As Masa Ed expected, the white notebook and white pen in his hand broke free, and repeating their routine, the book opened to a free page as it hovers in front of him and the pen starts writing on it.

  [You are smart as ever, coward. Now read carefully. The next stage is crossing the bridge of Ifrit. What you must do to conjure it in front of you is, you turn around and bow to your lantern nine times. And after the ninth time, you must keep your eyes on your lantern flame and you must step on the bridge only by walking backwards towards it from where you are for it would have appeared behind you. And after stepping on the bridge, you can take your eyes off your lantern, and all you must do next is cross the bridge by making sure you never see what is behind you, while also making sure your lantern flame never goes out till you reach the other side. Good luck, coward.]

  "Its kind of simple this time."

  As Masa Ed muttered, he caught the pen and notebook that flew back to him, securing them tightly in his hold.

  'The lantern is the major player this time. I just hope it won't let me down, I have been having narrow escape with it. But the idea of bowing to it... Well, I don't have a choice. I got to do what I must and leave here...'

  "Fuck!"

  Masa Ed having suddenly realized his hidden time limit that associate with the brightness of the lantern in his hand might have started, he quickly turned around on the step he is standing on, facing away from the empty space in front of it, and then he turned his attention to the lantern in his hand that has been lit up since he left the Seba person room.

  "How are we bowing to this? Place it on the floor and go on the kneels, nah.. A bow is a bow."

  Masa Ed having realized what he must do, first put the pen in his pants pocket and the notebook he held between his teeth.

  Then holding the lantern with both hands at where its side frames connects to its base, he starts bowing towards it, doing as instructed while counting the number of his bows in his mind, until the ninth bow when the flame of the lantern suddenly grow bigger and turned red, looking like a snake's eyes that it surprised him but barely stunned him.

  'We might be trespassing territories at this point.'

  Masa Ed thought to himself, chuckling. And not daring to take his eyes off the lantern flame that makes him feel like the eye of a primitive beast is staring back at him, and not caring if he might fall to the depth below since what's behind him that he last saw is empty space, he slowly starts walking backwards, one step at a time, doing as the pen instructed.

  'If this is an elaborate setup, whoever might have designed it and wrote its script must be a genius on the level of that psycho bitch...'

  As Masa Ed who is thinking to himself saw the flame of the lantern returned to normal, he paused, knowing he is already on the bridge of Ifrit. Then stopping to look at his lantern, he held its handle with one hand beside him and in the other hand he held the notebook he removed from between his mouth.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  'Now, all I have to do is run backwards without ever looking back'

  Having processed the pen instruction already, Masa Ed without delay starts walking backwards as fast as he could like he is basically running on the bridge of Ifrit he noticed might be about 9 meters wide with stone balustrades at both side and large gold statues of otherworldly creatures at intervals lining them, like they are standing guard.

  As he was about to focus his eyes on one of the gold statues that is diagonally to his left, he noticed a light glare on its reflective surface and frightened, he quickly looked away.

  "Fuck! Traps." He exclaimed, realizing.

  Because he doesn't want to see the reflection of what might be behind him, therefore sticking to the pen's instruction, he dare not look sideways at the gold statues anymore. Instead, he looked right in front of him squarely, praying and hoping he doesn't exhaust his hidden time limit the lantern that has been lowering in intensity indicates, till he crossed the bridge.

  However, not long after the time when he noticed the light glare on the stone statue when he quickly turn to look away, he noticed the temperature around him starts to increase slowly that he soon starts to feel a subtle burning sensation all over. Moreover, he also noticed the clay interlocking bricks of the deck of the bridge of Ifrit he is running backwards on, seems to be glowing hot red with the general intensity of their glow gradually increasing as he covers more ground on the bridge.

  "This bastards are pushing it. Must they make things hard for me when I am doing well."

  Murmuring in annoyance, Masa Ed increased the pace of his backward run on the bridge of Ifrit despite he has started to feel tired, hot and thirsty. Even if the soles of his feet where to burn from the deck of the bridge that is getting hotter by the second, he dare not stop or turn his head to look sideways, talk more of behind him.

  After a while, Masa Ed lifted the lantern he is holding its handle with one hand to look at how smaller its flame has gotten. And seeing how lower its intensity is, he became shocked as he realized something he has been overlooking.

  'What has been lighting up the bridge if its not the lantern? There is no way its the moon, its always in front of me and its light is not even reddish orange. It was the same with the corridor...'

  Masa Ed dare not glance at the gigantic moon hovering in space diagonally in front of him for a check of its current color. Determined, he carried on his task of crossing the bridge despite the soreness he has been feeling in his muscles and the strange burning sensation that has been increasing in intensity but its still not burning his skin a tiny bit.

  "Fuck?" Masa Ed cursed out loud—expressing his anger and frustration amidst his tiredness.

  Moments later; a time when he is now breathing heavily and is sweating from exhaustion and not the strange burning sensation that has become intense and unbearable, Masa Ed struggled to lift the lantern he has been holding tightly to look at where its flame is. However, it was at this time, the flame starts flickering rapidly, giving the signal it will soon go out any second.

  "I just knew it. They were going to make things difficult. Why should the bridge be this long?"

  Disregarding his lament, the lantern flame went out. And knowing what's to come and having paused his backward run already, he proceed to turn around to have a careful look at whatever might be behind him, but before he could complete a one eighty degree turn, he was engulfed by a scorching inferno far hotter than what he could imagined. And despite his decision to face all pain he will experience in the future head on without a whimper, he couldn't help but scream out instinctively from the overwhelming burning sensation of the flame that refused to burn his body a tiny bit but inflict on him a soul(will) rendering pain.

  "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH..."