Limbo Part-2

March 11

The familiar glitch occurred, breaking up the space around me, and I emerged from the deep darkness of space-time into the familiar room I had seen every day for the previous five years.

It was my own place. I entered my apartment, which will shortly be destroyed by the same guy who is currently impeding it. Looking around, I came to the perfectly organized living room.

Nothing was out of place except for the trail of blood on the floor, which was from the carving he made on his own body stating 'DEATH IS COMING' after being driven insane by Limbo.

After a few more twists, I noticed the familiar noose and the window ornament it was hung to, but this time from a different angle; beneath the noose was a small chair on which a specific man stood, trying to fit his neck into the noose.

I didn't try to hide my presence, but the man in front of me was simply too insane to notice or care about it. It's unfortunate that we restored this man's sanity, but it was also necessary for me to arrive here.

As he took some time to remove the chair, his neck was precisely fit into the noose, as if that crazed mind started thinking for a moment, but this one second of contemplation is what I'm here to eradicate.

I kicked the chair in the back, allowing him to choke to death. I saw him die in agony as he tried to scream, but all I heard were garbled voices from all the stitches he'd sewn into his own face.

Around this time, Limbo will kill me on the subway, and my memories will follow the multiverse's branching course, inheriting the body of the already mad David.

My memories would have been fused with his as a result of his moment of reflection, erasing my sanity, and I was here to cause the blunder in Limbo's plan.

I watched David writhe in pain, his body writhing about until it stopped. The corpse became limp, indicating his death, but not barely a second later, the body jolted up.

I realized this was my own consciousness of the past, so I teleported out of that apartment before my prior self-noticed anything strange.

"300 years prior?" Limbo's face was surprised as he assumed a pondering position, although it was more of a parody than a surprise.

As soon as he finished his speech, the machine in the very center of the structure whrilled, emitting a low hum and lighting up the dimly illuminated space.

I could hear wind outside the base; it was the storm that had engulfed this structure. This machine was built to channel that storm and trap Me and Limbo here, while the real machine would be utilized to fix the glitch existing 326 years ago.

Simply put, I am the bait in this situation.

Hm," Limbo said, looking at the machine, which was set to start automatically, with a blank expression. Suddenly, a glitch engulfed Limbo's entire body, and I could see his slightly surprised expression through the corner of my eyes. Because of the glitch, Limbo's connection to the outer world was severed. He is truly entrapped.

But that surprise quickly evolved into a nasty smile.

"Aren't you relying on a mere immortal way too much to fix the glitch?" I gripped my severed arm, breathing heavily.

My eyes widened slightly, but I kept my expression neutral.

So, he's aware of him? What else does he know about us? Most importantly, who is he? This was a question that had always bothered me, but I had never received an answer until now. I gave it another shot because Limbo seemed to be in a more bean-pouring mood.

"Who..."

"Hate to break it to you." He cut me off mid-sentence: "I have already killed him."

Huh

This time I couldn't hide my surprised expression. His statement was way too sudden, but soon enough, my expression turned normal once I remembered how his immortality works.

That's impossible; he can only die if he perceives himself as dead.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking." Limbo stared at me. He had an expressionless face, but his aura was different than usual.

"You're thinking Aiden can't die unless he knows what death is like, so I did just that. I showed him what death is like."

I raised an eyebrow in confusion; my mouth was slightly agape, and the expression of confusion and surprise was clearly visible. I was so surprised that even the pain in my arm disappeared.

"The same way I showed what's death is to your buddy David that you killed,"

This was unbelievable, but at this point, anything is possible with this glitch. The dots connected in my mind.

Limbo has the ability to inject the feeling of death in others; the moment he did that to Aiden, he was able to perceive himself as dead and instantly died, while David turned insane and killed himself.

The more I thought about it, the more surprised I got. I raised my head, looking straight into Limbo's eyes as I asked.

"Are you..."

"No, I am not Death," Limbo said with a blank expression.

He cut me off mid-sentence again, but he also answered my curiosity. But if he is not dead, then what is he?

"Well, I am not 'Death' Death. It is just you who is dead."

"huh?" I blurted out that weird response.

"This is the problem with third-world universes. You have to explain everything in simple terms to them." Limbo lampooned.

It was unusual to see him like this, but his aura was constantly changing. He suddenly looked at me with a serious expression.

"At this moment, you are aware that there are various universes with different laws. Some laws of physics of this universe might not exist in a different universe, but do you know there's one law that is common in every single universe?"

I know which law that is, but I didn't dare speak. I couldn't speak in his presence.

"Death." He paused for a moment.

"Everything is destined to die, so new life could be born anew, but this glitch messed it up, and the multiverse is trying to correct that by resetting it, and I am merely obeying the will of the multiverse."

Limbo was serious; he wasn't joking around this time, but...

"But why...?"

His expression turned into one of disappointment.

"Even after all that, you still don't get it."

He stepped a bit closer and stepped on my knee.

"Argh"

My sense of pain was brought back as I looked at him with bloodshot eyes while he didn't care about it and continued his explanation.

"See here, Freddy. That immortal was created thousands of years ago, and that led to a domino effect that resulted in the glitch, but the glitch itself is just 8 days old. Before the glitch started, there were many versions of you who lived a normal life and died a normal life until the glitch removed the concept of death for you all and made you into drifters. For the multiverse, the existence of you drifters disobeys the fundamental law of death."

He paused for a moment.

"The multiverse gave rise to me, an amalgamation of all the different consciousnesses of you who died normally."

Limbo removed his foot from my knee while the storm outside was shrinking. The machine was reaching its limit, and slowly the storm was destroying the house.

Limbo seemed unfazed by all this as he continued.

"In simple terms, my job is to let the reset happen while stopping your deathless parasites."
He grabbed me by the collar and brought me to his eye level.

"So who am I, you ask?"

His face was bright due to the storm just behind me. I could see all the details on his face, but the more I stared at him, the more unknown he seemed.

"I am you who failed."

My breathing became heavy while my body started decelerating due to the storm channeled by the machine collapsing.

"And soon you will join me, Freddy."

I knew this was the point where he would inject his memories into me—the memories of death that would turn me insane. I will end up being another David. Even if Aiden is really dead, it would still be better to die normally and start everything again in a different universe than become a pawn of Limbo.

"Ha"

I let out a small laugh as I stared straight into Limbo's pitch-black eyes. The more I stared, the more fearful I became, but I had to swallow that fear. The storm was engulfing us, turning my vision white. I couldn't see Limbo's face properly, but I uttered one last sentence before I met my inevitable demise.

"At least I tried."