Leaves out of a magical book (1/2)

Take a leaf out of a book

Year 183 (part 2)

The beetles stopped outside the tunnels. The place was unassuming, but the heroes could tell the presence of my camouflage and illusions abilities here.

“This looks like the perfect location for a trap.” Chung said as he took in the tunnel.

Kei nodded. “That is the intention. Aeon is located somewhere that’s perfectly defensible.”

Prabu just tapped Chung’s shoulder. “It’s alright. We survived the demon king’s deathbomb, we can take whatever this tree can throw at us. No need to be overly suspicious.”

Colette smiled. “Let’s go. I think it’s fine for Chung to be suspicious. We can’t all fall for the same trick, right?”

Hafiz just grunted and started walking. The tunnel was relatively short for them and they were out on the other side, and in my own personal valley. The home of my giant trees, and the still burning flames of the dark mana. These days they are a lot smaller, so it's just little embers, small flames that lit up from the branches.

I liked the flames. It gave the valley a very unique look and feel. A burning valley, yet not hot because the heat had been transmitted outwards by my roots.

Colette’s eyes lit up. “Oh this is so...”

“Anyway, the journal is in one of the trees. We won’t be seeing Aeon, not unless you guys want to.” Kei said and led the way to the tree. The tree had a magical door, and they walked through to see the book.

The book was a large tome, it grew slightly after Kei inserted her own memories some time ago.

“Well, it’s here. All you need to do is touch it and it’ll interact with you. I’ll leave now so you can have your own time with it. The rest of the hero items are downstairs.” The tree had expanded to have a few floors internally. The journal was first, the rest of the items left by the previous heroes downstairs.

Chung held up his hand. “I’ll do it first.”

Prabu shook his head. “No. It’s clearly magical, so I’ll do it.” Prabu walked up and touched the journal and he just stood there.

“Prabu?”

He just froze there. Chung immediately turned to Colette. “Is he alright?”

“He’s alive.” Colette said. “There’s a lot of magic swirling inside.”

Prabu turned. “I... I need a while. I need to process this.” He magically moved a chair close and he just sat down, one hand on the tome. “Just, uh... relax?”

Colette, Chung and Hafiz shrugged and soon settled on the chairs and cushions in the tree. The entire area was decorated like a comfortable library. Prabu just sat and closed his eyes. After an hour or so, he stood and turned.

“Yeah. I’m alright now. You guys want to give it a shot? I need to pee now.”

“What was it?” Chung asked.

“It’s... it’s like the condensed memories and personalities of the heroes before us, and their lessons. What they saw, what the gods said, what they’ve seen from the demons. It’s just like... a bit of everything. Even Kei’s in there.”

Chung nodded, and sat down where Prabu sat, and he too touched it. He froze, and sat there for an hour too. At some point his face changed to show various emotions. Like pain, like sorrow. In the end he stood.

“...I was wrong. Ken needs to see this.” Chung looked at Colette and Hafiz who were both still waiting for their turn.

“Huh. Hell of a drug for it to change your mind.” Colette looked at Hafiz. “You think we can both touch the book together? Doesn’t make sense that only one of us can touch it at the same time.”

Hafiz just nodded in agreement. He waited for Colette, and they both pulled a chair close and touched it together.

Chung stood, and around the same time Prabu came out of the washroom. Prabu went straight for the snack bar at the corner. “How did I miss the snacks?”

Chung rolled his eyes. “Seriously, Prabu. Is it time for snacks when we just saw that?” He pointed at the book. Prabu snorted and started eating. “Really?”

“All I’ve seen made it pretty clear we’re just pawns. May as well enjoy ourselves first.” Prabu munched. “And I’ll start with eating snacks when I want to.”

The archer merely rolled his eyes. From here, in the tree that held the journal, I could observe and listen in to their conversations. The archer and the archmage took opposing sides of the snack-covered table. Chung just frowned. “That’s a very negative way of looking at it.”

“Those before us clearly thought that way, though.” Prabu munched. “Some of them descended into debauchery and having many lovers, perhaps as an act of vengeance.”

Chung’s frown continued. “It’s just an excuse. The gods may have put us in a spot by giving us this shambolic hero role, but we are still responsible for our own actions.”

