ancient island:
My eyes drifted to the novel.
I placed my hand on the white cover, decorated with blue flourishes, which truly suited the events of the story.
I remember we bought it at least two years ago.
Yes, we bought it, not "I bought it," because we literally pooled our money to purchase all five parts.
I continued flipping through the book's pages, searching for any mention of "Balance Island," the name of the island I am currently on.
"Hmm... He said there was a place for the Existence Stones here, but where?"
I kept flipping and flipping for fifteen minutes, ignoring the things that weren't related to this island.
"Argh... seriously! I remember Melis mentioned this island when I read it, but on which page exactly?"
I set the novel aside and waved my hand in the air, a sign of temporary despair.
I looked at my surroundings. There were empty food cans and water bottles.
I wondered how to dispose of them.
"I mean, if I leave them, I'll pollute the environment, but also, in the future, they'll know someone was here.
Hmm, should I burn them with fire?" I wondered, directing my gaze toward the volcanoes that were a little distance away.
"Bag!" I exclaimed as it dropped onto me.
I grabbed it, opened it, and put all the empty cans inside.
"Okay, I can throw these away later."
"Vanish!" The bag disappeared from in front of me. Suddenly, a crazy idea occurred to me.
"Bag!" I said it again, and when it dropped, I grabbed it, smiling, and put it on my back.
I wondered nervously and with immense curiosity, a mix of excitement and fear: Will it take me with it when it vanishes?
I said aloud, motivated:
"Vanish... Vanish! Why isn't it happening? Ooooooh!"
Just when I thought it hadn't vanished, I felt an enormous pressure bear down on my body.
The sky-blue color surrounding me began to fade, replaced by a deep purple, then grading into dark red, and finally, velvety black.
I felt as if I was being pulled inside a time tunnel; all colors were crushed, and the pressure intensified, as if a thousand invisible hands were dragging me into the depths.
The air grew denser, and I felt like my lungs were about to explode.
I opened my eyes with difficulty, only to find myself standing in a place that was supposed to be part of the novel, but was the worst nightmare I could have imagined.
The ground was covered with charred corpses, black bodies piled one on top of the other, interspersed with shattered bones that shimmered a pale color under a blood-congested, gray sky.
There was no green color, no blueness to the sky, only the colors of destruction and death.
And everywhere, bright red eyes glowed—bodiless eyes—following my every move, as if they were tormented souls finding no peace.
An unbearable pressure filled the place, a spiritual and physical pressure that made me feel like I was separating from my reality.
The air was heavy, saturated with the smell of death and iron.
Every time I turned, those red eyes followed me, intensifying the panic that swept over me.
My heart pounded in my ears like war drums, and my breath caught.
I couldn't stand this horrifying sight and the enormous pressure.
I screamed at the top of my lungs, a scream mixed with fear and despair, while all I could manage to say was one word, the only word of salvation I trusted:
"Bag!"
With great difficulty, gasping, my head spinning, and my eyes nearly blacking out from the pressure and panic, I mumbled the word again, as if it were my only hope for survival:
"B-b-bag!"
Suddenly, I felt the pressure vanish, and the black and red colors receded, and the eyes disappeared.
Coldness returned to my limbs, and I fell to the ground, heavily panting, frantically breathing the cold air, as if I had returned from the abyss of death.
"W-what the hell did I just see? Ugh."
My gaze went to the bag again as I wondered why it had taken me to that place.
I tried to collect myself and regulate my breathing, sitting down while recalling what I had seen.
It was a war, but where?
I'm sure the wars haven't started yet in the novel.
I mean, there are already cold wars, but currently, at the start of the events, there wasn't a war this crazy!
I must tell them later not to try what I did.
I sighed as I picked up the book again with my trembling hands.
As I flip, the scene is still in my head.
When did it appear? Why are there wars?
Weren't we at the beginning of the novel? Yes, we are sure we are at the beginning of the novel, but what was that scene?
And does the bag always go there?
Suddenly, I directed my gaze to the bag again...
No, no, I can't have gone there!
Isn't it supposed to tear? I mean, it was a war, so...
I pressed my head with both hands.
"Why... why did it want to show me this scene?
I know someone sent this bag to us, but who?
And does he know about our transition? Does he know that we are merely humans whose bodies are not suited for this world?
And if he was able to reach the bag and send it to us, can he return us to our world?"
The questions clashed, swirling in my head.
