267 Afterlife
267 Afterlife
What was the afterlife like?
It was hard to say.
I couldn’t even tell if this place was heaven or hell. All I could see was a never-ending darkness stretching in every direction, an endless void that swallowed distance and direction alike.
Strangely enough, I could still perceive myself.
I lifted my arm and studied it carefully. My skin tone looked the same as always, the faint scars still there, the same hands I’d spent years using to tear through walls and enemies alike. When I glanced down at my chest, there was no blood, no wound from the lance that had pierced me moments earlier.
I’m alive.
Except I wasn’t really alive.
The feeling was impossible to put into words. My body existed, but it didn’t feel like flesh anymore. It felt like an idea of a body, something my mind insisted on maintaining.
Maybe I was a soul on his way to the afterlife.
I had to get out of this place.
Curiosity about heaven or hell was not high on my list of priorities, which meant Guesswork was probably going to be disappointed if he ever got the chance to ask me whether such things truly existed. I focused my mind on my world and tried to phase myself back into existence there, reaching for the familiar sensation of space bending around me.
Nothing happened.
My power failed completely.
Did I make a mistake?
“Hello? Anyone there?” I called into the darkness.
My voice echoed outward and returned to me a moment later, distorted and hollow.
No one answered.
I slowly knelt and placed my hand on the surface beneath me. It felt solid enough, though calling it ground didn’t feel entirely accurate. The texture was cold and smooth in a way that didn’t give any information back to my senses.
I tried to phase downward.
My power refused to respond.
From somewhere deep in the darkness, voices began to whisper.
Some were crying softly, the sound of grief echoing like distant storms. Others begged desperately for help, their voices shaking with fear and exhaustion. A few sounded seductive, offering warmth, comfort, or promises of reunion with people long lost. Several spoke with honeyed tones, tempting me with deals, bargains, and strange offers that sounded far too convenient.
I remained where I was.
None of the voices could be trusted.
Instead I searched inward and found the psychic thread connecting me to my son. The thin connection stretched faintly through the darkness like a line of light only I could see. I searched for Nicole’s thread as well, but couldn’t find it anywhere.
That worried me more than I wanted to admit.
I stood and turned toward the direction of the thread, then began following it through the endless void.
The darkness around me reacted immediately.
Voices rose from every side, no longer pleading but furious. Some of them belonged to people I had killed. I recognized several SRC operatives I’d slaughtered back in Malufan, their voices dripping with rage and hatred. Others belonged to members of the Ten who had died at my hands.
They surrounded me with threats.
One voice in particular rose above the others.
Royal’s voice carried a smug amusement even from beyond death.
“Well look who finally crawled in here,” Royal laughed. “You sure enjoyed my product, didn’t you?”
“Nicole is not a product.”
I clenched my fists but kept walking.
As much as I wanted to turn around and rip him apart a second time, I had better things to do.
Another voice slithered out of the darkness.
Crow sounded exactly as irritating as I remembered.
“Nick, my boy,” he called mockingly. “Tell your mother I still remember how good she felt. Such a gentle touch she had.”
I sighed quietly while continuing forward.
The annoying bastard was still taking his chances even from beyond the grave. At least hearing that reminded me of one comforting thought.
Mom was probably in heaven.
A different laugh echoed through the void.
Ning Light’s voice carried the same manic arrogance he had in life.
“Look at you wandering in the dark,” Ning said while laughing loudly. “Still playing hero, still pretending you are some righteous savior. Such childish immaturity from someone who pretends to understand the world, when in fact you are just another villain in the street.”
That psycho honestly had the weakest insults imaginable. He had never been particularly eloquent even when he was alive.
I kept walking.
Then the voices stopped.
Every single one of them went silent at the exact same moment.
The psychic thread suddenly vanished.
Something moved in the darkness ahead.
A faint shape cut through the void like a fin gliding through water. The silhouette circled slowly, the massive form barely visible against the endless black.
I braced myself.
The creature lunged forward.
Its enormous body burst from the darkness with jaws wide open, rushing toward me like a monstrous shark. I swung my arm instinctively and tried to phase my fist through its skull to deflect the attack.
My power didn’t activate.
