Painkillers (3rd pill)

Painkillers (3rd part)

     I was running out of mana, it was something that we use to activated our magic circuit to perform any act of magic. If only I could regained my energy back, I could use my locator spell to at least know whether Lily was still on this test or she already fail. I walked rather slowly, not too closed with Tictac and not too far behind. I just wished that this test will ended up soon. But looked at my wrist, we still have to survive for another one hour. That was quiet long for me, because the air between me and Tictac had became more and more unbelievably hard to breathe. 

     I hold myself back from using any magic to protect myself with spell of protection but as I walked near the old building where I saw the grim mirror before, I just realized that we were still in danger. The floating town in this realm was known with siren and those creatures that been using hypnotic spells. I looked carefully throughout the dark alleys. Being defenseless  make me felt restless. And knowing too much about this town make me wanted to called for Light and Degu to form a bigger group. If we were about to fight hypnotic creatures, it were better if we stick together in a bigger group.

"Lily! Wait!" Tictac suddenly shouted and ran towards the dark building.

     I looked at the way he been running to and saw nothing was there. I called for Tictac as I followed after him. I wanted to tell him to regroup back with the other two but Tictac was too far ahead. His speed was no joke! I barely could followed him but the moment he entered that building, I lost him. I looked around me, it was an old gallery. There were paintings on the walls and some sculptures at the corner of the room. I walked with wobbled legs around that place, looking for any sign of Tictac. It would be bad if we split up. If I was to be hypnotized,  there will be no one to bring me back to my sense. That was the reason why I would prefer being in group than like this.

     I walked slowly passed the paintings on that level to quickly went up to first level. I hope Tictac was there, it not that long we been separated. So he would be near some where here. But I was devastated when I could not find Tictac on the first floor. I brace myself to go higher to the next level. I shrieked back when the elevator was opened and saw that the whole place was on fire. I wanted to leave that place right away, but the fact that Tictac was there in that building was forcing me to stay.

     I scanned that place and found that place was an office. There were desks full with files and computers on each table. I walked out from the elevator slowly and carefully to avoid the fire. It was so hot there and the fire was spreading everywhere so I had to cover my face with my hand from the blinding light and the scorching heat. I lowered my body as I walked near with the walls. I called out for Tictac, in hope the other male would heard my calls but no one was there. I walked through the fire and searched for him inside the rooms at the end of the building. I had been searching for him in those rooms for awhile now that I had finally gave up. I turned back to where I came from before to exited the room but there was a monster guarding the elevator. 

Where the hell that thing come from?

     I asked myself and went to hide under a table. I peeked at the monster who had walked away from the elevator.  I looked at its eyes and covered my mouth as I gasped and watched in terror the one-eyed green giant. That was a cyclops. Its eye was red and moved vigorously around, looking for its prey. I waited until that monster moved far away from the elevator towards the room. The cyclops passed by me when it walked to the room and I hold my breath as it walk.

"Don't look at me here. Don't look at me here." I prayed continuously.

     The cyclops was so slow as it walked to the room I exited earlier, looking around the room for awhile before it entered it. I knew I should use that as a chance to save mysel. I should ran and avoided fighting that monster but there was an unsettling feeling I got in my gut. I was just hiding under a crappy table for God's sake and that dumb didn't see me? What an idiot. I've read about them before, the cyclops were s bunch of careful killers. Also a fact was told that they hunt their prey by their sharp nose, they could find their prey by their scents. Maybe the burning smells in these building were hiding my scent from the cyclops. But, I had bad feeling about this. Somehow, escaping had become too easy. I walked out from my hiding place and slowly went to the elevator.

     I looked at my back to check on the cyclops but that idiot just ignored me. I closed my distance with the walls and put my right hand to the wall. I walked as my head was turned back while my right hand guided me to walked without looking in front. I saw the cyclops was still busy searching inside the room. As I was a few feet away from the elevator, I saw the cyclops turned to me as it was about to exited from the room. The moment I saw his eye was laid on me, I shrieked back and that was then I scratch my finger by the nail I didn't see on the wall. I turned my head away from the cyclops direction as I closed my eyes. 

