I waste so much time on my own fantasies.
But even after all of that…
He barely caught himself on bruised feet, slipping down the shelves he clung to miserably.
Is that really all that's left for me in the end…?
The world was slowly killing him.
Dim lights in a vast seemingly endless space.
Peering up over the tops of shelves, he once again felt claustrophobic.
His eyes stung, wanting to melt out of their sockets.
When was the last time I slept…?
…
He posed the question for himself, but the longer he stood torn in the battle against his fuzzy mind, the farther away his answer seemed.
Hypotension brought him to his knees.
He had been walking around the shelves endlessly, picking book after book.
Looking behind him, a mess.
Looking ahead of him, a boundless maze with no exit.
He'd trapped himself in a labyrinth, but found he couldn't keep pushing on.
No clue why I do this to myself, he thought, snatching a book off the shelf his sliding back was pressed against. Turning the pages, his back slid out from the rest of him, which rested on his knees. His bottom softly hit the floor.
Have I read this one?
Crestia Report, October of Year 4347.
Orders to pursue South received. Passing the sands of Alqamar has come with its own share of troubles, however. It appears the lost troops of GongGong have resorted to Guerilla warfare as they make their way south. Water is scarce.
Casualties for this month: 12 men, 4 women.
"…"
Cobalt wordlessly turned the page.
Crestia Report, November of Year 4347.
Bastion in the region known as "Canopus" has been destroyed and looted. However, attempts to pursue their general whom they've nicknamed the "Kaiser" have proved fruitless. Enemies pursued with minimal losses. Storm clouds approaching from the west as we approach the land known as "Trifid".
Casualties for this month: 2 men, 2 women.
In terms of the War, Cobalt knew about as much as there was to know.
That being, almost nothing.
Any video surveillance was destroyed. Over 90% of logs were lost. And as far as Cobalt knew…
There were no survivors.
Crestia Report, Dec ber of Ye r 4347.
D vision lost. Front ine terminated. T e ene y has escaped. The War in the S uth almo t certainly lost. Do not att mpt to purs e. Repeat. Do no attempt to pursue. If this letter re ches you, everyone in o r division is alre y dead. The forc s were ot human.
Re eat.
The forc s w re not human.
Casualties: 12,000 (est).
"..."
Cobalt sat in silence.
But as his thumb peeled the final page…
His heartbeat shot up in his chest.
St y away f om the st rm.
St a ay fr th storm.
S y away from the sto m.
S w y fro th to m.
Stay away from the storm.
Sprawled in dirty red handwriting, was one of the most disturbing things Cobalt had ever read.
The field reports from 12 years ago were…
He reread the charred and smudged words written by dead men over in his mind.
Jesus Christ.
Was this the same rift he wanted to reopen?
Did he want to do this at all?
He slumped to the floor.
Just processing all the information was making his head run circles around himself, and now, just as usual, he was stressing himself out on whether or not he should even be doing any of this in the first place.
"You said that there's nothing that can scare you anymore, yes? If you truly mean that, then show me, personally, what that apathy and defiance can achieve."
Those words from the demon known to him as Mother.
"Don't run away from what you're afraid of. Run toward what you are not."
Did the AI know something about himself Cobalt didn't?
Or, more importantly…
Did they plan on killing him off if he failed?
The library's dimly lit halls tossed and turned over in his mind. Slumping over the more his eyes wandered, he found himself laying down on the dirty floors of the endless labyrinths of lost information.
Is this sorta like betraying Bismuth?
Yeah. I guess it would be, huh?
His wandering eyes fell more and more drowsy.
So when we get there… What are we gonna bring?
He could feel the claustrophobic halls stretching farther and farther away from him.
Definitely some antibiotics… Penicillin… There are some others we could probably take daily…
Fading.
A wristwatch, too…
Fading.
And…
Fading.
And…
In an instant, the spinning labyrinth of books disappeared under his eyelids, closing like a curtain…
* * * * * * * *
"Mnh," a tired boy, who had slept on a pile of books, stretched himself across mountains of hard-cover and open pages.
Putting a hand down, he heard the crinkling of paper under his fingertips.
His eyes, still not open, attempted to adjust themselves to the lighting of the library which seemed so dim the night before.
Wait… Night?
It could be night, day, morning, or anything in between.
With no windows… Cobalt had no idea.
Damn stupid space elevator…
At least, that's what Cobalt was told it was.
"—Uh—?"
His eyes noticed the paper he had used to prop himself up with.
I don't remember this one…
This special page, belonging to no book, must have fallen out of one.
Something like that…
He rolled over onto his back, and slowly propped himself up against the shelves until he was in a sitting position.
His vision—
Calm down, I'm not standing or anything… Cool yourself…
He dismissively lectured his low blood pressure like it was a child.
As his eyes once again readjusted from the short blurriness, he lifted up the paper into the light.
The front of the document was covered in several different sentences, bullet-points, diagrams, instructions, graphs…
About as much information that could possibly fit on a single sheet of paper.
Pictures of the Rift used in his lab…
But what caught his eye wasn't the diagrams, charts, graphs, nor steps.
What truly sparked a burst of cognizance in his spaced eyes, were the words on the back.
Handwritten with black marker, backwards from the other side, but appearing clear as day from the front, with light passing through it…
Read the words:
Cheat Code