Chapter 5.6 - White - A New World
After explaining what happened at the outside world, Blax and Kirin were on their knees. Trying their best to maintain their calmness in this situation. Of course, it was something totally shocking. There's no way we wanted to tell this to everyone that was still hopeful inside these 'walls'. As of right now, only us and Mei knows about this. On second thought, that also includes Escher. We better see him before things could get worse.
"Are you two ready for the confrontation?" I asked both Blax and Kirin.
"Yes."
Blax stood up from his knees and took a deep breath while Kirin punched his left palm with his right hand as a sign of readiness.
"I'm ready as well, White."
I nodded to them and said, "All right then. Let's see what Champion of Chaos has to say about this..."
We opened the door and founded out that the room was all fumbled up thanks to the tower being tilted to the ground. Escher was nowhere to be seen and neither was Mei. The only thing that seemed peculiar for us was a portal. I looked at it carefully and remembered that this portal looked like Mei's portal to her dimensional bag. It seems she forgot to close it...or maybe she's doing this on purpose. Better yet, Escher told her. This might be a trap. An unavoidable trap.
"What do you think?"
Lore asked me as he observed the edges of the portal that looked all jagged up.
"He's probably inside. He probably wants us to go in there as well."
"What is this, White?"
Blax wondered what was this fascinating portal that he and Kirin haven't encounter before. We explained to him about Mei's dimensional portal and after that we discussed a bit before we enter the portal. At the end of the discussion, we decided to take Escher's bait. Cautiously.
As we slowly step inside the empty white world of nothingness, we were somehow gently pushed by an unknown magic toward an unspecified location. We trusted our fate and let the unknown magic guides us through the world that was filled with all of Mei's belongings. Now that I have the time to look around, I couldn't help but realise that Mei kept a lot of stuff inside her dimensional bag besides her books. Fascinating. She's indeed someone who was filled with curiosity.
The guiding magic stopped as we saw a huge golden door that was used to be locked back when we first entered this world a few days ago. Once again, we trusted our fate and ventured into the unknown. What we saw inside was a hall filled with machinations. But the most obvious one was the one that was functioning at the middle of the hall. Two figure was visible from our current position. We walked toward them and there they was, Escher and Mei doing something that we're not sure of yet.
"Escher!"
I called him out. Escher and Mei stopped their work and greeted us.
"I didn't expect this would happen. To think that you kids could defeat the hydra in such a quick time...But nonetheless, that was just an order I've been tasked with. I'm now free from his order...for now."
"What are you trying to do? What is this? And why is Mei helping you?"
Escher laughed.
"Let's forget about The Hydra because that thing was just an errand that I had to do. The thing that I have been trying to do while hiding its existence from Nova, my master, was something different."
"This is indeed a fascinating machine, principal. What is its purpose?"
Haz was fascinated by Escher's machine that he couldn't help but asked the question. He is an inventor, of course he would be excited to see this.
"The young inventor, what a surprise. Of course, I will tell you what it is. I am in fact, still your teacher even though that's just a fake identity. But I've taken to a liking to teaching others about the things I know. So sit down on your chair and consider this as just another class."
Escher pulled in a bunch of chairs and desk with his magic, inviting us to listen to his lesson. We made our way to the desk and sit on it just like how we always in school.
"Great. Looks like everyone is here. Today we will talk about an artefact that has a connection with my staff. A mysterious artefact that was left behind from ancient time. The Runix Cube.."
Airi raised his arm and asked,
"Um, why did you think the cube was from the ancient time, anyway? That thing doesn't look very ancient to me. It looks pretty recent."
"Good question, Airi Mortar...or as I suppose to call you with your real name...Yukimura..."
"What? How do you know that name?"
"You think I don't know that you changed your name, Yukimura Airi. We'll discuss this matter another time. Leave it be for now."
"Fine...yes guys, my real name is Yukimura Airi. Whatever. Shouldn't opened my mouth just now..."
"As I was saying, this was an artefact far away from the ancient times. During that time was the time where magic was at its golden era. The world prospered with magic. Every single living beings has essence of magic. And all of that magic...was powered by The Runix Cube,"
"What does The Runix Cube do besides reviving a monster?" Zone was the one who asked that.
"Zone Helmine...I think you have known too much information. Especially when you overheard everything that I've been discussing with my contact."
"Hmm, should of know that you would realise that...oh well. What are you going to do about it?"
"I won't do anything about it...yet...I will however answer your question. Everything else, will be settled after class."
"Alright then, I'm looking forward to that, sir." Zone maintained his composure.
Escher then continued his lesson,
"From the perspective of normal people, The Runix Cube is just a mere cube that powers the world. But to those who knows about it, The Runix Cube contain an infinite amount of magic, just like The Infinity Tree. What I'm trying to say is...I can use the cube to power up The Staff of Illusion so that I can create a new world with it..."
The Runix Cube...an artefact more ancient than what we expected it was. What does Escher had in mind with that thing. Why was he doing this?
"So uh...you're saying that you want to make a new world?"
Kirin raised his hand and wondered of the obvious fact.
"Indeed I am, Mr. Yin Kirin. I see that you are not a Soul Power High School student but you are still an ex-student. So, there's no difference to that. I'll still gladly teach you."
"Good to know, Mr. Principal."
Escher continued,
"It has been known that us humans are a very complicated living creature. They kill everything near them, even their own kin. Here I am hoping that one day all of this suffering would end one day. But, waiting for a peaceful outcome from all parties will only delay the inevitable. Humans will continue to fight and I have grown impatient. I have shown you an example from the illusion-ed outside world. Look at all of them, they can't even come to a peaceful resolution to defeat those fake demons. But I tell you one thing, I come to realise that most of them are adults who only thinks for themselves. And what I see from you guys, gives me hope. I saw you guys stood up against the real demons that invaded us years ago. You students were able to cast aside your differences so that you can fight against a common enemy. That is when I finally decided that you students will be the leader of the new world."
The Runix Cube. I don't know if it's just an old man thing or something but that doesn't feel like a cool name at all. It sounded weird but what do I know about naming something. But still, The Runix Cube...so this thing will allow The Staff of Illusion to create an entirely new world for us to live in. And from the way he said it, he said that we will be the one to take over that world.
But something just doesn't add up to his words and whatever we've look up on The Staff of Illusion. There's no way Escher can create a paradise for us students That is impossible. At first I would believe it but now that I know what that staff was, there's no way I'm going to fall for that. That staff was only made to bend our believes toward reality. Its purpose was to make an illusion. Which means, the so called new world is just a mere fake world. An illusive world.
TO BE CONTINUED