Chapter 2: The Unknown Realm Of Lost Souls (Part 1)
Translator: Park Nambyul
Part 1.

A sharp voice of pen scribbling was coming from a room – one was fast like someone mindlessly writing anything, and another one was like someone was very focused to write whatever they were writing – the sound was coming from a room, from a big room, no, it was huge -it was bigger even when a hundred elephants were to store in there- so large that people would think it was a hall but it was just a room if one saw those windows over all six walls of the room they’ll understand – ten feet in width and twenty feet in height, the windows were glimmering because of the pale sunlight coming through them.

The whole room was painted with gold, real gold, walls were engraved with uncountable gemstones, attractive flower designs were in every corner of the room, it was something out of fairy tales, even the ceiling had precious gems and painting all over it, a big beautiful chandelier which was hanging down from the roof had many valuable decorative accessories decorating it, everything was over the top and overwhelming in the room, not only the richness of it but also the spiritual aura in the room was very powerful.

Still, the most eye-catching thing in the room wasn’t all of those gold and glittering things rather it was thousands of books and paper spreading and piled up over the porcelain floor and the two golden desks which were surrounded by many documents, those books and documents were blocking the way so one couldn’t see who was sitting behind those books. New and ancient books, documents and paper which were made of dried leaves were everywhere. The entire room was filled with the fragrance of the books, it was very soothing.

“Argh!!! Fuck! I hate the gods. How can they give this much work to a child”, a voice came from behind the piled up books on the desk, a bit high pitched voice it appeared to be a teenager’s voice, it was full of complaint and rebellious kind of voice which confirmed that it was the voice of a sixteen or seventeen years old boy.

“Everyone else is playing outside so why am I the only one stuck here?!”, the teenager was a fairly handsome guy, he was dressed in light green and white clothes which were complimenting him, his silky black hair which was touching his half-back was tied in a ponytail with a black ribbon, one small portion of his hair was braided on the left side with a white stone, fair skin like milk, big eyes exploding with pride and a face with hatred for everyone, three petals of lotus were drawn between his eyebrows, his lips were like a pink rose.

“Shut up and do your work properly”, a little mature voice of a male came from the other desk. The person calmly said while writing down in his document, he was focusing on his book. The man was like the vermillion sky in the evening, because he was very handsomely dressed in crimson attire. The clothes were beautified with several golden flowers, it was making his white pearl-like skin shine drastically, his opened black hair was even below than his broad back – hiding his whole back beneath it, his features were very keen, he had small but glittering eyes, his light red lips were smiling while murmuring the words he was writing, the calm and soothing aura was all around him, everything about him was cool and eye-pleasing, “It’s your punishment for playing with human girls when you supposed to attend your classes.”

“So what?! It’s my time to have some fun and don’t forget I’m just seventeen hundred years old. I’m one of the youngest disciples here”, he pouted. “How can you senior gods think that I will dig my head in those stupid books instead of having the fun of my youth!”

“Smack”, The older one hit him on the head.

“Ouch!! Hey, why did you hit me?!”, the kid complained rubbing his head.

“Know your place and where are your manners? You cannot talk to me – your senior – like that.”

“I hate the gods and I hate you the most!” The brat slowly pushed his chair away from the desk, and silently tried to sneak out from the room.

“We gods don’t love you either, Samay”, the senior smiled. “And don’t even think to leave this room before you finish your work”, the man said while writing in his documents. But the guy still tried to sneak out, when he just made his first step towards the exit the man came and grabbed him by his left ear to drag him back to his desk. He held his shoulders and pushed him down on the chair, “Sit down and do your work properly, understand.”

Samay pouted again, “I don’t want to do it! Do you even know how much data of lost souls I have to rearrange and check?!”

“Just some fifteen thousand souls”, the senior smiled, “I know you can do this much work without even feeling tired because you are–

“Huh? Hey! Senior God did you hear the noise?!”, the kid cut the god’s sentence in between. The brat tried to hear the sound again, he glanced around to see but there was nothing except books.

– Boom, thud, thud, thud…..

