We looked around and tried to get a grasp on our surroundings. I wasn''t expecting much but I also wasn''t expecting that nothing would happen.


    Can you read this? Gregory pointed towards signs that probably indicated what section we were at.


    Nope, sorry, from what written text I’ve found I can read none of it. Hmm, that’s unfortunate, here I was hoping you could read all this. We continued walking deeper into the library.


    How are we going to find useful documents if we can’t read all this shit? I said as Gregory and I were looking through random books, scrolls, and documents trying to find one that wasn''t written in an ancient language I could read.


    Hmm, I didn''t expect this, I can’t expect you to throw every document in this library in your dimensional pocket… Gregory picked up a thick book and opened it.


    Oof, what a musky smell. I coughed.


    Ugh easy with the dust there. Maybe we should find the kid''s section and see if we can find books with images. Unfortunately, that is the only thing that might prove us useful… Now how do we even find it… I looked around and realized that libraries are quite illiterate unfriendly. It does make sense but it isn''t helping us any bit.


    We kept wandering around opening random books here and there. Is there anything you see that could help us? Only books, shelves, and more books. There is one thing that bugs me though…


    And that is? Do you hear that? Gregory focused.


    Do you mean that ticking sound? It’s probably just a clock. Well, yeah, but maybe ancient technology found a way to keep clocks ticking for millennia but here is the thing, I can’t find it…


    Not in any of the filters you have? Well, that is the thing! Why do I need filters if it is a normal clock? That only means… I went silent as we both heard something.


    What was that? I want to know too, I can''t see anything, do you feel anything? I haven''t felt anything off since we came in here.


    I haven''t seen anything off since we got here… But something is definitely off…


    Agreed, let''s proceed with caution. We continue wandering around trying to find anything that could indicate where the kid''s section was. My eyes were unfortunately quite useless in here. There wasn''t a place where kids could play and read in here. Then again this is the first proper library I''ve ever been to besides the one in Hourai. So, I have no idea what the norm is. My nausea slowly started getting worse.


    Ugh, why am I getting nauseous? You have it too? I ran more filters, maybe something invisible was attacking us.


    Oh, look here! What?


    This book has a magic circle, I don''t know what magic skill it is though. Hmm, I can''t tell what it is from this magic circle alone, can you?


    I can’t… I am not sure if this is something we should recklessly try out… Yeah, maybe it will flood the whole library or turn us into potatoes. Gregory closed the book and hastily put it back. We both coughed.


    It sure is musty and dusty in here it''s making my headache worse. Ugh, I don''t think it''s the dust, can you open a filter that can identify poison or the like?


    Do you think the books are poisoning us? I did as Gregory asked and spotted particles in the air that seemed poisonous.


    Oh, shit you''re right! We covered our mouths and noses with our scarves.


    Ugh, thought as much, what is it exactly? Right… we have some poisonous fungi spores here… When you thought you’ve seen it all.


    A moldy dusty musty library… Sadly this can’t kill any spirits so I don’t think this is the cause of the disappearing spirits. Ugh, how bad is our poisoning? We sat down and Gregory pulled out his small portable lab.


    Oh, you got better at storing things in your shadow? Not really, I only have space for this and my hammer, I will need you to pull out any ingredients I need. Alright. I supplied Gregory with the materials he needed.


    It isn''t lethal in this dosage but it will cause persistent headaches and nausea if we don''t clear this out of our systems. It could end up lethal if we keep inhaling it though… Gregory made a temporary solution that wasn''t really an antidote but would boost our resistance to this toxin. I also got some anti-nausea potions out of my dimensional pocket and we downed a bottle.


    Unfortunately, this would be easy to solve if you could put the fungus and the spores on fire but unfortunately, it will take the books too. I covered the area in frost magic, grabbed some shadow liquid vodka out of my dimensional pocket, took a mouthful of it and sprayed it in the area, and ignited it causing it to destroy all the toxic spores in the air.