     The cyclops already saw me. It must be on it's way to me by now, but I was so afraid that I had my eyes tightly closed. My mana was not enough yet for me to summoned my weapon or chanted any spell. I was left with one choice, it was to run. I slowly opened my eyes and turned back to at least avoid any attacks from the cyclops. But as I turned, I was shocked. No , I was beyond shocked. I was dumbstruck.

     I gulped down the slump in my throat as I watched everything in front of me in dazed and confused. The place in front of me now was an empty and abandoned building. The condition was so bad that the walls were looking like they were about to fall any second. The lights were broken, only left with one in the middle which could only flickered like it was also at the end of its life. There was nothing in the building, no table or files, and no paintings on the walls. And what surprised me the most was there was no fire and whatsoever trace of it on that floor. The cyclops also was no where to be found.

     I felt the chilled air touched my skin and it sending shivers down to my bones. This wasn't funny. I was all alone and the situation was worse than what I had expected. I need to get out from here fast. To hell with Tictac and his shit. I was too scared to stay any longer. I ran towards the elevator and pressed the button. My heart was banging loudly inside of my chest as I waited for the lift but I was again terrified by the fact that the elevator was not functioning at all. I felt cold sweat formed on my crooked forehead. I used the elevator before, right?

Shit! 

     I peeked at my right side where there was a window and saw the outside of that building. I was at the ground floor all the time! I hold my shaky breath for a second as I closed my eyes. I was so afraid to turn to my back. I wasn't ready if someone suddenly popped out behind me like I  typical horror movies. I let out the breath I was holding just now before I turned. My hands were ready to punch anything that showed up but fortunately nothing was there. I searched for the front door and immediately left the building. I ran without turning back and stopped when I already crossed the road.

     From afar, I watched the building and trembled in fear as I recalled what had happened before. I looked at my left side, the way where we came from just now and decided that I should joined  Light and Degu first. As I began to walk, suddenly in between the silence of that realm and my light footsteps, I heard the sound of water from the opposite of my direction. The sound of water sprayed and water droplets were so soft that I nearly couldn't hear it, but I heard it anyway. I looked behind me, tried to see where that sound came from. I activated my archery vision and spotted the tip of the water from between the buildings. Without ado, I ran to it and as I took a few turns to reach it, I saw from afar what awaited for me there.

It was a fountain!

"... we're supposed to meet at the fountain..." I remembered what Tictac had told me before.

"Lily!" I shouted her name a few times as I looked around me.

     In between the dark alleys, I saw a dark silhouette moving towards me. I hide behind the fountain and peeked at the newcomer intensely. A few feet closer to the fountain,  I recognized that person immediately. It was Lily! I quickly ran towards her and hugged her tightly.  I was so glad that I wasn't alone anymore. Lily looked at me with raised eyebrow but she didn't say anything. I loosened my hug and let her go after I had regained back my composure.

"How are you? Healed already? Where's the other?" she asked as she realized that I was alone.

"It's a long story. But tell me what happen to you first."

"We split out but we're supposed to meet at the fountain. I been waiting for them as I hide near the fountain but none of them had ever came." She said as she walked beside me.

"So I'm the first one that you see?" I asked and she nodded her head at that question. 

     I looked at her in disbelief. We been talking for a long time at the fountain and searched around it before but we couldn't see her anywhere. But the fact that this fountain was on the opposite way of where we were before already proved that we weren't here before. Someone or rather something was playing some sick prank on us. I wasn't been tricked after I entered the building. We were actually tricked since the very beginning. We thought that we were at the fountain but we weren't. I walked slowly as I realized  Lily was slightly behind me. She was limping and I looked at her injured legs.

"What happened to your leg?" I asked as I stopped walking to wait for her.

"I was chased by a kushtaka. A giant kushtaka at that. I had to split up with Tictac to run from it. And lucky for me, when I tripped and injured my leg, I turned back and the monster was gone. So I came to this fountain and waited." She said and i looked at her in disbelief, again.

