Leo did not dream.
At least, not in the way everyone else did.
During the first few days of his unconsciousness, his mind had remained submerged in a heavy, formless darkness. There were no images. No voices. No memories.
Only silence.
A silence so deep that, had he been conscious, it probably would have been unbearable.
But that night was different.
Because something had entered his dream.
And Leo had no idea what it was.
---
He opened his eyes.
There was no ground.
No sky.
No walls.
There was absolutely nothing.
Leo remained still, trying to understand where he was.
"...Where?"
His own voice sounded strange.
Not because it had changed.
But because no echo returned.
It was as though the place had swallowed the sound before allowing it to travel.
Leo looked down.
His feet were there.
That was reassuring.
For some reason.
Until he tried to move them.
He couldn't.
Not because they were trapped.
They simply...
didn't seem to be touching anything.
It was like standing on an invisible surface.
Leo frowned.
"This is a dream."
No one answered.
"Definitely a dream."
A pause.
"A pretty terrible one."
Nothing.
Leo sighed.
Even unconscious, he still had to deal with strange things.
He tried to remember what had happened.
The human.
Yeana and Nella.
The meeting with the Emperor and Empress.
The pain.
Then...
Nothing.
His memory ended abruptly.
Leo placed a hand over his chest.
He felt no pain.
He couldn't feel his magic either.
That was strange.
He tried to summon it.
Nothing.
Again.
Nothing.
His golden eyes narrowed.
"What does this mean...?"
Then he heard something.
Not a voice.
A sound.
Very far away.
Like a whisper coming from behind a wall.
Leo raised his head.
"Who are you?"
Silence.
He waited.
Then he heard it again.
This time, closer.
He couldn't make out any words.
It was simply...
a presence.
Leo slowly turned.
Nothing.
Only that endless darkness.
"Show yourself."
The darkness did not answer.
Leo took a step.
The invisible surface beneath his feet remained solid.
Another step.
Nothing.
Until something appeared in front of him.
Several meters away.
A figure.
A mystical being.
Leo stopped.
It was tall.
Far too tall.
He couldn't make out a face.
Or clothing.
Or even its limbs clearly.
It looked like a person completely covered in shadow.
But it wasn't an ordinary shadow.
The darkness that made up the figure was deeper than the space surrounding it.
As if the void itself had taken shape.
And that unsettled Leo considerably.
His entire body tensed.
"What are you?"
The figure did not answer.
Leo waited.
"I'm talking to you."
The creature's head tilted slightly.
Then it spoke.
"Leopold."
A shiver ran through Leo.
Not because of the voice.
The voice was normal.
Far too normal.
It was calm.
A perfectly ordinary voice for one of the beings of this world.
The problem was that it didn't seem to come from the figure.
It came from everywhere.
From the nonexistent ground.
From the void.
From behind him.
From inside his own head.
Leo spun around.
Nothing.
When he looked forward again, the figure was still there.
"How do you know my name?"
Silence.
"Where am I?"
The figure remained motionless.
"What are you?"
This time, it answered.
"That doesn't matter."
Leo frowned.
"Of course it matters."
"Not to you."
Leo immediately felt irritated.
"Then who does it matter to?"
The figure didn't answer.
Leo took another step.
"Are you part of my magic?"
The head tilted again.
"No."
"A spirit?"
"No."
"A creature?"
Silence.
"A lycanthrope?"
The figure remained motionless.
"Neither."
Leo clenched his teeth.
"Then tell me what you are."
The answer took a long time.
Far too long.
"Something you should not be able to see yet."
Leo felt the blood drain from his face.
"What does that mean?"
The figure slowly raised one hand.
It didn't really look like a hand.
It looked like an extension of the same darkness.
And it pointed toward him.
"This."
Leo looked at his own body.
Nothing had changed.
"What?"
"You."
Silence returned.
Leo felt a strange pressure in his chest.
"I don't understand."
"I know."
The answer was so simple that it was unsettling.
Leo narrowed his eyes.
"Do you know me?"
"More than I should."
"That doesn't answer my question."
"No."
"Then answer it."
The figure remained still.
For the first time, Leo had the feeling that it was smiling.
He couldn't see it.
But he felt it.
And somehow, that was worse.
"You still ask questions."
Leo didn't understand.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"You always do."
Leo felt an emptiness form in his stomach.
"Have we met before?"
The figure didn't answer.
Leo carefully studied the silhouette.
