Ugh...
In the darkness of his own thoughts, Arthur's consciousness awoke from an enchanting dream world. Instead of sunlight, his eyes were now greeted by total darkness. Arthur's consciousness had awakened, yet his entire body felt as if it were still trapped in the beauty of the dream world.
He tried to move his hands, but failed.
He tried to move his feet, but failed as well.
He tried to open his eyes, but no results were obtained.
Am I still dreaming?
That question appeared spontaneously, drifting through the contents of his mind. But before he had the chance to get an answer to his question, a foreign yet familiar voice appeared inside his head.
[Recovery Process Started]
The voice felt faint. Was it a woman's voice? Or a man's voice?
The voice buzzed in Arthur's head a moment after it first appeared. And as soon as that buzzing sound vanished, a nightmare came to haunt Arthur's mind.
Arghh!
It hurts!
This hurts so much!
An incredibly violent torture shook the entirety of his thoughts. The pain spread very quickly starting from the tips of his toes to the top of his head. Every part of his body that initially could not feel anything now felt as if it were being crushed over and over again.
His legs felt shattered as if they had been forcibly twisted.
His hands felt destroyed as if they had been squeezed with immense strength.
His head felt like it was breaking apart as if struck by a blunt object repeatedly.
Argh.. I hope this nightmare ends quickly!
Overwhelmed by a barrage of unbearable pain, Arthur's consciousness reflexively tried to move his body to wake up. But every form of effort he made was merely a futile process that yielded no results.
He tried to open his eyes, but not a single light greeted him.
He tried to smell the surrounding aroma, but not a single scent reached him.
He tried to feel the floor he was currently lying on, but still, the result was nil.
Every time his body tried to rise, there was a force that compelled him to fall. The coldness of despair crawled into his bones. The world around him seemed to mock him. In such a condition, a collection of questions emerged as a form of Arthur's escape from the pain that had now struck him.
What is actually happening?!
Why am I feeling this pain?!
The questions kept repeating. Once. twice. Even up to hundreds of times. All of it was a form of his mind's escape from that extraordinary pain.
But an unexpected result appeared; along with the many questions that emerged, gradually the pain he felt before began to subside. Not all at once, but slowly, like raindrops beginning to vanish after a storm.
All parts of his body that had felt destroyed now felt as if they were being repaired. His tense muscles began to soften, and the ache throughout Arthur's body decreased in intensity. Warmth now filled all parts of Arthur's body like sunlight appearing after a heavy rain.
Arthur took a long breath; his entire mind was still shaken, but he realized that he was still trapped in this strange dream. Along with the pain almost completely gone, this was the most appropriate time to wake up, he thought.
He gathered strength in his hands. Trying to lift them. However, the result he got was still nil. Likewise with all parts of his body. The pain might have vanished, but not the paralysis he felt.
The emptiness resulting from failure filled his mind again. He tried to remember one strange thing that had happened to him. But he found nothing. Except for one thing. Something that also triggered the pain throughout his body, a foreign voice that had appeared in his mind.
Realizing this, Arthur tried to interact with that voice.
Hey, whoever you are, can you hear me?
He screamed as loud as possible in his mind. But not a single answer appeared to reply to him.
Was the voice I heard earlier just a hallucination?
Along with that question, the senses he possessed began to work again. A fresh yet heavy aroma filled his nose. A coarse and dusty floor was felt against his body. The sound of water droplets echoed in his ears.
[Recovery Process Has Succeeded]
That foreign voice appeared again. The voice appeared accompanied by the pain in his body which had now completely vanished.
Huh?!
That voice appeared again.
Hey, who are you?
Without answering Arthur's question in the slightest, the foreign voice appeared again.
[Wake up, Arthur]
A very bright light pierced his eyes. His consciousness was now pushed by a force whose origin he did not know. Bit by bit, the eyes that were previously tightly closed now seemed forced open.
Ughh...
The bright light that previously filled Arthur's vision was now replaced by a ceiling that looked ancient. His body was still stiff from lying down for too long, making him not yet able to move freely.
Huh.. Where am I?
That was the first question that appeared in his head upon seeing a ceiling that was foreign to his memory. His body, which was still lying flat, also felt the coarse texture of the floor he was currently lying on.
He tried to turn his head to the right. On the right side of the room, there was a black ball floating in the air.
"T-that ball is floating?" he said, filled with surprise.
He tried to get up from where he was now. By utilizing the pushing power of his hands, he managed to wake up from the floor he had been lying on.
Now Arthur looked around; right in front of him when he first stood up, there was a long corridor whose end he could not even see. On the left side, there was also a small pond that gave a damp atmosphere to the room.
And certainly, on the right side, there was a black ball flying mid-air. Arthur tried to approach. His heart beat fast, and the trembling of his entire body could not be hidden. Step by step, he approached the black ball.
