NOVEL NEXT Chapter 400: Hermits of the God's Domain
"Do you have any idea what it was?" Isera asked, looking over the fake horizon with a stifled sense of nostalgia lodged deep into her eyes.
If anything, this was the one quality that unified all the exiles in this accursed land.
"Does it matter?" Juno's eyes lacked the same spark of his distant companion.
Despite being locked away in this place for several long years more than the girl, he was still further away from the gates of invisible death. And while a huge part of it could be attributed to stupid luck…
Even when taken out of the equation, it was still a showcase of his superior will.
"It's not like we will be ever able to find out."
The secret to keeping to the sacred rule of this prison was simple.
It was to kill oneself.
To completely remove everything and anything that went beyond the daily routine or could violate the taboo.
And the commotion that likely all of the prisoners of this place noticed, was just a type of distraction that Juno learned to fully avoid.
Contrary to what one could think of this accursed plain when looking at it from the outside or by giving it only a few hours to showcase its wonders, this place was full of life.
Life that was so far removed from human definition of what life was, it took years for the newbie additions to the prison of those forever locked in this timeless cage to learn how to spot those lives.
It was a skill Juno learned quite recently, a mere ten years ago. Isera, however, with less than two years of experience in the plain, had yet to reach this level.
'Maybe that's why she's overreacting like that?'
Juno didn't even bother trying to answer the question he himself posed in the depths of his soul.
Allowing oneself to wallow in the delusion of potential change was how people lost their minds, became lost, broke the taboo, and gave their lives in sacrifice to the forever-hungry domain of god that trapped them all in this accursed place.
A barrier one could only ever get closer to once it erected its influence over its target, but also a barrier that would kill anyone who dared to infringe upon it. Your adventure continues at empire
According to all the legends that the prisoners collaborated between themselves over the past centuries of sharing the same fate as their ancestors from ages long gone, this barrier and its effects were just that, the domain of the god of death. A display of genius magical engineering that went haywire and created the devious trap that countless experts found themselves locked inside of.
Still, those who came to see the life within this hostile plain, those who could see the endless tiny changes happening all over the place, couldn't care less for the commotion that everyone heard.
It was just another sign of life. Sure, more intense than anything any of them experienced, but in the end, it was still but a trial.
A challenge this devious place threw at them to coax them into breaking the taboo and decreasing their distance from the barrier. A scheme that was extremely effective, given how Juno could see quite a lot of people who, in the moment of carelessness, broke the taboo and stepped out of the beaten path along the barrier, losing the distance and bringing themselves closer to the inescapable fate.
"The only reason you are saying that is because you've lost hope," Isera commented with an awfully arrogant expression on her face.
"In this place, hope is no more than poison," Juno calmly replied.
He could still remember the time when he was just like this newbie girl. The time when he still had hope that maybe he was someone special, he was the one that would cross this impenetrable barrier and become the first man to ever achieve it.
He could still remember the time when the signs of life that he finally started to notice only served to reinforce his delusions.
But most of all, he could still remember the day when he finally realized, all the bits and pieces that this land offered to its prisoners to rekindle their hopes were nothing more but the way for the creator of this place to take a piss on all those who fell prey to it.
Those who lost hope, those who lost themselves, those who killed their own selves… Those were the ones who changed and adapted. And while it proved the human resiliency against all the possible odds…
It came at the cost of giving up on hope. The treacherous hope that stubbornly refused to let them go of their personality.
'If it's not a poison, then I don't know what is.'
The ultimate goal in this place was to survive for as long as possible, feed off the everpresent mana, and use it to refine one's self to the state of a complete void… And then, one day, upon reaching perfect lack of self, they could try to challenge the barrier.
In this place, the inner workings of the god's domain were no secret. As a place with traditions longer than any of the countries or nations that existed in the current day and age, all the prisoners had access to the wisdom passed from over fourteen hundred years ago and all the wisdom the prisoners managed to uncover ever since.
There was no way to record all of the knowledge that the prisoners discovered. With how the only equipment in this prison consisted of whatever various prisoners brought when falling into this devious trap, there simply weren't enough things to write with or write on to keep track of such an extensive, ancient record of people's findings.
That's why, all the knowledge of this prison was passed down by the means of oral tradition, shared between all the prisoners throughout the only commodity they had more than they could handle - the time.
'And that's another reason why she's so eager to try checking that commotion out, even if it would come at the cost of breaking the taboo.'
Juno perfectly understood Isera's mindset. It was something he graduated from himself many years ago, after all. And so, just like a parent seeing through the tricks and fits of their kids, he could see right through the girl as if she were an open book.
And more than anything, he knew that no words of discouragement, reason, or warning would be enough to stop her from leaving.
'It's likely the last time I see her,' Juno thought as he scanned the face of the girl several steps closer to the barrier than he was.
"No matter what I say, it's not going to stop you, is it?" Juno muttered, not interested in wasting any energy attempting to convince the girl otherwise if he knew it was a wasted effort, to begin with.
"That's correct," Isera announced as she stood up and patted down the dust off her knees. "I'm not interested in rotting her until the day my body gives up, and that's assuming my mind wouldn't give in to the madness of this place first."
Packing up the few things she could call her own, Isera got herself ready to leave in a matter of mere minutes. And as she turned around, she threw one last look at the man behind her.
"Are you coming with me, or are you satisfied with the idea of rotting here?"
There was no trick, manipulation, or any other fancy technique in the girl's question.
It was a simple yes or no choice.
A choice between peaceful emptiness or foolish, deadly hope.
Ten years ago, Juno would hesitate. But today, he didn't.
"I'm good where I am," Juno claimed before turning his body perpendicular to the deadly barrier in order not to roll in any closer in his sleep. "Good luck, though."
Isera looked at the man for a bit longer, only to then shake her head and turn away.
"No," the girl shook her head before taking her first step towards the commotion far out in the distance, a commotion that has long since died off. "I still have enough will to resist the pull of this place. And that means…"
Taking a few more steps, Isera stopped for one last time and looked over her shoulder, giving the man one last look.
"It's not me who needs luck, but you."