4 Last Section of this Circle

"G̖͊h͒̚j̊," Pok said as he pointed to the crab creature.

"Hello, G̖͊h͒̚j̊," Kyung-Ju said, waving in "hello" at the crab. As they waited for the search parties to give up, Pok started teaching Kyung-Ju everyday words from the Otherworld's language. He could now understand a bit of their language, but only if they spoke slowly--he was always a quick learner, but since coming over, it seemed as though he'd gotten a lot quicker.

Kyung-Ju looked at Pok, but he seemed much more disoriented than before--Pok had tucked his knees in between his hands, head hanging down in sadness. The reality of his situation seemed to finally have hit him.

"Pok?" Kyung-Ju asked, tapping him on his shoulder.

Pok looked up, a few tears slipping out of his large eye. He blinked miserably, before sighing.

"J͆ͭả̺͔ͧ I q̠̪iͩ͌͗m̫͗ͬd̉ͣ͊j͊̿e͇ y̿ͩl̻͒sͨ we v̈ͦi͑̊͒s͓̆̿m͉͍e̖ friends s̯̳j͈͛e͇ so m̳͛a͊̀l̇ n̬aͩ h̫ͨe͙ͤb̊́f̻I wͫͭj͇��ͣa̒̍͛s̈́ͯͤu̓̅e̱!," he replied angrily at first, before full on sobs came out of him.

Kyung-Ju put an arm around Pok's shoulders awkwardly, not saying anything. He didn't know what to say, and he only understood a little bit of what Pok was saying. But what he could do is stay here and just reassure Pok.

It felt a bit surreal, sitting in a translucent shell of Ghj, who was sitting on his lap, and comforting what would be known as an "alien" to the other human's eyes, as black spirits ran around outside.

As Pok cried, Kyung-Ju pulled out his dagger that was once stabbed inside him. He patted Pok's shoulders, but also scrutinized the details on the weapon; the dagger's handle was covered with red leather, with black symbols spelling "p͎̙r̮̼͗jͬͭ͂a͈̎ͭr̼ͬ ̽ w͔̫ê͊k͉ͥl̈́ bͤ͂t̗̼ͫd͕̙̏o̥̐n̏ s̮̯t̲ͯr͒ͤǵ". There were several green jewels embedded within the black handle, and the dagger was jagged at the tip, and curved towards the middle, and colored half green, half black. A tassel hung at the end of the handle, red as crimson blood, with a golden ball hung on it.

Suddenly, Pok's stomach growled, and he looked around in embarrassment. Kyung-Ju took out his last energy bar out of his backpack, splitting it in half and giving on end to Pok. Pok gave him a grateful look, blubbering thank yous repeatedly. Kyung-Ju also took out one of his water bottles and drank a little, while also sharing a bit of his energy bar with Ghj.

Once they were ready, and saw that the coast was clear, Pok and Kyung-Ju decided to leave Ghj's shell. Before they left, Pok took Ghj's arm and put his forehead on it, in what Kyung-Ju assumed was a way to pay respects and say thank you. Kyung-Ju also bowed and offered to give Ghj something from his bag, although Ghj didn't seem to be interested in anything.

"It is d̙̽e͓ͬͬt̤͉̿͋j̩̃̔͒a̗ͧ̽̚l͉͇͑ḙ̿d̝," Pok said as he gazed at the destruction of his lifeline, of his family. Holes and corpses were strewn everywhere, mainly of the orange creatures, and there were still about two broken-into carriages left. The beasts were gone.

Pok ran around, moving the corpses of each of the orange creatures, before giving up when none of them moved in response. Pok suddenly picked up what seemed like a dull, black rock, before a white fire flickered up and a white spirit reappeared.

Pok cried out in happiness, hugging the spirit to his chest as Kyung-Ju smiled tiredly in the background. After a few moments of Pok checking up on how well the spirit was doing, and if it could still pull one of the broken carriages, Pok signaled for Kyung-Ju to join him.

