Akwan hurled a surge of blue brilliance toward Paxon, the light crackling like bottled lightning between them.
Pellets exploded against the blue strings, which snaked around the creature like living chains. Its tail unfurled, exposing raw, sinewy flesh, and its shadowy form tore through the ground, barreling toward the wanderers.
"If I can’t keep these two trapped here," he said, " maybe THIS thing will!"
It slammed onto all fours, jaws gaping hungrily at its prey. Before their eyes, the man’s form liquefied and warped into a sinewy, clawed beast, its limbs glistening and grotesque. They struck back, blow after desperate blow, but the monster simply reknit itself, relentless and unyielding. Asahi, caught between awe and terror, scrambled to help in any way he could.
"RUN!"
They sprinted, weaving between snapping tendrils and slashing claws. Asahi lunged for The Forbidden Book, flipping it open to pages aglow with illustrations—an alligator with razor claws, a mirror of Paxon’s monstrous shape. Tearing out a sheet of silk paper, he watched in disbelief as the alligator morphed into a hulking black bear. The danger only grew, but in that chaos, a revelation sparked:
"This person can use transformation magic." He said as he tore another page into the shape of a dragon. "If we can find a way to transform it..."
Suddenly, memories of Aletha’s drawings flooded Asahi’s mind. He recalled how, in the library, her eyes would light up at every picture book and illustration she found.
(Back in the past, Aletha was always a good illustrator.) Asahi thought as the creature transformed into a black and white kitsune. (She had this power to illustrate things into being. Though it may have been small...:
Realizing this, Asahi tossed the Forbidden Book to Aletha. As she dodged the transformed kraken’s strikes, confusion spread across her face, and she asked:
"What are you giving me this for?"
"We can’t shred it, but we CAN do something." Noticing having nothing to draw it with, Asahi resorted to another plan. "If we can’t beat it or regenerate it, maybe we can transform it? Aletha, how about you draw him into something?"
"Draw?" Aletha said with clueless eyes. "Me?"
Asahi nodded his head. "Yes."
"With what?"
In that instant, realization surged through them, sweeping away confusion like a tidal wave.
Though their hands were empty, the air shimmered with the promise of possibility, hovering just beyond reach.
Although the original text was lost to oblivion, the copy of it still remained in full view, in Aletha’s hands. But having nothing to draw it with, they then found out...
"The ingredients!" Landon screamed as Paxon’s shapeless form transformed into several dangerous creatures. "I made it."
The coveted purple bottle toppled, spilling its contents across a page of the book.
As reality rippled and warped, Asahi leapt up, snatching a feather from the flurry of birds overhead. As the world twisted around them, he hurled the feather to Aletha, calling out... Aletha, saying...
"Sis, draw!"
As the city shimmered and warped between worlds, Aletha seized the feather, dipped it into the swirling ink, and, while chaos erupted around her, she raced to sketch—rough lines, a lilypad, and then—
"There!"
At the very moment the morphing figure lunged to consume them, something astonishing happened...
"Ribbit!"
A tiny frog leapt from the page, disappearing into the swirling chaos as Asahi and Aletha grabbed both copies of The Forbidden Book.
"Did we... do it?" Asahi whispered, voice shaky as he stared at Aletha’s drawing of the frog, unable to hide his disbelief.
Inside, the Ruler of The Forgotten howled in silent fury. Never had he imagined defeat at their hands.
Against all odds, Asahi’s wild, impossible theory had become reality.
In this strange realm, every word and image from the Forbidden Book sprang to life. The mysterious drawings, the glimpses of fate, even the vital ingredients—all made sense now. Escape was the secret wish binding them all.
"Perhaps the Ruler of The Forgotten just didn’t want us to leave," Aletha said as she slammed the book shut, hearing the frog croak in the background.
"No, he wanted us trapped," Asahi said with rapid succession. "If he ever showed empathy, we could have spared him. But there’s no mercy for the wicked."
As Asahi and Aletha rose, Akwan, Belial, and Drimi soared with them. The wanderers drifted like dream-birds through the sky. But in reality, there were no miraculous leaps or shifting worlds—only the endless pages of the Forbidden Book, cradling them all.