There was something familiar about it.
Not its shape.
The feeling.
As if it had been near him for a very long time.
As if it had been standing behind a door Leo had never known existed.
"Was it you?"
The figure didn't react.
"Was it you who made my magic..."
Leo stopped.
He didn't know why he had asked that.
But something inside him told him he had to.
"What magic?"
The voice appeared again.
This time, directly behind his ear.
Leo immediately spun around.
Nothing.
"What the fu—?"
The figure was now much closer.
Leo stepped backward.
He hadn't seen it move.
"Don't do that."
The figure remained still.
"Do what?"
Leo froze.
"Move."
"I haven't moved."
Leo looked around.
The darkness was exactly the same.
"Then how did you get here?"
"I didn't."
A pause.
"You came closer."
Leo felt something inside his mind crack slightly.
"This doesn't make any sense."
"Not yet."
"Yet?"
The figure tilted its head again.
"When you wake up, you'll remember this was a dream."
Leo swallowed.
"And it wasn't?"
The figure remained silent.
Leo waited.
Then he heard:
"No."
Leo's heart slammed against his chest.
"Then what is it?"
The figure moved a little closer.
Now Leo could make something out.
Not a face.
But two points.
Two spaces where eyes should have been.
They didn't glow.
They weren't red.
They weren't white.
They were simply...
absences.
Two places where the darkness seemed somehow even deeper.
Leo stepped backward.
For the first time since that thing had appeared, he felt fear.
Not the fear of facing an enemy.
Not the fear of losing a battle.
Something different.
An instinctive feeling.
His body telling him he needed to run.
But there was nowhere to run.
The figure spoke.
"You shouldn't be afraid of me."
Leo didn't answer.
"Not yet."
The silence that followed was worse than any threat.
Leo felt something move behind him.
He turned.
Nothing.
He looked back at the figure.
Now it was less than a meter away.
Leo stepped backward again.
"What do you want?"
"Nothing."
"Then why are you here?"
The figure remained silent.
Then it said:
"Because you opened the barrier."
Leo frowned.
"I didn't open any barrier."
The figure slowly raised a hand.
The space in front of them began to change.
It didn't open.
It didn't break.
It simply...
ceased to exist.
As if someone had erased a portion of reality.
Leo could see something on the other side.
A place.
He couldn't describe it.
There were structures.
Or perhaps they were bodies.
There was movement.
Or perhaps it was space itself twisting.
There was something resembling a sky.
But it wasn't a sky.
It was an immense expanse of something dark that seemed to be watching.
Leo felt nauseous.
"What is that?"
The figure answered:
"What's behind it."
"Behind what?"
The figure looked at him.
"Everything."
Leo went completely still.
The opening disappeared.
The darkness became uniform again.
"I don't want to see it."
"I know."
"Then don't show me."
"Not yet."
Leo clenched his fists.
"Stop saying that."
The figure remained motionless.
"Why?"
"Because I don't know what it means."
"Exactly."
Leo felt anger building inside him.
"Then explain it to me!"
For the first time, the figure seemed to react.
Its head lifted.
And Leo heard laughter.
It wasn't loud.
It wasn't cruel.
It wasn't even distinctly lycanthrope.
It was a small laugh.
Almost affectionate.
And somehow, that made the fear turn into something much worse.
The figure leaned toward him.
"You still believe you need to understand."
Leo couldn't move.
"But you don't need to understand."
A pause.
"You only need to arrive."
A shiver traveled down Leo's spine.
"Arrive where?"
The figure raised one finger.
It pointed behind Leo.
"There."
Leo didn't want to look.
Every part of his body screamed at him not to.
But he did.
And he saw a door.
A gigantic door.
Black.
Suspended in the middle of nothing.
There were no walls.
No building.
It was simply there.
Waiting for him.
Leo felt his heart stop.
There was something written across it.
He didn't recognize the language.
But he understood the words.
YOU SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN BORN.
Leo stumbled backward.
"What...?"
The figure was behind him.
Very close.
Far too close.
"Don't open it."
Leo turned.
"Why?"
The figure smiled again.
This time, Leo could see it.
It had no mouth.
Yet it was smiling.
"Because if you open it..."
The darkness around them began to tremble.
"...I will be able to come out."
And with those words, everything went dark.
Within that immense darkness, Leo watched as everything inside him seemed to fade.
The darkness consumed him.
Until everything became dark once again.
And his consciousness fell back into sleep.
---