Dark Faïz (Book 2) [Completed]

Chapters 8-5

We were elsewhere, as if the temple and the room we were in had never existed. My friends and I were all lined up on the edge of a cliff that overlooked a bottomless void. The rock on which our feet rested crumbled and threatened to collapse at any time.

"Where are we?" shouted Asarys, on the verge of hysteria.

"Still in the temple. Well, I think," said Ray anxiously.

"Exactly!" replied a voice that rang far below us.

Slightly tilting my head, I saw Issei a few meters below. He was also standing on a huge rock. Unlike us, his seemed much more stable and safer.

"What are we doing now?" I yelled at him to make sure he could hear me.

"You wanted something real, right?"

The echo of his voice echoed on the walls of the many cliffs that surrounded us. Asarys, furious, turned towards Lexy.

"You're just a little bitch, you know that? Because of you, we're all going to die here in a horrible way—"

"Stop," William cut her off. "Right now we're leaning against a damn cliff, on the brink of a damn precipice. Now isn't the time to fight!"

His arm was against me, like a bulwark to protect me. I noticed that we were in the middle of nature, obviously not far from the top of a mountain, or a little higher, with, before our eyes, a panorama made up of mountains. I could have enjoyed the sight in other circumstances, but at that moment, I was struggling just to not faint in the face of this fear of emptiness that completely paralyzed me.

"This is all an illusion. The room is equipped with thousands of visual, sensory, and sound sensors. Your brain ends up confusing reality with what we are trying to make it believe. Your conscience tells it that this is all a hoax, but there is nothing to do. All your senses end up submitting to this illusion."

"So, if we jump, we free ourselves from this illusion, right?" asked William.

"I... No, I won't jump into the void," I stuttered.

"There is no void," William told me in a reassuring tone. "Zoe, this is a subterfuge, a gag, okay?"

"You're crazy," cried Lexy, sobbing towards Issei. "You really have to be crazy to inflict this on people and play with their fears. For what, in the end? To get in our brains a lesson on the atom, the vibrations, and...and the cerebral cortex!"

The shaman didn't even blink. Standing with his hands behind his back, his patience seemed steadfast.

"Listen to me!" Ray said, speaking to us. "We are going to transform the environment."

"But how?" Asarys asked in a panicked voice.

"We need to focus all of our attention on something else. Remember the shaman's words, 'the human must free himself. ' Thoughts are transformed into matter."

"Stairs," I whispered in a flash of lucidity.

At that moment, all heads turned to me. Lexy looked at me like if I'd gone crazy.

"We can imagine going down by stairs," I said.

"Yes, that would be the best solution," Ray agreed. "William?"

"I think, in fact, that it would be the least risky way for everyone. Let's go!"

"Uh... Wait a minute!" exclaimed Asarys, holding her face in her hands. "Are you telling us that your staircase will just appear? With a snap of your fingers?"

"Yeah," added Lexy, arms crossed, supporting her friend.

"We mustn't forget that all this doesn't exist," answered Ray, "so we are going to materialize a staircase. Unless you prefer to jump to stop this nightmare?"

Asarys glanced quickly below her before suddenly straightening up.

"The stairs will be fine," she said in a small, high voice.

"William?" Ray asked. "You also have the power to transform the environment, more precisely everything related to nature. Can you do anything?"

"I thought about it, but as the environment around us isn't real, I have no power over all that. Contrary to what we think, we have always been in the same room from the start. We have to imagine something else as strongly as possible."

After long minutes trying to bring up steps, Asarys ended up getting annoyed.

"We'll never do it! Who of the five of us isn't doing it?"

As she said these words, she stared intently at Lexy. Lexy lifted her shoulders before grumbling,

"It's easier said than done! You're so funny."

"Think, Lexy, you are just being asked to think hard enough to be able to get back to the ground. After all, if we are here, it's because of you and the polar bear on the ice floe."

"The white bear? Shit, what are you talking about?" Lexy asked, becoming angry.

"Lexy, what are you thinking now?"

"Well, about a polar bear on an ice floe. It's—"

"So your brain is functioning normally! Now show us those damn steps!"

"Okay, okay. I'm going to get over it. As if imagining an invisible staircase is something I do every day. The bear was still—"

Her friend's cold gaze was enough to silence her. We focused again on our goal.