In The Grand Library, there are no ordinary days for the librarians. Where most visitors found fascinating books, few of them found secret untold, but then Dryad found another life.
"Goodness!" Brilliant exclaimed as the light finally faded away.
His eyes adjusted quickly, as did his vision after. When all his senses came back to normal, he noticed that he was still in the library, kneeling down while Dryad and Haze lying on the floor unconscious beside him. But something amiss. He looked up and turned his head to the window, and noticed the sky was red. It's the strangest sunset he has ever seen. The entire place was engulfed in crimson, as if hell itself had been unleashed.
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"Oh sheesh.. what happened?!" Brilliant muttered under his breath.
He stood up and walked to the window to take a better look. The trees looked as if they were just burned. Even the air feels heavy and suffocating to breathe. The faint smells of rotten flesh, mixed with blood and a hint smell like... like alcohol? Whatever it was, a mix of all those strange smells filled the air. This was the same library but definitely a different atmosphere. How on earth did all the surroundings change in a second?
"So it's true that I've been thrown into another dimension," he muttered to himself.
Suddenly, Dryad groaned and began struggling to wake up. At once, Brilliant turned his head, walked back and kneeled beside her. Dryad looked up and her eyes met Brilliant's.
"My God!" Dryad exclaimed, "Brilliant?!"
Brilliant nodded briefly, "Yep. That's me," his lips forming a thin line as he smiled. "Finally you awake." Brilliant then turned his attention to Haze, “Hey, you! Wake up, man!”
Dryad shook Haze’s shoulder a bit to wake him up. Haze winced then blinked several times before he jolted awake to see who was kneeling in front of him. He gasped as he saw Brilliant and quickly got up, looking at him in disbelief. His mind is racing to process everything that just happened.
“There. You finally wake up too,” Brilliant said, raising his eyebrows at Haze's reaction. “What’s wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“A.. Alexey?” Haze stunned in disbelief. He blinked a few times, and he started to wonder if what just happened was real or not. “You... You are Alexey...? How is this possible? Am I dead already? Is this hell?”
Brilliant frowned, “excuse me?” He didn't remember that name. All of his memories seemed to had been erased from his mind, well.. except that Brilliant did remember how he died in the past.
Haze frowned, “but... Alexey, you’re passed away. I saw your funeral!”
“Oh? Really?” Brilliant sighed and chuckled. He wasn’t sure what to say. “Alexey, huh? Sorry, that name doesn't ring a bell. I am Brilliant. Or so this short woman named me," he said, pointed Dryad with his chin.
Dryad exchanged looks back and forth between Haze and Brilliant, “w...wait, wait... hold on a second. Haze, you can see him?”
He looked at Dryad and then back to Brilliant, as if confirming what he just heard. Then he nodded his head firmly, his hands slightly trembling anxiously. “Y..yes. Of course! How can I not see him, he is right before my eyes!” Haze said anxiously.
Dryad furrowed, “but… he is my imaginary brother. How can you see him?”
Brilliant chuckled at the word ‘imaginary brother’, then he said, “no. I think ‘Guardian’. To be precise.”
Dryad shook her head as if shaking off something on her mind, “I don't know what happened here. It is strange that Haze can see you, Brilliant.”
“Well…” Brilliant sighed again “That is not so surprising. Because we are in another world now, after all. Welcome, guys, in Different dimensions.”
“Different…what?” Haze was clearly trying hard to process what happened.
On the other hand, Dryad seemed more understanding of the situation because Sir Alvard had explained such things. “So this is Another World...”
“I don’t get it. Why are we here, anyway?” Haze asked.
Brilliant glanced at Dryad, “your book at hand, Dryad, what made us thrown here”
“Is that so?” Dryad asked, she was about to look at the grimoire again, but Brilliant quickly grabbed Dryad's hand to prevent her from doing so. “Dryad... don't open that yet, please,” Brilliant said. “Keep it close for now. We don’t know yet what kind of power it holds.”
Brilliant helped Dryad to stand back on her feet. He then turned to Haze, who was still shocked and couldn’t believe what he saw. “You can get up?” He said, extended his hand.
Haze looked up to him with a mix of sadness and relief. He took Brilliant's hand firmly and stood up. He still looked a bit shaken from everything that happened, but his relief is stronger than anything else. Haze suddenly hug him tightly. “Alexey… brother…I am glad to see you again.”
“Whoops…” Brilliant was slightly surprised. “Oh… okay?” Though didn’t know what Haze was babbling about, he returned the embrace and tapped Haze’s back gently. “Allright, man. Let me go,”
Even if it was only dream, Haze was very glad. This encounter was more than enough.
He didn’t want to let go of Brilliant, but he knew that they had a lot of questions and things to discover. Haze let him go slowly, still looking at Brilliant’s face with tears in his eyes.
“Alexey. I missed you so much!” Haze said as he wiped away the tear on his cheek
Brilliant frowned and forced a smile. He was puzzled why Haze calling him with that name. “Yeah, whatever. Call me with anything as you wish. Anyway, save your emotions for later. We have to figure out how to get out from here first.”
Haze was also still confused, but he knew that Brilliant had a point. They need to get out of here as soon as possible. So instead of asking too many questions, Hazard nodded his head and looked around the room.
“Allright, then, why don’t we use this grimoire again?” Dryad cut him off.
“And you know which incantation that could bring us back home?” Brilliant asked, raising an eyebrow. He already guessed that Dryad would answer ‘no’ , though.
“No.” Dryad answered.
“Right,” Brilliant rolled his eyes.
Haze was about to speak again, but he stopped when a voice suddenly appeared out of nowhere. The sudden sound of agony made them freeze in their tracks.
Dryad looked around, trying to locate the source. “What is it?” she asked in confusion. Dryad looked even more scared, she grabbed Brilliant’s arm and hid behind his back.
“Should we check it out?" Haze looked at them both, "or not?"
“We have no choice but to find out first However, let's stay low for now," Brilliant suggested.
