The Land of the Dead

While driving away from Khasa village, where my grandparents lived, I got dizzy and lost control of the car, which made me crash into a nearby tree. There's blood dripping down from my forehead, and there is this sound ringing in my ears. My vision is blurry, and I can barely see anything.

As I gain consciousness again, I realize I'm outside the car and I do not know how that happened. Right as I am thinking that, Nia shows up. She starts to explain what happened.

"When you were driving from the village, you crashed the car, hit your head pretty hard and you were in a bad position, so I carried you out of the car and laid you here. I don't know what you were thinking, but you should be more careful," she said.

I looked at her confused. There is no way she was able to carry me out the car. I mean not to be rude to her but for a 16-year-old she would have to be crazy strong for her age to carry me.

"How did you carry me out?" I was wondering how.

"Of course you have to be curious, I suppose with the way my body is. You are correct, however. With my physical strength, I wouldn't be able to carry you out. So here is how I carried you out of the car. So, on top of our voices, we can use magic. I used that magic to carry you out of the car," she replied.

"Magic? I mean, I guess that explains it."

As I said that, I realize it's in the middle of the night. Did I pass out? For how long?

Suddenly, I remembered what happened. A tear ran down my left eye. I need to get home.

When I try to stand up, I fall back down.

"You're in no condition to walk home right now and it's pretty far," Nia said as she walks over and kneels beside me. "Just lie down and I will take care of the rest," she said, pushing me gently to the ground.

I see my parents sitting at the table, just smiling and having a conversation. As I try to get closer to them, I get further. I reach out my hand, but they are fading. Why is everything going dark?

I see a light coming near me. As it gets closer, I see my grandparents' front door. Suddenly, it opens and my parents and grandparents are standing there, headless. Blood drips from their necks as they walk towards me with their arms stretched out. I see a figure in the back. White, glowing eyes. Just smiling. I can't run.

In an instant, my head hits the ground. What is this? Why can't I feel my body?

Suddenly, my dad's hands pick my head up and put it on top of his neck.

"NOOOOO!!!" I screamed as I woke up.

I look around and I'm back in my room. How did I get here?

"Nia!" I called out.

She appears.

"I see you're awake. How are you feeling?" she asked.

"I don't know. I just woke up from a nightmare," I said.

"So anyway, how did you get me here? Was it with that magic you mentioned?" I asked.

"Yes," she replied.

I think about it.

"So, how does this magic work? What can it do?" I asked with curiosity.

"Why do you ask?" she asked.

"Just curious," I replied.

She thought about it for a moment and then finally said,

"The magic is called Nulla Cor. It grants you the ability to do multiple things, such as for me, I am able to use telekinesis, which is how I was able to bring you here and also treat your injuries," she said.

"Thank you for that. I appreciate it. One more question, would a human being be able to possess this magic?" I asked.

"To be able to gain Nulla Cor for a human being, you would have to travel to the land of the dead to kill and eat the lungs of an Echo. There have only been a handful of people who have been able to do this, as it is not an easy task," she answered.

"Hey Nia, I want to get payback for my family," I said while looking down.

She looks at me with a sad face and says, "I know how you feel, but this is not the path you should take."

"I want to get revenge," I said angrily.

"Ok. I shall train you then. Get cleaned up and get something to eat first. You need to rest. The training won't be easy," she said.

Confused, I asked, "How are you going to do that? You don't even know how to fight."

"Shut up. You will see," she said.

---

It's winter now, and it's been two months since that encounter with that thing that killed my parents. I live in my parents' hut out in the mountains now. It was used for vacations back when we wanted to be one with nature, now that is just a fading memory. A memory worth so much, yet taken in an instant. I will have my revenge.

I am currently training to be able to take out an Echo. Nia says Echos don't know how to fight well, so I'm training my body to the limit.

It's November. A year has passed. I am 21 years old right now, and I look homeless with this beard, but that's a plus in my book, as I've always wanted one. My body physique has improved a lot. Throughout the past year, Nia has been coming to help me with my training and giving me some pointers. For a 15 or 16-year-old, she knows her stuff.

Today is a nice day, so I am going to just relax today and enjoy the snow that is falling right now. Put on a fire and just drink a hot tea.

Night falls, and I decide to take a shower. As I'm taking a shower, I sense a dark presence appear behind me. As I turn back, I see it's a regular person. An old man with a bald head and a long white beard was just standing there.

"The fuck?" I said quietly.

The old man spoke, "Ice, the human who can see Echos. The human who can talk to Echos. I am pleased to meet you."

"Who are you?" I asked, still with a shocked face.

The old man started walking up to me slowly, "Even roses hide thorns... Ice. We have been watching you for some time now and we are pleased to see the results you've gotten," he said calmly.

