บท 4: Chapter 4
As 24 started to go down the path she discovered. The personnels from the institute is starting to travel towards the island where they sent the subjects. The other children did not notice that 24 has been missing for almost 4 hours. They all thought that she will be back later and started to sleep.
Back in the dark stone hallway, 24 followed the straight path while the green torches that hangs on either side of the hallway which serves as her only light.
"It's creepy out here. The light barely lit the hallway because of its color. The pathway is also moldy from what I can smell, the floor is slippery and everything else feels like a haunted house except it feels like a dirty secret lair of some sort of trash and shady people would get", said 24 while looking around the hallway.
After minutes of walking, she started to think that there must be something in the hallway. 'Is there no end to this hallway?', she thought as she continue her seemingly endless walking. She then stopped walking and sat on the left side of stone floor. Scanning the barely lit hallway, noticed that she is back from where she came down the stairs before walking into the stone hallway. Then she saw an eye carved from the stone brick opposite from her position.
The stone wall is made up of 10 stone bricks stack up together vertically. There in the stone bricks an eye was carved on the very bottom of the bricks. She tried to push the brick that has the carved eye. But nothing happened except the brick that she pushed never came back from its original position. Sighing, she continued to walk hoping to find an eye. And she was not disappointed. She found another one but it was positioned on the second brick. She pushed the brick with carved eye but this time it went back to its original position. Confused on what happened, she tried to push it again and like the first brick, it went inside.
'What if each carved eye on each brick stone has designated numbers to be pushed? And maybe I can get out of this smelly place', she thought. 24 continued her search for the third stone bricks. After encountering the third brick and did what she theorized, she smiled and continued to search for the remaining bricks hoping to get out of this smelly, dark stone hallway.
After many hours of searching, pushing and walking, she is at last pushed the final 10th stone brick. As she pushed the brick for the 10th time, her surroundings lit up a flashing light and she fell unconscious.
She woke up from her unconscious state and felt a headache. Groaning from the pain, she heard a voice coming from her left side. "She is awake! Get the doctor right away!", she decided to open her eyes only to see a blonde-haired man on his twenties wearing a sophisticated suit belonging from some noble household. Confused on her situation, she sat from her king-size bed only to be scolded by the blonde man.
"Your majesty must not sit. You must take a rest, it will help your recovery. The doctor is on the way", said the blonde man.
"May I ask who are you?", 24 said but the blonde man seemed that he did not hear any of her statement, and frantically calling for the doctor. "Umm.. hello can you not hear me? Are you deaf?", 24 said to the blonde man, only to be ignored again.
Suddenly, a doctor in his forties came inside the room and went beside 24 to check her up. After checking that she is alright, the doctor then faced the blond man.
"She is alright. There are no signs of poison in her body anymore. It will take 4-5 days of rest for her to recover her lost strength", the doctor said and leave some medications on the bedside table before leaving the room.
'Wow I got poisoned, I never knew about that. I am a healer yet I got poisoned. I swear I'll kill the bastard who did it', 24 thought while scanning her environment. The room is larger than the cafeteria in the institute. Looking around, 24 could tell that she is inside a majestic room and based on what this man said she is some sort of queen of some unknown kingdom. Then on her left, she saw a red flag with yellow outline. In the center of the flag was a lion and snakes head facing each other in a gold color. The lion is standing up and roaring towards the vertically standing snake, with mouth wide open and somehow hissing towards the lion. At the back of the lion and snake, a two swords can be seen intersected with a shield above the swords. 'I haven't seen that flag anywhere history books in the library', 24 said thinking that it was one of the kingdoms who fall long before Grisaia was established.
Then the blonde man sat on the side of the bed and faced 24. She may be currently a child right now but she is also a female who know how to appreciate appearance especially of opposite sex. The blonde man is strikingly handsome with his jewel-like blue eyes, square jaw, slick back blonde hair, pink lips and smooth white skin. Suddenly, the blonde man smiled and a dimple on his left cheek appeared. 'I wish I had one', 24 said with envy in her eyes and started touching her cheeks.
