It’s been so ti now, yet this question refuses to leave my mind: what’s the real purpose behind all of this? Or rather... I still can’t quite understand what exactly Eryanis hopes to achieve with all these gas we’ve been playing against each other.
Of course, by now it’s not as if I’m completely in the dark — a few pieces have started to fall into place. Even so, I can’t shake the feeling that there’s sothing more than the obvious, a hidden intent behind every move she makes. Deep down, I have a hunch about her reasons for acting this way.
But honestly, I could never picture Eryanis competing with over sothing like that. Given the way she’s been behaving until now, it seed highly unlikely that this was really the reason. Either way, I pushed the thought aside and stopped worrying about it.
At the mont, we were walking through the silent corridors of the facility, heading toward the final testing site. As usual, reactions were mixed as we advanced down the hall. Scientists paused their notes, guards straightened their stance, and on every face there was the sa blend of confusion and unease. This content belongs to NoveI★Fire
So averted their gaze, while others held eye contact for only a mont before retreating, as if afraid to provoke sothing they couldn’t understand. Natural, I suppose. From a human point of view, it must be terrifying to walk side by side with soone who — at least in theory — could erase them from existence with a single thought. Not that I was truly capable of sothing like that... although perhaps it was precisely that uncertainty that kept fear alive in their eyes.
Setting that aside, monts later we stopped before a heavy-looking tal door, not much different from the others we’d already passed. I stared at it for a few seconds, as if sothing about its outline was tugging at my attention in an almost imperceptible way.
Inside , a strange sensation stirred — hard to define, sowhere between unease and recognition. Déjà vu, maybe? For a mont, I had the impression I’d already seen that scene before, like a distant echo of a forgotten mory.
In the end, I shook my head and forced myself to ignore it; dwelling on thoughts like that wouldn’t get anywhere — at least not anywhere I wanted. Just as I lingered in doubt, I heard Laura’s voice behind . It was quiet and hesitant, as if she feared that even a single word might shatter the fragile silence around us.
“This will be the last test” she said after a brief pause: “To be honest, we hardly have any reliable data on this anomaly”
Her tone carried a weight that was impossible to ignore: “It isn’t necessarily dangerous... but it’s impossible to record or understand what happens inside. Whenever soone cos out, their mory is wiped, as if every fragnt had been forcibly torn away and hurled into a void. And that’s not all. Any attempt at recording fails too: devices freeze the very mont soone crosses the door, as though ti itself refuses to allow witnesses”
Laura sighed, resigned, as if carrying the burden of all those uncertainties on her shoulders, before continuing with a voice steady, yet slightly weary: “That’s why we don’t really know what happens in there... Still, so far none of the tests have led to casualties, which made us believe the place is relatively safe. This ti, however, it’ll be different. You’ll have to enter alone. We’ll remain out here, waiting — which ans it’ll be up to you to decide who walks out as the winner”
When I heard her words, I turned slowly toward her, blinking as if to shake off so invisible weight pressing against my mind. Why the hell did I have this nagging sense that I was being used as a lab rat in anomalies that, to them, were nothing more than irritating experints? It didn’t feel like paranoia... there was sothing else, sothing beating faintly in my chest like a warning.
Even so, I shrugged it off. In the end, whatever — there wasn’t much here that could really harm . While I was still lost in my thoughts, Eryanis passed by with that sa lofty gaze as always, brimming with an almost ethereal confidence.
Her steps touched the ground with uncommon grace, so soft they were barely audible, as if the world itself bent to silence her. There was sothing unreal about her presence — a contrast of strength and delicacy — that made picture her like a fae drifting just above the floor, guided by a grace that didn’t quite belong to this world.
The next instant, the tal door began to open slowly. There was no loud clang to accompany its movent — in fact, hardly a sound at all. Despite the heavy, intimidating appearance of the facility’s doors, their chanism slid open with surprising smoothness.
When it finally parted, Eryanis and I — standing closest — were the first to glimpse inside. To be honest, my first impression was disappointnt: the place looked... ordinary.
Just a square room, like any other in the facility. The walls, however, were paler, almost excessively bleached, as if their color had been drained over ti or deliberately erased.
Still, nothing jumped out at first glance, no striking detail. It was the kind of simplicity that, paradoxically, felt unsettling — like it was hiding sothing behind its plainness.
With that thought, I activated my “Eyes” in the next mont. My irises shifted, endlessly changing hues, like a spiral rainbow in constant motion. When I looked inside again, I was stunned: the entire space glowed with countless colors, a chaotic spectacle like a psychedelic mosaic pulsing with its own life.
The contrast, the intensity — it was so much that looking at it felt uncomfortable, almost painful, even for . In short, the “Space” inside that square wasn’t just unusual — it was a true anomaly, sothing that seed unwilling to obey any laws.
