Tang Ze was standing at the edge of a river in a forest somewhere. Out of the forest, an elephant emerged and began to wade through the forest.
As Tang Ze watched this, a crocodile suddenly leapt out of the water and grabbed onto the elephant's left hind leg with its jaw.
Immediately, the elephant let out a cry of pain as an immense struggle between the crocodile and the elephant began, though no matter how much the elephant applied itself, it could not free itself from the crocodile's jaws.
Tang Ze's attention was then drawn to a single lotus flower floating alongside the river, which seemed to float along without an issue despite the disturbance created by the elephant and crocodile.
The elephant grabbed this lotus, and held it high in the air as a light began shining out of the clouds.
The crocodile released its grip, and the elephant walked out of the water, finally free.
The scene shifted again.
'This is- am I back on Earth?' Tang Ze thought as he realized that he was standing in his old bedroom.
Once again, he was watching a version of himself from the third person point of view, though this Tang Ze was quite younger than he currently was.
Tang Ze thought he had seen this scenario before - no doubt, it was based off of something in his memories, but why? And to what end?
His younger self reached over the side of the bed, but reached too far, and ended up stuck in the space between there and the bed.
Ah - yes, Tang Ze realized he remembered this. He had gotten stuck in that gap unwittingly, and had to call for his family to help him out, who had all gotten a good laugh at his predicament, though his father had been able to pull him out rather easily.
His younger self began to call out for help, and no doubt, any time now, his parents and younger brother would come running.
Only time passed… and no one came.
Tang Ze frowned. He didn't know how time worked in this strange dream realm when compared with reality, but he was sure that more than ten minutes had passed.
No matter how much he tried, he couldn't get his younger self to acknowledge his own presence, nor could he rescue himself by his own hand.
He was reduced to a simple spectator at this point and nothing else.
And, as he was wondering just what was going on, he heard someone coming up the stairs.
Just as he was about to let out a sigh of relief, he saw that it wasn't his parents coming up.
It was a giant spider, about the size of a dog, crawling up onto the roof, and towards his younger self.
And then this scene, too, vanished.
He now found himself looking at the ground. Wherever he was, it was back on Earth, though he was a lot shorter than he currently was.
Tang Ze examined his hands - it looked like he was a toddler right now.
Out of nowhere, hands grabbed onto him, though he didn't resist as his father lifted him and placed him in a swing set.
His father began to push him, and a while later, his mother came into view, with a bulge in her belly that signified to him that she was still carrying his younger brother inside of her.
That meant that he was probably about three at this time.
His father stopped pushing Tang Ze as his mother's face came into view, who gently stroked his hair.
His parents started talking, and his father held his hand as they walked back home.
It was rather odd to see how big everything felt when his body was this tiny, and once they were home, Tang Ze's parents looked down at him as he was placed on a sofa and about to doze off for an afternoon nap.
"Remember - we will always love you."
The scene shifted yet again.
Tang Ze found himself in a classroom, and much like before, it was as if no one could hear or see him.
He didn't remember this classroom, though it was clearly from back on Earth. It was also either an elementary school class or a kindergarten based on the ages of the students, and as he scanned them, he found a familiar face, and took a step back.
It wasn't his younger self - it was his younger brother!
"Alright class," the teacher said, drawing everyone's attention to the front of the classroom. Tang Ze vaguely recognized her as one of the newer teachers - at least for the time that is. Both he and his younger brother had gone to the same school, but he wasn't being taught by the same teachers Tang Ze had been. This was someone new, but someone whom Tang Ze did recognize by face if not by name.
If he recalled correctly, that meant that he would be in the sixth or seventh grade at this time.
"We are going to spend this period drawing - and the topic is - anything! Whatever you want to draw, go ahead!"
The kids all pulled their crayons out, and naturally, Tang Ze walked over to where his younger brother was.
It was odd - he was pretty sure that he had never been in this classroom, meaning that the Grimoire of Heaven could indeed manifest knowledge that he himself didn't know about. Perhaps it was true then - there was nothing that escaped the eyes of Heaven, even when it came to other worlds apparently. Either that, or it was generating this room based on what it thought that Tang Ze would think that this classroom would look like.
