SWNOVELS Chapter 9
“Why are you?”
Drakx wanted to open his eyes and turn to the voice. That was impossible since he had no body to turn, let alone eyes to open.
“Why are you?”
Drakx wanted to ask what was it talking about, but he didn’t have a mouth to ask.
“What is your existence in my realm? What caused you to disrupt my serenity?”
Drakx’ question was answered. He didn’t understand.
“Your questions will be answered as you answer mine.”
As he thought about everything that had happened to him, he was filled with new information simultaneously. He understood that he was in the next level. He knew the name of the keeper of the realm was Zhorryn. He realized that the conversation was happening in his essence, because he had no physical body. He also understood that millions of species died every second, and that Zhorryn was powerful enough to hold simultaneous, personal conversations with each essence. This place was very different.
“So. She cheated me of six of my essences. You were given in their place. I won’t accept that. You will have to regress to their level to retrieve them.”
Drakx thought he could finally rest in eternity. He had done his job for his previous life. It should be over, but it wasn’t.
This place was so perfect. Calm, serene. In an environment in which worry didn’t exist, Drakx had that raw emotion. He felt worse because of the comprehension he had of going back. He was a Hunter when he was alive. He worked for a harsh, stiff supervisor that was incredibly tough to deal with. It was ironic to him that he couldn’t die until he did the same job for Zhorryn.
He felt the voice again. “You must complete this. You have no special abilities. If you leave the lower level before you complete this, you will not enter here. You will be stuck in perpetual death. That is the constant state of feeling the pain that killed you. Suffering will become eternal.”
Drakx understood how devastating this would be. He became frightened at the outcome of this task. He couldn’t reason with Zhorryn. He couldn’t sway any sympathy. It was her fault that he was in his unique situation. She had done more devastation than she could’ve ever imagined. He was about to slip into hopelessness when he caught himself. He remembered how good he was at retrieval. It wasn’t as if this was a foreign entity to him. He had done this before, so this should be easy. This time, they won’t even know they’re being hunted.
As he began to convince himself of possibility, “eternal death” crept back. It slinked and slithered around his soul, slowly killing any vitality. He had no choice. It had to be done, because if he failed, it would be waiting.
Drakx thought, “I don’t even know where they went. They could be anywhere by now. Tracking them will just make this more difficult.”
“You still have physical traits. Time isn’t linear in this level. Being without conscious, you will not remember this occurrence. You will recall all you need to complete this. You will not remember this feeling, or me. It is much higher than consciousness on this level,” Zhorryn explained. “Bring them back. Restore balance, my serenity.”
Drakx felt life began to grip him. He was going back. This time, the hatred for Sensus for putting him in this position overtook the pain of new life.