With the threat vanished, Drimi and Belial waved goodbye, relief bright in their eyes. The frog hopped onto Asahi just as a blinding white flash engulfed them, the world melting into pure light. Perhaps, Asahi wondered, this was why Liora had given them the book—to heed its strange demands and discover a way home.
"Thank you, Asahi," Akwan said, his voice heavy with gratitude and relief. "You too, Aletha. Even if memories fade, a warmth will linger, a proof of what you saved us from. My thanks for freeing us from this endless nightmare."
As Landon, Drimi, and Belial drifted upward into the white abyss, their forms fading like brushstrokes on an unfinished canvas, Aletha spoke softly.
"Will YOU remember what we did?"
Akwan gave a light chuckle.
"I can try. But likely, it will be erased from me," He said with a frown. "And Drimi, and Belial, and Narcissa, and Landon. All of them will resume as if nothing were wrong. While you two... You might have a gift waiting on the other side."
Asahi and Aletha gazed at The Forbidden Book, their thoughts swirling in a tempest of unanswered questions.
How did this space come into being?
How did illustrations affect everything?
Are there even more people trapped?
Instead of discarding the book, Asahi threw it to Aletha and said...
"Bro, take this book. I’ll meet you on the other side."
Asahi, keeping a confident smile on his face, looked up to the void and gave a thumbs up before finally...
"You."
Suddenly, a silver-haired young woman materialized before them.
He found himself adrift in an endless white void.
She fixed Asahi with a piercing gaze, her presence both ethereal and intense. Memories shimmered and flickered, dancing at the edge of his mind.
Just as he could clutch the girl’s hands, she slowly stepped back, turning her face away from him.
"Aiyana!" He cried.
But she only stared, her eyes locked on both him and Aletha, silent and unreadable.
Pink motes of light shimmered in the blazing white expanse. Her dress fluttered in the unseen wind as she muttered softly to herself.
"If only you knew," she said as she raised her hands and grabbed two glittering stars, and then she grabbed what looked to be a shimmering brown scarf that fluctuated in the empty breeze. As it flew in hypnotically accurate patterns, memories of the burning world came into view.
Fissures spiderwebbed through every corner of reality.
A floating kingdom of Rulers, cast out by a sickly, devouring light.
The woman who had once stood before their ruined world, the silent figure who drifted behind them, now emerged from the haze.
She possessed eyes the color of midnight seas, hair as black as ink, and skin as smooth as porcelain. Though she wore a human shape, something otherworldly clung to her. She hovered in the air, motionless as a statue.
"The Establisher?"
Asahi and Aletha have seen this countless times.
The vision had always haunted them, but now its presence felt truly chilling.
The woman behind her, The Establisher, had not worn a face of shock or surprise... just a deathly stare. She had many rings, with each of them coiling over her wrists. She had a blue luminance on her hands. As Asahi and Aletha stared at the vast space ahead of them, the dark-haired woman, The Establisher, spoke...
"Shall Plados depart from me as well?" She said as a toddler’s form appeared in her hands. "Or shall he join that wretched white-haired maiden’s side? Nonetheless, I shall hear it from your ripples... Oh wait..."
Just as much could be said, the vision flickered back to a dark void, with the soothing words of The Establisher echoing across the expanse.
"Your mother has succumbed to the radiance. Sigh, how sad. Such a beauty like her deserves nothing, not even this world." The Establisher snapped her fingers as the sight of a girl came into their narrowing vision. "Shall my daughter surrender to my own fate? Or shall she prosper in oblivion? Hmm, so many questions but few answers."
As the girl’s form transformed into that of a young woman, the Establisher formed an infinity sign on her pale hands and placed it inside the young infant, mumbling as Asahi and Aletha’s vision blackened.
"Ah, Aedline. My favorite being in the whole universe," She said as the void darkens more and more. "Shall she join the factions as well? Or shall she be on my side? My perfection shall not waver."
After holding onto the infant, she cast it off to the world, leaving her to...
"Asahi." Said a half-pitched voice. "Asahi, wake up!"