As Tyel stepped into the great magazines, the beam of his flashlight cut through a haze of dust so thick it felt like walking through a physical curtain. The air was full of a weird smell; it felt like not much ago something burned down there, and the smell of old stone was present everywhere in the room. Most of the boxes around were damp; around the walls some moss had grown, and the boxes nearby were completely ruined.
"I remember some guards saying that every stuff Zrelekai creates and he thinks it is useless he throws it there…" Tyel remembered when he was talking with some of his friends and they were saying that the great magazines were a place full of stuff from the old world. Whenever Zrelekai used something and it broke or he didn't need it anymore, he would simply throw it there with all the other useless stuff.
"Strange… it feels like I'm following a sort of path." The first thing that caught Tyel's attention was the fact that around him the floor was full of dust, but where he was walking, it was clear; it was like someone had cleared this path. "Maybe the fact that Ashikunz can be found there is actually true? Let's see where this brings me." With that, Tyel pointed his beam towards the path walked by him and started to follow this same path.
As he took every step, his heart began to beat faster; he knew that he should not be there and that if someone would find him, he had to kill himself once again so that he could repeat this day over and over again. As Tyel felt the urge to stop and go away, he suddenly remembered all the times he had seen his friends die and the faces they had when he told them that he would be the one to save and help them. "I can't turn back… Timehors wouldn't do it either… so I have to keep going." Tyel now walked with serious and decisive steps, as he understood that there was no turning back anymore.
"It stops here?" Tyel noticed that the path where there was no dust at all had stopped, and as he pointed the flashlight towards the wall, he noticed a weird poster on the wall. There was a pig standing on two feet and with his other paw he pointed at what it looked like to be a watermelon with a weird writing; Tyel decided to read it loud: "Even me, Piggy the Porky, enjoy the watermelon, and you should do the same!" As Tyel spoke these words, he felt embarrassed for himself even if there wasn't anyone nearby.
"Still, what even is this?" whispered Tyel as he walked nearby the poster. As he got closer, there was something that caught his attention; nearby the poster there was a box with multiple papers inside of it. Tyel with his other free hand grabbed one of the papers and noticed another weird drawing on it; on this one there was a watermelon standing on two feet and he was screaming, saying: "YAHOOO!!"
Tyel looked at that confused and noticed that the other papers were even stranger; on one paper there was a watermelon with his hands opened towards the sky as he stood on top of other multiple fruits: "I'M THE BEST!!"
"These drawings must have all been made by Zrelekai…" thought Tyel, as he realized that there wasn't anyone else more in love with watermelon than Zrelekai. "There isn't anything important there…" Tyel had positioned his hand inside the box to search for something; as he removed his hand, something caught his attention.
"What's this drawing?" As he grabbed it, Tyel's hand immediately shook, followed by his whole body. There was a drawing of a small girl with two small ponytails holding a small plushie. "This is cute… but the problem is what there is nearby…" Near the girl there was a huge black creature with its torso opened and it had multiple claws in its hands. Inside the body of this creature there was what it seemed like to be cotton, but the thing that scared Tyel the most was the fact that the creature wasn't even looking at the child, but at the weird words right on top of it: "PROJECT SEAMSTRESS!!!"
As Tyel read those words, he felt a cold shiver running down his spine. "The Seamstress?" Tyel, like the other rebels, didn't know much about it. The moment he heard that Darian and the others had fought against it, he remained surprised, as he thought it was only a legend. "But then why is there a child in front of that?" thought Tyel as he decided to not look anymore at the drawing and left it inside the box.
"I wish I could know more about that… but this isn't what I came for today." Tyel knew that the Seamstress would be a huge problem for the group too. "But right now I've got bigger things to care about; I need to realize what this poster is and where the vibration core is…"
Tyel pointed the flashlight back again at the poster and he slowly moved his hand towards it. As he touched the poster, he noticed something strange; there wasn't anything behind that poster, not even a wall. "A secret passage?" thought Tyel as he noticed that the poster wasn't fully attached to the wall from one of its corners. As he slowly pulled that, he noticed that behind this poster there was a secret passage. "It's too black… I can't see anything." Tyel moved the poster and pointed the flashlight towards the passage.
As he remained still for a few seconds, trying to see into the darkness in front of him, he remembered the words that said that Ashikunz was usual to appear randomly in these magazines, so he immediately closed the poster and realized something. "If Ashikunz usually spends most of his time in the secret laboratories… and he has appeared from here multiple times… can it be…" Tyel felt like this passage was more useful than he might have imagined. "It definitely brings directly into the secret laboratory…"
"I want to say that we can use this to take Ashikunz by surprise… but how we can even enter in the prison?" Tyel realized that this passage might be more useful and he should not forget about it, but as he soon realized that entering in the prison for everyone was impossible, he soon discarded that idea. "Then that is how he was always able to arrive in time… he has used this passage all the time…" Tyel remained a few seconds looking at the poster until he shook his head snapping back to reality.
