Regulus stared at the centre of the book, his eyes were fixated on the centre.
'It should be here?'
He flipped through the pages. Left, right, he flipped and flipped even though he knew that the Essence Code wouldn't magically appear.
"I don't understand." He muttered out loud, slamming the book shut, only to open it once more.
"It should be here, there's no other explanation." He thought back to his memories, the memories of Chris Black.
In the novel that told the story of his world, The Essence Code was placed inside a tomb. A book that once belonged to an old sorcerer.
The same tomb was currently in his hand.
In the story, Chris didn't have to do anything to get the Code. In fact, he had randomly stumbled onto it and it was conveniently placed in the centre of the book.
The plot point was so irrelevant that he had forgotten about it until the possessed diary reminded him of it.
"This is SO stupid!" He let out his frustration.
He slammed the book shut one last time and almost threw it back to the shelf where he had found it.
"I don't have time for this."
He had less than a year to prepare for his death and he couldn't bother wasting it on trying to find the Essence Code. Yes, it would help him out, but it didn't mean the end of the world without it.
Just as Regulus turned around, a small knock caught his attention. His eyes turned instantly to the tomb, which was supposed to hold the artefact, and it had fallen onto the ground.
He furrowed his eyebrows, the book was placed rather tightly, there wasn't any reason for it to fall.
He moved over and took it into his hands, feeling strangely drawn to it.
"Where Sailors drown and Willows cry, I shall listen, I will not pry." Regulus repeated those strange words.
A light appeared from those texts and his heart paused in fear. He tried to drop the tomb and make a run for it.
But, before he could, the light vanished from his eyes and darkness overcame his senses.
***
Regulus opened his eyes, and a blinding light washed over him. It was unlike anything he had witnessed before.
It was so bright yet his eyes didn't falter and his gaze moved on.
He found himself standing in an empty ground. Around him were giant walls, and seats were above them. His neck felt chills as he stared at the hundreds and thousands of seats.
It was as if he was being watched by things he could not see. Like they were watching him for amusement.
His gaze turned to the other side of the ground. A giant cage that looked like it was keeping something inside of him.
"Where the hell am I?" He said out loud.
"Anyone there?" He paused as the wind blew past him.
Something told him that it would be better if no one were there with him.
He turned his head to towering walls, "Can't scale those."
They were humongous, he could barely see the massive seats behind them.
He did a 360° turn and the more he stared at his surroundings, the more he started to realise, "The Colosseum."
It looked exactly like the Greek Architecture that had once been a part of Earth. Although it looked like it had been scaled to the size a rat would see it as.
His eyes turned to the sky and his heart came up to his mouth.
In the darkness of night, where he had hoped to see the moon and its light, all that stood there was the abyss.
'How is their illumination then?' He wondered.
Regulus slowly started to move, standing around wasn't going to do anything. His eyes shifted to the opposing cage, its bars massive and wide apart.
The distance between them was large, it would no doubt take him some time to get there.
'Seriously, where the hell am I?' Nothing of this sort had ever been mentioned in the story.
"Fuck, I guess not everything is as it was written." He cursed out loud.
That changed a lot of things. He didn't know what he could trust from the story. "The main things will stay the same, right?"
He didn't even know if the Central Academy Massacre was certain anymore.
Dread slowly filled his heart as the feeling of not knowing anything settled deep inside of him.
"Fuck, standing here won't do anything."
He started moving towards the opposing cage, weirdly drawn to it. His pace was steady, not too fast nor too slow.
His stamina was far above that of any average human from his previous life. However, that wasn't really important right now.
Regulus moved steadily for almost an hour, his legs started to feel slightly numb, but, he finally reached his destination.
He arrived at the massive cage and slowly walked through the gaps between the bars.
What came ahead, was a lot more empty grounds.
Although he could see some massive weapons on top of some gigantic slabs attached to the equally large walls.
Regulus decided to ignore them and moved where his gut told him to. His eyes occasionally looked back behind him.
He was still extremely cautious of his surroundings and didn't know what was present in this place.
"Where the hell even am I?" He asked expecting no answer.
It was then that he felt a slight fog disappear from his memories. He paused in his steps and dread washed over him.
"Let this be my subconsciousness." He prayed to every deity there could have been.
Because if the place wasn't his subconsciousness, it meant that Earth existed, and he didn't want to go down that rabbit hole just yet.
And something worse was that it was created by a monster, because, if a beast created it, that not only meant Earth existed, but that a beast knew about it.
He prayed for that not to be the case.
Regulus picked up his steps once more, the dread still present in the air as he would take occasional glances back over his shoulder.
He moved for who knows how long, he could finally see the large swords and weapons on top of slabs, some other slabs designed in the shape of chairs.
No matter how much he thought against it, the place looked exactly like The Colosseum.
"I really hope I don't get attacked by some Eldritch horror monster." He looked behind him one last time.
His steps hastened as he almost arrived at the end of the small hallway?
He didn't know how to explain it, because the room didn't end in a wall, from the looks of it, it extended further left and right, leading to the unknown.
Regulus felt the numbness over his legs wash away and his breath tightened as he took his final steps.
Finally, his chest tightened, and he arrived at the edge of the hallway. In front were two paths, right or left.
"You know, now would be the time for a great cliffhang-"