter how much flesh he lost or how much pain he experienced, none of this would be reflected in the real world.

  He could deal with pain. What he truly feared was the terror of his body being slowly consumed, but this was a non-factor. He believed that as long as he endured the agony, he would wake up to find himself exactly where he was when he lost consciousness in the first place.

  Instead, his attention was fixated on the construct of dark light slowly taking form before him. With each addition, even more strokes were added, creating an obscure set of characters. Those characters alone meant nothing, just a jumbled mess he couldn't make any sense of, but most interestingly, they formed a much bigger three-dimensional character Ethan couldn't help but stare at. Even as his eyeballs were being dug through, his gaze never left it for a moment.

  Despite having no knowledge of the origin of this character, Ethan somehow knew its meaning: the concept of blending. While it was most often associated with shadows, its meaning was broader than that, encompassing the whole of reality.

  It could mean shadows blending into darkness, colours blending into each other, or something more abstract, like ideas blending into reality. Taken to its extreme, one could influence reality itself by blending many things into it, even changing history if one had enough power.

  All of this was packed into one single character.

  Nox... The same shadow spirit the young boy was contracted to.

  As the last of the crows dissipated into blackened light, all that remained of Ethan was his skeleton. But surprisingly, its shape remained, peacefully seated upon the void, eagerly watching the character take its completed form even through his empty orbitals.

  He was so enraptured by the beauty of its design and the incredible amount of meaning contained within that he had completely forgotten the agony he had just gone through. All that remained was a thirst for it and a warmth where his heart used to be. In fact, it felt like a miniature sun burning through his chest.

  A ball of light appeared in his empty thoracic cage before spilling outwards and congregating into a similar three-dimensional character, but this one was made of light. The two characters stood opposite of each other, yet somehow complementary.

  Nox and Lux. Once thought to be opposite in everything. One—the lowest ranked light spirit—while the other—the highest shadow one—yet the truth is that their concepts are closer than one would believe...

  The two characters, made of countless lights, one white and the other black, stood facing each other. This had been the first time Ethan had seen the white character in all its glory, seeing its three-dimensional form. Each time he pictured it in his mind, he saw it in two dimensions, but even then, it produced some remarkable effect.

  He couldn't help but wonder what its three-dimensional form could do. After all, it was evident it was now much more complete, the information contained within much more substantial, but somehow, despite having the entirety of it displayed before him, he couldn't picture it in his mind —almost as if his mind couldn't comprehend the scope of what it represented.

  What surprised Ethan the most was seeing the two characters begin to merge, creating something entirely new—something beyond the mixing of light and the blending of shadows. The process was slow, excruciatingly so. Ethan believed that even if a thousand years were to pass, not even a third of those duochromatic lights would blend into each other.

  However, in this world of complete darkness, where time and space were meaningless, Ethan had nothing but time. And so, a mass of bones with empty orbitals was seated. He stared at the two concepts fusing into each other as if a god was watching the birth of a new universe, his anticipation palpable.

  Meanwhile, in the realm he had left behind, his bloody body lay collapsed onto the soft forest ground, his breath barely detectable. Two beautiful women stood over him, one resembling the midday sun ready to erupt while the other resembling the moon in the midst of winter.