     I raised my right hand and looked at my finger where it was injured just now by the nail. I did bleed my finger before the hypnotic wear out. I looked again at her and then to my finger before I gasped loudly to her.

"That's it!" I said as I held her shoulders. 

"What?" she asked.

"We need to find the other." I said as we walked to where I left Tictac before.

     We were in front of the building that I left before but we didn't enter it yet. There was something fishy about it. As I remembered clearly, I was still on the ground floor as I woke up from the hypnotic.  But I didn't see Tictac there. There was a higher possibility that we weren't in a same building at all. If the trickster was playing its trick, it would be safer for the trickster if we were not together so that we would never bumped against each other. I looked around and my eyes laid on the building next to the one I had entered before. As I recalled back to when I was chasing after Tictac, I did looked away from Tictac before to look at the building where Tictac claimed he had saw Lily. But then I saw Tictac running towards the building.

     I had figured out that the one I saw running into the building wasn't Tictac. The trickster make me saw that to lured me into the building.  Tictac probably running to the building next to mine just now. I slapped my face before I looked at Lily beside me. She crooked her eyebrows when she saw that. I smiled at her when I still saw her beside me even after I've hurt myself. 

     We went inside the building that I hope was the one Tictac had been. As we entered the building,  we were greeted by the dark. there was no light at all that make Lily formed a light on her right hand as a torch to light our way. I called out for Tictac but there was no response instead we heard some noises from our surrounding.  The sounds were like some light footsteps but it was super fast for us to catch. When we looked at where it came from, the sound already gone and been heard again from other direction.

     I was sure by now that we were fighting against imp. That sinister creature was tricky and clever at the same time. So we needed to be together to fight this creature.  I walked in front of Lily so that I could protect her from anything that was about to come since Lily was injured and also because I'm a man. We had searched around for a few times but Tictac was nowhere to be found.  So we decided to go upstairs using emergency stairs since the elevator was not functioning.  Lily was reluctant to go at first since her leg was injured but I wasn't going to split up this time. So we went upstairs slowly.

     We reached the first floor after fifteen minutes or so and I opened the door for her. The condition of the first floor was no different than the ground floor, it was pitch black and spooky. As we walked around, I heard some noises from the room at the end of that place. I looked at Lily, wondered if she heard it as well. And when she nodded her head, we nervously moved towards that sound. The groaning and sounds of footsteps had became louder than earlier and I pushed the door open

"Tictac!" Lily shouted but the shout however wasn't a happy one.

     Tictac looked at us like he was terrified with us as he was standing on the balcony.  I knew he wasn't really looking at us, he was still hypnotized to see the reality. Lily was trying to go to Tictac but I stopped her  when I saw Tictac moved backward for every step that she took. If she keep on walking towards him, he will fell from the balcony. We need to wake him up from the hypnotize from here. I called his name a few times but that wasn't affecting him at all. Lily then aimed the light from her hand at Tictac's eyes. It looked like it could work as Tictac squinting his eyes due to the blinding light.

     However, we were disturbed by the sudden appearance of a small demon-like creature and it covered both of Tictac's eyes with its wings. That was the creature that had us tricked, it was the imp. After the imp had Tictac back into its hypnosis, Tictac continued to walk towards the balcony. If we couldn't bring him back to reality,  he would jump off the balcony any second from now  Lily was shouting at his action and tried to ran towards him. But I know she would never make it. I looked around me as an idea popped up in my mind. After a good times, I found something that suited my intentions and I quickly grabbed on it.

     It was a book that was left there on the table next to where I was standing. I hold the book and activated my archery vision.  With one swift swing of the book, I throw  it towards Tictac as fast as I could and the hard cover of the book scratched Tictac's cheek. Blood flowed out from the little wound but that was enough to stopped him from moving backwards. The imp shouted when its spell wear off and left us immediately. Tictac was stupefied when he regained himself and Lily continued running until she hugged him.

