De novo. Realm of inkiness, total darkness. Perhaps this was the true touch of death?
Unfortunately, for Owen, this was only the beginning of his long journey. Still semiconscious, he half opened his exhausted eyes. He turned his vision around the foreign surroundings. Bewildered, his dimed eyes blinked repeatedly, trying to formulate his visual information.
He slowly closed his eyes and accelerated his thought process. Instantaneously, memories of his past events circulated into his brain and with a understanding expression, he opened his eyes with a worn-out suspiration.
Suddenly, the darkness swayed slightly, apparently, like it was moving, resembling a mist or smoke.
Owen gazed this motion questioningly but still visually impaired. Regardless, he extended out his hand into the darkness and the surroundings started to shift in motion.
"Where am I?"
He mumbled hesitantly and took a single step forward.
"I can actually walk?"
He said wonderingly and walked slowly with cautious steps. The darkness was strangely indifferent to his movements but the space around him still moved and seemingly changing like rising smoke with moderate motions.
Subsequently, when he was still slowly walking, a flash of light entered his retinas at a single point in the misting darkness and unknowingly, his heart raced. Relief was shown in Owen`s eyes.
He decided quicken his steps a bit and with consequence, the flashing light increased, continually getting brighter unstill, a pictorial aspect of a new world came into view.
Owen covered his eyes with his arm from the direction of increasing light but as he stopped, the whitish shade illumination assaulted him at all sides. Adjusting, he slowly blinked his eyes and saw a clearer visionary world.
"Huh…?"
He widened his eyes and couldn't hope but believe his eyes were playing tricks on him. The visionary environment stretched into the far distance, eminent mountains and hills resting between them.
Queer sand resting on the surface of the new pictorial world and overlaid the entire landscape with dull white light emitting from its exterior. Yet the sky was avoided of any stars, strangely like no light could penetrate it.
Moreover, Owen felt his mind becoming featherbrained the more he perceived and his vision became blurred and distorted, resemblance to a picture with extremely low resolution, not to mention, the world swayed like mist in the space momentarily.
Regulating slowly, he covered his eyes and shook his head sickly. Afterward, he took a single breath of alienating air and narrowed his eyes.
"I`m tired…"
He begun to walk on the foreign sand and moved away from the shifting black mist behind him. However, his steps reverberated ostentatiously, creating echoes from Owen`s feet with each movement.
Owen sharped his constancy eyes and cold murderous intent could be seen within. Truthfully, never in his life has he felt so angry and frustrated.
One declaration of thought came into his mind and it was evidently clear, that whoever was responsible for this hellish mess, he was going to cripple them.
Awhile later, he removed his murderous thoughts aside and calmed the mind, subsequently continuing walking forward and never turned his direction.
Fortunately, soon, he stopped on a hill of the illuminating sand and finally encountered something mystifying.
Not too far from his position, black objects like figures stood motionlessly in a formation on level sand. They made two lines of columns but both of them faced each other and were at least two metres apart.
'Interesting….'
Owen unconsciously licked his dry lips and examined the anomalies further but unexpectedly,
*Bam!
A loud thunderclap sounded in the world. Owen switched his attention to the surroundings and saw the darkness of mist encircling the him at all directions in the far distance.
"What…...?"
He narrowed his eyes and silently.
"AHHHHHHH!"
"AHHH!"
"AAHHHH!"
Owen`s body shivered suddenly and looked at the darkness of mist with horrified eyes.
"What are those screams coming from…...? Wait…. it's from the misting darkness….!"
"AHHHHH!"
"AHHH!"
Screams of agony and torment roared the entire pictorial world. Cries and pledges were also heard from the quickening darkness of mist. The darkness appeared to approach him with hastened acceleration with each passing second, swallowing mountains and hills of illuminating sand.
"Tsk…."
Owen covered his ears and narrowed his eyes with a solemn expression. He focused his sight at the formation of the black figures and noticed that they were everlasting. He raised a brow and shook his head.
"Looks like I have no choice."
He sighed with annoyance and sprinted towards the undecipherable black figures.
*****
"Ok...I am here…..."
Ultimately, Owen reached the two columns of the figures. He also noticed that the figures were wearing tattered, lengthened, pristine black robes with concealing hoodies covering their facial appearances.
"…...What now?"
