As we plunged into the blood well, time seemed to mock us, slowing down just to savor our suffering. The sensation of drowning in blood wasn't much different from drowning in water except I couldn't see anything. The thick, viscous liquid filled my vision with darkness. I was at my limit, and though I couldn't see Jaipa, I could sense he was struggling just as desperately. If this continued, we would both die here.
Minutes passed like hours. We were still drowning in blood. My eyes and lungs had begun to surrender, my mind growing numb with each passing second. Just when I thought this wasn't the way to escape this cursed place...
Everything shifted.
The suffocating sensation of drowning vanished. The blindness before my eyes slowly faded, replaced by the peaceful feeling of air against my skin. It took me two full minutes to regain my senses, my mind spinning during the transition.
As the blood finally drained from my lungs and the ringing in my ears subsided, I lay there wondering whether I had just survived death... or failed at dying.
When I finally opened my eyes, I saw the same vast, endless sky stretching in all directions. But instead of clouds or solid ground, those cursed giant pages were still floating like winding paths, twisting and overlapping as they formed bridges, staircases, and platforms suspended in open air. Each page was covered in strange, ancient text text that remained incomprehensible to me, though not to Jaipa. Suddenly remembering him, I felt a spike of panic.
"Jaipa!" I called out, searching frantically.
"Gllluuuugh... ACK... bleh... I think I swallowed something nasty!" came his voice from behind me.
I turned to see him making strange retching sounds.
"Jaipa," I said flatly as he continued his bizarre noises.
"Oh thank the stars, you're alive!" he called out, flopping onto a nearby page like a fish that had given up trying. "I thought we were goners! My life flashed before my eyes mostly me eating meat, but still!"
"I didn't ask for your life story."
He rolled onto his side, face smeared with drying blood, eyes wide with relief. "Well excuse me, Captain Emotionless. Some of us actually feel things."
I stood up and surveyed our surroundings. "The pages are back."
"Yep, back to the land of floating nonsense and ancient death-riddles. Ten out of ten, would not recommend to my worst enemies."
He tried to stand and promptly fell on his rear.
"Jaipa!"
"Don't say it."
"You're sitting on your own foot."
"I said don't say it!"
I stared at him incredulously. "You really are useless." I couldn't believe this was the same Jaipa who had been mercilessly battling the Seven Stones moments ago. Now he was just... this.
He stood up slowly, pointing a dramatic finger at me. "You know, just once I'd like a 'thank you for not dying horribly, Jaipa.' Or maybe a 'wow, Jaipa, your battle skills really inspired me.' But no nothing but your trademark cold silence."
"Thank you for not dying on me," I said in complete monotone.
He blinked in shock. "Wait, you actually said it? Am I hallucinating? Did the blood get to my brain? Can you say it again... please, just once?"
" ? "
"Say it more... enthusiastically?"
I turned and started walking away.
"Come on! You can't just drop a thank-you bomb and walk away like some mysterious anti-hero!"
"I just did."
He scrambled to catch up. "You know, if we were a duo, I'd be the heart, and you'd be the... fridge. Cold, lifeless, and occasionally making strange noises."
I glanced at him. "I'd be the weapon."
"Oh great, and I'd be the comic relief that dies in act two."
"That's the plan. I was saving that revelation for later."
He gasped, clutching his chest dramatically. "How dare you! I am a main character! I have charm, backstory, and emotional trauma!"
"You cry when you stub your toe."
"That's genuine pain, you sociopath!"
Another page twisted nearby, creaking like old wood harboring secrets. Jaipa looked up and shuddered. "I hate this place. It feels like a library designed by a drunk god."
"Quiet," I said, pointing ahead. "We need to get to that page."
"Which page?"
"The table of contents page where this all began."
He groaned dramatically. "Can't we take, like, a five-minute break to process the trauma? Maybe journal a bit? I could make a scrapbook: 'Near Death Experiences with My Favorite Emotionless Murderbot.'"
"No."
"But why are we going back to that cursed page?"
"Don't you remember when we first entered this world? We wrote down what I remembered from the pages I saw."
It took him a moment to recall, giving me a brief moment of peace.
"Oh! I remember that! But why are we going there?"
"Dumbass," I whispered to myself.
"You don't remember anything, do you?"
"Speak for yourself, stone-face. Just because you remember things well doesn't mean everyone else does. Just tell me what it is."
After shaking my head in exasperation, I said, "Don't you remember that line?"
"'At the end of each chapter, reward and danger walk hand in hand toward you.'"
"Ah, that poetic line telling us we were screwed from the start."
"That's the one," haa i confirmed it, nodding.
"So what about it?" he asked, still not getting it.
"I always wonder how dumb a person can be, and you keep proving there's no limit."
He gasped, placing a hand over his heart as if I'd insulted his mother. "Excuse me?! Are you calling me dumb again?"
"I'm not calling you dumb."
"Oh! Finally some respe—"
"I'm confirming it."
Jaipa made a wounded sound like a dying goose. "You know what your problem is? You have no appreciation for the beautiful randomness of my intelligence. I'm like a... chaotic genius."
"You're like a broken compass in a forest fire."
"And yet, somehow, I'm the reason you're still alive."
"Statistically improbable, spiritually disappointing."
He narrowed his eyes. "One of these days I'm going to say something so profound, you'll grow a soul."
"I'll prepare the shovel," I replied, walking toward the large page platform.
Jaipa followed with exaggerated, stompy footsteps. "You know what? I do remember that line now. 'At the end of each chapter, reward and danger walk hand in hand toward you.' That's some real ominous bedtime story energy."
He paused. "Wait... so are we walking toward danger or reward right now?"
"Yes."
"That wasn't a yes-or-no question! Wait, actually it was. I'm confused."