Those piled up books and all documents suddenly fell down straight over them, every book and documents were on the floor and those two were crushed by them.

“Stupid brat! It’s all your fault!”, he nagged again even when they were stuck in that ocean of books.

“My? Fuck you? I even warned you but you were busy lecturing me.”

The senior God again hit him on his head, the hit wasn’t that light but also not that hard, yet it still can hurt someone for a while, “You definitely don’t know what manners are! Next time do not even think about insulting me.”

The kid covered the back of his head where it was still hurting because of that first hit, “Ow!!” who gave you the right to hit me like that? Screw you!”

“You!!–

The senior was going to hit him again but he stopped when he heard the sound of someone knocking the door.

“Knock-knock”

“Your Highness, can I come in, you see, it’s an important matter.”

“Who is it? Come in but be care–”

“Thud”

The person was on the floor because he hastily entered the room without noticing the books and documents over the floor.

“Hahahahah!! Do you have your eyes only for Decoration?”, the kid joked while making the way out from that “sea”.

“I apologize for my — Ouch!!!”

“IT’S AN EMERGENCY SENIOR SVAPN!”, another person passed the entrance, unknowing that he walked over someone by mistake, heavily breathing like he ran to come here, he was anxious and in a hurry, “Sorry for my rudeness but The King and Chief Minister wants to see Prime Minister immediately.”

The other servant who was on the floor stood up on his own and came inside as well.

“Understood, I’m coming, you go and inform them.” Head still down in front of the Prime Minister, the messenger spoke again, “Sorry Prime Minister Svapn but The king ordered me to fetch you with me right now, so you have to come with me.”

He sighed, “Okay! Let’s go but first, help me,” Svapn stretched out his hand.

“Oh! Of course Prime Minister”, the person gave his hand to pull Svapn out of the mess.

The Prime Minister was on his legs again, he thanked the messenger and gently smiled at him.

“It’s my honor to be able to help Prime Minister”, the servant joined his hands and shook his head in respect.

“Please, take me where our King and the Chief Minister is.”

“Yes!”

Svapn was about to leave when he remembered something, so he turned back only to see the kid who was still stuck in between those books. He reached out his hand for Samay to hold, “Let me help you, kid.”

The kid shook his hand away and wobbly stand on his own, “I don’t need your help.”

Prime Minister didn’t mind the arrogant kid at all instead he smiled a little, “Fine by me, still, you have to finish your work before I come back or I will triple your punishment, got it?!”

“No way! You can’t do that” He complained.

“I can and I will if you won’t make use of yourself” He glared at him with a bit of anger in his eyes.

“Okay! Okay! Fine… Just don’t get angry!”, Samay hesitantly laughed because he knew what misfortune can fall upon him if he dared not to listen to Svapn this time.

Svapn moved towards the exit elegantly, his red-silky clothes flapped in the air after him. He left the room with the other person, his steps were fast, not mindless. While walking he asked the messenger if he knew what was the matter but how can a mere servant know something important?

Not getting any useful answer, he didn’t ask any further and silently walked until the door of where The Emperor and Chief Minister would be present – showed up. A big door made of gold and engraved with stones over it was stood ahead of him, he knocked twice and after he got the permission to enter he stepped inside. Facing the servant who was outside, he thanked him again and closed the entrance by himself.

Svapn turned, “My Lord! I am here”, he lightly bent his head with courtesy.

There were two people standing in the room. One had calm and prideful air around him and the other one had a cheerful and bubbly aura surrounding him.

The person with calm air had a peaceful dim smile on his lips seeing Svapn there, white clothes covering his little brown but the shining body, having his both ears pierced and long side bangs on both sides falling to his chest, the long attractive sword was hanging over his waist while his hands were closed behind his back, holding his head high which was looking more higher because of his crown, the crown was bigger than the rest two, so it was clear that this person must be the Emperor.

Equally, handsome man was beside the Emperor. Just by a glance on him, anyone could tell that he had a bright, cheerful and bubbly personality, his clothes were as bright & beautiful as his persona – the yellow sun-like clothes had black embroidery over it, his sparkling eyes were like of a child, shoulder-length hair of his was loosely half tied with a long yellow ribbon, a small yellow half-moon was on his forehead making his face stunning, he was wearing a black pearl on his right ear.

