With mildly flaring nostrils, the old man stood with one of his arms clasped behind his body. “Godrick imparted Touchless Arts to Yizzy before he disappeared from the streets. His last words to Yizzy were ‘Look beyond what you routinely see.’”
“You mean the first Touchless Martial Arts?” Lirzod’s vein on the neck throbbed.
“Hmm, but it’s a beta version of it,” the old man gripped the staff a little tighter than usual.
Lirzod shook his head in amazement. Touchless Arts were some of the hardest arts to learn even for martials. “As expected, Godrick’s great.” There was a rise in his vocal pitch.
The old man’s grip on the staff eased down, and he faintly smiled as he glanced toward Lirzod. “With the use of it, Yizzy easily impressed many kings of the world. He was able to shoot arrows, put people to sleep, and defeat opponents without even touching them.”
Lirzod’s posture stiffened as he heard the old man’s words. He subconsciously crossed his arms across his chest.
“He just traveled to one kingdom after another and demonstrated his power,” the old man lifted one of his arms and gestured in many ways which made it seem like he spoke with his arm, “And in his journey, he became evidently stronger. It took him many years, but he managed to combine half of the known major kingdoms of the world without a woman getting defiled, or a child getting killed.”
“What about the other, isolated or unknown nations then?” Lirzod asked in an uncertain tone. "I mean the ones that weren't explored, or..."
“Putting aside those… nations, of course,” the old man stated in a calm manner. “All that was left of the majorly known kingdoms were ones that weren’t his allies in the 1st Circle Collision. Given his current power, they may not act against him in public, but they would definitely look for a way to poison him. Yizzy didn’t want to take the risk. If even one woman or a child dies because of him, his deal with Godrick would be nullified after all. More than anything, he didn’t want that to happen. So he chose to visit new nations.”
“By new, you mean...” Lirzod gazed with focus.
The old man paused for long before replying, “Some of those isolated, mysterious nations or places that people call as Beyonder Kingdoms.”
Lirzod had a gut feeling it was them before the old man even replied, but it still took his breath away. It was written in the books that to step foot in one of the Beyonder Kingdoms, one must go beyond oneself. Even to this day, these kingdoms were shrouded in mystery. Too many deaths surrounded these places. They were a mystery among mysteries.
The old man tightened his fist and loosened it. “Somehow Yizzy managed to reach one of the Beyonder kingdoms, and nothing but surprises awaited him. He understood why Godrick advised him not to look in their direction until after the rest of the world was unified.”
“Wait...” Lirzod’s voice trembled as he stepped back, his arms frozen in mid-flight and gaze fixed at the old man. “Was that a land filled with beautiful women?” His heart raced like that of a child’s and began to fill itself with never-before-felt hope. “I knew it!”
The old man emphatically said, “No.”
“What?” Lirzod’s body shrank as his shoulders flailed, and it seemed like a significant amount of energy escaped out of his body. “It’s not a place worth visiting then.”
The old man tapped his foot in midair, and a gust of wind that generated around his foot blew in every direction and made Lirzod lose balance. His entire hair curled back, and his teeth exposed as his lips contorted in weird ways. A couple of his shirt buttons were undone, and the lower part of his shirt fluttered like a flag would against the wind. With eyes that were almost closed, Lirzod stared at the old man who coldly said, “Do you want to listen or not?” he lifted the staff, “If not, I’ll send you to your afterlife right away.”
“Gye’ll!” I will! Lirzod couldn’t even see much less speak properly with all the wind lashing at his face.
The wind died down quickly, taking only a second. As silence spread across, Lirzod heaved a sigh and forced out a smile.
The old man turned his attention away from Lirzod and into the distance and spoke in a slightly gripping tone. “The Beyonder Kingdom Yizzy entered was filled with strange energy which at first suffocated him, but eventually it made him feel good, feel stronger. It wasn’t just the air that perplexed him; everything his eyes saw, ears heard, and nose smelled felt freakish. There were floating landmasses, trees that grew upside down, rivers that snaked through the skies, fruits that radiated both like the sun and the moon, waterfalls that slid and slipped down the edges of the floating landmasses, architectures that were purely made of natural elements, hills of complex shapes, giant-size statues bound by chains, creatures larger than humans—sharks with horns, cats whiter than snow itself and just as whiter forests—everything his eyes laid on was bigger, stronger, and more bizarre than he had ever seen or heard of before. What he saw there forced him to come to a realization that everything he had heard about the Beyonder Kingdoms till that moment was, for the most part, fictitious.”
