1 The First Encounter with the Otherworld
It's not an exaggeration to say that the Otherworld is really dangerous. -- 11th day of the Magic Bull in the 145th year of the 4th Age of Light]
Wake up in a daze.
I don't know where I am.
I only felt that my hands and feet were tied, and there were two strange people behind me who kept urging me to move forward, with words I couldn't understand coming out of their mouths; I turned my head to try to get a better look at my surroundings and at the appearance of these people, but all that drew me back was the relentless whip.
Then they pushed me over to a section of stakes, followed by a kick from someone behind me in the crook of my foot, sending me to my knees, followed by a skillful application of a bag over my head, and then all I felt was a pain in my neck, and then nothing more.
It all happened so fast, I didn't even react to what was going on, and it was already over, is this my life? A life that ended before it even started!
It's not right--
This feeling--
It was a very strange sensation, I felt like I was turning into a ball, spinning in the air a few times, and then it seemed like I was falling into a barrel; for I clearly heard a "thud" and felt a pain in my head at the same time.
At that moment I heard a horrible roar, I also heard a "whirring" sound in my ears, the temperature around me followed by a sudden rise in the bag over my head also disappeared at this moment.
With my face turned sideways, I could clearly see a huge beast in the air swooping down in my direction; then there was an earthquake-like running sound coming from the ground, accompanied by violent ground vibrations, and my cheeks were hitting the barrels at a high frequency, as if a few hundred hands were "snapping" back and forth on my face at the same time.
My eyes blurred again, and at that moment I felt that an invisible force was squeezing me extremely hard, and this destructive and invisible force pressed on my head, and it hurt so much that I wanted to yell but couldn't make any sound.
A few moments later, I felt myself sinking violently again, and that kind of oil-squeezing squeeze made it as horrible as it was going to be; the ground collapsed immediately afterward by this invisible force, and I really felt myself falling down, and the powerful force pressed me into unconsciousness.
In that moment, I had a sudden joy of relief and never knew what happened behind me.
When I woke up again, I could no longer see the barrel that contained me, and there was only silence all around me; all I could feel was a viscous and fetid liquid filling my surroundings, while I also saw a headless body slowly drifting towards me.
Slowly, slowly, the headless body and I finally came across each other.
In this contact I do not have any feeling, my brain suddenly came from a burst of severe pain; this is a kind of pain into the soul of the needle and knife cut-like pain, at the same time the brain and feel a burst of strange itch, but also accompanied by a burst of numbness, this that is, pain and numb and itchy feeling, so that I want to grab and can not grab, want to scratch and can not scratch, and soon let me feel what is called worse than death feeling.
I struggled and opened my mouth wide, but I still couldn't make any sound, my mind had long lost the ability to think, it was all an instinctive action; and those viscous and foul-smelling liquids had already begun to pour into my mouth non-stop.
At this point I was like an empty bottle being filled with water "gurgling" until I was dunked and lost consciousness again.
I don't know how long it took, but I woke up once again. This time I woke up and could clearly feel like I was in a quagmire, and my mind was slowly waking up.
This time I woke up though I felt myself become a little different as I realized I could feel my body and tried to move my hands.
"Can move!"
There was a flash of normal emotion in his heart - joy!
Tried moving his feet again.
"It moves too!"
At this point my heart was filled with immense joy, and immediately afterward I tried to roll over again.
"It moves too!"
My feelings at this point can no longer be described as joyful, but overwhelming.
But again, I didn't dare make too many moves, still gently trying every little thing.
After lying down and trying one small movement of my body, I wanted to make a big movement of getting up.
When at last Sensei was about to stand up, he found that he was still unsteady. Like a baby just learning to walk, stumbling and wobbling, I fell to the ground and kept gasping for breath just after taking a few hard steps.
In his heart, he sighed: This newly polymerized body is as fragile as a newborn baby, wanting to have a big action is really still not too adaptable.
When I felt my strength had been restored, I tried again to slowly prop up my body, creeping forward on all fours, crawling like a baby, but still trembling and struggling.
But then it occurred to him: this big pit full of mud and fishy smell was never a place to stay for long!
So I began to stumble and climb back and forth out of the pit at the risk of losing consciousness again.
It was late at night, with two rounds of curved moon hanging in the air, a dead silence all around, and the temperature was very low; the ground was covered with a thick layer of white frost, which shone with a cold light under the moonlight; the wet mud on my body had been dried up by the freezing, and stuck to my body tightly, as if I was wearing a cold armor, which was stiff and heavy; the breath that I breathed out was also a gust of white mist, and the frosted ground increased the difficulty for me to climb upward; I was glad that the pit was not deep, and the slope was not steep; after a few twists and turns, I finally climbed out of the big pit behind me with unremitting efforts of my hands, feet, and teeth. I was fortunate that the pit was not deep, and the slope was not steep; after a few twists and turns, I finally managed to climb out of the big pit behind me with the unremitting efforts of my hands, feet, and teeth.