"I'll keep in mind… but I should start searching…" Tyel turned around and noticed that behind him the situation was worse.
In this path there was a lot of dust, but at least there was the space to walk, differently than what there was behind Tyel as it was full of boxes and dust that made the passage almost impossible. "It has been around 7 minutes since I came here… I'll remain there searching, in case I'll reset the day." With that, Tyel started to search around the boxes to see if he could find something.
As he opened the first box in front of him, he found only old wires, the dead body of a bug, and what it looked like to be an half mouse. "Ewww gross," thought Tyel at the sight of the bug. He closed the box and began to search for another one. "I don't even know how big this object is supposed to be… and I can't even tell the shape of it." Tyel kept searching inside the boxes. As he looked at the wall in the opposite side of the room, he sighed. From him to the side of the wall there were countless boxes, and going towards it would mean passing through all these boxes and find other useless things. Near the wall there were other multiple objects, but these others were bigger and as Tyel looked at them, he could easily tell what they were.
As Tyel pointed the flashlight at them, he noticed that they were old rifles and a bazooka that were half opened and were missing some parts. As Tyel returned to look at the boxes and moved them around, he spotted something that caught his eyes; this was what it looked like to be a white helmet with a white visor on it. "What a weird helmet…" thought Tyel as he grabbed the object in his hand and analyzed it. "This isn't even made of metal… it has got it inside of it… how it even is able to defend?" As Tyel analyzed the object, he noticed a weird button on it; the moment he pressed on it, a light turned on.
"What?" said Tyel, almost surprised as he couldn't believe what just happened. He noticed that the vision was creating a strange light. "Let's see…" Tyel positioned the helmet in his head and noticed in the vision something strange; there was a bugging light. Tyel noticed that this light was trying to create a sort of view, but because of the multiple bugs, nothing could be seen. "I will never understand stuff from the old world…" Tyel took off the weird helmet and looked again for the button. "If I press this button, this will turn off, right?" Tyel clicked again the button and the object emitted a weird sound, and then the smell of something burned was coming from it.
"Better not touch this weird stuff…" Tyel positioned back the weird helmet on the ground and noticed a small note left nearby; as Tyel picked it up, he realized that it was something of an old book: "The object Neural-Link headset will be able to replicate a virtual world just by turning it on; just imagine what you want to see, and the Neural-Link headset will be able to create it…"
Tyel kept reading until he realized that the next things written on the paper were just saying how the object was made and he couldn't understand a thing. Even if he tried, he wouldn't be able to understand because someone had cancelled everything with a pen and it had left some words: "I can't build something that doesn't work!!!! I'm going crazyyy ahsahsasasgaydaywaydwghaydgasdwg :DDDDDDDDBBBBBB"
"Definitely Zrelekai's work," thought Tyel as he made the paper fall on the ground and kept searching inside the boxes. Tyel opened another box and noticed another white thing; this object had a parallelepiped shape and was made of metallic. "Is this the vibration core?" Tyel grabbed the object in his hands and realized that it was extremely heavy and he could barely hold it.
"Damn… what's this?" Tyel noticed that there was a small door that could be opened; the moment he opened it, he noticed that inside of it there were some human bones that made Tyel scared. "AHH!" shouted Tyel as he made the metallic object fall on the ground. As he didn't pay attention, the object fell right on his feet. "AHHHH!!" Tyel shouted as much loud as he can as he fell on the ground because of the pain.
"Hey, did you hear that?" said a guard to his colleague as they passed in front of the great magazines.
"There is someone there?" pointed out the guard as he stepped inside the room until the other guard stopped him.
"Don't you know that it is said that Zrelekai randomly appears here? You should not go there," said the other guard in a warning voice. The other guard stopped for a moment and began to shake. "Maybe it's actually better to go away…" The guards walked away silently.
"ARGHH IT HURTS SO MUCH… I THINK IT'S BROKEN…" shouted Tyel as he didn't feel his feet anymore. "The pain is too much… I can't…" whispered Tyel as he grabbed the pistol in his hand and pointed it directly to his face. "Maybe it is the only solution… I can always return the next time…" Tyel had never shot himself; before pressing the trigger, he breathed heavily. He felt scared to do that, but as the pain in the feet was hitting hard, he could only press the trigger without having time to realize what was happening.
"Déjà Veil"
"My feet… it is alright…" thought Tyel as he woke up again in his bed and his body had started to bleed more. "I can't go inside the magazines without an actual plan… I don't even know which is the shape of the object…" thought Tyel as he closed again his eyes. "I'll have to ask Darian about this object so he can tell me the shape and if he knows about it…" With this thought in mind, Tyel drifted once again to sleep.