âThis is Mount Hua.â
The words struck me, stopping my thoughts cold.
What did he just say?
How could this place possibly be Mount Hua?
I looked around. All I saw was darkness.
It had been that way from the beginningâand it hadnât changed.
Splashâ!
Every step I took stirred the ink-like liquid covering the ground.
This hollow, empty spaceâhow could it be Mount Hua?
âYouâre not explaining enough.â
I voiced my confusion, my tone sharp.
âIâve been to Mount Hua before. How could this place possibly be it?â
Was it a metaphor?
Maybe.
This wasnât the real world, after all. That thought crossed my mind as I looked back at the old man.
But the look in his eyes forced me to narrow mine.
It wasnât a metaphor.
[This is Mount Hua. The flowers withered, and the skies collapsed, but this is Mount Hua.]
âThis placeâ¦?â
[Yes.]
âI donât get it.â
It didnât make sense, especially his earlier claim.
They had failed to stop the Blood Demon?
That was the root of the problem.
âWhat do you mean you couldnât seal the Blood Demon?â
Forget this strange spaceâhow had they failed?
ââ¦Are you saying you came from another world?â
[Perhaps.]
The old manâs bitter laugh made me frown.
[Maybe I did. At the very least, this isnât the world I knew.]
ââ¦What?â
This wasnât Shin Noyaâthe Shin Noya I knew.
Was that why something about him felt off?
The thought crossed my mind.
Another world?
A possibility I hadnât considered surfaced.
What if this old man was Shin Noyaâbut not from this world?