-『Chapter 14』-

 

«  Heiress of the House of Novaldein »
— Velestina von Novaldein —

"U-Ugh...w-why is this door far more heavier than the real one?"

I pushed forward the door inch by inch as I internally complained whilst scenes of various kinds began flashing into my mind with increasing intensity. Everything flashes for just a mere second or two before changing into something else entirely, giving me no chance to understand the context of what I'm seeing for everything didn't correlate to one another. 

One scene shows for a second someone brewing something then another different one will follow, depicting what seems to be a nun feeding the homeless then it will change again and again, making the whole thing a huge clusters of disjointed memories.

My mind then began throbbing hard due to the onset of massive information overload but to my relief, I've finally opened the double sided door wide enough to let me passed through it.

I synchronized my movements and once I let go of my hands, I instantly turned my body sideways and skipped a single step forward as I jumped into the other side before stumbling down onto the ground. 

I then clutched my head, feeling as if it was hit by a sledgehammer several times.

"Haaah, t-that was...tiring." I muttered to myself in between my panting breaths whilst regulating breathing back to normal.

The first thing that I've noticed upon crossing this side was that this area wasn't the courtyard of my home.  It looks more like a huge empty hall that is shrouded in darkness but surprisingly, this place is far more brighter than the castle's first floor since the low illumination was mitigated by dozens of flickering lights hovering around in midair.

These miniscule glowing orbs looks like a bunch of fireflies but compared to those fast moving insects, these small tintless lights seems to be stuck in midair and aren't moving at all.

I drew close to one of these and found to my amazement that there's a tiny black crystal at its center around the size of a bean.

"Are all of these memory shards as well?"

There should be at least be a dozen of these orbs within this darkened hall. Curiosity got the better of me and decided to poke one out with the tip of my index finger and upon doing so—I͎͚̰͉͞ ̨̧̦̺̬͖̀ͅḏ̱̠̰͎̟̦̟̘͞o҉̹̳̳̦̬̭͜n̳͙̠̯̪ț̵̝̖͚͎ ̰͍̞̻w̷̭̜̙̠a͏̮̬̜̣͚͕̠͔̰ǹ̼͖͍̻̗̖̜͎̕t̝̘̳̯̻̼͍͘͟ ̴̝̩̜̜̪̭͎̱t̫͝͠ó̻̤̲͖̱͚̰ͅ ͚̖d̶̬̱͇i̖͔̦̕͢͞é̜̲̪̞͈̲̖ ͉̻̬͔̮y̲̬̰̖͟e̬̻̗͖̫̫͝t̗̤͉̟̺̬̺͟ͅ,҉͚̤̯͔͚͚̝͜ ̕͏̦̤͔͘w̢̳̮̪̝̰h̶̤͎͡ͅy̡̤̠͕̯͜ ҉͇͉̲̱̪͍̺͢d̶̼̩͕̮̜̩̹͎i̷̤͍̣d̨̟͇̙̯͝ ̻̼͚̦̰̺̯̱͢i͖͠ ̢̳̩̭̰͈̦̕d̶̯̳͈̮̺͕i̶̡̟̫̖͇̬ȩ͙̮͓̮͕͔͚͈ ̴̵̻͕͟i̩̬̲̠͍͞ ̵̨͓d̪o̧҉̯̘n̩͇͖̖͚̞̥͜t̨̫̪͇̞̳̞̼̥́ ̡̪̦̠̮̼̘̺̫w̡̬̼͟͢a҉͎͍̤̣͕n̵̫͉̺̫̺t҉̱͍ ̢̬̺̱̹̮̠͙͢ṱ͉̻͖͈͎̼͜͞ò̶͇̬̲͇̰̖̭͝ ̧̞̗̥̕d̠̹͙̙͜i҉͍͎̞é͘҉̖̟̙̼̳͙̲̠̤ ̝͖̠̩͡ͅi̭̖͇͓͍̗̞̱͘͜ ̺̙͕̰͉̼͖̘̀c̯̮̯̭͚̕ạ͖͓̠̩ṉ̙t̡͎̘̖̀ ͈̞̰̣̠̻d̺̹̞̯̱̟͚͔̀͜ì̪͓͓e̱̹ͅ ̥̤̱̦͞͝Ḭ̣͢—

—Urgh.

What a chaotic visceral experience.

Note to self, never do something so impulsive ever again.

The content of this orbs felt more like a raw lingering emotions of a deceased person than an actual memory. 

I decided to evade these glowing orbs at all cost and noticed from a distance a single set of stairs, leading upwards to what appears to be an arched entrance. However I didn't instantly climbed up these stairs like some impetuous main character of some action packed adventure novel.

Prudence is the foundation of success and just because I let recklessness get the better of me by choosing to proceed along this exploration doesn't mean that I'll keep being reckless for the remainder of this endeavor.

I'm a person that has a penchant of making plans and countermeasures. Just because nothing is happening at the moment doesn't mean that danger won't happen later on.