    Creative, so this is what you’re doing with all MY liquid shadow vodka. Well, It is a pain to keep doing this so best is if we find the source so we can burn those shrooms. I lifted the frost magic and tried to locate the poisonous mushrooms by following the increase in toxic spore concentration. I had to repeat the liquid shadow vodka vapor trick several times. I should make this an attack! After my 7th [Shadow Vodka Blaze] I started to become a bit tipsy and we found the source.


    You have no alcohol resistance… and this is a problem. In front of us, there was a section in the library that was filled with books that were alive, as in they were covered in black mold that had a faint dark purplish glow.


    Yikes, I didn''t think this through, how do we destroy this without destroying the books? We made sure to extra wrap our scarves around our faces. I decided to make a water bubble around our heads. It wasn''t filled with water of course! I also used [Shadow Vodka Blaze] to clear the area of toxic spores before making the bubble.


    I will have to say that again but your creativity amazes me. Hehe, it has been keeping me alive so far.


    I hate to say it... But I don’t think there is any saving those books… I guess time magic is the only hope but who knows for how long these things have been in this state… it even looks like some books are ready to walk away... Disgusting.


    Torch it, release those books from their misery… I made sure to control my flames and only burn the books that were infected by the mold.


    Yuck, I don''t think I will eat a pizza Funghi for a while… I used another [Shadow Vodka Blaze] to get rid of the toxic spores that lingered.


    I surely hope that that wasn''t the kids'' section but our luck is terrible so maybe it was… Greg… the clock stopped ticking…


    Let’s hope it doesn''t mean anything… Yeh, I must be overthinking, it probably ran out of batteries or something. We continued through this maze of books. We kept our eyes out for any books that might find useful, clues to where the spirits might have disappeared to and I was on the lookout for more toxic spores. We descended some stairs. And went down a floor.


    I felt myself become slower. Ugh, what is it this time? What is it?


    Right, you are used to being slow but something is slowing us down. I went through various filters and found the culprit.


    Great more fungi, this time it''s paralysis. It’s going through our skin…. Does any of our cloaks work against that?


    Water cloak could… Rejected! But we will have to get rid of these bubbles around our heads soon so in the end we will still have to deal with it…


    I think I can get rid of this; I don''t know if it works for you. I will just make another potion to combat this. I tried to remember what color flame could get rid of paralysis, I think it was a honey-yellow-ish flame. I ignited myself in it and the paralysis wore off.


    Ha! Easy! My potion is done too. It should give us some resistance but again we need to torch them. I used another [Shadow Vodka Blaze] attack but it didn''t work on these spores.


    Slowly but surely, everything is starting to cheat… We downed Gregory’s potion and located the next section that was taken over by mold. Well, these were actual mushrooms. I torched them but the spores still lingered. Some wind magic would have been nice here.


    I wonder how many types of fungi grow down here… To be honest, I am glad that those are the only living beings down here, this place creeps me out. We looked through more books but only found some that had magic circles. We decided to stay clear of those. There was one that had a map that was almost identical to the one I found about this city in potato village.


    These ancients surely didn''t believe in images in their books. Yeah, I’m slowly getting the feeling that this might be a waste of our time… I spotted more spores.


    Ha nice, try fungi! I’m immune to hallucinations! I linked my vision with Gregory so that he wouldn''t get stuck in hallucinations. We torched another section that was claimed by the fungus.


    Quite the amount of hazards for a seemingly harmless library. I’m getting tired of this shit.


    Do you hear that? Hear what? Oh… the ticking is back. Did someone fix the clock?


    You said that we are the only living beings in this library besides the fungi, right? Yes… I kept an extra eye out but I could see nothing out of the ordinary. We descended to the 2nd floor below the main floor. And surely the ancient symbols seemed to be bigger. I grabbed a book and flipped through the pages. I saw quite some images.


    I think we found the kids'' section! Finally! What images does that book have?


    Look! We looked through the pictures. We couldn''t make out what it was about but we saw an image of the city we were in. Of course, less buried and less abandoned. The next image had an image of a large structure, what stood out was something that looked like an enormous black hole in a dome.


