Sitting back in his room, one on the bed and the other on the chair, Marc told Elie everything. And it was hard for her to hear.
When they had finished, they remained in silence for ten minutes, until Elie recovered her senses.
"A ruined castle? A library? Endless staircases? You've seen it all."
"Yes, I have."
"And Lavoisi is an author who has written in both worlds?"
"Yes, I found his works in the other world. Here."
Marc had managed to keep a copy of Lavoisi's books from his world and the one he'd found in the remains of the castle. Passing the books to Elie, he noticed the dark circles around her eyes and her unkempt hair. He'd never felt so bad for anyone, and he didn't think anyone could get into such a state for him.
"I should treat her better."
Elie took the books and consulted them.
As soon as she began to read, her face lit up slightly. Elie slowly began to appreciate the strange author's writing. A smile spread across her face when she read a passage about a young boy tripping over a marble. Then her face twisted slightly when she didn't understand where the hero's wife came from. And the further she read, the more her mind focused entirely on the book.
Marc silently observed her gentle face, from which he couldn't tear his eyes away. Seeing her so focused added a certain charm to her. Yet he wasn't the type to dwell on beauty. It was more of a rare observation here and there. It didn't interest him all that much.
But seeing Elie like this made him wonder if he shouldn't take advantage of the fact that beauty exists to be admired.
*
Then suddenly, after about ten minutes, Elie looked up from the book and turned to Marc with a beautiful smile.
"I like this writer. He writes a bit like you."
"Me?"
"Yeah. Poetic but deep. You write like that a lot."
"I do?"
Marc had no idea where Elie was getting that from. But she quickly changed the subject to refocus on the clues he had obtained from the other world.
"You have other clues?"
"In the throne room I was in, there was a name written on the table. Zodric."
"Zodric..."
"Probably the owners of the castle."
Suddenly, they heard a repeated tapping on the door to Marc's room. Someone was knocking.
"I hope I'm not disturbing you."
Nathanaël raised his head, revealing his thick head of hair, full of curls, as if it were a good omen.
"Nath."
He walked into the room with a smile on his face when he saw that Marc was indeed back, and gave him a hug.
"I knew you weren't dead."
Then, as they stepped apart, they looked at each other again. There was nothing particularly new about them. But what had changed once again was the depth of their auras.
Nathanaël had become even more radiant in Marc's eyes.
Meanwhile, Marc had become even darker.
And Marc didn't hesitate to point it out to him.
"You're even brighter than before."
"I can't help it. I don't know how to stop it."
Nathanaël gave a wry smile, for no matter how he looked at the situation, he couldn't bring himself to tell him that his aura had become even more horrible than the last time he'd seen him.
"Sit down. We were just debriefing."
*
"Zodric, who is he?"
Elie was the first to answer.
"We don't know."
Marc continued.
"We'll have to find out and find this Lavoisi."
"Was he even still alive?"
"We'll see."
Marc picked up his Pc, which was on his desk and typed Lavoisi's name into his search bar.
"Lavoisi is a novelist born in..."
Nathanaël noticed that his friend had suddenly stopped.
"What is it, Marc? Go on."
"He was born in -10756 and died in -10738. This author is known not to have been confirmed dead but disappeared after 5 years of searching. "
"What? That's so old."
"I knew that in Romane, he loved the ancient but not to this extent."
"Could such old writings have been preserved? How is that possible?"
"I don't know. I'll read on. Lavoisi lived in Romane, in the town of Sire. He was unmarried and had no attachments. His life seemed pretty normal, except for the day when he went berserk and massacred the people at Orio church. From that day on, he disappeared without a trace. The only thing found at his home was his books. He was only eighteen, yet his bookshelves contained hundreds of books. The most mysterious thing was that he left a message on his desk. It read: woe to those who do not look at the stars."
Elie felt a slight shiver run down her spine.
"Wow."
"That's chilling."
"It's not over yet. Today, Lavoisi's story is in doubt. Some think he was just a kid who wanted to write what he thought."
Silence fell over the room. Marc began to think again. To him, Lavoisi didn't seem like the kind of person who would slaughter people. But since he didn't know the author at all, he couldn't say for sure.
"We'll keep looking on our own. For now, get some rest. You've got a hard day."
Nathanaël stood up, ready to leave.
Marc looked at him, thinking that he was undoubtedly the wisest of all. It made sense to let him rest after everything he'd been through. But Marc didn't really feel tired or anything like that. The aftermath was more mental than physical. Although, looking back, those stairs had been the most intense workout he'd ever done.
It was the gesture itself that mattered most, and deep down, it touched him deeply.
Elie didn't want to leave Marc for fear of losing him again, but she had to leave the room and let him sleep.
"See you tomorrow, Marc."
"See you guys tomorrow."
As soon as they closed the door, Marc collapsed on his bed. He hadn't stopped running and thinking. His whole body was overheated.
He closed his eyes and decided not to go to school the next day. It was the best sleep he'd had in a long time.
**
Chris awoke with a start.
And this wasn't the first time. These nightmares had been getting more and more frequent for some time now. So much so that he was almost afraid to close his eyes.
