Cades snapped out of it, his mind finally returning to how it was before he fell, to how it was back on the chain, when he had finally recovered, not hearing screams, not suffering, not rambling in curses as he realized what surrounded him, simply calm and serene, as if it had burned itself out with fear, turning into nothing but ash that had no more fire within, turning into the calm after the greatest storm, and finally, he realized he had no idea what this man was that was standing in front of him, unnerving silver eyes full of sane insanity, an oxymoron, standing in front of him.
He had not cared back when he head been entranced by both the voice of this wondrous being that didn't seem to wish him any harm seeing as it was still just standing there, as if awaiting a reaction it knew was bout to come, or perhaps a question that it knew would be asked soon enough, perhaps even knowing what Cades process would be, or perhaps, Cades was just being paranoid as he looked at the clinically insane yet sane eyes that could truly not be described by many words that he knew from his time on ehetria, or anywhere else for that matter, but now, he was quite scared of this being that seemed to be weaker than even Cades, or perhaps, which was quite a bit more likely, it was just so unfathomably more powerful that Cades could not even begin to understand or feel the power it held, so much so that he now realized that the mana sense he was so proud of could no longer be used.
Or rather, it was more like it was still being used, like he stil felt it, like he still had that new sense that could not wholly be described, but now, it was more like he could not use it, similar to how one couldn't really see in the dark when there was nothing for the eyes to perceive, similar to how one could not truly smell a smell when it wasn't carried in the air, similar to how the skin couldn't feel anything from the outside when nothing was touching it, similar to how one couldn't hear when there was no air as the waves of sound couldn't be carried, there was nothing for him to sense through, his own mana still being sent out, still returning, but feeling absolutely nothing, only being able to see them al through the colourless light that came from nowhere and everywhere at once, evading the endlessly huge silhouettes of the five fingers int he sky, the thumb being the most pronounced as it came in from the side.
Now, however, he had long since understood that the being was waiting, not caring about his inner thoughts much, perhaps even being bored with his mundane worries, well, at least they would seem mundane for a being that had probably done this hundreds of times already, turning this into more of a routine than anything else, more of a boring task repeated thousands of time than a new experience, an exciting venture of meeting powerful people who travelled across planets, universes and dimensions, into something that simply felt normal.
And he knew that the man, or the woman, or whatever it truly was, perhaps even something without a gender, was waiting for him to say something, showing no sign of boredom but indeed being bored, otherwise he couldn't understand this, and as such he knew what he had to do, after all, he had no idea what was going on, and perhaps because of the tuxedo, perhaps because he seemed expectant and bored at the same time, as if waiting for him to ask something that seemed like an obvious question to the man, something that it perhaps was, he decided to not think about it anymore, to not think about the being's power, about this place, he decided to just ask about that which he didn't understand, not even caring about his manners anymore, having lost them a long time ago after being alone for all this time.
His voice came out perfectly clear, be it a little blunt, something he didn't entirely understand as he had thought to not have talked in a few days, until he remembered that this place was perfectly fit for something like this, something that did not make much sense at all, until he understood that his logic, the logic he had lost for quite some time after staying in this place, having begun to repeat things over and over again, as if possessed, having begun to get focused on things he didn't really care about, did not matter and that it had perhaps been better back when he had lost it, back when he wasn't bound by the constraints of logic, at least in this place.
The being listened intently as he asked the question, already knowing what it should answer, or at least expecting that it already knew, listening to the words that it had heard muttered, spoken by countless heroes, countless monsters, countless beings of the darkness, even by many a god that had managed to enter this great place, that had managed to gain the right to challenge, and yet, it found this slightly interesting, not because of who Cades was, not because of his strength, if one could call it that, no, it found it interesting because of how weak Cades was, because he was perhaps the weakest being to ever enter the trials, and yet, as all others, the trial was just as difficult for the gods as it was for this little, weak being.
And yet, despite all that was happening while silence still hung over this place as a thick coat ridden with dust and forgotten in that attic for half a century, muffling the sounds of a kitten violently playing beneath, happy under there, he asked his question, a question that, just as previously mentioned, was truly without real manners, but truthful in what he desired to know.
"What's going on?"