"Are you sure this will work?" Aletha asked as Akwan and Dawn mixed the three bottles of ingredients into one container, wondering how these people remembered these loops.
As Akwan finished blending the ingredients, he handed the container to Dawn. Together, they hurled rocks at the barrier. Each stone struck, sending shimmering ripples across its surface, bursting like bubbles of paint.
"If it wasn’t for the constant resets," He replied as he poured the essences. "We would have escaped long ago. It was only thanks to Landon that we were able to break free from the clutches of that book. That and your actions, too. Come now, let’s not waste any more time."
As the swirling essences merged, casting a purple glow, Asahi and Aletha were swept back to memories of their struggles in the last dimension—moving mysterious artifacts, whispering with thieves about secret ingredients. Shock flickered across Aletha’s face.
"Landon?" Aletha muttered, watching the golden book glow. "So you’re not working for Liora?"
The blonde-haired, blue-eyed thief approached Aletha and snatched The Forbidden Book from her hands.
"Of course I’m working for Liora," Landon replied, face shining underneath the sun. "It was thanks to shredding part of the skin of the monster that I saw with tendrils in the slums, that I remembered everything. It all came flooding back."
The memory of the void left their faces frozen in wide-eyed astonishment.
"The monster you’re speaking of is," Asahi said with a half-breathless murmur. "The Ruler of the Forgotten."
Aletha’s eyes broadened in shock and awe.
"Is it because of him that we forgot and continued these same loops of the same day over and over again?"
"It could mean something more," Akwan said as he summoned a blue luminance in between his palms. "The Ruler of the Forgotten’s influence is spread all over the place. It seems his goal is to... capture you two."
A gentle breeze drifted past, tinged with the sharp sweetness of honey, as Landon spoke.
"I remembered Liora not really trying to hurt us," Dawn said as he stared at the birds. "She was often a sweetheart, just making sure you two were not leaving. But now I feel like that wasn’t what she really wanted..."
Trading recollections, they concluded both this pocket world and the one above were under The Ruler of the Forgotten and The Forbidden Book’s influence, trapping them in an endless time loop.
Afterward, he turned to the page with requests. He then pointed at the final messages, saying,
"If we ever want to get a chance to escape this prison," Landon informed Drimi, Belial, and the others gathered around him. "We MUST follow the requests."
. . .
Follow the places where the drawings are.
Use the clues, illustrations, and figures on the page to find the ingredients.
Run outside to find Clover.
Find parts of the medals and gems.
Give them to the thieves."
The sun had just nearly passed the midway point of the day.
They ran around the city, searching for gems and medals. In that moment, they knew they had a small chance to fulfill the final two requests.
Akwan carried the mixed potions and poured them into a purple bottle. While Drimi and Belial intercepted the guards who had turned on their group, Landon ran beside Asahi and Aletha. Dawn and Chip followed close behind, all of them actively helping in the frantic search.
"Hope you know what you are doing," Asahi said as he clutched tight to the Forbidden Book. "Because if we can’t pass the third day, all of it would be for naught."
"Understood," Landon said as his blonde hair waved back. "We will get out of this loop, whatever it takes."
Drimi unleashed her purple magic, Belial shot five guards with his bow, and the rest of the thieves fought Narcissa.
"We’ll handle this!" Dawn and Chip said as they fashioned their daggers. "Just go! You too, Landon! Let’s get out of this hellhole!"
As they clustered around Landon, a sudden realization illuminated the group.
The thieves that the Forbidden Book was referring to were Landon themself.
If they could gather the medals and gems before the day changed, and with Drimi and Belial holding off the guards and Narcissa, they might finally escape.
Now, the guards loomed as a greater threat than the Queen herself.
However, now that the guards were distracted by Drimi and Belial, Asahi, Aletha, and Landon ran northward through the city, finding shimmering artifacts situated on the grass.
"That was... too easy," Aletha said, clutching her arm after feeling a sudden blade slash her skin. She looked around, startled. "Huh?"