    Is… is that a black hole? I think so… the ancients were crazy… We also found an image of a flying fortress and something that looked like an enormous blacksmith workshop built inside a volcano.


    Whoa! I need to visit this place if it still exists. Interestingly enough this place sounds perfect for you. This floating fortress looks interesting though but this image makes it difficult to determine its size, it''s either enormous or quite small, I can''t tell…


    You know the worst part of all this is? We don''t know if these things are normal outside this barrier because we are quite sheltered. I’m sure this is amazing, but we don’t know how amazing it is. Yeah, we are already used to crazy things now, this doesn''t shake us as much as it probably should. Ugh, what is this image a series of dams and dykes? What were they even trying here?


    They were probably trying to not drown, I guess. We flipped through some more pages. We saw some things that were called pyramids and a huge glass dome that had a metal rod inside of it that was discharging different colors of lightning. It looked very spectacular. The last image was just a lighthouse.


    Hmm, this looks boring, the rest was quite interesting in its own way, this is just a lighthouse. Most of the other images were schematics of these structures. Since one of these structures was this city, I decided to archive it all.


    I actually don''t think this was a book for kids… Agreed… Maybe it''s about schematics to build cool stuff! Maybe it has something to build a big mecha robot! We looked around more. No mecha robots. It seemed to be a section about architecture. At a point, we hit a part that seems to have blueprints and schematics of weapons.


    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    Yesss! I grabbed whatever I deemed remotely useful and dumped them in my dimensional pocket. Gregory looked at me.


    What? It''s not like anyone is going to use these, or do you want Mr. Fungus to claim these too? Fine… take them. I stashed whatever I could and suddenly the ticking noise stopped again.


    Hey, Greg do you feel anything? I’m feeling very uncomfortable and my eyes aren''t picking up anything… Yeah, I share that feeling… maybe we should… Suddenly a bright flash appeared in the dark library. I dodged something that looked like a scythe but it got followed up by a smash from a huge paw. I heard a weird sound that was a combination of clicking and buzzing. A [shadow wall] blocked the paw.


    What in the Hourai is that? I jumped away from a weird light golden cloud that occupied half of the lit area. Strangely it created an area that lit up only a circle with a radius of 10 meters everything outside that was as dark as if there was no light source. This weird cloud with 2 scythes and 2 enormous dog paws kept going for me. I evaded and left the lit area and the whole place went dark again.


    Where did it go? Why didn''t I see it coming? And why don''t I see it now? I didn''t feel it until it appeared… Also, the sound it made is gone, it is as if it vanished...


    What even was that… I don''t know but it had something against you.


    Is it because I stole those books? Possibly… Maybe it is responsible for wiping out the spirits that came to investigate.


    How does that explain anything? It shouldn''t have a fixation on me if it likes munching on spirits. Gregory smacked me.


    When will you remember that you are a spirit too? Oh! Wait does that mean I’m his dinner?


    Most likely, yes. Aww hell no! Can these things stop picking on our race? This is racism!


    Anyway, let''s be careful, neither of us could detect it before and after it left. We have to be on our guard. Gregory put a [Shadow cloak] on us and I put a [Frost cloak] on us.


    I suggest that we get out of here, I don’t want to take unnecessary risks… Fair, let’s get out of here… oh more fungus.


    Ugh, I feel tingly, what is it this time? Ugh, Greg, we have a problem. My eyes started to sting and tear up.


    Please don’t tell me it''s hypersensitivity… Uhm, ok then I won’t… What type of fungus is this? It shouldn''t work on us, right? I tried to clear the tears out of my eyes. The stinging wasn''t helping.


    Ugh, it is somewhere in that direction! It should be the 3rd or 4th fungus-infested section that way, the others are harmless. Gregory helped me navigate through the library because it was hard for me to see. My skin also felt tingly but I guess Gregory had it worse.


    Ugh, this is bad we’re basically sitting ducks. Controlled fire about 40 meters at 2 o clock. I lit the target on fire that Gregory gave the location of. I was rubbing my eyes when I saw another bright flash.