I didn't know anything about this place and only a foolish person would proceed along without any means of security nor backups. Thus I've gone back the door and check if I can open it again from this side. 

After I've confirmed that I can do so, the next thing I did was to I closed my eyes and tried thinking of returning back to the real world. I instantly felt that familiar 'pull' beckoning me but I swiftly cut the connection since I'll loose all my progress.

Back on my first visit, I did a lot of experiments to see what's the limitations of this bizarre mindrealm of mine. One thing I've found out was that this realm doesn't save the last area I had been to and instead always transferred me to the rooftop as the starting point for some reason. I could not bring along with me any physical objects either for any real objects will simply vanish even if I hold it close to me. My clothes and shoes seemed to be the only exception but upon further experimentation, I've found that  the ones I'm wearing is not actually the exact replica since one experiment I did was to stain my real world clothes but upon transferring here, those stains were mysteriously absent.

The time back in the real world seemed to move at the exact same pace while I am inside this realm and I've also tried using some weapons that were already pre-existing but it seemed to fade into my hands before returning to its original position once I leave the floor it was designated.

As for magic...

I let out a sigh since I cannot use my pyromancy at all in this place. In fact, even back on the real world my flames keeps getting weaker and weaker to the point that I can now only convert my mana to the weakest flame ever since all these odd things occurred.

This is why I choose to be reckless earlier despite my careful nature since it's really important for me to know the answers behind all these weird things happening to me.

"Okay enough dawdling around." I stated to myself as I began climbing the stairs leading to that arch entrance and upon arriving right in front of it, I've found that it's linked to a passage akin to a long narrow corridor for which I cannot see the end. 

Apprehension wholly enveloped me but I resisted the instinct to flee and decided to head forward with hurried steps.

I could almost hear the sound of my own heartbeats resonating along with my footsteps as it echoes through this eerie corridor. I decided to mentally count the minutes that passed by for its a good way to keep my mind off from thinking too much. 

For a long grueling fifteen minutes, I kept walking forward yet the end of this corridor is still nowhere in sight. I also noticed that the numbers of floating shards keeps getting fewer and fewer as I proceed further but these newer illuminating shards seem a bit more larger than the ones stationed at the back.

Initially these Memory Shards merely looks like a rough-edged crystals just like those ones back in the castle's third floor, but as I proceed along with my exploration, the newer shards I've stumbled across my way seemed to have more circular shape with an even smoother polished surface.

Their glows also began to get more brighter and in theory, the increased illumination should have made my apprehension lessen but alas, it's the opposite instead for the lights coming off of these newer orbs slowly began taking a humanoid form.

"...W-What are these beings." 

I warily muttered while evading contact with this translucent shade-like entity that's standing still at the center of the path by walking sideways as I dragged my back across the walls.

These entity didn't seem sentient nor responsive of any outward stimuli. It simply stood there even when I came pretty close to it.

After I was sure that I at least distanced myself twenty meters away from that unnerving entity, I momentarily stopped and stood still to reevaluate the situation. 

There's a high chance that I'll come across more of these unknown entities for which I'll call for now as « Shades » as I proceed forward but I need some sort of reassurance that I can still easily escape if ever these beings suddenly turns hostile.

I once again checked if I can still feel that beckoning sensation if I thought of returning to the real world and it gave me a huge sense of relief when I had felt the familiar sensation.

I once again resumed my trek along this corridor and to my surprise, see a small dot of light within the distance. 

It probably must be the exit!

A mixture of relief and anxiety washed over me and I quickly sprinted towards it like a man seeing an oasis after being stuck on the desert after a long time.

However I gradually slowed down my pace when I was just a few meters away from the exit. My vigilance spiked to its maximum capacity when I reach the exit and I heedfully extended my head to see what lies beyond this corridor.

Silence.

"W-What kind of a chaotic maze is this?"

From where I stood, I could see a colossal labyrinthian space that's riddled with endless amounts of confusing stairs that seems to be placed in the most haphazard fashion.

The architect of this area must be a madman for there's absolutely no order at all. 

There's just stairs everywhere I look. 

There's several leading down the ground and at the walls while there's even some hanging invertedly high up at the ceiling.

Furthermore, this place is full of Shades in every corner. Some are walking aimlessly whilst some seemed to be standing still and there's even some which are rambling incoherently all to themselves.

Each of these Shade's appearance looks well more defined than the ones I've seen loitering around back at the corridor. 

"...What in the bloody heavens is this place?"

« They're my treasures~ »

All of the Shades suddenly stopped what their doing and seemed to be getting sucked into one particular point as they all fused and combined together into this one massive sphere of swirling darkness.

The sphere then gradually compressed and began forming a human-like appearance. Long strands of black hair began appearing one after another as clothes materialized to cover its upper body. 

It then began walking towards my direction but I stood there mesmerized as my whole attention is focused onto the face that this culmination of shades has been using—

—My face.

« Sister, I'm glad that you finally visited my side of the castle! »