Roaming around at night is dangerous. That is basic common sense.
Of course, since the advent of artificial lighting, the night has become quite safe. But this is a world where even Edison and Tesla haven't been born yet, let alone modern streetlamps.
If there had been a moon, I might have caught a glimpse of my surroundings, but for some reason, the moon wasn't out tonight. I couldn't see a single inch in front of my face.
No lamps, no moon, deep night, no light source.
With all these factors combined, forget the inherent danger of the night—I couldn't even move because I couldn't see what was right in front of me.
In the end, the only thing I could do was grope along the ground, searching for a halfway-decent place to take a stand.
"Ugh, shit. I can't see a damn thing."
I felt like I had gone blind.
I guess this is why people in the old days never traveled at night.
I mean, how could anyone move around in this level of pitch black?
It was so dark that not even a beast with night vision could navigate this void, let alone a human.
'Should I start a fire?'
As I crawled along the ground, I managed to scavenge a couple of tree branches. I debated whether I should try to light one... but I decided against it.
I could probably get a fire going if I tried, but starting a fire in this absolute darkness?
There was no better way to draw aggro than that.
The moment I lit that flame, Hollows would swarm from all directions. I wasn't crazy enough to signal them with a beacon.
I should just be satisfied with finding two decent weapons.
Scratching my head as I felt around the area, my fingers brushed against a texture that felt like wood. I blinked into the void.
'I'll just lean against this and rest for a bit.'
I wasn't exhausted enough to sleep, so I just closed my eyes while leaning my back against the trunk.
God, it's really dark. How is there zero difference between my eyes being open and closed?
To me, someone who remembered modern civilization—a world where the night was never truly dark—this level of blackness didn't evoke fear, but rather a sense of wonder.
I spent a few moments opening and closing my eyes, experiencing this impossibly dark world. Then, in that very instant, a burst of blue light so bright it made my eyes sting erupted from the void.
FLASH—!
Reflexively, I squeezed my eyes shut, but the blue light that flared from the distance had already seared my retinas.
"Gah! Fuck! My eyes!"
I covered my face with both hands, reeling from a pain similar to that urban legend of looking at a 'smartphone screen on max brightness right after waking up,' which supposedly has the power of a flashbang.
I scowled, massaging my throbbing eyes as if they'd just been punched.
What the hell was that just now? Where did that blue light come from?
"Ugh... my eyes..."
Massaging my right eye, I peeked through my other eye toward the direction where the light had burst.
While I was still blinking to clear my vision, wondering what was happening, the blue light flared again.
"Ugh, that's incredibly flashy."
I didn't know what was over there, but one thing was certain: the direction the light was coming from was the place where the 'change' had begun.
I had no proof that the light was the catalyst for the change, but my intuition told me so.
I mean, the source was practically screaming, 'I'm the culprit.' It would be weirder not to notice it.
Furthermore, whoever was over there was detonating pillars of light that size without pause.
A person like that couldn't be ordinary.
Whether it was the change or something else, it had to be started by whoever was causing that light.
'Is it an Arrancar?'
Did Arrancars even exist in this era?
I didn't know.
However...
'It'll be game over if I go there.'
I was certain of that.
The only silver lining was that the light was bursting from a location quite far from where I stood.
"Right. Let's get the hell out of here."
Nothing good would come from getting involved in that. I should just go back and focus on swinging the branches I just picked up.
But that light...
'Wait, why does it feel like it's getting closer...?'
They say it's always too late by the time you realize something is wrong.
That saying was spot on.
"Uh? Wait? Oh, shit!"
The blue light, which had been erupting sporadically without a clear direction, was now heading exactly toward me.
"D-Don't come any closer..."
The speed was insane.
Every time I blinked, it leaped closer. It felt like the bastard was moving faster than the speed of light.
"I said, stay the hell away from meeee!!"
I screamed, but just like a certain boss who could never reach the truth of death, the light approaching me showed no intention of stopping.
'Ah, I'm fucked.'
The moment that realization hit, I squeezed out every bit of strength I had—down to my very last drop—and bolted.
In that moment, I ran alongside the light, proving Zeno's Paradox myself.
Well, not *actual* light, of course. I'm talking about that blue light from earlier.
If I could move at the actual speed of light, I would have time-traveled by now.