A new world:
Deep in the subconscious, anxious whispers echoed, trying to make their sound heard, yet they were no more than a faint breeze.
"...-AN..." A mysterious whisper echoed in the void... What... what is this?
"...-UIAN?" Another voice rose slightly... Is someone calling me? I know these voices well; they are shaking my entire consciousness.
"Luian, can you hear me? Luiiiian?"
"Gasp!"
I took a deep breath as I opened my eyes. Did I sleep? When did I sleep? Or did I faint? I looked around and found the same nerve-wracking scene, so I ignored it. When I heard the voice again, I turned to search for its source.
"Luiiannnn!" I heard it, it was Yuna's scream, but from whe— I remembered! I quickly turned to my fingers, which were covered in red, and lifted my hand, looking at the ring — the friendship ring we exchanged when we were ten. It was black, shaped like a cat's head, and the voices were coming from it. I remembered asking Ivan to invent a communication device that would connect us using it. I sighed with joy.
In a tone of overwhelming happiness, momentarily forgetting what I had just gone through, I said:
"Guys... I'm here," I said amidst my shivers, hoping they would hear me.
"Luian!" Liam cried out, his voice trembling.
"Move away a bit, Liam. Oh my God... Phew... It's good you heard us, are you okay? We've been talking to you for over half an hour!" Maliss said in an anxious and panicked tone.
"Maliss, sit down; your foot hasn't healed yet!" Liam yelled at her in a serious tone. And I wondered internally: "Foot?"
"My nerves were about to snap. Oh, thank you, thank you for being okay," Yuna said in a shaky voice, as if she were on the verge of tears.
"Oh, you worried us; I felt my blood run cold with fear for you, you idiot!" Ivan cried out in a trembling tone mixed with anxiety, his voice carrying a hidden reproach.
"Luian, I'm sorry... I'm so sorry. If only I... if only I had noticed you sooner, we wouldn't have been separated from you," Louis apologized, and I felt his tone was about to break into sobs, so I quickly said:
"No... it's okay; it was my fault for not being able to hold your hand, so don't cry, okay? Now, where are you all? I'm here alone in a place that looks like... a melting ice cube on a hot day, I think," I said sarcastically, while my eyes surveyed the area, then I wondered: "Where am I and where are they?"
"Alright, Luian, first of all, are you okay? Are you hurt? Answer me truthfully," Maliss said anxiously, addressing me in a strict tone, as if trying to take control of the situation.
"Ah, except for my bleeding hand, my extremely exhausted body, and my mind that's about to collapse, I'm fine," I told her, looking at my hand, which had turned red.
"Now, Luian, say 'Bag' out loud, then move quickly away from where you are sitting," Ivan said in a serious and suspicious tone.
"Bag??? Move away?" I wondered for a moment, then I said a little loudly:
"Bag!" And I moved a little away from where I was sitting.
As soon as I said it, a bag fell onto the ground, precisely where I had been sitting, as if someone had deliberately dropped it on me and said, "Here you go, your bag."
It was a red and black bag, like a hiking backpack. I looked at it, knowing it wasn't unfamiliar; this was my bag, the one I bought for our trip in two days... but how...!
"Luian, I know what you're thinking, but don't ask how now! Open it, I know it contains medical supplies — I'm the one who packed it. Reach into the right pocket," Yuna said in a strict tone mixed with anxiety.
I took my eyes off the ring and looked at the bag, then opened it to find all the items I had packed for the trip. I reached in as instructed; I hadn't known she had put medicine in here for me. It consisted of bandages, a large collection of medications, and antiseptics. I sighed with slight relief as I treated and cleaned the wound on my hand.
Then I slowly and weakly sighed, looking at the bandages. A quiet stillness was suffocating the place, a stillness that wasn't normal... it was terrifying. I quickly called out to them, trying to break the heavy silence:
"Alright, I'm treating it now. Can you tell me exactly where you are?"
My voice came out faint as I closed the bag's zipper. "And is everything okay?! Liam, what's the story with Maliss's foot? Guys! This silence of yours... it scares me!" I said, panting from exhaustion, my eyes fixed on the strange ring, my body still trembling slightly.
"Don't worry," Liam said in a tone he struggled to keep reassuring, but the sigh that followed revealed his anxiety. His voice trembled slightly. "We're just... trying to process this. We couldn't process it earlier... because of our fear for you. As for Maliss's foot, it's a long story I'll tell later, the important thing is she's fine now..."
"Forget about me for now... where the hell are we exactly?" Maliss interrupted, her voice slightly broken, carrying a sharp stab of anxiety, as if she were wrestling with herself before speaking.
"I don't know, but I've figured out three things," Luca said with forced calm, as if wearing a mask of composure, but he was breathing heavily between words: "First, everyone is paired up except Luian: Maliss and Liam, Louis and I, Yuna and Ivan, and Luian is alone."