The two being turned when they heard the familiar voice, the Emperor welcomed him with a light smile, “Thank you for coming Prime Minister Svapn.”

“Please, My Lord! don’t embarrass me by saying thanks, I am not worthy for it”, Svapn politely said with a smile.

“How are you, Senior Svapn?!” The other person asked with a bright smile.

“Oh! Hello, Chief Minister Sidharth. I am fine like always.” Prime Minister replied. He continued, “Please tell me why you asked for me this urgently?”

“I wanted to see you because of this – “, the King showed him a person, a male. The person was sitting straight on the chair with closed eyes – it was as if he was dead, filthy and ripped clothes were barely wrapping his wounded body.

Svapn went close to the person and spoke while examining him. “What’s with him? It is just a human soul, isn’t it?!” He stretched out his hand to open the person’s eyes, “No!! Th-there is something wrong with this soul!” He faced the two individuals in a little shock, “It’s like his mind and heart are missing from this soul!!”

“Indeed! That’s the case!”, the king said and smiled lightly. “But not just his heart and mind. His memories are also sealed inside of him.”

“As expected from the Prime Minister!”, Chief Minister praised with an optimistic voice. “You are very powerful and intelligent. Without us telling, you already found the problem just by examining the soul.”

“Hehe, please! Do not exaggerate it”, He declined the praise. Glancing at the soul he asked, “So, what can we do? It’s not that difficult to find the spiritual mind and heart of his, is it?”, Svapn touched the forehead of the soul, “I don’t know! I can’t say! But there is something very wrong with this soul!!” He looked at those two men in worry.

“This soul is really very powerful”, the Emperor walked closer to the sitting soul. “The problem is that this soul doesn’t have his memories of any of his lives. You understand that it’s even worse than being dead because it’s not usual for souls to separate from their memories and memories are the life resource of souls. One can– ”

“-One can not reborn and they’ll wander for eternity in the whole universe, they will never gonna find peace for all eternity. It had been wandering with knowing nothing about himself and noticing anything around him,” Chief Minister glanced at the soul and spoke again, “It’s like he must have been killed by the body-soul cutting technique!”

“But if he was killed by that then he wouldn’t be here because… that killing technique also murders the soul with the body. Confirm that the person will die and never be reborn again! Right?! Svapn doubted.

The King sighed. “This is the reason for calling you here, Prime Minister Svapn”, he gently patted on Svapn’s left shoulder. “You are the God of Dreams and Memories. You can rearrange, add, and delete anyone’s dreams and memories, am I right?!”

“You are absolutely right, Your Highness”. Svapn stated.

“If you could find his lost memories then, only then we have some hope to find his mind and heart. Also, the reason why he was killed and his real identity,” Svapn attentively listened to the Emperor as he spoke. He looked at both of the two who were in front of him explaining the situation.

“But if this soul is here without its memories, heart, and mind then it means the killing technique used to kill him was done by an immature cultivator who wasn’t that highly skilled to perform such difficult technique properly! Right?” Svapn added.

“You are correct but that immature cultivator wasn’t that low skilled either if they used this skill”, Emperor sighed. “If they knew about this technique then they must be a promising cultivator. Still, they didn’t precisely do it. I think they made a mistake at collecting the dust of the body, they surely forgot about gathering every single particle of the dust of this person before throwing him into the Narak Dvaar.”

Svapn and Sidharth thoughtfully glanced at each other, then again shifted their eyes at the Emperor. Svapn commented, “Now I remember that the body-soul cutting technique is one of the most difficult techniques to master and use to kill. One has to be extremely exceptional to perform it with no errors. And if my memories aren’t wrong, only four people in this whole world can do it without making any mistake, and they are; the Emperor of All Hell, The former Ruler of the Demon World, Aprasth The Creator of this body-soul cutting technique and… Our Chief Minister Sidharth The Green Waterfall Master! Right Chief Minister?!”, Svapn looked at Sidharth for conformation.