"Do you really believe you are able to take down an Echo? Even after all the things you've seen, you still decide to stand up? Well, I am here to warn you. Don't take us too lightly. And if you do, you will soon regret that decision. Until next time we meet."

As soon as he said that, he disappeared.

The old me would be questioning himself right now, but now, somehow, things feel different. I feel like I have even more of a reason to take revenge. I go ahead and put on my clothes and go sit in my seat for the night. I notice there's a tiny piece of paper on the table beside me. I picked it up and read it. It says, "Ask that girl to open the gates for you."

This must've been left by that old man. Does he mean Nia? I just put the note aside and decided to sleep because I have to wake up early to go train again.

At midnight, Nia shows up and wakes me. She bugs me from time to time now. I tell her what happened. She doesn't seem surprised at the mention of that. I ask her about the note that I found.

She says, "Gates are used to travel from one dimension to another. Think of them as portals in a way."

I asked her, "Who was that old man? It seemed like he knew of me and my personal life."

She replied, "That is Zok, the Silent Stepper, also the right hand of the God of Death. I don't know much about him, but I would warn you to stay away from him. Anyway, get ready. We leave at midnight."

Well, there goes my night and sleep.

---

Midnight arrives, and we are already hiking up the mountain. When we got to the top, Nia started chanting something I couldn't quite understand, and after that, this portal opened. It was dark, and it was like a black hole. I thought if I stepped inside, I would fall into the abyss.

Nia shoved me inside and I fell face flat on flat ground. When I stood up and looked around me, everything was dark, no sun. Nia explains that there is no sun in the land of the dead and that it is constantly nighttime there.

Nia says, "Be cautious from here on out. They don't take kindly to outsiders."

As soon as she said that, this thing came out running from the shadows and headed straight for me. I dodged out of the way, and it came back as soon as I did. Its long claws ran through my ribs, which caused me to cough up a gush of blood. It pinned me to the ground and went for my ribs again. Blood was everywhere and I was starting to black out.

As my eyes start to shut, I look at Nia as this thing is at my ribs. She shoves it away from me and places her hand over my ribs. I feel a sensation. The pain is gone, and the blood has stopped. I get to my feet and prepare as this thing comes back.

I grab both of my daggers and lunge at the shadow. We are in a heated battle, and Nia to the side, watching. I don't know what she is doing, but it looks like she has a plan. She shouts to throw her one of the daggers. Without hesitation, I throw her my right dagger.

As I am fighting this thing, it looks like she is doing something to the dagger. More chants I can't hear, but I'm not focused on that. She suddenly yells for me to catch, as I turn around, I see a Katana flying at me.

"I've imbued it with magic and will assist you," she yells.

As soon as I catch it, I feel this darkness emitting from it. It's like my right arm is possessed. I finish off the thing with just the swing of the Katana and slice off its head.

Nia shouts, "Take its lungs!" as she's running to me.

I slash its chest and rip out its lungs. As soon as I did, it turned into this dusty thing and faded away.

Holding the lungs, Nia says, "You have to eat the lungs now if you want to gain the abilities you worked so hard for, now that you killed an Echo."

I looked at her, surprised and the lungs and asked, "Raw?"

By the look on her face, she was serious. I took a bite of the lung and I felt like puking.

Nia said, "All of it."

As I ate the rest, I felt dizzy and collapsed.

---

When I wake up, I find myself in this cave. Nia is sitting by my side. I ask her how long it has been since I passed out.

She says, "It's been two days since you collapsed, so I brought you here for safety. After you ate those lungs, it took a while to take effect. That's why you were asleep for two days. Think of it as a reboot."

I get up and put on my clothes. That's weird. Did she take off my clothes? I ask her about the Katana.

"That Katana is one created from your dagger. It is imbued with magic, so be careful with it. It will help you with your mission."

I said thank you and headed for the exit. When I got there, there were Echos around the area.

Nia said, "They are on high alert since you killed one of them. No one in history has been able to see them until now. We'd best be careful. And your magic is not stable right now so it's best we take things slow."

Even though she just told me all that, all I could think about was ripping those lungs out of them and torturing them. I stepped out, and Nia, trying to stop me, didn't help. I was overcome with rage.

Asking them, "Who is your leader?" I ran towards them. As soon as they saw me, they ran towards me with their claws at me. It looks like there's about ten of them. I slash their necks, cut their arms off, and rip out their lungs.

As I am fighting the Echos, this big shadow with glowing white eyes comes from the shadows literally. All the Echos are down, now I can deal with this other thing. As it approaches me menacingly, it calls my name with this deep, threatening voice. I get chills down my spine.

"Ice, how nice of you to come here."