Then he called out to Ivan and Yuna, his voice slightly shaky, as if it took effort to control himself:
"Second, there's the bag issue, which Ivan and Yuna will tell us about."
"We know... the bag..." Yuna began, her voice tense and strained. "While we were running... don't ask us why, we'll tell you later... okay? Ivan screamed that if he had his tools bag, we'd be better off. Then he shouted loudly and desperately: 'My bag!'
Suddenly, this bag fell on us! We realized it was the bag for our trip in two days! To make sure, I yelled the name of my bag too, and my bag fell! That's all I know... plus it contains all of our stuff, even though I haven't searched all of it. A lot of other things have happened, but this is just the summary of the summary."
So, that's how they figured it out.
"As for the third thing, I'll tell you about it: What is the nature of the world you are in right now?" Maliss asked, her tone a mix of curiosity and anxiety.
"The world I'm in combines a dark forest with tall purple trees, plus deadly gaseous lakes! And huge spiderwebs, in addition to settlements of giant spiders... hmm, it's like a spider party! What about you?"
"A frozen lake surrounded by volcanoes everywhere, it looks like a cooling unit in the middle of summer! Despite the heat, it's still cold, and there's no sun! The atmosphere is dark, and the place is very quiet and terrifying."
I said with bitter sarcasm, my voice sometimes breaking from exhaustion, and my disbelief still evident in my tone. I looked at the lake again, genuinely wondering how it hadn't evaporated.
"As for what we have, it's like a party that combines thunderstorms with beautiful electrified waterfalls," Louis said in a sharp, heavily sarcastic tone, but he was panting slightly after his words.
"And you know what happens when they meet! Plus, the thunder burns the trees, so the view we have is super beautiful... between burnt trees, electrified waterfalls, and thunder decorating the sky. Oh, if someone wanted to take a shower in the waterfall, it would be like falling into hot oil!"
I imagined his sarcastic smile as he described that frightening beauty, but his voice was exhausted.
"Ah! That's a beautiful view! Come and see ours!" Ivan grumbled, exhaustion and despair weighing down his voice, as if he were struggling to speak.
"We are in a giant desert... literally, we are in a giant desert, and the temperature is beyond natural, it's entered the realm of the imaginary! Also, the sun here is like a power pump with a lot of debt, about to explode at any moment! Plus, there's a herd of giant earthworms that are grinding something, I don't know what... I just hope it's corn or wheat! And the withered trees are twisted frighteningly and bear distorted faces! In addition to strange and scary insects here! I swear one of them is looking at me right now!"
"I see the situation is fair for everyone, almost," I said, laughing sarcastically, my voice a mix of tiredness and astonishment, trying to lighten the mood after everything we had been through.
"But... Maliss, seriously, what happened to your foot?" I asked, inquiring and worried; Maliss is the physically strongest of us, and if she's injured, it means facing something extremely powerful.
"I'll tell you," Liam said as if reading a medical report,
"We woke up suspended in a spiderweb, and our surroundings were full of spiders getting ready to eat us for dinner, so we had to fight them. Maliss killed three of them with a stick, but her foot was injured when one of them threw her against a rock. Don't worry, it's a minor injury... Oh, a little while ago, the bag fell on her back, but she's fine."
"Don't worry, my mental and physical state is below zero, and I think Liam's mental state is also below zero! If it weren't for his madness, we wouldn't have gotten out quickly... but I'm breathing, and that's what matters! Hahaha," Maliss laughed with bitter sarcasm, her voice barely a tired whisper. A heavy silence prevailed before it was broken by Liam's exhausted voice:
"What do you mean by that?" Liam asked in a tired but argumentative tone, as if every word cost him enormous effort.
"In that moment, I exhausted every remaining shred of intelligence in my exhausted mind, and you exhausted all of your remaining strength. Also, Maliss, you have a ring too, use it! Why are you talking through mine?"
"It's strange to talk this way when we're in the same place, and I prefer to talk like this," Maliss replied with cold, weary logic, trying to ignore the exhaustion shrouding Liam's tone.
"As for us, we woke up under a tree that was about to burn, then when a part of Louis's shirt burned and he saw the waterfall, he jumped into it, so... Sssshhh... well, he became roasted and burnt, but being his idiot friend, I went down to help him, so I became kind of electrocuted, and we are currently running from place to place from the lightning."
Luca's voice was heard as if he were resisting laughter at their situation.
"Heyyy... Don't laugh at our pain! Also, how was I supposed to know it was electrified? It's a waterfall! And waterfalls mean either beauty or swimming!"
Louis's exhausted complaints rose, as if he were trying to defend himself with all the energy he had left.
"I'm not laughing at the pain, I'm laughing at our foolishness."
I heard the sound of Luca's sigh from the ring.
"Well, at least the BBQ was free, Louis! Did you manage to get rid of the smell of burning?" I said, trying to force a tired smile onto my face as I tightened the bandage on my hand.