The creature was about to swallow me whole, when its body exploded from the inside. Flesh tore apart violently as something pierced straight through its skull. The enormous mass collapsed around me in fragments that quickly dissolved back into darkness.
Standing where the monster had been was a familiar older gentleman.
He held one finger stretched forward like he had simply poked the creature apart.
“John!” I shouted.
It was the same man who saved me in the ocean long ago. The same man who later died at Ning’s hands.
John smiled warmly.
“Long time no see, kiddo,” he said calmly. “Let’s go. You are looking for this, right?”
He held out a thin glowing thread.
I grabbed it immediately.
“Go,” he said.
“Come with me,” I insisted.
John grimaced slightly.
“I’d love to, but I’m gone,” he replied quietly, vanishing suddenly as his voice echoed from everywhere. “Go, Caldwell. Be a hero.”
I tightened my grip on the thread and followed it.
The darkness parted as I moved until I found myself standing in front of a single red door.
I pushed the door open and stepped through.
Inside was nothing but a purely white space that stretched endlessly in every direction. There was no ceiling, no horizon, no shadows. It was the kind of emptiness that made it impossible to judge distance.
Standing a few steps away from me was a dark-haired boy.
He looked ordinary in a way that felt unsettling against the blank perfection of the place. His posture was relaxed, his expression neutral, and his dark eyes watched me with quiet curiosity.
I turned around for a moment, expecting to see the red door behind me.
It was gone.
When I looked back toward the boy, he had vanished as well.
“Where is this?!” I shouted into the emptiness. “I have somewhere else to go! Let me out!”
A boyish voice answered from somewhere in the white void.
“You are in the right place.”
I frowned slightly and scanned the empty surroundings.
“Where is this?”
The voice answered calmly.
“Lockworld.”
The white space collapsed instantly. The world flipped and I suddenly found myself suspended high in the sky. Wind rushed past me while clouds drifted lazily beneath my feet. Below me was a sight I recognized immediately.
A massive forest stretched across the southern region, thick with deep green trees that formed a dense wilderness. To the east stood a sprawling medieval-like kingdom with stone walls, towers, and castles spread across rolling hills.
The western side of the world held a gigantic megacity packed with towering buildings and bright lights. Far to the north was a bizarre landscape shaped like candy, where mountains looked like frosted cakes and rivers flowed with bright sugary colors.
I remembered seeing it from outside.
The word ‘LOCKWORLD’ hung above the land like an enormous celestial monument.
I was inside that structure.
For the longest time I had assumed it was just some bizarre cosmic phenomenon floating in space. I never once considered the possibility that something might actually be living inside it.
“Who are you?” I asked while floating in the sky. “Where’s my son? I know he’s here.”
A red door appeared beside me.
It hovered calmly in the air as if it had always been there.
I opened it.
The moment I stepped through, I found myself standing inside a quiet nursery room. Soft light filled the space while simple toys sat scattered across the floor.
A small crib rested near the wall. Inside it was Ron. He was lying there peacefully, cooing softly while staring up at the ceiling. His tiny hands waved in the air while his legs kicked gently beneath a blanket.
He looked exactly the same as the last time I saw him two years ago.
There was no sign of aging.
I lifted him into my arms carefully.
“Hah… he’s here all along.”
The warmth of his small body felt real. His tiny fingers curled instinctively against my shirt while he made soft sounds of recognition. This wasn’t some illusion. I could tell. Still holding him close, I spoke into the quiet room.
“What did you do to him?”
My voice carried suspicion and a trace of anger.
The unseen voice answered calmly.
“I did nothing but provide him sanctuary. The infant hasn’t physically aged even a little. If I had to guess, he is using his own power to stop himself from growing. A sentiment born from his desire to remain with his parents.”
I thought back to the strange Ron that Nicole had interacted with earlier, the psychic construct I suspected to be not my real son. Was that also this Ron? Highly likely, yes.
The voice continued speaking.
“A man named George made an arrangement with me. In exchange for your help, I will provide protection to the child. It is time for you to fulfill your end of the bargain.”
I shifted Ron slightly in my arms.
“And what’s that?”
“Free me from this prison.”
“I refuse.”
The answer came immediately.