The process was tough, but it got me out of the pit in the end - it was worth it!
Otherwise at this point I would be frozen with the mud and blood in the pit and would have no chance of survival.
However, what I never expected was--
After climbing out, I saw a hellish battlefield, the blood that originally flowed towards the big pit, but because of the cold was frozen and no longer advancing, the ground has been soaked into a black and red, at this time in the moonlight reflecting the scarlet light; the surrounding bodies stacked one layer after another, these corpses come from different races, there are giants, elves, humans, orcs, dwarves, undead, dragons, and so on a variety of very magical race, and even some I can not recognize; they are dead in various ways, there are missing arms and legs, gutted, headless, scorched, etc., etc., etc., etc., so that people can see. Magical race, and even some I can not recognize the race; their deaths are various, there are missing arms and legs, wear intestines and stomach rotten, headless and bodyless, scorched and so on and so forth, let a person look at the creepy.
And I felt nothing about it, just looked at it indifferently and stumbled toward the nearest pile of fire.
I was so cold, so cold that I couldn't feel a trace of warmth on my body, and when I saw the fire, all that was left in my mind was the thought of "roasting", which was a voice in my heart that kept telling me: "Live, live!"
When I got closer I realized it wasn't a fire, but a pile of burning bodies.
None of that mattered anymore, I was cold, cold, cold, cold and just wanted to live.
Then I numbly approached the fire made of corpses, and, tired and stiff, I could only slowly lie down into it; for I was so cold and chilled that I did not mind letting the fire burn me along with it, even if I were to become a part of it.
The hard, wet mud wrapped around me began to slowly melt, and it was only after burning off the blood-covered mud from my body that I finally felt that slight hint of warmth that was seeping into my torso little by little.
Slowly closing his tired eyes he waited, slowly, for the warmth of the flame to sink deeper into my body, my heart, my blood.
The sun is out and the sky is glowing.
I should have lain all night, and though I lay a little too long in the midst of the fire, I still felt cold, very cold, very cold!
Seeing how poorly the fire was working, I had no choice but to climb out of the fire and try to greet the sunshine that was about to come running in; I opened my arms with anticipation and closed my eyes, waiting to embrace the warmth of the sunshine that was about to come my way.
As the first rays of sunlight touched my cheeks, a wisp of white smoke rose from the surface of my body; in an instant, the sun shone all over my body.
I felt it, I felt it, I finally felt the temperature, and how excited I was, how magnificent I felt!
But--
Soon I felt again that the sunlight was very unfriendly to me, as if it wanted to set my whole body on the fireplace from inside to outside together, making me unusually painful.
The sunlight, which was supposed to be warm, actually caused my whole body to start burning, and it all came too violently, so violently that I could no longer think about it, and ran wildly towards the nearest tall corpse, which was a giant dragon's corpse.
I ducked into the shadow of this giant dragon's corpse and rolled on the ground, extinguishing the flames from my body and proceeded to gasp for air; I didn't know what the hell was going on, and there were bursts of burning stinging pains coming from all parts of my body. I instinctively pressed my body against the cold corpse of the giant dragon, which provided a slight relief, and rolled over to lie on my back again on the cold corpse of the giant dragon, spreading my arms wide and continuing to press against it to gasp for air.
That's when I saw a scene I'll never forget; my hands became skeletal hands, or rather I was now a living skeleton.
Without waiting for me to continue to be surprised, the dragon's cold corpse suddenly disintegrated into a ray of golden light that wrapped me up, and my body gradually grew flesh and blood; but before I had time to rejoice, I lost the dragon's corpse to shield me from the sunlight, and once again burned violently, and I was forced to continue to look for the next shelter.
This time my target was a giant's corpse.
Because it was the closest and enough to cover for me.
Consequently, as soon as my tattered body leaned against the giant's corpse, the same thing happened again. I was once again enveloped in golden light, and also once again lost my cover, the sunlight once again burned me, and I had no choice but to shift once again, but it was all doomed to be futile; as soon as my tattered body ducked into the shadows of these corpses, it had gotten to the point where it didn't need to touch these corpses to instantly disintegrate into a golden light that enveloped me.
After a few tosses and turns, I looked into the distance.
There was a wood there, and I made up my mind to go thither, but at a little distance, so that I would have to bear the violent burning which the sunlight gave me; but I was not afraid, for there was no longer any suitable shelter here, and the result of remaining longer would be just as much to be burned up, and it would be better to go to the wood and fight my way through it.
Seeing the right moment, I poured all my strength into running that way, and it was at this run that I realized I couldn't feel tired; the golden light of the last body still enveloped me, midway through the sunlight shone on me and the flames wrapped around me.
I ran all the way to the nearest big tree with golden light and sparks to take temporary shelter, a landing spot that was set before the start.
