1112 I"ll Die If I Don"t Go Out?
What sort of place had he stumbled upon? Lith wondered and looked at the lady with slashed eyes. Just a moment ago, he was in a desolate place near the gate, and after entering it, saw everything around him to be pink, then a shrine, a shrine maiden, and now this lady walking up to him. Was he perhaps a lady magnet? Were his charms so good that he attracted ladies by his mere presence? Crazy. It was all quite crazy. "Cough… come down to earth…"
Lith may be shameless, but he wasn"t a narcissist. He humbled himself fast and continued to stare at the girl. "Listen closely to what I am about to say," the girl said. "That shrine maiden there is not a real person."
Lith was flabbergasted. He raised his eyebrows and looked at the shrine maiden. "That person"s not real?"
"No." The lady said flatly. "You were about to go say h.e.l.lo to her, and to your greeting, she would"ve taken you inside the shrine and offered tea."
"How did she know I was going to say h.e.l.lo?" Lith wondered whether this woman was a clairvoyant or something. "Do what you were about to do and pretend that I am not here. I"ll slowly explain the rest." The woman said and stood still. Why should he do what the woman was asking him to do? It was weird. However, in this new world, he had no other place to go to, and interacting with these bunch of people seemed to be his only choice. After some careful thinking, he felt it wouldn"t hurt to talk. Lith walked towards the shrine maiden, and like before, said h.e.l.lo, startling her. The same conversation began once again and the shrine maiden took him inside the shrine and served him tea.
In the new loop, the blinded lady was with him. She heard their conversation and added, "Now she"ll tell you about…"
Everything repeated itself and Lith was starting to feel that there was something odd going on. He was having a strong sense of Deja Vu, and with the lady beside him saying everything so accurately, suspicion regarding the current situation grew in his heart. Eventually, the priestess joined them and reminded Lith to not venture outside. The blinded lady told Lith to agree with the woman, and then went to the room with Lith. The night got dark. As per the blinded lady"s instructions, Lith tried to sleep. Before he could fall asleep, he felt as if someone was right beside him, breathing close near his ear. Lith turned around to see whether it was the blinded lady, but she was sitting in the corner of the room, facing his direction. Lith felt it might be an illusion and tried to sleep again, but felt this nagging feeling of someone being near him again. Lith couldn"t take it anymore and got up. He sat in a lotus position and asked, "What"s going on?"
The blinded lady pointed at the thin door and said, "This place is haunted. Whoever sets foot here doesn"t leave again."
Lith frowned. "So you walked in knowing full well you cannot go outside?"
"Yes, and no." The woman answered. "I can walk outside at any minute, but I cannot leave without taking you."
"Why?" "Orders from the sect master." The lady said flatly. "Sect master?"
Did Lith arrive on a planet where someone knew him? That shouldn"t be possible. He had no connections outside of his home world. Lith"s question made the lady say, "I do not know much. The elders said I must escort you to the sect and that"s about it."
"How did you know what was going to happen here? Do you have some mind reading skills?" The woman shook her head. "I"ve been watching you for a while, and that"s the reason why I knew what was going to happen. In any case, our priority is to leave, and you should focus on that. Look at the door…"
Lith had many questions to ask, but he turned to look at the door before asking them. The door was thin and Lith could see a silhouette of someone or something moving around. "Open the door and walk outside." The woman said. "Why?" There was clearly danger outside the door. Was this lady correct in the head? The priestess had clearly asked him to not venture out and also said that the consequences would be dire. There was also a silhouette of some strange organism moving around. Going out was asking to be killed. "You have to." The lady replied. "If you do not make this move, you"ll forever be stuck inside the loop."
"Loop?" Lith heard a strange word for the first time. "Yes, loop. If you"ve been repeating the same things over and over again for the past three days, at the very least." The lady answered immediately. "I arrived at this place three days ago, and since then, I could see you do the same things. I think you were repeating these for a while even before my arrival, so you can count that on your own once you get out."
Lith was taken aback. "What? Me? Stuck in a loop?" How was it possible to have triggered a trap or to fall into a trap when he had only just set foot into this world? Shouldn"t there be some gap between predicament and arrival? This was his third time entering a gate to visit a new world, and only now was he realizing that at all three times, he had indeed been in predicaments.
The first world he entered was the Dushkarbor village"s, and the second was Two Path Blind Mountain for making the legendary soup. The third was now, and in all three situations, he had been hit with adversaries from the very beginning. Lith sighed and rubbed his temple. Given his past, the lady may not be saying wrong things. He really might be in a loop for all he knows. "I"ll die if I don"t go out?" Lith asked her. The lady shook her head. "You"ll die slowly if you stay inside, and swiftly if you go outside. While being inside, there"s no way to defend yourself against the corruption of the loop, but while being outside, you could at least leave the domain of these resentful spirits and get a chance at freedom."
"Ah… so I"m a caged bird now?" Lith accidentally let out his humor in these dire times.
The lady didn"t get the joke, but nodded and said seriously, "Pretty much."
Lith got up from his lotus position and stretched. He cracked his neck and said, "So are these the spirits we"re up against?"
"Yes." Lith took out a golden spear from his s.p.a.ce ring and imbued it with some Light elemental energy, making it shine a bright golden. The lady could feel a holy aura from it, and was slightly surprised. Lith spun the spear casually and said, "Let"s go hunt some spirits then."