Part 3: Polygon Playplace

When we came through the next door, I noticed it had a number 2 labelled up above it on the wall. What was inside revealed a virtual world made up of floating shapes which all seemed to be connected as some sort of low poly model of a colorful playplace.

The sun out here was abnormal looking as well.

I could tell that this was going to be a strange time if we were going to be travelling through The Oddzones like this. Deep down, I hoped that The Flower Man wasn’t lying about helping us find a way out.

“So what exactly is this place?” Wata asked The Flower Man.

“It’s called The Polygon Playplace. We are here to meet a Polyian being who can tell you more about the most dangerous vacuum space of all time. We call it, The Endzone.”

“Huh, Endzone… Does that have a number or…”

“Zero.”

“Oh, okay. Why though? Shouldn’t it be the last number of whatever Oddzone exists out here?”

“The Endzone is counted as zero only because there is no number that was labelled to that space.”

Wata began to think about that and it looked like he was slowly building his trust with The Flower Man.

By the time we reached the top of the playplace (which was pretty large), we saw a low poly girl with black hair, pale white skin, and a dark purple t-shirt. She seemed to have been waiting there, hovering for a long time. Her hands were also behind her back while looking away from us.

Almost as if she was expecting us.

“New guests, meet Polyhina,” said The Flower Man as he greeted us to her.

Polyhina turned around as she lowered herself gently onto the ground.

“Wata Nozori and Ararima Haniki, I presume?”

I was shocked to learn that she knew both of our names that easily.

“Yes… How d—“

“Did I read your thoughts? It’s quite simple actually. You see, I am able to access higher levels of information throughout The Oddzones and everything under it. However, I should mention that while I am made of animated polymorphic shapes that can sense time and space past the third dimension, I was not born here.”

“You come from another world?” I asked out of curiosity.

“Earth was the name of my world. Where we all are now is an ancient wasteland that collects what is set to become non-existent and reach their true end. There are no rules as to who comes in, but rarely does anyone make it out of here in peace. To reach The Endzone is to become absolutely obsolete. Erased from every historical continuity, every memory, and every single lifecycle you’ve ever lived or died to see.”

Hearing hypothetical terms like this made me uncomfortable. All the more reason to realize how far I was away from home even.

“Well, how do we leave this place then? Maybe there’s a way to cheat through The Endzone, right? There has to be a loophole.”

Polyhina looked at me with a dead silent stare. One that I couldn’t tell if it was out of how weird it sounded or if an idea had crossed her mind.

“A rumor did reach us here, but we have yet to find the ones responsible for what happened and how they achieved it with ease.”

A rumor? What was she referring to?

“Yes. It is said that eight great guardians who protected our existence fell here. The reason is unknown, but we assumed that they were banished and separated at first. Then we got a message from another Polyian spy who says they saw both the colors of a purple and green guardian talking about someone named Styra who could help them escape. In that very same moment, the green guardian vanished out of thin air,” said The Flower Man.

Styra. That name clicked already because my friend, Cherry Brooks, also mentioned her name.

The question was, how could we get in contact with her or the purple guardian? What even were all of the guardians’ names, if they could help us?

As I told them about these specific details, I started to ask them about another thing that was bothering my mind.

“Wait so beside finding these guardians, why exactly is The Endzone so dangerous to begin with?”

The Flower Man and Polyhina stared at each other, almost as if mentioning this had just shaken them to their core.

“Agominus. The End Above All. Where The Traveller is just a man masquerading as an omnipotent monster, all things end at Agominus,” said The Flower Man.

“Hold on… What does Agominus do exactly?” inquired Wata.

“This superficially mysterious oddity infects anything it comes across. Whether alive, dead, an inanimate object, or even a deity, it devours everything that comes into contact within its range. However, we have always suspected that it can consume space and time itself. So far, it remains ever distant from us right now, but it uses The Collective to capture and completely take control over the entire continuities of something that exists. Once you join The Collective, there is nothing that can ensure you escape. Not time travel. Not magic. Nor even a miracle can save anyone from its clutches. There have been no survivors of Agominus from the stories that have surfaced here. I would advise treading lightly if you don’t plan on getting caught,” warned Polyhina.

Great. Now we had a bigger obstacle than The Traveller to watch out for. My doubts about leaving were becoming more and more convincing as the last idea I had failed us. It felt discouraging to know that we might as well have not left Candiere’s Cafe while we would be puppet-stringed along in whatever devastating stage play was being orchestrated there.

Could we ever possibly escape The Oddzones at this point?

The only answer remaining for an optimistic outlook seemed to be a slap in the face.