    Shit! More clicking and buzzing sounds. Luckily the scythes and paws were big so I didn''t need great vision to evade it but I couldn''t use my speed as well in this state. A hammer slammed into the buzzing cloud.


    I don''t know if you can see this thing but I have no idea what it is, besides the 2 large scythes and large dog paws it has dark blue glowing eyes a big mouth with fangs, and a doglike snout. But the whole thing is just a light golden buzzing and clicking cloud. I don''t even know if it''s a creature that is supposed to exist. I rolled and dodged another scythe. This thing was really fast. I could vaguely see its mouth open and its fangs. It seemed to want to chomp down on me. Gregory used [Shadow bind] on it and it seemed to be really effective. The shadows were slowly darkening the cloud and it started to trash. I wiped more tears out of my stinging eyes and went into stealth and used a shadow clone. It seemed to trash around and fled after it broke free.


    Ugh, thanks, Greg. We need to get this fixed and get out of here.


    At least it seems weak to your shadow magic. Yeah, but not helpful if it can appear at any moment and eat you. We moved to a corner and rested a bit. Gregory was trying to make something to cure or alleviate our hypersensitivity.


    After 15 minutes he found something that would help, although only a bit. Right hopefully we can function with these. After we get out of this, I will spend more energy on finding something better against hypersensitivity. Ugh, this is way better, and yeah, this sucks. I could see normally now but I will have to either ease up on my Elgards eyes or deactivate them, but I won''t be able to see in the dark if I do. I had to use the stealth mode I developed to make sure my sisters can’t feel that I’m inspecting them to escape for another adventure.


    This is gonna suck, let’s go. We got up but I spotted something.


    I found a secret passage! But… ugh, you got my curiosity, we will take a look and then get out of here asap!


    I can''t look through this library with my eyes like this to teleport so you will have to [shadow meld] us. Well, this hypersensitivity compromised my ability to do that because I do that based on feeling.


    So, we have to walk? In this case, I would prefer running.


    This place sucks… I agree. I locate the secret passage and we easily break through the weak barrier it had.


    Right, what secrets does this secret room have? Only 3 shelves, nothing indicating what this is about…


    They give off weird energy. Yeah, maybe it’s best to not touc… I picked up a book and opened it. At that moment we saw a bright flash.


    Ah, shit not again! Hey, this isn''t the Scytedog! What is this? Don’t tell me. Great, we got sucked into the book you picked up…


    I hope it''s a cooking book and not a horror book… Why would those be in a secret section?


    Let''s hide someone is coming! We were standing on a dirt road in what looks like a mountain pass. The sky was filled with grey rain clouds and it was drizzling. Gregory and I spawned on the dirt road but moved to the side to hide in some shrubbery. We saw a middle-aged cloaked man running with something in his arms. He seemed to be running from something but we didn''t know from what.


    “Come here!” Another middle-aged man with shorts, slippers, and a T-shirt crashed down from the air and landed in front of the cloaked middle-aged man.


    “You will never get this Dimsha!”


    “Ha! I will just take it by force then!”


    “Over my dead body!” So cliche… Shhht! The cloaked man stomped on the ground and scales appeared all over his body.


    “Just give up, there is no way that one dragon can face off against a god! Especially not if that god is me! Now hand over that Dimsha!”


    “Heh, good thing I’m not alone!” Hey, do you think he noticed us? Impossible! The story in this book is supposed to be set, all we have to do is survive whatever happens in here and we can get out!


    Well, nobody is appearing…


    “Nice Bluff Kaledon, now hand it over!” Wait? That is Kaledon? The dragon that united the continent? He sure looks like background character #117. But the father of Tero eh? Interesting.


    Wait that dragon was the son of Kaledon? Didn''t I tell you?


    No! Maybe because you forgot again!


    “Ahem excuse me but if you 2 are this guy''s backup, he was calling for you…” The guy calling himself a god was standing over us and seemed to have heard us talk. Right! Ha! We were just discussing how to deal with this situation. We would like to strike a bargain with you Mr. ehhh I didn''t catch your name.


