2 A tale from the Gods and Goddesses.

"..."

Charles have a blank look on his face as he failed to swallow the grave information he took from the old man's sentence. after a while, his countenance became white as sheet of paper, his eyes wide open as his jaw dropped to the ground. Charles who have been standing up could feel his feet wobble until they finally gave up.

the old man watch his reaction as he expected for such reaction to occur. it would be much more weirder if any reaction other than the ones Charles exudes right now as even he who searched for was to get out of this hellhole wasn't able to wash away the despair that he first felt when the sudden realization that he couldn't reincarnate any longer, as he suspect that his enemies must be the reason why he got expunged into this place.

"...w-what do you mean never reincarnate? E-elder... surely you jest..."

the Old man, no, the Elder, who heard his dismissal, looked at him in the eyes, with a sharp gaze like that of an eagle,he swiftly shut him down and said.

"young man, do i look like im kidding?"

Charles felt the strong gaze of the Elder in front him and couldn't of him and knew that the Elder wasn't lying. as the Elder gaze locked on to him, he couldn't bear his stare anymore as he looked down. he wasn't sure how to handle his situation as he really didn't understand it at all. after racking up his brain, Charles regained some of his composure and said.

"t-thats impossible, why did my soul went here, in such a terrible place that you said, elder? also, what is this place that Elder speaks of?"

the Elder stroked his chin as he pondered what happened to the young man in front of him. he knew that there is something wrong with his current situation as he could feel no cultivation base at all to this young man in front of him.

clearly, he is just a mere mortal that just happened to fell into such place like him. their situation are quite different to one another as one was plotted against, where as the other one was just truly unfortunate. he really didn't know how this young man got into this place as it was almost impossible for such a mere mortal soul to do so.

Charles, on the side, saw the Elder went silent, as The elder again looked back not facing Charles as he began to walk in pace back and forth. Charles really didn't know why the Elder in front of him does such peculiar action as he always faced him back whenever he seems to answer him.

although Charles felt annoyed and curious to the Elders' action, he knew that if he were to asked him why he does such peculiar movement, he knew that a swift smack to the head is all he would get as the Elder seems petty and short tempered at the same time.

as Charles was about to get impatient with the Elder, the Elder finally stopped his rubbing his chin, as he stopped pacing back and forth, he faced the young man in front of him. with his hands on his back, he looked at the young man that has a face full of questions and said.

"young man... although i hate to say this, but, you truly are the most unfortunate soul that i have ever encountered. your situation seems... odd."

Charles, who listened to the insulting remarks of the elder, couldn't help but became impatient. as he was about to voice his opinion, the Elder waved his hand as if dismissing his soon to be remarks, he looked at Charles, whom now had a face of impatience and anxiousness, for such a a reply doesn't really have any information that Charles could take.it only made Charles feel apprehensive about his situation as a whole.

as the Elder waved his hand, Charles who was about to say something held himself as he saw the Elder waving his hand as if he wouldn't continue any further if he continued.

"your situation reminds me of the old tales that the primordial gods and goddesses have been telling for a long time. in those tales, it retells the stories of souls being barged from entry into the reincarnation as this whole place was in primordial chaos. at that time, where chaos was the norm, many souls where ejected from being reincarnated as an insurmountable amount of people died in those era."

" as such, although the place where the souls reincarnates, or at least, where the souls travels in order to reincarnate is vast, the amount of souls is just too many for the primordial guardians from the heavens could manage. as such, the Heavens sent the Primordial Guardian Angels in order to create a place for the souls,which would be later known as the Purgatory of Reincarnation."

"now, you may be wondering why they decided to create the Purgatory only at the time of chaos, unfortunately, even those gods and goddesses doesn't have the knowledge pertaining that events as it seems to be a guarded secret by the heavens. and as to how,why or what caused the chaos at that time, like i said before, I have no clue as to what caused it,etc. however, it seems that the heavens might be directly involved to it."

"anways, for you to understand the situation you are in right now, look at your surroundings young man and what do you see"

Charles, who have listening to his story for some time now, was a bit caught on guard as he didn't really expect the elder to ask something from him. acceding to his question, he decided to look around. as he looked around, he saw that from where he stand, all the way to the horizon, the ground that they stand from is all white where as the sky is but a dull grey. he could see no terrain feature at all as he looked full circles to where he stand from as everything is flat no matter where he look. Charles, now realizing the utter bleakness of his surrounding, couldn't help but get a foreboding feeling to where they are as he asked.

"Elder, there is nothing noteworthy to this place, why did Elder even asked me to look around? this place is rather dull and bleak, is this the reason why its called Purgatory of Stagnation?"

The Elder heave a heavy sigh as he shook his head and said.

"unfortunately no, the surrounding view has nothing to do with why the placed is called the Purgatory of Stagnation rather, its because everything here, gradually stagnates, becoming nothing but dust, if dust even exist here. and yes, that includes our souls"

hearing the last sentence the elder spoke and noticing the graveness of his words, Charles felt a shiver run down to his spine as he couldn't help but think of ways just to get out of this terrifying place. however just as he was about to asked how to get out of here, he realized that the elder in front of him seemed to have been here for god knows how many years now yet his soul has yet to stagnate. noticing this Charles forgot his thought process as he asked the main question that plagued him at the moment.

"wait, if what Elder has told me about this place is true, then why does Elder, despite being here for many years, have yet to cease to exist?"

hearing this, the elder came up with a reply. trying to sound emotionless as possible, he said.

"that's because i cultivated my souls. from what i know from you, you came from a place where there is no such thing as cultivation, as such you might not even know that you can strengthen your soul. with my powerful soul i'm able to create a resistance towards the stagnation"

' I'm also protecting your soul with my soul technique but im not gonna tell you right now...'

the Elder thought as he continued.

"for the past few years that i've been here, i've tried many ways to stop the stagnation from happening to myself, and i also tried many ways to get out of this place in one piece, all in the hopes of returning back to The Purgatory of Reincarnation and waiting for as much as i can, for that person to reappear, just so i could say the words i've always wanted to say..."