Turning Chapter 873

Chapter 873

"Judging by how fervently you were looking for me, they must have said something significant, right?"

Although he could only refer to his hands as 'they', it wasn't entirely incorrect. However, Yuder couldn't help feeling a bit strange about it.

"They weren't speaking... more like a kind of conversation."

"A conversation? Using your fingers, as you did before?"

Yuder nodded. The inside of his palm, previously enveloped by a white glove, grew warm, tingling as if by illusion. He wanted to clench his fist to alleviate the itch, but the bandages made it impractical, so he ended up just fidgeting aimlessly.

Yuder, shifting his gaze away from his hand, took a deep breath and recounted his encounter with the white gloves in his dream. From the greetings, questions, and answers, to the final moment of being pushed and falling.

Reliving the dream didn't feel as difficult as before. If anything, it seemed to clear his mind. After recounting the short dream, Yuder summed up all the feelings he experienced during and after the dream in a single statement.

"To be honest, after having this dream, I'm not sure if I can still call it just a dream."

"Do you mean it felt like something that happened in reality?"

"Not exactly, but... similar. Especially after hearing Enon's words when I woke up. Did you know? Before I woke up...”

"He said your soul suddenly became invisible. It was the first time I saw him so perplexed."

His voice was soft, but his gaze wasn't. The red pupils looking at Yuder briefly darkened before returning to normal.

"Um... Yes. I'm still not sure why it happened, but maybe it was related to the disappearance of my soul during that time."

Kishiar slowly lowered his eyes and muttered, "Indeed."

"Are you suggesting you might have had an experience similar to those legends where souls leave their bodies to meet mysterious beings and return? The truth of such tales is uncertain, but they are indeed found in various places."

"Yes. That's the impression I had, if I had to describe it."

The presence of the white gloves in the dream was too vivid to be merely a figment of imagination. They seemed to know something Yuder couldn't comprehend and expressed their opinions more clearly than before.

Even without a mouth or a body, some things can still be conveyed through brief contact. The being, embodying all those indescribable elements, couldn't simply be dismissed as a mere dream.

Furthermore, the darkness where he had encountered the hands didn't feel like a meaningless, dark void. This impression was further confirmed by Kishiar's remarks.

"If we assume you went to a real place and returned, we should first look for clues about where that might be. Did you notice anything unusual in the darkness at the end?"

Yuder recalled the writhing black shadows behind the white gloves at the last moment. It felt familiar, but only now did he remember the answer.

"When I saw that darkness, I felt like I had seen it somewhere before. Now that I think about it... the inside of a strange crack... exactly like the one I saw before monsters poured out of it."

The ominous blackness writhed and squirmed, as if something dire was about to burst forth at any moment, churning without any discernible pattern. So dense and deep it was, that its true form, a harbinger of disaster, remained unknowable. What if this mere crack, a tiny fissure, stretched beyond its bounds to engulf the world?

Yuder felt as if what he had seen was a manifestation of that very reality.

"It might be an excessive thought, but... I can't think of anything else that felt as similar."

"The inside of the crack, you say. Everything eventually converges back to the existence of these cracks."

Kishiar murmured softly.

"The first instance of that strange dream coincided with the appearance of the crack, and now again. If it's happened twice, it might not be too far-fetched."

"..."

"If the place was filled with the same darkness seen in the strange cracks, then it's quite literally the inside of a crack... perhaps even beyond it?"

"The inside of a crack... you mean?"

"Yes. A mysterious place no one has ever directly seen. Known as the land of the black moon where monsters emerge."

Despite knowing that the term 'land of the black moon' was just a metaphorical reference from sacred texts, Yuder's heart raced with unease.

No one knew what lay beyond the cracks that appeared when monsters emerged, as Kishiar said. These cracks, naturally fleeting, tore open space momentarily before vanishing, barely observable by human eyes.

The strange cracks, which appeared and disappeared after a longer duration, were an anomaly, and witnessing monsters emerge from them was even more unusual.

"It might be easier to understand if I thought of it as a place one visits briefly after death before returning."

"Well, it might be both. Who's to say?"

"Excuse me?"

As Yuder looked up in confusion, Kishiar spoke with a faint smile.

"The place you thought was a dream might actually be where the dead go, and at the same time, it could be the space beyond the crack. It's not entirely implausible to consider that they might be the same place."

This was a perspective Yuder had never considered before.

"Think about it. The existence of space beyond the cracks where monsters come through is a certainty, proven by the cracks themselves. Whether humans can reach it is unknown, but its existence is definite. Isn't it?"

As Yuder nodded slowly, Kishiar continued.

"Separately, if there's a space where parts of beings, long embraced by the sun, after death exist, it would be closer to an afterlife than reality. If the same darkness seen beyond the cracks existed in such a place, then the most reasonable guess in this situation would be to think that the two are the same place. Whether it makes sense or not."

This was similar to the attitude he had shown when he said he believed Yuder was a being who had returned through time.

Even the most incomprehensible problems could yield an answer when evidence was methodically gathered and pieced together.

Even if the answer defied conventional belief, Kishiar was willing to believe it if it was the remaining conclusion.

Logically, it seemed implausible, but if that were true, then the very existence of Yuder Aile here was the most unrealistic answer of all.

Yuder, with his eyes lowered, recited some of the words written by the white gloves.

"A place that is neither reality nor dream. That's what they said. If we go by the Commander's words... then it would indeed be a place where all answers fit."

"Setting aside how to get there or whether this is the correct answer, it definitely sounds like a place one would be warned to 'not come ever again.'"

Don’t come ever again.

Yuder remembered the words emphatically written by the white gloves.

"While I can't guarantee that I fully understand their intentions, from what I've heard, I don't think they lied. They didn't summon you there. They believe it's not a place for you to return to. They seem to have no intention of harming you. With that in mind, the conversation might not be too difficult."

"..."

A strange turmoil rose and then settled in his chest. Yuder bit his lip firmly.

"...Anyway, it's certain that I didn't go there because I wanted to. I didn't choose to have such a dream."

"That's true. It would have been better if they had also told you how you ended up there."

Kishiar reached out his hand. His touch, easing the lips he had been chewing, involuntarily relaxed him. In his crimson eyes, Yuder saw the pain he was feeling.

"Don't be in pain. There's no need for that."

"..."

"I don't know how you got there, but anyway... it's not bad to think that you have one more ally in an unknown place, right? For me, I'm even grateful that they helped send you back here."

How could this man show such a strong reaction to a story that should evoke more complicated emotions? Yuder didn't understand.

But there was a strange comfort in his words, so he simply followed the gesture, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes.

"...Understood."