“Yes, that’s me.” the Chief Minister answered him with a serious tone mixing in his voice which was completely different than his optimistic and cheerful nature.

“So, if you could please do something”, the Emperor directed his left hand in the direction of the soul.

“Yes!”, with a quick nod Svapn moved to that soul’s front. He put his hand on the head of the soul, “I apologize, my friend, for entering into you but finding your memories are important to find your mind and heart”, he closed his eyes.

A few minutes later, Prime Minister finally spoke after standing there with closed eyes, “Your Highness! There is something wrong and different inside this soul.”

“What is it?”, with a troubled expression the Emperor asked.

“It’s… It’s grey from inside. I have never seen this color before inside any soul, it should be any brighter or darker color but not grey”. Svapn uttered.

“Huh? It’s grey!? But how that can be possible?”, Chief Minister looked at the Emperor, “Do you know anything about this, Your Highness?”

“Unfortunately I am also unaware as to how can anyone’s soul be grey. The color of any soul from inside is always based on their most real nature. The darker the color is the darker the personality will be and the brighter the color is the brighter the personality will be.”

“Majesty!” Svapn called.

“yes, what happened?”, the Chief Minister glanced at Svapn who was standing there.

Svapn has opened his eyes, ” Your Highness I have completed my job. He will open his eyes at any moment.”

“So, his memories will come back with his heart and mind?”, Sidharth questioned.

“They will come as well because memories can control the heart and mind of a person. His memories which were concealed inside of him has awakened by me. His memories will work like a magnet to attract the heart and mind of his, they’ll come here no matter wherever they are right now”, Svapn explained.

While those three were still talking, the soul abruptly screamed, “Ugh… Argh… Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”, it was an ear-piercing scream with pain, sorrow, and despair coating it.

Blocking the soul and other’s way with a left stretched hand. Emperor spoke, “Stay away from him for now. The soul has finally found his memories and everything else after many years, so everything is just trying to settle down inside of him. That’s why he is in pain, he’ll be fine in a few seconds. Let’s just wait.” The King said and sighed.

The soul was screaming in agony, hands covering his ears tightly and shutting his eyes, the soul was suffering. The other three were just watching him in disquietness and a little fear in their eyes. They could not do anything to help the soul, so they were just waiting for it to calm down.

“Woah! This soul is fierce. Should we do the soul-calming ceremony, Your Highness?”, watching the soul lose its control, Chief Minister suggested.

“No! We can’t, this soul has been through a lot of torture before dying. It was wandering for so many years without any memories of that horrible past and now when those memories have finally returned in him, they are giving him this unbearable pain.” the King replied.

Uneasiness was all over Sidharth’s face because he couldn’t bear to watch someone suffering in front of him, not doing anything to help. He just stepped ahead when the King stopped him from behind, grabbing his shoulder. “Don’t move, right now we must not do anything reckless.”

“Hmm”, Sidharth nodded.

The soul was squeaking in agony and pain. The tears of it were streaming down from his eyes, covering his own ears. And eventually, after a long while, it calmed down. It was sitting unmoved like it was frozen. His eyes were shut but the tears and sweat were dripping down.

All three of them looked at each other in a bit of confusion before taking their steps closer to the soul, they were hesitating because of the way the soul was behaving just a while ago. Still, after some thought, they come closer to examine it. Svapn hesitantly put up his hand to touch the forehead of the soul, but the soul unexpectedly grabbed his hand in midair, he clutched Prime Minister’s hand firmly. “Who are you? Who are they? Don’t touch me! Where am I, tell me before I break your hand in pieces.” The soul talked and the tone of his was very rude and furious.

The soul looked pissed, very pissed, totally unaware of his situation, it didn’t let go of the hand he was holding. “Son, don’t be scared. We won’t hurt you. We are here to help you but first, let go of my hand.” Svapn gave a pleasant smile to make him trust them.

