Game of Higher Hands - The Seventh Era Archive

8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhbmcW8V1SP

The road is quiet.

Too quiet.

I have been walking for almost two hours.

The map says I am still moving in the right direction.

So I keep going.

There are fewer and fewer people.

The houses disappear.

The road becomes narrow.

Even the air feels colder.

"...Strange."

I check my phone.

Still working.

Still has signal.

Everything looks normal.

I continue walking.

Five minutes later...

I stop.

"...Was there always a forest here?"

I rub my eyes.

A large forest stands ahead.

Tall trees.

Dark shadows.

A narrow path leading inside.

I don't remember seeing this place on the map.

Maybe I just missed it.

"Only one way to find out."

I step inside.

Immediately...

everything changes.

The air becomes still.

No birds.

No insects.

No wind.

Only silence.

Real silence.

The kind that makes your ears uncomfortable.

"...Hello?"

My own voice sounds strange.

Almost... distant.

I take out my phone.

No signal.

Not one bar.

"Great."

I put it back into my pocket.

Then keep walking.

My footsteps become strange.

Each step sounds...

wrong.

Not louder.

Not quieter.

As if someone else is walking with me.

One step behind.

I stop.

Silence.

I walk again.

Step.

Another step.

I turn around.

Nothing.

"...I'm imagining things."

I keep moving.

The trees become farther apart.

Light appears ahead.

Then...

I see it.

A giant door.

Stone.

Ancient.

Covered in dust.

Higher than any building I have ever seen.

There are words carved into it.

Not English.

Not any language I know.

Old.

Very old.

I cannot read them.

Next to the door...

stands a small stone tablet.

This one...

I can read.

Knowledge never dies.

Only memory survives.

I stare at those words.

"...What does that even mean?"

The giant doors slowly open.

Without anyone touching them.

I don't remember deciding to enter.

But somehow...

I already am.

Inside...

is a hall so large I cannot see the end.

Bookshelves.

Thousands of them.

Maybe tens of thousands.

Floor after floor.

Shelf after shelf.

Everything is covered in dust.

Yet...

nothing is damaged.

Not a single broken shelf.

Not a single fallen book.

It feels...

like time stopped here.

I slowly walk forward.

"...An archive..."

The word comes into my mind naturally.

Not a library.

An archive.

A place where history sleeps.

I continue walking.

The silence follows me.

Then...

I notice something.

In the center of the hall...

one book.

Floating.

Chains of black metal surround it.

Locking it in place.

I slowly approach.

The cover is dark.

Old.

Almost black.

One title is written across it.

The Seventh Era

I reach out.

The chains do not move.

I try lifting the book.

Nothing.

It feels like lifting a mountain.

I pull harder.

Still nothing.

"...Seriously?"

I try opening it.

Locked.

The cover doesn't even move.

I knock on it.

Nothing.

"...Fine."

I step back.

"Keep your secrets."

The archive remains silent.

So I continue walking.

There are books everywhere.

Some titles are impossible to understand.

Some have symbols instead of words.

Others are completely blank.

Then...

one title catches my eye.

New Era 001

"...?"

I stop immediately.

That title...

I can read.

Unlike the others.

I slowly reach toward it.

"What are you...?"

Just as my fingers are about to touch the cover—

Something grabs me.

Not my arm.

Not my clothes.

My entire body.

Like invisible hands pulling me backward.

"What?!"

The bookshelves disappear.

The floor vanishes.

The giant hall twists.

The archive grows farther away.

"No—wait!"

I reach toward the book.

Too late.

Everything turns white.

Then—

I fall.

Hard.

"...Ow!"

I hit the ground.

Real ground.

Grass.

Dirt.

I quickly sit up.

Breathing heavily.

The forest is gone.

No giant door.

No archive.

No books.

Only the empty road.

"..."

I look around.

Nothing.

As if everything that just happened...

never existed.

Slowly...

I lower my head.

In my hand...

is a thin layer of ancient gray dust.

Not much.

Just enough to cover my fingertips.

I freeze.

"...So it was real."

Far away...

where no one can see—

a single ancient page quietly turns by itself.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRABoHAWdnC

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