I sighed deeply. "Maybe... maybe he intends for us to do something, but what is it? And why us specifically?"
As I flipped and flipped, I calmed down a little and noticed something.
"Maybe... maybe it wasn't mentioned clearly, maybe it was mentioned in someone's conversation... a conversation... a conversation!"
I racked my brain hoping to remember.
"Oh, yes! How could I forget this!"
I flipped the pages and reached what I wanted.
"Yes, this is it! This is their location!"
When I finished reading the entire scene, I put the novel, character cards, and other things in the bag and told it to vanish.
Well, I still have questions about it, but I'm too weak now to learn anything, so...
I stood up, looking at my body.
My clothes, which I noticed had dried from the water (when? I don't know), look strange to the inhabitants of this world.
Does it matter now? No.
Am I suffering because of them now? No.
So, let's ignore it.
All I had were Melis's blade, my black watch, and a flashlight I discovered was in the back pocket of the bag, but I think they are enough.
I wanted to test those three things, but I didn't know how to use them or what they were used for, so for now, let's forget about them.
I directed my gaze to the volcanoes. Yes, this is my current destination.
I tightened my grip on the blade; it was cold and heavy, giving me a false sense of security.
"The Existence Stones... beneath the icy volcanoes, in an underground cave."
I recalled the name of the place I had just read.
It wasn't mentioned in the main text, but in a footnote added in a later edition, pointing to the hiding spot of the seeds of power.
I started moving.
The ground was solid and covered with a light layer of ice despite the proximity of the volcanoes.
I raised my head and looked at the calm blue sky, which seemed painfully innocent after the blood-congested sky scene I had just witnessed.
I ignored it and kept walking.
The journey is supposed to take at least an hour.
I can't walk straight to the volcanoes because I'll be burned alive, so it was said that there is a tunnel near the icy side.
I continued walking on the natural ground near the icy surface.
The cold air was hitting my skin.
I hadn't worn a warm jacket because we would be descending into the hot underground, so I guessed I'd die of heat then.
I continued walking along the natural dividing line between the volcanoes and the ice, and here we are.
After half an hour, I found strange soil.
Not because its color was strange, but because it didn't look even.
I stood on it to make sure whether it was it or not, and I was assured that it was undoubtedly the place.
I knelt down and removed the soil and pebbles, and I saw a small opening, only big enough to reach my hand through.
When I looked, I saw a large circular button shaped like a ruby. The novel mentioned that someone reached out their hand, thinking it was a real ruby, but they tried to pull it out many times without success, so they brought their friends and many strong people, but no one could extract it.
When one of the strange characters heard about this, he wanted to try his luck.
Well, you could say he later became known as one of the smartest characters in the novel.
So, instead of using force, he first deduced that it was not a ruby.
I reached out my hand, trying to remember what he did.
This island was only named "Balance Island" about a hundred years ago, but when this character went to search for its history in the Imperial Library, he found no trace of an island with this name. Instead, he found an island with another name that matched its characteristics. Being astute, he knew it was the same one, and from its name, he was able to solve this riddle. The name it was known by was "Eclipse Island."
Yes, he discovered that this place was over four thousand years old, meaning the name was extremely ancient.
Eclipse means the sun and the moon, two opposite things; they are a balance between two forces that usually do not meet, a rare moment when the world pauses between burning and freezing, and that we can find two opposing forces...
I looked around and returned my gaze to it.
I first needed to move it slightly to the right, then I stood up, took a handful of snow, and with Melis's blade, I took a piece of lava, and placed both of them at the same moment.
It was only moments until a high gleam emerged from this fake ruby, and then it absorbed both the ice and the fire.
I stepped back slightly, and I heard the sound of the earth splitting beside me, and a large tunnel appeared, resembling a gate to a cave.
The cave is the only place where the effects of the sun and the moon converged, becoming a center of energy that combines fire and ice.
That is why it is located beneath the "Icy Volcanoes," because the volcanoes represent the sun's fire, and the ice represents the moon's coldness.
In the future, he was the one who discovered it, perhaps because he deduced that neither fire nor ice ever reaches here and that no one had tried to move it.
Now I have to enter. I looked at the tunnel, hoping I wouldn't encounter anything strange.
The moment I entered the cave and my feet stepped onto the first stone steps of the spiral staircase, I felt an intense coldness.
The air was saturated with the pungent smell of sulfur and cold ozone, which violently pierced my nose.
I coughed slightly and put my hand over my mouth and nose, hoping to block at least a little of those strong smells.
