Chapter 44: What Is Life??? (1)

Chapter 44

Orion was just one inch away from selecting the golden orb when something rang out heavily, shattering the silence that had filled the white space.

The sound was sudden and unexpected, reverberating through the boundless emptiness with a weight that seemed to reach far beyond the physical world.

Orion’s smile froze.

His body trembled once, almost instinctively, before his gaze slowly descended. His eyes moved downward, eventually landing directly on the locket that Dwaine had entrusted to him.

The moment Orion’s eyes settled on the small object, the light in his gaze dimmed.

Something stirred deep within his mind.

A face... the face of someone he had almost completely forgotten, appeared in the depths of his memories. Alongside it came another image, another fragment of the distant past that he had long since buried beneath the countless experiences, trials, and sufferings he had endured.

A memory from a long, long, long time ago...

---

Orion stumbled to the ground alongside Dwaine.

They had just crossed another terrifying trial, one so unimaginably brutal that it would have made hell look like a good restroom in comparison.

The two collapsed side by side, their battered bodies sprawled across the floor as they waited for the restoration effect of their current floor to activate and begin healing their injuries.

For a while, neither of them spoke.

There was only silence.

Above them stretched an endless galaxy, its countless stars scattered across the vast darkness like an infinite sea of distant lights. It was a breathtaking sight, one that might have inspired wonder and admiration under different circumstances.

But after everything they had endured, neither Orion nor Dwaine had the energy to appreciate its beauty.

Orion’s gaze remained dim, his eyes reflecting the exhaustion that had settled deep into his bones.

They had only crossed the sixtieth trial.

The sixtieth.

And yet, he had already suffered more than many people would experience throughout their entire lives. Perhaps even more than countless individuals of his generation would ever have to endure combined.

Every trial had taken something from him.

His strength, endurance and even his patience.

Sometimes, even his will to continue.

There had been moments when the pain was so overwhelming that he could barely remember what it felt like to be free from suffering. Moments when the only thing keeping him moving forward was the knowledge that stopping would mean allowing everything he had endured to become meaningless.

And the worst part?

They had not even reached the end.

There were still more trials waiting for them, each one promising horrors that might make everything they had experienced so far seem insignificant.

Orion sighed.

His eyes remained fixed on the endless galaxy above him, his thoughts drifting somewhere far beyond the stars.

"I wish all this could end..."

His voice was quiet, almost a whisper, as though he were afraid that speaking the words aloud might somehow make his exhaustion even more real.

"I wish to be in a world of peace... a world where there is no suffering, no bitterness, and no struggle."

He paused.

The words had come from somewhere deep within him, from a place that had grown tired of constantly fighting, constantly enduring, and constantly pushing forward despite the pain.

For once, he wanted something simple.

A world where he could breathe without worrying about what awaited him around the next corner.

A world where he could exist without having to fight for every little thing.

A world where peace was not a temporary luxury purchased through blood and suffering, but something that simply existed.

By then, the restoration effect had finished its work.

Orion’s body was completely healed, every injury that had once threatened to tear him apart now nothing more than a distant memory. Yet, even with his physical condition restored, the exhaustion within his mind remained.

He slowly sat up and raised one hand before his face.

Only moments ago, that same hand had been little more than ashen bone, its flesh completely destroyed by the brutality of the previous trial.

Now, it was perfectly intact.

His fingers moved slightly as he examined them, almost as though he were confirming that they truly belonged to him.

After a moment, he turned his head toward Dwaine.

"What do you think, pal?" Orion asked, a faint smile appearing on his face. "Wouldn’t that kind of world be the best?"

Dwaine remained lying on the ground.

His expression was calm, although his blue eyes had dimmed slightly. The last trial had taken a tremendous toll on him, just as the one before it had, and even someone like him could not completely escape the exhaustion that came with enduring such horrors.

For a while, he said nothing.

He simply stared at the galaxy above them, his expression unreadable.

Orion waited.

He did not particularly expect an immediate answer. After all, they had both just emerged from another nightmare, and Dwaine was probably just as exhausted as he was.

