Void. The Library of Akashi.
***
Climbing the tall ladder propped against a bookshelf, Lucius kept stealing glances at the countless books packed tightly onto the shelves. So much knowledge, so many stories — right there within arm's reach. And all of it was... useless to Lucius.
Growing up as a brat from a backwater village, he had never learned to read — no teacher, no reason to. On top of that, Asa, who Lucius considered incredibly well-read, could never seem to find the time to teach his own son.
With a click of frustration, Lucius clenched his teeth and kept climbing.
As he neared the top, though, he noticed something interesting. Back in that forest, he had definitely felt exhaustion — sometimes to the point of collapse. But here, he had been climbing for a good five minutes and wasn't tired in the slightest.
"I'd love to know what makes these places so different... Should I use one of my questions to find out?"
After a few seconds of thought, he reached the end of the ladder and finally planted both feet on the upper platform of the bookshelf. Settling onto the now-solid surface, Lucius shook his head.
"Ohh, what an idiot. What's the point of asking about this place if I'm not even sure I'll come back?"
Redirecting his curiosity toward more pressing questions, Lucius stood and straightened up — his neck cracked involuntarily. He had climbed up here for an entirely different reason, after all.
The moment he turned his head, he froze. The Library of Akashi was far larger than the ragged boy could have ever imagined.
Corridor after corridor, shelf after shelf — the Library stretched not just lengthwise, but in every direction. He couldn't see an end or an edge. An endless wellspring of knowledge. But that wasn't all.
Weaving between and above the corridors flew strange creatures. Their skin was grey and lifeless; their hollow eyes held no spark of awareness or life. Each one carried a book in its inhuman hands — placed it on a specific shelf, then flew off to fetch another. The same was happening on the floor. Similar creatures hauled carts packed to the brim with books.
All of this — across an endless library.
"Holy shit..." breathed a stunned Lucius, staring at the spectacle.
But there was no time to marvel. He still had to figure out how to get home. And Akashi's answers could help him do exactly that.
Exhaling, Lucius walked to the edge of the shelf and jumped.
Unlike the leap from the pillar, this one lasted far longer and felt entirely different. Lucius wasn't afraid, and there was no despair like before. The fear of death didn't blind him; his life didn't flash before his eyes. He simply enjoyed the tickling rush of wind against his face.
He was certain he'd survive again — just like back in the forest.
As the black floor rushed up to meet him, he closed his eyes and braced for impact. Suddenly, the wind disappeared. Lucius squeezed his eyes shut tighter. Several seconds passed, and nothing happened.
Hesitantly opening his eyes, Lucius gasped. He was... hovering half a metre off the floor.
"The hell is this...?"
Weightlessness felt far stranger to Lucius than freefall ever had.
When falling, he always knew an impact was coming sooner or later. But weightlessness...
Pushing aside the unnecessary thoughts, Lucius stared down at the floor. He needed to get down somehow.
Doing the first thing that came to mind, he started mimicking a swimming stroke, trying to move closer to the floor. But he could only drift sideways and back and forth. He needed something else.
Abandoning the swimming idea, he tucked his body and pointed his feet downward. And just like that — as if someone had snapped their fingers — gravity returned.
The moment Lucius found his footing, he opened his mouth, only to be cut off by Akashi's voice surfacing in his memory.
"A protective mechanism, in case a book-carrier drops a book. They cannot be damaged — I write each one in a single copy. The consequences of damage could be... unpleasant. Not for me, of course."
He wanted to ask a follow-up — find out what Akashi meant by "consequences" — but he remembered clearly: he only had three questions.
"So then. Have you decided what you want to ask?"
Lucius was quiet for a moment, turning the answer over in his mind. Leaning back against the ladder, he gave a slow nod. In response, something like satisfaction crept into Akashi's voice.
"Splendid. Your first question, then..."
"What was that place, and will I ever go back?"
Several seconds passed with no answer. Left alone with the silence, Lucius began to tense. Then Akashi's voice rang through his memory — carrying a note of amusement.
"Not bad. Quite not bad. Trying to fit two interconnected questions into one sentence and pass it off as a single question? Fine — this time, I'll let it slide. But next time, it won't work."
