Ethan woke up from his long slumber as he opened his eyes which felt quite heavy as if a load of baggage was upon his brows.
It was a strange yet beautiful place, like a night sky with countless small colorful stars just floating around illuminating the surroundings with a hue of colorful shades amidst the lonely darkness.
The space in which Ethan was seemed to be in some kind of endless void as no horizon could be seen as far as the eye could see. Apart from the beautiful serenity—the place could be called terrifying but it was oddly peaceful and calming for Ethan as he looked around.
For a normal human being, a sudden drastic shift in a location would startle them greatly but Ethan was as calm as he could get. He was looking around the place as if it was his old cottage in the village side.
"Such a peaceful place. It feels as if I'm home." Ethan muttered under his breath and stood up as he stumbled a bit.
He felt mentally exhausted but seemed to be getting better by the minute for some reason. Ethan stood and stumbled just a bit as he felt a minute headache.
As far as he could see there was nothing but darkness in sight. He turned around hoping to find something at his backside and he did—which widened his eyes with surprise and shock.
"What in the actual fu*k!?" Ethan exclaimed as he looked at something he would have never expected to see in such a strange place that he was in of all things.
In front of him far into the distance was the same ancient-looking Temple which he had seen on earth before his death. The temple he was supposed to explore but ended up dying.
The temple was glowing in the darkness like a beacon and all the starry particles were coming from it. It was a majestic structure made of red, polished, and heavy-looking stones.
The main building was surrounded by several large and high round pillars of black stones that seemed to have very intricate carvings and patterns on their entire body. The pillars' structure narrowed as the height increased and in the end, only a pointy pike-like top remained.
From the outer look that Ethan saw, it seemed like the outer walls of the main building were just the entrance layer and not the actual building of the temple judging from its architecture as he could see glimpses of other structures further inside from the outer layer.
It was exactly the same as he had seen on earth but this time the vibe was completely different. This time the temple seemed incredibly mystical and mysterious from the kind of resonance and Aura he could feel coming from it.
Suddenly a wild thought came across Ethan's mind as he narrowed his eyes, "Could it be that this temple is the reason I was reincarnated?" He muttered.
It was most probably it, as seeing this temple In such a place before and after his death could simply not be a coincidence.
Ethan began walking toward the temple as this had finally piqued his curiosity. He wanted to know why was he in such a strange place and what the temple was all about.
Ethan walked and walked, he walked for hours but the temple wasn't getting any nearer. In fact, it seemed just as far as when Ethan had started.
"A mirage? Or some sort of boundary?" Ethan finally stopped in his steps as he realized that this wasn't getting him anywhere. He looked around for any clues but there was nothing other than the drifting particles.
"Hmm, what's this temple's deal? There must be a way... There's always a way." Ethan thought as he narrowed his eyes and looked intensely at the temple.
Ethan just had two clues, one was some kind of resonance as if the temple was calling him as well as the sweet temptation of curiosity with the sense of homecoming that he was feeling and the only other noticeable thing was the colorful particles of light.
He looked around some more paying more attention this time and even after that when he found nothing he looked upwards in frustration.
Unexpectedly he found out that far up in the sky—words were floating which were made of light particles.
"Traverse a Million Miles for A Thousand Years, To Attain The Treasured Destiny of Yours!" It read, Ethan furrowed his brows in contemplation, his eyes shone and he scoffed.
"What a load of crap! You want me to walk for thousand years? I'd rather take a nap right here. Do you think I will play this game of yours? Well, you're wrong!" Ethan said mockingly with a contemptuous smile on his face.
He acted as if he couldn't care any less about some enigmatic temple or whatever the treasured destiny was. The corners of his lips curled upwards in a witty smile and he simply laid down on the ground and closed his eyes to take a nap.
The place was just what he liked—very peaceful and calming. Ethan really fell asleep and after a while when he opened his eyes; a slight smile appeared on his face as he found himself just outside the outer wall of the Temple's main building.
'Just as I guessed,' Ethan thought to himself and looked up.
A new set of words were drifting in the sky saying, "God Said: Open Thy Eyes of Thy Mind, See The Light of Truth, Walk Away From Tempting Lies."
"Just as I expected... It was a test. What Mother taught me during the religious classes wasn't useless after all. Some optimistic, hard-working idiot would probably even try walking millions of miles. One should never believe anything that is told on its face value without judging whether it's true or not." Ethan said and looked around the entrance of the temple.
Ethan knew that this was going to be some kind of trial the moment he saw words appear in the sky. On the other hand, he felt that the temple was calling him... As if he was destined to be there and he truly was very curious. In short, it was a sweet temptation.
Walking for millions of miles would certainly take a lot of time and Ethan had a hunch that he would soon wake up from whatever he was in. He was feeling more and more energetic by the minute and he guessed that something from the outside was probably helping him. So then what's the point of a long trial? It made no sense.
Ethan knew that the best way to pass a trial is to understand what the trial is made to test in the first place. He judged that this particular trial wasn't there to test his willpower but for something else.
This led Ethan to think that whatever was written up in the sky was nothing but a lie. The feeling of temptation and drive to explore the place as well as the greed to gain some sort of treasure in his heart was very unlike him. Judging from all this, Ethan concluded that ignoring the Temple as well as the temptation would be the correct answer to whatever trial he was in.
And that exactly seemed to be the case as the correct answer was to simply ignore the temple completely and not run after it.
Although it certainly wasn't like Ethan was too lazy to walk for so long just mindlessly. Definitely not!