Capítulo 14: The Mystery of The Forbidden Book: Part 4 - The Dream...?
Slime sapped and dripped from the ceiling, coating Aletha and Asahi's body in toxic mucus.
"Eek!"
(SHING)
The bandits viciously pulled out their daggers from their saggy pockets and hollered with a grizzly voice.
"Just tell us where the ingredients are!"
"I told you once, we don't KNOW what you are talking about!"
Asahi's sight targeted directly at the approaching thieves like a laser-pointer. He had no time to think. All he felt was rage.
(Swoosh) A silver dagger cut through the air and nearly missed Asahi's arm. Dull gray eyes under the precipice of his brows struck the thief's head like daggers, focusing his shot. Out of the blue, Asahi launched a spear-tipped arrow from the bow and watched as it pierced through the thief's throat, digging through the second's heart.
(SPLAT)
Quickly, a stream of green goo gushed out of the open wounds, spewing out from wall to wall like tomato juice. Screams of horror followed after and alerted a group of four-legged, no-faced monsters to their location.
"W… What is that?" Asahi mumbled as he saw the two collapse and shrivel into dust. "Why does this place look familiar? How did it become like this!? Seriously, what is their problem? Why do they need those ingredients so badly?!"
A loud shriek sounded behind Asahi.
"Help!"
He turned over and saw a white-haired girl crying and kneeling in pain.
Without question, Asahi dropped the bow and ran over to Aletha, cornered by foul beasts. He squeezed his fists, socked a punch at the creature's head and forced five to spew out more of the thick grimy essence. Then, he grabbed Aletha and escorted her to the stairs.
While the creatures started crawling back, Asahi snapped his fingers and shouted.
"Sis, wake up!"
"H… Huh?!" She gasped as she noticed the creatures. "W-What are those?!"
Asahi gave off a lenient but fearsome voice.
"I don't know. S… Something's off about this place. It's like we have been here before, but everything is comparably different. Aletha," He gulped down a breath of fear and swiftly turned over to the faint sunlight streaming through the open doors. "Grab that book and follow me. We need to find somewhere safe. I believe I know what's going on."
Aletha inhaled a breath of anxiety deeply and mumbled back.
"O…Okay. Whatever you say."
Asahi and Aletha bolted down the slippery stairs, grabbed the bow and a golden book, skittered from one puddle of mud to the dry ground, and then dragged their feet through the dense vines.
Despite being in this place before, it almost felt to the wanderers as if they were an entirely separate world. Asahi whispered as he heard snaps and crack sounds resonate next to him.
"Aletha, grab the book, now!"
"Yeah, I'm on it!"
Before they were caught in the storm of goo, Asahi hastily pulled Aletha away from the monsters, grabbed both the bow and the forbidden book, then raced up the stairs.
. . .
Nothing could have been more confusing than the sight they first saw when they exited the bunker.
The sea of polished and tidy buildings they found beforehand looked smothered and weathered away.
Stones were scattered, boxes were torn apart, and trees swallowed the roads. Rotten vegetation lurked within every corner, emitting a scent so disgusting that Aletha found it to be worse than the goo.
An uneasy feeling of adrenaline mixed with mystery fluctuated in both their minds as they raced from one worn street to the other.
They were bowed with a certain frigid and differential surprise. It couldn't be possible that the city could have ended up like this. Yet, to their shock, all of it felt real.
With the shadowy veil of shock fuming up, Asahi whispered to Aletha as they wandered the repulsive, vegetation-infested city.
"I… can't believe it. This looks exactly like that city we found the other day."
Aletha scratched her head, raised her eyebrow and uttered as she felt the nasty substances wrap around and drag across her clean skin.
"It's so disgusting here too." She pinched and flung off a leech that squirmed around the flooded streets, nauseating and disgusted about this area. "Eww, there's so much nasty stuff everywhere."
Asahi squinted his eyes and sighed, dragging Aletha into the swampy and murky waters and muttering.]
"Just come on, sis. A little patch of mud isn't going to kill you."
. . .
The more The Wanderers walked around this wretched and stingy place, the more they realized just how strange this place really was. Asahi thought this was some sort of illusion magic, while Aletha thought she was on some sort of mushrooms.
