Chapter 5. The Unknown Realm of Lost Souls (Part 3)

After scanning the plush hall Advik without care put his legs on the closet table, he leaned a bit backward. Crossing his hand in front of his chest, he began, "So, you all are gods?" his tone doubtful.

"Yes, we are," Svapn confirmed.

"So, am I in heaven or something?"

"This is not heaven."

"So, hell?"

"Not hell either," the Prime Minister replied plainly.

"If it's neither heaven nor hell then where am I?" The soul raised an eyebrow, "Am I dreaming?!"

"This is not a dream as well," Svapn sighed.

"You didn't hear what we said earlier, did you?" Sidharth rolled his eyes and sighed.

"I did hear it," Advik said in a low voice, "it's just that I was busy bearing some intolerable pain, so I don't remember them right now, that's all."

Sidharth looked upward, "Oh god! What punishments are you giving us?! What wrong we did to you, god?!"

"Hey," Advik extended his eyes, his tone a little surprised, "didn't you say that you are the god himself."

"Do not mind our Chief Minister!" Svapn advised.

"But he--" Advik straightened his back a bit. 

Svapn grimaced and lost his patience, his tone filled with irritation, "Silence! But...he what?!" Svapn couldn't handle the carefree attitude of Advik any longer than he already did, so he blurted everything out in one go as he snapped, "Can't you see we are trying to talk to you here? We have to inform you what kind of situation you are in. Us being god or not isn't important right now. Can't you even understand this much?!" He exhaled some air. His intense eyes turned gentle again. 

The Emperor  calmly said, "Prime Minister Svapn, calm down." His voice, as dominant as ever, "I'll talk to him now." 

How scary this guy can be in a moment!?! Advik thought. He talked to himself while looking at the Emperor. Thank you, wise man, for saving me from this guy! phew. 

The Emperor  stepped in to speak to the soul, he ordered, "Listen carefully child and do not interrupt me when I talk." The powerful yet celestial aura of him and the heaviness in his voice was something else that Advik just nodded to him. 

When the Emperor started to talk the whole room went silent. No one dared to speak not even one unnecessary word. 

"This is The Lost Soul Realm, it's not in heaven or hell. Actually, no one knows where this place is." His Majesty explained, "One can only come here by their spiritual and magical power. Sometimes, Hell and Heaven can send anyone here as a punishment if they did anything that cannot be forgiven. And some wandering souls such as yourself also come here without knowing anything about this place. No one can leave this realm after coming here even if they want to; only gods and exceptional cultivators can come and go at their will."

Advik innocently raised his hand upward.

"What?" The Emperor asked with a  smile. 

"Can I ask something, Your Majesty?"

After a thought, the Emperor gave him the approval to ask. 

"And what about this room, it's just filled with gold, gemstones and spiritual power so much spiritual power that it's overwhelming even for me," Advik commented as he looked in all directions, "This room is making me dizzy."

His Majesty replied, "This is a room in our palace of Lost Soul Realm. The palace is also the gate of the real Lost Soul Realm. This palace is in front of the real Realm of Lost Soul; the real realm is in the back of this palace which is some miles away from this palace's backyard."

The Emperor continued with his plain yet commanding tone, "This palace is in front of the Real gate thus people think that this is the gate of the Realm but it is not. People have to enter the palace if they wish to enter the Real Realm and this is the reason why everyone calls this palace the Gate of Lost Soul Realm. Understood?"

His Majesty said everything in detail. He looked at Advik with pitiful eyes and sighed. "And you are a soul. Your body has died two thousand years ago. You were wandering before you came here. Your memories were sealed and your intangible heart and mind were also missing, so our Prime Minister Svapn found them back for you. You should thank him for that."

"Oh, okay..." Advik said. Then long lines came on his forehead. With a worrisome and troubled look on himself exclaimed, "Wait! Wait! Wait! You are wrong! I AM A HUMAN, NOT A SOUL!"

"You are not human anymore," Svapn assured.

"No... See, I am perfectly fine," Advik stood up. His voice shook before adding, "yes… yes I was severely injured but I don't know how I've fully recovered from them." 

"Easy, kid!" Sidharth softened his voice, "We understand your trauma of knowing the fact that you are dead, out of the blue! It happens to every other soul here." 

"But… but… No! No!" he gasped and clenched his fist while trying to stay calm. His tears, at the corner of his eyes, ready to drop any second.

"I am a human... a f**king human! Remember that! I am leaving this place right now!" his eyes flaring in wrath. The resentment of Advik was at its peak. A weird feeling churned up in his chest, his fist tightened and the veins popped out. He was so frustrated.

With a lot of composure, the Emperor replied, "The fact that you are here means you are a soul. Here in this room, we have brought many souls for interrogation. Except us, only three souls can enter here at a time if we allow them."

