The New world: Part 2

On my way, I was stopped again, and I didn't feel like making noise, so I knocked them out as well.

So I ended up dragging three unconscious spirits into the building, drawing quite a few eyes on me.

I ignored them and made my way through the building calmly and without hurry.

Unhurriedly.

Slowly.

Or whatever other word describes what I did.

I was only interrupted only one time, by another newcomer who tried to find out what I was doing.

He shouted to draw my attention.

"Hey!" I heard and turned to look towards the sound, only to see a spirit on the bigger side start to march towards me.

"What ar-hugfn!" His speech was suddenly stopped and turned into incoherent sound when a hand slammed over his lips and pulled him back.

I could feel his anger grow as he turned to look at the one who had offended him, only for all of it to disappear as he noticed that it was his superior.

His ear was pulled down, and he leaned with it as some urgent sentences were spoken into it.

The next moment, his head was bowed by the same hand that pulled his ear as the other man started apologizing.

I turned back to my path and started walking again, and as I left, I could hear a sigh of relief along with the sound of a palm meeting one of the softer parts of a shell.

The one shouted at me was being reprimanded, I assumed.

A door was opened for me to enter by a woman holding a small trident, and those inside it turned to look at me.

A moment later, Queen walked up to me.

"Something wrong?"

I lifted up the one who had disturbed my walk and showed him to her.

"I suspect that there might be something strange about this one."

"Uh-huh, why?"

"For some reason, he incited my violent feelings."

She looked at me with one of her purple eyebrows raised.

"That's all?"

"Yes."

"And you're sure that it just wasn't because of poor impulse control?"

"I do not know what 'impulse' means, so I cannot answer that question."

She waved it off.

"Doesn't matter. What about these two?" She gestured towards the other two I had brought with me.

"Nothing about them."

After I said that, I tossed them outside the room and spoke to the guard.

"Take them out, please."

She nodded silently and took them away.

I turned back to Queen and looked at her in silence as she rubbed her chin as she looked at the spirit on the ground.

A few moments later, she shrugged and let out a quick nasal sound as she exhaled.

"It's most likely nothing, but let's check it out. Who knows, we might actually find something."

A few hours and a dozen different tests later, nothing out of the ordinary was found.

"Looks like you were wrong."

"But I have never lost control like that before."

"Could be a new development, you have just transformed after all."

She tapped my forehead.

"Follow me, I have some time on my hands. Let us go run some tests to see how you respond emotionally."

I looked up at her.

"Weren't you busy with something a few hours ago? I saw that you handed over a folder to an assistant when I arrived."

She huffed.

"Just supervisory work. Physiology isn't my favoured line of research, but there isn't anyone else who is free enough."

Physiology.

That was all about the shell and active Da, if I was not mixing up my terms.

"Alright then."

She started walking away from the table. "Let's go."

"What about him?" 

I asked what we should do about the spirit I had kidnapped.

"Don't worry about him, he'll be back where he belongs before too long."

I gave the unconscious man a last glance before I left.

As we walked, Queen kept asking me questions.

They were strange.

She asked me what edible items I preferred, which shades of colour I liked the most, and whether I liked the daytime or the nighttime more.

She asked if I liked being in crowds or by myself, if I liked fighting or not, and many, many more questions.

Most of them, I didn't even know the answer to, so I thought about them before I gave an answer.

I preferred the sweeter food items, but there were some very flavorful ones that I would take if available.

About colour, I decided that I like a dull grey. She looked at me for a few moments in silence when I said that.

Between daytime and nighttime, I preferred nighttime, mostly because there are almost no living creatures around some time after the fake sun sets.

Fighting, now that was a question that took some thought to answer.

I did not like the fight that I could dissipate due to a careless move, but I did also like the fact that it was fast-paced and required active thinking and planning.

So I decided that I liked fighting, just not to the death or to great injury, because that would put me at risk of dissipation.

After a few more questions, she asked me one final question.

"What do you feel about death?"

Death.

From what I had found out from the start of my consciousness, this scared almost every creature in the three realms.

Be it a living creature or a spirit, they all feared dying.

I didn't understand it.

I could understand the living creatures, it was their instinct, hundreds of millions of years of evolution, all to live more, and to keep living.

That made sense.

But the spirits, both the corrupted and the uncorrupted, they also feared dissipating and merging into the world itself.

This did not make sense.

Spirits had cast aside their living shells and come here, so they shouldn't have that instinct to fear death, but they still did.

They still tried to live longer and stay away from danger.

Why?

To some extent, I knew why, they wanted to enjoy themself even in this 'afterlife'.

But I just couldn't make sense of it.

What was so enjoyable about living?

I wanted to find out.

"Death is natural, so fearing it is irrational and strange."

I looked up into my companion's eyes.

"But I want to find out why so many try so desperately to live, so I don't want to die before I have achieved that."