Approaching an alleyway among the tilted and run-down buildings, Asahi and Aletha dodged one of the creeping vines and fled an emerging, poisonous plant that was seen among the tilted fountain.
After they tried to wander in every cranny and juncture within "Pladtioa City" , Aletha found a bizarre place that stood out from all the dreadful flora. The area was covered and polished with cleanliness, with a fountain standing at the center and bricks polished and untainted with mud.
The crystal clear streams flowed vibrantly and leniently across from one corner to the other, carving over and paving streams across the brittle roads and vegetation. Aletha exclaimed as her eyes sparkled with excitement and relief.
"Hey, bro, look! There's something clean over there! Come on!"
Asahi mumbled as he saw his sister dash through the rooted hallways.
"Really? Alright, I trust you. Don't say anything dumb, alright?."
Aletha gave a cheeky, prideful smirk and made a thumbs up.
"I won't!"
* * * * * * *
The gray smoke filled the once fresh air with putrid smells of poison. Just as they thought it was over, both followed more of the beckoning trail of fog winding left and right toward what seemed to be a tidy place.
Their devastated eyes darted over to a gray fountain, with few tables dotted around it and an open deli shop near it. Despite the reinvigorating sight, what surrounded it never matched this place.
The fountain stood out from the circle of rotten flora, crumbled buildings, and torn boxes.
Aletha uttered as she and her brother emerged and dashed through the thick bushes.
"There it is!"
An expression of disdain and sorrow came in from the Asahi as he looked over the pool of debris.
"It looks… so out of place. Why? I don't understand why we have to experience all of this. I thought our world was supposed to be… you know."
And from there, Asahi's mind filled with doubt. All he ever wanted ever since he returned to this world was a peaceful life. But what greeted him was an endless series of painful moments like drowning and getting eaten alive. He started to question.
(Was returning to this world really worth it?) It was a haunting thought for him. One so, where he couldn't comprehend losing an entire world to the unknown. The hope that dwindled him started to lose itself to its own thing. Could it be that this was the true world?
"No. I-It can't be. I refuse to believe that this is our world."
He was so invested into his dying thoughts, that he never realized he was speaking out loud. Which then caused Aletha to start asking him without knowing what was happening in her brother's head.
"Hey, what's gotten into you? You looked traumatized."
This sentence burned and annoyed Asahi's thoughts strongly. All his sister had done was escalate and weaken his faith in his future even more.
"H… How can you be so careless, Aletha?"
"I am NOT being careless! I just don't understand, okay?" Aletha shouted back as her mouth flew open in rapid directions. "How about you stop being so angry and just follow me for once! I don't even know what's happening."
Asahi's frown curled up into an irritated grin.
"Me too. But I guess now that we are in a safe spot, I can tell you what I think is happening right now."
Aletha lowered her eyebrows and forced herself to sit down on the bench. She glanced at the sunlight piercing through the dense treetops, then steered toward Asahi. Her mouth twitched with impatience, seeing Asahi stand still like a statue.
"Okay, spit it out, then!"
Asahi took a deep breath and threw himself to his feet, prying open The Forbidden Book on the cold pavement and aggressively responding.
"Ever since we obtained this book, everything around us has changed. I experienced what looked like this exact place, and… I thought you knew about it as well. Our lives have been ruined because of that anomaly. I wish I could just tear this book apart, but each time I do…"
He lunged and tossed the Forbidden Book on the floor. It deflected and flew into the air, shredding its own blank pages and falling flat on Asahi's head.
"It just doesn't destroy itself."
The white-haired girl snickered and spat on the floor, grabbing the book and answering.
"Why would you ever THINK of destroying the book? Didn't that man warn us of a power within it? And also, bro, I thought you were the bookworm?"
An uneasy silence emerged from Asahi's serious face.
"I am… I always was. It's just… Aletha… I WANT a peaceful life. I don't want to experience all of this strange stuff. I just want to live peacefully at home, living together in a world that doesn't have magic and is at tranquility. And yet we can't even have THAT!"
Aletha sighed deeply and patted Asahi's back with a light smile, answering him with a sarcastic tone.
"Yeah, I feel the same as well. But come on, don't you want to find out what happened? Were you like the geek of mystery and stuff? You're a problem solver, not this whiny cry baby!"
Asahi pursed his lips and sighed coldly.
