"...Phew," Blimpo caught up, wiping the sweat from his forehead before looking up, "Ah, a settlement."
"A settlement? For people?" He asked for clarification.
"Yup! It's honestly rare for a lot of people to meet up in the After–despite it holding, well, everything that's ever died, the After is just way too freakin' huge. I heard you can sometimes go decades marching in one direction without finding another soul," Blimpo informed him.
"Thanks for the trivia," he sarcastically said, though thankful for the information.
There was an atmosphere to the area that didn't settle nicely with him; the people that occupied the settlement of humongous trees all moved around as if dragging their feet, unresponsive to one another and hardly reacting to the existence of the young man.
"Hey–"
He tried talking to a few of the occupants of the afterlife realm, though was completely ignored as the vacant-eyed people simply shuffled by.
Blimpo stood beside him, "That's the After for you."
"What do you mean?"
"You and me, well we're rare cases here," Blimpo explained, "For the most part…People that come here turn out like this; the bleak atmosphere of it all wears them down until they just become husks."
Seeing the reality of the After, and the effect it would certainly have if he was stuck there for any long length of time, it was saddening; the people that shuffled by were silent, not making a single sound.
"What do they do? I mean, what is there to do?" He asked, walking through the lifeless settlement.
Blimpo walked alongside him, "You'll usually have your own "task"--something to keep you distracted for eternity. I was a part of a settlement like this for a bit, but I left for…Well, you can see why I left. Just not my style."
It wasn't a difficult thing to see why one would abandon such a community; even as he walked through the moving crowd, they completely walked around him as if naturally avoiding the young man.
It's like a colony of ants…A hive mind just silently and dutifully carrying out their jobs. This is death? Count me out, he thought.
"Got a question for you, 'Milio," Blimpo suddenly announced.
"Yeah?"
"You said we just needed to move forward for now…but, what's this all about?" Blimpo asked.
The source of the question came from where the elven man was looking; there was an split section in the center of the quiet, but bustling settlement, leading to four different directions, though none were "forward" from where they arrived.
"...Good question," he said, looking around.
It wasn't exactly clear where he was supposed to go as the leftmost direction between the colossal trees seemed to lead into some sort of massive cave; the rightmost went into a chasm that looked to be a mining location, as occupants of the settlement came-and-went with pickaxes.
The map that was embedded into his mind of where the Quandary Pass was located was only just that; it was limited only to the later half of his path, not the beginning half.
"Flip a coin?" Blimpo half jokingly, half seriously suggested.
He placed his hand atop his ivory eyepatch, "No…I can figure out which way to go."
"Hey, it's still too soon to try that, isn't it? Even the Progenitor said it was still unstable. I don't know what's in that right eye of yours…but it might be best to keep the eyepatch on," Blimpo said nervously.
"I can handle it," Emilio assured.
"We can try asking around–I mean, with enough pestering, even the guys around here will talk," Blimpo said.
Even as the denizens of the settlement walked around them, keeping their heads down with that lifeless look in their eyes, their presence was hardly registered by their silent and empty demeanor.
He shook his head, "Adam made it clear that this mission has to stay under wraps. The more we talk, the more likely it is we'll draw the eyes of the other Primordials. This is on us."
"Right…I can't argue with that, but just be careful," Blimpo gulped.
There was a hesitation deeply lodged into his heart, perhaps a fear deep enough that it was etched even into his soul; the authority laying within his covered eye was something that surpassed his comprehension.
Taking in a long breath into his lungs, he slowly exhaled as he removed the eyepatch that covered his right. In that moment, he kept the one thing he wanted to find out most before his gaze at the top of his mind:
Which path leads to Quandary Pass? He questioned.
–Just as his blackened eye was uncovered, it strained, feeling as though it tightened and condensed with a squeezing pain.
"Ghh…!"
Perception of reality augmented itself as he peered through his bestowed eye; everything became a "skeletal" version of itself; walls, floors, people, and even the air. It was all broken down and able to be understood as the hue of the cosmos filled his sight.
Show me…! He demanded.
A sublime light sparked itself into the air before him, extending out and stretching to the right, pointing directly to the chasm where the miners came and went.
Though he found his answer, he found the strain of peering into the truth of the cosmos bringing him to his knees, unable to move his hands as he was engulfed in the wealth of knowledge before him.
Everything…I can see it all. Nothing hides from this eye–it's too much…! He thought.
"Emilio!"
–The intoxicating, yet binding view was swept away as he was snapped back into focus, gasping for air as he found his elven friend placing the eyepatch back over his right eye.
"...Thanks," he said, accepting Blimpo's hand as he stood back up.
"I expected as much…Even a small sliver of a Primordial's power is way beyond mortals like us. Please don't rely on that too much," Blimpo worriedly requested.
For a moment, he had to adjust to the sudden whiplash of returning to normal vision after seeing the very blueprint of reality. It was only a few seconds, but that equated to hours off of his lifespan.
Four seconds…That's four hours gone. I have to be careful, he thought.
"Yeah. I'll try not to," he nodded before turning to face the road to the chasm, "...Anyway, it showed me our path. We're going down there."
"Alright, I'm game," Blimpo followed.
It seemed a large number of those that lived in the dreary settlement worked in the enigmatic chasm, covered in black spots and carrying rusty, heavily-damaged pickaxes in-and-out. Some transported whatever materials seemed to be down there–coal and black gems.
Such a concept struck Emilio as odd as he walked past the miners, who didn't so much as blink as they shuffled along.
"Who's demanding all of this stuff, anyway? I mean, what does anybody want coal for when they're already dead? No offense," he asked.
Blimpo chuckled, "None taken. The thing is, you might still be looking at the After in the wrong way–I mean that there's still some form of "living" even here, yeah?"
"I guess so."
"Even if most people end up like those you see in this settlement, there are plenty like you and me with unbreakable spirits–still passionately burning with motivation even in death," Blimpo told him, "Those sorts of people end up ruling settlements and creating tasks to put these dreadful souls to work."
"Isn't that kind of slave labor?" He asked.
"Ha-ha, there's nothing as convenient as laws down here, so call it what you want," Blimpo laughed.
Approaching the entrance to the chasm, the way down came from multiple sets of large, wood-and-steel elevators that worked off of rickety mechanisms that hardly seemed stable. It was definitely not something he felt confident in trusting, though there wasn't much of a choice as he and the elf waited until one of the croaking elevators rose to the top.
A pair of miners pushed out wheelbarrows of coal, leaving the two travelers to board the elevator as it creaked with the weight of their steps.
"Err…" He felt queasy just standing on the unstable transportation.
Within a moment, the wooden railings closed with a rusty mechanism before the elevator began its descent into the chasm.
A single glance over the side made his stomach spin as all he could see below was total darkness, traveling directly down into such ominous depths.
"Who builds all of this?" He audibly wondered.
"Hard to say exactly," Blimpo told him, "Could be the souls in this settlement, or this stuff could've ended up here from a forgotten world. The After is a graveyard for everything–no expectations."
"Seems like it."
The slow descent was just that–slow; an unnerving ride as the elevator continuously made small growls in its rusty mechanisms. Even though it felt less than reliable, the elven tinkerer didn't seem to have an ounce of worry in his body as he leaned against the elevator with an easygoing smile.
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