Chapter 2: Open Eye
A warm feeling enveloped Rendy's body, confusing him with an unusual warmth. When Rendy opened his eyes, he saw his mother hugging him tightly.
"Mother?" Rendy hissed, shocked because his mother had died a long time ago.
His mother hugged him lovingly as if he were a baby, giving Rendy peace.
Rendy, getting more comfortable in his mother's arms, finally decided to fall asleep. His mother smiled slightly as she continued to hug her son tightly.
The hug felt safe and warm, like wear a blanket. However, slowly the warmth began to fade, replaced by a piercing coldness.
Rendy panicked, trying to hold his mother tighter, but his grip felt useless. Her mother's warmth was replaced by a cold, eerie emptiness.
Suddenly, Randy's eyes opened. He woke up, seeing himself lying in the middle of a puddle.
The bright blue sky surrounded him, and all around him was just water.
Randy looked up at the sky.
"Just a dream?" he muttered.
Suddenly, Rendy felt a strange presence approaching.
He slowly turned his face to the right to see who it was.
Nearby, a tall figure wearing a black robe, his face hidden in the smog, floated gracefully.
Randy was shocked and jumped back.
"Who are you?" he demanded, his eyes searching for an answer behind the haze of smoke covering the black-robed man's face.
The man just looked at Rendy without expression, then gently took a cross-legged sitting position while floating in the air.
Rendy tried to process all the questions in his mind: who, what, why, where, and how could this all happen?
“Excuse me, where are we?” Rendy asked, trying to gain understanding.
“This is the realm of death,” said the man in a soft voice.
Those words shocked Rendy and he refused to believe it.
"Impossible," he denied vehemently.
Rendy is sure that this is not the realm of death. For him, the realm of the dead was a place where people had died.He rejected the idea that he had died.
Suddenly, the black-robed man spoke again.
"You died because you were shot in the forehead," he said calmly.
Rendy still insists that he is not dead.
“Impossible,” he hissed with conviction.
Annoyed by Rendy's refusal, the black-robed man snapped his fingers.
*Click.*
Suddenly, the puddle around Rendy turned into a recording. The footage shows Rendy, who was shot by a bald man after being fired by his boss.
The footage continued to play, forcing Rendy to watch the tragic scene over and over again, making him feel nauseous.
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Finally, Rendy accepted the fact that he was dead.
Rendy, who had accepted this fact, nodded sadly. He felt the loss of leaving his little sister disabled.
However, he accepts that life can never be predicted. An incident like being fired for slander and then being killed may not happen to everyone, but he is the one who has to face it.
Rendy looked at the black-robed man, convinced that he was the one in charge of picking him up and taking him to God, where he would be judged to go to heaven or hell. For him, heaven is a place for the oppressed, while hell is a place for the strong.
“So you will take me to God?” Rendy asked the man in black robes.
The man nodded. "Of course"
“And you, what's your name?” asked Randy.
The black-robed man started to stand up, floating on the water, while Rendy stood in a puddle.
“I am the Servant of Death,” he answered softly. “I am a Slave of Death,” he added.
Slaves of Death.The name sounded impressive to Rendy.
Suddenly, Rendy felt someone approaching. He turned his face and saw another cloaked man with his face hidden in the smoke mist
As it turns out, there is more than one Slave of Death here. One wore a gray robe, unlike the black-robed one. They spoke in a language that Randy didn't understand.
The gray-robed man approached Rendy, while floating, and held his cheek.
“What a poor child,” he said.
After the gray-robed man left, leaving Rendy and the black-robed man there, Rendy was sure that each Slave of Death was assigned to one person.
Then Rendy turned to the man in black robes.
"Okay, I'm ready," said Rendy, already determined to be brought before God, confident that he would be thrown into heaven where the oppressed are.
But suddenly, the black-robed man asked,
“Do you want to live again?”
Rendy was shocked, looking at the black-robed man once again to confirm his words.
“I can bring you back to life, on the condition that you will help me later,” continued the black-robed man.
Living again sounds impossible. However, if this man really offers him a chance to live again, then Rendy feels very lucky. Rendy tried to reprocess all this information.
He then asked the black-robed man
"Isn't God the one who can bring dead creatures back to life? You're just his servant."
The black-robed man nodded
"Yes you're right. I am but a servant of death; I don't have the power to bring dead people back to life. Not even Death God can bring you back to life. Anything that has died belongs to the God of Death.” The robed man went on to explain that usually the deceased would be brought by the Slave of Death before the Death God. Death God will then send them to heaven or hell.
