When Skyler was done, he didn’t settle down with his parents. Instead, he said goodnight to them, but before he went to sleep, he turned to Riya and whispered.
"Mom, I think there’s a ghost in my bathroom. Can you contact a nearby temple and have it checked tomorrow?"
Skyler didn’t dare raise his voice since he thought his dad would laugh at him. But as someone who had reached the initial stage of 10-star a month ago, Johnson’s senses were very sharp; he heard him clearly. Yet, instead of laughing, he immediately stood up and went to check the bathroom.
He returned after a minute.
"There’s nothing, boy. You must have imagined it since you just came back after going through so much. However, we live in a world where anything is possible. So, I will get in touch with a temple tomorrow. Go to sleep; I’ve activated a skill that allows me to sense every type of Evol, so if anything happens, I’ll know immediately."
Skyler felt lighthearted as he gazed at his father. He had been so wrong about his old man! He didn’t laugh at all at his absurd words; instead, he believed him!
"Dad, you know, you’re the best!"
He flashed a charming smile and went to sleep, unaware that his father was worried a villain might come and kidnap him.
Riya chuckled softly at the scene, happy that the usual liveliness had returned.
Skyler set a few alarms on his phone to wake up early for college and crawled under his bedsheet. It had been a month since he last slept in his comfortable bed. He had to stay vigilant all the time during the test, but now that he knew he was safe, perhaps that’s why he fell asleep in no time.
However, shortly after, a faint white and pitch-black aura surrounded his body. He was sleeping, but not entirely. It was as if his consciousness was partially awake.
In the outside world, his eyes were closed, but he found himself standing in an empty space suffused with gray. Only two grand mirrors loomed before him.
It took him about a minute to dispel the disorientation clouding his thoughts and regain clarity of the situation. Once he did, he grimaced as he realized he was in an unfamiliar place once again.
"Am I cursed or something? Now, just where the hell did I get teleported to?"
He looked around, taking everything in rather calmly. After all, this wasn’t the first time he had fallen asleep in his bed only to wake up in an entirely different place.
"At least this time I didn’t wake up with a monster trying to chop off my head."
Skyler shuddered exaggeratedly, grateful that his head was safe and sound.
However, as he stepped closer to the two massive mirrors looming before him, he finally couldn’t stay calm anymore.
His heart rate spiked so much that he felt as if it would leap out of his chest because he was confronted by the sight of his own reflections staring back at him.
Two massive figures.
Both had his ash-brown hair and a similar face, but they possessed tall and powerful body frames, and the color of their glowing eyes differed from his. The one on the left had pitch-black eyes, while the one on the right had brilliant white eyes.
"Oh... My..."
He stumbled back, only to lose his footing and drop down onto his butt. His breathing was erratic, and Skyler felt suffocated just by staring at the figures in the mirrors, even though they were both frozen in place and didn’t move at all from their positions.
His heart skipped a beat when the figure with white eyes tilted its head. A hint of confusion flashed in its vacant gaze.
Its lips parted slowly. No voice emerged, but Skyler could discern the word being spoken. It was saying, ’Who?’
Skyler instinctively let out.
"Me?"
He calmed his racing heart. Once he felt calm, he finally sensed a connection with the two figures in the mirrors and took a deep breath before scrambling to his feet as a sudden realization dawned on him.
"You are a part of me!"
His eyes wandered toward the other figure with dark eyes, and he took a step back. He knew that the one with white eyes was ’him,’ who had climbed the Throne of Spirits, but what about the figure with dark eyes?
Also, why could he see them? Where was he? So many questions, but no answers.
"Is this my subconscious?"
He muttered, astonished at how easily he understood the situation, only to knock his head the next second.
"I am being conceited again! This is 505’s fault for complimenting me so much!"
Skyler stared back at the figure with white eyes. However, it had stopped moving, and its gaze had turned vacant again.
"I guess it wasn’t a ghost that I saw in the bathroom, but rather a part of me..."
He sat down in front of the mirrors and thought for a long time. It did not take him long to understand that he could leave the space simply by thinking about it.
Regardless, one thing was clear, and he could sense it too. The two figures in the mirrors were just remnants of a timeline that no longer existed.
Moreover, after seeing the confusion in the eyes of the figure with white eyes, he could tell that it didn’t remember anything about its life and had stirred within him because he recalled something related to it.
Skyler woke up in his bed. It was late at night as he sat up with a sigh.
"They both looked intimidating, but now that I think about it, they don’t have much power. Maybe when I remember everything from the past timeline, they will integrate with me since they are me. The problem is if they have the ability to manifest... it’s unclear whether I can control them."
He hummed, and his eyes glowed white in the darkness. He believed in the present, so he would live his current life. The past was there, and it was his, but even if he recalled it, he was not going to dwell on it as long as it didn’t interfere with his present.
"My life is turning awesome. Hehe."
He crawled under his blanket, feeling giddy, and fell asleep again. Tomorrow, he had to wake up early. No compromise on sleep, even if his life was turning awesome.