"But, this book is weak now... It used to be an unimaginably powerful book, capable of causing ■■■ ■ ■■...."
As Chloe said those words, I couldn't help but think about what she said. The words she said or her explanation were censored. As if I wasn't allowed to hear them. But she didn't realize it, to her... the words she said were clear.
"W...-"
I couldn't say anything, my tongue was held by an invisible force that didn't allow me to ask anything about the book. Chloe's face changed again, she was staring at me deadpanned without any emotion beneath it... It was eerie, just like how she used to be in my previous dreams. Without expectance... The symbol on her forehead appeared again. "End", it was.
"30 minutes is up, James Myer. Goodbye." Chloe neutrally said.
"Wait, what-"
[DREAM SEQUENCE OVER]
My vision in the dream started to go black again, my mind was reawakening once more as I woke up in a white room with minimum furniture, it only had a hospital bed, a desk beside the bed that was made out of galvanized square steel, the desk had about 3 drawers: 2 above, and 1 long drawer below it. The room was quite brightly lit with a white light bulb.
I glanced around my surroundings, taking in what happened in the dream. There was also an average-sized window that was covered by a light blue curtain on the right side of the room.
I looked at the window, staring at the blue curtains for a few more moments before glancing to the left of me, which was a door. It seemed to be locked from the outside, as I sat up from the bed, rubbing my forehead in dizziness.
Not long after, I noticed a camera in the corner of the room monitoring my every move.
"Heh, only one camera?" I said to myself, chuckling softly as I stared at the camera.
Like, is one camera enough for me? James Myer, The Mischievous Fool?
I did think about that before realizing something. The desk had a note on it. I walked over to the desk to pick the note up. When I did, I opened it softly to try and not tear it. When I read what it said... It was blank.
"Huh... blank? Why is the note blank...?"
I tried to put the note in a place that had more light, but there was still nothing. It was pure blank.
That's when I felt like there was something weird going on in this room. It felt too... unnatural. I mean, if you look at it from a certain perspective, it would look like it's from the Backrooms. That's how lonely this room felt.
I put the blank page back on the desk, before stepping my way to the window. I pushed the blue curtains aside and saw what was outside. It was... a city!?
"What the..."
A shocked look appeared on my face when I stared at the scenery in front of me. The city was more like a modern Victorian world. To better phrase it, the city looked like a combination of modern and Victorian-era structures. It still had those complex and detailed designs of the Victorian era, but it was combined with modern technology.
"Hmm..." I thought about a way to escape this room, like punching the glass... or something.
However, after inspecting the window I realized that it was bulletproof. Meaning it won't shatter that easily. Plus, if the window had successfully broken, I would've fallen 25 stories down to the ground since the building that I was in was a skyscraper.
Looking down at the streets, I noticed people who wore the same type of clothing as Old Man Roy Maverick. It seems suits are quite the norm here. Compared to torn and dirty clothes in the slums from where I am.
I went back to my bed which looked a lot like a hospital bed, staring at it for a few more seconds, before taking notice of the sheets.
"These patterns were not here before..." I lightly rubbed my hand on the sheets.
The bedsheets had an eerily pattern similar to the symbol on Chloe's forehead. The patterns matched the symbol of 'End', Could this be a hint from something? I asked myself that. However, what can I do with this knowledge? It's not like magic or supernatural abilities exist in this world.
Then it clicked, the weird unfamiliar faces back in the slums! I remembered that I saw one of them phase through a wall, but when I did it... It didn't work. However, is that enough to prove magic or supernatural things exist? Probably.
Many theories suggest Emperor Fath Mada used magic to expand his territory. But those are just theories, right?
"It's experimenting time."
I started experimenting with random phrases and chants because they usually worked in anime and manga, however, I quickly realized that wasn't the case. Well, not quickly. It took me over 300 different phrases and chants to realize that this wasn't the method.
I thought back again to my dream, there was a sealed book inside the big tree. But Chloe broke the shield that was protecting it, so theoretically speaking... I could probably grab the book!