     Lily was hugging him too tightly as she was really afraid Tictac would jump and killed himself, maybe she had been carried away since all of this was just a test. It's not that Tictac could die from this test after all. Tictac was trying to understand what had happened but he was relived when he saw Lily was there with him. Slowly, he raised his hand and returned the hug. I wasn't jealous with that, not at all. That would be what I keep telling myself as I turned away from them after that. It took them a few seconds more hugging each other before they broke it and went to me. As much as I don't wanted to disturb them, I still needed them to find Degu and Light. Knowing that we were facing against imp, I doubt Degu and Light would be fine without us. Those two were too naive to faced this trickster. 

The moment we set our feet out from that building,  we heard a loud gun shot broken the silence of that realm. I was sure that sound was coming from Degu. Maybe Degu was doing better than what I thought he will be since he already fought the imp. We ran to get there with Lily slightly behind us. She was about to heal so her speed was getting better now. We ran until we saw a huge coliseum where Light was running with green light surrounded his body. He had activated his shield of protection, maybe he was fighting with the imp too. Or that was what I thought had happened.

"Light! Over here!" I called after him and waved my hands.

He looked at me and stopped running. He was about to come to us when suddenly he was shot from behind which send him flying from where he was standing. We immediately ran towards him and looked back to where his attacker was. I was about to attack, ready to summoned my weapon but when the smoke disappeared and we could have a better glimpse of his attacker, none of us could move. In front of us, there was no other than Degu himself, holding his Remington MSR. Light was lying on the floor with blood all over his body, but that was not enough for Degu. Again Degu raised his weapon and aimed at Light, like our existence had done nothing with his concern. 

"Stop! Degu no!" I shouted as I ran to stop him.

The bullet nearly hit me, but only slightly scratched my cheek as it went straight to the poor guy on the floor and hit right on the skull and all of us shouted in horror.

"Light!"

 Lily without wasting any second, quickly activated a magic circle on Light. She chanted her healing spells with all her leftover energy and seeing that, Tictac hurriedly followed. I saw Light's lifespan fighting with his death before the bullet in his head suddenly came out from his head and slowly the hole on his forehead was healed. That was then his lifespan began to be healed but Lily was sweating when she continued using her healing spell.

Degu saw Light had been resurrected so he took his aim again but this time I was next to him. I kicked his weapon away from his hold and jumped on him. He was struggling,  maybe he was shocked because he didn't noticed my existence there. He was under  the hypnotic of the imp and I punched him  right on his face to wake him up. He was shocked when he saw I was on top of him and seeing him looking at me like that make me get off from him. He already free from the hypnotic.

"Tiny? What happen? Why're you here?" he asked as he tried to get up. 

I pointed at Light who was shot by him and he was terribly confused and shocked. We had to tell him the whole story to make him understand the whole situation which make him held his head like he wasn't going to accept what he had done to Light. We were not going to put the blame on him anyway but he kept on apologizing to Light and us. Maybe he regretted for not giving full attention on class when it came to dark creatures. Because the first creature that was created in this realm was no other than the imp, the number one trickster. I consoled the other and looked at my wrist, we had another 20 minutes or so until we passed the test. Seeing Lily's condition where she was running out of mana and she was terribly tired to move, I was left with only a choice. That was to hide her while the rest of us lured the imp for the rest of our remaining time.

"Look. I've an idea, but I need everyone to follow exactly what I say and never ever ruin it. This is our last shot. Our final fight. One mistakes, and we're doom." I said, gaining everyone's attention on me.

Since Light was unconscious and Lily could not move, we could not run instead we have to survive against the imps. And the only way to do it was to kill the imps Inside the coliseum. I asked Lily to keep on healing on Light as I hide them with my hiding spell. Lily was against my idea at first because it was too risky to hide like that. But I knew better  what the darkness's creature forever weakness was, it was no other than the ancient spell of protection. Because most of the old spell were made to fight the darkness. And being born with light as my main element make my spells stronger than any average person were capable to do. I have passed all the surviving test before by using this hiding spell. So I dared to say that no other place was safer in this realm than the place where I casted that spell.

