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staysuki · 2 years ago

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thank uuu ‼️‼️🤲❤️❤️❤️

the next chapter will def induce a lot more screaming (hopefully). can't wait to post it but it's probs gonna take 1-2 weeks lolz

20. FREEZE [BATTLEGROUNDS PART I]

—living your entire life as a regular mortal, a hard adjustment comes into your life as you’re suddenly thrown into a world of fantasy and magical beings. in a school built specifically to train magic, chaos ensues as you try to navigate through a new supernatural life.

warnings: arachnophobia, claustrophobia, violence, all that jazz. (still a tamer chapter in comparison to the second part).

word count: 7k

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there’s a certain smell that greets one’s senses whenever they enter a library—the dusty musk of worn-down pages paired with the fresh smell of parchment of the new ones. whether a person is a bookworm or not, it’s always a comforting smell, especially when matched with the comforting silence of the room alongside the sounds of pages turning.

but at some point, when all you’ve done is hang out at the library for prolonged periods of time, you’ll either learn how to tune out the familiar senses or get sick of it.

for you, you’re almost leaning into the latter, but for kim seungmin, you wonder why he hasn’t ripped off his hair yet.

“you’re staring,” kim seungmin grumbles, barely bothering to tear his eyes away from whatever book he’s reading.

“i was just wondering how you’re still not sick of this place, i think i’m getting claustrophobia,” you comment, going back to your own readings.

“i like it here, simple as that.”

you drop the conversation, always knowing that small talk isn’t productive in seungmin’s world.

it’s the end of the first semester, you’ve already spent months in this place, and the majority of the final half of it, you’ve spent with seungmin—or reading, to be more specific. it’s hard to notice his presence especially when he chooses not to do so with you.

although you’ve had a rocky start, it’s safe to say that you’re getting the hang of being in school—but you’re yet to see the whole world, and you don’t even know if you’re ready for that.

learning with seungmin has also been sort of an awkward adjustment, at first, you didn’t know why you had to go eons into the past just to manifest your power, but when he saw your secret journal, he actually became quite helpful. he was a man of research, and he was eager to help anyone who shares the same enthusiasm in doing so.

you’ve learned plenty about the laws, the hidden rules, and people’s abilities. one time, when you instinctively started ranting about yang jeongin (as you always do), seungmin pointed out the flaws in his abilities.

first: even if his powers take usage of his arcana pool, the non-stop running also takes a toll on his actual physical capabilities.

second: even though he’s fast, environmental factors affect his speed.

even if seungmin didn’t go into full details about his remarks, it was easy enough to understand. first, in order to outrun jeongin, you must take him on wild goose chase until he gets tired—or, bash his legs. honestly, either or.

second, going through rough terrain would be difficult for him. although he’s probably trained hard enough to be able to do parkour, he can’t exactly make use of his abilities if he’s falling off a cliff unless he somehow learned how to bend the rules of physics. still, you take into account the possibility of him being able to run through a 90-degree incline.

you tried asking seungmin more about different flaws in a person’s power but he just snubbed you, saying that he’d much rather see you observe it by yourself—so he wasn’t the spoiling type, he only gives you a few treats here and there whenever you’d do well on your studies. it felt very… paternal.

whenever he’d keep answers from you, you roll your eyes at him. it’s not like you couldn’t do it, you were just too lazy to do so. besides, if you had the smartest guy at your disposal who you could ask for answers, why bother learning for yourself?

but out of all the things that seungmin has taught you, one thing has always been stuck in your mind: forbidden magic users.

when you tried asking for more context, he outright ignored you. probably something so taboo that even his thirst for knowledge couldn’t get past. so, you just set out on your own to find information about it.

when you combed through the entire library of the good campus, you’ve found nothing but the glitterized version of the school’s history and different world events. there was barely even any information about your own dimension.

so when you thought that you’d get better luck finding information in the evil campus’ library—a.k.a. seungmin’s de facto residence—you didn’t expect that you’d still be so wrong.

“you’ve walked around 5 times in the span of 10 minutes, what are you looking for?” seungmin asks, removing his reading glasses to place it on a nearby lightstand. he’s sitting on a plush velvet chair, legs crossed and his back straight as he holds his thick book—really nailing down on the father-like image, you almost laughed at his face.

you debated telling him or not but you know nothing ever gets past kim seungmin so you just decide to be honest, “stuff about forbidden magic and whatnot,” you say with a shrug, making him sigh disappointedly at you.

