From Player To Npc

Shingi had lost his mind. It was like he was above clouds, falling, but not at a great speed.

The last thing he remembered was the lips of his and Ardent's connecting, and then everything turned silent for a split second until he got at his current situation.

He could see once more, and he examined himself and noticed that he didn't have a single wound, but his body felt weird. It felt like he wasn't made of flesh, but something else with a similar feeling but was at the same time completely different.

Focusing more on the moment he had with Ardent, he remembered detecting with his MANA SENSE  some movement of Spirit Mana around them. This was the first time he had noticed any Spirit Mana outside the Tower, other than what he produced.

The moment lasted for just a split second, but since it didn't happen that long ago with his current INT, he could play that moment in his mind repeatedly. He could see that the spirit mana surrounded his head, which should be why he was in his current state.

This was some kind of illusion, or maybe a vision from the spirits.

His fall speed became slower as he started seeing land under him. It was a place that he wasn't familiar with, as it looked nothing like Enerias. Nevertheless, he had a weird feeling that guided him in a certain direction.

He reached a majestic piece of architecture, not a castle, but different from a usual town. It was quite pristine, finely crafted, and there was a translucent barrier that surrounded it. He recognized part of the structures like the ones he had seen through his scry from where Annoue was, although some were a bit different, like they lacked something.

The mysterious feeling he felt seemed to get stronger outside this town, somewhere in the forest.

He followed that feeling to reach its source, and then he heard an enormous explosion not too far from him. It didn't take him long to reach the center of the explosion, where he saw a young man going through the debris of a building.

He heard the man cursing and wishing he wasn't too late. Shingi noticed that the man hadn't noticed him, and when he landed and tried to help him, his hands just moved through the pieces he tried to move.

The man overlooked Shingi like he wasn't there for him.

As he focused on that man, Shingi realized something. He had never seen this man in his life, but he had heard his voice in the past.

It was a little different last he heard it, but he was certain that it was the same person. The voice was of Zax, the person who was training with Annoue during one of his scrys. He also noticed that his eyes were crimson, but it was lighter than his.

After a while, a figure got retrieved from the rumbles, which seemed to be a young female. She had only one arm, but it didn't seem like she lost it in that explosion, as there was no blood dripping from it. So this should be Alora, as Syra had mentioned to Shingi, that she had only one arm.

Shingi had, as always, his MANA SENSE active and noticed a small hole made of Spirit Mana at the center of the debris, which was getting smaller as time passed and soon disappeared.

He could feel something wrong with the nearby environment but couldn't exactly pinpoint what. It was like the elements were wilder and harder to control in this area.

His sight started getting blurry and then back to normal, as his surroundings had changed.

He seemed to be at some kind of shrine, and he could see a pair of humans being outside an outhouse. He noticed that both of them had purple eyes and that the woman finished drawing some runes on the ground.

Soon a portal opened, and a child came out of it. This time, he couldn't hear anything, or more specifically, everything was like whispers to him. When the child appeared, everything got blurry to see once more.

But Shingi noticed that the runes the woman drew had some similarities to Mikhail's ones at his special door.

When his sight was back to normal, he noticed he couldn't hear anything this time.

He wasn't on the ground but hovering over a city that was under attack by some dark creatures he had never seen in the past. The city people were fighting back, and actually, they somehow combined their Spirit Elements to create giant creatures to fight for them.

Different people combining an Element like that was something that Shingi had never encountered in the past for any Element. Of course, one could give the mana to someone else to use it, but to combine it like that was something completely different and more challenging.

He noticed everyone in that crowd also had purple eyes.

His vision became blurry once more and then got a little less blurry. Looking around, he seemed to be in a room, and soon he detected an asleep, blurry figure. Shing recognized the figure immediately, as it was that of Annoue's.

He even saw her special sword nearby.

The room seemed to be quite simple and almost completely empty. It didn't have any windows, but some stairs were going up and some going down.

Shingi detected some Spirit Element being focused around the head of Annoue but didn't seem to affect her. It was just gathering there.

Shingi moved forward and examined it, and he felt it calling him to touch it.

He didn't fight against it as he brought forward his hand to come in touch with the sphere of Spirit Element made around Annoue's head.

His sight went dark and back to normal as his surrounding had changed once more, as he could see Annoue being actually back to their hideout by herself.

He stood next to her, but it seemed like she couldn't see him.

But then, as he sighed, Annoue turned towards him and looked confusingly left and right.

"I swear I just heard someone sighing." [Annoue]

"It is me, sis." [Shingi]

Annoue stood up and started looking all over the place.

"Bother?!? Where are you? Why do you hide? Come out to play. I can barely hear you." [Annoue]

"This is the best I can do. I don't know how long I can stay here, but I am here to give you a message. Keep working with Alora and the Omni Mage Boy. He and the purple eyes seemed to be the answer to help you get back home. I will try to.." [Shingi]

But before he got the chance to finish his sentence, Shingi got thrown outside of her dream.

Everything was dark, and his lips had a familiar taste. The taste of the lips of the person he kissed before the strange vision of his.

He could feel that more things had happened than just a kiss, and Ardent was currently resting her head over his chest while continue hugging him but not as tightly anymore. She seemed to have fallen asleep after everything that happened.

Shingi was aware of what happened, even if most seemed to be just his body moving by itself. He didn't think that Ardent had somehow mind-controlled him, which meant that at least subconsciously, he wanted it to happen.

He wasn't in love, as he knew that Ardent was just interested in him because he kept rejecting her. He didn't plan to change how he interacted with her, although it would be awkward for some time.

He didn't have time to work on having a love life, and he wasn't interested in it, as it would take too much time, but this was something that he needed to do to take some of his anxiety out. He actually felt somewhat more rested but didn't know if what he did with Ardent was the reason, the visions he just had, or both.

He still lacked the ability to see, but since his MANA SENSE Skill had regained some of its lost power, so his 'seeing' around with it improved as well.

He probably should rest some more, but there were things to take care of and check. He still couldn't fully cast LIGHT FORM but could turn part of his body into light, making him able to escape her grasp.

He made certain to also gently let her head touch the mattress so that she wouldn't wake up. Then, finally, he put a pillow for her to hug in place of him.

Shingi made his way outside at the lab area where Zhen and Garry were.

Garry seemed to read some pieces of paper with something that he had written, while Zhen was in the corner tinkering with some designs.

"Oh, you are here. I thought you would sleep for the rest of the day, to tell the truth. It seemed like a wild party over there, son." [Garry]

Shingi didn't know what to say. He had no discussion like that ever with his father as Ameanum, so he didn't know how to react.

"Though I didn't expect you to make a move like that. Although I guess she was quite a temptation. It reminded me back in the day when…" [Garry]

"Didyoufindanythigninthebook?" [Shingi]

For the first time, Shingi felt too awkward that he spoke that fast that he didn't take a breath before finishing his sentence.

Garry just smiled and brought one of the pieces of paper he had left aside towards Shingi.

"This really contains stories of Mikhail, but of others, too. Even with your girlfriend's help, I couldn't read it all, so we have to wait for it to recharge."[Garry]

Shingi nodded as he started reading the piece of paper that Garry gave him. But then he noticed something that Garry had just said.

"She… she isn't my girlfriend. This won't happen again." [Shingi]

Garry nodded with a stupid smile on his face. Or so Shingi imagined him, as he couldn't really tell.

Fortunately, the ink Garry used was magically made, still containing some mana, which was enough for his MANA SENSE, so that Shingi could read it with no help.

It was a story of Mikhail and actually seemed to be the story of how he met Ianthe, Aella's mother, and Godden of Nature.