However, after a short silence, Dwaine suddenly smiled and shook his head.

"Yes. A world without any suffering or struggle sounds nice."

His tone was relaxed, almost amused.

"It sounds cool and all. It sounds like the perfect heaven."

He paused briefly before continuing.

"On paper, at least, that sounds really nice. A world where hunger doesn’t exist. Where there are no poor people, no failures, no death, no fears... and every desire can be fulfilled with nothing more than a thought."

A faint smile remained on his face.

"That might look like heaven. A peaceful reality where everyone can have everything they have ever wanted without having to suffer for it."

Then his expression changed slightly.

"But in reality?"

He turned his head toward Orion.

"That isn’t heaven."

His blue eyes met Orion’s grey ones.

"That is hell."

Orion frowned.

For a moment, he simply stared at his companion, trying to understand the meaning behind those words.

His thoughts had not fully settled yet. His mind was still sluggish from the exhaustion of the previous trial, and the idea he had just expressed was still taking shape within him.

Nevertheless, his current mental capacity was more than enough to grasp the weight of Dwaine’s statement.

Hell?

Why would he call such a world hell?

A world without suffering, bitterness, struggle, or fear...

A world where everyone could live peacefully and obtain whatever they desired.

How could that possibly be hell?

Seeing the confusion on Orion’s face, Dwaine merely smiled before calmly explaining himself.

"The hell I’m talking about isn’t the hell of flames and blood described in ancient books or anything like that."

His voice remained gentle, carrying none of the intensity one might expect from someone discussing such a grim subject.

"It is a quieter hell."

He looked back at the galaxy above them.

"A hell where the body is alive, but the soul has nothing left to reach for. A world where you can continue breathing, walking, talking, and existing... yet, somewhere deep inside, the very thing that makes you feel alive has already died."

He paused, allowing his words to settle.

"A world where the soul is literally dead."

His gaze returned to Orion.

"Do you understand?"

Orion’s gaze flickered.

He was beginning to catch on.

Some of Dwaine’s words were already making sense, and he could feel the vague outline of an answer forming somewhere in his mind.

However, he still had not fully grasped the meaning behind the explanation.

Seeing this, Dwaine continued.

"We humans were never meant to simply exist."

There was no hesitation in his voice.

"We are creatures that strive. We look at what we have and wonder what lies beyond it. We stand at the bottom of a mountain and desire to see what lies at its peak."

His eyes reflected the distant starlight as he spoke.

"We fall. We bleed. We fail. And somehow, despite everything, we stand right back up."

A small smile appeared on his face.

"That struggle... that constant desire to strive for something beyond ourselves... that is what makes us human in the first place."

He allowed the words to linger for a moment before continuing.

"Tell me, Orion. What meaning would courage have in a world where there is nothing to fear?"

Orion remained silent.

"What meaning would strength have in a world where nothing could hurt you? What meaning would perseverance have in a world where nothing ever stood in your way?"

Dwaine’s voice remained calm, but each question seemed to carry more weight than the last.

"And what meaning would victory have if there were no possibility of you ever losing?"

He shook his head slightly.

"Think about it. A world where you can have everything you could ever desire sounds wonderful. Great, even. But have humans ever truly treasured something that cost them absolutely nothing to obtain?"

He did not wait for Orion to answer.

"Food only tastes truly satisfying when you have known hunger. Warmth feels different when you have experienced the cold. Rest feels different when you have known exhaustion and hardship."

His gaze softened slightly.

"And victory only means something because you remember the feeling of defeat."

The galaxy above them continued to shine, its countless stars illuminating the space around the two exhausted figures.

Yet Orion was no longer looking at them.

His attention was entirely focused on Dwaine.

"If every desire is fulfilled before we even learn how to desire, then what happens to us? What happens to our emotions? What happens to everything that makes us who we are?"

Dwaine’s expression grew more serious.

"Eventually, everything would vanish."

He spoke slowly, making certain that Orion understood every word.

"Nothing would feel precious anymore. Nothing would feel special. Everything would become ordinary, and in the end, everything would become utterly and completely meaningless."