Arsh had noticed the creature had no eyes, yet he still felt as though it was staring right at him through those empty hollows.
'I thought it was blind… or is it?'
A wave of fear washed over him. He knew he only had a second or two to distract it; the creature had already lunged toward them. He grabbed a book from the shelf and hurled it as far as he could. The thud it made as it hit the ground was loud enough to make the creature shriek and bolt in that direction.
'So it is blind, thank the Goddess...' he thought.
He grabbed Walter's arm and signaled him to walk slowly. Walter nodded in silence. But just as they were about to take their first steps, the creature began to shriek again; it had found nothing where Arsh had thrown the book. Arsh felt as if each shriek was a knife being plunged straight into his brain.
But fear was forcing his body to react. Arsh was certain that even if they didn't move, the creature would soon be able to find them just by the sound of their heavy breathing.
But he wasn't sure how they could get away from here silently. He had seen how fast the creature lunged at the book he'd thrown.
The stairs Arsh had used to come down were far behind them now. The nearest stairs were behind the creature. Even if they somehow managed to reach them and climb up, he had no idea how they could prevent the monster from following. They had no weapons. If they tried to move, the chance of getting away without stepping on books or dry leaves and without drawing the creature's attention seemed nearly impossible.
Another problem was that everything kept shifting. To avoid exhausting himself, he didn't want to rely on the golden threads to constantly check the others' locations. For now, the most sensible option was to assume they were still on the upper floors.
He focused, trying to find where Bera and Herman were. He could feel both golden threads extending far away, leading toward the upper floors. Although he had hoped to somehow get help from them, it didn't seem likely anymore. For a moment, he realized how reckless he had been to come here to help Walter, forgetting how weak he actually was.
'I should have found the others first and come back with them to help… But now it's too late. We have to figure something out on our own,' he thought, realizing his mistake.
When he glanced at Walter, who was crouched on the ground, he could tell from his face that he was just as clueless as himself about what they were going to do.
They needed to distract the creature somehow. At that moment, Arsh noticed that, apart from his own heartbeat, he could clearly hear Walter's heart pounding right beside him. If he could hear it, the creature surely could, too.
"Can you do something about your heart? The sound will attract it," Arsh said, moving his lips without making a sound.
He wasn't sure if Walter would understand, but he did, responding in the same way.
"What? How am I supposed to control my heartbeat when that thing is right there?"
"...We need something that can make noise."
Walter shook his head, signaling that nothing came to mind.
Arsh kept looking around, but there was nothing except books and endless bookshelves. A few more times, he threw books as far as he could, trying to lure the creature away. Still, he wasn't sure how much longer that trick would work.
"Can't you just pass through walls?"
"I almost ran out of strength escaping before you arrived."
Then, as he kept looking their surroundings, an idea flashed through his mind. He signaled Walter to come closer.
"On the count of three, push the bookshelf with all your strength. As soon as it starts to fall, run to the stairs behind it as fast as you can," he whispered.
"Is this going to work?"
"... I hope so."
When the creature lost interest in the last book Arsh had thrown, they started to push the bookshelf. Their only hope was that the creature wouldn't leave its spot.
The two of them pushed with all their strength, but the shelf was heavier than Arsh had expected. Walter was quite strong, and although they managed to budge it slightly, they couldn't bring it down. Still, the noise they made had already drawn the creature's attention.
They didn't have much time. Both took a step back and, once again, pushed the bookshelf with all their strength. This time, it worked. As the shelf began to fall forward, they sprinted into the corridor on the opposite side of the creature.
The falling bookshelf slammed into the one ahead, and that one crashed into the next, setting off a chain reaction.
The creature, maddened by the noise, ran through the collapsing shelves. Arsh was hoping to trap it between the bookcases, but this outcome was even better. As the shelves fell one after another, the creature ran farther and farther away, following the endless rows of bookshelves.
As Arsh rushed toward the stairs, he suddenly felt something stick to his shoe, slowing him down.
"What the hell is this… Ugh, disgusting."