"Your majesty, I was really worried when you got poisoned during the banquet. Please don't do something like this again your majesty", said the blonde man. His worried voice and sad eyes could be seen from his handsome face.
Then a knock rang out of the door and opened. A man in green suit could be seen entering the room with his cane acting as a support. He is wearing glasses and a small curved mustache on his faced. His hair is a little mess from running towards her majesty's room to check on her condition. "I heard from the maids that her majesty is already awake. How is her condition?", ask the man.
"She is fine Marquis El. The doctor said the poison in her body is not that dangerous because of the fast action taken during the incident in the banquet. It will take 4-5 days until her full recovery", the the blonde man. His expression changed from mellow and worry to stern. 24 could tell that the blonde man is tense and wary from Marquis El. "I see", said the Marquis with a hint of disappointment from his voice.
"Is there anything you need from her majesty?", ask the blonde man.
"Nothing. I will see you next time your majesty", said Marquis El before leaving the room. When the blonde man turn around to face her, the flash consumed her, changing her surroundings.
After the flash died down, she saw herself in a room filled with cloaked people who are chanting. 24 turned her head only to see that she is already in the middle of some sort of ritual. Her hands and feet were tied with a rope and was seated down in the middle of the circle. The circle started to glow while a series of chain came out from the ground tying her down. She felt that her strength is decreasing along with her mana. She then realized that the chain is absorbing it leading to a small red glowing orb in front of her.
"Well, well, your majesty is finally awake. I thought I couldn't get you from the hands of Marquis El. Who would knew that he is the one who is secretly protecting you while making himself look like your enemy all this time. I am impressed of his loyalty. But you know, everything is not going according to his will", said the blonde man.
This shocked 24. Because the man earlier look like he wouldn't be able to plot something like this. He is caring and it seems that he love whoever his majesty is. Then all of the sudden she will learn that the true enemy is the one that looks innocent. Talk about deceiving looks.
"Seriously, what the hell is going on?", 24 said as she started to wiggle her way out of the circle but couldn't because of the chains tying her down.
"Look here man, I am just a poor soul dragged in this and has nothing to do with your so called 'majesty' so would be so kind to let out of this. I still have the 3-day surviving training going in this island and I have to go back", 24 said while looking at the blonde man standing outside the circle looking like some sort of leader of the cult. "I guess I am ignored again", 24 said as the blonde man continues his monologue.
"Well he can't do anything now. You thought he poisoned you whilst it is me all this time. All the assassination attempts were done by me. You were foolish enough to believe in me and everything I said. You maybe the Goddess of all supreme beings, But you are weak as fuck when it comes to your people. I, the First Prince of this kingdom, was always seen as a minor and good-for-nothing entity. I was always ignored and treated as a trash that keeps following you around and kissing your sorry ass. I am tired of all of this shit! It is time for me to reign the beings and the light that I am possessing will be brighter because of your sacrifice and power. After I absorb everything I will destroy what you have built and kill the remaining loyalist of your empire. Goodbye Your majesty", the blonde man said. He then said something towards the cloaked guys, and they hasten their movements to activate the ritual.
The glowing circle started to shine brighter and all of my power was absorb to the orb. 24's body started to crumble apart into dust. Before my head turns into dust, all of the cloaked people brought their hoods down for me to see who are these traitors. 'Although I don't even know a single cloaked persons in the front, I could tell that these people were ones serving whoever the majesty is', 24 thought to herself while trying to remember each faces of those people who took off their hoods. Then My sight blurred and turned black.
Suddenly I was again transported into a stone room. But this time, the room was clean and the designs were more of ancient type. Then I saw a big red sphere in the center. Underneath the sphere were circles that I have seen from earlier except it is not glowing anymore and cracks could be seen on the circle. The only thought that came from my mind was "WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK DID JUST HAPPEN?!", I screamed in confusion. 'Does the things that I have seen earlier are memories of some sort of person who belong to godly descent? From what I heard from the handsome blonde man, he is a God of Light and the woman that he is talking to which me in other person's body is a Goddess of all those crazy beings?', so many questions kept rising from 24's brain.
