Luna opened her eyes to see a white ceiling above her. It looked so familiar to her it made her stop breathing. She sat up slowly then took a good slow look around the room. What she saw completely shocked her to the core. It was her room. 

Everything was the same. The white walls. The elaborate  paintings. The green plants. The study table and chair. The tall and wide bookshelf. The wardrobe.

Before she could form a comprehensible thought in her head, BaoBao appeared at the doorway of her room. "Surprised, aren't you? Wait till you leave your room!" He sounded incredibly excited. 

"What's going on?" Luna asked in a soft bewildered voice. 

"I don't really understand either. When Austin wished you luck in returning to your family, the darkness slowly lifted like a fog and tadah!" BaoBao spread his arms wide open as if to show how much had been hidden behind the blanket of darkness. 

Luna was still too stunned to move so BaoBao flew forward to grab her hand and started pulling on her to move. "Come on!"

While she was pulled by BaoBao out of her room to explore the rest of the house, her eyes turned red and watered up. Her parents room, Desmond's room, Erica's room, and the rest of the house, everything was as it had been. BaoBao then led her to the main door. "Are you ready?"

Luna had a rough idea of what was happening outside. Every window of the house showed the same view. Mysterious glowing plum blossoms were drifting down against a black background. It made it look like it was raining flowers in the night. However, that was still far from adequately preparing Luna for what she would see outside her house. 

She pulled opened the door and her breath hitched in her throat. 

Although the sky remained as dark as ever, the faint glowing light of the raining plum blossoms lit up the surroundings in a pink hue. They drifted in a nonexistent breeze. Right beyond her doorstep laid an empty beach. The beach led into a deep blue ocean that was so calm that a ripple on the surface could probably travel a long way.

Without a sound, tears finally left Luna's eyes and streamed down her face. She finally understood what BaoBao meant when he described this space as something that reflects her heart.

She reached out a hand to catch one of the falling plum blossoms. It stayed in her hand for awhile before disappearing just like the ones that fell to the ground. She clenched her hand into a fist then brought it to her chest. She closed her eyes while tears continued to flow silently. Dad... Mom... Desmond... Erica... Everyone... I want to return to you... 

The darkness that had its hold on her for the longest time she could remember, that was always threatening to snuff out her will to live or want anything, finally eased up. She was now feeling a little more free and daring. Hope and desire has returned to her.

BaoBao looked at her sadly. He stopped floating and sunk down to the floor then hugged her legs without saying anything. He has watched how Austin and Luna comforted each other enough times to have learnt a thing or two.

Luna opened her eyes to look at BaoBao. She squatted down to hug him then pulled back to show a grateful smile, at which BaoBao returned with a smile of his own.

"BaoBao, tell me how I can go back to my world."

"Mm!" BaoBao nodded. 

"Ah! That's right, before that, how's Austin?"

"He listened to you and lived on, but... He looked almost like an empty shell... It was like how you looked when I first met you..." Baobao reported sadly. 

Luna also felt sorry for Austin but quickly noticed how BaoBao constantly switched his gaze between the floor and her face. "BaoBao, what else do you have to tell me?"

"... ... There's good and bad news..."

Luna raised an eyebrow. "Are they related to each other?"

BaoBao nodded. 

"Tell me in the most coherent manner then." Luna did not care whether the good or bad news came first or second. 

"Well... While you were still fighting for your life in that world, I requested for access to the world book of this world." He made a black book with golden pages appear between them. He continued to explain while Luna held onto the book in her hands. "Apparently, Austin's fate with the two leads had already ended the moment the two leads got together at the graveyard. He did not appear in the book anymore, even for her wedding. So... I don't think we needed him to live on and suffer by himself till the day he died..." 

Luna's eyes slowly widened in shock. "... I... Made him suffer alone... For nothing...? ... ... What have I done...?" 

Her face turned in to a grimace as she chided herself. "Ah... I'm always screwing up..."

"No! In fact you did so well in the punishment world that it helped it become more stable. The administrators even offered a reward for it!"

"What?" 

"The reason why Austin did not appear any longer was because he was supposed to be the only character in the book who was not able to let go of the bitterness in his life. According to the story, you were supposed to be the one who was tortured the most and by Austin himself, because you tried to trick him and keep him from getting to your family. When Esmeralda chose Dylan over him, he let her go and took everything out on you, then avoided seeing her because he wanted to avoid feeling the pain of heartache. Everything about Austin's cruel and cold personality changed because of you. Instead, he became another wholesome character who learnt to move on and live with his loss and grief, while a more insignificant character in the book took over that sad role. Because you reduced the amount of negativity in this world, the world's energy became even more stable, making it an even better punishment world. Go ahead and read the book for yourself like you wanted to."

Luna did as he said. She sat down on the floor where she was and thumbed through the pages. After she shut the book, she had the look of awe on her face. 