Hearing this, Lucius went still, and a loud sigh escaped him. Honestly, he really had thought of it as one question. But he had no time to dwell on that. He had to listen carefully if he wanted to learn anything about that damned world.
"That world has many names — all spoken in languages long forgotten by every mortal. But you may call it the 'Dream Realm.' A space where all dreams and nightmares are born. As for whether you'll return there... Hm. That's difficult to answer directly."
Akashi fell silent, and in the next moment a wave of air tore down the corridor. The force of it sent Lucius airborne, hurling him backwards.
He hit the floor with a hoarse groan. Fighting off the dizziness, Lucius looked up and watched as hundreds — thousands — of books burst from their shelves and took flight. Under the boy's stunned gaze, the books cracked open and began flipping their pages at blinding speed.
Akashi was searching for the answer.
At once, every book slammed shut in unison. The sound thundered through the corridor, and Lucius winced in pain.
Slowly, the books began drifting back to their shelves. All except one. A single thick tome — like an encyclopaedia — remained open, hanging suspended in the air.
Without taking his eyes off the floating book, Lucius got to his feet. Drifting slowly downward, the encyclopaedia descended until it was level with the boy — and the text on one of its pages began to glow gold.
Confused, Lucius looked around. Having no idea what to do, he threw his hands up.
Akashi, failing to understand the problem, spoke:
"This is the answer to your question. Pl—"
Cutting off the faceless deity mid-sentence, Lucius shouted:
"I can't fucking read!"
An awkward silence hung between them. Then the encyclopaedia lurched into motion and smacked Lucius in the back of the head with a dull thud. While the boy groaned, the book flew back into position, its text glowing brighter.
"Learn to let someone finish, Lucius. I was going to say — 'run your hand along the highlighted text.' I am perfectly aware you can't read. I know everything."
'Tch, what an asshole... He knows everything? Then what's the point of all this nonsense with the books and the glowing letters?!' Lucius thought, rubbing the back of his head.
"Yeah, yeah. Got it..."
With a sour expression, he reached out and touched the page. The texture of the paper beneath his fingers was nothing like he'd imagined.
'Whoa, so this is what paper feels like. Way smoother than Dad's papyrus...'
Sighing, he dragged his finger along the highlighted section. Suddenly, knowledge invaded his mind — branding itself into his memory even more forcefully than Akashi's voice ever had.
"Whosoever among the living sets foot in the Dream Realm — shall return. The Marked are bound to this land forever. They shall know no peace in dreams, nor in waking. They will seek balance for eternity — until they crumble to dust in the attempt."
As if burned, Lucius yanked his hand back.
The boy was terrified.
Clutching his wrist, Lucius stared at the book with wide eyes. The text was once again illegible to him — but its meaning was not.
That knowledge would stay with him forever.
It would take him a long time to fully grasp it. And he refused to accept this as his fate.
Exhaling through clenched teeth, Lucius shoved the book away, and it flew back to its shelf at once.
'What a load of crap... 'Bound to this land forever'? Like hell I am! Screw you, Akashi, and your all-knowing bullshit!'
With a bitter glare, Lucius looked up — straight into the grey void above the library — and said, with forced calm:
"This whole circus with the book and the glowing letters is completely pointless. If you 'know everything,' you could have just told me."
"It was the only way I could be certain you'd remember the answer. When I start explaining on my own, I tend to get... rather carried away."
The sheer calm in this indifferent god's voice drove him mad. For the rest of his life, Lucius would have to live with the knowledge that that hellhole would come for him sooner or later.
And this bastard didn't even change his tone.
'Son of a bitch!'
Forcing his rage down, Lucius squeezed his wrist tighter until his knuckles went white.
He had to stay calm.
Even if it was barely anything, Lucius had managed to learn something about the Dream Realm. Only one thing still wouldn't leave him alone.
"How do I get home?"
The words left him, and he held his breath — unable to think of anything else.
Without answers, he'd wander aimlessly, searching for a way back. But his train of thought was cut off by Akashi.
"I will take you home."