"Yeah, I know…"
"Okay, and…?" The girl said as she picked up the book. "You know, I remember you acting so cool and all. You were always mature, lenient, and cold. Not this warm, temperate man-baby. Why don't you act like who you used to be, and find a way to get us out of this situation?!"
The color drained out of Asahi's face after he heard that. He knew his sister was right, but he never wanted to admit it. In all honesty for him, he was shocked knowing that his sister knew this much. So, as Aletha awaited for an answer, Asahi pushed himself back up, snatched The Forbidden Book from her hand and explained to Aletha with his normal cold and frosty voice.
"I guess… if you want me to be that way. Then so be it…" He pointed over to the empty pages and saw Aletha's eyes and took sight of his hand movements. A relieved smile curved up her lip and she sat in a relaxed posture, waiting patiently for Asahi's explanation.
"Go ahead."
Asahi nodded his head and took Aletha's voice as motivation. His mind scrambled with thoughts like eggs, pointing out every detail he noticed since they arrived in the city.
"Firstly, remember when the Librarian gave us this book? I believe that she is a user of some type of illusion magic. There's no other reason why Akwan would say that the library doesn't exist. Clearly, everything was tangible. So either he was brainwashed, or it was illusion magic."
Aletha nodded her head, raising her chin and blowing out her cheeks. Her head pounded with the rushing thoughts bouncing back and forth, as if she thought this was some sort of twisted reality. The only idea that stood out to her was
"Okay, so then what do you want me to do about it? Do you want me to look for that librarian? "
Asahi snapped his fingers and smiled with confidence.
"No, it's too late for that. Remember when Akwan said that this book hones a power to transmogrify time and alter space? What if it is doing that?"
Aletha nodded silently, following Asahi's words. (Hmm, I never thought about it that way.)
"What if the pages of this book serve as some sort of source or warning for us to follow? The drawings are not made by us, but the book itself. Could it have a mind of its own? Maybe it is trying to tell us something and we don't understand it?"
"All you are saying is questions, Asahi." Aletha uttered as she fidgeted with her hair. "We don't need any more questions, we need answers! Give us some facts so we know what we are doing."
Asahi's cheeks furrowed with strong purpose and feeling. He saw dignity and sweet patience float in Aletha's insightful look; making him even more prideful about this investigation. But although his mind could harbor several thoughts, Aletha was the one who could spark an answer. She said as the dead trees flocked with the sharp wind.
"If you really want to know what I think, firstly… we should find out whatever the heck those thieves meant by 'ingredients'. Secondly, let's actually follow the locations of what the book is trying to tell us. and maybe we could get answers there."
She grabbed and rubbed her thumbs on the silky and empty pages, looking over to her brother and continuing.
"If you're saying this book has some sort of consciousness, then let's treat it as if it was a real person. Maybe our main objective is to find whoever gave it to us. Then after we went to all the locations, let's hunt down that library and ask her what is happening!"
A faint quizzical look came from Asahi's incisive stare.
"And just how would we be able to remember all of that?"
Aletha scratched her chin and muttered.
"Oh, you're doubting me?" Her gaze casted around her surroundings, seeing the mist accumulate upon the city; almost as if awakening from a dream. She pointed out as she and Asahi got back on their feet. "Fine, I'll show you. I'll write it down in the book."
"What?"
Suddenly, Aletha pulled out a magical golden-tipped pencil from her pocket and pried the book open to an empty page. She then quickly tapped the ink-tip onto the surface, writing down a checklist on the book.
---------------------------
1. Find out what the ingredients mean.
2. Follow the places where the drawings are.
3. Look for the lady who gave the book.
---------------------------
Asahi facepalmed and shook his head in doubt, tapping Aletha's shoulder and commenting.
"You know, if this IS some sort of dream, all of that will be erased. Since… Well, it's temporary."
Aletha slapped Asahi's face lightly and pointed her finger at her forehead, mumbling as the engulfing mist started to accumulate and shroud all over the place.
"Pfft, you're not thinking hard enough, bro. Remember that thing in our heads? That stuff called memories? Yeah… we'll use that!"
"How will you remember that when we--
"Shh, just trust me, bro."
After she closed the book, before all the mist could swallow the siblings, suddenly The Forbidden Book flooded the area with a gleaming golden light, blinding their sights into a blur, and then into darkness.
* * * * * * * *
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