Half an hour passed until the void dispersed, enormous tinted clouds of dust harbored the 20-meter wide crater formed from the center of where the black hole once was. I’ll soon expect that rumors of the legendary dragon god ate the earth as punishment for the collective emergence of negative aura, the people’s sins.
I still had access to my spare body nearby before the guards came to investigate. While the fog may have blocked visibility partially within the area, I stumbled across a superlatively round hole in the center of the excavation. A circular ladder leading down the deepest dungeon invited my curiosity to unravel its mystery.
I stepped down the singular path as the torches made of undying fire from a precious magic stone guided my way. I grasped the bottom floor, and a huge ancient gate carved with patterns from the French curve greeted my visit. With a gentle touch of my fingertips, not even trying to push, the door creaked open.
I came across a dome-shaped room whose interior sounds were completely sealed by the underground walls and ceiling. A magic circle formed by suspicious inscriptions marked the ground. However, its dimmed glow told me it was deactivated. A pedestal sat in the middle of the ground stain, enticing my interest from the item it contained, a sublimely decagon-shaped ruby.
Even without a ruler, I could tell it’s almost impossible to craft a natural stone with symmetrical sides unless someone knows how to forge a Gold Play button. Confident that there weren’t dangers threatening me, I took the pinch-sized ruby and examined its edges.
“Like a blind lover, a desperate man tried different ways to communicate with the goddess he adored externally. Suppose, he never knew Roze’s disguise would soon become his nightmarish romcom,” I whispered to my satisfied self. I left another copy of my body in the same spot to mark my promise.
Beyond the place that exhaled ionized gas, I pirated my alias from the bygone and ensuing disasters I would bring. A never-ending concept of seeds fruited from the branches, roots, and former seeds of the living tree, and a breath of existence forming gravitational terror which will soon end in wonders of hopes turning into the illusion of alluring patterns of pigmented mists.
“Nebula,” I smirked. “A befitting name, bewitching but menacous… I suppose.”
Exactly midnight, half an hour passed after I left, and the guards swarmed the dungeon. A confused girl, Quimora, woke up after the two-week contract ended. Surrounding her, the ground delivered a message to the guards through letters imprinted with blood.
Beware of the Veiled Paradox.
***
In the present moment…
“And they lived happily ever after! The end! Nebula’s story is now on sale and is soon showing in theaters. Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe!” I declared, standing on the boat Skade rowed over the river that mirrors the crimson moonlight. These dead bodies around me didn’t laugh at my joke. The gargling of water wasted seconds before he responded.
“Pfft!” Skade giggled. “Best friends, you say? We’ll never be childhood romantics if we’re a decade apart.”
“Zip your mouth, Entropig trainee. I don’t know what kind of magic trick Roze did to expand a thin pasta named Skade. It still goes into the end of the line, being a slave to legal benefits.”
“You’re too rude to use a cute girl for disguise. Since you started reminiscing, why don’t you listen to my childhood memories instead? What I did was upright heroism.”
“No one would listen to a podcast filled with a pig’s oink,” I boasted, raising my hands like paws and mimicking a pig’s cry afterward. “Oink, oink!”
“More like a pig, I’m completely a skeleton now. The era of Bristons was destined to have an abrupt end. My mask has already been implanted in my face ever since I was born, accompanying the hatred of living through an endless hunger for life.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Hell dare say to anyone that they’re a good person,” I said, turning away while brushing a weave of my hair. “My saintess, Guinelle, was eaten by her stubbornness not to kill anyone due to the church’s morals. Look at her now, still pinch-headed, but her experiences made her learn the meaning of punishments.”
“Bragging how you created an army of sinners from scratch? If you believe you’re in a story, your name will be canceled… immediately.”
“Have you heard of filters? I only find a good range of people deserving death. Even if I’m an assassin in the past, I’m a diligent girl with principles. Bringing their bodies to the cliff of the void was always Briston’s job. Isn’t that how you clean up the battlefield after the war?”