Degu and Tictac went to the other level of the coliseum while I searched around the ground floor. I had to keep my distance with Lily close all the time or else the spell of protection will be weakened. We had to looked for the black beads that the imps had left it behind when it walked passed some area. Every imp has one to three beads depending on their skills. The stronger the imp was, then it will has more beads. The beads were their strength so they have to guard it. However, since the imps were so fast they could not bring their beads with every step that they took so they have  to hide it well somewhere along their journey.

I was around the east gate of the coliseum when I saw something shining behind the wall. I came closer to it and when I reached that place, the bead was nowhere to be found but the aura told me it was there. I casted one of my favorite haunting spell and within a few seconds, a black bead showed up itself. The size was bigger than any average imp could has and I destroyed it without any hesitation. The best part of it was the bead shattered and blue lightning will struck whoever that attacked it. And the attacker was me so I was struck by the lightning before I absorbed all the energy from that. It was dark and ugly but an energy from imp was better than no energy at all.

The owner of the bead could tell what had I did and it wasn't pleasant with my action. So I had to run away from the gate and went back inside the building. I was walking passed the pillars with every steps echoed throughout the entire arena. The eerie silence of the situation gave me goose bumps. I got this strange feeling of being stared by someone but I didn't looked back. I felt the urge to meet with Degu and Tictac to ensure they were safe. Somehow I felt uneasy not knowing how they were doing right now. If I went further but only for awhile wouldn't hurt my spell too much and Lily will still be safe. 

I was about to climb the stairs when something or rather someone this time, was attacking me from behind. I jumped down the stairs backward to avoid that attack.  I looked to the stairs where that attack had landed and found that the whole stairs had frozen. The snow was about three inches thick on the top of the staircase and I found it was hard to breathe when I looked at the attacker. There he was, standing with his all mighty godlike appearance with swords were on both of his right and left hands. His eyes were dark and his breathe was fury. He looked at me with fuming eyes but the air around us was too cold that I found every breath that I took were accompanied by a little vapour.

I can't stand the look that he been giving me. It hurts me every time I see it. I could tell that everything happened was just an illusion.  The imp was playing with my greatest fear right now. But I couldn't lie the fact that I missed the other and looking at him again make me reluctant to press on my injured finger and wake myself up. Somehow. I just wanted to be in this hypnosis for a little longer. I wanted to see what make me so afraid of him. 

"Snowflakes." He said, as he thrusting his sword using his right hand and sank it to the ground before he cracked the floor by thrusting his sword to my direction. 

I knew what was coming to me. His sword had the floor wide open and from it came  his snowflakes-like energy from the tip of his sword. I dodged the first snowflakes but he continued with his left sword to attack and soon it became continuous attack from his right and left swords. I just dodge the attacks, still not too confident to just received it. If he was an illusion from the imp, it would be fine. But if he was a real person, his attacks would be too much for me to just received it. So I had no other choice than to take the precaution step. Its about 15 minutes left to pass.

"Snowstorm." He chanted his next skill as he raised his swords to his back and front 

Both of his swords were lighted in blue light before snow were formed all around him. I could tell what would happen next simply by hearing his skill's name. He looked at me deathly before he spun around, make all the snow that he formed just now to whirl around him and create a massive turbulence of snow. I took few steps backwards and held onto the banister with all strength that I have. The turbulence was too strong that sucked me into it but I kept on holding the banister as I closed my eyes due to the strong blow of wind from that guy.

The storm was too strong that left me hanging on the banister as my feet were already off the ground. I held tightly onto the steel but the steel then broke as the lower part of it was being sucked into the turbulence. I pulled myself as hard as I can and force my feet to the ground again. Slowly, I began to climb the stairs as I tried to get away from the storm. The bannister was broken and it would not take it long to finally been sucked by the storm. I had reached the second floor by the time that storm began to weaken and stop. I watched from upstairs when that guy had stopped 

The storm had broke down the stairs and everything near it. The scale of damage was too big that I doubt no one could missed it even from the second floor. That guy then noticed that I was not there anymore so he peeked upstairs. His eyes met mine when he did it and I looked away immediately before I ran. When he saw that, quickly he climbed the stairs and chased after me. I peeked back and saw he raised his sword again and another snowflake was formed and he continuously attacked me from behind. I ran as I avoided all his attacks by running in zigzag and took every turn  between the pillars. He blindly attacked me before he finally figured out my pattern of running. He took me by surprise when he took opposite way of my direction but appeared in front of me a few minutes later.