He was fed up. This couldn't go on any longer.
"Damn it."
He couldn't help thinking it was his vision. That field of black feathers haunted him to this day. He could see himself lying in the field, the feeling of death rising in his arms, unable to move, unable to scream, the feathers slowly allowing themselves to cover his carcass before he heard that word roar in the distance.
Aregis
He could no longer forget it.
He couldn't pass it by.
He didn't want to die...
And in the midst of his thoughts, he found himself thinking again about that small group of doomed visionaries. Whether it was Elie or Nathanael, he didn't really hold it against them.
He had simply stayed away from the subject, thinking it was absurd. And seeing them just reminded him of the vision over and over again. So, he had decided to avoid them.
But deep down, he knew it wasn't really their fault either. Nor was it Mark's. Holding a grudge against him didn't really make any sense,
"Maybe I went a bit too far. There was no reason for me to get so worked up. But the fact that he's the only person left alive in the whole damn cathedral is super suspicious."
He tossed the can in his hand in anger.
"I never really liked the guy. I was popular enough not to talk to him. But still, I felt like he was stealing my popularity when he's not even that good-looking. Okay, so he's not ugly. But still. I'm tired of it."
He took another can from his fridge and sat back in his chair.
"He's still a nice guy, and when I'm with him, it gets on my nerves, but he's cool too."
Chris's eyes closed heavily. He couldn't stay awake anymore.
"I think if we'd known each other from the beginning, we could have been friends."
Chris fell asleep in his armchair.
"What a the hell am I thinking?..."
**
Marc awoke with a start in the middle of the night, suddenly realizing that something important was missing from all of this.
"By the way, where's Jin?!"
He sprinted to the next room to see if his student was still there and found a bed and an empty room.
"Damn it!"
He sprinted toward his parents' room.
"Mom, Dad, where's Jin?"
His mother awoke slowly as if the news of his disappearance didn't shock her in the least.
"He went looking for you the day you went to the library. I tried to hold him back but he said : Thank you, master's mother, but I must do this alone, don't look for me, I must fulfill my duty to the master."
Marc looked desperately at his mother.
"It's true."
"You warned him at least ?"
"No, I forgot."
Marc looked desperately at his mother for a good minute before running to fetch his phone. As for his father, he couldn't have cared less. He just kept sleeping peacefully
"Where the hell is he now?"
Marc tried to call him, without success. He ran to the door, grabbed his sneakers and set off in search of her. But just as he wanted to get out, he saw Jin in front of the door, kneeling with his point down.
"Welcome back from your training master. I'm sorry I wasn't there. I've been looking for you."
His clothes were battered, his shoes were soiled, and he had wound marks on his sleeves, which he'd lost, by the way.
"So I've been training too while you've been away."
Marc really didn't understand Jin. A hundred questions popped into his head.But In the end, he took a deep breath to pretend it was normal.
"It's all right. You've worked hard, you deserve a rest. Go to your room and rest."
"Yes, master."
"Stop calling me that."
For Jin, his master's approval was the best thing that could have happened to him.
*
The next day, Marc and Jin stayed in the house to rest. They'd earned it.
So, that morning, the two of them met in the kitchen.
"So that's what you did in the other world."
Jin didn't understand much of what Marc was saying, but had clearly witnessed Goagi's powers. He now knew that the world Marc was going to was real. Which made him even more determined to be his pupil for life.
Which was far from normal from Marc's perspective, as he was beginning to see Jin more and more as an anomaly.
"You're definitely very strong, Master."
"Stop calling me that."
Marc took a bowl of cereal and sat down on a chair around the small dining table they had at the Zeymonds'. It was a simple round table that they regularly swapped out for a larger rectangular one when they had guests. Things were simple at the Zeymonds'. Extravagant, ostentatious spending didn't interest them all that much.
"By the way, you've been practicing, haven't you? You shouldn't show me the fruits of that training. "
Jin's eyes lit up.
"Come outside, we'll see what you're made of."
"Yes, master."
They went out into the forest nearby. Not far from where Marc had crashed. As it turned out, there was a small open area where they had removed the damaged trees, leaving the perfect spot for a little fight.
"Five minutes."
"Okay."
Five minutes wasn't much in the real world. But on their scale, it was more than enough for Jin.
He took the first step. The air split and he disappeared as he moved. To a human being, this was impossible to see. But for Marc it was different.
He caught Jin's foot in mid-air.
Reacting immediately, Jin quickly pulled his foot back and leaped ten meters away.
"Impressive."
But then Jin disappeared again, this time close to the ground, trying to tackle Marc. Yet, the latter barely jumped to avoid the tackle.
"Oh."
Still in the air, Marc took a nice high kick. His arms served as a shield. A pretty smile spread across his face. It hurt more than he'd expected. But he'd expected as much from a genius like his so-called student. It just amused him to see that even though he'd become much stronger, even a guy like the genius of fighting could still hurt him.
But Jin wasn't finished and immediately disappeared a third time.
This time, Marc couldn't follow him. By the time he realized what was happening, Jin was already behind him.