As he explored the region, looking to find people, he had to use his power repeatedly, and the energy of the atmosphere around him grew more and more unstable. In a fight with some beasts, he was taken to near death. However, his desire to meet his mother was so strong that the air in front of him tore, opening up a dark-gray portal, and charcoal-black fire spewed out from the other side followed by the screams and howls of agony, anger, and desperation.
All the nearby beasts bailed, but maybe out of intrigue, Yizzy raised his arm toward it and ended up getting sucked inside. The moment he stepped foot on the other side, he saw with his own eyes, the scariest setting he could ever imagine. Scores of souls of very many appearances were being tortured in uncountable ways and indiscernible fashions by the guards who seemed like humanoid-skeleton beasts. Not only did Yizzy not see any jumbois, but he also couldn’t discern the identity of most of the souls, let alone the locale he had entered.
Thousands of strange-looking souls were forced to consume different colors of fire while thousands more got beat down by piercing nails made out of ice and snow. Those who were being tortured nearer to where Yizzy was, some of them kept shouting in human tongues: ‘I give up,’ or ‘have mercy,’ but others screamed in beast tongues that resembled the screeching of owls, howling of dogs, wailing of horses, squeaking of hares, and the humming of bees. Some animalistic souls fought against each other, while some tried to hide in the crumbling buildings of desolate streets. Those who hid were either being pulled out by the guards or got devoured by the rotten reptiles and vile vipers that made their entrance out of nowhere by slithering through the never-ending masses of souls in suffering. A glimpse was enough for Yizzy to assume that those who got consumed had perhaps ceased to exist. At that ghastly sight, even his heart shook and knees trembled.
“What, what do you mean by ceasing to exist?” Cold sweat dripped down from various parts of Lirzod’s body.
The old man’s lips formed a brown line for a moment before he spoke, “It means what it says, possibly. Suffer the punishment, and you’ll get to exist in the dark, or only eternal death awaits.”
“If the creatures in that place devour a soul, then that’s...” Lirzod got rooted at the spot.
"You get everything of yours imbibed,” the old man said, blowing out a noisy breath. “Your memories, your personality, your strength, everything that’s unique regarding you will become part of those creatures, which also is considered as you ceasing to exist forever.”
Lirzod's breath turned heavier. “That’s scary.”
“Well, that’s only a theory. Some believe that those devoured souls will have their punishment resumed elsewhere in that realm, that it’s a never-ending process that they cannot escape from. Even if they somehow managed to escape from it, they may end up back in it sooner or later.” The old man said and sadly smiled. After a momentary silence, he continued, “A repenting life can be the hardest life to lead. You might feel like the entire world is acting against you. That’s why you should repent while you’re still alive. After all, you can’t repent in your grave. For the unrepenting or the unrighteous souls for that matter, death is an enemy on earth but a friend in hell. So if a soul ends up in that realm of the dead, no matter what they might do, they may not be able to escape from damnation for good. In a dark place like that, one might not be able to kill themselves even if that’s what they desire, for they'd have become buddies of death. Still not many care about their precious lives." He sucked in a breath through the mouth. "To the unaware, repenting lives are labyrinthine.”
“No wonder many souls still give up, hoping they might escape their due rewards, huh,” Lirzod’s heart began to beat heavily as he clenched his fist and stared fixedly at the old man. “So, does everyone end up there after death?”
“That may be the case, or that may not be as well. I can’t be sure of either one. As far as I know, it’s decided at the Gates of Order where a soul is eligible to go in the afterlife. Having said that, many people even today believe it’s just a myth."
