Chapter 6 - It Couldn’t Go Worse From Here…, Right?

Tap, tap, tap

The sound of my lonesome steps enveloped the silence around me.

After Ms. Celest went supernova and vanished in front of me. I'd been trying my best to follow the instructions from the paper she left me perfectly.

At this point, I'd already walked on my fifth path and was preparing myself to turn right again on my sixth.

I haven't thought too much of it before but walking non-stop in this place alone was definitely not good for one's mental health.

Before, I had been walking beside Ms. Celest. Even if our surroundings were completely silent, we could still detect each other's signs of life, from the sounds of our breathing, constant light flapping of our clothes, steps of our feet, to the subtle changes in the air, indicating somebody's presence.

But now… I felt like the only living person in this never ending space. Except… I'm already dead.

I continued my walk as I pondered about this for a while.

Just as I arrived at my sixth turn, my dizziness came back, and my knees buckled in response. I swayed a bit uncontrollably, until I finally fell face first to the shining silver ground under me.

The first thing that came to mind is Ms. Celest's cackling mocking laughter. Good thing that I'm alone, or I would have lost all of my remaining dignity if someone saw me this miserable.

I straightened myself and willed myself to stand up. I reached for my paper, sighed in relief when I found them safely tucked in my pockets.

That's right…. This time, I have to go right, I mused.

But as I finally stood up straighter, I noticed that my unpredicted fall just messed up my topographical understanding of my surroundings. Not to mention, every turn looked the same, I didn't know if I actually fell forward or backwards. Or if my left is actually supposed to be the right path that I should have taken or not.

My hands trembled nonstop as I held on to my paper, eyes darting around trying to frantically find any clues, anything, in my surroundings that could help me find my way forward.

But no such luck. Everywhere I looked, there's only shining silver roads spanning toward the neverending starry night sky.

I closed my eyes and steadied my breathing. This is not the time to panic, Rez! You have to stay calm!

I took a few more deep breaths and thought this problem through. This place is a branch of Yggdrasil, the world tree that connects one world to the other. In the end of each branch are different worlds. In short, any path I took, would eventually be a door to another unknown world.

I straightened my resolve and picked one of the paths as my right, and decided to follow Ms. Celest's instructions till the end. If after I passed all paths and still haven't found any world, I'll keep on heading left until I found one.

If it's the correct world, then good for me. But if it's the wrong world, I would ask, beg, prostrate myself to the world's God to help me get back to my destination or the office safely. I'm sure any God won't allow someone unknown into their borders after all.

And if I took too long to reach the other Gods, I'm sure Goddess Rhea would report the problem to the office, and Ms. Celest could pick me up with her trusty way finder.

Thus, I decided to continue walking confidently through my chosen path.

…

After walking for a long time, I finally took the last left turn and sighed heavily. That last left turn is the last path that I'm supposed to take according to Ms. Celest's notes.

But looking at the empty road beyond me, no shining door in sight,

I guess that 'right' turn isn't right after all.

My shoulders slumped as I dragged my feet once more across the shining road, thinking that I should always take the left path after this.

I once again trail across the way in my lonesome.

After what seemed like forever, I started to get bored, and slowly hummed that one song by Green Day, a rock band from my world.

"I walk a lone road~"

Following the rhythm, I steps started to bounce a bit as I walked,

The only one that I have ever known~"

My arms swung around lightly as I continued,

"Don't know where it goes~

But it's ho- ARKKKKKKKKKKKKK"

Suddenly, a heavy wind came crashing towards me violently. With nowhere to hold on, my body involuntarily dragged back. I struggled around to find my footing, but the force was so strong my body flew back to the starry space beyond the borders or the silvery roads.

If I were to fall there, I'd die! But wait, I'm already dead.

Still, if I were to fall towards the starry abyss, there's no telling if I would ever be found. Worse, I would keep falling all eternity, even if I eventually found a ground underneath me, my body would definitely go splat, and I would die. But then again, I'm already dead, so would that even be a problem?

In the end my humane fear of falling into the unknown won out, and I reached frantically towards the edge of the silvery road, trying my best to keep myself from falling.

I grabbed the side of the road with all my strength, blistering my hands in the process.

A few minutes passed by as I clinged to my dear life, praying for the wind to stop so I could continue my journey, even though in the tiniest bit of my consciousness, I knew that this tragedy would not end yet.

Surprisingly, the wind did end.

Noticing this I hurriedly picked myself up, clumsily pushing up my body from the edge of the road with both of my bruised hands.

Celebrating the fact that I just escaped death, I laid down on the shining silver ground happily.

But wait, I'm already dead. So what did I just escape from then?, realising this, I sat up slowly on the ground.

But before I could continue pondering upon the realisation, fate threw me an even bigger problem.

instead of another violent wind coming my way, a heavy suction force from behind me, sucked my body into the abyss.

And then I blanked out.