The soul carefully listened and felt extremely annoyed. "And what if you are lying to me?" he argued.

"We are gods!" Sidharth said. "We do not lie, undisciplined kid." 

"I don't believe it!"

"Then do not believe us," Svapn eventually spoke after hearing the whole conversation.

"Fine! Bye, I am going." Advik moved toward the exit and held out his hand to touch the door's handle to open it, some overwhelming energy abruptly pushed him away from the door. It was very forceful that he fell several feet away on his back. "Ouch!... Ugh! What the heck was that?!"

"It's just that if no soul can enter this room without our permission then no soul can also leave this room without our approval as well, hehe!" Sidharth chuckled pleasantly.

"F**k!!" Advik punched the floor in frustration.

"There is no need to believe us?" Svapn came where Advik had fallen. "Just listen to what we are saying."

Advik looked up to see the face of the Prime Minister, in a thin tone he uttered, "I don't know if I should believe your nonsense or not... ugh... I don't know if I am a soul or not either... Well actually... I don't even care whether I am a soul or anything else."

He stood up again and faced the Emperor. After a moment of silence he continued, "I don't really care about myself anymore." This time Advik's voice was serious.

He had a courteous feeling in his voice which was different from him a while ago. His head was a bit low like he was genuinely giving his respect to the Emperor, "I just wanted to leave because there is someone I really care about. I just want to see if that person is alright or not. They were gravely injured - even more than me, so I just want to check. Please let me go... I promise I will come back soon!" 

"Do you even know how many years it has been since your death?" Svapn asked in tension.

"Years? Haha… Don't jest! I was in that war ground just two or three days ago," Advik laughed, teardrops glistening on his cheeks.

Svapn sighed and closed his eyes before opening them again. His voice coated with worry, "It has been almost two thousand years since your death. To be precise it has been exactly one thousand nine hundred thirty-seven years since you've died." 

"Yeah, even if that person recovered from those injuries they still can not live this long if they were mortal," Sidharth put his hand on the shoulder of Advik.

"I said don't joke with me and you all are still!!!" Advik stepped back. He grew colder, "Stop lying, please!"

"We are not joking. Believe us," the Emperor  heavily sighed, glancing at a wall.

"No!! I can't believe this! I shouldn't have believed you guys." Advik kneeled down in front of the Emperor, everyone was surprised by the sudden act and change in his character.

They opened their lips to say something but a thin voice of the soul came again. He cried, "Please do not say that… don't do this to me, please! Let me go, please! I just want to see His Highness. I just want to apologize for what evil I did to His Highness! You know His Highness is the only one who literally cares about me." 

"Hey! You don't have to do this. We really want to help you, trust us," Sidharth supported Advik to stand up again. The soul rose on his feet. The Chief Minister questioned, "Why are you so desperate to meet this person? Is this person your lover?" 

"No." He smiled bitterly.

"Then family?"

"No. His Highness... His Highness is my friend... No, enemy... ugh... I...I don't even know what our relationship is!" Advik painfully giggled with tears arriving in his eyes. A lump forming in his throat, "It is complicated, even I don't understand what we are - one day we are enemies then another day we become friends." he looked at the roof and shut his eyes to stop his tears but they didn't stop, even from his closed eyes they were scrolling down quietly.

The room suddenly went silent...

After a few minutes, the Chief Minister broke the silence with his cheerful voice, he beamed, "We will try our best to help you, just believe us for one time. We will not disappoint you."

Advik wiped off his tears and turned to see the Chief Minister and serenely replied, "Thank you. This time I will try my best to believe you all."

"That is good!" Svapn with his little smile stepped ahead. "Now first we should leave this room and eat something, okay." 

"Eat something? Me? But you said I am a soul and I think soul doesn't need to eat anything," Advik asked, narrowing his thin eyebrows.

"Indeed." This time Sidharth was the one who spoke, "Usually they do not eat but here they change, they become a little like humans hence there are some things they need like humans to regain energy." 

"How is that possible?" Advik wondered.

"We don't know either. Souls just change when they arrive here," Sidharth replied with a tensed voice.

Svapn opened the door and some guards who were standing there surrounded him. Every guard had a bothered and worried expression, they were sweating, one of them spoke with a trembling and dried tone, "P-prime Minister... Prime Minister... the...the student Samay has left the room," he gulped his spite before continuing, "He went… he went in the direction of the gate of the real Lost Souls Realm... We...we tried our best to stop him but he didn't listen to anything we said. He said he wanted to play and practice his sword arts."

the Emperor asked, frowning, "Is he alone?"

"Yes, Your Majesty," the guard replied with his head down.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY!!!?" Svapn's eyes broadened.