He asked with urgency to his lonesome and stared at the approaching darkness. The encirclement of the mist blackness was too swift, to the point it was already near him by hundred and twenty metres away.
"Damn, I guess-"
[Behold, Owen Henderson, for your trial now begins.]
Suddenly, a resonant deep voice of great authority interrupted his slightly panicking state.
Owen shook slightly in surprise and looked in all directions, trying to find the source of the reverberating voice. Furthermore, the darkness of mist silenced in its presence but still moved.
"What the heck is going on?"
Owen asked himself with lowed eyebrows.
[Alas, do you accept your trial of salivation?]
"Ha-ha!"
Giggles and laughs sounded from the darkness of mist as it moved even quicker.
"What?...whatever, Yes!"
Instantaneously, after he replied, sparks of light formed near all of the everlasting black figures and they abruptly extended their arms to the mystical light, revealing their bone hands under the tattered robes and the mystical light manifested into scythes, the weapon of death.
Moreover, the black figures simultaneously dropped their scythes to the ground, creating a loud sound that shook the entire realm. Owen struggled to keep his balance from the shaking ground.
[Take a step forward, Owen Henderson.]
The black figures adjusted their scythes upright, as if creating a pathway for Owen to walk.
[Owen Henderson, you have died in the Material Realm but have been granted a Divine Insignia from our goddess, Athena. You have been given a chance to redeem yourself into the land of the living. Now, take a step forward between the Formation of Redemption.]
The majestic voice reverberated once more, its gallantly deep voice reaching the entire world. Owen finally understood why he was sent to such a place after his death.
He was sent here to redeem himself back into the world of the living or the Material Realm, to be precise. It seemed this goddess knew he was going to die at some point and granted him this Divine Insignia, to determine whether he should continue living in the Material Realm or not.
Owen secretly gritted his teeth.
[Just how far did the goddess foresee his future and determine what his fate to accommodate her goals?]
Frankly, revenge seemed nigh-impossible because Owen, in his current state was weak as a single germ compared to a deity. However, this only made him more determined to get stronger so that one day, no god could toy with him.
Still, Owen was not going to let such a goal blind him of not living his life in peace because even he knew when to quit. Like they quote from Earth, "if you are ready to have revenge, you should be ready to dig two graves."
Hesitating shortly, he walked into the Formation of Redemption.
[Owen Henderson, I will warn you once. Do not gaze into the eyes of the Descendants of Death because you will face a fate worse than death.]
Owen sighed and shook his head slowly. He honestly doesn't care about their existence anyway. However, when he noticed the endless rows of black figures, his lips couldn't help but twitch.
"Do I need to walk all the way to the end?....."
Owen`s narrowed his eyes and a fake smile appeared in his lips. There was no way, he was too exhausted to make such a trip. This would take him years if not decades or maybe centuries to complete, even if he sprinted endlessly.
Regardless, he still walked forward to the point of falling to the ground in exhaustion but luckily, two black figures from each column raised their scythes and formed a x shape. Owen moved his head slightly in confusion.
"Did I do something wrong?"
[Owen Henderson, your trial has now begun…]
When he said this, the ground shook slightly and a metal of unique carvings on its design manifested from the sand.
A light of blue hue formed around it and it finally stood in place. Owen watched in awe through the process and his brows shoot upwards.
Now, the only thing he had to do was go through the door. He inhaled deeply and slowly pushed the door with all of his might and went through.
There, more darkness surrounded him, however, it started to disappear quickly unlike before and suddenly, he could see something. He hasten his pace and noticed all of his stamina returning to him slowly. He smiled thinly and gripped his fists.
Finally, at optimum strength, he jogged slightly and arrived at a new scenery. Plus, the visionary distortion was now gone and everything became clear as day.
The space was surrounded by a black mist, creating a medium circle, additionally, a wall was built rotated into a full circumference, resembling a small amphitheatre.
Furthermore, there were six desks imprinted into the wall and behold, there were humanoid figures who covered themselves in black robes and ultimately, at the beginning of the wall circle was a stone judge chair.
An enmity of who clearly reached the realm of divinity was sitting on that chair and made Owen slightly shake in its presence. That monster looked like a knight that was made from hell and its figure towered everything in the circle. Owen looked in horror and instantly took a step back.
'What the hell is this place?'