After entering through the massive beautiful polished mahogany wood entrance doors which were closed before.
They were encountered by a vast marble foyer stretched before them, its ceiling rising several stories above their heads.
Pale stone columns supported the upper balconies, while enormous windows allowed sunlight to spill across the polished floor.
To either side stood reception desks, each occupied by formally dressed attendants. Behind them hung several enormous flags and seals belonging to Barsciminia.
Barsciminia's flag was a horizontal tricolor of light blue, gold, and light green. At the heart of its seal lies a blazing shield of fire, ringed by a constellation of seven stars.
Yet what drew their attention most was the staircase at the far end, a broad, curved staircase splitting into two symmetrical paths toward the upper floors.
The people who were sitting on the couch were looking at them with a sense of curiosity. Of course they were unique visitors to them in a sense.
"Well... the view is much better than I had pictured."
Zack whispered, his gaze still locked over the flag.
Azon and Tucker had no signs that they had even stepped here, yet they weren't here.
Everyone was busy scanning the surroundings, while slowly walking forward with the ominous lady in front of them.
Now before them were two pass through metal detection safety doors.
"Stop."
She passed from another way aside from the metal detector. Then began chatting with attendants who were at reception in a low pitch voice. Before coming here again.
"If you have any unnecessary items, then put them in baskets before passing through."
Speaking in a mechanical tone. She takes some steps aside, her arms crossed, while her expression remains unreadable.
There were two sets of baskets on each side of the doors. Zack rummaged before tossing some coins in the basket, Ruis took out his wallet while Ender had nothing to put in.
For girls who were on the other side, they took out their earrings, coins, keys, and purses.
Zack passed first without any fuss, then for all boys, it was the same for girls as well.
The attendants who had now come over here returned their items immediately to them.
She was still glaring at them without saying a word, and what an ominous aura she had that till attendants to visitors, no person dared to look at her.
After everything was finished...
"Follow me."
....
Through one of the doors, they were now strolling on the endless corridor. It had no doors on each side. Just blank walls.
Though the walls were decorated with portraits of diplomats who had served Barsciminia throughout the centuries.
Some of the portraits were impossibly old.
Yet the people within them looked exactly as they had in life.
There were eerie whispers coming from them, which were not the usual language spoken here.
Zack slowed his steps, trying to hear them better.
"You don't need to listen to those whispers; let your focus rest here instead."
The lady spoke in a resolute tone of voice. Enough to grab their attention towards the present.
After several minutes of strolling tirelessly, at the end of the corridor there was an elevator.
Going in, it was big enough to fit all of them comfortably. The lady clicked a specific button, they couldn't see which one it was.
Because the surroundings of the elevator were glass instead of the usual construction block. From here, they could see from the other side, to that side.
There was nothing but darkness. But as soon as the sound of a button being pressed echoed, the whole lift began vibrating intensity. Like a Raiquake had occurred.
Sara leaned back to the elevator, flustered. Misha only placed her palm on the side, her expression changed from what it was before. Lisa and the boys remained neutral at this moment.
The lady on the front didn't even flinch from her position.
Suddenly they all were hit by an intense g-force, the boys were somehow able to withstand this intense pressure without spirituality.
While Sara unconsciously used spirituality to reinforce herself and withstand the momentum. Though, her shadowy aura was leaking very much because of insufficient control. She was herself startled as well.
Misha used spirituality as well, but of her better control and digestion. It didn't look like she was using it. Lisa barely reacted, while for the lady in front. For her, it seemed like another Tuesday.
Suddenly the environment around them changed, and the darkness began revealing itself. Now bluish-black with some dots scattered around of light began appearing.
They all realized now, it was not an usual lift, instead a lift to another dimension, to outer space.
"As you guys are newbies, then keep this in mind. This is a type of dimensional rift that connects to other dimensions; realms. Similar to the Hall of Fate but less hazardous."
Hearing her explanation about the world, except Lisa everyone's expression shifted. Finally someone had some guts to ask her.
The one who was being advanced.
"H– How do you know we're newbies?"
His voice was cracked but it was understandable enough to be heard.
"I'm not a newbie though."
Lisa added. Her arms crossed as if she was chilling despite the intense g-force.
"Severin told me about you all, before arriving here."
It was quite odd that one person could be known by so many names, wasn't it?
The lady turned around toward Lisa. The sides of her lips began curling upwards.
"Though this will be your first time coming here."
Lisa pointed her gaze down, her face was quite hard to read, the lady turned around to her original position.
The surroundings around them changed again, as now darkness shrouded all over everywhere again. Silence wrapped around them and time passed like that.
Moments Later...
The doors of the lift opened, Callista stepped out first then the girls and at last the boys. As soon as their eyes went around their surroundings. They all were astonished.
It was a type of living room but in front, there was a huge pitch-black wall. Aside from that wall was a big lever and before it were couches for resting.
Where Tucker and Azon were sitting.
Azon's glance behind and gets up, Tucker gets up along with him.
"You took your time well."
Tucker spoke in a clumsy tone of voice, adjusting his collars.
"Well, let's get straight to business anyways."
Azon added, drawing his pitch-dark sword with a sharp screech, inspected the blade gently, then slid it back into its sheath.
Callista called Ruis forward which he obediently did. But before saying goodbyes to his fellows.
"Do your best!"
He did a fist bump with Zack.
"Don't give up.."
Nodding on Lisa's words, of course he couldn't do anything about her.
"You won't lose yourself, right?"
Just Misha being herself as usual, Ruis chuckled which made her even more perplexed.
"...Take care."
