"Great, we managed to get out." Marcus spoke with a sigh of relief.
Now out of the book world, the disguises everyone wore had vanished into clouds of blue. No longer needing it.
As time passed by, everyone was resting or standing around, trying to collect their thoughts on what just happened.
Calliope stood in front of all of them, holding a book in her hand. She flashed a small smirk while reading through the book, as if satisfied with what had happened.
The twins resumed their slumber, sleeping on a bookshelf while everyone else was wide awake. Colton felt saddened by looking at them, using up all their energy so fast.
It all reminded him of a few recruits he fought with before, young and still getting used to the stresses of an army on the march.
After a few minutes had passed, Calliope was ready to speak, standing in front of everyone with a confident posture.
"The mission was successful. We managed to collect a great amount of books that shall aid us and the king greatly." She turned her head to the massive closed book.
"Due to the situation we had gone through, and the events that have transpired. It may be of risk to re enter the world, as we may be detected once more by the worshipers." She explained, having gathered more knowledge from the books in that vault.
"Wait, where's the thief guy?" Quill asked, sounding very tired. Her tone and formality changed, seemingly snapping out of the personality she had earlier, like a person that came out of being drunk.
Everyone looked at her, bearing faces of confusion and genuine surprise, realizing that Myo was not with them.
"Myo did not manage to pass the portal due to holding down the door. As of now his fate is unknown." A mix of shock, sadness, and indifference were seen on everyone's faces.
"Can we return? He helped us, it should be fair that we help him." Marcus asked, Celestine looked at him with a face of confusion.
"You want to help him at this moment? We were against dozens or even a hundred people earlier, he's most likely dead." Celestine responded.
"If I were to theorize. Given that they have the ability to detect a few of us despite our disguises. And the heavy response of guards and soldiers to our operations. Returning there will be extremely difficult." Calliope continued. Celestine nodded at her explanation.
"Although it may be optimistic of me to say he may be alive, given the situation. That likelihood is slim." She finished talking. Calliope's tone sounded mournful, as if saddened by the possible loss of Myo, for once in their mission, she met a possible aid.
"Start resting for now. We may return here once sufficient time has passed, our task still stays firm." With that, the team settled back down in the area.
As the team started to rest after Calliope's briefing, Colton sat on the side. He was unsure on how to feel about what happened. But to him, one thing was certain. He was relieved to be alive.
He started to remember the forest they rested in, missing it.
As their rest went on, Colton noticed Quill and Celestine were both speaking to Calliope.
After a few more seconds of talking, they soon turned to the bookshelf next to them and began climbing. Colton immediately stood up and walked closer to where they were climbing.
"They desired to attempt climbing the library shelf after we received the climbing knowledge book." Calliope spoke, sensing Colton's curiosity in what was going on.
"What're they doing?" Marcus approached them. Calliope quickly responded with the same answer she gave Colton.
A minute passed, and the two finally reached the top, the three continued looking upwards, awaiting them to come back down with a report.
"What do you reckon they'd find?" Marcus asked, looking at Colton for an answer.
"Don't know…More bookshelves?" His hastily made answer managed to make Marcus chuckle for a bit before returning to awkward silence.
After a while, the pair returned to the ledge and started to make their way down.
Once their boots reached the ground, Colton saw their faces. A mix of fear and worry lay on both.
"What did you see?" Calliope questioned.
"Even with my huntress eyes, and the bright light, I couldn't see an end to the bookshelves." Quill explained.
"All around us are just bookshelves, our path ahead is just the same two shelves, can't see anything beyond that." Celestine added. Calliope stayed silent for a few seconds before responding.
"Very well. In around an hour we will resume moving forward. This section of bookshelves has been dealt with." After talking, everyone returned to catching some more rest.
'All just bookshelves…' Colton thought to himself. His eyes slowly started to close as he sat down, the amount of stress and fighting he had to endure earlier proved to be too much.
His body now only wanted to rest in a quiet and safe place. He rested his warhammer next to him, no longer able to keep it on his back.
The team silently sat around, Celestine and Quill were conversing with one another quietly. Marcus spent his time looking at his weapon, like an inspector searching for cracks.
Calliope continued to stand around, keeping watch of her team, this time reading from another book.
Colton's mind was absent, with nothing to do, he started to remember and think of everything he did in the book world. Out of all his skirmishes in the past, this was one of the closest times he had come to dying.
From forest ambushes to large scale battles, he only experienced a fight like earlier a few times.
As he continued thinking to himself, he heard Calliope's voice.
"On your feet." She ordered. Everyone slowly stood up and made their way to her. Once everyone was close enough, she started to speak.
"From the many books we recovered, I managed to find a select few for our usage." She held up a single book that carried an orange cover.
"This one dabbles into energy or stamina. From how to conserve our energy to regaining it faster. I expect that it shall help us in gaining more ground." After explaining, Calliope began tearing off pages of the book and handing it to each of them.
The pages were filled with writings and symbols, still unknown to Colton's eye, all written in black ink.
It took some time as the page on Colton's hand started to disintegrate.
Immediately he felt the information start going into his mind, with vivid images of text appearing and disappearing rapidly in his eyes.
But after a moment, he started to feel less tired, and started to breathe better.
Everyone else seemed to feel the same effects, some stepping back from the vivid images before breathing deeply, feeling their lungs take in more air.
Along with his breathing, Colton's legs felt less heavy than before.
Once everyone absorbed their pages, Calliope spoke again.
"Hopefully these pages will make our journeys more efficient. And perhaps find a new bookshelf ahead to investigate."
As she was talking, the twins were starting to wake up from their slumber. Oliver stretched as he got up while Clarissa immediately walked to Calliope.
"Let us move." With three words, the team started their journey once more into the library.
With what Colton had witnessed in that book world and the enemies he had faced from knowledge books, he was unsure of what else may be hiding.
He became more weary, hoping to not have to go through another near death experience like earlier.
The shock of being close to dying made him become more vigilant, feeling a need to be more careful.
Though he felt his worries get lower upon seeing the twins walk ahead of him. With them, he and the team should be far from death's grasp.
As they wandered down, Colton's thoughts soon loomed back to that vault. What happened to Myo?
They couldn't return to aid him, only moving forward to the next book world. He only hoped that the first ally they made in this bizarre dimension of books and wooden shelves and the book world was alright.
Soon, he quickly focused back to walking. The team had been walking for a few minutes now, and the two bookshelves went on with no end in sight.
As they descended further, Colton was certain he could go crazy from the distance of the shelves and the infinite line of books on each shelf.
"Keep your eyes wide open. We are moving further away, it is unclear what we could encounter in this library." Calliope advised.
Colton took out his weapon, gripping it with both hands. Everyone else walked on with similar fears, taking out their own weapons just in case.
With the fight earlier, they had to be vigilant. The twins stayed close behind Calliope, now walking with their very own weapons, capable of protecting themselves from anyone that may get too close.
They continued moving with no rests at all, Colton still felt energized and barely any issues with his legs.
As they went on, a single question lingered in Colton's mind.
'What else is in this library?'