Skade stopped rowing and sighed, “I’m tired of endless rowing.”
“Direct your complaints to Roze.”
Skade gripped the end of the oars still and bowed his head. “How about the stones? You still have twelve to hunt.”
“The latest is supposed to fit the holes. Unless the barrier is broken, the quest won’t be hindered. Entropy already saved me time when I discovered Rox, a prodigy betrayed by people and life itself.”
“You’re overthrowing your job to your subordinates. It feels like you’re a joey that never left its mother’s pouch. Or you might be the violent type who hides a knife and slashes your mother’s stomach when she doesn't buy you a toy you like.”
“OA. With this frail body, my life as an assassin has already been over. Unless I exercise my real body, these pecs will puff up. That’s more of a reason why your tackles inevitably hit me. I’m best at dragging strings according to my scripts.”
“And? Where did you plant your seed?”
Frustrated, I gazed at him, like excreting a laser beam from my heated head. “Do I look like some idiot to tell you that? I’ve never shared my secret vault’s passcode with anyone. If anything else, making my passcode would be the safest choice.”
“Still, even with the blessings of Entropy, you, a calculative nerd, always have a route away from danger.”
“You’d wish. Even you wouldn’t enjoy it,” I sighed, sitting down over the mountain of bodies as he continued to row. “You should prioritize Roze’s punishment first. Though she won’t make a cameo, you’ll soon realize karma in your genes.”
“I wished I lived in another world as well, fully freed from slavery to an illusion called magic. There may be a chance that I’d become an otherworlder and a chance that you’re the one rowing this boat.”
“I’m amazed you still have the intention to dream. As long as you don’t make any contact, the Megapolis is always open for tourists. You’ll experience the might of convenience stores, cashless payments, the internet, and of course, human-tall ice creams.”
“Are you setting me up for new Entropic punishments again?” He asked, in which I chortled as an insult. He continued, “If I only knew this Megapolis would soon exist, I should’ve married Quimora when she offered.”
“Yuck! Shut up,” I exclaimed, curling my lip and delivering a dead-cold gaze. “You should thrust yourself vertically into a metal rod while biting an apple.”
“You never ran out of insults. Didn’t your past family love you?”
“Look who’s talking.”
Instead of being insulted, he didn’t utter a word. An eerie silence accompanied by slow splashes of liquid dominated our ears. To dodge the awkward conversation, he sighed and asked. “By the way, how’s Quimora doing?”
“Still persistent for marriage?”
Skade, shook his head, shifting his intentions since he’s already a body made of bones. “No… A sarcasm-free question.”
I stared up at the sky and smiled, “She is in a better place, and is hating me now… Soon, she’ll realize I brought her closer to reality.”
“What made you think so?”
“Every time we meet, she learns. The hunger for knowledge developed her sense of hatred, and for each foot-tripping her clumsiness produces, I’m the one she blames.”
“And you blame her stubbornness for hating you? Wasn’t your toxic mouth the reason?”
“Who knows? For starters, I only hated Roze.”
***
The freezing breeze stuck over Quimora’s skin. When she opened her eyes, the porcelain-white ceiling with an implanted light bulb welcomed her. The sun’s rays drove to her eyes, but she didn’t retract her eyes from the lackluster light. She leaned back her cotton-soft bed and bounced over, compelling the comfort in her expanded body.
A thick-warm comforter, with a fragrance of lavender that charms her nose, covered her, and regulated her body temperature, avoiding any further discomfort. It didn’t take long until her memories recalled the recent event, pulling her up to sit in panic. She inhaled deeply and exhaled excessively, widening her eyes to the psychological pain she experienced.
“Hera!”
She wandered, witnessing a couple of quartz-made furniture and modern technological appliances in the vicinity. As she stepped on the sparkling birch floor, she stared at the closed window partially covered by a velvet curtain. When she looked beyond, she encountered glass-covered infrastructures ranging from thirty to fifty floors.
“Where am I?”