BIZARRE

I opened my eyes and felt a heavy sensation on my eyelids. It was as if a heavy wind was bearing down on my face. However, a thin layer kept the majority of the pressure away.

All of sudden I felt an intense wave of energy pass through the area I stood like a turbulent wind, almost pushing me back.

I was back here again.

The Spirit World.

Still ranking first on my list of Bizarre experiences.

Pseudo hells were depressing. Designed to make you feel like there was no hope. Of course that was the feeling we invaders got, while it was a paradise for the inhabitants.

My eyes finally focused. The moment the harsh wind blew over me, I knew I was back, but seeing with my own eyes was always better.

I stood on what looked like ash grey soil. It was a road. A crossroad to be exact.

Four ways meeting in the centre where I stood. The roads were at least 3 meters wide, the ashy soil prevalent on them.

The bizarre phenomenon I had seen once was again revealed to me.

I could not see more than 4 meters from the roads, as there was what I would call non existent space.

To say it had colour would be inaccurate. It was similar to how when an artist drew a pathway on a canvas but never finished.

I looked up and saw the sky. The blue sky with a large number of thick, white clouds that I was used to on Eriss.

It seemed disconnected from the space I stood, as if the crossroad was a different world altogether.

Beside me was the sexy luggage in a black.

Cassandra.

She was also dazedly looking up, down, side to side like me, only, she was a lot more confused.

I would make fun of her in such a situation, but I knew that if we played our cards we would be screwed.

"Have you been to this weird crossroad before?" she asked, still looking around.

"Yes. I had to find out more about the Spirit World after the mission I did to go to that Pseudo Hell.

Apparently this is one of the few places where humans and other low level beings can interact in the Spirit World. Sorcerers call them Market Points.

Entering the Spirit World from anywhere other than these is pretty deadly. Unless, you are of course an overconfident powerhouse," I explained.

Sorcerers through the years had learned to pinpoint some of these locations as they didn't change. It seemed they were made specifically to be found and used.

"We may have disparaged our dear friend, Dominic but he seems to be better than I thought," I said.

"How do we move on from here?" Cassandra asked.

Again, a massive burst of pressure blew from nowhere forcing both of us to bend our knees and balance so that we didn't get blown away.

Phew.

"What the heck is that?!" Cassandra asked with an agitated expression.

"Trust me, you don't want to know," I replied. "To your first question though. The answer is simple. We don't go anywhere. I learned that the hard way. Moving from this spot without the guidance of someone or something that understands the Spirit World is disastrous. We wait."

Cassandra took a deep breath and sat down on the ground.

"Didn't Dominic say we need some kind of fascinating treasure for us to find a guide willing to help?" she asked.

"Yeah. The truth is, it can be both goods and services. I opt for services. That way we can make our visit worthwhile by learning something new and getting to our destination as well. Two birds with one stone.

It's also true that creatures from the Spirit World don't usually entertain humans, mostly because they consider us to have much less to offer."

"Racist."

"I agree."

I sat down too and began brooding.

Even the bizarre environment couldn't make me completely forget that my life seemed less.... liveable without a certain person.

We waited for a long time.

I tried to strike up some 'interesting' conversations with Cassandra, alongside some 'healthy suggestions' to pass the time but she coldly turned me down.

Now that I had stared at her for a couple of what felt like hours, I saw that she was more of a trained soldier than anything else.

She preferred the silence and she had even used some of her time to train her Gift.

"Say, what's your GGA? That what you call it right? Gift Generated Abilities?" I asked.

"I'd rather not share. Unless of course, you're willing to share yours in return?" she said.

"I have a couple of abilities stored in my Molifius. I also have two enchanted swords with two different abilities. That's as much as I can share," I said with a straight face.

"...."

Before she could sigh, we heard deep footsteps coming from one of the roads. It was as if a giant creature was on its way.

We both turned vigilant and stood up, preparing for the worst.

