TBATE | King Grey

-CHAPTER 18- A fated encounter

"Why... Why is this happening to me? Where... Where did she go?"

My raw voice carried a deep pain within it as I demanded the damned forest. Then, an answer came. A soothing voice tickled against my ears like soft feathers, bearing a striking contrast to my own.

"Your spouse didn't go anywhere. It was all an illusion."

"W-what? An...illusion?" I asked back in confusion. My mind had been muddled so badly that I hadn't realised that a voice—another person—was speaking to me.

I spun around the ground in a sudden haste as my eyes fell on the...woman, standing amidst the fog.

"It was a spell to invoke your deeply rooted desires, fears, and emotions alike; to make them manifest and intrude into all your senses. It's an attempt to make your mind think that it was real, so you would watch and experience it; and slowly end up losing yourself, followed by your mind and will, and finally...your own life. Very cruel, if you ask me."

Her gentle voice once again resonated in the air, wrapping me in a physical warmth of soothing and calming nimbus of energy.

It took my sluggish mind a few seconds to register her words. "S-So someone was playing tricks in my mind..?" It wasn't so much of a question as I came to a realisation that it definitely was a ploy. My mind wouldn't accept otherwise that my wife had vanished into thin air.

That thought pushed forth my contained anger, swatting the warm nimbus cloud away as I glared back at this...mysterious woman standing and watching me with a look of pity and a hint of curiosity. "D-Did you do this? You...did this, didn't you? WHY?"

I just wanted to blame someone or something. My mind losing itself to the blazing fury.

"Your mind isn't stable, young one. The illusory spell and the fog are polluting your brain. Here, let me help you clear them away." She said with a pained voice and moved her hand. The nimbus cloud of golden energy soon started to multiply, illuminating the whole foggy forest in a warm colourful light.

"W-What the..." everything around me turned brilliant and angelic, it felt like I was suddenly standing in the middle of some heaven.

The woman finally moved. Her flawless white skin radiated a celestial glow that could've very well put the illuminating sun and the stars above us to shame. Her neat white cloak that hugged her entire figure—flowed like a magical milky liquid around her—making her every movement enchanting, and eye-catching to watch. My eyes moved up to meet her face that was crowned with locks of shining silver hair that reached till her back; her eyes—rich and royal purple—shone in bright amethyst hue as she looked back at me.

She may have been an angel amidst this heaven, and I'd have believed it with all of my being.

"W-Who...?" I felt speechless at everything about her, and there was this sudden urge growing inside me that wanted me to kneel down to her. I used all of my willpower to fight off that invading thought as she kept approaching me.

Then, panic rose.

"No! Get away. D-Don't come near, o-or...I-I'll kill you." I whimpered like a wounded beast, trying to fight off against an immovable mountain.

The woman was beautiful, but more than that, she carried with her a sense of serenity, of purpose, of grace—and of power.

Power that I couldn't start to comprehend.

"Stop", I growled. Anger, fear and self-preservation flaring up inside me. She reached me, without any hint of malice. But I couldn't just...trust this mysterious woman.