I continued forward and down, and the deeper I went, the darker the tunnel became, as if the sun's light could no longer reach this depth.
Its walls were very old and dilapidated, as if any wrong step would cost me my life.
I grabbed the flashlight and turned it on; it actually had a battery, so as soon as I turned it on, it illuminated the place.
I hid the bag and continued walking, turning, walking, and turning.
I felt dizzy because of the insane design of this staircase.
Seriously, what was the designer thinking at the time to design something like this?
Finally, I reached level ground. It was more comfortable than that crazy staircase.
I took one step forward, but instinctively, I stepped back in less than a second before the arrow reached me.
I gasped in surprise, looking at the arrow that was now stuck to the wall.
I shone the light on it and found that it was coated with a sticky substance resembling poison.
Then I directed the light forward, and I found the place empty... Traps!
I quickly realized this. No one had opened this door before, so all the traps were ready to launch at their new guest at any moment.
I quickly looked around to scout the area. I don't know what I did or pressed to trigger the arrow.
I stepped back a little, then bent down, picked up a small stone, and threw it forward.
It was only moments until the stone was completely shattered.
Arrows were released, and the ground cracked in more than one location, creating deep pits until the stone's existence vanished completely, then the ground returned to its normal state as if nothing had happened.
I sighed, staring at this new hell stretching out before me.
I looked around carefully, once, twice, three times, trying to remember the locations of the traps I had seen earlier—the ones from which the arrows had been fired and where the ground had cracked.
I took a deep breath, trying to calm my pounding heart.
I put the watch in my pocket and gripped the blade tightly.
I put the flashlight handle between my teeth, aiming its light toward the dark passage ahead.
I whispered to myself, focusing:
"I hope my grandfather's crazy training is useful now..."
Then I started counting:
3... 2... 1... and I launched forward at full speed.
The stone floor was initially straight and quiet, but after a few steps, a sharp, deep whistle echoed from below, followed by a slight tremor in the ground.
Suddenly, the floor in front of me turned into a live trap field.
From the right wall, four successive arrows shot toward my chest.
I sharply deflected to the left, just as my grandfather taught me: "Speed is not in running, but in dodging."
The arrows passed by me, one of them quickly passing near my earlobe.
I hadn't caught my breath yet when I felt the tile under my foot cracking.
This was one of the spots I had marked earlier with the stone I threw.
Without thinking, I pushed my body forward and jumped, exactly as if I were avoiding an electrical threshold.
The moment my feet were in the air, the ground collapsed behind me, revealing a deep, dark pit.
I landed on the next edge skillfully, but there was no time to rest.
From the left wall, I heard a metallic opening sound, followed by a light mist carrying a foul odor—poison gas.
I threw my body forward in a quick somersault, avoiding the toxic cloud that filled the area.
I had barely regained my balance when I faced a triple nightmare: arrows shooting from the ceiling, a swinging sword emerging from the wall in front of me, and the ground beneath my feet beginning to crack again.
There was no choice but to jump.
I raised Melis's blade above my head as a shield and jumped with all my strength.
The sword passed mere millimeters beneath my feet, and two arrows struck the blade with a sharp metallic clang that made my arm shake from the force.
I finally landed on solid ground. No whistles. No sounds. Just a heavy silence filling the place.
I took the flashlight out of my mouth and fell to the ground, panting heavily.
Sweat poured off me profusely, and I breathed deeply of the cold, sulfur-laced air.
"Grandpa's crazy training... thank you," I muttered exhaustedly.
But it was only a second until I felt a terrible pain in my shoulder.
When I looked at it, I found it wounded by the poisoned arrows.
The wound looked infected with green and black colors, and within a few more seconds, twisted black lines appeared on my shoulder.
It was extremely fast, and the pain was terrible, but within seconds the pain level subsided to something bearable.
I wondered internally with surprise why the pain lessened, then I remembered my mother's insanely strong immunity to poisons.
Haaah, I guess genes transfer in the end.
I summoned the bag and quickly pulled out the bandages, tying them tightly around the injury as if I were preventing it from spreading.
Well, I just hope it reduces its spread.
Then I wondered: How was our immunity even stronger than this world's poisons?
I ignored the matter for a moment, then looked at my other hand. It contained an arrow I had taken from that gauntlet of traps.
I held it in my hand, hoping it would be useful.
When I regained my breath, I stood up, pointing the light forward and advancing.
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