“i told you, that topic’s off-limits,” he reiterates and you just roll your eyes at him.

when you go back to looking through the shelves, he just calls out to you, “you’re not gonna find anything in any of the libraries. that kind of information is hidden in the archives.”

you suddenly perk up and look back at him, “and where is that?”

“here at fairewood? only headmasters have access to it, not even the student council can. around the cities? it’s as strict as government agencies and only specific people in high positions can go in.”

you grunt. a dead end either way, but it’s information that you kept in the back of your mind—remembering that minnie is “royalty” of sorts, you wondered if you could do something about that. Especially since the girl seems to be knowledgeable about specific types of lore, like prophecies and the forbidden magic stuff.

“i told you to just focus on what will help you right now, the battlegrounds tournament is this friday,” seungmin scolds.

“that soon?!” you exclaim, not realizing that weeks had already gone by and you feel like you haven’t done anything productive in the slightest.

sensing your unease, he sighs, “you’re gonna be fine, first timer anxiety is normal.”

you just nod at him, not really feeling like you want to explain the whole reason why you’re freaking out—jeongin’s challenge. you groan internally, not wanting to admit that he’s actually causing a bit of disarray in your nerves.

you want to tell him that it's not just first-timer's anxiety. it's the i-don't-have-powers-and-i-might-die anxiety.

any other day, you’d take jeongin on, but in an unfiltered environment where he can go all-out without much repercussions? it’s intimidating.

he could literally run around in circles around you, trap you in the middle of his self-made tornado and suffocate you. or he could crush your entire physical body just by running into you at full-speed, like getting hit by a train. of course it doesn’t help that yuqi keeps ranting on about different ways jeongin could murder you—her personal favorite was the thought of jeongin tying a rope around you and dragging you across the ground until you’re nothing but bones.

alternatively, you shift the topic to seungmin, “aren’t we first years? isn’t this technically your first time too?”

seungmin shrugs, “not really, i had it in high school as well, but on a smaller scale.”

“oh wow, so everyone has experienced it before?”

“not necessarily, some schools don’t have a budget for a simulated arena, y’know.”

you nod in understanding, you didn’t even realize that financial factors still count here and people aren’t just casting magic for everything.

you give up on trying to find whatever clue of forbidden magic knowledge you can find and just slump down on the chair, your arm accidentally knocking over seungmin’s glass of water and spilling all over his books, “oops,” you say trivially, as if not really caring.

he clicks his tongue at you before placing his hand on top of the books, a small purple light emits from his palm and instantly, the books turn dry.

ok, flex. you mutter to yourself but seungmin doesn’t comment on it, but instead, he checks his watch and points a stern look at you, “good night, y/n.”

you roll your eyes at him and with a laugh, you give him a slight wave, “alright fine, i’m leaving, see ya.”

going back-and-forth between the two campuses has always been such a hassle, thankfully, ode told you about a special hallway for authorized personnel that works as a much more convenient shortcut to transfer between the buildings.

you were grateful that he even went through all the trouble to get you a special pass for it—though recently, since you’ve been spending so much time at the evil’s library, the gnome guards are already dozed off on their stations, no longer having the need for you to take out the pass.

the part you don’t like about it, however, is that it’s located in a semi-annex that’s still under “renovation”—hyunjin ranted explained to you that the campus doesn’t really bother with trying to remodel it’s building nor refurbish it unlike good’s.

so, the lights were barely working, some parts of the hallway being extra dim, and the small creaking of the doors brought upon by small whistles of the wind was enough to creep you out.

“would be nice to have some lamp powers right now,” you mutter under your breath as you squint your eyes through the darkness, the pitch black area barely fought away by your cellphone’s flashlight.

suddenly, you hear hushed voices whispering about something in the distance, and on instinct, you turn off your flashlight and start walking in crouched silence. great, y/n, not suspicious at all. it’s not like you’re committing a crime, you had the right to be walking through here.

you hear an unfamiliar voice lecturing an unseen companion, but when you hear the other person speak, you suddenly stand upright, an unknown tension released from your shoulders.