10 minutes more!

I abruptly stopped when he raised his sword in front of me and I summoned my weapon in a speed of light to stop his sword. His sword clashed with my bow and create a great wind around us. I clenched my teeth as I matched with him. He raised his sword on his left hand and saw that coming to me, I took a step backwards and retreated from the match. I summoned my arrow and gave him a quick attack before I ran away again. I had to keep my distance with him since he was fighting using swords while I had to use my bow. He cut down my arrow as he marched forward to my direction. I turned back to him and attacked again before I ran away. Again he cut it like it was just a piece of paper and continued his approach. 

"Snow?" I heard a voice calling out the name of my attacker and I looked back to see the owner of the voice.

There was a male appeared next my attacker and I watched him in terror.

"Why're you here?" that guy asked again and I knew what will happen next.

Snow when he saw Tictac appeared,  he stopped attacking me. But then he turned away from Tictac and ran away from him. I could has cared less about Snow since I knew the other was not the real one here.  Snow was in the sky realm, and there was no way for him to be here on this realm. No matter how realistic he looked like, or how his scorching hatred to me felt or the sensation of the burning anger he thrown me with, it just  an illusion. But Tictac viewed it in another way. He probably thought that Snow was really here. Maybe that was the reason why right there he been chasing after the illusion of Snow in front of me. And I had to follow after him.

Five more minutes!

Snow ran downstairs and Tictac was right behind him as he ran. I wanted to shoot his leg but Tictac was blocking my view. I had to stop Snow or else, the other would lead Tictac out from this building.  If Tictac left, he would broke the formation I had planned before and they would leave the others in danger.

Three minutes more.

They reached the ground floor and ran towards the east gate. Snow looked back to where we were and continued running out from the coliseum ground. I stopped abruptly when I reached the gate. Tictac still following after the other but I could not continue.  If I left this area, my spell on Lily and Light will be weakened and that will exposed the two unprotected to the creatures of this realm.

One minutes more.

If I was to left Tictac alone to fight against the imp, within 60 seconds nothing could harm him much, right? He still has some energy left to cast a few more spells if anything  happened. He still can heal himself after all. 

50 seconds more.

I clenched my fists as I calculated my next step. Should I, or should not I stay here? I  took a step backward. Maybe I should stay here and waited. If anything bad happened to Tictac, I will just casted my spell from here. Or that what I thought before I heard a loud scream from where Tictac had disappeared to.

40 seconds more.

I took a step forward but stopped when I looked at my wrist. It will be a waste if I broke my spell on Lily right now. 40 seconds were a short time for Tictac but it will be enough for Lily to be attacked. Come on, Tictac.  Defend yourself!

30 seconds more.

I paced left to right at where I was. Uneasy with the sudden quietness of the realm after Tictac's scream.

20 seconds more.

I close my eyes as I focused on my bond on my spell of protection that I had put on Lily before. I frowned when I felt the bond was already weak than I thought it supposed to be. Why was it like that? What had happened with the spell? Was the imp had attacked it ? No that was impossible. The imps or other creatures couldn't damaged it that much.

10 seconds more!

That was the time where I opened my eyes and saw the most shocking view in front of me. My mouth was gaped open when I saw it. It was no other than Lily herself running away from the gate towards Tictac's screaming. 

Eight seconds more.

Lily was fooled by the screamed just now and she left her position to help Tictac! No way can do it. She had no more mana  left and who would heal Light by that time?

Six second more!

If she had left, what was the purpose of me to stay? Light probably had died without Lily's healing. If she wasn't there, who was I been guarding this whole time?

Five seconds remaining.