"Behind you, Aletha!"
Suddenly, jagged black tendrils lashed upward, snatching the artifacts. A figure emerged—a man-shaped silhouette, shrouded in writhing tendrils and slick black ooze. His warped voice echoed as flickering memories danced across his skin, cascading like water over petals.
"You shall never get out of this prison," He said as he threw its tendril at Asahi. "You will be stuck here with me... and Liora, and all the other people here, forever!"
His words struck them with grim clarity: the mastermind behind this time-looped prison was none other than the Ruler of The Forgotten.
Standing next to him appeared a beautiful magenta-haired woman holding a copy of The Forbidden Book. Liora in the flesh, was taken and seemed to have assisted the Ruler of the Forgotten. Even she felt weakened as Asahi and Aletha’s blades shone with brilliant disturbances.
At first, they thought she was on The Ruler of the Forgotten’s side... but then...
"Liora, what are you doing?" The Ruler of The Forgotten said as she festered a purple luminance in her hand. "Didn’t I TELL YOU that if you betrayed me, and did not capture the two, that you shall perish like the others?"
"I’m sick of your lies, Paxon," She said, revealing his name to everyone. "You just want us to be stuck here. It was I who gave the book to them so that they could break everyone from this prison. I was never on your side. The one that shall perish," After shouldering another burden, Liora said. "...should be you."
Struck with this response, Paxon, the Ruler of the Forgotten, took two steps back, away from the wanderers.
"NOOO! No. I refused to be betrayed," He said, piercing his black tendrils through Liora. " I offered you all the power, and this is how you treat me? If you won’t join The Ending and keep these siblings and everyone trapped, I shall interfere."
Just as Liora could escape, a wave of crimson shot up to her. Asahi and Aletha froze in shock as they saw Paxon slice the woman, cutting her in two.
Disappearing in crimson and dust, with two final words, she dropped to the ground and said,
"Thank you," She said while Landon and the others scrambled to save her.
They watched in horror as the once-vibrant woman collapsed, her life unraveling before their eyes.
"Now that I cast that meaningless shrew out of my garden," Paxon said as memories flickered left and right on his skin. " It is time that I shall end you two."
With heavy breathing, he approached the wanderers, dragging his flesh behind.
Liora was gone; only the Forbidden Books were left in her wake.
It was because of her that Asahi and Aletha could be given the chance to break open everyone and themselves.
It was because of her that they could meet Akwan and bring him, everyone trapped in the pages of the book, back home.
It was because of her that they saw the barrier.
This revelation shattered their assumptions: Liora had always opposed The Ruler of The Forgotten. Confusion and questions surged within the group.
"Which side is she on?"
This sudden truth, Liora’s desperate attempt to save herself, Akwan, Drimi, Belial, and the others from the Ruler’s grasp, spurred them into action.
"Asahi," Aletha said as she wiped the dust off her body. "NOW!’
With a burst of speed, he unleashed a flurry of blows against the figure.
A white luminance shone with runes, entering straight at the heart of the beast.
But it flew back and pushed itself away, gnawing at Belial and Drimi.
Both of them conjured purple and green energy, surrounding the one in rapid motions. Firstly, they shredded a piece of his skin, causing them to recollect awful visions.
A dark-haired, purple-eyed man and a leviathan.
A smoldering world and a woman.
An engulfing radiance and an army.
A torrent of past visions crashed over them in quick succession.
Secondly, they struck the head of Paxon, bashing it and tossing it back like balls.
Asahi shook his head and rushed eastward, striking the being and devastating the creature. Afterwards, he and Aletha struck all the guards in one bluster, leaving behind traces of crimson.
Paxon shrieked, hurling a storm of tendrils at Aletha. She weaved and spun through the onslaught, Landon gripping his dagger nearby. From the sidelines, Belial, Akwan, and Clover watched the deadly dance unfold.
