Extra's Perfect Ending

Chapter 106: Inside

Reeva walked along the endless field of reeds until it came to an end. The field of reeds ended, and the land of black rock began.

Reeva sighed. Here he was again, walking the path that seemed long dead. The land had no people, and he couldn’t touch anything. All he could do was tread upon the barren ground. Endlessly trying to find the dark castle again.

The black rock seemed endless, but Reeva could have sworn that he found the castle much quicker than before. The tall building at the center loomed as ominously as ever, like a dark wizard’s tower where children were imprisoned.

Reeva climbed over the wall and arrived at the spot where he had died last time—beside a wall. This time, however, he knew better than to let himself feel too much happiness in this place. The giant skeleton only seemed to respond to mystic power, so Reeva carefully skirted around the area, keeping his emotions in check.

Every building here was built upon black rock, and they all had a pale grey structure. Reeva marveled at the massive structures built for these giant skeletons, unable to shake the feeling of awe at their size.

He visited one of the buildings and noticed the lack of doors. Each structure had only a giant archway as an entrance. Inside, a series of pillars held up the entire foundation, and the architecture resembled that of ancient Greece.

The place felt abandoned for centuries. The dark stone used to construct this city had grown brittle over time, and the building was half-broken, with cracks and rubble scattered everywhere.

Reeva stumbled upon what looked like a table—a very big one that could fit a small town on its surface. From afar, he could see something on top of it, but he couldn’t quite make it out. The table was made from the same stone that built this entire place.

He decided to approach the table and try to climb it. However, he quickly discovered that it wasn’t climbable since the table legs were smooth. Instead, he turned to a nearby pillar, which was much easier to scale due to its carved patterns that provided a perfect stepping stone.

Reeva quickly scaled up the giant pillar, using the carved pattern to his advantage. Soon enough, he reached a sufficient height to jump down onto the table. But before doing so, he took a moment to survey the room.

The color grey dominated everything. The entire building was constructed with the same material. It invoked a deep sadness within him to think that this place might have been lively at some point. The room he was in appeared to be a long hallway with one giant table stretching across its length. Many chairs were lined along the table, and the objects on it resembled a meal.

Plates were scattered across the table—some shattered into pieces, others fully intact. However, the most distinct thing on the table was a large, decaying carcass of something. From his vantage point, Reeva couldn’t tell what it was.

He decided to jump down onto the table. The landing wasn’t smooth, but there was no pain from his awkward descent, much like when he’d jumped from the wall earlier.

Reeva approached one of the most intriguing sights nearby: the decayed remains of something that had long since decomposed, leaving only bones. However, from those bones, Reeva noticed a constant seeping of some kind of liquid. He climbed up onto the plate by walking along a fork that had been left leaning against it.

When he finally arrived at the plate, he couldn’t help but take a deep breath. The monster’s corpse on the plate was so massive that it could easily swallow five of him in one go. To think this might have been the only "meal" in a place like this made Reeva glad it wasn’t real… or at least, he hoped it wasn’t. He couldn’t be sure.

Thinking back to when he was in the church, he recalled that the ritual of opening the door involved burning reeds. That meant there had to be some connection between this place and the real world.

His working theory was that this was some kind of spirit world, a resting place for lost souls. But then, why was it so empty if the souls of the living were meant to be sent here? He didn’t have an answer. Not yet.

On the plate, besides the huge pile of bones, was a pool of liquid slowly dripping from them. Reeva could see it from above, but seeing it up close was different. The liquid was a light aqua color—it certainly didn’t look like water.

It emits a light glow from the surface a little bubbly from what he could see.

Reeva carefully lowered his hand into the liquid to see if it was harmful. Surprisingly, it did nothing to him. His hand remained perfectly fine. But that didn’t mean he trusted it. In the realm of mysticism, anything could happen. Even if someone paid him, he wouldn’t jump into it.

This place was mysterious enough, and he wasn’t keen on taking unnecessary risks. He vividly remembered the last time he had been here and got squashed by a giant blade—the pain was still fresh in his mind. He didn’t want a repeat of that experience. Dying here was the only thing that truly hurt.

Looking around, he noticed something in the middle of the liquid, atop the pile of gigantic bones. From a distance, he couldn’t quite discern what it was. The scale of everything in this place was so immense that it took him days to traverse it. But time felt meaningless here, no matter how long he stayed, the real world remained unchanged.

The unchanging night sky also didn’t help with decerning the time.

Determined to uncover the mystery, Reeva decided to reach the middle of this strange lake during this trip. He felt like there was something there—something important.

He decided to trust his mystic hunch.