Chapter 3 To An Empty Void

Nothing. It felt... empty, as expected. No light, no sense of heat nor cold, and all I could hear was my voice in my head. There was nowhere to stop, so I drifted away aimlessly. Floating in the darkness of this realm seems terrifying at first, but I got the hang of it rather quickly. Right after I closed my eyes I heard the old man's voice.

"Hey, Katsumi. While you're here in the realm of nothingness or in short "The realm", as you could tell you are feeling absolutely nothing. Don't worry, your senses still work just fine. Now it may seem like seconds to you have passed, but I can assure you that in this realm, you have been here for 1 month already. Everything you are sensing seems slow and your brain can't perceive how fast time has moved. If a month has passed for you in this realm it may equate to a few hours in real-time."

"So what will I do now? Am I just stuck in here with your voice in my head?"

"Actually... I'm right next to you. Our spatial awareness is none existent at the moment, so I may sound further away from you and if you have been learning your physics lately, sound can not travel without a medium, so yes I am talking to you telepathically, but only towards you though."

"So, how about my other question. You kind of missed it."

"Ah, sorry. I tend to forget things easily. Maybe it's because I've been here for so long. Anyways, continuing with your question. I have a task for you to do. I will give you all the remaining power I have stored up for eons. I shall entrust you with this power and fix the mirror. Here's the original mirror, the one you saw was a replica, I'll explain it later once the time has come."

"Uhm, so what is this power you speak of?"

"I can't fully explain it to you, but the sole purpose of this power is to gain the knowledge of the world you go to. I know it will be confusing and tough at first, but I believe you are capable of this. That is all I can say for now."

"So how do I get out of here?"

"As I give you my power and the shattered mirror, you shall be transported to another world."

"Alright then. Oh, before I go, can I ask one last question?"

"Sure."

"If you have the power to get out of this realm, why don't you do it yourself?"

"..."

"It's alright if you don't want to speak about it."

"Uhm... I've created the rift that leads to the outside world, go on in there and find a man named Ragnar the Grey."

"Alright then, hope we can meet again old man."

As I stepped outside the portal, the feeling of a cold breeze passed by. The green lush plants that are surrounding me smell amazing, they all feel so soft and comforting as I touch them. As I was touching the plant, I realized that my hands are covered by a gauntlet and some parts of my body are covered in what seemed to be steel armor.

They're deep red in color and how I only could imagine what seems to be dragon scales that cover the top part of my hand. It's quite dangerous since each fingertip is pointy, but luckily I can pull back each segment to make a layer on top of each other.

"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. Do not release that gauntlet at any cost, until I tell you to do so."

Without thinking too much about it, I took off on my new journey. I am still wondering if I made the right choice or not. I might have regretted this decision.

"How can I see my friends again? I never properly said goodbye to them." in a sad low voice

"Soon, Katsumi. Soon. I shall assure you of that." he said reassuringly

I smiled with a feeling of hope inside.