Eaten By A Slime?!

Ch. 2 Part 12: Lost

Chirp, chirp. 

A cheerful chirping of birds sounded in the distance. Eri's eye's blinked open. She felt extremely thirsty. She lifted her head and looked around. 

Where is this? Where's Rei? 

[Spouse finder!] 

... ...

[Spouse finder!] 

... ...

Nothing...It's not working! What happened?! Why is the skill not working? Is Rei dead or is she dead? Why...She's just begun her new life. She can't die now!

Eri stopped trying to access her skill and observed her surroundings. She can't say she's dead if she can still see the surroundings. She was laying in the middle of a small red Pavillion. The ground was made of smooth grey stone. Eri's eye's widened when she saw her hands stroking the ground. Gone?! Her hands were colourless. They weren't invisible, she could see that in the place of her original hands, her current hands appeared to be flickering like flames. She looked down on herself and saw the absence of clothes. Her entire body was colourless and flickering. What has she become? This state...it's not much different from death, isn't it? She accessed her status in a hurry.

[Status]

Eri

Race: Soul

Sex: Female

Role: Rei's wife, orphan, level 3 compounder (speciality: pills)

... ...

Eri frowned. She's in the state of a soul right now? Does this mean she's dead? If she's dead...why is it possible to check her status and she's still married to Rei! Can this mean that she's still alive? Moreover, what's the difference between souls and ghosts? Are they the same thing? Hmm... Why doesn't the status categorise her as a 'human soul'? Are souls a completely different race? Or could it be that once separated from the body, souls are no longer bound to fleshly limitations that confine beings to a race? Eri sighed and shook her head. This is all so strange and confusing. However, if she is still married to Rei, this means it's possible for them to reunite and it's likely that she's not considered dead. 

She crawled to the edge of the pavilion and found a shallow moat around it. She remembered her deep thirst and drew some water from it. The water from the moat flew into her palm and rolled smoothly into a small sphere. Eri checked for sediment in the water but there was none. What kind of water is this? It's strange that water from a place like this would have no dirt. What's even stranger is her ease of control over water. Is this ability related to the state of her body? She gazed at her reflection and saw a faceless colourless being. Eri sat in silence and was unable to understand the current state of her body. She shook her head again to dispel her confusion and went back to treating the water. She sought the heat from her body and gathered it in her palms to boil the sphere of water. As a result, steam started to form at the surface of the water but Eri's dexterous control retrieved the fleeing droplets and pushed it back into the sphere. She let out a breath of wonder. It's amazing, this kind of control. These steps could be easily completed just by picturing it in her mind. If she was back in her body, every step would take intense concentration to accomplish.

The sphere in her hand broke apart into smaller droplets and spun around in the air before merging back together. With this, the heat energy would have escaped. Eri brought the water sphere to her lips. She didn't really have lips right now and she wasn't sure if her current body could drink it, but let's try it anyway. 

She sucked the water sphere into her body. Plop. The water fell through and landed on the ground. Eri was shocked. If she was still human at this time, she would be sweating and trembling from shock. 

Ok. She's got this. So she can't drink water, but she's extremely thirsty. Let's continue to explore the surroundings. 

Puff...

At this moment, a small colourless flame emerged from the stone ground. 

A soul?

Eri squinted at it and took a defensive stance. Is this soul fire the same as the ghost fire that attacked her? Unlike her, the soul flame didn't have the shape of a body. It floated out of the pavilion. 

Eri stared at the soul flame closely and followed it. While following it, she glanced around and saw more soul flames flying towards the same direction of the flame she was following. Eri pondered, could these all be souls of dead people? Where could they be going?

A large number of souls started to gather in front of her and she lost sight of the soul flame she was following. It shouldn't matter since they all seem to be heading for the same direction. In the distance, the grey stone pavement met its end. A wide entrance leading towards a white pebbled garden was ahead.