When the Forbidden Spell's seal descended upon him, it was as though a pair of hands had appeared out of thin air;
one gripped his nape, while the other pressed against the back of his head, forcibly pushing him into the sea regardless of his will.
He could see bubbles rising endlessly before him and sense the light receding, while boundless darkness had already become his destined resting place.
If the perspective detached from him and drew back, Kallen grew smaller, and so did the sea. Beyond the sea, where light and shadow rippled, an ancient desk appeared, with books and a goose quill on it.
A mountainous figure sat behind the writing desk, pen in hand, seemingly reading or writing;
compared to him, Kallen was as insignificant as a speck of dust.
In this epoch when the gods no longer appeared, even the most devout believers had lost a clear sense of what a god was. Imagining them through the descriptions in divine myths always seemed to fall short of something.
A sage of the Principle God Church had once left behind a work of popular education, introducing believers to the nature of gods from a unique perspective. It contained this passage:
In a god's eyes, you can be human; in your eyes, the other is a god. But when you leave your body and look upon both the god and yourself, you suddenly cease to know who you are... no, what you are.
Later generations had offered many interpretations of this passage, even moving beyond the scope of gods and humans into the realm of philosophy.
Kallen's current state was, in fact, its best illustration.
Darkness rapidly encroached. The passage of time lost all meaning as a measure, and life no longer concerned itself with breadth or length,