At last Sara spoke with a faint smile, Ruis smile as well.
Ender acted like he didn't exist but he and Ruis did exchange glances between them.
Finally, after all this, he went to them.
"Remember, the more truths you learn about the world, the more you realize you have been learning about yourself."
With Azon grumbles, the room went all silent.
"Well... Good luck kid."
As soon those words left Tucker's mouth. His environment changed.
For a second his vision went pitch-black, before he started opening his eyes.
He was now sitting on his knees. His vision was still blurry so he couldn't see much clearly. But the more he started regaining it. The more dazed he got.
Beneath his feet were crystals carved into the ground, the crystals didn't look like they were randomly arranged. He looked around and from his left side, to the up.
He could see the elders and his fellows watching him from where he was moments ago.
Suddenly Callista appeared by his side out of thin air, her hand occupied with a potion bottle where dark-blue liquid was flowing.
"Remember, you won't always be fed by fate. Eventually, you have to fight for it."
She mumbled, her arm reaching towards him. Ruis slowly grabbed the potion from her hand, careful not to drop it.
She disappeared from here, next he could see from the glass screen, some were standing glaring at him, while some were on the couch sitting as if it was a casual day for them.
Ruis cleared up his throat.
– Nervous huh?
"If I die, then it should be a death not worth remembering by anybody."
A smirk appears over his cheeks, he tosses out the cork with his thumb before drinking it all in one go.
Suddenly his vision started changing, he began hallucinating and started seeing the world in colors which didn't exist.
He fell to his knees, his head was spinning so hard he won't be able to take it anymore.
Being able to hear eerie screams, at the same time feeling his body was sinking, drowning in a deep void.
***
"It's time for the second step."
Azon gets up from his place, and goes where the lever was, with a strong thrust of his dense muscles. Turned the lever down.
With his action, the crystals which were carved into the floor over there started glowing in soft azure light.
The crystals pattern could be seen from here, as Ruis who was in the center of them. The crystals scattered around looked like how water looked like when exposed to 432 hz frequency.
It seemed like the crystals were humming along with their glow, as Ruis who had a disturbed expression while unconscious a few minutes ago, now was much relaxed; calmer.
***
Ruis opened his eyes, he was in a deep void of darkness. Though it didn't feel like only darkness was here.
"Sometimes I think we're not from the world we grew up in."
A voice echoed through the darkness, Ruis felt like he was sinking down in water, yet he could breathe, he began looking around where the voice had come from, and at last.
"You?"
He found himself, floating below him.
"Sometimes I feel we're too distant from it, as if watching it through a screen. Just like readers do. Why is this?"
Ruis's lips quivered, his eyes went to a deep thought, like they had begun looking for answers.
"Are we that distant from the world, as if it never had a place for us?"
Ruis bit his lips, before murmuring.
"Maybe, this is how we were supposed to live. In the end, we survived through the illusions we made and made them, just like a wall."
The corners of his lips curled when he had finished his sentence.
"You know what happens when an illusion is broken..."
Projections started forming in front of Ruis. His eyes widened, as if this was something he didn't want to see.
"I have done a sin."
A voice came from them.
And he was once again lost in them.
[ Last Night ]
"You wanted to tell me something?"
Ruis arrived on the balcony late at night. Everyone should be in their rooms by now.
Yet Sara, standing by the . Her palms spread over the smooth concrete pavers.
She sighed before turning around.
"You want me to get straight to the point?"
Her question made him puzzled, still he replied without much of a thought.
"I mean... Which suits you."
Sara opens her closed hand, Ruis was surprised to see what was in there.
Some golden strings were dancing around her palm. He recognized instantly what they were.
"If you see this, the image you have made of mine will fall apart. Do you want to see it?"
Sara glared at him, it was an unreadable one. The tone of her voice unusually darkened.
Ruis swallowed, he began wondering what could be in those memories, yes he knew her and her mother before they're strangled by fate.
But still, all this couldn't mean he knew all about everything.
"I want to see..."
Ruis reached for her hand.
"I have done a sin."
But before he could process this thought, he was flooded by memories.
Memories of somebody who never wanted to show this to someone, yet there was someone who one believed they could see.
Ruis falls down, the trauma she bears, the day when she accidentally killed her own father. It was all in front of him.
His bursted eyes became red. He began gasping for breaths. Sara hesitantly places her left palm over his shoulder.
"This was the same hand which killed him. Should I be punished?"
But these words weren't going to him. Yet, now he got it, what she meant. The illusion he made was shattered. And truth showed itself.
For a few minutes, silence shrouded them. Yet both didn't move from their position. He could feel her warmth over his shoulder. But, his eyes were dead.
~ All over...
"Tell me, am I still the pure girl you saw?"
She mumbled, her eyes were tired, not because they were tired. But because she hid it from him all this time.
He didn't know what to say, how to say, his mind wasn't able to grasp an idea of conversation. At least right now. No...
"I..."
His lips moved. Sara's eyes widened a little, eager to hear his decision.
"I still... see you... as the... same divinity..."
Her eyes widened, she took some steps back.
~ Insane. He really is...
But her thoughts got interrupted. Ruis gradually raised his head upwards, just enough that their eyes could connect.
"Not because... you're divine... but because... you help me... see the divine..."
***
The projection ended, Ruis was left all speechless.
"How long will it continue?"
His other self asked. Ruis took a deep breath, before declaring. His breath hitching.
"Maybe... until I find a way. A world where everything is beautiful."
Though when he finished his sentence, his eyes went absorbed in those thoughts, and his face softened.
His other self was left dazed with his words.