Chapter 70: The Tome of Crimson Sky
As Alen opened the book, his eyes fell upon the very first line.
[The world will be swallowed in darkness and the darkness will be swallowed by me...]
As he read the bizarre text, he couldn’t understand the meaning behind the sentence at all. Why would such a weird, ominous phrase be written in a standard history book?
But he didn’t get the time to think. A terrifying chill ran down his spine. Before he could react, the world around him started to violently disintegrate, melting away until absolute darkness swallowed him whole.
...
Alen’s POV:
"..."
Silence.
The very first thing I felt was pure silence. I was floating in an endless sea of darkness.
I didn’t know where I was.
Was I alive? Was I safe? I didn’t know. I couldn’t even open my eyes... or maybe I had already opened them, but the suffocating darkness simply didn’t allow me to see anything.
’Was it an illusion? Or someone’s prank?’ I wondered desperately.
But I didn’t know.
A strange gravity sucked me endlessly through the void, making my body feel entirely weightless. The normal laws of the world were twisted and broken in this place. There were no physical objects present—or maybe they had also been swallowed by the void, if they ever existed at all.
’Where am I going? Am I really alive?’
I tried to feel my own body, but my hand just passed through empty air. I couldn’t feel anything. No sense of touch. No skin. Nothing. It was as if my physical body didn’t even exist.
It was a very similar feeling to when I had floated in that white space, but this felt entirely different. This place didn’t give me any sense of calmness; instead, it gave me a deeply ominous feeling of danger.
’Wait! Have I really died again? Is this my soul? Did the gods just notice their mistake and send me back to hell?!’
My questions remained completely unanswered. There was no one present in the void to answer them.
I tried to feel the mana in my core, but there was nothing. It felt as if my mana core had been violently stretched and ripped away. I felt like a hollow, empty void was present in my chest—an emptiness I didn’t even know existed.
Just as I was starting to guess that this place might be actual death, the suction force of the gravity intensified drastically. It was so intense that my phantom body didn’t even obey my commands as I was violently pulled downward.
The space directly below me suddenly started to warp. A massive whirl of darkness began to form as the very fabric of space stretched wide open. I was falling fast. A giant whirlpool opened beneath me, looking exactly like a gate to another realm.
I twisted myself, trying as hard as I could to prevent myself from entering it. But it was completely useless without a physical body to control. The crushing force of gravity refused to obey my will, and I plunged straight into the dark whirlpool.
I didn’t know what was going to happen to me inside. It seemed my fate simply refused to let me live a peaceful life.
’Sigh... What a happy life...’
...
Inside the Blue City Library, bright moonlight fell through the window, illuminating the book Alen had held just a few minutes ago. It rested on the table, exactly where he had left it.
Slowly, the text written on the first page began to disintegrate into dark ash, leaving the remaining pages completely blank. There was absolutely nothing written in the book anymore.
A sudden breeze swept through the quiet room, rapidly turning the pages until the heavy cover slammed shut. The title embossed on the front was the exact same one Alen had seen earlier: The Magical Being.
Suddenly, a shadow fell over the book. A person materialized seamlessly from the deep darkness of the library.
The figure was wearing an elegant, pitch-black dress. At first, only her glowing crimson eyes were visible in the shadows. But as she stepped forward into the moonlight, her young face was finally revealed.
Her face was delicately sculpted, possessing a beauty that seemed almost unreal. Silky black hair framed her features like a dark veil, while her crimson eyes shimmered with an enchanting yet highly dangerous allure. Her smooth skin was flawless, perfectly accentuating the elegance of her slender nose and soft lips.
A sweet, dangerous smile formed on her lips as she reached out and touched the cover of the book with her delicate hand.
The moment her skin made contact, the book slowly started to shine. The original title on the cover rapidly disintegrated into dust.
New text began to form, written in dark, elegant letters. The cover itself transformed, shifting into a swirling mix of deep darkness and blood red.
As the new text settled, the true name of the book was finally revealed:
[The Tome of Crimson Sky]
The mysterious girl smiled as she looked at the tome, gently caressing its cover.
She gracefully sat down in the exact same chair Alen had occupied earlier. Resting her elbow on the table and propping her chin in her hand, she gazed at the tome. The dark book reflected perfectly in her shimmering crimson eyes.
Her expression was now completely blank, as if she possessed no emotions at all. Her earlier smile had long disappeared, fading away as if it had just been a breeze of the air.
Resting her cheek against her palm, she turned her gaze toward the window. As the pale moonlight washed over her face, her eyes reflected the night sky.
Her soft lips parted as she breathed out into the quiet air. A melodic, chilling voice escaped her lips.
"It seems someone with the ’Qualification’ has finally appeared again..."
She looked up at the moon with an unreadable expression. Then, she stood up and walked toward the window, her flawless face reflecting in the glass.
"Let’s meet soon..."
Her body began to disintegrate into dark particles, and she vanished completely from the library.
The room was once again filled with absolute silence.
On the table, the book also began to slowly disintegrate into ash, fading away into nothingness as if it had never been real in the first place.
