Chapter 268 Dissonance

There was something calming about the water washing over Lee Seng. The sound of being submerged underneath it, calmed him. His eyes flickered open and he sat up.

"I'm not… in the water anymore?" He looked around. He was sitting on a road. "This feels like my Spirit World… but I don't remember any of this." He stood up, cleaning his hands and butt of debris while he slowly spun in a circle, taking in his surroundings. It was a straight street road. The road conditions weren't horrible, but it was far from smooth. "Why do I always slip back here when I'm going through excruciating pain?" He asked himself, shaking his head. He started walking down the side of the road.

"I used to walk down roads like this all the time. I would get yelled at because it wasn't safe due to all the unknown monsters that could be lurking about, but I felt like every time I walked down these roads, I was always okay…" The many memories surfaced as he smiled. "I wanted to explore but they always told me it was dangerous."

Lee Seng shook his head as he held his hands behind him. He followed the somewhat faded white line off to the side. He focused on walking on the white line for a while before he had the urge to stop and look up.

"Argh!" Keng's voice shouted as he landed crouched.

"Keng?" Lee Seng acknowledged. Keng stood up and looked at Lee Seng. "What're you doing in here? Aren't you training?" He made his way over to Keng, who brushed himself off before looking around. Keng looked down and started to check himself. He didn't have much burns and looked at Lee Seng in disbelief.

"I'm not dead!" Keng shouted. Lee Seng winced, trying to shield his ears. "I'm not dead! Oh my god I thought I was going to die by her hand!"

"Her?" Lee Seng tilted his head. Keng began to nod, quickly.

"Cori! She didn't want to teach me anything. She just wanted to throw me around like a ragdoll! That's when–" Keng stopped and touched his face. "Is it still on my face?"

"What is?" Lee Seng asked, not seeing anything.

"I felt the mask come on my face for a moment."

"No mask." Lee Seng shook his head. "So Cori didn't train you and just tossed you around like a ragdoll?"

"Yeah," Keng nodded. "I had huge burns and injuries all over but they're… gone." Keng's eyes had gone back to checking his body. He pulled the top off, revealing his torso. Lee Seng quickly looked and shrugged.

"You look fine, Keng."

"I almost died but I kept hearing chime noises!" Keng knocked on his hand quickly. "She blasted fire at me in different directions and I dodged them all. That's when she got pissed at me and did that move! I would've died but… I didn't."

"You dodged it?"

"N-no!" Keng shook his head. "I couldn't. She created flame clones of herself and they all chimed at the same time! I couldn't dodge any of it! I should've been a roasted Fox."

"But you're here now. Why are you even here?" Keng snapped his fingers and grabbed Lee Seng.

"Are you okay? What happened?" Keng began to try to inspect Lee Seng. He tried to pull off the Dark Matter suit but realized it was stuck on him.

"I'm here so I guess I'm not fine." Lee Seng answered. He grabbed at the hanging silk piece and lifted it up, forcing Keng to put it back on. "I feel like it's a running joke. I come in here when things get too tough."

"That's probably why I passed out. Commander Chimera must've brought me to you." Keng fixed his outfit as Lee Seng's head tilted.

"The Commander was with you?"

"Yeah?"

"Then we need to figure out a way to go back." Lee Seng told Keng. Keng turned around as Lee Seng began to speed walk down the road.

"And following a road in here will do, what, exactly?" Keng asked jogging to catch up with Lee Seng.

"I appeared on this road. I dunno why but I'm here." Lee Seng quickly explained what was happening on his end of "training" before he ended up here.

"You began to feel pain seeping through your energy channels and your DM reacted?" Keng repeated the last bit of information.

"Yup." Lee Seng nodded. "And now I'm here."

"Hmmm, I guess we need to find an exit point then." Keng shrugged.

"Yeah, let's find one so we both can get outta here and I can find out why I was forced here and/or lost consciousness."

Lee Seng and Keng followed the road for a long time. The scenery didn't change much. It was fields to the left and right of them. Lee Seng noticed small things that felt familiar. An abandoned baby doll rolled into the road. Lee Seng flared in goosebumps as he and Keng avoided the baby doll. The next thing that made him feel like he knew where they were was when a huge tree appeared in the distance.

The sun in the Spirit world suddenly became scorching hot and the sound of bugs and life grew loud around them. The large tree grew closer and a house with a gravel road appeared behind it. Lee Seng tilted his head, tapping his fingers together as the building grew closer.

"Ahh, this is bothering me!" Lee Seng shouted in Japanese. He ruffled his hair. "That," he pointed at the tree and house. He switched back to English. "That looks familiar. REALLY familiar and I'm not sure where I've seen it before!"

"You sure it's not that other home we saw the last time we ran in the Spirit world?"

"That was my childhood home. This one looks nothing like it." Lee Seng continued to point at it as he looked at Keng. The gravel driveway quickly came up to their left. The two stopped and looked at the home. It looked like a dilapidated mobile home.

After a long silence, Keng looked over at Lee Seng. "Soooo, do we go in?"

"It looks kinda creepy." Lee Seng didn't answer the question. He continued to stare at the mobile home. "If the Spirit World is just a combination of what I've seen before, where have I seen this?"

"We could just check it out and you'll be able to answer that yourself."

"What if this is the reason why I was forced here?" Lee Seng turned to face Keng. Keng gave an impatient sigh and started to walk towards the mobile home. "Y-you're just gonna go just like that?"

"No use in thinking about this so damn much! If you want answers, just find them!" Keng answered impatiently. Lee Seng jogged after him.

They climbed the stairs and moved over to the front door. The porch groaned as Keng stepped off to the side of the door and motioned for Lee Seng to open it. Lee Seng sighed and opened the screen door. It creaked as he opened it and held it open with his body while he grabbed the door handle. The door handle turned, easily. The door creaked as he pushed through, entering the cold home.

It was dark in here as the two stepped inside. The light from outside barely seeped in as Keng's eyes scanned the area. Lee Seng and Keng slowly stepped further away from the door. Lee Seng wanted to see what was in the home. The door slammed shut behind them, both boys turned to look. Keng moved over to try the door. It was locked.

"It's locked." Keng told Lee Seng. He turned and let out a sigh of relief when Lee Seng was still in his spot.

"That's the first time it's done something like that." Lee Seng commented.

"Besides the creepy monsters that tried to eat us."

A female woman's giggle echoed loudly around them. Lee Seng turned to look right as Keng fully turned his attention to Lee Seng. The front door hallway split into three different directions. To the left, behind Lee Seng, led one direction while the right led to a living room. On the opposite side of the front door was a kitchen. Keng moved over, slowly, to Lee Seng. He took a peek at Lee Seng's face. Lee Seng seemed shocked by something in the living room.

"What's going o–" Keng began to ask when he turned to look. A humanoid woman wearing a similar Dark Matter skin tight suit sat with one leg across the other. She was leaning backwards with both arms crossed. Tentacles writhed around her.

"Took you long enough to find me." The woman giggled. She unfolded her arms as her yellow eyes fixed themselves onto Lee Seng as she stood up. "Let's get down to business, shall we? I have a proposal for you and I think it'd benefit all of us." A growl escaped Keng's lips as he watched the humanoid woman. She unfolded her leg and stood up.

"That's why I got pulled in here." Lee Seng looked down as he let a smile form. He looked back up at the humanoid woman. She was still in her spot. She didn't move. She didn't dare to do anything in front of him.