POV - Celestia

I continued to stare at the ebony door. I started to wonder where the light is coming from that is allowing me to see the door. Not only that, but I take a quick look around the surroundings and spot a glowing sign that says, “Welcome to the Library.”

“Huh, a Library underground” I hear a smooth voice say behind me and I look to see Noel.

“Where is everyone else,” I say with a scornful voice because I hate the woman right in front of me.

“We’re right here.” I hear Arthur say from behind Noel.

“So, are we going to go in and check it out,” Simmons joins into the conversation.

“Yes, we have to investigate a new area found in the field of Endless War,” I replied, not wanting to be excluded from the conversation.

“I also agree with the Priestess, we should go in and investigate,” Arthur says seriously. “Does any of us have Mana Vision, to make sure the door is not trapped?” Arthur continues. I and Simmons both raise our hands to signify that we have Mana Vision. “Alright, good, check the door.” He asks in an authoritative tone.

I activate Mana vision, which I almost instantly regret. The door is exuding so much Mana that it is causing my eyes to bleed. When my eyes start bleeding, I deactivate the skill with haste, unlike anything else I have done. I turn my blurry eyes to Arthur, he currently has a grimace on his face. I bring up my priestess robes to wipe the blood from my eyes. After a while longer of just wiping my eyes, I stand back up, even though I never sat down. I also see Simmons getting up with me, but the difference is he never bled from his eyes, he just threw up.

I then started to describe what I saw, “It was like we're at the bottom of a waterfall, with how much mana is wafting off the door. Furthermore, I believe that the energy comes from inside the door, not the door itself. ”

“I would also agree with the Priestess if I also had level 1 Mana vision, but I have level 2, and what I saw shocked me. The door is containing the energy and not letting it reak havoc on the surroundings.” Simmons agrees with me.

I see that Noel also has a serious face like Arthur’s. I can tell from my brief look that Arthur is having a battle within himself between should we see, and there could be a huge amount of danger. So I pipe in, “If this is the Library of the empire, we should investigate it to see what knowledge we can learn.” After I say that, I can see Arthur’s face come to an impasse, but luckily another person pipes in.

“I believe we should also check out the Library because the knowledge that we can learn will be able to help out us and the world.” Simmons comes in with the save. With these words from Simmons, I can see what path we are going to take.

“Alright, we are going to go into the Library. Noel, do you have any objections that you wish to speak about?” Arthur asks the final person, hoping to not take me into a dangerous location.

“Huh, why should I care, it’s not like we’re going to be sucked into another plane of existence by just opening a door,” Noel yells out, picking her nose without a care in the world.

“Ok, we’ll go in with me in the front, Noel behind me and Celestia behind her, and Simmons you go last. We don’t have a Scout or Rogue, so we are just going to have to go into it blind.” Arthur says in a commanding tone to get us into line.

After a few seconds, we all get into formation. Arthur in the front nod, signifying that he is going to open the door and charge in, we are meant to follow him. Arthur raises 3 fingers then lower them down to two, then finally after one. Arthur slams open the door and charges though with Noel and me follow not that far from behind him. Soon after entering, though, Arthur almost immediately stopped after entering about 5-meter in. Simmons didn’t seem to notice me stopping and ended up barreling into me, knocking me into Noel, who stumbles.

After gaining a good foothold again, I start to investigate what is around us and what made Arthur stop. All I can say is it was magical. We were standing on the ground of a giant Library. There were so many books flying around and trading spots with each other. All the wood we were standing on was reddish-brown and all fit perfectly together. In the distance, I can see some empty bookshelves and tables.

Arthur gets out of his stupor before anyone else and catches all our attention with two big coughs into his hand. “I believe our best bet is to check out the empty bookshelves over there, does anyone disagree.” None of us respond, showing that we also want to investigate this place some more. “Alright, stay information until I say otherwise.”

All of us stayed focused except Simmons, who is looking around as if he is in heaven. Simmons suddenly lets out a gasp, causing all of our attention to shoot toward him. Simmons looks embarrassed and states, “I believe the door we entered was a portal.”

Arthur then follows Simmons’s gaze to behind the door. Also following the gaze, I see that behind us is also part of the infinite Library.

I also hear behind me, “Well shit, guess we did enter another plane or something.” Noel says in a stupor

“Everyone's eyes back to focus, we are exploring an unknown territory,” Arthur says in a tone that grabs all of our attention back to the task a hand.