“No! I won’t gonna believe any word that you are saying and what’s with “Son” I’m the same age as you or maybe a bit younger than you, ok! I-I don’t understand anything? Why am I here? Where is this place? Who are you guys? Why-why… was I so in pain a while ago? Ya know, I-I was just dying a few minutes ago. I was in a war ground, SO WHY THE FUCK AM I HERE!? WHY AM I PERFECTLY FINE WHEN I WAS BADLY INJURED A WHILE AGO? and what you bunch of jerks wants from me? Am I in prison?”, he was crying the unstoppable tears were flowing down like a river. He was stammering a bit and due to asking so many questions the soul unnoticeably let go the hand of prime minister.

He stood up and grabbed the Emperor’s shoulder, completely unknown to who the person is, the soul asked “Hey! You! You seem a bit normal and wise than these two stupid friends of yours. So, can you tell me where am I and where are the other people who were dying in that war zone?”, with his full strength the soul was clutching the King. He had some tears pooling in his unusual blue eyes.

“Hey, you cannot act this way with our Majesty, apologies to him right now!”, Sidharth tried to stop the soul from being reckless but the soul only heard what he wanted to. When he heard that the person ahead of him is the Emperor he let go of the shoulders he was clutching, he smiled when he heard the person is the Emperor, with amusement in his eyes he asked, “You! You! You are the Emperor of here? So-so you are from the royal bloodline, right? D-do you know Shwet!?! Shwet is also from the royal family. You know Shwet, don’t you?”, the soul smiled looking straight in the eyes of the Emperor, with the hope and happiness filling in those crying eyes, thinking that maybe the person knew something about Shwet’s whereabouts.

He was happy. The happiness was all over his pretty face but that happiness didn’t last long when the Emperor finally spoke, “I am very sorry, child but I don’t know anyone who’s named Shwet and this is not the human world either”, the King did not want to tell him the truth but hiding the situation was just useless, he lightly patted on the head of the soul to confront, “Prepare yourself, son, because we have many things to tell you which you might find unbelievable.”

“W-what are you saying?”

“Duh! What you heard”, Sidharth rolled his eyes.

Svapn was listening to everything silently but when he thought that he should step in the conversation he looked at the Emperor and then Sidharth, giving them a small nod. He grabbed the soul to make him sit down on the near chair and offered him some water with a light smile, “First, Sit down and drink this and hear us very carefully.”

“This is the Palace of Lost Souls Realm. You can also call this the palace of the Gate of Lost Souls Realm. While putting his palm on his own chest, Svapn added, “I am the Prime Minister of here. My name is Svapn, The God of Dreams & Memories.” He glanced at the King, “He is the Emperor of this realm, he is Agni the God of Souls and Nightmares and–”

“Let me introduce myself. Hello! I’m Sidharth, nice to meet you, kid. I’m the God of Feelings and Emotions.” The chief minister enthusiastically said with pride and happiness having on his handsome face.

In a sarcastic way, the soul spoke, “And I am Advik the God of Foolishness. Am I—”

“Oh God! I didn’t know the God of foolishness exists. I am glad to meet you the God of Foolishness!”, Sidharth happily said with a big grin on his lips because he believed Advik without any doubt.

“Haha! I think you should be the God of foolishness, not me” Advik smirked.

“Sidharth, He is just messing with you. There’s no God of Foolishness.” Svapn said.

“Huh! Oh, haha! That was a nice joke, I totally fell for it!”, Sidharth laughed at himself because he believed the soul.

“Well, he wasn’t joking though. He was undoubtedly being sarcastic with us”, Prime Minister thought. “I don’t know if Sidharth is too innocent or stupid.”

Advik without care put his legs on the closet table, he leaned a bit backward. Crossing his hand in front of his chest, he began, “So, you all are gods?”

“Yes, we are”, Svapn confirmed.

“So, am I in heaven or something?”

“This is not heaven”

“So, hell?”

“Not hell, also”

“If it’s neither heaven nor hell then where am I? Am I dreaming?!”

“This is not a dream as well”, Svapn sighed.

“You didn’t hear what we said earlier, didn’t you?”, Sidharth rolled his eyes and sighed.

“I did hear it, it’s just that I was busy bearing some intolerable pain, so I don’t remember them right now, hehe, that’s all.”