"An lunge punch."
His expression darkened.
But Marc had managed to follow him with his eyes again. And just before the fist could hit him, he simply spun around at the same time and caught it with ease.
"That was hot."
Jin stepped back a good 20 yards.
"It's been five seconds."
The fight was on.
Jin's rain of attacks wouldn't stop. He tried everything. Marc had to admit it, Jin was much stronger than he was. His every move incited human perfection.
But Marc was just no longer human.
"Ten seconds left. It's my turn to attack now."
It was brief and to the point. Marc disappeared from Jin's field of vision. No matter how he turned his head, he was gone. He could feel the air move, but he couldn't see his master.
He was too fast for him.
Until he heard his calm voice coming from nowhere...
"Touché."
Jin's hand resting on his heart put an end to their argument.
"You've become even stronger, master."
"It's not much, I've been in the other world most of the time. You're just rubbing shoulders with me."
"By the way, when you spoke of the other world, I thought you were talking about a superior human state. But since the appearance of this famous Goagi, I don't know what to think anymore."
Silence reigned for a while. Marc didn't want to involve an innocent in his affair. No one around him was safe anymore. Even though, upon closer inspection, Jin looked like the most guilty man in the world.
"You know if you want to stop following me, you can. I'm not holding you back."
Jin looked up in surprise.
"Stop following you? No, on the contrary, there's a stage even more powerful than anything I've ever imagined. I can't stop there. You're the ideal person to achieve my goal."
Marc couldn't believe it. He couldn't understand how anyone could willingly put themselves in such danger, knowing all that could happen.
Even so, he smiled.
"You... You're really something."
Jin looked at his meter as if he had just gotten his answer.
Marc, for his part, went from a nervous laugh to one that was almost amused.
"All right, then. Follow me to the end of the worlds if you like."
Jin had never had a master. But choosing Marc as his master was one of the best decisions of his life. Seeing him smile like that in that scene bathed in sunlight at its zenith was an image he would never forget.
He might not have been the emotional type, but that didn't mean he never felt anything.
That day, he was very satisfied with his choice.
*
On the way home, Marc began to research Lavoisi further. With his eyes glued to his computer, he gathered as much information as he could about that bygone era and the writer who was branded a monster.
"They don't say much that's new. The phrase 'woe to those who don't look at the stars' comes up a lot, but it's always the same context. "He massacred the people of the church of Orio." I'll try to find that church."
There was nothing normal about Orio's church. Its symbols resembled those found in the other world. Its followers were said to be madmen who advocated nothing other than the idea of the descent of a celestial being. And most of their members seemed to disappear without a trace.
But as he continued searching, Marc was stunned to discover the name of the entity he had hoped they would all see descend...
"The great Zodric."
His name was there...
The name that was inscribed on the table in the ruined castle. The name Marc had seen near the throne.
"A church that worships an otherworldly being. Chilling."
Marc read on carefully. The church had indeed been massacred and had also fallen into ruin. Corpses had been found on the site in all sorts of states. Burnt, lacerated, drowned, limbs missing... Hearts had been found in the center of the church, and the castle had suffered a major explosion.
"But worst of all, 4 other churches that also worshipped Zodric were destroyed and massacred on the same day. And this day was called "Zodric's descent."
But nobody believed in the legend.
Marc believed it wholeheartedly. He couldn't help believing that all these actions had been programmed by this Zodric. The owner of the otherworldly ruins.
After searching a little longer, he found an address which was given with representative images
"Great. It's not going to help me if it's more than ten thousand years old. I hope I can see the ruins or some semblance of remains."
Jin entered the room.
"Did you find anything interesting?"
"Addresses and pictures. A name I know and significant events."
"That doesn't seem to delight you."
"Let's just say, I don't think I'm going to find any friends there. It's in Zvenne's empire. We'll wait until the vacations to go there. Good thing it's in a week."
"I'm already getting ready for the trip."
Marc looked at the painting of the place. Everything was dark and horrifying. Just thinking about it now puzzled him.
"Am I going to die this time?"
He looked desperately at the images of Zodirc's descent. Corpses littered the ground. From the image alone, he could see the sinister aura of the place.
His eyes darkened.
"No, I'll survive."
The next day, Marc had to take the bus back to school.
Still shaken, he made sure the day hadn't repeated itself by noting—this time—that one of his neighbors' cars wasn't parked in the same spot as last time.
"Anyway, would I really be able to tell the next time he puts us in a loop?"
Elie was so delighted that she regained her usual air just by seeing him leave the house. A radiant smile lit up the street.
Jin and Marc couldn't even look at her.
As soon as he got on the bus, Marc noticed he was being watched. That was to be expected. A boy who disappeared from one day to the next and then came back as if nothing had happened, didn't really fit in with what one might call "everyday life." Marc was well aware of this. Even so, he took the bus as if it were normal.
Elie didn't even notice the stares. She simply radiated such a bright light that no one could look at her without damaging their retinas.
"Did you miss it?"
Marc contemplated the scenery passing before his eyes.
"Yes."