She realised that she had been able to die instead of living out the rest of her life as a blind, deaf, and mute person in that world was because she did reach the end of the original character's lifespan. The life she was supposed to lead, according to the book, was truly a lot worse had it not been for Austin's OOC.

"You can keep this book if you want to, like a trophy to symbolise your achievement! It's an outdated copy anyway." BaoBao beamed. 

"So... I just made it harder for any future victims to break the world's fate?"

BaoBao nodded.

Luna pursed her lips and nodded her head very slowly before opening her mouth to speak again. "Essentially I'm the only one that got something out of this."

BaoBao completely missed how Luna felt bad about it and congratulated her instead. "You got rewarded with a chance to redeem a rank SS item! Ain't it awesome?!"

"SS?!" Luna buried her face in her palms. She felt even more guilty and unworthy. I only managed to do all these because of Austin's feelings for me... It's all achieved at his expense... God... I have to make it up to him the next time I meet him.

"Ah! What happened?!" BaoBao looked wide eyed at the scene outside. While Luna was not looking, he witnessed how the darkness in the sky sunk down, looking ever ready to swallow everything up once more.

Luna looked up and noticed the change but kept on a straight expression. This is a whole new level of introspection.

"Introspection?" BaoBao asked with a curious frown. 

Luna sighed. "It's nothing. Let's get back to serious talk, shall we?"

"Ah! You wanted to know about the way to return to your world, right?" 

Luna nodded.

"As I've said before, the key for that to happen is the strengthening of your soul. Basically, you died in your world simply because it was time for you to die. For the people in your world, everyone was born with differing soul strength. The stronger the soul, the better hold it has on the physical body. Every accident that happens to your body whittles down the hold the soul has on the body. With every transmigration, your soul will get strengthened as it gets used to settling into physical bodies and absorbing residual soul bits left behind by the original soul. Eventually, it will come to a point where I can send you back to your body without needing my help with keeping your soul in a physical body."

"How do I know when it's strong enough?"

"One way to tell is that you'll start feeling less pain with every transmigration."

"Is there some other way for me to tell? I think I'm getting almost immune to lesser pain."

"Not that you're capable of... Anyway there's nothing to worry about. I'll let you know the moment you can return to your world." 

"How long do you think this will take?"

"It depends on the satisfaction level and strength of the original soul. If the original soul is satisfied, absorbing the residual bits are much more efficient and effective, which means more is absorbed. This is dependent on how well you fulfilled their dying wish. The strength of the original soul is pretty much luck... On average, hosts that perform very well can get it done in around 10 or so worlds. The best performance by far is 8 worlds." 

Luna noticed how BaoBao did not give a direct answer to her question. From his statistics and understanding of how she was only an average performing host, she guessed that she would not be returning to her world anytime soon.

While Luna started spacing out again, BaoBao noticed how the darkness in the sky lowered once more, making him feel a little disturbed, so he quickly tried to talk about something to liven up the atmosphere. "Luna, do you have any idea on how you can help Austin's soul yet?" 

Luna went deep into thought and reflected on her experience across the worlds. 

"It seems that, besides needing to keep to the supposed living status of the main characters, the key to avoiding a punishment despite a change in events in the story is if it does not worsen the original negativity level of the world. In fact, it seems that I'd get rewarded if the changed events lowered the negativity. ... ... ... If it's possible for me to influence the events with Austin's help and speed up the conclusion of the story, we'd be free to do whatever we want as long as it does not spread or create new negativity." 

BaoBao was stunned for a moment to hear of Luna's plan to combine efforts with Austin and influence the story. She's actually... Being proactive. Is this why the protocol for us was to bait the souls with a goal when we first bond with them? Or is this only because she likes him now? He wondered to himself. 

Luna looked at BaoBao with a flat expression, making him feel embarrassed. He laughed awkwardly before responding to her idea, "That sounds like a good plan. You shouldn't have to worry if the events really start to divert from the world book since you have the perception talent. You'd be able to see how things are likely to develop."

"There's still the issue of my eventual death though. It's only a matter of time unless I'm able to resist it."

"Which you've been always trying to do but..."

"That's why I want to try and speed up the conclusion of the story. That way, I won't have to worry if he dies trying to protect me. ... I won't have to force him to live."

Seeing Luna look a little down again, he hyped himself up and beamed. "Then let's try it now! Austin must be waiting! Are you ready?"

Luna smiled helplessly while nodding her head. BaoBao really got hopelessly positive whenever it came to romance. There was no guarantee that Austin would be able to OOC in the next world, however, she did not bother refuting his words because she accepted that there is a chance that it would happen.

BaoBao sent in the request to be assigned their next world, then looked outside the door and saw that the darkness in the sky lifted a little. An idea of what it represented began to form in his mind.

 

~End of Book 1~

Find the second book Astral Odyssey: Kindling Flame in my profile.

 

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