“felix?” you called out, 100% certain that it’s him because there was no one else with his voice in this school.

the conversation runs to an abrupt pause when they hear you call out, nothing but silence echoing through the walls, which gives you goosebumps.

and in a flash, you see felix’s bubbly face peek out from the corner, the large smile illuminated on his face from his own flashlight that he just turned on, “y/n? what a coincidence!” he greets you normally.

he joins you in your hallway, linking your arms together, although it was weird, you let it be. “let’s walk back to campus together!” he invites cheerfully.

“who were you talking to?” you ask, trying to look back at where he came from but it was pitch black.

“hm? just the evil veep,” he says nonchalantly, not looking back with you.

“why?” you ask further, curious once more about the mystery man that you’ve been hearing about.

“i’m in the wrong campus in the middle of the night, what else do you think?” he says jokingly.

“how are you even in here? i thought students weren’t allowed to cross over unless you have a special pass,” you inquired.

“oh, but i do have a special pass,” he winks at you with a jolly smile but doesn’t elaborate further.

you opted not to ask any further, especially since, weirdly enough, despite his amicable aura, there’s a part of felix that prevents you from prying into his life any further. so, you decided on asking about someone else instead.

“hey, what does the evil VP look like?” you ask, and beside you, felix strokes on his chin as he looked up, thinking about it.

and in your mind, you kept chanting that he’d remember it.

“pale? yeah, kinda looks a bit like jeongin sometimes!” he describes, and your mind just reeled in a bunch of questions.

felix remembers his face, and presumably, their conversation. does that mean the VP’s powers aren’t working anymore? eunha did say that the powers that affected others were just residual magic from the trials, so maybe ode, changbin, and seungmin were all in the bleachers when it happened.

or is it because they were just talking up until a few minutes ago? or perhaps it’s because felix is close to the VP? so many questions, but you know only the actual person itself would be able to answer it.

with nothing else to talk about, you both just continue the walk back in silence. with you slowly separating your arm from felix, forgetting that he had you two linked, because you felt awkward.

at the intersection between the male and female dormitories, felix bids you adieu as he goes to his room, and you to yours.

however, another surprise comes your way as the door to your dorms were open. intrigued, you quickened your pace and went inside, only to be greeted by the sight of luscious red hair and pale body with glittering scales—but no tail.

the woman stood at around 5’11, making you crane up your neck to see her face. a vicious frown etched on her mouth as her eyes were as clear as the deep blue sea yet glows with a sea green emerald hue.

suddenly, you were rooted in place.

“but mom—”

“no buts, minnie nicha, you’re not participating and that’s final!” she exclaimed with a stern yet melodic voice that sent static all over your body.

with your body frozen, all you could do was scan your eyes on the surroundings. yuqi was on the couch, munching on some popcorn while watching the two women interact with much amusement. disappointing but not surprising.

meanwhile, minnie was covered up in a thick blanket as she stood, her face looking ashy and dull with snot threatening to fall out of her nose. you wanted to ask what was wrong but your voice felt trapped in your own throat, your nerves being called forth by minnie’s mother who’s barely even taking notice of you.

after getting the brunt of minnie's powers on multiple occasion, you can immediately ascertain that your current paralysis is caused by the siren's magic, yet possibly due to minnie's mother's higher power level, she doesn't even need to burst into song.

minnie and her mother get into a glaring competition, but her mother’s words were final, giving no space for her to rebut so her mother simply walks away, landing a small gaze on your direction before turning away to leave through the door. all of a sudden, your knees buckled in relief, feeling seasick.

“dude what’s up with you,” yuqi asked but you just waved her off as you tried to collect yourself.

“what was that about?” you asked minnie who slumps her body on the couch.

“my stupid mom and her stupid maternal instincts,” she grumbles with her face pressed on a pillow.

“she got a fever due to food poisoning and then her mom pulled her out of battlegrounds,” yuqi summarized.

you sat on the couch with them, patting minnie’s head, “there, there.”

“i’m already fine!” she squirmed, but when she sat upright in a flash, she had to stop herself from gagging. “i think i just ate too much shrimp.”

“that’s what you get for eating too many sea cockroaches,” yuqi deadpans, making minnie hit her with a pillow.

“you guys eat sea creatures too?” you ask dumbfoundedly so minnie just rolls her eyes.