Sidharth looked upwards, “Oh god! What punishments are you giving us?! What wrong we did to you, god?!”

“Hey, didn’t you say that you are the god himself.”

“Don’t mind our Chief Minister!”, Svapn advised.

“But he–”

Svapn lost his patient, “Shut up! But, he what?! Can’t you see I am trying to talk to you here? We have to inform you what kind of situation you are in. Us being god or not isn’t important right now. Can’t you even understand this much?!”, Svapn couldn’t handle the carefree attitude of Advik any longer than he already did, so he blurted everything out in one go and took a deep breath.

“Prime Minister Svapn calm down a bit. I’ll talk to him, now”, The King calmly said.

“How scary this guy can be in a sec!?!”, Advik thought, “Thank you, wise man, for saving me from this guy! phew”, Advik was talking with himself while looking at the Emperor.

The King stepped in to talk to Advik, “Listen carefully child and do not interrupt me when I talk”, the powerful aura and the heaviness in his voice was something else, Advik just nodded to him because he thought that this person is better not mess with.

When the Emperor started to talk the whole room went silent. No one dared to speak not even one unnecessary word. “This is The Lost Soul Realm, it’s not in heaven or hell. Actually, no one knows where this place is. One can only come here by their spiritual power or hell and heaven can send anyone here if they did anything that cannot be forgiven. Sometimes some wandering souls such as yourself also come here without knowing anything about this place. No one can leave this realm after coming here even if they want to. Only gods and very powerful cultivator can come and go at their will.

Advik innocently raised his hand upward.

“What?”

“Can I ask something, Your Highness?”

“After a thought, the Emperor gave him the approval to ask. “And what about this room, it’s just filled with gold, gemstones and spiritual power so much spiritual power that it’s overwhelming even for me. This room’s making me dizzy.”

“This is a room in our palace of Lost Soul Realm. The palace is also the gate of the real Lost Soul Realm. This palace is in front of the real Realm of Lost Soul, the real realm is in the back of this palace which is some miles away from this palace’s backyard. This palace is in front of the Real gate, so people think that this is the gate of the Realm but it’s not. People have to enter the palace if they wish to enter the Realm and this is the reason why everyone calls this palace the Gate of Lost Soul Realm. Do you get it?”, The king said everything in detail. “And you are a soul. Your body has died two thousand years ago. You were wandering before you came here. Your memories were sealed and your spiritual heart and mind were also missing, so our Prime Minister Svapn got them back for you, you should thank him for that.”

“Oh, okay!… Wait! Wait! Wait! You are wrong! I AM A HUMAN, NOT A SOUL!”, Advik with a worrisome and troubled look on himself said.

“You are not human anymore.” Svapn was sure.

“No!… See, I am perfectly fine, yes I was severely injured but I don’t know how I’ve fully recovered from them”, Advik stood up.

“Easy, kid! We understand your trauma of knowing the fact that you are dead, out of the blue! It happens to every second soul here”, Sidharth softened his voice.

“But-but… No! No!”, Advik exploded, his tears were also at the corner of his eyes.

“I am a human, a fucking human. Remember that! I am leaving this place right now!”, the resentment of Advik was at its peak, he was so frustrated with them because no one was believing any word he said.

With a lot of composure, the Emperor replied, “The fact that you are here means you are a soul. Here in this room, we’ve brought many souls for interrogation. Except us, three only souls can enter here if we allow them.

“And what if you are lying to me?”, Advik argued.

“We are gods! We don’t lie, undisciplined kid”, Sidharth spoke.

“I don’t believe!”

“Then don’t believe”, Svapn eventually spoke after hearing the whole conversation.

“Fine! Bye, I am going”, Advik moved towards the exit but when he was about to touch the door’s handle to open it, the spiritual energy abruptly pushed him away from the door. It was very forceful that he fell several feet away. “Ouch!… Ugh! What the heck was that?!”

“It’s just that if no soul can enter this room without our permission then no soul can also leave this room without our approval, hehe!”, Sidharth chuckled.

“Fuck!!”, Advik punched the floor in frustration.

“So, now you believe us?”, Svapn came where Advik was fallen.