Until finally, the black ball was right in front of him. Whatever thought possessed him, suddenly Arthur's hand touched that black ball. He, who finally realized, instantly pulled back his hand quickly.
Arthur was filled with panic, thinking that perhaps the black ball would do something. But fortunately, the black ball did not react in the slightest.
"I thought something big was going to happen," Arthur said.
He then approached the black ball again. But the difference was, now he was filled with courage and self-confidence. He touched the black ball again.
Argh!
But unlike before, the black ball seemed to strike his head with various things.
"Why is it that when I am brave, you actually attack, damn it," he said with irritation.
Along with that pain, the foreign voice reappeared in his head.
[Resonance Started]
[Resonance 1%]
"Huh? You appeared again?"
After the foreign voice finished buzzing in his mind, he was again sprawled out. With his body weakening again, Arthur rose back up. He realized that there was something wrong with the place he was currently standing on.
"It seems there is no other way. I have to traverse that long corridor," he said with breath still panting.
With a body that had weakened again, he walked following the path of the corridor.
But now he was not entirely alone. As a result of the touch with the black ball, the foreign voice in his head began to produce a sound every time the resonance increased by 1%. And also, the black ball he touched was now following him everywhere.
"At least this is better than walking alone," he said while taking a breath.
The sound of his footsteps was heard very clearly in this very empty and quiet corridor. However, in contrast to the things on his path, the walls of the corridor contained many engravings.
On the right side, the engravings started from a perfect circle. But the perfection of that circle began to crack due to a small circle that appeared in the middle of the perfect circle. Until finally, the perfect circle split into three large cracks and several small parts because of that small circle.
The first piece of the circle turned into grains of dust in the next engraving. The second piece turned into a very high tower. While the third piece turned into a girl.
But the engravings on the right side did not stop just there. The small parts of the perfect circle joined and formed twelve smaller perfect circles. Right at the bottom of those twelve circles, there was a writing.
"Axiom?" Arthur read. He still did not understand what it meant, but he knew that this engraving must have a meaning.
Turning away from the right engraving, Arthur now looked at the left engraving.
On the left wall, the engraving started from a small circle, the same circle that destroyed the perfect circle in the first engraving on the right side. After destroying that perfect circle, it also broke into twenty-two parts. Those twenty-two parts turned into eleven men and eleven women.
Just like the engraving on the right side, underneath the engraving of the eleven men and women, there was also a writing.
"Arcana," Arthur read.
Those engravings repeated continuously on the corridor walls without anything new, indicating the engravings had ended. But that did not apply to the corridor.
Arthur had walked for quite a long time, yet the end of the corridor was still not visible in the slightest. At least during the journey, the foreign voice and the black ball were still accompanying him.
[Resonance 67%]
Although tired, with panting breath, with legs that he didn't know were still strong or not, he kept walking because that was all he could do.
With all that effort and hard work, a good result awaited him ahead. A very large door was now at the end.
Arthur could not hold back the smile on his face. This time his effort was accompanied by a result.
"Finally, I did something that wasn't futile," he said with a light tone even though his body felt heavy.
He looked at the door. An engraving appeared again before him, but not a circle, rather a small creature with wings and long ears. That creature was clutching a flare of fire in its hand.
Not wanting to waste time on pleasantries, Arthur pushed the door. The stone door opened with a heavy grrrak sound, then a thud was heard when it stopped in the fully open position.
On the other side of the door, all that was visible was an empty room that was very dark. A room that looked quite dangerous if one wanted to enter. However, Arthur was in a position of having no choice; he then walked in with a sense of fear.
Once he managed to enter, not a single thing happened. He looked around him, but there was not a single thing that could be seen. The only thing he knew was the shape of the room, which was a circle.
Arthur observed the surroundings, turning his body clockwise. But still, there was nothing that could be seen. Until finally, he looked back toward the door. The door was moving by itself, trying to close.
Arthur panicked, thinking that he would be trapped; he ran as hard as he could to get out, but the door had already closed before him. Now he was trapped in an empty room that was silent and dark, all alone without anything.
"Damn it!" he said while hitting the door.
And at the same time, torches suddenly lit up all around the walls of that circular room. The room that was initially dark and silent was now filled with the brightness of firelight and the sound of burning flames.
"Huh?"
Before having the chance to understand the situation, in the middle of the room, a flare of fire appeared and from that fire emerged a small creature.
It had transparent wings and long ears, exactly like the engraving on the front of the door. The creature wore a long-sleeved blue dress made of thin silk. Its eyes were green, as green as a leaf. Meanwhile, its long hair was silver.
Its entire body was filled with flower and leaf ornaments, matching its very bright skin color.
Just by the presence of that creature alone, Arthur's entire body could not move, as if there were a magical force holding him. The creature then approached him; every flap of its wings was accompanied by a subtle light.
The creature was now right in front of Arthur. While bowing its body and lifting the skirt of its dress, it said,
"Velkomin, Kleifari," it said in a soft and smooth tone.