"It's your natural state. Don't panic."
He glared and waved his arms around. "Alright, listen, fridge-boy. What exactly are we looking for on that creepy, cursed, probably-going-to-try-to-eat-us-again page?"
"To find out."
"To find out?!" His voice cracked. "What are we, ghost-hunting librarians now?"
I stopped and pointed to the table of contents page. "Look, we're here."
We had returned to where it all began the same exact page with the same contents.
"So why... what's the point of coming here? I remember you could lead us out with that memory of yours. So why?"
"'At the end of each chapter, reward and danger walk hand in hand toward you.' This phrase simply means we're going to face inevitable death at the end of each chapter. The Seven Stones were our danger for this chapter, and if there was danger, that means there's also... a reward."
When we approached the table of contents page, nothing seemed different about it.
"So what were you talking about? Some reward? Do you actually believe in this cursed book?"
Ignoring him, I approached the table of contents and knelt down, touching the place where the first chapter was written: "The Path of Blood."
"What are you doing down there?" Jaipa asked.
I waited for a long moment. Nothing happened. I stood up, looking at Jaipa, who was smirking at me mockingly.
Before our conversation could continue, the page suddenly began to turn red. In the blink of an eye, at the specific place where the first chapter's name was written, blood began to rise. From within the blood, a dark-colored grail with energy flowing around it emerged like something from a nightmare.
We stood in silence, neither of us speaking. After a long moment of staring, I broke the silence.
"Touch it."
"WHAT?! Why don't you touch it?!"
"I've already been cursed once. It's your turn."
"That's not how teamwork works!"
"It is in hell."
Jaipa whined like a kicked puppy. "This is discrimination! Just because I'm softer, more charming, and infinitely more entertaining doesn't mean I should be the sacrifice!"
I looked at him. "Exactly. You're expendable."
"I swear, one day you're gonna be in danger, and I'm gonna be the only one who can save you, and I'm just gonna sit there eating meat while making sarcastic comments."
"Move," I said flatly.
"What ! are you going to do that ?"
"Move," I repeated, and Jaipa stepped aside, cursing me under his breath.
When I approached the grail, the blood moved toward me, bringing the grail closer. As it drew near, the view became clear. Inside the grail was...
"What is it? What's in there?"
"There's a dark, thick liquid with a faint purple light glowing within."
"Does that look like a reward to you?"
Looking at Jaipa's worried face, I said, "I don't think so."
When I touched the grail and tried to analyze it using my key ability, for the first time, I gained nothing. There was no information about it, as if it had been erased from the fabric of existence itself.
Staring at the black liquid, I gave it brief consideration, then without wasting more thought, I drank it in one gulp.
"Ugh! It tastes awful..."
"Hey, you psycho! Why did you suddenly drink that?!"
And all of a suddenly, where the first chapter had been written, the text vanished and new text appeared beside the second chapter. I immediately turned to Jaipa, about to ask him what was written there, but before I could speak, he read it aloud:
"To step into the second chapter, one must wear the crown of absolute authority."
Again, this cursed book was playing with words. I understood most of it, but many questions remained unanswered like what exactly was this "authority," and what did "absolute" mean?
Shaking my head, I started walking away with even more questions weighing on my mind. There was nothing more for me here, and I had no intention of entering this cursed book again, even if I possessed this mysterious crown. Pushing the thoughts aside, I walked straight toward the exit.
"Wait for me, you emotionless paper-cut!"
---
Somewhere far… away…
The sky above shimmered like a veil of silk, torn at the edges by unknown winds.
Pale petals drifted from a tree so vast its crown vanished into the mist above the skies,
Upon one ancient branch, a man sat with
no presence. He looked no older than a dream sculpted into flesh sharp,ageless,unbearably beautiful.
His silver lashes fluttered shut, and his voice came as a whisper, barely louder than the falling blossoms
"Someone… has drinken it."
As a guster of moving but he did not move like a human. When he rose, it was as though gravity simply let go of him. Then he stood up and jumped from there not jumped but basically he stepped on the air and then begain walking down, in a flash he was at ground
his feet now upon a stone-strewn clearing where others already waited.
Five of them each cloaked in silence, divinity coiled beneath skin and the blossoms stopped falling from the enormous tree and his voice echoed once more time but softer.
"Someone has drinken it…"
Like a forgotten spell being spoken aloud. They turned each one holding a alien presence a woman stepped forward first.
She wore no crown, but the wind bowed to her as though she were its empress
"By 'it'… do you mean that?"
Her eyes narrowed, golden pupils shifting like coins in water.
"The God of Beauty and Luck…?"
He nodded not hesitantly, but with a weight of himself
"Then… it is time to depart."
A low hum filled the clearing a tremor in the bones of the world
Then another voice cut through it, calm but edged like iron.
"Do not rush the cadence of fate,
O radiant sun."
This one was taller, cloaked in threads that flickered between existence.
The others called him the God of Order, yet even his hands trembled faintly at the mention of it.
"And you…"
His gaze met the beautiful one's.
"Are you certain, God of Beauty and Luck?"
There was a eating silence between them but it broke in no time
"I am."
Another god, cloaked in thorny robes and crowned with nothing but shadows, stepped forward.
His voice crackie, too crackie
"Then we should reclaim what was ours.
The fallen seeds, our stolen seeds… and now this…"
His eyes glinted in a pale red glow and then a small rustle came with a flowing wind and a laughter?
A voice rose from nowhere and everywhere at the same time.
"Are you still playing with us, God of the Fallen ? Even from your slumber…?"
The petals began to fall again upward now the gods did not speak for a long while only the tree, sighed above them
--- End of the first Arc ( The path of blood )---