"It wasn't a BBQ!" Louis replied in agitation, his voice carrying traces of painful bitterness. "I was swimming in boiling oil! My hair stood on end from the electricity! I swear I saw death waving at me from behind the electrified waterfalls!"
"As for us, we woke up in a cave that smelled like blood, as if a massacre had occurred! And guess where it was? On the summit of a mountain in a desert! We had to climb down, and when we got down, the ground was truly like hell, and we saw a swarm of worms... umm, a swarm, yes, 'swarm' is a better word... and... and... well, one of them chased us! Then Yuna had a gun, and I had an energy shot I made... the worm was huge, extremely huge! It was terrifying! I was shivering at that moment! I don't know how we ran at top speed!..... The... adrenaline, and then... wait a minute...!"
Ivan's voice began to tremble with clear panic, then we heard him quiet down for a moment, followed by the sound of violent vomiting.
"Ivan! Are you okay!!!" Maliss said, her voice filled with sudden concern.
Liam then followed, asking his younger sister, his tone waving with fear and caution:
"Yuna, calm Ivan down! And what exactly happened to you two?"
Yuna replied in a tense and shaky voice:
"I told you, brother... that worm started chasing us, and, and... I put the shot in the gun, and since its skin looked thick, I fired it into its mouth, which created pressure and... BOOOOM! I don't know, it seemed like a shooting game, but it wasn't! Then blood and guts went everywhere... Oh my God!"
Yuna spoke in a breakdown, a feeling of madness creeping into her trembling voice.
Our voices rose as we tried to comfort her:
"It's okay, it's okay, Yuna!" Liam cried out with intense anxiety, trying to reassure her without being able to hide his fear.
"Calm down! Calm down! We don't need the details! Just calm down!" Maliss said in a voice that combined tiredness with an attempt to control the situation.
"Yes, yes, no need to panic! You both did a good job. Maliss also killed three spiders, so it's okay," Louis said with extreme worry, trying hard to ease their distress. "I know it was hard, but calm down!"
"Yuna, Ivan, take a breath in... breath out... Calm down! And repeat after me: Take a breath in and breath out!" I told them, hoping they would hear me amid the chaos.
Then I heard the sound of weak and shaky breaths coming from the ring.
"Yes, yes, like that! Breath in and breath out! No need to worry," I told them in a voice filled with worry, trying my hardest to calm them down.
But what we heard next was like a slap that brought us back to reality:
"But where are we? And why are we here?" they both said, a mix of exhaustion and panic.
I heard their trembling voices.
"That's right... we... don't know! What's happening? Why are we here? And where exactly is this place?"
The words broke on my lips as if they shattered our temporary sense of safety.
Maliss was about to speak, to broadcast what was left of her composure, when she was interrupted by Luca's voice, whose silence for a period was a premonition of something.
"Don't you think the description of the places is familiar?" Luca said, his tone wavering between terrifying certainty and increasing anxiety.
I froze in my spot.
"What do you mean, Luca?" I asked him with a question full of curiosity and mystery.
"I mean... don't you remember these places?" Luca's anxiety grew as he tried to connect the dots.
"Please, go through the day's events with me!"
"We woke up like idiots to buy a book, and it turned out the place was like a human snake, then we sneaked in to buy it early..." Louis began tracking the events, then paused slightly, continuing in a voice where threads of both anxiety and realization started to creep in:
"...Then we went to the park to read it, and a paper fell out containing an experiment that promised us happiness..."
He quieted down a bit, so I continued for him:
"Then I read the experiment and we did it, and nothing happened, then it turned out our uncle's bus was missing, so you went to check on it, and Ivan and I stayed behind, and Ivan accidentally dropped the book, which turned out to be empty, even though I had glimpsed words earlier, and then... our world became like a game, and there was... a void... and it swallowed us."
My entire being trembled when I realized it.
These places... this description... Impossible! But how? How?
The ring's voice quieted for minutes or even hours; it was as if they were comprehending the disaster they had fallen into.
Suddenly Maliss said with a certain tone:
"We're in the novel, Clash of Worlds." Maliss's calm voice was like the straw that broke the camel's back.
If we are truly inside Clash of Worlds... then everything we described is real, so I screamed:
"That means Louis and Luca are in the 'Land of Thunderbolts,' those electrified waterfalls.
And Ivan and Yuna, that giant worm is the 'Sand Grinder'... and it only wakes up every few days to grind up something living, not wheat!
As for you, Maliss and Liam, you are in the 'Shadow Forests,' those spiders are the 'Purple Mother' family, and they are the most dangerous on that island."
"And me..." I looked at my surroundings with tension and a full-body shiver, "I'm on the 'Island of Balance'... the Graveyard of Greed."
٠٠٠٠٠٠٠٠٠
Share your comments about the chapter with us