Life is Death with a Warning to Ignore

Chapter 2

I find myself floating in a space of blackness on the brink of death. “Hello(hello,hello,hello)” my voice echoed.

“Who’s there” I state

“No one” the darkness replies in a slick, icy voice that chilled the very core of my bones.

“What’s there” I ask

“Nothing” The void replies “I am no one and nothing just a sound heard by few”

“Am I dead”

“That depends… “

“ … On what?”

“On the way you greet me… just answer me this, How do you greet no one and nothing without it’s reply?”

I’m pretty sure that whatever it was, would be smirking smugly right now.

“Good bye” I reply without thinking.

Silence… and then it comes out of hiding. Slowly it became visible in the shadows. Then it comes out the rest of the way to reveal the manifestation of Life and Death. They are revealed as one entity so it should be said that it was revealed to be Life and Death. At the moment it looked like a monstrous compilation of body parts and chalk white flesh. Then it started to change into a giant humanoid like being cloaked in darkness. That’s when I realize that it was holding some sort of weapon and is preparing to strike. That’s when it clicked that I had to fight this beast in order to survive. But I had no weapons how would I be able to fight back I said to myself while running away from the giant. Then I realized that I was running… how could I be running if I was floating before.

That’s when it all finally clicks together. Facepalm, this is the realm of nonexistent existences. Meaning that I can fight back with any weapon I can think of…

“Lightbane” I yell and right there my sword appears in my hand.

Now I’m ready to fight. I turn around and face the giant just as it’s bringing down it’s weapon. I swing my sword and parry the attack. I go in with a powerful lunge and slash open it’s right leg while it’s still off balance. Because of my blade’s bright glow I saw that I cut through the bone. The giant fell to one knee. While I have it down I thrust my sword into it’s mid section and use the blade to launch myself up to it’s torso. Now I thrust my sword into it’s chest to launch myself up to it’s throat. At throat level I take my sword and swing it around with enough force to slash clean through it’s neck from one end to the other. It clasps the area I had sliced open and then it fell to the ground.

There was nothing but silence now and the silence was so strong I heard it ringing in my ears.

Clap,clap,clap,clap I hear from one direction.

“Congratulations fool, for you have passed. Not only did you properly greet me but you have also slain your death. Enjoy it while you can”

“What!?!?!?!?” I say as it disappears.

The giant I have slain began to fade away. Now as it fades the darkness is cracking and light is starting to seep through the cracks. Just as the giant finishes fading away, the darkness shatters around me and covers me in a blinding white light.

“Ughhhh” I moan as I blink the light out of my eyes.

As my vision clears I’m able to see my surroundings. The direct area I’m able to see is desert wasteland, the moonlight that casts a soft light over the land, and the campfire that’s nearby. I look to my left and right trying to find Persain, Eve, and Hate but didn’t see them.

“Persain, where are you” worry was creeping into my voice “Eve? … Hate?!?!”

I became really worried.

“Eve, Hate, Persain… “ I shout.

I go to get up and feel white hot pains shoot into my legs. I look at them to find them heavily bandaged and very bloody. I try to flip myself over so I could crawl but pain causes me to scream. I hear rustling behind me and then footsteps. I was about to panic when Persain ran out to my side.

Gasp”Oh my god you’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay” She begins to sob

“You stupid jerk, you made me worry so much I couldn’t stand it. I me-mean you had no pulse, no heartbeat, no sign of any life left in your body” she starts to cry

“I’m just so glad you’re okay” and then she lies her head on my chest crying softly.

“I would never leave you behind, silly” then I lean in and kiss her.

After a moment or two we sit there in a happy, sad hug. That’s when Eve and Hatelin come out from their tents and see that I’m okay and rush over to join in on a group hug.

“What happened” they all say in unision.

“Well… Uh umm… It’s kind of a long story-” and I tell them what happened with the creature and the giant and the whole riddle thing.

I finally finish and that’s when Eve goes and says “You idiot, what if gave them the wrong answer” she says in a slightly worried voice.

“Not them but it and I already thought about that afterwards” I reply trying to sound comforting.

“Just don’t do something like that ever again” Hate faintly sobbed.

“I’m not going anywhere without any of you” I crack a faint smile “Huh-Man I got pretty messed up now didn’t I”

“Don’t be stupid, it’s not funny” Persain snaps.

“Sorry, it’s just that I can’t walk and I don’t know how long it’ll be until I’m fully healed”

“Why not just change form for a little while that way your healing is accelerated” Eve points out.

“I keep forgetting that I can do that but I wonder if I have enough power at the moment to change”

“How do you forget, jerk” Persain whips.

“It’s just that I never change form, really” I say defensively.

“Uhhg” she replies.

Before anyone could say anything about it I say “I wouldn’t have been strong enough to change form while I was still so badly injured from before”

“Eh-e” Persain looked like she was about to argue but thought better of it.

Then everyone else went back to their tents and I was left alone outside. I love being outside, whether it’s in the rain or the snow, as long as I’m able to gain peace I’m happy out here. It was pretty cold but I didn’t feel it I was busy trying to gain that peacefulness of being in the open with a cloudless sky fill with an unimaginable amount of stars. It was beautiful, to see the sky full of blacks, whites, and blues. Seeing how the stars are able to be grouped together to form majestic works of art. ‘Twas a night of peace.