As they dodged and walloped the Ruler of the Forgotten, one of his tendrils clutched onto Asahi’s forehead, binding and blinding him with another painful memory.
. . .
Long white hair, beautiful dark eyes, and a suit had accompanied her.
She walked along the shattered alleyways, watching as everyone in the kingdom fell to the floor. She dragged her scarf on the ground, turning left and right.
The woman fell to her knees, whispering painfully as she heard the cries of the lost echo in the walls.
"Asahi, Aletha, Aiyana, where are you three?" She said as she pushed herself up into the air, levitating as the engulfing radiance swallowed the world. "Where are my children?"
Then, as soon as the radiance came, she dropped the scarf, leaving Asahi alone with it.
. . .
Asahi’s gray eyes broadened in shock at the sudden memory.
Paxon laughed as he got gashed over and over again by his tendrils, getting caught off guard by the flickers of memory.
"Aww, look who is so down," Paxon said pitifully as he saw Aletha choke from the tendrils. "Your mommy can’t save you now! WATCH! Let us witness another stupendous memory."
As Belial and Drimi witnessed their memories flash into their minds, they sliced the beast, shredding yet another fragment of its flesh. Then, a cut stained the air as the goopy creature reached for Asahi and Aletha’s brains, phasing through their foreheads.
. . .
"You three..." A man with long white hair and pink and gray eyes watched as the world crumbled before him.
He looked back at his hands, then at his feet, and finally at the spectacle.
The sky was fashioned in a brilliant crimson.
He had stood on a mountain, his deep voice resonating within the lost world.
"Where have you been?"
Just as the luminance engulfed him, the man flew and levitated toward the collapsing kingdom of Rulers, searching for their son and daughters.
"Where have you gone?"
. . .
Another searing memory struck, and Asahi and Aletha crumpled, overwhelmed by the relentless assault of their own past. Paxon’s only weapon now was their pain—a cruel, venomous trick that stung their minds like a swarm of wasps.
"Mother?" Asahi said as Belial and Akwan threw a powerful strike at Paxon.
"Father?" Aletha muttered with trembling gray eyes.
Paxon continued to laugh as they reached their minds. Their foreheads were covered in a dark purple glow, bending and twisting.
But just before they could reach a core memory,
"That’s enough," Akwan said as he conjured a light blue luminance in his hand. "You shall tamper with the wanderers no more."
Asahi and Aletha were freed from the grasp of The Ruler of the Forgotten.
Furthermore, Akwan, Drimi, and Belial all focused their energies on Paxon.
Green, purple, and blue luminances encircled the two, surrounding their every arm.
"NO!" He screamed in protest as he unleashed his tendrils everywhere. "I won’t let you have them. I won’t let you get past this reset!"
Suddenly, Clover and Belial unleashed a surge of green light. The air trembled with sorrow and pain. Asahi and Aletha were swept aside, memories swirling around them. Regaining their composure, they seized the Forbidden Books and pressed onward.
As they grabbed the books, they powerfully threw them straight at Paxon’s head, gulping them in one bite.
"NO!" He shrieked as he accidentally devoured the books. "What have you done? What have you done?"
Grasping this hopeful atmosphere, Asahi and Aletha delivered powerful blows with both their fists. It shredded the skin of Paxon, forcing him to squirm on the ground. The tendrils moved forward, coiling over the wanderers.
Just as he was about to touch them, Landon rushed to the artifacts and garnished a golden luminance inside his palms. This, and The Forbidden Book, now swallowed by Paxon’s devouring maw, began shimmering underneath the shadow-filled skies. They painfully tore out the flesh of Paxon. Memories started to flash left and right,
A dragon.
A woman.
A silver-haired girl.
All of these thoughts, these very instances, flashed instantaneously, and had urged the wanderers to...
"GET UP!" Akwan and the others hollered, their eyes flickering in brightness.
If the group and everyone else wanted to escape and return to reality, they would have to fight the one behind it all.
Paxon.