I could see a light bulb materialize above me as I came to this conclusion. "What the hell?"
The light bulb wasn't a hallucination of sorts, it was real. When I touched it, I could feel the heat that was emanating from the filament. Strangely enough, the heat from the lightbulb was instantly hot even though it had turned on for only a few seconds.
"Ow!" I whined loudly in pain.
After touching the light bulb, I realized that I could manifest inanimate objects. As I stared at the light bulb above, it suddenly vanished. It left me stunned as I stood there, trying to process what just happened.
Returning to the original idea, The book is probably connected to my manifestation powers. However, after standing for so long, my feet started to feel sore, so I sat on the edge of the bed and focused my mind solely on the book, trying to make it materialize before me.
After focusing many times, and failing... I started to get desperate. I pressed my fingers to my temples hoping that it would somehow work this way, but to my surprise... A strange feeling started to grow inside me. It's a completely foreign sensation, one that cannot be described by the human language... But I could feel something in there.
My mind quickly registered that I was close to materializing the book, but then I heard footsteps... coming from outside. I immediately realized the footsteps were approaching my room. As I slumped back to the bed, pretending to be asleep.
I didn't know why I did that, since a security camera monitored my movements... Probably because of human reflexes.
The doorknob twisted slightly. As I waited in anticipation, the door was slowly pushed open by none other than... Paryss! Paryss entered the room with a frown on her face, she probably wanted to apologize for kidnapping me a few hours ago.
Surprise was visible on my face as I sat up almost instantly. I shouted her name in a relieved yet shocked tone.
"Paryss?!"
"AAAHHH-!! You scared me!" Paryss shouted back with the same amount of surprise.
"Sorry, but why are you here? Where am I?"
Paryss huffed, trying to calm herself down. "We're in the City of St. Charles Lucient. It was a hassle trying to get you here because you kept moving around like some maniac in solitary confinement while sleeping."
"Wait, was my body really doing that? Huh, I never knew."
I guess my body is protecting me, even when I'm unconscious.
"But why am I here?" I asked again.
Paryss crossed her arms and said with a solemn tone, "You're here because Captain Pol wants you to do your job better."
I was confused, yet angered. Why? I take my job seriously. But then I realized a hint of a smirk was visible on Paryss' face, in that moment I knew she was teasing.
"Yeah, no tell me the real reason."
"Heh. The higher-ups want you to be a test subject for their new idea."
"And... what is that idea?" I asked her.
"Well, they're currently researching about a new crack in reality that appeared near the market where we live," Paryss explained.
"A crack in reality?"
"Yeah, but knowing how greedy this entire organization is... they want you to be a test subject to explore said crack."
"What??? Why me?" I complained back. Why was I specifically chosen? Unless... it was a plan to get rid of me.
"I don't know, they won't tell me. But I don't have any way to help you through this... I'm sorry James."
(sigh) Damn.
Anyway, turns out she didn't apologize for kidnapping me. Classic Paryss.
After she left, I sat back on the bed thinking about our brief conversation. She still didn't tell me where I was apart from being in St. Charles Lucient. To my knowledge, this city is near the capital of the country of Clifford Qhotiph, uh.. what was the city name again? Oh right, it's Taklingsburg.
"Hmm, a crack... huh? Why do weird things keep happening in this world?"
I looked back at the surveillance camera monitoring me and realized that there was no indication that it was turned on. Was the camera turned off? Weird.
However, I suddenly felt a devastating ache in my stomach. My head felt like it had an extreme migraine as I looked around my surroundings to see a colorful mist slowly engulfing the room.
A heavy whisper filled with indescribable authority flew past my ear reverberating loudly across the room, almost like a sonic boom. But strangely enough, nobody heard it except myself.
The initial sound was incoherent, but as it reached the last echoes, a sentence from an unknown language could be heard saying;
"Manteringa Kos Rabenuga."
- To Be Continued -