Fifteen minutes in, the teacher walked by his younger brother and asked, "Tang Jun, what did you make?"
"It's me and my big brother," Tang Jun said, holding up his drawing. It was a simple crayon drawing that you would often see kids make, and showed two people holding hands. "My big brother is the coolest!"
"I'm glad to hear that," the teacher said with a warm smile.
The words tugged on Tang Ze's heartstrings. It was probably one of the few times that anyone would've called him 'cool.'
There was a reason that his parents put most of their aspirations on Tang Jun and not on Tang Ze, at least, once they found that Tang Ze wasn't ever going to accomplish something big in his life. The care and affection he'd felt back when he was a toddler had withered away as the years crept on by and he found himself unable to keep up with his parent's expectations.
His brother had always been the better student and worker, though for whatever reason, Tang Ze recalled, always seemed to look up to him.
Which made it all the worse that Tang Ze had been able to do nothing to save him…
'My big brother is the coolest!' - those words brought tears to his eyes.
His younger brother had always looked up to Tang Ze, and what had he, Tang Ze, given Tang Jun in return? When it had mattered most, he had found himself unable to act.
He had found himself wishing a million times over that he could go back in time, push his brother away, and take that knife blow himself instead.
His heart seemed to nearly erupt in pain as the scene dissolved.
"No!" Tang Ze cried out. Even if it was just a dream, and even if it wasn't real - he wanted to be able to see his brother again, he wanted to indulge himself even if it was only for a moment longer.
But the grimoire had other plans and did not care for his protests.
Tang Ze now found himself standing outside a run-down apartment building back on Earth.
He didn't recognize this place either, though he found himself walking up the steps and through the wall of one of the apartments into someone's place as his legs were working on their own.
Odd, he didn't recognize anything even when he was inside the place - it was completely foreign to him.
There were two people fighting inside of it, one was a man yelling at a cowering woman, the man was clearly drunk. Tang Ze didn't recognize either of them, though as he turned his head, he saw a young child cowering in the corner.
Nope - the kid didn't look familiar either, but Tang Ze found that he couldn't look away from the boy now, as if his head was locked into place.
The boy grew older, going from being about ten to being a teenager, and all of a sudden, in the span of a few breath's time, was an adult.
And it was then that Tang Ze recognized him.
How could he not?
The man whose face he oftentimes saw in his dreams.
A man whose face invoked the deepest of hatred within himself.
The man then lurched forward, and just like he had back on Earth, charged with a knife, but this time he wasn't targeting Tang Jun and came directly for Tang Ze.
Pain began to blossom across his stomach before disappearing as suddenly as it had come, as he now found himself in a dark hallway with a mirror in front of him.
Only, his reflection was different from his actual self. The mirror image of Tang Ze looked like it had had the life drained out of itself, and all of a sudden, Tang Ze's eyes moved to see that there was something gripping onto his mirror image, like an unwanted piggyback rider.
It was a malformed creature that had a face that vaguely resembled Tang Ze's, though it was as if someone had taken his face onto a plastic mold and then melted it slightly near a fireplace. The creature had a spider-like body attached to its head, and was gripped to his mirror image tightly, fangs near the neck of the reflected Tang Ze.
And right then, Tang Ze felt a huge weight on his shoulder, and turned his head to see the malformed creature in the mirror was as a matter of fact, clinging to him in real life as well.
Just like in the mirror, it was riding atop his shoulders, latched onto his body like a leech. No matter how much Tang Ze struggled, he found that he couldn't get it off of himself. "Where'd you come from? Get off me!" Tang Ze screamed.
In response, the creature whispered into his ear, speaking in Tang Jun's voice, "I was always here."
And with that, the scene shifted, and white light washed over Tang Ze as he found himself back in the room with the Grimoire of Heaven still open to its first page.
The elder he had seen earlier walked in and said, "Time's up!"
The incense stick in the room had burnt out completely.