What the hell did I even read out loud!?

  “Uhm... That’s rather… tragic? I think?”

  I think “tragic” is not enough to describe what I just read. This was nothing more than a cruel, gruesome story with a tragic ending but to make it even “worse” were the damn pictures on it. And let me tell you, they were as graphic as the story itself. Completely different from the previous three books but just like them, once the story is done it starts to talk about something completely different. Though in this case the topic is actually about Shadows but a very limited and primal knowledge of such beings. Way too many what ifs and whatnots but with no concrete evidence whatsoever. Whoever wrote this, must have just figured out who they are as the vast majority of the information is incorrect while another majority is incomplete.

  “Tragic? While in a sense you’re right, I think this is more a horror story that has tragic elements on it after all, seeing your loved one getting killed in such a way sure is something else.”

  Argh, I can’t stop my brain now. Just imagining it is turning my stomach upside down. The thought of such is making me want to puke and the vivid images appearing on my mind are this close to forcing me to faint. I need to stop thinking about it but since I have seen those vivid images that were present throughout the story, it’s making it close to impossible. Think of something else, something nice. Ye-yeah, like flowers and that girly type stuff. I-I-I mean, I’m a man of course but, I need something cute in my mind. For example, Kiana! Yeah! She’s the true definition of pretty so-and I’ve goofed it up as now she’s on my mind… just like what happened in the story and its horrifying set of events… I don’t want to even think what I’m currently thinking.

  Seriously, please stop.

  “Ahem! Let’s change subjects before I get depressed… Here, let’s store these two on the shelf.”

  And so, as best as I can, I change subjects, I carefully storing the two books we got upstairs on the shelf. Thet middle part that is separated is just big enough for me to squeeze all of the four books together but not tight enough to the point I’m forcing them or anything of that sort. Just that perfect size I will say however, even after staring at them for a solid minute, nothing has happened, confusing both of us by quite a bit.

  “Did we do anything wrong? Are we missing more books?”

  “I have no clue. I don’t think we are missing books as there aren’t any magic lines so, it might be something else?”

  Good job me! Nice conclusion from yours truly! But yeah, this does not make any sense whatsoever. We have collected all the books from where those magic lines lead us to not only that, we also completed all the “challenges” that these books provided us with. Because of this, I just can’t see that we are missing more books. Looking around, whatever with or without magic, I cannot find anything useful either. Maybe there were books throughout this area that we missed but nope, not a single piece of paper is present let alone a whole book. What are we missing? I just can’t wrap my mind around it and since that story is still quite fresh on my mind, it’s getting hard to have a clear thought process. Actually, my mind is getting filled with thoughts about Kiana and all of them are related to what happened to the story… Oh man, this really is repugning me.

  “Maybe the books are in the wrong place? Or maybe it’s the order that is incorrect?”

  Thank you so much Miss Pink Orb! Seriously, I really am having troubles to think clearly. Maybe the past trauma is making it hard for me to not imagine such “tragic” set of events happening. I have no clue but, that does not matter for now as right beside me, I have someone who I can trust and count on even though I just met her a few hours ago. Huh, I really put my trust in people that easily, now do I? Anyway, what she said more than makes sense and thinking about it for a little bit I can somewhat guess what we did wrong. First of all, this is the only shelf where it’s divided so I doubt that the other ones are the correct ones because of that. Secondly, the middle part is the only area where it fits the books more “tightly” than the other parts, they still fit on those of course but no way they will ever be as tight as they are in that section. Now, this leaves us with the “order” of them.

  “I think it might be their order. I think this is the correct place because as you can see, they fit nicely and the other shelves are not divided at all.”

  “Hmm, hmm, I also think that. Though, do you think that the books are all connected?”

  That is a good question to have and I do think they are connected. Think with me, all of them have a story on them (duh) then, said story is followed by a topic that at first has nothing to do with said story but after getting my mind clear from those horrible thoughts, said topic actually is related to the story at hand. For example, the last one I read was about Shadows and guess what? They appeared in the story. The other ones are the same, different topics of course but still within the realm of the story on each one of them.

  “I think so. If we only look at the main story per say, I think they are all about the same story but in different timelines.”

  “Ah, that makes sense! Then, the last one we read must be the last one of the story, no?”

