"There was no way out of here... At least, not the kind of exit I can find with my ability."
The situation did not look promising. For a while, everyone sat in silence. Mes was the first to speak.
"Actually, only one method comes to mind to get out of here…" Mes said. Before he could finish his sentence, Arsh and Bera completed the rest.
"To kill Apeirolimos," they said at the same time.
Reaching this conclusion was easy enough. If they could not escape the illusion, they had to eliminate the source that created it. But the real problem was something else. Arsh thought that if killing it were really this simple, it would have been killed long ago instead of being sealed in a box.
"Then how are we going to kill that thing? Do you have any weapons with you?" Walter asked.
Bera and Mr. Herman nodded. Both of them drew their revolvers. After hesitating for a moment, Mes also reached for his waist and pulled out a pocket pistol.
"What are you doing with that?" Bera said.
"Professor Reiener gave it to me as a gift. I thought it would be a good idea to carry it with me today," Mes said timidly in response to Bera's harsh look.
"Do you think a revolver will even work?" Arsh asked. He was worried that such weapons might not be enough to kill the creature—instead, they might only make it more aggressive.
"We have no choice. We should try and see," Mr. Herman replied.
"The weakest and slowest among us are Arsh and Mes. Let's leave them somewhere safe first. If we make enough noise, we can draw the creature toward us. Once we're done, if the illusion still hasn't broken, Arsh can find us again," Bera said.
"There is no safe place here, Bera. This entire place is Apeirolimos's creation," Mes said.
"In any case, staying away from us while we deal with the creature is the most reasonable option." Bera insisted on keeping them at a distance.
Arsh didn't think Bera was wrong this time. Considering the power gap, if they were going to attack the creature, he and Mes would likely just get in the way.
"We haven't fulfilled our main purpose for coming here yet. The missing people... Let me try to find them. If they are still alive, perhaps they have found a safe place, even within this illusion," Arsh said.
"They've been here for over a week. Without food or water, I doubt they could survive that long with such a creature. But give it a try," Herman said.
Arsh nodded and pulled the photographs from his pocket. He started with the librarian again. He took a deep breath, fearing his power might suddenly drain him just as it had this morning. But this time, nothing similar happened, and there was no golden thread.
Then he tried to find the cleaning lady, Anna Davies, and the night watchman, Jerry Archer. Again, nothing. He couldn't find them.
A voice inside told him that this meant those people were dead. But then, why had thousands of threads appeared when he searched for Bill Heather before, while now there were none? He did not know how to answer that.
Finally, he picked up the last photograph. It belonged to the student—the last person to go missing in the library.
"Mary Lowe. Where is she?" he whispered.
This time, even before he opened his eyes, he felt the energy radiating from his left hand. When he opened his eyes, he found a golden thread waving in the air.
"The student, Mary Lowe. She's the only one still alive. Should we find her before trying to kill Apeirolimos? For now, she's a few floors above us," he said with a smile. Knowing that at least one person was still alive and being able to locate her had relieved him.
However, as they set off again, that relief quickly turned into frustration.
He wasn't sure how long they had been walking. At first, they went up two floors, only for the golden threads to lead them back down. After going down and walking for a while, this time golden threads showed the exact opposite direction.
They kept going like this for a long time—moving through endless rows of bookshelves, going up and down the stairs again and again. Sometimes Apeirolimos's terrifying shrieks echoed nearby, sometimes from far away, but they managed to keep their distance.
Arsh was walking at the front. A while later, Mes came up beside him, holding a pocket watch in his hand.
"Listen to me for a second... Listen to me for a second... Since we started walking, Mary's position has changed every eight minutes and forty-four seconds. Most likely, the entire illusion, this labyrinth reshapes itself at the same interval each time."
"So, we need to reach her in eight minutes... How much time has passed since the last change?"
"About two minutes."
Arsh looked at the golden threads wavering in front of him. The girl was still quite far from them. Apeirolimos was even farther away. To reach her within the remaining six minutes, they needed to move faster.
"Apeirolimos is quite far from us. What do you think would happen if we ran a little?" diye sordu Arsh.
"I'm not sure… but we're probably safe for the next seven minutes. If it could detect sounds from that far away, it would have noticed the sound of five people walking together by now. But it still hasn't come closer, right?" said Mes.
"So you're saying it only detects sound within a certain distance?"
"Probably."
"If that was true, things became much easier. Can you run, Mes?"
"Ah… I can't run very fast, but yes… I'm sorry. It would be better if I weren't here."
"Mes, don't be like that. If it weren't for you, no one would have understood what this creature is, and we would have already become its prey."
"But… you know I'm only getting in the way."
"Please. If you're getting in the way, didn't you hear them? Then I'm getting in the way too. I'm weak as well."
"But your ability is useful, and you're also pretty clever."
"See? Just like you. We all have our weak and strong sides. Let's talk about it later… We don't have time, we should run now."
This was not just a talk Arsh made to lift Mes's spirits. He was fully aware that, physically, he was the weakest one after Mes. But Mes's knowledge was also a fact, as was his quick wit. Physical strength was not always the solution. Right now, knowledge and practical intelligence mattered just as much.
He turned to the others following a few steps behind and told them they needed to run. Then they quickly headed toward the student
…
"I feel like we've been walking for hours," said Walter.
"We have been walking for one hour and ten minutes," Mes said, glancing at the watch in his hand again. After running for a while, they had finally gotten closer to their target. If Mes's estimate was correct, they still had more than a minute left. Arsh stopped in front of a large door.
"Then why can't we find her?" Walter asked.
"She is here," said Arsh, pointing at the door.
This was the main hall of the library. The golden threads had led them to the corridor connecting the exhibition hall and the library. Herman slowly opened the door in front of them.
When they opened it all the way, the first thing they saw were trees and grass completely covering the hall. It was as if a forest had grown inside, or a ceiling had been built over the forest.
"Apeirolimos isn't here, right?" Herman asked to make sure.
"No, it isn't. The student is somewhere here," Arsh said.
They stepped into the hall covered in trees. As they got closer to the library gate, they saw an open space ahead. But when they got near it, they realized there was a pile of skeletons.
"What the hell?" Walter said, stepping behind Bera.
Arsh stepped closer and began to examine the skeletons. There were dozens, maybe even more, human remains piled on top of one another. Different clothes, jewelry, armor, swords, and spears were all tossed into the pile. The skeletons looked as if they had been picked clean of flesh and blood. There were no signs of decay, and the clothes and other things showed no signs of age, either.
"These belonged to the people who fell victim to Apeirolimos over time," Arsh said.
As he shifted his gaze toward the very top of the pile with the others, he saw the reason they had come there in the first place.
There were clothes similar they saw before. One was a standard security guard uniform, which likely belonged to Jerry Archer. Beside it lay a white apron and a casual long black dress. Arsh thought that this set probably belonged to the cleaner, Anna Davies.
Then he noticed another familiar uniform. It was the brown uniform Peter had been wearing today. On the collar, there was a gold-colored name badge bearing the symbol of the library. Arsh narrowed his eyes and read the name written on it.
Arsh was certain the man had been alive last night, but now, only a skeleton lay before him.
'He must have been alive until very recently,' he thought.
But in truth, Arsh wasn't surprised. He was aware that this was the likely outcome.
Bera was examining the skeletons with him. Noticing Arsh's gaze, he looked in the same direction.
"Is this the man you told us about this morning? We thought he was alive. It seems we were too late," he said with his usual cold expression.
"Yes… Bill Heather. We were too late," Arsh replied, his voice just as cold.