At the sa ti, I was completely lost, my mind flooded with questions. Before I could stop myself, one single thought slipped out, as if it had taken on a life of its own and hurled itself at Laura and Emily: (What is this place?)
The mont I said those words, I turned my gaze toward Emily and Laura. They both reacted imdiately: their eyes narrowed, their brows lifted in surprise, as if trying to decode my intent. In unison, they turned back to the interior of the room, staring intently, as though sothing in there might answer questions that hadn’t yet been asked.
It was then that Emily’s voice broke the silence, heavy with hesitation: “Place? I’m not really sure what you an by that... Anyway, whatever it is you’re seeing in there, to us it was just a peculiar cluster of light we found in a specific region deep in the ocean. We didn’t know exactly what it was, but it shone so brightly it could be seen for miles, even in the depths. We brought it here and kept it in this room. But...”
As she spoke, Emily seed to pause, gathering her thoughts with effort, as if she wasn’t even sure how to continue. Her voice sounded restrained, almost hesitant: “The cluster of light we brought... it disappeared. We don’t know how, or why. What we do know is that it left marks—sothing changed inside the room. Since then, we’ve kept the place locked. No one has been able to understand what really happened in there, not with the strange effects that appear every ti we enter”
I stayed silent for a long ti after Emily’s words. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to think about it. I an... a cluster of light? The description was far too vague, almost enigmatic. Ambiguous enough to make my mind spin in circles. At least, that’s what I thought.
Eryanis, who had remained silent until then, seed to carry very different thoughts. I noticed the faint furrow in her brow, as if she were piecing together an invisible puzzle. Then, in a whisper that sounded more like a reflection than a direct question, she murmured beside : “Could it be a fragnt?”
It didn’t seem like the humans around had heard Eryanis’ words. To be honest, I only caught them thanks to my exceptional hearing. Instantly, I looked back, focusing on Althea, Nyara, and Nekra. The three were staring into the room, each with a distinct expression etched across her face.
Still, there was sothing they all shared: they weren’t showing genuine curiosity, as you’d expect, but rather a strange familiarity. It was almost as if they already knew, in advance, what those words ant. “Fragnt” The term echoed in my mind, heavy and mysterious. But what exactly was it supposed to an? Honestly, I had no idea.
With those thoughts, I ended up following Eryanis into the space—or rather, I was practically forced to follow her, since she moved beyond the threshold without hesitation. The mont we crossed the entrance, I noticed sothing strange. The room before us was... white. Strangely white.
It was as if every surface had been painted with the very essence of light, so bright it blinded my eyes for a brief mont. I couldn’t explain why I felt that way, but as I looked around, the only word echoing in my mind was “white” White, pure and absolute, as if we were inside a luminous void that seed to shine on its own.
Yeah. In the next instant, as my eyes road the surroundings, I noticed sothing too strange to ignore. First, the door we had entered through simply didn’t exist anymore—no trace of it remained, as if it had never been there.
Second, Eryanis had vanished. I’m absolutely certain we crossed that threshold together; I can still rember the sensation of her presence beside ... yet now, there was no sign of her.
Even after scanning the area, the only thing that could be perceived was the uniform, pale tone dominating the place, like the whole world was covered in a solid fog. I kept observing silently, letting my gaze drift through the void for a while longer, until sothing caught my attention just a few inches from where I was.
It floated gently in the air, at eye level, as if defying every natural law. At first glance, it seed like nothing more than an extrely thin shard of glass, but I soon noticed the subtle glow emanating from it—a faint, almost ethereal shimr that sohow stood out in the pale, washed-out environnt.
I didn’t have much else to do in that place, so I simply started walking toward the glass—or whatever that surface actually was. But with every step, a new sensation hit . The space, which had once seed rely vast, now felt as if it were expanding.
I’m sure that when I had looked down the corridor before entering, it had already been fairly large... but now, it was as if the walls and ceiling were subtly stretching, lengthening before , as if the place itself were breathing and adjusting to my advance.
Monts later, I stopped in front of the glass. I stood there, staring at my own reflection for a few monts before reaching out and touching it. The instant my fingertips brushed the cold surface, I blinked... and everything changed.
My first reaction was pure confusion. With every passing second, that feeling only grew stronger. The icy night wind cut across my cheeks, making my skin sting, while the sound of rustling leaves kept pace with the uneven movent of my hair.
The damp sll of earth and wood filled my nose, and only then did I realize where I was: a fairly dense forest, wrapped in shadows that seed to sway along with the trees.
But the strangest part was the unsettling sense of familiarity. I knew this forest—or rather, I knew this place. Forgetting it would be impossible. Every tree, every shadow, even the damp sll of the soil brought back to a mont I could never erase from mory.
After all, this was exactly where I woke up for the very first ti, when I opened my eyes and realized I was living in this body. In a few words, this was where it all began—the day I stopped being just and beca an anomaly.
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