  Seriously, having someone by your side that can quickly understand what you are talking about is wonderful. Enough of this though, I don’t want to boost her ego too much and I don’t want to go into a tangent. What I said is the theory that makes the most sense and just like she said, the last one that we read seems to be the final part of the story itself. We can reach this conclusion because of the way it ended.

  “From how it ended, yes, I do believe so. Alright, let’s grab them and see what order we come up…”

  And so, that’s exactly what I do and not to my surprise at all, the magic lines quickly appear the moment I remove the books from the shelf. Alright, the books we have are the following; The Forbidden Birth, The Forgotten Boy, The Hatted Child and, The Consequences. This is actually the order that I have them ordered. I think that “The Forbidden Birth” is the first one not only because of the name but also the story itself. It’s the beginning of the story while “The Consequences” is the end of it. The rest of the content inside of the books I think has nothing to do with any order at all since they talk about a specific topic that is related to the story in hand. This left us with both “The Forgotten Boy” and “The Hatted Child” but since I have figured out both the first one and the last one, I just need to swap these two around as otherwise I will be using the same sequence as initially.

  “Well, I think we only need to swap around “The Forgotten Boy” and “The Hatted Child” as the other two are correct.”

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “I also think that. How can you hate someone that you have forgotten? Not only that, the course of the story seems more logical if you order them in that order.”

  Well, not much that I can add to that train of thought. She basically said out loud what I was thinking although she did “ask” a good question at the beginning. How can you hate someone that you have forgotten? It’s impossible, but you can hate someone you “don’t know”. Now, there is more to this than what it seems at first but I will start from the beginning. You cannot hate someone you don’t know it even exists, that’s impossible. However, you can hate imaginary beings, characters from fantasy stories, individuals who are already dead and so on. As long as you “know” them or in this case, accept their existence, you can hate them quite comfortably per say. The second part though, one that at first sight seems to be contraindicating itself but, after thinking for a few seconds you will quickly understand what it means. Remember that “guy” who was the ruler of an empire that ruled close to 50% of the world? The one that was killed by The Demon Lord? Yeah, that one, let’s use him as an example. From what he did you can easily decide that you either hate him or not and yet, you don’t know him personally and, in this case, you never will. What a person does is already enough for anyone to hate them, love them and so on. Their deeds, good or evil, can and will decide the view that others have on them and that’s why you can hate said person even without “knowing” them. But this then goes back to the first point, you first need to acknowledge their existence as otherwise, how can you hate that ruler without even knowing that he existed in the first place? Ah, enough of this massive tangent, let’s move on.

  “I whole heartily agree with you, for you to hate someone you first need to acknowledge their existence. If you forget about said person, how can you even hate someone you don’t even know exists? But! Let’s move on, since we are thinking on the same page, no need to waste too much time on this topic. I’m kind of curious about what will happen when I put the correct order.”

  And so, after finishing saying this with a rather excited look on my face, I put back the books on the shelf but this time, in the correct order.

  Magic noises!

  It didn’t take much time for something to happen. Close to 10 seconds after I correctly put the books on the shelf, a magic circle appeared right below the bookshelf itself. Since I have no clue what will happen, I casually back off a step or so and with it, I “brought” the pink orb with me. Basically, I gently pushed Miss Pink Orb backwards while I gave said step backwards. Even where we were we wouldn’t get “hit” by the magic circle but just as I said, since I have no clue what will happen, I think it’s always better to be safe than sorry. The bookshelf then gains a blue colour to it while at the same time, transforming itself into something akin to a ghost bookshelf, disappearing into nothing a few seconds later but revealing a path at the same time. Can’t say that I was expecting something like this and the same can be said about her.

  “Shall we get in?”