“we’re sirens, y/n, c’mon, get with the program.” she says but proceeds back to whining about missing battlegrounds, “and i was so excited for friday too! ugh!!”

a part of you wishes that it could’ve been you who got food poisoning, it could’ve been you who had a strict helicopter mom that stormed the school the first second she heard of her daughter’s condition.

even when parents weren’t allowed to visit their child within the campus (except for certain occasions), minnie’s mother almost raised the ocean against the campus just to riot for her daughter’s health.

you wake up at 3 AM on a friday, going outside of your room to see yuqi already prepared for the battlegrounds, “stay sharp, champ, we need to be at the arena by 4:30.”

you groan outwardly, at the same time that minnie does but for completely different reasons, “and i still can’t participate, ugh! i thought they would’ve changed their mind.”

“as if the school would go against one of their big sponsors,” yuqi points out with a laugh, making minnie grumble even more.

“i hope i can at least watch.”

the three of you walk together to the end of the campus, where a large clearing holds only a portion of the student populace, “splitting it into different batches as well?”

“yup, probably so it'll go faster,” yuqi pops the P in emphasis as she looks around at her viewed opponents, meanwhile, minnie hasn’t stopped grumbling since you left your dorm room.

all around the grassy field stands about hundreds of students, more than you can count. both varying in campuses, but with the mandatory battlegrounds outfit, it’s hard to tell which student comes from which side.

except for minnie, who’s wearing her pajamas because she isn’t allowed to sneak in. “i’m gonna be with the volunteers in the viewing room, good luck y’all.”

you and yuqi wave goodbye to the increasingly sad minnie who gives you both motivating hug, but the impending doom that’s soon to come was attacking your nerves.

“so, how do we go in?” you ask, hoping for any sort of distraction through conversation.

“they split us further into groups based on our grades and classification, then the top rankers go in first.” she explains.

“but why though? doesn’t that mean they’d have to be inside longer?” you ask but she just grins evilly.

“because y/n, that’ll give them enough time to either find a hiding place, or set a trap for poor souls that’re just about to go in,” yuqi explains, giving you goosebumps.

you sigh, remembering that it’s not just jeongin’s group you’re going against because everyone wants to survive or prove their worth. that means, if you want to live until the end of battlegrounds, you’d have to step up your drive.

papers start to materialize in the sky, slowly fleeting down as each note softly flies toward it’s designated owner. when a paper glides in front of you, you take with hesitant hands, seeing that it’s your assigned starting groups—and when yuqi realizes yours, she looks at you with wide surprised eyes.

“how are you in the first group??” she asks bewildered, looking at the card that flew to your hands.

you just shrugged, “maybe they think i’d die if i go in last or something.”

yuqi shows you her card, “i’m in the second group so you’d have to wait 10 minutes before i can meet up with you. we should probably strategize,” yuqi turns into serious mode, directing you of possibilities that might happen once you’re inside.

“so, the most generic simulated arena is the woodlands terrain. basically just a hugeass forest, it’s not super hard to find a hiding place,” she starts.

you nod along as she continues, “once you’re in, just go find a nearby tree and mark it with your dagger, make sure to follow the tree’s lines so it’s not too obvious you tampered with it. maybe make a distinct S line—S for Save me, Song yuqi.” she jokes but you just roll your eyes, not able to bring yourself to laugh with all the nerves in your system going haywire.

“i know you and jeongin have those rules you agreed to. i think he’s in the second group as well so i’ll tell him that we’ll take the western area—is that good?” she asks, finishing off her initial plan.

“yeah, whatever. i don’t even know what do,” you answer so yuqi just gives you a thumbs up. your group gets called at the head of the line, so, with one final goodluck, you two split off.

in front of you is a large dome arena built with black tinted glass all over. still, it doesn’t look as large as it was advertised to be.

“it’s a pocket dimension,” you hear minho say beside you, suddenly just appearing from somewhere amongst the crowd.

“a what?” you ask.

“it’s bigger on the inside,” is all he says before he walks away again.

weird fella.

you look around, trying to see whether you’d spot a familiar face with you—preferably not one that’s out to kill you.

unfortunately, you only recognize chan and jisung. one who’s on the enemy’s side and one who wants nothing to do with your competition with jeongin. you note how jisung isn’t wearing his headphones but he still carries himself with the same modest confidence that he always does.

well, you were aware that nobody’s allowed to bring anything but the given battlegrounds starter kit, so you wonder how he’ll utilize his power without the use of technology.

you try your best not to psych yourself out, chanting yuqi’s plan over and over in your head to calm yourself. soon, you hear the loud gongs indicating the start of the event. some students cheer to hype themselves up, while some (including you) try to tune out the noise, trying not to get too into your heads.