It was the black mucus like liquid dripping from the creature's mouth. He felt like crying from disgust but there was no time for that.
As the bookshelves continued to collapse one after another, the noise drowned out Arsh and Walter's footsteps, preventing the creature from focusing on them for now. With their hands pressed tightly over their ears to block out the creature's shrieks, they climbed the stairs as fast as they could.
Once Arsh felt they were far enough away, he formed a golden thread between himself and the monster.
"We're safe for now," he whispered.
"How… huff… do you know?" Walter asked, leaning forward as he struggled to catch his breath.
"I'll explain later," Arsh said. "First, we need to find Mes."
However, through the golden threads, he could sense that Mes was now very far away. He still didn't understand how, but everything in the library felt like an illusion. He couldn't find any other explanation.
This time, he focused on Bera and Mr. Herman. Fortunately, they were much closer than Mes.
"Mes is too far away for now," Arsh said. "But Mr. Herman is on this floor. Let's find him first, then we can move together. Follow me."
Walter looked better than he had moments ago. For a while, he stared at Arsh with a blank expression. It was clear he was trying to figure out how this "new guy" knew exactly where everyone was.
Then, a look of quiet acceptance appeared on his face. It was obvious that rather than questioning it, following this new guy—who acted as if he knew exactly what he was doing—felt like the easier choice. So, he quietly began to follow Arsh.
Soon, they were back to running through the endless rows of bookshelves, through a space that seemed to go on forever.
...
'What if something happened to them? How am I supposed to explain this to Edwin? How do I tell him that they vanished right in front of my eyes… I shouldn't have shouted at Walter like that. Even if he's been a troublemaker since childhood, he's always been a good kid…' Herman thought.
He was sitting on a chair, holding a gun in his hand, trying to piece together everything that had happened. About an hour and a half or maybe two hours earlier, he had suddenly found himself inside the library even though only a moment ago he had been in the exhibition hall. But what was even stranger was that the place was nothing like before—books were scattered everywhere, and there were branches and dry leaves all over.
When Mes said that something was bothering him and that he wanted to go back down to the exhibition hall while they were searching for Walter, Herman had gone with him. After that, he had only taken his eyes off Mes for a brief moment—just long enough to look down at the sticky thing beneath his shoe.
When he lifted his head again, Mes was gone.
Then, no more than a few seconds later, Herman found himself here.
Although he searched for the others, he couldn't find them. Then he heard Walter's voice along with strange shrieks he couldn't identify. He moved toward the noise, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find them. When he went upstairs, the sound seemed to come from below; when he turned left, it came from the right.
In the end, he decided to sit down for a moment to think and figure out what to do. But instead of finding a solution, he sat there, consumed by guilt, convinced that something terrible had happened to Mes and Walter.
When he heard those disturbing shrieks again, he waited to hear Walter's voice, or perhaps Mes's this time. But he heard nothing else.
'I couldn't even protect two kids. I just hope Bera and Arsh are safe…'
Herman usually worked in the police branch of the FFSD. Gathering intelligence was his responsibility, and he rarely struggled on duty, especially since his job suited his Siuni. But the situation he was in now was completely outside his job description. He had thought this was just a simple missing persons case and didn't really think it would be related to an artifact, even though his superiors had said so. These days, so many people were going missing that he hadn't given it his usual attention. And now, he found himself trapped inside a library that had suddenly turned into an endless labyrinth
As he stared blankly ahead, a dark silhouette appeared between the bookshelves. He raised his gun instinctively, but the moment he recognized who it was, he lowered it again.
"Arsh… are you here too?"
When he saw the pale face with red hair appeared right behind Arsh, a huge wave of relief washed over him.
"Walter… Walter, come here…"
He rushed toward Walter and hugged him tightly.
"Herman… Mr. Herman... Uncle Herman, what are you doing?" Walter tried to push Herman away, but when it came to physical strength, Herman was clearly stronger.
As Arsh told Walter again to stay quiet. Herman kept saying that he had thought Walter was dead, that he was sorry for shouting at him so much in the past, and rambling on in a rush of guilt and relief.