We walk forward toward the shelves with no living person in sight. After about a 50 or so meter walk, we make it to the first shelves. Arthur holds his hand out, stopping us from moving any further. He peeks his head around the corner.

“All clear, follow,” he says in short and concise words.

We all end up following him into the shelves. Looking at both sides, I only see one book near the far top right of the bookshelves, at the end of the row. Though I’m getting tired of always being forced to be observant, so I speak my mind, “Can we just split up and explore the area there are no beasts or undead in here.”

“I would also have to agree with the Priestess, I am getting tired of all of us moving slowly when there clearly is no enemy. ” Simmons backs me up again.

Arthur scrunches up his face at the suggestion, “Do you all believe there is no danger to be found.”

“Clearly, ya sissy. You are the only one who refuses to move on. There are no opponents to fight, so let’s just split up and gather as much information as we possibly can.” Noel put it in harsh words, but that is what I am feeling.

Arthur lets out a huge sigh and responds “Fine, Search around on your own but one word of warning if you find someone calls us all over.”

I separate from the group first to walk over to the book I found. The book was relatively thick, so when I pick it up I expected it to be a lot heavier, but it was light as a feather. Turning the book around with my hand, I see the cover, “Kobold king: The Mines Vol.1”. So there are other volumes of the book, but what are Kobolds. Another thing that caught my eyes was that the title of the book was made out of a weird metal that showed differently when I moved it around. I was about to open the book to check its contents, wondering if it is a history book.

“I would not open that book alone.” A calm voice says from around the corner of the bookshelf.

As I walk around the shelf, I notice an impossible thing, there was a fairy. Not just any fairy but a fairy that is the size of a human, It's unheard of. Though my shock overwhelms me a bit, I compose myself quickly. I take a quick look over the fairy and notice that she is also holding a book. The Fairy has a stack of paper next to her filled with runes that are changing as I am looking at them, though I don’t know how they are changing. Seeing how she went back to concentrate on the book she is holding, I attempted to get the attention of my teammates without making a sound. My plan was turned to ash when Noel yelled from across the hall of Shelves, “Hey Priestess, have you found anything useful or interesting. All I have seen was empty bookshelves that don’t have dust on them.”

I lock up my own body and turn around, expecting to see my end at the hands of a fairy, but all the fairy is doing is deciphering that book. I let out a huge sigh and yell, “Hey guys, I think I found the librarian.” In a quick rush Arthur makes his way to me, then next comes Noel just walking over, and finally Simmons comes waddling over caring his bag while searching through it.

“So that is the librarian, how did you find her,” Arthur ask in a questioning tone.

“Well I picked up this book”, I show the book I have in my hand to him then continued, “she said not to open it without my friends.”

“Well open it, I want to see inside,” Noel says looking over my shoulder.

“No, not yet, I want to get closer to the edge of the terrace we're on and explore the other books,” Simmons says with a smile.

“Wait, we're on a terrace,” I and Noel say almost simultaneously. However, before we could get more questions out, the Librarian put the book down and speaks up.

With a smile as if she was toying with us, she says, “You're too weak to get past the terrace, so go ahead and try.” However, before I register her words, I read the title of the book she was reading, “Umbra”. That one word cause my soul to shudder, and I know whatever that book says is too far beyond my understanding to read.

When I look back up from reading the title of the book, I see Simmons running away from the bookshelves. About 100 or so meters away, Simmons gets blasted back. I see Arthur react before any of us can move. Arthur seems to be trying to catch Simmons, however before Simmons reaches Arthur, Simmons just stops moving in the air.

“HaHaHaHaHa… Oh my god, I can’t believe you ran into the barrier. Hahaha... That was Hilarious. Though you should just read the book she has in her hands.” Simmons then falls to the ground as the librarian continues to laugh like a mad man.

Simmons walks over embarrassed and for the first time, I notice that he is an elf of all things, though I don’t mention it because it would only be awkward. “So Celestia you have a book. We should just read it over on one of the tables.” I also start to laugh, but I end it by quickly walking over to one of the tables. I also heard the others following me when I sit down.

“So, what do you think is in the book,” I ask, honestly curious about their opinions.

“It's a history book. Now just open the god-damn book and stop keeping me from waiting” Noel says in an irritated tone.

“Fine, I will open the book.” I slam open the book, expecting to see the common language, but all I see is gibberish made of runes. Before I continue critiquing the book, it sucks me into his pages.