the volunteers hand everyone a small pouch filled with the starter items—one healing potion, a small dagger, and an emergency button. not much and definitely not anything that’ll save your ass from imminent death, but all you need to do is wait until yuqi gets to your spot. it’s not that hard, right?

everyone crosses the barrier between the school and the arena—you hesitate for a bit but ultimately took the courageous step through the shimmering light of the doors. if it were up to you, you would’ve turned heel and ran away but the volunteers watching over the line would’ve probably just pushed you anyway, and maybe so does the students in line behind you.

as you step into the arena, darkness fills your vision, suddenly feeling woozy as you close your eyes, awaiting your imminent doom. the transition into the new dimension wasn’t a pleasant sensation, feeling the loss of your senses as everything is just filled with a sense of nothingness before you soon feel a different world materializing around you.

when light fills the place, you slowly open to adjust to your surroundings, yet ultimately shell shocked as you see nothing but decrepit concrete walls, and bountiful vines crawling upon its structure, making it look like ruined architecture. you look up, as far as the eyes could see, and you see the sky—not the arena's roof—, yet an unknown measure of where the tall walls end. minho was right. it IS bigger on the inside. like a whole world of it's own. you suddenly wonder how such a simulation works but it dawns into you:

this is definitely not a forest.

you’re so fucked. looking in front of you, you stand at the entrance with your mouth agape as you see nothing but one entrance into more walls, the size being too humongous to even figure out what sort of structure it is.

behind you, you see the portal’s shimmering lights slowly close as your only entrance disappears. you try to run for it, reaching out for safety, but your hands only meet the cold stonewall as the gate closes for good, leaving you in a deadend.

you look around, scared shitless. where are the other students? was everyone spawned in different locations?

you start walking around, nothing else to do but to find safety instead of standing like a moron in an open area. the emergency button feels tempting to use, but your pride gets the better of you, wanting to see things through, even if you’d barely last an hour.

further investigating the simulated arena, the walls just keep on going, making you feel claustrophobic at how such a large structure looms over you. crouching, you make sure to peek at every corner before making a turn, feeling like you’ll be going through a lot of twists and turns in this arena.

wait.

are you… in a maze?

it’s a possibility, but you can’t really say for certain, though the more you walk around, the more you realize that your guess may be correct.

you have no semblance of time, not knowing how long you’ve been walking around for, but the fact that your feet aren’t aching yet should be a sign that it hasn’t been that long. left alone with your thoughts, many possibilities run through your mind.

if this is indeed a maze, that means there must be an endgoal exit, right? or perhaps, it’s a closed off space meant to just pit the students against each other with no way to run or hide.

either way, you realize that jeongin has the upperhand. with his powers, he can just keep running around the maze, memorize the terrain, and obliterate anyone that gets in his way. it’ll be way too easy for him.

now, it’s just a waiting game to see how long it’ll take jeongin to find you. knowing him, it’ll probably be in the first ten minutes of your three-hour headstart agreement. although you hope that perhaps there’s another student that can face off with jeongin, you knew that he was considered one of the best students when it came to being a magic-user—and the others that can face off against him are on his side.

shit, you mutter at yourself, already feeling dejected. nevermind yuqi’s plan, you wouldn’t even be able to find each other unless you get graced with a stroke of luck. in comparison to jeongin who will surely have no problem finding his comrades.

walking in an endless maze with similar looking areas is a mentally draining task because you have no sense of direction or accomplishment. however, you soon find yourself in a clearing, one that leads to multiple paths—a crossroads, if you will. due to the size of the walls, even the clearing is humongous, almost twice the size of a basketball court.

it felt so… unnerving. the claustrophobia suddenly shifting into a feeling of being exposed. if you weren’t so desperate to find a way out, you probably would’ve turned around and basked in the faux safety of the tight walls.

but before you could even decide which direction to go, you hear rustling from the tall walls, followed by goosebumps on your skin, the hair on your arms suddenly standing as your fear instinct goes into overdrive

what is that noise?

as the noise draws nearer, you feel the walls around you slightly shake as the rustling turns into alarming thuds. the sky above your starts to dim—no—something covering the light…

looking up, you see not one, not two, but eight giant beady eyes of pure blackness staring at you. a humongous, hairy eight-legged creature crawls along the walls, keeping its eyes on its prey: you.