    “You guys look like kids but I know better than to underestimate creatures of the lower layers because of that!” We would like to settle this as officially as possible so we want to make sure we have enough details as possible. My name Is Obsidian. Gregory extends his hand toward the guy claiming to be a god. The guy looks at him and shakes his hand.


    “My name is Wyxyxozyas, ouch! I mean you can call me Walter” Your name is whats-his-jas? That is a mouthful, I will call you Walter then.


    Wait... What''s-his-name-ias sounds familiar… I looked through my archive. Uh oh.


    “I will blast you if you don''t apologize!” He took out something that looked like Ted’s hand cannon but way more sophisticated and smaller. I couldn''t get a magical read on it but it seemed to be quite mechanical. He was the god of metal, machines, and science if I remember correctly. This is a problem. Ehum, so what is the god of machines and science doing here in a casual outfit in the middle of nowhere?


    “Wait? Do you know who I am? Oh, this changes everything!” Gregory gives me a strange look, and I shrug. I decided to try and behave because I don’t need another problem with some god. I’m sorry my knowledge about gods is a bit rusty, I didn''t expect to meet one.


    “Oh, so you''re not one of that Bitch’s followers?” Uhh, who?


    “Ha! That is great to hear! It is hard to find lower-floor dwellers that have never heard of that bitch Biian!” Ugh, this bitch again… It would be nice if we could go a day without hearing that name…


    “Yes! Yes! That is the reaction I want to see! I just need to… Where did he go!” Who?


    “Aaagh! I need that Dimsha to put that bitch in the ground!” Ooh, now that sounds like music to my ears! Can we help? Agn… Agate! Have you gone mad? Gregory pulled me over.


    The fact that that bitch is still causing problems is probably because this guy failed in his objective, moreover, we can’t let him kill Kaledon. Gregory whispered.


    So, what do you want us to do to fight a god to make sure that bitch lives? It will end us fighting 2 gods in total! If we let him do his thing we don''t have to deal with any! Did you forget that Kaledon is responsible for like almost all the history of our continent?!


    And how is that of use to us when we’re dead because we picked a fight with a god? Hmm, fair point…


    “Are you guys, ok? You are acting weird…” I’m sorry, this guy here got dropped on his head when he was a kid. Hey!


    Even though we hate that bitch we would prefer to stay neutral, we don''t want to get in her crosshairs… we probably already are...


    “Oh! I’ve heard about a faction of brave lower floor dwellers that stood up to her, regrettably, most of them got wiped out, so you are part of them, I always wanted to meet them but it is hard to track them down and when I do, they''re always dead or locked in combat with her forces…” He grabbed our hands and violently shook them. “You must be from the ninetails and three tails then I suppose?” We looked at each other and nodded. We got out our ears and tails. We would like you to keep it secret that you met us, we are acting differently from our main groups and we don''t want to tip off that bitch! We hid our tails again.


    “Hmm, I see, your races aren''t doing so hot right now. I will try to assist with your objective! But first I need to catch that dragon! come with me!” He summoned a weird floating mechanical vehicle which was quite similar to the vehicles in our racing game and offered us seats. We got in and he raced after Kaledon. Now, this is a problem, how do we get out of this mess? I went through my archive and remembered what Dimshas were. So, this Dimsha, what does it do?


    “It can wipe out magic from this planet, it will make that bitch’s cult powerless and allow my technology to take over the world!” Right, so this is certainly a problem. We need to sabotage him somehow to make sure this doesn''t happen but also so that we don''t get one shot by a god. I swear can these gods just mind their own business? I’m sorry, we are so absorbed in our mission, as you can see, we’re quite young but we’ve been on our mission for years now, and we lost track of time, can you tell us the date and year?


