When you moved your gaze away from the letter, the sculpture's face was already before you, the transition utterly seamless.
Almost as an instinctive response to fright, Kallen began retreating, only to suddenly discover that he could see his own back.
Your soul had already retreated, but your body remained where it was.
It was a very peculiar feeling of separation. At the same time, immense fear and insecurity began invading your heart.
Then came the next instinct: you could not abandon your body. You had to go back!
He swiftly stopped retreating and flew forward.
Suddenly, a black gate appeared before Kallen, forming a barrier between his soul and his body and blocking his way.
It felt like that sudden weightlessness in your sleep, when you began falling into an abyss and your body gave a violent jerk.
Kallen abruptly came to his senses. Opening his eyes, he discovered that he was still inside his body. Everything before seemed like an illusion. The sculpture was not before him, either; it remained beside the cave in the distance.
But on closer inspection, the sculpture on the left, which had been bending down to scoop up the moon, had straightened. Her posture now seemed to await an embrace, and the crescent moon she had been holding had vanished.
She was waiting for him to throw himself into her arms!
Kallen wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. This was his first encounter with such an inconceivable "tugging." It targeted neither your flesh nor your soul alone. Instead, from another dimension, it kneaded you back and forth like Vien flatbread before frying it.
"Whew..."
Kallen let out a long breath and glanced behind him, hesitating over whether to return first, work out a battle plan with everyone, and then come