As I closed my eyes to take in the full feeling of it I stop feeling pain and sadness, no more worry or sorrow, just peace. The sort of calmness that makes your mind go blank with thoughts of happiness floating around leaving me without any doubts, my father sent me to a place that I can be happy.

After thinking about my father a sadness crept into my thoughts and interrupted the calm. Shadowing me in a small dark cloud of despair I start to mourn my father’s death and the thought of losing everyone I hold dear. With that I start to cry. I started to cry a lot. And after my mourning is done I open my eyes again to move closer to the fire for its warmth and comforting glow and lay down by it and fastly fall to sleep.

I didn’t dream of anything like usual but sat staring once again into the darkness of sleep to be awoken by the sign of light on my eyes. They flutter open and I’m blinded by the sun’s morning light. I get up and stretch my legs and body and remove the sleep out of my eyes… Wait! I just stood up without hurting myself but how!?

I look at my legs to find them still bloody and bandaged but not in pain. I take of the bandages and find that my legs are perfectly fine(dirty but fine). A cool breeze passes by and I realize that my shirt had been turned into a makeshift cloak leaving my abs bare and at the moment cold. That’s when I notice the bandages around there(and yes they were also very bloody) I take them off and find the area fully healed, not even a scar was there. It was a miracle and I couldn’t wait to surprise the others by this. They’re going to be shocked by this, maybe even more surprised then me(if possible).

I go towards the tents to go wake them up but then I decide that I don’t want to be rude. So instead I take a better look around this place looking for signs of civilization. Off in the distance behind the tents I see a mountain range but just that. Behind me I can’t seem to find any signs of activity. It’s the same towards my left and right as well. Now that I’m done I wonder if it’s too early in the morning for anyone else to be up and running. Then I think if this planet is even inhabited at all… Nah my father said I would grow to love this place so there’s got to be other people here just not near here. After I’m done thinking about that I notice that my legs and torso are back in their bandages. Looks like Persain used her healing magic to make sure that the bandages would re-apply themselves after being removed for damage checks.

“Hmmm, clever… I wonder how far we are from the nearest town” I silently whisper to myself when I hear the loud ringing noise of a giant bell. The noise was so forceful that it caused my bones to vibrate. Persain and the others come rushing out of their tents.

“What’s going ooon!?” Persain shouted.

“Is there any danger” Hate says with excitement creeping into her voice.

The ringing stopped. I tell them “I think we’re about to go visit the nearest town” while a smile developed on my face as they see that I’m standing perfectly fine.

“Wh-what! How!?” Persain looked astonished.

“What is it Persain?” Eve and Hate asked confused.

“Look he’s standing up healed 100% as if nothing happened” She pointed out.

“Gasp, You’re right, but how” Eve says startled.

“Typical, we all go to bed and when we wake up you’re perfectly fine” Hate says.

After I finish telling them I don’t know how we quickly clean up camp and head out right away heading in the direction of the bell. Man did I ever tell you how much I can hate sand, a lot. Seriously, I just hate it when the stuff gets all up in your shoes and socks like it’s its job, hesh. And now I’ve got to go walk in it, just perfect. The agony lasted for about an hour before we finally started walking on grass plains. The sun’s blazing brightly against the back of my neck but it doesn’t really bother me. I’m more worried about how Hate is handling this because she’ll burn easily due to her paleness.

“Hey Hate, how are holding up so far?” I ask.

“I’ve been better” She sounds like she’s in pain.

I look back and find that Hate is sweating a lot and is badly sun burned “Are you okay?”

“Yeah I’m fi-” She collapses before finishing her sentence.

“Hate! Hate! Oh no” I rush to her side to help.

I roll her over onto her back and place my hands over her stomach. I start to concentrate then chant “Heinto ki kien”.

My hands start glowing light blue for about a minute then the light fades away. “Cough-ack” Hate wakes up seeing me kneeling over her.

“S-sorry I guess it was worse than what I thought” Hate said.

“That’s okay now that I healed you up a bit”

“Oh My God, look she’s fully healed” exclaims Persain.

I realized that to now that something was said about it. Strange, usually when this happens I’m only able to heal half Hate’s burns but this time she had no burns left at all.

“Hold on let me try something” I said helping Hate back up to her feet.

“Now stay still” I said as I begin to concentrate again.

After I gather up enough power to cast magic again I chant “Anarch-artik Doh-yo-key-den Anarch Artix-za-zin” and my hands glowed an ice blue color.

I finish my spell and create a micro cloud that was big enough to hover over Hate, Persain, and Eve to keep them cooled off with chilled winds.

“W-wow… that was amazing!!!” Eve says in awe.

“That settles it” I state.

“Settles what?” Hate asks.

“This world has a core infused with magic, lots of magic”

“That would explain why your magic is so much stronger” Eve states.

“Could that be why you’ve fully healed?” Persain asks.

“Maybe, but I don’t think so. That’s happened to me in the past a number of times but in all those cases I was only mildly injured” I tell them all this while walking.

After about three hours the sun was high up in the sky indicating that it’s noon.

We decide to stop on a flat area in the grass and rest. We had plenty of food with our supplies in our bag of never ending and have a picnic.

Author's Note

This chapter contains a few words I made up