    “Sure, it is the 4th of the month Yttroz in the 8191st Sarian year.” What? Uhm this late already?! We need to hurry G.. Obsidian! Uhh, yeah! Something told me that if I carelessly threw magic around it would set off Who-can-remember-his-name-ias so I launched Gregory and myself out of our vehicle with leyline energy and while he was distracted put a 7 layered illusion on us and made a shadow clone to follow Kaledon.


    “Interesting so there are still some races that don''t only rely on magic, fascinating!” I tried to get myself and Gregory, who was freaking out, on a trajectory to escape but Mr. casual god caught us with his machine again, “I promise this won’t take long! I just need to kill that dragon and get that Dimsha!” Ugh, fine, it seems you hate magic though, would you mind if I locate him with magic?


    “Ugh, I hate magic but I guess it is impossible to expect everyone down here to not use it, I can see its benefits.” Hmm, well you might already know this but my race’s eyes are special so you might feel some discomfort.


    “Oh! I’ve heard about it! You need to be careful though… I’ve heard that that bitch likes to collect the eyes of your race.” I grabbed a tail I just popped out. She what?! This bitch needs to go down! I fired off my eyes. Even though I wanted that bitch dead I assume that if we don''t stop Who-cares-about-his-name-ias we will never get out of this book. I scanned this god to look for his weaknesses.


    “Oh, this is an interesting sensation, it feels like something on the level of a god, I guess this is how you guys have held out for so long, even I as a god am struggling against her.”


    She is that strong, eh? It seems that my eyes work on gods, he doesn''t seem to have his guard up which allows me to get some information about him, is he naive or just stupid? I remember the words my mother said about gods relying on their strength so they don''t seem to be that smart overall. My eyes confirm this, he could even defeat Azu easily, scary. Then again, she gave the bitch a run for her money and according to this guy, that bitch is stronger than him. He doesn''t seem to have obvious weaknesses, he seems to have a complex about his name, is lactose intolerant, and is weak to frost, light, and abyss magic. Well, what do we have here? I also attempted to put illusions over him which failed 5 times but succeeded the 6th time, he really didn''t notice or thinks nothing of it… I can see why he is losing. We catch up to the illusion I made out of Kaledon. The real one is safe and went through some sophisticated secret passage in the mountains. My clone is following him.


    Now I assume this should meet the criteria, the other one might be to defeat him…


    "I guess that''s him there!" The noob god quickly overpowered illusion Kaledon and retrieved the Dimsha. “Right, now I can help you guys! What do you need!” For now! Lunch! I took some food out of my dimensional pocket. And we settled down. I am not a super picky eater but there are a few things I despise, one is potatoes and the other is poison, also known as milk to other people. It tastes disgusting and my whole body protests when I drink it, I can deal with products that use poison but not it in its purest form. It seems this noob god is also weak to poison so I will have to assassinate him here. He asked for some water and I gave him poison disguised as water. Gregory told some bullshit story about what our mission was when noob god started to act weird.


    “Ugh, sorry guys, I don''t think I can help you; I have some uhh, urgent business to take care of!” Noob god was clutching his belly. Are you alright?


    “Yeah, don''t worry, talking too much about that bitch causes me some distress, it was nice meeting you, and don''t get wiped out ahhh!” Noob god clutched his belly as if he was in severe pain and jumped in his vehicle. The space started to brighten and we were back at the library. What just happened… I told Gregory what I just did.


    I’m now running simulations on the data I gathered from that noob god in case he comes back for revenge but I doubt that he knows what happened. So, you ‘Defeated’ a Sarian god with milk? If I didn''t know you or was in this situation myself, I would have never believed you…


    Well, it may or may not have expired… You are a demon…


    But now I know where that Dimsha is hidden, kind of... I don''t know what area we were in but if we ever get to it, I can find it. Right an item that can influence the world, you surely aren''t going to wipe out magic from the planet, are you?


    Nope, but that seems to be the max setting, it can temporarily erase magic in an area. When switched off it allows for magic use again, he probably planned to max its range and leave it on forever. I see, that sounds useful indeed. You could just cut opponents up with your swords and wires, I don''t think many things can match your speed without magic, now let''s get out of here!


    Wait!