He sighed, his hands quivering, and examined his surroundings
But there was nothing he could see aside from a door without a knob, the void, and people lining up behind him.
"What... How can I see the void if it's void? How can we walk on this purely dark void?" he thought as he crouched, feeling confused.
He tried talking to the people behind him, but none of them could speak or even let out a sound upon trying.
He didn't know where or how he had gotten there, or even his name. All he knew was that he had died.
While he was burdened by his thoughts, a loud and audible voice echoed through the void. "Next," said an unknown man with a deep yet holy tone.
He unbent his knees, a shiver ran through his spine at the sound of the word—it signaled that he was next to enter the door.
He glanced once more at the dozen sets of eyes from the souls behind him.
One had a dead look in his eyes. Another appeared afraid. Yet another wore the same confused expression as his own.
Finally, he trudged forward, approaching the door, which suddenly opened, revealing nothing but emptiness.
He raised his brows, confusion flooding him again.
"Where am I? Why does everything here confuse me?" he thought for a moment before stepping into the void.
The door suddenly locked itself behind him, leaving him in total darkness, yet he continued to walk straight ahead.
His eyelids clenched shut as a sudden light overwhelmed his eyes.
Finally, upon opening them, he was astounded to see a bridge extending to the side, where a table with a book sat waiting.
He was the only one there.
"Come..."
"Where?"
"Come."
He clicked his tongue and plodded onto the bridge.
He stopped near the book-table. His chest pounded heavily as he panted.
"You."
"Me?"
"Yes you!"
"Who and where are you?"
"Book."
"How can a book talk? Is it a curse or something?"
"Enough," the book said as though reading the man's mind, "I am Edix the god of punishment. I am the one who dictates the price of your sins—small or great. You're bound to them. I'm here to cleanse one's soul in the process of purigation."
He nodded, choosing to not let a word. The words of Edix echoed in his mind.
He gulped as he failed to remember the crimes he had committed in his past.
"Enjoy your gift," Edix acerbically said as a scarlet leather book appeared on the man's hand.
The man gently opened the book to its first page and saw a blank page.
He frowned as he thought in his head, "Hey, are you making fun of me?"
He then head to see the second page–at last it had a text printed on it.
———————
As punishment for your forgivable yet unforgivable sin. You're sentenced to be reincarnated in a different world you lived in the past. There you would be a slave that mines mineral in your life time.
———————
"No," he gasped, his face filled with disbelief as he flipped through the pages one by one, "This can't be the end of this paragraph. There must be more!"
He frowned, staring at the blank page in disbelief. 'Are you joking?' he thought, before turning to the next page… and the next… and the next… Until finally, on page 87, there was nothing but blankness.
He clenched his fist and hurled the book away, but it was futile–his fate was sealed.
'It's time,' Edix's voice echoed, cold and final, as the black hole expanded, devouring the space around him."
The blackness seemed endless, but suddenly, a sharp constant clinking sound broke through the nothingness. It was the sound of metal against stone.
Clank!
Clank!
"Kriel, wake up!" said by a man standing beside him.
He forced open his close eyes and saw a man that called him. "Kriel?" he asked, as he pointed his index finger in front of him.
The smell of burning coals assaulted his nostrils as he tried to inhale the polluted air.
"Did you forgot your own name," the man asked, standing beside him.
Oh Kriel is my name. No, I mean the owner of this body's name, he thought as he studied his body, wearing a hardy boots, a shirt filled with red stained while he hold a mining axe in his right hand.
"Nope. Why did you call me, Oliver?" Kriel said to Oliver.
What the hell did I say? My mouth involuntary spoke his name out.
The original owner of the body probably couldn't handle it anymore. Leaving the body hollow as it got no soul left inside before he got transferred into its body.
However the body he had possessed didn't have much left.
His skin was pale white.
He felt the tightness of his skin as he moved his arm onto his head, sensing that his hair was balding.
With its strand being thin as noodles.
"Oliver, for how long it'd been in this mining place?"
"15 years to be exact. And you hit your 27 year age the other week, if you forgot."
"Oh, I'm sorry I forgot." Kriel said, scratching his head.
"What's up with you today? You're slightly jarring to me."
A man shouted from afar, standing on a watch tower, "Keep mining! Don't talk! Talk if you don't want to get your lunch meal."
Oliver started digging again while his body was drenched in cold sweat.
However, it didn't bother Kriel. Instead, confusion swept over him again.
"What the hell is this life? How does a person live with it?"
Fueled by rage and determination he lifted his mining axe and began digging like Oliver. He didn't know what he was doing, but he needed to act normal. So that close people of Kriel wouldn't be suspected him.
"Hey, Oliver." He whispered, calling Oliver's attention.
"What?" Oliver said as Kriel successfully caught It's attention.
"I don't want this life anymore–I don't want to be a slave for minerals anymore." He whispered as both of them continued to mine.