The Infinite Library Is Harder Than We Thought

Welpen: “Wow, we got here pretty quick. And, we didn’t even use up that much food, but our water supply is a little low. Sorry guys, I was talking so much that I got thirsty hehehe. Speaking of…Saikou, you didn’t eat or drink for the whole 2 days. Are you okay?”

He nodded his head in approval, but he still had not spoken or taken off the helmet the entire trip. Welpen tried to remove it at one point without his approval, but Saikou would not let him, and even with Welpen pulling as hard as he could, he could not seem to get the helmet off. Ryoko even tried to help at one point, but it didn’t make a difference.

In front of them was a wooden bridge so big that 5000 people could fit on it without a problem. It was rusty, but stable. Welpen even reached his foot out to test the first board, and it was fine. Nails were bolted into it, and on both sides of him was just plain water.

Over the bridge was an island and they could even see beyond it with more islands in front of the first one, but they could not see all the way. Smoke covered the air after the third island, so they could not tell what came afterwards.

Saikou did not speak, but pulled Welpen away from the bridge. He pointed at the water instead and made a swimming motion.

Welpen: “OH! Saikou, you are so smart! I almost forgot what the lady told us! Ryoko, we have to cross through the water for the first bridge. The woman giving information told us this. She said something like don’t worry about monsters blah, blah, blah. Apparently, whatever is in the waters won’t attack us.”

Ryoko looked at Welpen with fear in his eyes. He did not trust whatever the woman said, but he trusted Welpen with his life, so he went along with what he said.

All the food and water was stored in Welpen’s pouch so that it would not get wet and ruined. Each of them went down the rocks to shoreline of the water and on the count of 10 they were going to jump in.

Ryoko: “10? Why 10?”

Welpen: “Ah screw it. Let’s just jump. Here we go!”

The moment that they all jumped in, a terrifying scene made the hairs on their body all stand up. On both sides of the bridge were identical sea monsters that stared them in the eyes. They were horrifying and Ryoko and Welpen had to swim back to the shoreline to jump out of the water immediately.

Welpen: “Wh-Where is Saikou? Saikou! Get out of the water! Saikou? Saikou…? What the…”

They both peaked their heads back in the water to see Saikou still underneath the water waving at them. The monsters did not attack him. They stayed where they were without a care in the world as if they were not even there.

Welpen and Ryoko hesitated to go back in, but slowly swam over to Saikou who continued on.

The terrifying jaws of these monsters could swallow them whole without trying. Spikes ran down the sides of their mouths and through to their back. Their bodies were short, but wide, with a tail sticking out the back. Their two arms sat at their sides with massive talons and their eyes were a soulless grey color.

They paid no mind to the three of them that swam across to the island, but Welpen had to keep looking at both sides simply out of fear. He trusted what the lady said, but it was different seeing it up close.

Needless to say, they all made it across without problems, but the island was another challenge. It was empty and buildings lined up in a circle without doors. They couldn’t get into the middle of whatever was there, but a barrier blocked the sides, so they had no choice but to enter the water again, which the lady told them not to do, or find a way to get over the buildings.

Welpen: “I know what everyone is thinking, but we can’t climb. There are no windows either. If we lift each other up, only one of us will make it across. I won’t have that. Nobody is getting left behind.”

Saikou motioned them to the ground, making a digging gesture.

Welpen: “Oh, you are so smart! Another point for you, Saikou. We can dig underneath. The buildings are all connected, so they won’t fall on us. Here I can dig with my sword.”

Welpen stuck his sword in the ground and without even doing anything, it blew a hole so deep underground and formed a passageway for them in a second. He was shocked and looked around at the others who had no idea what had happened.

Saikou reached his hand out as if to touch something, but pulled back and followed the boys underneath.

On the other side was nothing but a fountain in the middle. There was nowhere to enter or leave. They approached the water fountain and when Welpen touched the water, he was dragged in and teleported to the next bridge of the island followed by Ryoko and Saikou.

‘That was easy,’ everyone thought. The next bridge was scary to them though. It was made of vines. There were 3 paths, one for each of them, but they had to balance their way through. It was like a tightrope with a single strong vine for them to walk across.

Welpen: “Great, a balancing beam. Is everyone good at balancing?”

They both shook their heads, but Welpen thought of a plan quickly.

Welpen: “Here is what we are going to do. We can’t go in the water, so Saikou, you are going to be on the middle vine. Ryoko, you’re on the right and I am on the left. Saikou is going to hold on to both of our blades, and guide us so we don’t lose our balance. If we fall to the left, then Saikou will pull on the blade a little and readjust us. He won’t lose any balance because he will be holding on to both. Everyone ready?”

They all lined up in their allotted positions with their arms out like the letter T. The vines were thick enough to support their feet, but one wrong move and they could end up in the water. There wasn’t much wind, but this was still a difficult venture for them.

Saikou didn’t really seem like he had much of a problem, but Ryoko and Welpen were going so slow that they barely made a dent in how far they had to go. When they tried to speed up, they started to shift off to the sides and Saikou had to pull them back.

Welpen: “Thank you, Saikou! I thought I was a goner.”

