The Scream of A Thousand Libraries Chapter 7: Chapter 9: Of A Thousand...

Read chapter 7 of The Scream of A Thousand Libraries by Susangja on NovelPedia.

POV: HELENA IVYRA. The man's body slammed against the opposite wall, toppling bookshelves and scattering fragments of wood and dust through the air. I realized then that I had been completely detached from my surroundings. Those flashes, those strange memories… they seemed to have stolen my attention for a moment. ‘What's happening between them? Some kind of disagreement?’ I tried to focus, to understand the situation, but before I could organize my thoughts, the papyrus in my hand vibrated, spilling another wave of information into my mind. It was as if it was reacting to my emotions at that very moment. Flashes. Fragments. Shards of knowledge ricocheted in my mind like stones skipped across a lake. Waves spread through my consciousness. The papyrus's writer… managed to leave traces of their own memory inside this? I wondered if that was even possible, considering what I knew. The words came in disjointed sequences, like a crackling narration, full of interference. "In the lost lands of Hella, the first to question divinity emerged…" "From the Ideas, those who preceded the midwife herself." "The Arché… the first cell of rationality…" "The world's first concept, a foreign knowledge…". "Around this world, there are temples or tombs… depending…" "In them there is the…". My brain seemed to seize for a moment. My eyes widened, and everything around me seemed to be suspended for a brief instant. The bookshelf in front of me began to fall towards me, but its speed was infinitesimal. In fact, the world itself seemed infinitesimal. I noticed my wrist glowing with a… purple hue? No, perhaps a deep blue. Regardless of the color, I saw it shine intensely and felt my eyes change, as if they had gained an enhanced ability, though this feeling was brief. Because a new flash completed what I had heard before. "(…) Cognos." "A thousand… scattered around the world." "When the blizzard arrives." "Only the Scream, to, will cease.". As I heard these words, I felt strangely calm, as if they were comforting… almost solemn words. For some reason, I felt like I had discovered the answer to something… but I still wasn't sure what the question itself was. At that moment, I realized the slowed vision was interrupted by a crash. The bookshelf beside me began to split, and its fall, until then slow, accelerated towards me. Without thinking, I leaped aside, papyrus in hand. I dropped it for an instant and activated my enchantment. "Axiomatic Tessellation!" I proclaimed. A hexagonal shield appeared between me and the bookshelf. Even though I reinforced it with energy, it couldn't hold for long. It crashed into the shelf, and both dissolved into pieces. This bought me enough time to escape. The shield fragments completely disintegrated. I looked around… and froze. I sensed two terrifying magical presences. To my left, I felt the aura of that strange man from before. But now it was somehow different; it seemed free… as if it had been suppressed before. Too much so… His aura seemed to emanate traces that could reach over 1400 QP. How did I not feel this strength before…? "I need to get out of here," I whispered, horrified. However, between me and the exit was the other man, with a slightly lesser, but still terrifying, aura. "1000? No… maybe something between 1200 and 1300," I pondered, trying to formulate a strategy to escape unnoticed. These were absurd powers. Even if I could face one, the other would attack me from behind. They're monsters…. Unsure who was an ally or enemy, I considered the worst-case scenario. I crouched low, trying to suppress my own energy. I picked up the papyrus again and tried to crawl towards the stairs…. But before I could advance even half a meter, the man who had fallen to the left stood up and emitted a strong sonic wave that stunned me. The next second, he turned towards me. I saw his face more clearly: a man around 40, tall, with long, straight black hair, his face marked by years of neglect and fatigue. His physical strength,