Kapitel 26: Dark Dimension

The room was dark and silent, both three seemed to be completely asleep.

A little less than two hours later, Asterin opened her eyes, no sign of sleepiness in her expression.

Standing up slowly, she looked at Aysel and Elaxi, their breathing steady, confirming that they were both asleep, Asterin went to Elaxi's desk, carefully opening the drawers, looking for the permission she should have.

It took a few minutes, but Asterin finally found a bracelet in one of the small top drawers of the desk, putting it on as she left, not forgetting to look once more at the two young women sleeping in the room.

A while after the door closed, Elaxi opened her eyes, looking at the door with furrowed brows, then looking at her desk, she knew that Asterin had been messing around for a long time there, finally finding something and leaving, her skills were great, no one could say the table was turned over.

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Hearing a slight knock coming from the door, Leila walked over to open it – Did you get it? – She asked

Asterin nodded – Have you arranged everything?

– Yes, we'll have to be quick when looking for the books – Celine said as she grabbed a small space bag.

– I don't know if Elaxi's permission will work with the teachers' wing, in the library.

Celine replied – Okay, if it doesn't work we at least try...

– Shouldn't we include the boys in this? – Leila asked suddenly.

– The boys? You mean Felipe and Matheu? – Asterin asked as she also grabbed some items, her wand and a small book.

– Well, they were also investigating… but not only them, last time there were also Nevra and Raphael, I think they could help – Leila explained.

Celine looked thoughtful, nodding slightly – We can talk to them later, if we find something today we'll share it with them so we can investigate together.

The two nodded, Leila and Harumi, Asterin looked hesitant about it.

Leaving and closing the door, they walked carefully to the main lobby.

Reaching the large door, Asterin held Elaxi's bracelet in front of it, the door unlocked and they left. Hidden in a dark corner, two girls faced this small group disappearing towards the school.

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Elaxi took her pillow, and turning to Aysel she threw it at her, Aysel got up startled, staring at her in a daze.

– What are you… – She began as she watched Elaxi get up and put on her uniform coat over her pajamas, and as soon as she'd tied her own belt she looked at Aysel.

– Haven't you dressed yet? Hurry up! – She said as she threw the uniform at her.

– Do you know what time is it? – Aysel asked with an annoyed expression, but still getting up and wearing her uniform, suddenly noticed something – Where's Asterin?

Elaxi sighed – She took my permission bracelet and left...

Aysel pursed her lips, thinking: 'Why would she take this? Was she planning to sneak out of college? Wait… is that why she came here?'. Aysel looked at Elaxi with a complicated expression.

Elaxi, aware of that look, just left, Aysel followed her to the entrance hall – It looks like she hasn't left yet, let's wait here...

– Seriously, what if there's nothing right now? Are we just going to wait here? – Aysel asked with a yawn.

– Yes.

…

– They… what are they up to? – Aysel asked as she walked to the front door beside Elaxi, opening it and walking out of the dorms.

– They're investigating about that incident... – Elaxi muttered as she stared at the school's door in the distance, where the girls had passed a few minutes ago.

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– I feel weird… sneaking out, stealing things, breaking into places… – Harumi muttered as they walked down the halls towards the library – Acting like a thief at night, sneaking around in the dark, deceiving people…

Leila sighed as she covered Harumi's mouth – Yes yes, let's hurry.

Pushing open the library door slightly, they looked around, Asterin nodded, pointing to the stairs that led to the upper floors.

They went up, stopping on the fourth floor:

– Okay, let's go to the deepest part – Leila led the way, the group came to a wall, Asterin slowly approached the bracelet, which passed through the wall, undoing whatever the spell was nearby, and revealing a small wing with a desk in the center, the walls, floor to ceiling, covered with books.

They looked up – For a moment I thought it was infinite... – Harumi muttered as she approached the books.

– Let's get this over with – Leila picked up one of the books and started flipping through it, they looked at the titles and opened it to take a look, putting them back on the wall after reading, marking them with a small dot to indicate that they had already read.

This was a little spell Asterin had taught them, once they found what they were looking for Asterin would undo the spell, and all the markings would disappear.

Three hours had passed, but no sign of the "book" they were looking for, Harumi rested her head on her left hand while her right hand idly leafed through the book, not because she wanted to, but because she was really sleepy, almost sleeping on her hand, her head tipping slightly as she automatically flipped through the book.

Asterin and Leila yawned, they really wanted to find some clue, so they forced themselves to open their eyes and go back to flipping through the books, trying to pay as much attention to what they were looking at.

Celine was the only one wide awake, she stared at the shelves with a frown, pacing back and forth, picking up and flipping through random books, not even noticing the title, anyone who saw this would think she was just trying to get it over soon, not paying the slightest attention to what she was doing, but Celine knew what she was doing, she started to feel something strange, and walking a little more to the right this feeling was getting stronger.

She took the books according to her intuition, not finding anything she continued to approach this feeling, but not quite knowing where it came from, until the moment she stopped behind Harumi, who was probably dozing, her hands still moving, the sensation was coming from behind her, turning to look at Harumi's back she approached, looking at the book that Harumi was leafing through.