According to my knowledge, even though Market Points were points usually used for trade, fights did break out sometimes and humans were usually on the losing end.

I prepared to go all out if necessary.

The resounding sounds kept getting closer and closer until, from the plain road end, a shifting of space occurred, representing the arrival of the creature.

The sound of the footsteps became even more frightening as it drew closer.

What the heck is this?

And then, it finally appeared....

I had seen some weird shit, but this was on a whole other level.

Both me and Cassandra said the same thing in unison.

"What the hell???!!"

What was it?

It was .... a rabbit.

Or at least that's the creature I knew with an even remotely close resemblance to the creature before us.

Was it huge?

Not exactly.

It was roughly a meter and a half tall. Shorter than both of us.

It had large ears, like a rabbit. Fur, like a rabbit.

Protruding teeth, like a rabbit.

Red fur, not so rabbit.

A snake like tail of matching colour, not so rabbit!

Tiny arms like ones you'd find on a T-Rex with really long claws, not so bloody rabbit!

Two meter long, ginormous ass feet almost half its height, with thighs that looked like they had never missed leg day, NOT SO FREAKING RABBIT!!

It took one step effortlessly, making us almost leave the ground from the impact.

The logic was amazing.

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever see something so cute and weird.

Cassandra's face was what made the ordeal at least funny for me.

She had a look of concern more than anything else.

The rabbit walked over to us and stared. It showed a look of disdain and shook its head.

It then walked away, leaving us to wonder how much those feet weigh.

'Yeah, go. We didn't want to trade with someone who's on their feet anyway,' I thought.

Cassandra kept looking at the rabbit as it disappeared down the other side of the road.

"That was weird, right?" she asked with a frown on her face.

"I would assume so," I replied, sitting back down.

Again, a massive burst of pressure came out of nowhere and blew our surroundings, including us.

I merely lowered my body, Cassandra doing the same as we sought to avoid being carried away.

After it had passed, she looked at me with a concerned expression.

"Okay, seriously! What the heck is that?!" she asked.

"I'll still tell you, some things are better not known. I don't want to talk about it either," I said.

Then, we heard another sound.

It was a clip clop sound that resembled hooves hitting the ground.

I stood up again, this time wondering if we could see anything that could top the weird that we had seen with the rabbit.

What emerged this time was a little normal so to say. It was a large horse-like creature. It had brown hairs and a mane around its neck of similar colour.

It's face was where the weird was at.

It had a cat like face, with long whiskers. It even purred, which made me tremble with disgust.

It did not even show us any face, just passing by like we didn't exist.

'Yea, we wouldn't wanna trade with you either, Feline Horse Freak,' I thought.

Then the long wait began.

Many weird creatures passed. From humanoid, to animal-like, shape-like. I had to admit that I was beyond shocked when I saw things that could top the rabbit. Cassandra was too.

It became our pastime, comparing the creatures as none of them seemed to want to interact with us and we didn't have a way to communicate with them.

Usually, the Spirit World creatures would be the ones to initiate conversation through various means.

It took a long time to finally find a creature that was willing to talk to us.

It was a large floating fat baby ball. That's the most accurate description I can give.

It was blue in colour, levitating a meter above grown with a height of 2,5 meters.

It's hands were folded behind its back, and it had a baby face with inflated cheeks.

What made me uncomfortable were the large protruding eyes that threatened to pop out. It gazed at us with those eyes as if trying to see all our secrets.

It unfolded its hands and passed us two blank wood chip like items. They were brown in colour, looking like they had just been removed from a plank.

We both took one and as soon as we held them, we felt a sharp pain in our minds for a moment.

"Hello, can you hear me?"

We heard a hoarse voice in our heads. I instantly understood that this was a communication ..... device?

"Yes," I answered and so did Cassandra.

"Good. I'll include these pieces in the trade. You'll need to pat for them," said the massive baby.

"What?! We didn't ask for them," I barked at the baby.

