Meanwhile, as the two girls were arguing back and forth, Kai had already walked inside the tower. The light of the sun was completely shrouded the moment he was fully inside the place.
Looking back, Kai expected to see the doors close or at least move on their own considering the mysterious nature of this place. However, none of that happened and instead the doors stayed open as if they were telling him that he could back away if he wanted to.
However, Kai didn't listen to those urges and instead faced forward and started walking deeper and deeper into the tower. The path he was walking in wasn't narrow nor too big, leading to the set of stairs on the other side.
Nothing happened until he reached the stairs which put Kai in a rather confused state. Was this place really not going to do anything? Was it just a monument lost in time, built by people of ancient eons.
However, the moment he stepped foot into the stairs, he suddenly heard a sound. The sound wasn't the clicking of a gear or the howl of a monster. Instead, it was the sound of a little baby crying.
'A baby?' Kai didn't know how to even react to hearing such a distinct noise. However, he knew where it came from which was clearly on another level of the stairs.
So, he started walking up the stairs, till he reached an open space where the stairs suddenly start going the opposite way.
There, he was met with a sight he didn't expect to see. In the middle of the open area sat a woman with her back facing him. All Kai could see was her black hair and nothing else. In her embrace was a small, featureless kid that was crying as the woman lovingly caressed him. The scene, as simple as it looked, affected Kai more than he thought was possible.
For one reason or another, the scene connected with him. He didn't know who those two were and yet he felt like he knew them. Something in his heart told him so.
So, without uttering a single word, he started approaching the two people. He didn't care if they were a threat or not, he just followed his instincts that told him to approach them.
When he was close enough, he stood to look at them for another second before he extended his hand. However, surprisingly, his hand passed through these two people, quickly tuning them into a seemingless mist that vanished in a moment.
Kai blinked in surprise before he looked around him. The cries of the baby had also stopped and he couldn't feel their presence anymore.
"What was that?" Kai murmured to himself. For some reason, he couldn't bring himself to believe that this was merely an illusion and yet it was indeed an illusion. That thought alone made him feel pain in his chest.
"Who were they?" Kai asked himself.
The woman was clearly that child's mother and they even shared the same hair color. However, other than that, he couldn't see any other detail about them. Not their faces or their names.
However, he knew he couldn't just stand there for a long time. So, with that in mind Kai moved to the next set of stairs as he started climbing them carefully. This time, he didn't hear cries and instead he heard the giggles of a child, clearly older than the one before hand.
When he reached the second open area, he found a sight of the same woman sitting on the ground with a small smile on her face. On the other side, a small child was trying to stand on his feet.
His struggle took some time as Kai watched with a stupefied expression. When the child was able to stand, he quickly started making his way to his mother with loud giggles. The woman also smiled as she opened her arms to receive him.
The boy fought gravity and walked, tilting left and right. But, luckily, he as able to reach his mother before he hugged her as he giggled even harder.
Kai felt an even stronger effect from this image he was seeing. Even when he knew that it was an illusion, he still couldn't stop himself from watching these two for a while.
When he got enough, he approached them, only for the two to vanish again just like before. So, Kai sighed and turned around before he walked toward the next set of stairs. His face had a small frown on it. A frown of confusion.
Kai didn't understand why he was seeing such images. Unless, of course, it was related to him in some way and he could easily discern what that link was.
However, Kai didn't bring himself to admit that fact as he really didn't want to say those words. Mainly because he really doesn't remember anything of this.
The next set of stairs, he heard the sound of loud coughing. When he reached the open area, he found the woman on the ground again. However, this time, her face didn't look well even though it was featureless. She had her hand on her mouth as she coughed furiously. Beside her was the same child, worried about her as he sniffled his tears. He looked older than before albeit not by much.
He was gently patting her shoulder worriedly as he opened his mouth to say words that didn't reach Kai. Those words stopped the woman's coughs as she smiled weakly and hugged her child.
Kai's face turned from a frown to a rather shocked look before he even realized it. His eyes, widely opened, blinked every now and then. The impact of each scene was accumulating in his chest.
So, Kai quickly hurried toward the next set of stairs without even approaching the two like he did before. The next sound he heard was painful moaning.
When Kai reached his destination, he found the woman, lying on a bed, her body was weak and skinny as she barely breathed. Beside her was the kid, crying audibly this time as he held into her hand. The woman also held his hand, however, she didn't speak or to be more precise, couldn't even speak.
Then, out of nowhere, the kid's face lifted up as he stared directly at Kai with deep hatred. A hatred that didn't even require eyes to be transmitted.
Kai was frozen in his place with how deep that hatred was. However, he didn't even think of doing anything as he waited for what was going to happen. A few moments later, someone appeared from where he stood, precisely in his position that the two even overlapped for a second.
Kai quickly moved out of that position to take a closer look at the man. His eyes didn't wander that much away from him as he was the first person he could identify clearly. His eyes turned cold and his aura leaked out.
The man that appeared was his father. Even with no features, he knew him very well and how could he not know him? He was the only person he hated in his life.
However, at that moment, the image suddenly vanished before he could see what was this man about to do.
"Dammit!" Kai found himself frustrated by the fact that he couldn't see with his own eyes what this man was about to do. What frustrated him even more was the fact that he doesn't recall anything of this ever happening.
In his head were a different set of memories that didn't look like this one. The first and biggest difference was that he was never close with a woman that looked like that one. Granted, he knew that his father killed his mother, but he never saw his mother before in his life.
Yet, in what he was seeing now, there was clearly a strong bond between him and his mother that he never experienced before or perhaps did experience and yet can't remember. Kai knew what he was inclined to believe.
But, for the sake of fulfilling his curiosity, he continued to the next set of stairs. This time, however, no audible human voices reached him and instead he could only hear the sound papers flipping.
When he reached the scene, he saw a small boy, sitting on a table, reading a book silently. His face, as featureless as it was, felt empty, purposeless and lacked the innocence a kid should have at that age.
That was, of course, something the current Kai was familiar with. After all, that was something he had seen before in the mirror, countless times. He didn't even need to see the boy's face to know how he looked exactly with eyes, ears and a nose.
So, he moved to the next scene quickly. This one, surprisingly, looked the same as the last one. A boy was sitting on a table reading a book. So, he moved to the next one where he saw the same thing. A scene after the other, he only saw the boy reading as if that was the only thing that happened.
Kai found himself even more confused. But, he soon realized something. Something really important.