I was about to deactivate my spell of protection.  And not only that, I was about to take another step forward and left the building when suddenly I stopped.  Something wasn't right. I looked down to my injured finger and pressed hardly on the wound. Slowly, the ground began to disappear. Everything around me changed and looked around me, I was shocked when I found that I wasn't on the ground floor near the east gate. Instead, I was at the highest floor. I looked down and found that I was standing only a few inches away from falling from that building. 

I thought I was climbing one level higher but I actual had climbed all the way to the highest floor. If only I did take a step forward and chased after the illusion, I would had fallen already. Or if I had deactivated my spell of protection,  I would have exposed my friends to danger already.  That was so close. But I wasn't reminiscing as I was brought up to reality. Instead I held my hand and summoned my weapons 

"Justice be my bow, and light be my arrow." I chanted and my weapons appeared as I activated my archer vision. 

"I bestowed thy grace, lay waste by the arrow of angel, shall repelled the defilement." I used the ancient spell I read before and layered it against the top of my arrow.

I notched my arrow and turned back as I aimed it high at the imp that had me hypnotized just now. But that imp did not realize that I had freed from its spell and when I aimed at it, nothing can be done as I released my string. Within a blink of an eye, the arrow penetrated through the imp and slowly, the realm disappeared and magic circle below me was formed.

Time's up!

I looked around myself and found that I was at the examination hall. Lily was next to Light, and Tictac was with Degu at my right side. We looked at each other with same expression. Everyone was shocked as it ended too sudden. I guest they were still in the hypnotic of the imp the moment the test ended.  That was why they were still in shock,  unlike me who had figured it out a second before it ended. I smiled at them when they still looked around them in panic.

"Where's the meteor go?" Degu and Tictac asked.

"Where were the banshees around us?" lily asked.

"Am I failed?" There came the funniest question from Light, maybe because he thought he was dead by Degu before.

I shook my head at them and smiled as I pointed at the clock on the wall of the hall. Upon seeing that, they walked out from the gate of the darkness realm and went to the middle of the hall. Other realms were slowly opened and other trainees were coming out from their respective realms to gather in the middle of the hall. The big clock with four zeros was flickering on the wall of the hall as we were looking at it. Slowly, one by one of the gate was closed and disappeared into thin air before the wall showed the result of the test.

The first realm that was shown was the realm of light. That realm has three persons with the highest mark and about ten or more were failed. The other realms were quiet the same with average mark and few amount of failures. But what shocked all of us and caused the talked around the crowd  was the result of the sky realm. There was a long list of trainees who failed and only six of them who passed! Even though one of the passed trainees was Snow, the other didn't looked happy at all. Instead, when the result came out, his frown was getting deeper and his clenched fists were tightened.

I wondered what had happened. 

The last one was the realm of darkness. There was no one failed and the lowest score was Light. Degu and Tictac shared the same mark while Lily was higher than them by ten Mark's. And as expected,  I was placed at the highest mark which is perfect score. That get me smirked a bit but the looked the others were giving was not pleasant at all. They probably thought I had cheated my way again but the other four who were with me in that realm were smiling at me. That was new.

I smiled back at them proudly. Not that I was proud with my mark, it was more to the fact that they were acknowledging my mark was based from my performance.  No perfect mark would come without efforts.  If only the other trainees knew how much I been spending my time to perfecting my theories and spells, they probably wouldn't looked down at me. Degu approached me after the rest of the trainees had left the hall. Light, lily and Tictac were also waiting for me but Degu was the first one of them who take the initiative to talk with me.

Of course they wanted some explanation from the test. The result showed that I had done all the requirements of the test. It was all about surviving. And every creatures we faced has their own way to overcome. Like how we faced the knight of death, we just have to stop the moment it stop. There no need for us to fight against it and when we faced Cerberus, we needed to run. But as for the imp, the only way to survive against it was by killing it. And apparently  I was the only one who succeeded on killing it.

After a few more explanation and we talked a few moments about our experience working together, they finally separated with me and went to their own dorms. I walked back to my own too as I really need to rest. It's not that I have to do my best for test three since my points already more than enough but still, I need to take that last test. It would be held around two days more so I need to rest myself before I went for a practice with my spells. 