"Not my problem," it said.

Cassandra lost her cool and almost grabbed the baby, but I stopped her.

"Okay, fine. We need to be guided to a certain Pseudo Hell," I said.

"Alright. Easy. What do I get in return?" it asked.

"We will offer our services. We're both combatants," I said with confidence.

"Oh. Interesting. Have you ever fought a Pahph?"

"Ummm, a what?"

"A Pahph."

"No I haven't. We don't even know what it looks like."

"Not my problem."

"Argh. Is that the only thing we can do? Fight a Pap for you?"

"Yep. For guiding you to a Pseudo hell of your choosing. You just have to fight off a few Pahphs from my farm."

"Hey wait. I thought you meant there was one. You didnt say there were a lot of them."

"Not my prob-"

"Not your problem, we get it!" Cassandra growled.

I looked at Cassandra.

"I hate to say this, but this thing is right," I said to her.

"About what?"

"About it not being his problem! We are the ones running out of time. Let's just get this over with."

"What if this Pahph is dangerous?"

"At least its something we can fight, rather than sitting around here waiting."

Cassandra thought for a moment. It was a risky situation but there was no choice. We had to accept and take our chances. This was the danger of going into the Spirit world. Even with many allies, it could still be disastrous if you lacked information. Which was a guarantee as the Spirit World was top vast.

"Fine, we accept," I said.

"Great! Follow me," it said.

The massive baby turned and began floating in the direction it had come.

I told Cassandra it was okay and we began to follow after the baby.

"Follow my exact movements and don't go

astray," it said as we reached the end of the road.

It passed through, followed by both of us.

When we entered, we saw.....

The sky.

The blue sky with massive white clouds that covered it, revealing only small sections of the blue.

There was another weird phenomenon that I was subjected to the first time I came.

The sky and the ground were the same thing.

Up above were clouds and the blue sky, while down below, was the same. It was a peculiar phenomenon but I wasn't surprised.

The same could not be said for Cassandra though. She was in awe as we walked. It was like walking in the air.

When we stepped on the blue of the sky/ground, it felt solid, yet otherwise at the same time. It was a difficult sensation to get used to.

"Why is the sky and ground the same?" she asked the giant baby.

"Actually, only you humans see our world this way. The Spirit World is our home, so we can see clearly the elements within it.

You on the other hand, are used to seeing the sky and the clouds of your world. When you come here, you see the natural sky of your home world everywhere. Its a safety feature of sorts, to prevent those not accustomed to seeing some... peculiar things," explained the baby.

"But why only the sky? We have the ground too," Cassandra asked.

"Because the concept of up and down, ground and sky is very vague here. Mostly it doesn't matter. We don't need a ground and the sky is of less relevance."

"Okay. How do you tell up from down then? It seems you do know where each is even if you don't care," she asked.

I sighed. I sighed so hard that I almost ran out of breath.

'You and your big mouth,' I thought at Cassandra's question.

"Oh that's easy. We just look for the big toe," the baby said.

"....What?"

"The big toe. If you look and focus enough you could probably see it even if you're human."

"I advise you not to," I chimed in.

And she didn't listen.

She looked up and focused beyond the clouds and blue sky 'illusion'.

I looked up as well..

Might as well see it. Its been too long.

Cassandra staggered and fell to the 'ground'. Her face depicted the horror and shock in her mind. She was sweating all over as if she'd run marathon is the last 3 seconds.

I saw it too.

A gigantic, massive..... toe.

I could see the toe nail, barely visible.

It was ridiculously big. When looking at it, you'd instinctively know that it was a toe, but under normal circumstances you'd be confused as to what it was because of the sheer size. The toe nail on it would give it away though.

The massive toe moved a little, barely flexing as if to stretched its bones and the surroundings distorted. A ring of blurring force burrowed down and the next instance, a massive burst of pressure blew the surroundings and I lowered myself to not be blown away...