Suddenly a voice could be heard from across the room 24 is in.
"Child, all of the things that you have seen, are all my memories. Although I am considered physically dead, my spiritual is not", said the archaic voice. 24 looked towards the big red glowing sphere where the voice came from.
"And who are you?", ask 24.
"I am something you all humans call a 'God' or some sort. I am not just your typical God but the one who reigns over the other gods and goddesses", said the voice.
"So you are like a Supreme being I suppose. What am I doing here? And where am I?", asked 24 towards the sphere.
"You are in one of the sacred place of my ones standing kingdom. I was once turned into a human to take a break from you know being a God for once. Building my kingdom, and ruling over it makes it more satisfying than my godly job. My kingdom was once called Nichmize, the lost kingdom you people are currently searching for. The name of my kingdom is something that I created on a whim so don't mind it. As for what you are doing here? You are the first person to ever got in here and talk to me. I am planning to give you the mission to collect my powers that was scattered unto the 4 kingdoms: Grisaia, Normeka, Ishtain and Briyanka. Of course if you accepted the mission that I gave you, I will grant you 5 wishes of any choices you want. And also give you everything my lost kingdom has to offer", said God.
"Can I call you God? By the way are you a man or a woman?"
"I am neither both. And yes you can call me however you want", said God.
"So base on the rewards you are willing to give me, I assume it is hard to gather all of it. So the memories that I have experienced earlier is your memory when you were a human am I correct?", 24 asked.
"Precisely. The 2nd ruler, the first prince, my son killed me in hopes of getting some sort of power from me upon learning that I am not entirely a human. He thought I am some sort of half fairy race which is a very rare and secluded race in this world. He is also blinded by the greed of owning and ruling the kingdom that I have built, so he ended up overthrowing me and brainwashing my people leading into their demise and was struck calamity. My secretary Marquis El, the one you saw from my memories, was the one who cursed the royal family and my people after killing me", God explained to 24.
24 contemplates on whether to take it or not. She still have a lot of planning to do to escape the institute together with her comrades who are inside the temple somewhere resting. Also, by taking the mission God is giving her, means she needs to travel and gather those powers which is harder and dangerous than getting out of the institute. So 24 is torn between taking the mission or not.
"I am not sure whether to take it or not God", says 24.
"Why not? Are you worried for your teammates outside?" asked God.
"Well, we've been together for how long I don't know so I value them and obviously wanted to escape the clutches of those people. Taking this mission means me and the people I care about will be in danger", said 24 in a serious tone.
"I understand. I am not going to push myself to you my child. I only ask for you to think about this once more", said God in a calm tone. God is worried for he/she already wasted many million of years waiting to be set free from her prison made by her son. Of course God is not worried of her leaving some of the jobs towards his/her secretary when it comes to universe management but God is betting bored of doing nothing.
"Is there another route me and my comrades can take to get away from this island?", asked 24.
"Huh? Ah! Yes my dear child. If you want I can give you the instructions and the location of where you can safely escape from this island including your pursuers", said God. He/she also felt pity for the dear child standing in front of him/her. Even though God is trapped, it does not lessen her abilities to see ones own life. God could see that the child is desperate to get out of this place and start a new life after shutting the institute down. Such compassionate and determination he/she could see from the child so young to be used as subjects for war.
"If what you said is true, then I will take the mission", said 24 full of determination and resolve.
God was pleased from 24's answer and the red glowing sphere started to light and covered 24's body. 24 could tell that she is getting stronger and her mana pool reserves is also getting larger. After a while, the light died down and the red glowing sphere already lost its color indicating that the power it holds where now transferred to the 24.
"I already enhanced your mana foundation and knowledge that you need to know after getting out of this mess. I suggest that you find a new body to dwell and house your soul to prevent your already weak body from breaking. I would say 2 weeks from now before your body breaks down. Also I already implanted the location and direction of the route you are going to take to escape from this island in your brain. I will use the remaining power I have left to give you kids the time to escape. Goodluck on your journey my child", said God and the door of the room opens leading outside.
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