"Ughhhh, my head is still hurting from last night." A deep grunt escaped Dante's mouth as he slowly opened his eyes, only to discover himself in an old, strange room.
This... This is not my room. I clearly remember that last night I went to sleep early due to the heavy headache in my hostel, not in a cheap hotel. Where am I? Dante's pupils dilated as he got up from the medium-sized bed on which he was lying.
He looked around to see only a chair and a table with a lamp in the corner of the room.
On the table, there was a container made of glass filled with a reddish-green fluid, closed with an obsidian stopper. On its right, there was a pen and a black, ordinary-looking diary.
...Have I been kidnapped? If so, then why is there a diary in this room? Also, what is that strange fluid in the glass container? Several thoughts emerged in Dante's mind as he walked towards the table.
The diary was of pure black color with a vertical eye on its cover that looked as if it held eternal knowledge.
He carefully sat in the chair, turned on the lamp, and started reading the diary as his curiosity got the better of him.
Just as he started to open the diary, several inscriptions came into existence on the pages of the diary.
*Pah*
Just as Dante noticed something happening, he quickly picked it up and threw it against the wall and, without wasting any time, ran towards the door.
*Kachik*
He instantly opened the door to find himself in a horrifying place. He saw several burnt small houses with severely dismembered decaying bodies. There were several ruins around the houses that were of greenish color with some mural on them.
The murals were different in every ruin. In one ruin, there was an old man with a book in his hand. He had pure white hair with deep black eyes, and the book had a dark reddish cover with several strange symbols.
On another ruin, there was a knight wearing dark black armor and a huge broadsword fighting several black-hooded figures.
On another was an extremely handsome man with red eyes, blonde hair, wearing black clothes that looked noble. He was smiling and looked as if he was alive and observing the place.
One ruin looked very strange and dangerous. It didn't have any figure but an eye. This eye looked similar to the eye that was on the book that Dante was trying to read!
Around the eye were several figures wearing strange attire inscribed with strange runes or scribes, bowing towards the eye.
This scenery, along with the moonlight from the two moons, looked horrifying to Dante, who was holding back his urge to puke after seeing the dismembered and decaying bodies.
He instinctively backed down and looked back again towards the diary, which he threw in the corner. The diary didn't have any of the symbols it had before and looked ordinary, just like a normal diary.
"What the fu*k is happening with me? Where am I? What are these strange murals, ruins, and this diary? Why is there a mural of the strange eye on the ruin that looked exactly similar to the eye on the cover of that diary? Who killed those people, and that also so brutally?"
Several thoughts began to raise in Dante's mind as he made bold assumptions.
Is this transmigration? As someone from the modern world, he had read several books of the same genre and wondered if he had transmigrated to a different world.
"I really have transmigrated! On Earth, there was only one moon and not two! Shit!" Faced with the strange reality, Dante began panicking.
"Uffff. Take a deep breath, Dante. Panicking would not take you anywhere," he then started calming himself down.
"Now that I know that this is another world, possibly a world of magic, looking at the diary and the murals on the ruins... I am really f*cked." Dante sighed as he thought about all those masterminds, powerhouses, and strange, powerful organizations that operated from the shadows.
"I should not leave this room until daytime. Looking at those strange ruins, decaying and dismembered ruins, if I leave now, I am just delivering myself to the unknown creatures that are roaming around in the dark." Dante analyzed his current situation as he tried his hardest to maintain his normal state of mind.
He then cautiously looked behind to see a very small house with a single room, full of bloodstains and inscriptions that were glowing a little, as if they formed a protective barrier around the small house. This was where Dante was before.
These inscriptions... Are they the reason that I was saved from the outside massacre? But it looked as if it had been 2-3 days since their death. Was I sleeping throughout this whole time, or was I transmigrated just now? Whatever the reason might be, it's best that I remain inside this small house for the meantime. Dante thought to himself as he walked into the room again and closed the door tightly.
He cautiously went towards the diary and made sure that nothing was wrong with it. Only after confirming it did he bend to pick it up.
Just as he touched the diary, something happened!
The diary began to shake and disintegrated into a swirl of energy! This swirl of energy went straight towards Dante, who tried his hardest to move away but was unsuccessful. The swirl of energy from the diary merged with Dante's body as Dante felt very extreme pain throughout his body and felt as if his mind was breaking apart.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH" Dante started to scream loudly as he couldn't stand the intense pain that was assaulting him.
At this time, the room was covered with glowing inscriptions as if they were absorbing all the sound released by Dante's scream.
He began to break down until a blurred image appeared in front of his mind. It was of his parents and his little brother.
No... No!!! I refuse to accept this!!! I don't want to die this way! I want to live! I want to meet my family again!! My little brother! My caring mother and father!!! I want to see them!!
Dante began to resist the sharp pain! Veins bulged throughout his body as he further resisted the pain!
2 seconds... 6 seconds... 20 seconds... 3 minutes. Dante began to think about the time to divert his mind to resist the pain but had no success.
*Swish*
After Dante counted to 3 minutes, 30 seconds, the pain stopped as the swirl of energy shook the house.
"Hufff Hufff Hufff." Dante began to pant hardly as he lay on the floor.
"What was that diary? I almost died due to it!" Dante threw his hand on the floor in anger.
"Thankfully, I survived due to my will to live... Mother, Father, and little brother..." Dante's eyes began to become moist as he shook his head and resisted the urge to cry.
"What a strange fellow. I can't grasp your origins. Where are you from?" An ancient voice resounded in Dante's mind as he was thinking about his family.
Dante immediately jumped from his position with very greath difficulty as he looked around to find the source of the voice.
"I am here inside your mind. No need to look around for me." The voice again resounded in Dante's mind as he chuckled a bit.
"This... Are you the swirl of energy from that strange diary?" Dante suppressed his nervousness as he asked in a weak voice.
"You can say that. I am the consciousness of that diary that resides in it as a swirl of energy. But I can only gain consciousness when I inhabit a person that the diary chooses. Last time, I wasn't here in the 'Ruins of the Zastrax'... Also, how did a mortal like you get your hands on the 'Aetherius Scribe'?"
Aetherius scribe... This must be the name of the diary, and this place, according to him, should be Ruins of Zastrax. What does 'Zastrax' refer to? Was it a castle? mausoleum? Or a city? Also, the figures on the murals... Were they the ones who reigned over it? Also, this 'Aetherius Scribe' must be related to the eye on that mural since it also had the same eye on its cover. Many people were bowing towards it... Is it a God or a very prominent figure? The ancient man also said that he was not here in the ruins last time, so there were other owners of the diary... Also, the scribe must be an item relating to the eye in some way. It's very important, so I should keep that in mind. Of course, only if he is telling the truth.
Also, he said something about me being a mortal... So this really is a world of supernatural or magic. He also said that he can't seem to grasp my origins... So he can't read my memory or my mind and is acting like an old grandpa. But why did he say that he can't grasp 'my' origins... 'my'... It seems that there's something preventing him from looking at my origin, that is, my previous world, Earth. How did this diary along with the glass container in this room come with me when I transmigrated? Or was it always here? .. I don't have a single clue, and I am making assumptions about everything.
Dante began to sigh as he analyzed his situation and also thought about the ancient man.
Should I ask him about the reddish-green fluid?
"I don't know. I just woke up recently and found myself in this place. I found the diary on that table... Also, can you tell me about that reddish-green fluid that's on the table?"
"... That should be the 'Node Nectar' that is required to break through from the boundaries of a mortal to become a 'Neophyte' and then 'Nodesmith'."