Once you Enter the Void, Can You Ever Escape?

[Logging Off Spiegel...]

"Why'd ya let 'im go, sir?"

"Because out there, he's no better than trash."

[Thanks for Playing!]

...

Once again, like when Eizit left Spiegel, everything succumbed into pure darkness. Niva sighed in relief, though he still felt a bit nervous. First off, he didn't like having to be back in District 9, and second, Void-Man didn't react at all at him logging off... Rather, he seemed to like that he took that option. It offset him.

The capsule slowly opened up, Navi spoke to himself. Unlike in Spiegel, his voice sounded rusty with a higher pitched tone.

"The VR Mirror always opens so slowly... Is this because of being in District 9 or do all open like this?"

(Beep)

The machine expulsed some gas as it finished opening, Navi got up and slowly got out of it. His appearance had changed now that he was in Hansha.

He looked like he was over 60 years old, his body wasn't specially weak but neither as jacked as he was in Spiegel.

(Beep)

He had a green jacket with a sentence drawn behind: "Navi always brings good news."

As he looked at his arm and noticed he was wearing that green jacket he started crying, crumbled... After all he was here because he didn't keep up with what the jacket said.

He had a white shirt with a robot symbol on it, and grey trousers, nothing weird.

His eyes were clouded in tears, blue, small. His nose was slightly bigger than the media, ending in a sharp shape. His mouth was of a medium size.

He had a painter moustache, with no other facial hair. Finishing his looks was his hair, medium length slickback. All his hair was white, because of his age, but he didn't lack any. It looked like his hair was strong.

The only other thing notable was the scar he had on his left eye, making that same eye blind, as it had a white pupil.

(Beep, beep)

"Wait a second, did I just hear a beep?"

Navi thought to himself, at his age his hearing was not the same as he once had. Being almost sure of having done he started to search for the source of the beep. But didn't manage to find anything.

"Maybe it was my imagina-"

(Beep, beep)

"It wasn't!"

Navi started to get nervous, there was clearly something doing that sound in his house. And so he went back to searching for it.

(Beep, beep)

He managed to find it, it was a ... Bomb!

And it only had 10 seconds remaining, Navi rushed to the door as well as his body let him. However, he found another bomb there.

5 seconds.

Navi looked around, there were no more exits!

3 seconds

"Am I gonna die here?"

2 seconds

"The window!"

1 second

Navi rapidly ran towards the window.

0 seconds

Navi was about to get there when a loud BOOM sounded behind him, he couldn't even blink before everything got filled with fire and smoke, the explosion unleashed, breaking the glass and catching Navi.

Being in Hansha and being old meant that he had no opportunities. Void-Man may be weak there, but as he himself said, Navi is no better than trash outside of Spiegel

***

Back in Spiegel, Eizit walked alongside Azael. The tiefling was riding the horse they got from Navi, however, instead of going galloping fast they were in synch with Eizit's walking speed.

They didn't go necessarily slow, as Eizit steps were fast and steady, not leaving footsteps. He was agile, as any other elf, but it was undeniable that he was slightly tired.

"Eizit, are you okay? You seem tired."

"I'm a bit tired, the fight against Navi was very harsh"

"We've been walking for two hours since we left him there, maybe we could take a short rest."

"No, it's about 6 pm, let's stop only when we have to. In two hours we take dinner, and then we stop for the night."

Azael sighed, if he was considered stubborn he couldn't imagine what Eizit was right now.

"Can you keep on for 2 more hours?"

Eizit nodded, and kept walking.

"Now that you have a horse we'll be able to save time, it should only take us two days to find a deer for me... At most"

Azael mumbled to himself

"That's not what I asked."

Eizit didn't hear him, and the duo resumed their journey. They didn't have much rush because they didn't expect there to be anyone left to chase them.

They could expect Navi to go after them after he died and respawned, but Eizit calculated that it'd take him 2 days to get to them if he got a horse.

However, Eizit didn't want to lower his guard. If Navi was right and that 'Void' he said would kill him actually existed and would try to... Well, nothing ensured him that he wouldn't have told more people to follow him.

However, there was one thing that kept circling his mind.

"Just why are we so important?"

Azael raised an eyebrow, and left a soft giggle.

"Can't tell if you're being a bit prideful now."

Eizit giggled, and replied to him.

"What I mean is, why would that 'Void' Navi mentioned care so much about us as to send Navi following us... And even kill him if he failed."

Azael started thinking about it for a while, and eventually gave an answer.

"Well, maybe he just doesn't like that his preys escape."

Eizit sighed, that could be a reason. A dumb one, for sure, but still a reason.

However, it didn't saciate his curiosity, it wasn't enough to make him feel relieved... He started thinking about it.

"There has to be something more."

"Is he after me or after Azael? and if he is after Azael, what makes him so important?"

Eizit couldn't cope with the sheer amount of questions popping up on his head, he needed answers, he needed them as someone needs oxygen. He felt asfixiated by the lack of knowledge, he needed to be conscious of what was happening... Not knowing made him nervous.

"Eizit, take a deep breath"

Eizit left out a soft "huh?" as he heard Azael, but actually noticed why right after. He was sweating and his walking was now irregular, he didn't leave footsteps but he wasn't walking as he always did. The questions had overwhelmed him.

"Thank you, Azael"

He said, taking a deep breath and calming himself. There was no point on making himself questions when he couldn't answer them. He mumbled something, which Azael didn't hear.

"I'll just have to wait until we gain more information"

The duo kept walking, and 2 hours later they stopped.

Finally, they could take some rest.

Azael took out what he had brung, nothing crazy. Some meat.

Eizit also had some meat, and also potatoes.

Luckily for them everything was cooked already, so after sharing the potatoes both of them started eating.

"Man, I miss Hansha's food."

Azael replied to Eizit.

"I don't know man, don't you think this one feels more natural?"

Eizit thought about it for a while, while Hansha's food was generally better in both quantity and quality it was true that sometimes it gave off a feeling of it being... Fake.

"Well that's kind of true, I guess this food feels different."

Azael nodded.

"So do you still miss that fake ass food?"

Eizit giggled.

"Maybe not the food itself, but the amount of food."

Azael sighed.

"Well, I guess you're right, we can't eat that much here."

They kept eating for a while and eventually Azael started speaking.

"I never asked, where do you actually live? In Hansha"

Eizit realised they hadn't talked about their lives outside of Spiegel, and gave him an answer

"District 2, what about you?"

Azael laughed

"Oh so you live in one of the three rich districts, I see... I'm from District 5."

Eizit seemed surprised

"District 5? Wow, District 5 is super cool man!"

"Meh, I don't know man. I know we're the District of Knowledge but it's not that cool when you don't really like reading."

"You got the biggest library in all of Hansha man, how can it not be cool? But I get it, I guess it just feels irrelevant having all those books if you don't want to read them"

Azael nodded and told Eizit to go to sleep.

Eizit did so, entering his trance state. In 4 hours Azael would be able to sleep and Eizit would remain in guard for the rest of the night. From 9 pm to 1 am, Azael stayed in guard. Then, Eizit exited his trance and kept guard for the next 8 hours.

Nothing attacked them over the night, and the group remained their journey at 9 pm after a quick breakfast.