To hell and back 2

"Don't meddle in things you can't understand,"
the young scientist said.  "Now leave me alone."

Dias glared down at the boy.  He was so
arrogant, and just a brat kid.  Dias could
probably snap him in half with one hand, but
that wouldn't help much right now.

"Just tell me how to reach Del'ok.  After that I
won't ask anything else of you."

"Of course not, you'll be dead," Leon replied,
not looking up.

Dias was starting to get very angry.  "If that's
what it takes, I'll do it.  I refuse to let my
sister down again.  Isn't that how you felt when
your parents were killed?  You got the
opportunity to bring them back."

Leon sighed after a moment.  He picked up a
small vial off a shelf and gave it to Dias.
"This will make you fall into a sleep that is
akin to death.  It slows your heartbeat and
breathing until to anyone who sees you in that
state, you will look dead.  Your 'soul' or
'spirit' will be in Del'ok, the land of the
dead.  If you remain there for too long, your
body will die and you will remain there."

Dias took the vial and thought of one piece of
information he didn't have.  "How do I return to
my body?"

Leon shrugged.  "I'm not stupid enough to try
it.  The only person who survived the experience
was quite utterly mad when he woke."

That was not encouraging.

*	*	*

Dias sat down on his bed in the house that now
served as his home.  The Heraldry Forest was the
most secluded location on Expel.  No one should
find him by accident while he was 'dead.'  It
occurred to him, as he downed the potion, that
it could easily be poison that Leon had given
him.  But he cared more about his lost family
than anything he had left among the living.
Once, Rena might have been enough to stop him
from doing it, but he'd given her up when she
married Claude, two years ago.

The potion started to take effect and he fell
into unconsciousness.