you froze in fear, not knowing what to do as you face a kaiju spider. your brain keeps telling you to take out the emergency button, knowing that you’re a few seconds away from (possible) death.

but for some reason, your body can’t move, as if the fear numbed all the senses in your brains, unable to make them respond to each other. just then, another student runs in from a different path, arriving at the same intersection as you.

the student notices you first, about to lift their hands to fire a presumably magical attack, but it wasn’t until you pointed up, yelling, “SPIDER!!!” at the top of your lungs did they realize that there’re more alarming things at bay other than your presence.

with your warning, the student looks up, momentarily frozen in shock, possibly in the same way you looked like earlier, before snapping out of it. they raise their hands once more, streaks of green liquid spurts from their hands—though their hands were raised up to the spider, the students’ liquid projectile could only go up so high, thus landing a few feet near you.

forgetting your predicament, you continue watching them aim, seeing the spider inch closer down the floor. only when you felt liquid on your shoes did you snap out of your stupor, realizing that the student has been aiming for you all along.

when you try to lift your foot, you find yourself stuck to the ground, the green liquid serving as some sort of glue. realizing that the student was throwing you under the bus so they can run away, you desperately try to wiggle away as the giant spider inches closer to you, utterly attracted to a stationary and helpless prey. "fucking bitch!"

you curse yourself for letting your guard down and looking like a fool, thus, you crouch down to the ground, the sky above being replaced by the spider’s body as it dawns nearer, all you could do is fumble in your cloak for the button.

you can hear the spider’s soft hiss, ready to pounce, you snap your eyes shut, ready to accept defeat until you feel a gentle hand hold you by the shoulder, a deafening boom sounding in front of you, making your ears ring.

you watch the spider writhe on the ground, struggling to get up as a strong invisible force holds it down. in a flash, the spider rises to the air before getting slammed back down, crackling lights of black flashes spread throughout the spider’s body as the physical manifestation of the bearer’s power.

seeing the spider still alive, it gets raised again, the black flashes slithering to form a bigger black orb on top of it before it gets slammed on the wall, crushing it entirely. due to the force of the attack, the student from earlier gets caught in the crossfire, smacked down on the ground as the force becomes too much to bear.

though you can feel the slight trembling of the ground, you're thankful that you're far away enough not to be in the same boat.

with shaky pupils, you turn to the gentle hand holding your shoulder, before you turn to see who it belongs to, “m-minho?”

he looks back at you, holding your face in his hands as he surveys you for injuries, “you’re okay,” he assures.

“w-what—”

before you could ask another question, he’s already running towards the other student, so you follow suit. though the student seems badly beaten, you notice that they stuck themselves to the ground using their own glue-projectile to fight against the onslaught of minho’s attacks. you see minho visibly sigh in relief.

“are they gonna be alright…?” you ask, reminding minho that you’re still there.

“oh uh yeah, the grounds are monitored, the volunteers will probably pick them up. heartbeat seems normal.”

he starts to walk away, so you follow him, making him stop in his tracks, “why are you following me?” he asks, so you shrug.

“i almost died and you prevented that, i’d like to take my chances at survival by sticking with the strongest,” you say, but minho’s shoulders droop before he walks back to you.

“you can’t, it’ll be safer for both of us if we don’t stick together,” minho says.

“but why?” you ask back, suddenly, his eyes flash with an angry glint.

“because i almost killed that other student because of you,” he says before walking away, not even bothering to wait whether you’d reply. his statement surprises you, so you don’t even bother following him.

dejected, you bottle those words in the back of your head as you continue your trek to nowhere, picking a different route than minho’s. as you keep walking, you notice the terrain slowly changing as you do further into a route.

instead of a concrete paradise, the ground below starts to become soft dirt, while the tall walls start to look like mountain sides. the same maze, yet a different look. you look back, walking a little bit to see where the two different terrains meet, and you’re lowkey amazed at the seamless transition of the environment.

you wonder whether different routes showcase different types of environments, but you didn’t feel like walking back to the intersection to check, scared that the spider respawned or something. you’ll take your chances at the mountainous terrain even if the passageways look more confusing.

at the corner of your eye, you see a faint glowing line leading somewhere, looking at it closely, you notice that it’s one of ode’s strategically placed threads.

arachne’s thread. that son of a bitch.

