First Time

It didn’t take me long to realize, whenever I was in the “Ocean of the Inner World” time moved much slower. The dryads and Gnavu were moving even slower than snails their frozen expressions making me giggle a little.

But I scolded myself for not taking the situation seriously enough. It was a battle for my life so I had to fight with everything I had.

As the world was drowned in the great sea, I used all my strength to try and move in the direction of the dryads. I aimed for the white fish that were attached to their bodies and sliced them as easily as cutting cloth with scissors. The hardest point of the task was just moving in the sea. The pressure of the water was so intense that I could barely take a step without thinking I would dragged backward or crushed.

But luckily I was able to persevere and slay all the dryads in the sea. Maybe to Gnavu that whole event in a fraction of a second, but for me, it felt like ten minutes of just tirelessly walking back and forth to each of the dryads that surrounded me and cutting their fish.

The last target was Gnavu herself and despite not being a dryad she also had a white fish. Well—white fishes. A whole family of sea creatures swarmed around her body swimming around peacefully.

“That is Gnavu’s mana…”

I stomped closer and closer. Holding up the White Needle ready to slice down the Fruits of Yggdrasil. However, as I got up to Gnavu’s face, a sharp pain erupted from my chest. I gasped for air and fell to my knees. At the same time, the water had vanished and the world around me returned to normal.

All the dryads fell over and died while Gnavu stood where she was bewildered. As for me, I was on the ground choking on my own salvia as I tried to contain the immense sensation in my innards.

“W-what the fuck was that!?”

“All the dryads…y-you killed them all?”

Gnavu stated in a whisper.

“A Null like you?”

“Turns out I’m not a Null bitch—ARGH! THE FUCK IS GOING ON WITH MY CHEST!?”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU ARE NOT A NULL MY FRIEND?!”

Hearing that obnoxious voice over the horizon caused my anger to skyrocket. I snarled as I turned my head to see Ojorr fly towards us, completely ignoring the dead dryads and moving over to me with his greatsword in hand.

“What do you mean you are not a Null?” Ojorr repeated. “Honestly it doesn’t matter to me whether you are one or not you are still Baxter Ale! My great friend who always makes a battle entertaining!”

“Screw you and yes, turns out I CAN use magic! I used some weird spell to kill all your ex’s dryads!”

“Really? Is that true Gnavu?”

Gnavu shook her head violently.

“No! W-well I mean it’s true that he killed all the dryads but what he did wasn’t magic! I’m not sure what that was but…”

“The fuck you mean it wasn’t magic!?” I screamed angrily. “What else would you call that!?”

“What the…?”

“B-Baxter!!”

“Huh? What? Why are you guys looking at me like that?”

The two gargoyles were staring down at me with frightened eyes and backed away as if I had some sort of disease.

“M-my friend,” Ojorr stuttered. “How do you feel?”

“I feel like shit thank you for asking.”

“Huh…well you look like shit too.”

“What do you mean by—“

My eyes then traveled to my hands and I noticed something strange. They were covered in wrinkles and looked even more dried out than a raisin.

“M-my hands! W-what the fuck!?”

I stood up, which turned out to be a chore since my legs felt like they could snap like twigs. I wobbled over to a puddle and then looked at myself in the reflection.

My youthful appearance was gone and my face resembled that of an eighty-year-old man. My hair was gray and messy like a dust ball and my eyes were bloodshot and lifeless.

“H-how…Gnavu what did you do to me?!”

Gnavu replied, “I-I didn’t do anything! This was not my work!”

“Bullshit! This has to be the work of your time magic! You messed with my time and turned me into an old man!”

“Baxter! I promise you I didn’t do that! I don’t have the power to do that anyone! Whatever is happening to is—“

“ARGH! WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING TO ME!!”

The pain in my chest became so unbearable that I instantly fell over. My head landed inside the puddle and I began to gradually drown within it.

‘So…this is how I die…’

I said to myself while sighing in despair.

‘Turning old and drowning in a puddle…this is so pathetic…’

“Well done Baxter.”

“Huh?”

The sound of Aeron’s calm voice called out to me like a song.

“You have finally mastered zen…now we can talk…”

I failed to respond to the blindfolded priest as I let out a loud yawn which allowed the water to enter my mouth and choke. As soon as that happened I started to lose consciousness as the puddle was beginning to win over my life.