Suddenly, a bolt of lightning fell from the sky and struck the tree.
The tree fell, and I was again exposed to the sun; with my landing place gone, I dared not hesitate a moment, and continued to run in the direction of the woods.
That's when another bolt of lightning fell and struck me directly on the head.
The golden light on my body was split apart, and my protective shield was gone.
But luckily I jumped to the edge of the woods at the last minute and the shade of the trees did just enough to block the sun for me.
With a huge sigh of relief, I raised my eyes and looked around, trying to figure out where the lightning was coming from.
It was then that I realized that it was raining heavily, and lightning was falling from the sky one after another, but the lightning always appeared very suddenly and seemed to be looking for living things to strike.
I don't know why this is? There was no time to think about that either, because three figures in the woods across the street were drifting rapidly toward me.
Yes, it just floats in.
They wore horrible masks and ornate black, gold-trimmed, hooded robes, each holding a staff, their bodies as dry as wood, and they floated along at great speed.
Before I could reach them, they each threw lightning, ice, and fireballs at me, and I was forced to keep dodging; but I still couldn't stand up to the other three attacking at the same time, and in three or two hits, I was struck by a lightning bolt again.
"Ah!" I let out a scream of pain.
Finally, I can make a sound.
But I couldn't be bothered to be happy, the burning and paralyzing sensation of the lightning almost made me faint.
I fought back the dizziness and turned to flee out of the woods again, but a giant spear fell from the sky and stuck in front of my feet, I was so scared that I hastily retreated toward it, and behind me an oversized arrow fell from the sky again and landed behind me.
The front and back were blocked and my heart sank to the bottom.
Just as I was almost in despair, there was a huge dragon's scream from above, followed by a darkness above my head, and a huge figure was smashing towards me.
I rushed to escape, but unfortunately, in the time I had just stayed, the three dreadful mages had arrived, surrounded me, and were rapidly closing in on me; they seemed to have planned this for a long time, and all three of them lunged at me at the same time, and I felt as if time around me was being sped up to an extreme, as they swooped down on me to restrain me, and then sucked the power and soul from my body.
I felt my body getting weaker and weaker, and my soul clearly felt being torn away bit by bit.
If there is any word that can describe the feeling at this moment, then I can only say that "tearing my heart and lungs, death by a thousand cuts, death by hanging," these words can not describe one ten thousandth of what I felt at this time; I would like to lose my consciousness immediately at this moment, or to let me die, but this is completely a kind of extravagant hope.
I felt like time was stopping again, the moment was unbearably long and kept me on the edge of unconsciousness, I had lost the ability to even think and was at their mercy.
Suddenly, one of them slowed down. I instinctively fought my way up, and my hands involuntarily and quickly grabbed the necks of two of them, and slammed their heads against each other with all my might; at this point in my eyes they were really, really, really slow, with the feeling of slowing down to a crawl; and after I had finished slamming those two, I quickly turned around again, and grabbed the head of the last one, and pressed it into the ground with all my might.
After doing this, the giant dragon in the sky was just about to smash into me, and my instincts once again played a powerful role; I quickly grabbed the large spear on the side, and with all my strength, I stabbed the head of the spear fiercely against the heart of the giant dragon, and then I forked the other end of the spear back to the ground, and then I grabbed the large long arrow, and gave it another fierce penetration against the heart of the giant dragon.
Without giving me any chance to catch my breath, a huge bolt of lightning struck right on top of this giant dragon, and along with me, it also struck me solidly, directly crushing me underneath the dragon, and then - I followed suit and became unconscious.
Calendar Note 1: The current era of the Otherworld is the 4th era of the Light, before that there are the four major eras of the Genesis, God's era, Dragon's era, and Elf's era, the God's era and the Genesis era are too far away, so the exact length of time is no longer available for examination.
The Otherworld's unit of chronology is somewhat unique in that a chronology is 1,000 times the number of months in a year, which is about 13,000 years.
The year in the other world is divided into thirteen months: Flame Armored Dog, Six-Toothed Dolphin, Two-Headed Bug, Fire Bee, Possum, Split-Horned Antelope, Stone Python, Flying Monkey, Cave Bear, Tower Deer, Magic Bull, White Tiger, and Iron Feathered Chicken; each name represents the time of the month's activity of the main species, and also serves as a reminder of the species that need to be taken care of during production and labor, some of which will bring about disasters, some of which are prey, and some will disrupt the production and so on.
The thirteen months are subdivided into four seasons: the Flame-Armored Dog, Six-Toothed Dolphin, and Two-Headed Worm are in the spring, the Fire Wasp, Possum, and Split-Horned Antelope are in the summer, the Stone Python, Flying Monkey, and Burrowing Bear are in the fall, and the Towering Deer, Devil's Cow, White Tiger, and Iron-Feathered Rooster are in the winter.