it isn’t that hard of a connection to make that the giant spider must’ve been ode’s idea. looking back on it, it screamed ode. you try to wave your hands on the thread, checking to see if it would disappear or if you’d feel some sort of connection to it, but it simply stays floating in the air.

with nowhere else to go, you decide to follow the thread, wondering where it leads and why ode set it up. after sticking close to the walls and the thread, you end up coming across a small cavern opening, discreetly hidden between rocks.

a surge of relief washes over you, realizing that you might’ve come across a safe space. you crouch through the opening and see that it’s much more spacious on the inside, still, it’s a mere tiny cave with just enough space to rest. though you don't know why ode specifically led his threads here, it's worth a shot to trust it, right?

you slump into the corner, a long, frustrated sigh falls from your lips, your tears threatening to fall but you swallow the lump in your throat, rubbing your eyes to suppress the anxiety.

though the small cave gives you momentary comfort, including the shimmering hue of ode’s thread flittering around, you know you can’t stay here forever, not when the probability of someone else finding this spot is high.

besides, you never know, a giant snake might peek its head through the opening. though you wish you could fight back or give up, neither options seem viable to you. you curse out loud, angry at everything.

angry at the school, your life, yourself, angry at minho for leaving you behind.

speaking of minho, you still wonder what he meant by his phrase. why would you be the cause of his actions? does it have something to do with the way your powers work regarding 2seungmin’s explanation? possibly, but you still don’t understand.

but given your experience so far, it seems like you really need to stick with the powerful magic users if you want to fully understand your own abilities. but chan and minho, the people who came from the same world, want nothing to do with you.

and here you thought they’d be your closest friends, considering you should be the ones who relate to each other the most. perhaps they’re just entirely different people altogether, different from you.

because you definitely don’t want to stay here.

coming down from the high of earlier’s encounter, your ragged breathing turns slow as your eyes start to droop. it was understandable, you barely exercised back home and now you probably just walked more than 30 miles (you couldn’t tell) and encountered a giant spider that could’ve eaten you in one go.

you breathe in the air, thankful that it doesn’t smell of musk, like the concrete jungle from earlier. instead, the earthy ground radiates a sense of calm, the scent of lavender filling the cave.

you tried to make yourself smaller on the corner, clutching your dagger for dear life even though it’ll probably be of no help, given the adept magic users all over. you couldn’t even fight against glue!

still, the cold handle brings some sort of comfort to you, a sense of protection. the illusion of safety.

you let sleep overtake you, forcing yourself not to fall in too deep in case danger comes knocking. still, you couldn’t fight against your own body as your head falls to your knees, unable to stop the drowsiness from taking over.

slowly falling asleep, you feel yourself slump on the ground, feeling the soft cushiony dirt cradling you to sleep. though despite this, you were still aware of your surroundings.

just then, you hear footsteps outside the cave, drawing closer and closer to the concealed entrance. you immediately try to make yourself alert.

except you can’t.

your eyes are screwed shut with the feeling of sleepiness, your body unable to move as you feel sluggishly paralyzed. all you can do is stay rooted on the ground, seemingly unconscious yet aware.

that’s when you realize.

you weren’t tired or sleepy.

something, or someone, put you to sleep.

taglist: @caratinylyfe @pikapikapikaachuu @beaann @hyunjun-jpeg @blaaiissee @yubinism @aerastus @woozarts @fraeppuccino @lananhdn @insanejaneposts

mastertag: @leagreenly @90s-belladonna @fuzzylard @loveliebri @chimmybaek7 @todorokiskitten @lilacdreams-00 @ethereallino @ninjaleeknow @trials--error @hey-i-really-miss-you @multifandomizer @aerastus @caratinylyfe @kdhvier @hibuki-chan @blaaiissee @skzoddinaries @suhnnyskiess

thoughts and feedback pls 🤲

#honeycutie #oatge talks

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staysuki · 3 years ago

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hello!! i was wondering if i could be added to the taglist of “happy death day” and “of all things good and evil”. i love them and can’t wait for the next chapters!

ofc! thank u 🤍

#ashtag #ash tag #oatge series #hdd talks

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staysuki · 2 years ago

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ONGGGGIHIEEE. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! ‼️‼️‼️‼️🙌🙌🙌 mbtc and have a nice day!! ❤️❤️❤️

🫳

🎁

🫴

for u