Crusader King-Chapter 142: Two-faced lie(6)

It was.. orange when he opened his eyes again.

He didn't know how much time had passed, but he could still feel the oozing presence, the confidence of his copy right besides him... or maybe he, himself, was the copy and this was the actual Cades, he just wasn't sure anymore.

His face was pressed up against the ground, with his head facing the right but only slowly starting to really see again, something he wasn't entirely certain about how it had happened, until he began to realize that he was looking directly towards a huge ball of light, a sun, red as blood and tainting this entire place, wherever they may be, in an increscent red colour, be it that the wooden planks he was laying on, those that began to make noises whenever he tried to move even the tiniest bits, were tainted orange instead, perhaps having been white in the beginning.

When he started moving once more, trying to evade the deadly suns rays maltreating his eyes instinctually and turn away his head he felt how it began to hurt, having been ripped apart by the coarse wooden planks his head was faced up against, still, he was happy to finally look at something else, be it that that which he saw on the other side of his laying body that he did not dare force to stand up, was not something he had expected to see, and definitely not something he had been wishing for.

There, right in front of his eyes that had now instinctually blurred out the background of what he was looking at, was a blade, one shining with silver and tainted red by the red ocean permeating this place, the sharp side pointed directly at him and extending upwards for what seemed like hundreds of foot to him right now, but in truth were just about two foot.

After the first shock and terror at having been so close to a deadly weapon, his own sword actually, he began to look a bit further away, trying to assess the situation further, and there he was, there Cades, the other him sat, far enough to easily slash him apart before he was able to stand up and get the sword out of the presumably powerful wooden planks covering this infinitely extending realm.

He was sitting leisurely, his sword in his right hand, the dagger sitting idly to his left, his right knee angled upwards and his left one on the ground, looking at Cades, the one that was laying on the ground, with intent, observing every single action he took and more than ready to attack, something made easier by both the fact that he could warp in his situation, other than Cades who was stuck on the ground and without a weapon, and the fact that his knee was angled as such that he could push himself up without even using any arms.

Behind him Cades could see an endless ocean of orange, transforming into a single mass the further out it went, losing it's texture as wood and just becoming what seemed to be an endless, flat dessert illuminated by the torturing orange light of the sun above that Cades now realized had been burning on his back all this time, causing him to sweat while being unconscious and that sweat to dry up subsequently, resulting in his clothes sticking to his body and smelling, something that the other him didn't seem to mind too much, perhaps he had been moving around or fluttering out his clothes to combat the horrible heat..

He thought about that for but a single moment, but then his eyes dropped, becoming blurry for just a bit, and he remembered what had just happened, however long ago it had been in truth, he remembered just how much better that thing was than him, he remembered that that thing could not be him, he remembered how calculating, how prepared, how strategic that thing was, he remembered just how easily it had taken the fight, a fight that had almost driven him to the edge of desperation and definitely had almost taken his last bits of sanity as he had literally been fighting against himself.

For a single moment, though, Cades couldn't help but wonder and ask himself a single question, a question he silently said aloud, not expecting any kind of response from the being sitting in front of his face, still pressed against the ground, a face he didn't dare lift for fear of that thing.

Perhaps it was his own interest in the thing in front of him, perhaps he was subconsciously thinking of that monster himself, perhaps it was just because he had nothing to lose, perhaps it was jut because his own mind wished desperately to distract him from the horrible situation, but he sill asked the question aloud.

"Say, when we thought back then..." The other him moved slightly, his head whipping up at the sudden sound that broke through the silence within this endless realm, a silence that the other him seemed to have preferred from what he could see at the annoyance that appeared when he first talked, an annoyance that might as well have come from the fight that it was Cades that had attacked him, not the other way around.

Nevertheless Cades continued on, perhaps also trying to lighten the heavy mood and presence that came from the monster in front of him, " when we thought, would that have counted as a suicide attempt...".

The other him didn't do anything, for a moment he just stayed silent, causing Cades, the real ones, heart to beat faster, his anxiety and fear of death to rise once more and him to forget how this being had not even tried to kill him and had been looking over him while he slept, opting not to explore this realm but instead waiting for him.

"I'd say it's more like fratricide since we are similar but still different, either way, I do believe that we've met before, and since I've already greeted you, I think it's time for you to do the same."