She watched the pages that Harumi passed, until something flashed in her mind, looking at the page that was about to be passed she put her hand on top, she had probably been too fast, making a noise when her hand landed on that page, scaring the other three, mainly Harumi, who was the one who leafed through the book.

Harumi looked stunned at the person beside her, Asterin and Leila also turned to face Celine – I'm sorry, I think that's what we were looking for – She pointed to the book, Harumi, who was no longer sleepy, looked at the page Celine pointed to: 'The Perpetual Torment, Dark Dimension'

– What a dark name, what is it? – Upon hearing Harumi's comment, Asterin and Leila finally approached, Celine's sudden movement had left them a little in shock.

– Dark dimension… Amulet of Spirits… here! – Asterin spoke excitedly.

The three looked to where she was pointing, near the end of the sheet.

– Is this the amulet you told us? – Leila asked.

Asterin nodded – That's exactly it, I heard the boys saying that this amulet was meant to open something, a portal, and here it is, it's to open a... dimension...? – Her animation faded little by little, Leila and Harumi still waited for her to finish, but Celine knew why she had stopped.

In the description of this dimension: - 'The home of the worst demons and the prison of the worst beings, may the evil creatures rot in this hell and never see the light of day again' - and a little note in the corner: 'Last time opened: Year 1125, opened and sealed by Isleen Eslif, wife of Lord Aillard Eslif and Mistress of the city of Celestia'

– The greatest sorceress of the nine kingdoms, Isleen was the last to open and seal this portal? – Harumi asked perplexed, the four girls were with astonished expressions as they stared at that note.

– Year 1125… – Leila muttered – …That's almost 3000 years ago.

– It seems so... – A voice came from the entrance of the room, the four of them stared in surprise at the person who had spoken.

– Elaxi? – Asterin stared at the red-haired girl with a guilty expression.

Elaxi smiled, she and Aysel approached – I'm here too – Aysel spoke while beating her own chest.

– Oh… how long have you been there? – Leila asked, she rubbed her hands together, indicating how nervous she was.

Aysel smiled, lightly touching Leila's shoulder – We've just arrived, don't worry, we won't tell anyone about this, as long as you tell us what you were doing.

...

The girls remained silent, staring at Aysel and Elaxi with hesitant expressions until someone finally spoke:

– We decided to investigate what was behind the creature that stole the powers, and apparently it has something to do with it here – Celine explained while pointing to the book.

Everyone looked at her with shocked expressions, did she really say it like that? Did she just throw the whole truth that way? Not that they needed or even could hide anything from Elaxi and Aysel, but Celine was… pretty straightforward.

– Oh… – Aysel replied as she lowered her head, she definitely didn't expect this, the most common was for them to stall a bit before giving up and telling the whole truth, but Celine skipped it all.

– Right… what did you find? – Elaxi asked as she walked over to take a look at the book, frowning as she read the contents carefully.

Seeing that Elaxi was stunned by what she read, Asterin said – Well, we already know the reason for the theft of powers, considering how long that thing has been here, this amulet must be halfway through processing, Isleen was the last to open it and to seal the portal of this "dimension", meaning something very dangerous has been trapped there, and this person behind this amulet wants to release whatever is in there...

– Very well summed up… – Harumi gave Asterin an admiring look, who smiled and continued – We have to go after this person and destroy this amulet, to prevent such a thing from being released and to bring justice to those who have lost their powers because of this evil plan – This time her words shocked everyone to the point of choking on their own saliva, except for Celine, who thought the same.

– Have you lost your mind? We just alert the great leaders about it and that's it – Aysel said, although deep down she really wanted to go out on a chase like this, she still needed to be reasonable at times like this, the way she would have responded if she wasn't controlling herself would be definitely embarrassing, her true form definitely couldn't handle the excitement.

– The Leaders are very busy arguing these days, we have no evidence of the creation of this amulet as it is not just for forging it that powers are stolen, we also don't know if there are conspirators among the ministers and court officials of each of these nineteen kingdoms, it wouldn't be good to tell some college superiors either, they literally let this creature do what it wanted, obviously there's someone conspiring inside the college too… – Asterin explained quickly, almost forgetting to take a breath.

– Okay, okay, I get it... – Heaving a sigh, Aysel opened her mouth to say something again, but was interrupted by a voice from far away:

– Is anyone here? – It was a woman, the librarian.

– Damn... – Aysel muttered – Let's get out of here, quick!

They hurried. Celine passed a shelf, hearing a thud behind her she stopped, turned and looked at the floor, a book lay open on a page with a small drawing, recognizing the features, Celine swallowed in dry before bending down to pick it up and return to follow the others, who were waiting outside the wing, Asterin undid the marking spell and Elaxi put back the barrier, they waited until the library entered one of the study rooms apparently investigating, and then ran out of the library, hurrying back to the dorms.

– That was a close one – Leila sighed in relief.

Celine squeezed the book in her hand, opening a little on the page that she had seen the drawing, wanting to confirm that she hadn't seen it wrong, seeing the drawing she perked up, biting her lower lip she hugged the book tightly: 'I need to find out what's going on and why it seems to have something to do with me...'

...

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