The Messenger of Death

After walking past the obsidian humanoid figure, Lex stopped and looked behind him. He saw that it was following behind him.

"Why are you following me?" He asked.

It didn't give any kind of response, it just stood still, in front of Lex as he was speaking.

"Stop following me, it's not nice to stalk," Lex added.

The humanoid shook its head at Lex.

"No? What do mean by no? Or do you agree with me?" Lex rambled.

['It does have some kind of intelligence.'] Al commented.

It nodded its head, saying yes to Lex's question. "Good, then stop following me." He turned and continued to head towards the direction that the GPS arrow was pointing at.

As he started moving, he noticed a humanoid figure still followed behind him.

Lex tried to make it stop following him, but nothing he said or did work.

['Just let it be. I don't think that it's going to harm or attack us. However, don't let your guard down.'] Al advised.

['Okay.'] Lex listened to what Al said and left the humanoid figure to be.

He continued towards his goal. After walking for hours he felt like he was getting nowhere, at least that was how long it felt like to Lex.

Whenever he has walked for a while, he would check the distance left and the time. What felt like an hour to him was only a minute.

And the distance that was being counted by the skin crawler continued to reduce and then increase later on, despite how far he had come.

He still hasn't gotten past the 60-kilometer benchmark.

"What is happening, I know for a fact that I have been moving in accordance with the mask's direction and I am certain that the skin crawler isn't malfunctioning. Is this an illusion that we cannot see through with our eyes?" Lex wondered.

['Everything here is as real as can be.'] Al reassured.

['What do I do now? I haven't seen the way out of this place. And the skin crawler is of no help at the moment.'] Lex wondered.

['Just… just keep on moving.'] Al answered.

['No I can't just keep on walking on an endless road.'] Lex refused.

He turned back and immediately his back became his front, even the obsidian humanoid that happened to be walking behind him throughout, wasn't present when he turned his back.

Lex turned again and saw that it was standing behind him, where his front was previously.

['How the hell did that happen?'] He thought in frustration.

Even the arrow on the skin crawler was pointing in another direction.

['Guys, we might as well be lost at the moment. This might have happened several times without us being aware of it occurring.'] Alex reasoned.

['But how?'] Lex couldn't wrap his head around what was happening. He was trying to figure a way out.

['This is very troublesome.'] Xander mentioned.

"How am I supposed to know the way out now? I don't even know the way back to the forest that has blue trees." Lex complained.

Suddenly, a grey monolith appeared in front of him. It came out of nowhere.

Quickly, Lex put some distance between him and the monolith, and so did the obsidian humanoid figure.

This time, it did look like it had resumed imitating whatever the others do.

When he looked closer at the monolith, he saw that there was something written on it, with gold.

Written on the monolith was;

'What is a phantom?'

"What is a phantom?" Lex read it out loud.

['A ghost,'] Alex answered.

['A Specter,'] Xander replied.

['An illusion,'] Al responded.

['Why would a monolith appear with a question like that, here?'] Alex wondered.

['Perhaps, it's trying to tell us something.'] Xander thought.

After thinking about it for a while, Lex decided to ask something with more details and information.

"System, what is a phantom?" He questioned.

*Answering the user's question: A phantom is a specter. An appearance or mirage without material substance, like a dream, mirage, or optical illusion.

It is a person or thing of merely illusory power, status, efficacy.

The system answered.

Lex repeated what he heard from the skin crawler to the monolith. He wasn't sure of what was going to happen if he answered the question, but he felt like he should.

After he finished responding to the question, he waited for a few seconds and the words on the monolith changed.

'Do you believe in phantoms?'

Another question appeared.

['Personally, I do not believe in the existence of ghosts, but since our arrival in this side of the universe, and after seeing all that we have seen. I can't help but say, yes, they do exist but I do not believe in them.'] Xander replied first.

['Ghosts? At this point I do not believe that they exist, nor will I believe that they do not exist.'] Al answered.

['Same here.'] Alex and Lex concurred with Al.

['But what answer do I give?'] Lex asked.

['Xander's,'] Al replied quickly, not because he felt like Xander was correct, but because he didn't want to be proven wrong.

Lex relayed Xander's answer to the monolith.

In a few seconds, its writing changed again.

'Do you believe that where you are is a Phantasm, a product of your beliefs?'

Lex read what it wrote.

['I don't think so, we used X-ray vision on the obsidian-looking thing, and then infrared on our surroundings. We even switched to camera.'] Al pointed out.

['Exactly, so how can this be an illusion.'] Alex agreed with Al.

['But what if it is? You forget that the skin crawler is not invisible and it is not all-knowing. It asked if we believe, meaning that this has to deal with the heart and faith.

Not the mind and logic. Do you think that mere logic would be able to change the hearts of people? If it was so, a lot in the world or universe would be very easy.

Especially when it has to do with humans. So, yes, Lex. The answer is yes, we believe that this place is a phantasm.'] Xander argued.

Al wanted to refute Xander, however, he couldn't help but agreed that Xander's word carried pieces of truth in them.

So he kept quiet and chose to wait for the results.

['Are you sure?'] Lex questioned.

['Do it.'] Xander pushed.

Lex proceeded to relay Xander's answer and soon the words on the monolith changed again.

'Then you can leave this Phantasm at will, do you believe so?'

It asked.

"I can leave here at will?" Lex was happy to see that, but his happiness only lasted for a few seconds when he realized that he doesn't know how to leave this place at will.

['How do I leave though?'] Lex wondered.

['You… believe, I guess.'] Xander answered.

"I believe?" He uttered unsure of his belief.

['Be serious about it.'] Xander said.

Lex took in deep breaths and calmed his mind and closed his eyes. "I believe… I believe… I believe." He mentioned this a few times.

When Lex opened his eyes, he found himself back in the forest with blue trees. The first thing that Lex noticed was the aftermath of Al's and Xander's battle with the humanoid figure.

He noticed that the monolith was still there, but with different writing.

'You believed and now you're free.'

['Quickly, head for the petal before someone beats us to it.'] Al urged.

Lex took the first step forward and he heard a footstep behind him.

When he turned, he saw that the obsidian humanoid figure was still behind him, it didn't disappear like the rest of the valley of dry leaves.

[Did I not believe enough? Why is this thing still here?']

"Are you real?" Lex blurted out.

It nodded its head at his question.

"Why are you following me and do you know me?"

"Out of everything here, why do you have to be the only real thing from the Phantasm?" Lex was still unhappy that it refused to battle with him.

The obsidian humanoid figure shook its head.

He closed his eyes again. "This thing is not real… it is not real… it is not real…" Lex repeated, he was hoping that it will disappear, but unfortunately for him, when he opened his eyes it didn't disappear.

['Forget about this thing and leave for the goal, this thing has already wasted so much of our time, don't let it waste more…'] Al stated.

"Alright." Lex could hear the urgency in Al's voice.

-Whoosh!!

He charged in the direction his GPS was pointing at.

After traveling at high speed for some minutes, Lex finally reached the 10 kilometers benchmark.

"I'm here, but I still can't see it. The arrow is still pointing towards the northeast."

"Welcome," Mr. Guardian appeared beside Lex.

Lex hiccupped when Mr. Guardian unexpectedly appeared beside him.

"Oh, hey," Lex blushed as he greeted.

Just like the first time that they met, Mr. Guardian morphed into him and was in the same blue uniform that Lex was in.

He also had the same hairpin that Lex had on his hair…