CHAPTER 42: LAST STRAW

"I must be crazy," Aerith muttered, breath rasping as he stared at the library doors— a slab of browned wood carved with hundreds of tiny sigils engraved on it. There were two days left till they would enter their first doorway. He was supposed to be at combat class learning how to defend himself. Instead he stood here, because something in the stacks of books kept tugging at him.

Aerith could not tell why but he wanted to believe he had not made a serious mistake, he felt that if he went to the combat class today he would miss out on a piece of crucial information and because of this he felt he would be at a disadvantage.

Since he was already there he had no choice but to actually enter the library, "The combat class will be closed now anyway." He said to convince himself, but was surprised that he did not need much convincing.

A part of him preferred to just read books than to swing a sword and fight other people or worse, monsters. He pushed open the huge doors with very little effort as always, there was no creak from the doors, it only opened quietly.

He stepped in and waited for the door to shut itself quietly behind him, then he inhaled deeply. Taking in the fresh smell of books and polished woods into his lungs. The corner of his lips curled slightly into a smile, his gaze turned to the table where he had left a number of books open the other day to find them all shut and arranged neatly. There were three small stacks of books, each signifying a specific theme. One the tower floors, another about the umbrals and the last one about crosser abilities.

He walked up to the table cautiously, his eyes glancing around the library looking for any sign of life but there was only endless shelves and books. The air resonating with a strange electric hum, ceasing at intervals like an heartbeat. It was something he had not quite gotten used to, it felt like the library was alive.

At first he wanted to dismiss the thoughts but that proved hard to do whenever he came the next day to find the books he left open shut and arranged neatly. "No, fool. The library can’t be alive, so stop thinking useless things and focus on being useful." He shook his head in hopes of tossing the thoughts away, which proved surprisingly useful.

He then started the stressful process of trying to summon the telephone one last time. He had only agreed with himself to try for a few times, for at most half an hour. But without any sense of actual time, he fell into the same intensity and started to repeat the process for more than an hour without getting any good result. His spasms returned and he began to regret even trying.

The observatorium started to turn up in the air on their own, they chimed and hummed faintly but the boy below paid them no heed he was too focused on what he was doing to notice the subtle shift in the library. But the air in the library had changed and become more disturbed.

All this changes was made possible by one figure.

Aerith was in the middle of trying again when a strong female voice interrupted him. It made his hair stand on ends, "You’re doing it wrong, yitiru."

Aerith’s heart stopped breathing and air left his lungs, he had been too comfortable being the only soul in the library that his body was not prepared to have an encounter with another person. His body froze for a few seconds as his mind tried to figure out where the voice had come from. "Was that a woman just now? Shit! I didn’t see anyone in here." Aerith ruled out the thought of someone sneaking up on him without making a sound.

But the big question remained, who was this person and what were they capable off? "Did she mistake me for someone else?"

Several hours earlier...

Down the white corridor, the wheelchair squeaked like a distressed hinge. a small girl with a massive of purple hair pushed a much older girl on a black steel wheelchair down a long hallway till they reached a huge steel door.

The young girl’s eyes were a bright shade of purple, but they were cold. Underneath each eye was huge dark circles current growing in a full circle around each eye, she looked terribly out of shape and malnourished, a few bruises on her face which were almost healed; making them barely visible.

Nasha sending her anxiety cleared her throat and spoke. "Don’t worry, I’m here." She looked the worst of the two, her face looked drained of life and her facial expression was not any better.

Emil did not spare her companion a glance before pushing her towards the door. "What use if a bitch in a wheelchair?" Her voice was unusually cold, not bearing any warmth she usually showed Aerith. "You’re only holding us back, so shut the hell up."

Her companion said nothing, she had never gotten close to the young girl. They had never even spoken before they entered the tower and even after they had been called into the tower they never interacted. Her only role was to keep Aerith safe and she was doing a shit job at that currently.

"Don’t think that because you saved my life once we’re even, I already repaid that debt." Emil added. "That was Aerith’s command."

Nasha grimaced as they entered the combat room, which was a huge space very similar to a dojo. A wide space to house the hundreds of crossers there and a s all white platform in the middle where duels were held.

The inside had at least two hundred crossers and in the middle was the Testmaster who stood his face filled with the same voice that had never known happiness. Nasha looked could almost feel his eyes staring right at her very soul, she managed to break eye contact— barely. Then she turned to face Emil and spoke cold and calculating. "I want you to listen very carefully, I don’t care about you one bit. I only serve the young lord and his wishes, next time I won’t lose a fight.