The boy went still. From the moment he'd arrived in the Dream Realm, he'd been racking his brain for a way back to his world. He'd been turning over every difficulty he might face.
But Akashi...
This cold, arrogant, indifferent, insufferably talkative bastard-librarian-god was saying he'd take him home? Who exactly did he think he was fooling?
Lucius had played these games before.
The Black Knight of the Dream Realm had already tried to deceive him with false promises and—
"Kid. Stop overthinking it. There isn't a single mortal alive who has anything I could want."
Furious, Lucius opened his mouth to argue — and couldn't get a word out.
He'd lost his voice.
'W-What the hell?! Why can't I speak?!"
But the invisible Akashi simply ignored his shock.
"Enough. Let's not waste your time. Conversations with no direction and pointless arguments are not to my taste. Third question."
And in that same moment, his voice returned.
Uncertain, Lucius touched his own throat — then made a fist and lowered his arm.
He had learned everything he came to learn. The Dream Realm, the road home — all of it was within his grasp now.
"Fine!"
Lucius snapped, letting his composure slip.
"You want a third question? As you wish, asshole! Why are you helping me?!"
The boy's voice — loud and furious — echoed through the library.
Akashi paused, then decided to take form.
He could not appear before Lucius in his true form without killing him. But improvisation was nothing new for an omniscient deity.
From the distance, from nowhere, blank pages appeared.
Stunned, Lucius stumbled back, watching as the paper began to gather before him, taking shape.
The shape of a person.
The boy craned his neck back. Then craned it further still. A figure of paper towered above him — broad shoulders, a long white coat woven from the very pages that had been drifting through the corridor moments ago. Where a face should have been, there was nothing. No eyes, no mouth. Just — a smooth, flat surface.
Lucius glanced down at his own rags, then back up.
"...Seriously?"
Without even noticing, he reached up and smoothed out his clothes in an attempt to look at least slightly presentable.
Akashi paid no attention to this whatsoever.
Instead, a cold aura settled around him. Goosebumps ran along Lucius's spine. Standing in his presence, the boy felt utterly insignificant — an ant before a giant.
"I intervened because I find you interesting."
As if following the god's words, every single book rose from its shelf and hung suspended in the air.
"All these books — every last one — are my manuscripts. I record everything that has happened in the past, is happening now, and will happen in the future. And you, my boy, are a curious specimen."
Lucius flinched as a section of the floor beneath them tore free from the ground and became a rising platform. Akashi didn't so much as move.
When they cleared the height of the shelves, the master of the library turned and gestured toward the other corridors. There, breaking away from the rest, identical books rose — one for each endless corridor.
As they opened one by one, translucent images of faces surfaced above them.
Squinting, Lucius went pale. His own face was floating above the books.
"Out of all possible outcomes, you are the first of the 'Luciuses' to have survived this particular path. You entered the Dream Realm at fourteen, survived encounters with the Somnissian and Aletheirion in the shortest possible span of time — all within a single day. Any of that alone would be unheard of for those poor souls who end up there, let alone among your Variants."
With those words, Akashi placed a hand on the trembling boy's shoulder — his face devoid of all expression.
"But what impresses me most is this: out of the forty-two like you who reached negotiations with Aletheirion, you are the first who chose to refuse. And with words like those, no less. 'What's the point of enjoying paradise alone, when it can be shared with the people you love?'"
A long silence settled between them. One last time, the Deity looked down at the boy and released his shoulder.
"The reason I intervened is not because you are some 'Chosen One' from a fairy tale. It's because you are a promising pioneer. And since you were the first to walk this road, your Variants will follow — and forge paths of their own. So, Lucius, I have a request..."
Suddenly, Akashi began to unravel his paper shell. The pages peeled away from his body one by one, scattering into the dark.
"Create a story that I will write with pleasure."
Snapping out of his daze, Lucius jerked his head toward the disintegrating form.
"Wait! What about—"
He never finished the word home. His vision went black.
In an instant, the boy's body vanished from the Library of Akashi — leaving behind a cluster of dark energy, the mark of Aletheirion, which dissolved alone into the silence.