Saikou nodded his head in approval as they kept going.

He continuously had to help Ryoko who seemed to be the weak link, but the strategy was working. That is, until swords started flying at them for no reason. They ducked and got low, but they targeted them even below. Everyone started to jump and try to avoid the swords on their own, but it messed up the flow of their plan. Saikou was able to help the most and kicked the swords out of the way with his amazing athleticism, but it broke the chain and Welpen and Ryoko both fell to the side.

Saikou didn’t have time to save both, so he reached his hand out to Welpen while Ryoko fell off towards the water.

Welpen: “No! Saikou! Let go! I’m going after him! Saikou, let go!”

Saikou did not want to let go, but he ultimately succumbed to his words. Welpen jumped to the water right as Ryoko splashed in. He aimed his sword at the water to attack whatever approached them.

For 5 seconds, nothing happened and Welpen was able to get to Ryoko, but when that time was up, the creatures from before, but in a dark red color, swam at them fast. One came from the left, another from the right, and one from below.

They had nothing they could do.

Welpen saw Saikou approaching the surface of the water from above, but he was going to be too late, and he wouldn’t be able to do anything.

‘No, I’m not giving up!’ Welpen screamed in his head. He then spoke out loud to try to activate an ability from his sword through the thick water, swallowing a cup full. Thin weak mana lines lit up across his body, but before he could do anything, the shard on his sword lit up gold and the approaching creatures suddenly halted and began to sink into the depths. Their eyes became even more soulless than before as if they had just died in place.

Saikou hit the water and the three of them swam to the next island as fast as they could, laying on the shore, panting for air.

Welpen: “Th-That was scary. N-Never a-again. N-no. Ne-Never.”

He looked at the shard on his sword and thanked it in his head, not knowing what it did, but it was certainly the reason that they survived. The three of them sat there for a little longer before moving on.

When they climbed to the top of the ground, there was a pyramid that covered the entire island. There was only one door that they had to enter, so they did without fear this time. Inside was a skeleton, but he was broken apart and a single shade of light ran through the top, highlighting the bones.

There were 2 legs, a torso, 2 arms, a head, 2 jewels, and a crown. They all looked at each other confused when they approached it.

Welpen: “What do we do?”

Ryoko: “Put together?”

Saikou stood confused as well with his gloves over his helmet and fell to his knees not knowing what to do.

Welpen: “I think we put it together, but it is definitely going to attack us. Here, I will do it. Both of you stand back.”

Ryoko: “No. Won’t stand back. I help.”

Welpen pieced together each body part and put the jewels in as the eyes and the crown on top. The jewels lit up as if they did something right, but the skeleton came to life and stood up. Instead of attacking them, he took the crown off his head and gave it to Ryoko.

Ryoko put it on not knowing why he gave it to him, but when he did, it would not come off. It was like it was glued to him. Ryoko’s eyes suddenly rolled back and the skeleton sat down to admire the scene. He began to attack Welpen and Saikou without a second thought.

Welpen: “Hey, hey, hey! Woah, stop it, Ryoko! What are you doing?!”

He was a lot weaker than before, but he swung his sword with the intention of killing them.

Welpen: “What did you do to him, you nasty skeleton?! Take that crown off!”

Saikou sprinted across the room and headbutted him away from Welpen while they regrouped. Ryoko still targeted Welpen with his sword, and Welpen deflected the best he could with his limited skills, but being with Astro for a long time helped him remember a little of how to read the body of others when they swung their swords.

Saikou came up from behind and grabbed him by his stomach. He flung him upwards and on his back on top of himself. Welpen came over and knocked the sword out of Ryoko’s hands.

Welpen: “Hey! Listen to me! Knock it off, Ryoko! Take that stupid crown off!”

The skeleton laughed in the middle of the room while the two of them could still not pull the crown off.

He began to speak to them in a raspy voice.

???: “What you seek desires sacrifices. Can you sacrifice one of your own to continue?”

Welpen: “Sacrifice my butt. We aren’t leaving until you take this crown off of him. Or am I going to have to come over there and break you down to what you were before?!”

???: “Hehehe. Young one, I am but a pebble in this world. I am but a mere pawn on a chess board for those who seek knowledge. Even pawns are sacrificed for the king to rule. Which one of you will become the king?”

Welpen: “Shut up! I’m not leaving without my friend. Give him back!”

Saikou pointed at the skeleton’s eyes and the crown, which had the same openings for the same shaped jewels. “Yes! That’s it, Saikou!” Welpen said. “I owe you so much when this is done.”

Welpen charged at the skeleton who did not even choose to move and when Welpen went to take the jewels out of his eyes, they wouldn’t budge. “Come on!” he screamed out.

???: “So you are the pawn to be sacrificed then? May one of them become the king hehehe.”

The skeleton looked directly into Welpen’s eyes and before he could tell what was going on, he said one word to Welpen…”Kaboom.”

His body lit up in a small explosion right in front of Welpen. The crown released from his body being separated and Saikou reached his hand out for Welpen. Ryoko’s senses came back to normal and he pushed Saikou off of him and ran towards the explosion.

Ryoko: “Welpen!!!!!”