Chapter 488 - Judge, Jury, Executioner (V) (Patreon)

... eh?

Didn't I pass out?

How come I'm very much aware of how damn cold I am right now? And what's with the bright light? Where the hell did Long Tao bring me exactly?!

It was then that the blinding light dimmed and my surroundings sharpened into shapes and distinct colors; it was a pond, no larger than a slightly larger tub, surrounded grass so tall it was closer to being a forest of trees.

The pond had a singular lotus flower at its center and a school of fish swimming in its rather clear water. It was shallow, perhaps knee-deep, with luminescent rocks flickering at the bottom.

I was standing right on one side while, on the opposite, was another; they looked like a person, a young, handsome man at that, with a few, uh, what the hell, let's call them oddities.

Such as a jutting tail covered in obsidian-colored scales, or the eyes so red they looked like they were actively producing blood, or the set of thirteen horns decorating the man's scalp, or--okay, he's clearly not human, so what the hell is he?

... no, what the hell is this? All of this!

Wait--did I freakin' die?!! Oh my god, did I really and truly die and this is some sort of an afterlife? Where this guy will come out and go, 'Tsk, we even gave you a second chance and you fucked it up so magnificently...'

"You are not dead," the man spoke in a rather gentle yet deep and sonorous voice, startling me out of my thoughts. "First, sit down." he pointed at a pair of chairs next to a table that I could have sworn wasn't there four seconds ago.

Nonetheless, it wasn't as though I had much of a choice, so I walked over and sat down and he followed.

... damn, I'm aggressively jealous over how good-looking he is. I don't think I could make myself look that good even if I could use Art of Survival at will.

"Your head is a rather busy place," he said, his eyes shining like gems. "So many thoughts for such a young soul."

"... you can read my thoughts?" I asked with a gasp.

"No," he said. "No such thing, I'm afraid. But there are certain people whose thoughts are so loud that you need not read them--you can hear them."

"..."

"My name is Luo," he said. "Welcome to my little paradise."

"... where is this?" I asked.

"Hmm. Geographically, it would be somewhere below Mote of Grace. Not that those words mean anything to you. Your body is still where it was; I'd merely taken your tired spirit and brought it here for a little bit."

"Oh." that's not creepy. Not at all. "Why?" because you were bored? His thin lips curled up into a smile as he raised his right hand and twisted his fingers in an odd way. Just as I thought he'd stab me with something for that thought of mine, two steaming cups of some strange, red liquid appeared.

"I was a bit bored, in truth," he said. "Just like that friend of yours that's been staring at me all this while."

"Hm?" ah. Following the man's gaze, I saw a pot of flowers that did not belong. I can't believe Eternity followed me even here.

"I've met many Travelers in my long years of living," he said. "But you might be the strangest one yet."

"..." here's another person who's called me a Traveler. Unlike the last time, I can't let it slip. "What is a Traveler?" I asked.

"He or she who travels, of course."

"..."

"Ha ha," he must have sensed that I censored my thoughts hard as he immediately burst into laughter. "Ah, forgive me. I truly do not mean to anger you; Traveler is merely a word, young one. A word we attach to anyone we thought didn't belong. Just because you all are Travelers does not mean you are all equal. Just that you are not of our realm, is all."

"... are my kids alright?" I asked. Though I'd seen them all just before passing out, and though they were injured, they were alive. I wonder how much time has passed, though. What about those strangers that were there? Did Long Tao manage to shepherd us out to safety?

"They are just fine," Luo said. "Speaking of children," he continued, his fingers curling around the steaming cup as he took a sip. "I built this place for my first son. How many times do you think he used it?"

"Once. Maybe twice?"

"Hm, twice," he chuckled. "That was a marvelous fight, by the way," he said. "Seeing how many tools you were given... it is true, then. That you are the last."

"..." here it is again--that knot in my throat. The implication that I am somehow 'the chosen' in some spectacle of a battle for survival.

"Are you afraid?" he asked.

"What gave it away?"

"You needn't be," he said. "In many ways, most of us believe that you, and in extension your actions, are inconsequential."

"Oh, wow. Thanks."

"... what I mean," he smiled. "Is that succeed or fail, an outcome beyond either one of us is inevitable."

"What outcome?"

"An end," he said, his voice full of strange melancholy. "There once were tens of thousands of worlds, all governed by the Heavenly Laws. There were as many Emperors and Empresses as there are grains of sand in a desert. And yet, now..."

He sighed and took another sip. Feeling the weight of silence, my hands instinctively reached over and picked up the cup as I brought it up to my lips and took a sip.

It was... sweet and thick, like somebody poured half a cup of honey and then some light, mint-like tea on top and mixed them.

"Do you like it?"

"I do."

"Nectar of Dao, some call it," he said with a chuckle. "Cultivators truly are an odd bunch, full of superstition."

"Are you not one, too?"

"What do you think?"

"..."

"Hm. I'm what they call an 'Infernal Race'. All it really means is that I'm not a human. To me, though, they are an infernal race. Every time, every cycle, it is the same story. My kind proliferates the Laws and yours... yours consumes them. Humans call the age they came into existence 'Age of the Beginning'. Hah. The hubris. As though the reality that mattered only started with them. Forgive me; my loathing of your race has nothing to do with you, truly. Or any of the humans currently living. You merely inherited the hell your ancestors constructed.

"Ah, I really do prattle. As an apology, I will answer one question you have. Any question. With the truth you can understand."

"..." I paused for a moment; there were tens of thousands of questions that I wanted to ask, but the selfish bit of me held onto just one. One that has been burning away in the depths of my soul. "Is... is my home world still there?"

"... no," he replied, taking a sip. "Your home world has long since been destroyed."

"!!!"

"Ah, destroyed is an ugly word; rather than destroyed, it simply... perished to time. You have glimpsed the reality beyond the membrane of Dao, no?" I absentmindedly nodded. "Then you've seen it."

"Seen what?"

"Everything."

"... hm? What do you mean?"

"That was all that's left, young one. Our little worlds shielded by Dao, and two leviathans slowly consuming us. Beyond this little corner... there is nothing. No stars, no planetary bodies, no moons, no galaxies. Just an endless, truly unending expanse of nothing."