“Not if they are clearly influencing our minds.” Prabu just kept eating. “Now that we can step back and reflect on what we’ve been doing, we’re pretty crazy. Young teens sent to another world on a mission to fight demons with superpowers. The way we are dedicated to that cause and kept on doing it despite the horrors we’ve seen, I’m pretty sure the gods have a hand in it. All four of us didn’t crack at the deaths or the horrors. I’ve seen so many mutilated body parts.”

Chung didn’t seem to expect that from his compatriot..

“So the god’s magical influence is clearly not just to make sure we do our job. It’s probably to assist us to face the horrors of the world too. It hardened our senses, numbed us to death and gore. I mean, it does seem like the gods’ touch attempts to hammer these ‘goals’ into our mind, and somewhat converts us into these robots. Okay, robots are a touch too strong, the gods make us obsessed with demons, and I see in our predecessors that they attempt to deal with that obsession with other obsessions and vices. I already see it in me, with snacks.”

Chung snorted. “Does being an archmage make you so suddenly intelligent?”

“Occasionally. I’m pretty sure the system made me a mage because I’m smarter than I look. And you’re an archer because you’re all tense and all that. Like a highly strung bowstring. Like, you gotta like chill, man.”

“Fuck you.” It got a laugh out of the archer.

“I’m serious Chung. The demon king’s dead, but with all that tension you are carrying, your muscles gonna knot itself up and choke you to death.” The archmage handed him a bowl of snacks. It’s deep fried crunchy leaves coated with some kind of mixture. I probably should ask Lumoof to have a bowl one of these days, so that I know what it tastes like.

“There’s always the next demon king.”

“That’s like saying you statistically have a 0.0001% chance of dying when you take a bus.”

“Which happened to us.”

Prabu paused and realised he seemed to have said something stupid. “You’re right there.”

Chung took a bite this time, instead of abstaining. “You know what, this is actually pretty good.”

“I know, right.” Prabu nodded.

“But seriously. We need to do something, I mean, we know the demon king can see us. They can see us once we have crossed a certain level and stuff. The demon king will be hunting us.”

“We could do what Kei did. Camp here and if the demon king comes for us, blow the shit out of it and then we land the finishing blow.” Prabu said. “I honestly thought that was a very clever move. We engage in battle on our terms and stack the odds in our favor.”

“But that means working with this... tree.”

“What’s so bad about that? We’re pretty much divine mercenaries. Ken seemed to think so, and now we know he’s pretty much right.”

Chung paused. “I should drop him a message.” He activated a magical glowing ball, and spoke to it. “Hey Ken. I know you’re out there, but just wanted to let you know that we’re safe, and we’re on the Central Continent now. And uhm... you should get here and see this journal left by the old heroes. I think it's quite similar to all that stuff you’ve been talking about, that this whole thing is a ruse.”

The ball of magic transformed into a glowing arrow with a letter wrapped on it, and the arrow just wooshed into the immaterium.

Prabu just smirked. “We should ask Kei to come in. She saw this before.”

“I think we should have our own discussion first. Just four of us before we ask her to come in. She was a hero, sure, but we’re not sure how much her new form is subject to the control of this... tree.”

“You’re implying she’s not who she says she is.”

“She could just be a golem of crystal combined with the copied memories of the real Kei and the real Kei is long dead and we’re dealing with essentially, identity theft.”

Prabu rolled his eyes. “You’re sometimes just a step away from being as crazy as Ken.”

“I know. We are best friends, you know.”

“Seriously.”

Colette and Hafiz were done too. Colette didn’t seem particularly phased, but Hafiz was straight out weeping. But they both soon collected themselves and sat with the other two heroes.

“Didn’t take it very well, dude?” Chung said.

The knight or paladin, I wasn’t sure what his exact subtype was, nodded. I wonder how Hafiz would stack up against Edna, and whether their powers were comparable. He let out a huge sigh. “...bad. It’s so bad.”

Colette could still smile though. “Felt like I was in a movie, you know, like watching their lives flash by before me. I found it rather sweet that they took the effort to make this memento for us who came after them. It’s a really good idea.”

Chung then asked. “Alright. Important question. Did you share your memories with the book?.”

Hafiz, Prabu and Colette nodded. Chung frowned. “I didn’t.”

Prabu thought for a moment. “It’s okay. Not everyone should share, actually. It’ll be a good thing to test whether this will have drawbacks.”

Chung nodded. “Exactly. You’re not stupid after all.”