“There has to be a reason why you are imprisoned.”
The voice responded without hesitation.
“There is. My sin is being born. Dr. Time trapped me in this place because I was too dangerous. The reason he gave was something he calls a Power Mutate.”
There was a pause before he continued.
“I do not know if I am the first one, but I agreed to be placed here for the safety of others. I have already mastered my abilities now. I can no longer harm anyone unintentionally. Do you know what Dr. Time said afterward? He called me an experiment and decided I should remain here forever.”
His tone remained oddly calm.
“It is very unfair.”
I looked around the room slowly.
“Can you come out and look me in the eye while you say that?”
The dark-haired boy appeared directly in front of me. He looked exactly like the one I had seen earlier in the white space. His expression remained unmoved, almost bored, as if none of this conversation meant much to him.
I studied him carefully, while still holding Ron.
“Your deal with George has nothing to do with me,” I said. “I am thankful for the protection you’ve given my son. I can tell you are strong, but I am not afraid of a fight.”
The boy didn’t react.
“Still,” I continued, “it would be disadvantageous for me since I have someone to protect. So please answer this question honestly. What are you going to do once you get out of this place?”
The boy answered immediately.
“I want to eat pizza.”
That response shut me up completely. There was no deception in his voice. My power made that obvious.
He wasn’t lying.
I exhaled slowly while looking at him again.
“How can I help?”
The prison holding the boy couldn’t resist my power.
I wrapped my intangibility around both of us and phased the structure itself. The walls of Lockworld slipped apart like they were nothing more than mist, the restraints Dr. Time had constructed collapsing under the pressure of Intangibility-30.
For a moment, there was nothing beneath us.
We fell.
The sky rushed upward while the strange world below expanded rapidly. I adjusted instantly and halted my descent, suspending myself in the air through controlled phasing and spatial manipulation.
My first instinct was to do the same for the dark-haired boy.
Before I could act, a cloud appeared out of nowhere.
It floated upward like a fluffy white platform and caught him gently. The boy landed on it with perfect balance while the cloud carried him upward until he stopped right in front of me.
“Thanks,” he said casually. “My name’s Tony. Yours?”
“Nick.”
Tony nodded like that settled something important.
“Do you know where I can eat pizza?” he asked. “It looks like this.”
He reached behind his back and pulled out a slice of pizza.
I stared at it.
He had literally taken it out of thin air.
Reality warper.
That was the only explanation that made sense.
I raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t you already have a pizza on your hand?”
Tony looked down at the slice thoughtfully.
“It doesn’t taste like anything.”
He floated closer and held the slice toward me.
“Try it.”
I shifted Ron carefully in one arm and leaned forward to take a small bite. The moment the pizza touched my tongue, I grimaced. It tasted like water. Not stale food or bad ingredients. Just water.
Tony watched my reaction closely.
“I only saw them in cartoons,” he explained. “So I don’t know how they are supposed to taste.”
He tossed the pizza slice into the air. It exploded into a small puff of smoke like a magician’s trick. I stared at the fading cloud of smoke while holding Ron close. The ridiculousness of the situation was almost surreal.
Oddly enough, a thought crossed my mind.
It might sound crazy, but leaving Ron with him might actually be the safer option.
Tony clearly had absurd levels of power, and unlike most people with that kind of ability, he didn’t seem malicious.
I looked back at him.
“I’ll get you a pizza,” I said. “But first, I have a few people I need to talk to.”
For the first time since meeting him, an emotion appeared clearly on his face.
Excitement.
Tony floated there for a moment, thinking deeply about something. Then his expression brightened as if he had just remembered a brilliant idea.
“Good,” he declared proudly. “Here’s the deal. In exchange for you feeding me new stuff, I shall help you on your quest to vanquish the evil version of yourself!”
I blinked.
“Huh?”
Now I was genuinely confused.
“Where did you hear that from?”
Tony tilted his head slightly, while trying to recall the memory.
“Some dead guy who claims he’s from the future,” he said slowly. “He wears a suit like you and has a hole in his head.”
Tony snapped his fingers when the name came back to him.
“Ah, I remember. He calls himself Sam… um… and Guesswork, I think?”