Pok pointed to the city and made walking motions with his fingers, saying "Are you walking to the c͇͚j̰͎a̘ͨe̥" Kyung-Ju nodded.

Pok pointed at the carriage, and indicated that he was to be stuffed within one of the boxes, commenting, "You do not look like you're from here. R̾̃o͍̣̪p̉̇̄ͅa̠͎ͩ́l͓͎͗͆ẏͩ̚m͕̗t̓ I will b͙ͮa͋͂jͩ̂e͒ into the c͇͚j̰͎a̘ͨe̥."

"No m̖͊aͯ͋n͙̓a̽," he said. "You. No m̖͊aͯ͋n͙̓a̽." Kyung-Ju nodded in understanding; he was from another dimension, so he probably didn't have the ability to use mana, however disappointing the news was.

A while later, Pok had managed to get both Kyung-Ju and the carriage into the city. Kyung-Ju couldn't see anything, of course--the most terrifying moment he had was when the guards actually went inside the carriage to inspect around, but everything else was smooth going.

"You c͌ͩj͕͓̦ả͗ͥk̮͛l̑ out now," Pok said, opening the lid of the box.

When Kyung-Ju finally came out, he was instantly mesmerized by what he saw. The city he saw in the distance could not compare to the city he was seeing now; it didn't look metropolitan, but it wasn't exactly a village either, and the buildings were completely black with varied arrays of glowing golden runes and lines covering the tipsy block buildings. Wires ran across and above the streets all around, while signs attached to the third floors of the buildings signalled which way the flying people above could go.

It seemed like the poorer folks used the actual streets; the more well-off creatures were all either flying, or using a device to help them fly—such as one humanoid who had double disks below his feet and looked as if he was skating.

On the streets below, winding lights in a spiral fashion lit up the surroundings while street stalls and merchants sold their items down below. Kyung-Ju looked in amazement at this spectacle, noting the holographic letters pointing to their respective stores. The windows were much larger on the buildings than in his world, and intricate designs decorated the building fronts in a beautiful array of art.

In front of them currently was one of these same buildings with a medium-sized lot in the back with parked black carriages.

"Where is this?" Kyung-Ju asked in the Otherworld language.

"City of Qigoa," Pok replied, yanking on the ropes of the carriage to park it in an empty spot. They got out of the carriage, and Pok released the spirit and held it in his hands as he took out glowing golden chains and tied the carriage to a looped pole. The chains glowed for a moment before settling back into black.

"Qi--what?" Kyung-Ju asked again, and Pok had to repeat himself again.

When they came up to the black double doors, Pok put his hand on the side of the door where a blank slate was, and it lit up in a bright golden glow. The doors opened, leading to a dark room filled with various trinkets on shelves and round pillowy seats which seemed to be made of air.

The lights came on about a second later as Pok put his hand on another slate, and Kyung-Ju could see the round lights that were held upon a translucent string--they looked like they were floating.

He looked around in wonder, hands itching to touch at least one of the various trinkets on the shelves, but he restrained himself.

Instead, he asked, "Where is people?" He wanted to speak in English desperately, but he knew nobody knew his language here.

"s͗͛u̲̤ͥc̪̺̐͛j̳͍͗ͣa͕ͅͅk̰ͭĕ," Pok said, before pausing. He mimicked dying by miming stabbing himself, so Kyung-Ju replied with "oh." His family members must've been the merchants, he assumed.

"What...this do?" Kyung-Ju asked, pointing at three rounded spoon-like objects spinning around on a pole. One of the spoons was pointed in the direction of Pok, while the other two were slightly near his area.

"Find mana," Pok explained simply. None of the spoon things were pointed at himself, Kyung-Ju noted. He didn't have mana.

"And this?" He asked again.

This time, it was a plain necklace with a turquoise-green stone shaped like a diamond, with a simple rune design that wasn't glowing. Kyung-Ju didn't know why that, of all things, interested him.

Pok took the necklace and put it on his neck, before grabbing the stone with his hand.