章 25: Noble Act
"Run, run, run!" Numerous people screaming and running away terrified entered my sight.
"Huh?" I gazed down at my clear small hands, like a child's, missing all the calluses that were supposed to be there.
"What are you doing, Nord!?" A bearded man with a hardened face yelled out in my direction.
"Nord?" I repeated the name he said.
Who's Nord?
"Kgh…" The man took hold of my neckband, pulling me as he ran to his fullest.
What's going on here? I wanted to ask out loud, but no voice left my lips.
I could only stare at the spectacle spread out before me.
The sky sprawled with a red tinge as the setting sun made way for the moon to take over, the flashes of lightning and meteors destroying the village and burning my world to ashes.
I don't even know why, but I was suddenly overcome with hate and despair as tears blurred my eyes.
I held at my chest as I looked back at the village, numerous entities fighting against each other, the shockwaves of their battle reaching my location.
I whispered a sentence of curses, "I'll fucking kill you all."
***
Ding.
"Huh? What's this place?" I could finally speak as I looked around.
I was in a dark-blue space that seemed to stretch to no end.
In front of me, with a buzzing sound, a blue thing came to life.
[Scenario Failed]
[It will repeat again at a more suitable time]
[You're freed from the Scenarios]
"Scenarios? Like scenes?"
[Exactly]
Huh? Did the system reply to me?
[Why do you look so surprised?]
It asked me.
"I mean, anyone would be, wouldn't they?"
[For what specifically?]
"Well, the reason you're talking back to me."
[Hmmm…]
It felt weird to see letters that replied to my words.
[I get bored at times too, and why wouldn't I want to chat with someone who cracked a part of me?]
"Huh? I did that?"
[You don't know? Ah, I guess you're still under the influence of that Scenario. What about now?]
My eyes flickered with colors and immediately after, I regained myself. "K-Khac–Gasp, hah, hah…"
[Take your time to stabilize]
"Hah…" I panted as I clutched my head, forcing myself to keep my attention unwavering, "I remember now."
[And now is the time to go, Nord]
"Just what is this system, what are you? What is Emberhorn?!"
[...]
[It is]
[It is nothing]
[It is nothing and]
[It is nothing and everything]
[It is nothing and everything at the]
[It is nothing and everything at the same time]
I just watched as the sentence stretched out in front of me.
"Nothing and everything… Just what does that–"
Ding.
[You Have F@?!d ?2?>$"!]
"Gasp!?" I bolted up from my sleep, checking at the red notification spread out before my eyes.
[You Have Succeded]
[Congratulations]
"Wait, wait, wait, what's going on!?" I yelled out, checking the red notification turn into a vibrant green as it congratulated me.
"Hm?" A breath of confusion escaped Cleare's lips as she rubbed her temples, yawning as she read her own notification. It seems she had been taken over by sleep too.
"Huh?" She realized.
We quickly made our way toward where we left Evie working.
There, I was met with something I didn't expect.
Evie and Smool stood before the ancient door, their hands hovering over its intricate surface.
Symbols and runes glowed faintly, teasing us with their hidden meanings.
"Aah…" A prolonged breath of relief escaped Smool's lips, his voice was a deep baritone with his appearance as Kim Dogeza.
He gazed down at his gloved hands as the symbols on the walls shone a luminescent light of different sorts.
The tension in the room was palpable as Smool stepped away from it.
"We did it!" Evie exclaimed, her eyes wide with amazement as she went over the contents of her notebook.
The seconds stretched like an eternity, and we held our breath, praying for success.
Then, in a flash of brilliance, Evie's hand connected with the door's mechanism.
It let out a resounding click, and the ancient barriers shifted with a mighty groan. The door slowly creaked open, revealing a passage leading to unknown depths.
"Sigh…" I heard another sigh entering my ears from Smool.
"What happened…?"
"Huh, not much, we just cleared the quest with one second left to our time and it was such an adrenaline rush!" Evie went on and on.
"Smool, come over here…" I called him over at a corner and began talking, "I know for a fact we failed once."
"What do you mean–"
"Don't act dumb. The red notification of failure appeared for a faint second and it immediately changed into the success one."
"You're right."
"What did you do…?"
"Something you did about a month ago." He kept his words short with his charismatic physical state.
I felt the color drain from my face as those words entered my mind.
"Why did you abuse the damned system!?" I yelled out, not taking into consideration if the others heard or now.
"I had to. I had to increase my speed, senses, and intelligence tenfold, otherwise, we would all be stuck in here for eternity between the four stages of the Enigmatic Labyrinth." He reasoned.
And to those words of reasoning, I had no reply. I couldn't refute them. They were the truth, after all.
"..."
He turned to face our comrades who were looking at us, "We did indeed clear the challenge, everyone, but there was a price."
"One way bigger than we could expect. We lost Marcus, and now…" Smool gasped, struggling to maintain his balance. I'm being pulled away... to another realm."
We rushed to his side, but there was little we could do. The Ciphered Library had a cruel way of enforcing consequences for every action taken within its walls.
Smool's sacrifice had allowed us to progress, but it also meant that he would pay the price for bending the rules to his own desire.
With a small smile, Smool nodded as his body began disintegrating into ether blue motes. "Remember, I'm still out there, in some other realm or place. Sooner or later, we'll find each other again!"
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