However, Death God was not a Great God; Above Death God there is All Father. Rendy listened in surprise as the black-robed man explained that Death God had two sisters: Highest Servant and Mother of Monsters.
It all sounds so complex and mysterious. Rendy tried to absorb all this information, trying to understand the roles and structures that exist in the world
The black-robed man explains that the only way for Rendy to come back to life is if he is not brought before the Death God. If Death God had determined Rendy's fate, then there would be no chance for Rendy to live again. Anything that has died belongs to death forever, that was what the black-robed man expressed. Not even the All Father can take it back.
Rendy nodded, understanding that the situation was very serious. Then he asked, “Then what should we do?”
“I will take you out of this realm of the dead,” the black-robed man answered.
Rendy nodded, then asked again, "Aren't we going to get caught?"
“We will be discovered, but they won't know who is trying to escape because it takes a process to crack that,” explained the black-robed man.
The fact that not even a Death God could tell who was trying to escape death showed that this Death God had limit
The black-robed man stretched out his hand to Rendy
"hold my hand tight we will fly high"
Flying is something fun according to Rendy. Ordinary humans will never be able to fly unless they use a plane.
When he was little, Rendy dreamed of flying but his mother laughed at his dream because it sounded stupid.
Rendy then grabbed the black-robed man's hand
His hands were cold as ice. There is no warmth in it. This made Rendy's skin crawl. Then the man started shooting up into the sky,
Rendy's feet lifted from the puddle They started flying.
Rendy made sure that he held the black-robed man's hand tightly They shot up into the sky. This black robe man tried to climb up. highest sky
Above the high sky, Rendy could see below him many people being taken by the slaves of death to the east
"We'd better be at this height if we don't want to be seen," said the black robe man
They flew in the opposite direction from the east.
Rendy then tried to confirm this person's request
"What help should I give when I live again?"
"I'll tell you when you're alive"
Rendy, who was still holding this man's hand to prevent him from falling, asked questions in his mind What does the black-robed man want? Is he trying to take advantage of Rendy's death? But even so, it wasn't a problem for Rendy.
If he lives again he can support his disabled younger sister.
Even though Rendy could have rejected this person's offer to live and still died,maybe Rendy could have met his dead mother.
Rendy then remembered his initial dream about his mother hugging him like a baby.
Randy's tears came out and fell down from the sky
After tens of minutes, the black-robed man called Rendy, “We're almost there. For the rest, you just need to keep going straight.”
Rendy nodded, still holding the black-robed man's hand tightly. They then landed on land without any standing water.
The cloaked man explained that he could not take Rendy any further because he could be tracked by the Death God.
He asked Rendy to continue walking straight until he found a black portal. Rendy nodded again, then started walking in the direction the black-robed man had indicated.
Before parting ways, the black-robed man reminded Rendy of their promise—a promise to help him after returning to life.
Rendy continued his journey, but after almost an hour of walking,
he did not find the black portal. He felt increasingly tired and finally fell to his knees.
“Is this person serious? Just walk straight?” Rendy muttered tiredly.
Rendy tried to get up and continue his journey, continuing to walk straight without stopping.
It felt like countless hours had passed for him to walk. But in the end, Rendy fell on his stomach, feeling very tired. Even in the realm of death, he could feel fatigue like in the real world. Rendy almost gave up, but he remembered why he died.
He was fired because of slander from his colleagues. If he hadn't come out at that time, he might still be in the study, busy typing the news.
Rendy felt emotional again when he remembered the laughter of William Weebert, his co-worker who slandered him. With new determination, Rendy got up again and started moving, this time running towards the portal.
After several tens of minutes of running, Rendy saw the black portal in front of him. Even though he was barely strong due to exhaustion, he continued running. Just a few steps left.
Approaching the black portal, Rendy felt confused. The portal was in the shape of a large circle.
Full of decision, Rendy touched the portal with his hand, and suddenly felt sucked into it.
Without hesitation, Rendy put his entire body into the portal. A sensation like playing on a slide struck, as if a dream had ended.
Instantly, the cold and cool atmosphere turned warm. Rendy opened his eyes and realized that he was in a coffin. He wore a black suit and black shirt with a carnation on his chest. Randy tried to sit up.
Everyone in the church was shocked to see him.