Chương 205: Chapter 205
The desert sun scorched the earth. Sand stretched endlessly, a wasteland of nothing but dust, and the sharp scent of dry earth seemed to crawl under the skin. In this barren place stood the Temple of Osirun, a forgotten monument, weathered by centuries of neglect and whispers. Few had dared to venture here, but those who did had heard the legends—the promises of forbidden knowledge contained within the Book of Wisdom, buried deep inside.
The story went that the Book was older than Egypt itself, written by beings beyond mortal comprehension, promising enlightenment, understanding, and ultimate power. But there was a price. The book was not a simple artifact to be read for knowledge. It demanded sacrifice. A sacrifice that tore something precious from the soul of whoever dared open its pages. Many had come, hoping to escape the fate of those before them, hoping they could conquer the price. None succeeded.
Elise was not like them.
She had not come to the temple seeking greatness. She had not come for power. She had come for answers. For years, she had searched, in books, in whispers, in fleeting moments of clarity, but there were no answers to the questions that gnawed at her soul. What was the point of it all? Why had she suffered, why had she lost everything she cared for? In the Book of Wisdom, she would find what she needed, what she had to know, what would bring an end to the pain.
Her footsteps were silent as she walked past the crumbled columns, each one a relic of a time long gone. The walls inside the temple were covered in faded murals of strange creatures and unknown gods, their eyes watching her as she moved. She had come prepared, knowing the warnings—the ones that spoke of the sacrifice required. But she believed she could handle it. After all, nothing was worse than the empty void of not knowing.
The Book was kept at the farthest point of the temple, in a chamber sealed by an intricate stone door. The door groaned under Elise's touch, reluctant to give way. She pushed harder, ignoring the dread that crawled up her spine. There was nothing else left for her. She had nothing left.
The chamber inside was cold. A single, dim light flickered above an altar where the Book lay open, resting on the stone surface. Elise's breath caught in her throat as she approached it. The pages seemed to move on their own, as if alive, as if they knew she had come.
She stepped forward, her heart pounding. There was a chill in the air, and the silence pressed in on her, suffocating. The book beckoned, its pages whispering in a language she could not understand but felt deep within her bones.
Her hands shook as she reached for it.
As her fingers brushed the ancient parchment, the air in the room seemed to crackle, like static electricity in a thunderstorm. The walls seemed to bend, to shift, the air thickening with unseen eyes, waiting, watching. Elise hesitated, but only for a moment. She had come too far to turn back now.
She opened the Book. The words on the pages seemed to bleed into each other, an incoherent jumble. And then, just as her vision blurred, a voice spoke—not with sound, but within her mind. It was a voice that could tear at the very fabric of reality, ancient and void, and it whispered to her in tones that chilled her soul.
"What will you offer?"
Elise's breath caught in her throat. She had read the stories. She had known the price. But hearing it, feeling it, made it real. She could turn away. She could walk out, leaving the Book behind. But she would never have this chance again. She could feel it in her bones. The answer would be here.
The voice inside her head pressed for an answer.
"What will you offer?"
Her mind raced, her thoughts scrambling. Her family had already been taken from her. Her friends had turned their backs. There was nothing left, nothing of value to offer—except one thing.
The one thing that had always been her anchor. The one thing that she had held onto, despite everything.
Her love.
The voice hummed, pleased with her answer. Elise could almost feel something shift within her as the temple began to quake. The Book of Wisdom's pages flipped wildly, as though an unseen force was pulling them faster, forcing her to read them.
"What is lost, must be given."
The words struck her like a physical blow. The room began to distort around her, the walls closing in, the floor shifting beneath her feet. Elise's vision was blurry, and her heart thudded painfully in her chest. She knew what it meant. She knew what it was asking.
And yet, she reached out again, her hand trembling, ready to give.
There was no turning back now.
The world tilted as the Book drew her in, its pages growing thicker, darker. Elise's mind swirled with visions—of faces she had known, people she had loved, all of them lost to her, lost to the cruel twists of fate. She saw them, but they were not as she remembered them. They were distorted, twisted things. And then, she saw herself.
Her body—her soul—was forfeit.
The Book of Wisdom would take from her what she cherished most.
In that moment, Elise understood. Her love would be torn from her, from her very heart. Her memories would be ripped apart, leaving nothing but empty space. It would be gone, vanished, as if it had never existed. The very essence of it, of her, would be lost.
But it was too late. The force was too strong. Her love was gone before she could even scream.
The Book slammed shut.
Elise collapsed to her knees, her hands pressing against the cold stone floor. She felt nothing. No pain, no regret. Just a numb emptiness that consumed her from the inside out. Her eyes stared ahead, unseeing, as if the world itself had been erased from her mind.
She stood, or at least she tried to. Her body felt foreign to her, as if it belonged to someone else. But it was still her. Still her, but not. She was nothing now, just a shell. Her love was gone. Her memories of it, gone.
There was nothing left.
The door to the chamber groaned open, the wind rushing in, but Elise didn't move. She didn't even look up as footsteps echoed on the stone. Someone had come.
A man. One of the many who had sought the Book before her.
He stood before her, looking down at her, his eyes wide. He had come for the same thing—knowledge, power, perhaps redemption. But when he saw her, his face paled.
"Elise?" he whispered.
But she couldn't respond. She couldn't remember.
She had been hollowed out. There was no more of her to give. She had given everything and received nothing but a desolate emptiness.
He took a step toward her, his hand trembling as it reached out. His fingers brushed against her arm, and in that moment, Elise could feel the terrible weight of what had been stolen from her. She could feel the cold of it in her very bones.
But she didn't care. She couldn't care.
She turned her back on him, on the world, on everything. The temple, the knowledge, the Book—none of it mattered anymore. Her world had ended the moment the Book had taken her love.
And she was left in a void, standing in the ruins of everything she had once been.
Her footsteps echoed, hollow, as she left the temple behind.
And somewhere, deep within her soul, she could feel the last piece of her slipping away.
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