  Without further ado and with a quick, simple but extremely effective yes from her, we get moving, descending the set of stairs that are right in front of us. When the bookshelf disappeared it revealed an entrance, something similar to a basement as the first thing we see is a set of stairs and a drastic change of the “architecture”. The library even though it is destroyed, rampaged from something that we can only fathom what could’ve possibly done such a thing, it still had “noble vibes” to it. The floor, the furniture, the books and even the layout, they all tell the story that this library was once something majestic, a place where you could gather knowledge from the inner workings of the world itself. Expand your horizons, expand your limited knowledge to levels that none of us can even begin to understand. Then, we have this sight in front of us. A massive difference, from the high-quality materials to something that should only belong to a dungeon. You heard that right, a dungeon. The stairs are made of stone or is it concrete? I have no clue, they are polished though, so that’s a plus, I guess? Anyway, the walls and the ceiling follow the same design and throughout the set of stairs there isn’t a single light present however, we can still see the end of it as in that area, whatever illuminates it, it’s strong enough to illuminate the very middle of the stairs although with much difficulty to the point of being close to imperceptible.

  Step! Floating noises!

  Carefully we descend down the set of stairs, getting darker as we reach the middle as the light in there is close to nonexistence, getting brighter and brighter as we reach the end of it. Once again, what we see is something that none of us expected but in this case, it’s far beyond our expectations. But even then, while this area is breath-taking in some aspects, whatever it’s further down this massive room, quickly picks up my “interest” and of course, my attention follows it rather quickly. Meanwhile, Miss Pink Orb…

  “Oh wow, this place is huge.”

  Her fairy-like voice echoes inside this massive room as she says this with amazement and even admiration. While the room does not look that “fancy” at all, thanks to the sheer massive size of it, I can understand her current surprise. The walls, the floor and the ceiling, they are all made of stone, polished stone of course but nonetheless, still stone with the same grey like colour they all seem to have. A soft one and one that seems to have a rather strong shine to it in fact, it seems to have some sort of coat that makes it seem something akin to a mirror as it’s reflecting the environment. Not in a strong way but strong enough for anyone to notice it quickly. Throughout the walls there are massive pillars but only present there as in the middle of the room, nothing of that sort happens and because of it, it makes me wonder how the hell the ceiling is being supported. In fact, the library is above us, how hasn’t everything collapsed yet? Not only that, this area was not affected by whatever happened up there. Oh well, no point in trying to figure that out.

  As I said before, this room or area is beyond massive, much bigger than the library upstairs which in a way, it makes me think that we are in another “universe” or something like that. The room has a rectangle shape to it being that “my sides” are smaller than “my front”. I think it has 75 meters of width and close to 150 meters of length, being a total of 11250 square meters. Seriously, this place is massive not only that, the ceiling is close to 10 meters tall, way more than what we descended. Maybe? I’m not so sure now, maybe we really did descend those 10 meters but, let’s move on. From the sheer size alone, not having any pillars in the middle or throughout the room, it makes us wonder how the ceiling still hasn’t collapsed on itself from how heavy it might be. I don’t sense any magic on it and the massive pool of magic that I'm sensing is not from the room but from a peculiar “individual”. I don’t think Miss Pink Orb here has noticed the monster further down the room, however, that was the first thing that I noticed and I believe he also has noticed us as he did get up the moment we fully descended the stairs and entered this massive room. It is his room or should I say lair?

  Although we are about to be greeted by him. And let me tell you, he’s going to do a rather nice and big spectacle about it. But the moment the monster gathers its magic energy into a single point, increasing drastically the amount of magic energy he’s letting into the world, Miss Pink Orb is able to notice that and of course with it, the panic follows it.

  “Uhm, Hero-”

  “Yeah, I know. Get behind me, I will protect you.”

  As calmly as I can be, I say this to her, instructing her at the same time what she has to do. As quickly as she could, she did what I “asked” her to do, getting behind me but only a few centimetres in fact, she’s touching me... The reason for why I asked her to do this is because I’m going to use a barrier to protect us from whatever is about to come crashing down towards us. However, said barrier will have a shape of a shield rather than the normal circular shape. I will be using less magic since the barrier is going to be smaller however, if I want to, by decreasing the overall size of the barrier, I can make it stronger than normal as I will be focusing more magic in a single point rather than dividing said magic into a much bigger area. For example, in this case I will be using an S rank barrier but by doing this, I’m able to increase the strength of the barrier by at least 1.5 times than normal. While it won’t reach S+ rank, it still is 50% stronger than normal. Though, it only will protect me in a single and specific side but said side will have quite the “barrier” I would say. But, enough of my usual yapping.

  The catastrophe is about to be unleashed and we are the targets of it.

  ……..

  ……

  …