"Where are those gates situated at?" Lirzod's head tilted back, and he looked up at the old man as he asked in an eager tone, raising his clenched-fists to his chest.
"Nobody knows if the gates even exist much less where they are." The old man leaned forward a bit and said in a light tone, “Do you think they exist?”
Lirzod stayed silent, still clenching his fist.
The old man somewhat parted his lips. “Something wrong?”
Lirzod shook his head and voiced denial as he relaxed his hands.
The old man stroked his beard for a few moments while Lirzod looked into the distance with somewhat teary eyes. Where are you now, Squeezel? In time, Lirzod turned to the old man, “What happened afterward?”
“The opening of the portal and the arrival of Yizzy alerted many souls. They all tried to escape out of the punishments they were obligated to experience. It was then Yizzy realized that he was in a place he shouldn’t be.”
Lirzod’s shoulders tightened, and his eyes appeared damped.
The old man continued, “There was no end to the sight his eyes had witnessed.”
Every direction offered him a similar picture—devoid of kindness—the most grotesque of all he had ever seen yet. The heart-wrenching calls of people shook his body and his very soul. Even dwarven boys who didn’t grow a mustache were present among the ones being punished as if they were all being made an example in front of his eyes.
Many souls tried to escape out of that place through the portal, but Yizzy stepped forward and distanced himself from the portal. His eyes, though, kept searching for someone, without even blinking, hoping to find her. Maybe he was subconsciously afraid that he’d miss her if he blinked. But the number of souls around him was just too high for him to catch the sight of his mother. So he kept himself close to the portal and watched every soul that tried to escape. Many souls tried to latch onto his body, but some strange energy that gathered around his body kept him out of harm, at least temporarily.
The guards tried to get things under control, but it wasn’t easy for them to control the innumerable souls. After minutes of waiting, when tens of thousands of souls had already poured themselves out of that place into the outside world, Yizzy finally saw someone whose features resembled his mother, and he felt some strange connection to her, which sort of convinced him that she was the one. It was the first time he saw the face of his mother.
Arms raised high and spread out in the air, grabbed by the mouths of beast statues, a black-haired woman who seemed to be in her thirties sweated blood as a pointy whip cut through her dress and the skin under it and exposed the flesh on her back. She bit her lip so hard that it bled, but she didn't make a single noise with her mouth. The whippings grew in number and reached a hundred, exposing her bones, but she didn't make a sound.
The guard put the whip aside, and the statues let go of her. She fell straight into the large bowl filled with bubbling blood-red liquid. The pepper-mixed liquid entered her wounds, and she who didn't make a sound until then howled in pain, and she tried to swim out of the bowl. She reached to the edge of it, but the guard pushed her away to the center of it using a wave of his arm. As the liquid in the bowl got vaporized, a fresh liquid was added by the guard. Even though there was a lot of ruckus going on around that guard, he only focused on his subject.
She writhed in pain, screamed as she rolled up and down like a dying fish would on the ground. "Someone, save me! Someone help me! I can't bear this anymore." Her howls were intense, but they were just one among the many that were experiencing a similar fate. After some time, she managed to swim out of the bowl and poured on herself the buckets of cold water specifically arranged for her.
Though the burning sensation had died down a bit, her skin began to itch like it never did. She scratched her skin—what’s left of it—so hard, her skin got peeled off, but the itching didn't stop. She rolled on the dirty ground and rubbed her body to it, but nothing changed. More scratching and more rubbing, but nothing changed. Soon, her wounds were healed. Her clothes were restored. She looked anew. Her hands got gripped again by the mouths of the beast statues, which pulled her up into the air. The guard got hold of the whip and resumed his treatment all over again.
Nobody in sight showed love, not even a speck of it. Be it the guards or the creatures or the statues, everybody was downright cruel. Their mission was to deal with the damned in the damnedest ways possible.
“There was a saying, ‘what's priceless in the whole of hell was one act of kindness.’ Whether the place Yizzy went to was really hell or not, it probably didn’t matter to him,” the old man spoke with a trace of unease in his voice, "Seeing his mother being subjected to not only physical but mental misery as well, Yizzy's eyes were pleased."
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