NOVEL WEB Chapter 228: Metzinger
Sid and I stare at the crystal outside of the building for a good while to see if it reacts further. After two minutes or so, I start noticing a pattern that starts to form in the crystal. Parts of it start to dim and then it begins to transfer that dim lighting down towards the ground. Repeating the same pattern slowly but consistently.
“It looks like the crystal wants us to go down?” Sid asks.
“Apparently so… It’s debatable if it’s a good idea to follow the instructions of a crystal we have just encountered, but then again… We don’t have much else to go on, besides, I somehow got a good feeling from that gust of wind earlier.”
“Ah, so you felt so too, huh?” Sid replies.
I nod in return. “Let’s just keep our guards up.” I then walk away from the window and continue my way down the staircase as the crystal seemingly instructed us to do so.
Sid, still with Gamma in his arms, follows me about two meters behind me.
We descend for quite a bit down the building, at least seven floors. Filled with pretty much the same kinds of furniture we encountered on the floors above. All strewn chaotically throughout the rooms.
The thing that halts us is the crystal itself, protruding into the room from the outside, lighting up the room incredibly well while doing so. The crystal appears to have stuck itself against the wall opposite to the window it came from. Making it rather hard to cross the room without touching the crystal, as it would definitely require us to climb over it to reach the next staircase. Unless, that is, if I decide to fly out and carry us to the floor below.
That decision however, is not yet to be made, as the pulsing which guided us downward is now pulsing in through the window and to the opposite wall, where the light seems to pool.
“Uh… I suppose we will go closer to investigate?” I look at Sid.
He gives me a nod in return. “Should I stay back while you do that or should I come over with you?”
“Maybe not a bad idea. I’ll call you when I think it’s safe.”
I put my shield in front of me and hold my sword by my side as I slowly approach the wall the crystal is guiding us too. It’s only when I’m pretty much next to the spot where the crystal touches the wall, that I see something lying on the floor. A petrified body, or at least so it seems. The color of the body completely matches the color of the stone the building is made of. That’s why it was so hard to spot from a distance. Honestly, if the light wasn’t pooling right above it, I might have missed it completely.
“Sid, there’s a body here.” I call out to my divine comrade.
“What does it look like? Anthropomorphic?”
“You mean human-like, right?”
“Kinda.” Sid replies.
“Uh, I suppose so. It’s pretty hard to see many details. It definitely doesn’t look like those ancient Greek statues… More like Girl with a Mandolin from Picasso… or La femme au cheval from Metzinger.”
“...”
“Look, I know art, not medicine. If you want good descriptions about human physiology, go ask my girlfriend.” I then glance back towards the petrified body before I look at Sid and beckon him over. “It looks safe enough here, so why don’t you come and take a look for yourself.”
Sid nods and slowly walks over to me, when he arrives, he gazes down at the petrified body for a while, looking at every small detail. “You are right.” He starts. “There’s not much to be gleaned by looking at the body like this. But it’s definitely anthropomorphic.” Sid then looks closer to the crystal that pierces the corpse.
“Do you think the crystal killed them or do you think it happened after they died?”
“Hmm.” Sid tilts his head slightly. “By the way the crystal appears to have grown, I would actually assume that the crystal burst out of the body, rather than the other way around.”
“Really?” I look closer to the crystal as well.
Sid points out a couple of telltale signs with his index finger. “Do you see?”
“Ah… I think I do… It’s a bit like brushstrokes in a painting.”
“If you say so.” He chuckles softly and then backs away half a meter to get a wider view on the crystals in front of him. “Yeah, that crystal didn’t come through the floor either. It definitely came from the body. 100% sure.”
“Hmm.” I crouch down next to the remains and gaze at them for a bit, dropping my sword and my shield. The blue light of the crystal has stopped pulsing and is now just glowing with a rather calming intensity.
The longer I look at it, the more I feel drawn into touching it. I feel my hand almost subconsciously move towards it.
Sid stops me halfway though. Grabbing me by the arm. When I look back at him I see that he has laid down Gamma a few meters behind us.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea, Amicia? We did just conclude that the crystal burst out of that body, you know?”
I pull back my arm a little but a sudden flash of intensity in the blue crystal light makes me halt yet again. “It might not be the best idea…” After Sid takes his hand off my arm I bring my hands together and take off my gauntlets. Continuing by taking the promise ring in between my thumb and index finger and rubbing it gently. While I do so I continue looking at the crystal in front of me. “But my gut tells me it will work out somehow.” I look up at Sid and smile.
“Hmmm.” Sid grumbles softly.
“Here.” I take my shield off the floor and hand it over to him. “Just knock me out of the way if something happens.”
Sid takes the shield in his hands. “Alright then. I see I’m not going to be able to persuade you otherwise.”
“Yeah… it just feels right.” I sigh while looking at the crystal.
Sid nods and backs away just a bit, making sure he can also keep an eye on Gamma.
“Okay, I’m going for it.” I slowly extend my hand towards the crystal. In response the crystal dims its light again to the same soothing intensity as before. Just before I touch it, I quickly glance back at Sid, giving him a reassuring smile. After that I turn my attention completely on what’s in front of me and gently put my hand on the crystal’s surface. It feels smooth and cool to the touch. As for the light, it starts contouring my hand after which it starts to intensify more and more. Again very much like a pool of water slowly filling up. It’s pretty darn hypnotizing.
And then, in a split second, I’m not in the skyscraper anymore. As a matter of fact, I find myself sitting in a place that’s very familiar to me. The sofa in my sister’s apartment. Home. I instinctively try to get up and call for my sister, but an invisible force pushes me back down. That’s when I notice that the room is eerily quiet. Even on the quiet days in the city, there was always a bit of noise, but now, nothing. Not even the very subtle humming of household appliances. As I’m looking around, the television in front of me starts playing. I recognise the show as something Sam and I have watched just recently, although it seems to be skipping some parts and it is sticking mostly to the parts where the most important plot is happening.
“Hmmm… you are taking this directly out of my memory, aren’t you?” I look around the room again, trying to discern some other incongruencies, but as I do, the sofa jolts forward just a little, but plenty enough to put my attention back to the front.
“Alright, alright. I’ll stop looking around. If you have something to show me, do so.” The moment I say that, the television screen in front of me goes black. A couple of seconds later static appears together with the well-known accompanying sound. Then the image shifts showing an alien cityscape. Skyscrapers of dark stone contrasted by a blue sky. I can see mountains in the distance as well. Way taller than those I recall seeing back on the surface of the planet. The city is filled with people, though so blurred out that I can’t really discern what exactly they look like. But the energy surrounding them looks peaceful, busy, but at the same time a sense of great harmony.
Static washes over the screen once more as the images shift drastically in tone. The bustling city, now mostly abandoned. The sky blood red and smoke filled. A band of familiar flying devils bursting through one of the pillars of smoke…