As I entered my room, I saw my roommate was lying flat on his bed. He looked sad and bothered which make me asked him what disturbed him that much. The other told me that he was on the same realm that   had been a hot issue for both trainees and the trainers for that day. He was there in the sky realm. I straightened my back when I heard that and sat next to him on his bed. I was really curious with what had happened that makes more than half of them failed. But there was a part of me that wanted to know it because it was the reason for the sullen looked on Snow's face just now.

"I know it just a test. But I had lost most of the mark in this test. Earlier, we thought we were attacked by a group of dark angels. But that's not it. Actually..." He stopped as his voice cracked.

I knew it well. The sky realm was the only realm that has too many link with other realm. Since it was the sky after all, in every realm will have the sky, right? Well every realm except the water realm since it was held in the depth of the ocean. In my realm, the link between realm of darkness and the sky realm was the floating city. If they were flying too low and reached the city, they will collided with the realm of darkness. 

"We were actually attacked by the imps." He continued his story.

"Imps? Impossible!" I stood as I said that.

That was the creature of darkness. There was no way that creature could fly so high with its demon like wings to reach the sky realm. I looked at him again as he continued his story. But there was nothing peculiar in his storyline. The imps were capable of manipulation so there will be thousands and hundred thousand of different stories about the moment. Some of them could fought with dark angel. Some might said they fought with sirens. Everyone was telling nothing but the truth even if the stories were different. Although we knew they were at the same moment.

The way he told me fitted exactly the same with imps technique and criteria. No other things would did it the way imps would. But the question here was, why was the imps were there at the sky realm. I looked away from him as I keep on thinking. Something was there in between his story. Something that I thought I been forgotten. You know the feeling that you had when you feel that you're forgetting something crucial. I was in a deep thought as my eyes were darting around my room. Then suddenly my eyes caught my reflection on the mirror which make it rang the bell.

The grim mirror!

I quickly ran towards my book rack and looked for the book where it told everything about the realm of darkness. I went through the part of the floating city . My roommate looked at me sceptically, wondering why I acted that way but I couldn't waste my time to explain to him. I kept on reaing the book until an hour has passed. My roommate was lying on his bed and started playing his phone, did not want to disturb me as he knew I wouldn't paying any attention to my surrounding if I had opened my book.

I kept on reading about the floating city until I found what I have been looking for. It was the grim mirror. That mirror was named as Thguoht mirror. It was belonged to one of the finest sorcerer before it witnessed the sorcerer took away his own last breath in front of the mirror. TThis caused the magic stained the mirror and the spirit of the sorcerer was trapped within it. Thguoht mirror was a magic mirror that could created a portal. There was a way to activate, that was by looking at in with a thought of someone who happen to be thinking of you too. So the reflecting thought activated the portal. Reading that make me gasped as I closed the book in horror. 

It was Snow! 

I saw him in the mirror. So the reason for the imps to be on the sky was the portal that we had created. If only Snow knew it, he would be blaming himself on this. Like what my roommate had said before, most of the trainees would viewed this as a test. I was the same as them before as I also did it all for my mark. But that was before I met Snow. He was different with the rest of them. He was the one who tell me to take it serious. Because for him, this wasn't just a test. He viewed it as a real life scenario.  Knowing his attitude, I could guarantee the sullen look on his face before was due to the fact that he couldn't save his teammates.

Failure for him was death.

I felt bad for him suddenly. He shouldn't be too hard on himself. I knew he hated me more than anything else but the fact that he was hurt didn't gave me any comfort at all. He used to be my best friend before, so I was used to feel concerned for him. I sighed as I sat on my bed. I tried to convinced myself that it wasn't my fault. He was the one who denied to be on the same realm with me. It was his lost that he went separate ways. If only I had left the realm of darkness and let him lead the other four, would that resulted the same? 

I tried to get some sleep that night. I need to rest my mind for the upcoming test. Plus, there was no use on wasting time worrying about something that we couldn't change. So let's the passed be the past and the bygone be bygone.

Painkillers

Part 3

END