Chapter 110: Cha.109 Qasim

"ACTIVE!" Qasim screamed.

The sphere began shining.

White light burst from within it.

Then—

The light turned purple.

It swallowed Qasim, Yasmin, and several monsters around them.

The boy closed his eyes against the sudden light. Then, he felt as if the entire atmosphere had changed.

He slowly opened them again, filled with hope that he had changed places with Yorness. But his eyes widened the next moment when he realized he was standing in a dark place.

Fog ran all over the area as he tried to look around, only to find himself in some sort of wide chamber. It was hexagonal, structured from polished white limestone blocks fitted together without mortar. Six massive rib-vaults converged at the apex of the ceiling, where a heavy, wrought-iron chandelier hung from a thick chain, holding twelve thick beeswax pillars.

He looked at the western wall. A three-door wardrobe made of iron-banded oak stood there, its doors fixed with heavy brass hinges and secured by a sliding iron bolt.

Behind him were two long iron-clad doors reaching all the way to the ceiling. They had no knobs or anything else visible that could be used to open them.

Three tall, narrow lancet windows pierced the stone walls. Their panes were made of thick, leaded stained glass depicting geometric latticework in cobalt blue and amber.

Qasim thought it was night outside because of the darkness beyond the windows. His confusion continued as he looked around, noticing how organized the room was. Yet instead of giving him a feeling of warmth, the place felt cold, dark, and gloomy.

Then he felt movement around him.

Around five monsters were standing up and twitching for some reason. Qasim’s eyes widened as he realized he had forgotten to do something important. He lowered his head and felt a sense of relief when his eyes fell on Yasmin, still sleeping between his arms.

He raised his head again and prepared to protect both of them from the monsters, which seemed unusually angry.

The monsters then turned their bodies to face him.

Qasim raised his hand as he watched them launch themselves at him, but suddenly, something changed.

A white light ran through the monsters’ square heads one by one, followed by their bodies falling onto the marble floor.

Qasim blinked in surprise, then turned his head toward the light.

He saw a stack of goose-down mattresses covered in a quilted coverlet of green brocade, embroidered with metallic silver thread.

At the foot of the bed sat a cedar sea-chest bound in riveted bronze straps, fitted with a prominent padlock.

And on the bed...

He saw a giant figure lying comfortably on the bed. It seemed to be a tall woman with remarkable curves from her toes to her...

Her face!

Qasim’s eyes widened in shock.

The person in front of him had no facial features. No eyes, no ears, no nose, and no mouth. Just blond hair on a diamond-shaped face.

That face gave Qasim unpleasant memories. He immediately tightened his grip on Yasmin and raised his hand.

His plan was to attack this person with an all-element magic ball, then use Light Dash to escape through the window.

But Qasim’s body started sweating. His hand was twitching slightly without doing anything.

My magic?!

His eyes turned red as he tried to force the magic out, but his heart dropped when he couldn’t feel any mana around him.

Let’s just escape.

He skipped directly to using Light Dash to escape, but after he finished whispering, nothing happened.

The familiar blue light never came, and he didn’t even feel the usual pressure from the phrase.

He tried changing from asking to ordering, then to begging, but still, nothing happened.

His heart started racing as he understood that he couldn’t use his powers.

But before he could think of a plan, a strange noise suddenly invaded his mind.

He couldn’t fight it or cut it off. It felt like someone was forcefully pushing against his mind. Then, slowly, the noise started turning into words, though they held no meaning.

"Sky... Who... Have..."

Then, slowly, the words started making sense.

"You Who?"

Qasim blinked while still holding his head with one hand.

You Who? What’s that supposed to mean?

He tried to understand what the voice was trying to say, but then it hit him.

He slowly raised his eyes and looked at the woman in front of him again. He didn’t see any reaction from her, but it was now clear to him that she was the one communicating with him.

Then the next words came to him, this time much smoother.

"Do you understand me now?"

Qasim looked at the woman for a moment, then moved his mouth and spoke in a low tone.

"Y-Yes... You are the one talking, right?"

The woman didn’t move. She simply kept sending her voice into Qasim’s mind.

"Yes."

She heard me without ears, but can’t talk without a mouth?

He thought that before hearing her voice again.

"What creature are you?"

Qasim took a step back at the question, but he didn’t want to disrespect the person in front of him, so he answered calmly.

"My name’s Qasim..."

He looked down at the girl sleeping between his arms before adding,

"And this is Yasmin... I don’t know where I am or how we—"

The voice cut him off without any emotion.

"I asked you what creature are you... Are you another cursed object come to trap?"

Qasim raised an eyebrow, but when he looked at the blank, pale face in front of him, he answered quickly.

"I- We are humans! I don’t know anything about the curse thing you’re saying..."

He tightened his grip around Yasmin.

"We are humans from the Corwate Kingdom. We got betrayed by its king..."

Qasim then remembered the last thing he had done before finding himself in this place.

"I- I used a weird artifact that looks like a dark blue ball with red dots floating inside."

He looked around to find it, but only the monsters’ corpses were present. He lowered his head and ground his teeth in anger.

I’m so fucking dumb. Of course that thing was yet another trap...

He wanted to punch the floor but held himself back and focused on observing the woman.

She went silent for a minute before speaking in a steady, emotionless voice.

"The cursed object won’t have such intelligence to lie, so I believe you."

Qasim’s mind fell into silence for several minutes after that. The woman stopped talking and seemed to simply observe the two unexpected guests.

But Qasim was on his nerves. He wanted to know where they were now. He wanted to know what had happened to Levia and Doran.

So, he swallowed slowly and asked in a respectful, low voice,

"Can you please tell me where we are?"

The woman stayed silent, as if she had lost interest in the conversation.

Qasim’s confusion and anger rose, but he couldn’t do anything, so he simply tried to ask again.

"Please tell me—"

At that moment, he felt Yasmin moving between his arms.

He lowered his head and watched her open her eyes. She looked unharmed, and that sent a sense of relief through his heart.

But then her eyes widened as she looked around at the unfamiliar place.

"Yasmin, please calm down—" Qasim tried to talk to her, but Yasmin’s eyes fell on the woman on the bed, and she immediately jumped to attack her.

"Yasmin, no!" Qasim screamed as he watched Yasmin cover herself with the black cloud.

That woman killed five of the monsters without even moving! Yasmin will be in danger!

He tried to follow behind her, but in the next second, both of them were stunned in their places.

Yasmin fell to the ground, paralyzed, and Qasim’s eyes widened as he felt an unstoppable force holding him down.

Then the woman sent her voice to both of them.

"Leave now."

The two doors opened behind them before she sent them both flying outside.

Qasim stood up as he saw the doors slowly closing again, leaving them in what seemed to be a hallway.

He looked around and saw the same gloomy atmosphere and dark theme as the room, but without the fog.

He then turned and saw Yasmin on the ground, so he rushed toward her.

"Yasmin!"

He tried to help her stand up, but she pushed him to the side.

Qasim watched her catch her breath with a concerned expression. He wanted to apologize to her.

He knew. He knew that it was all his fault. Everything that had happened was his own fault, and he could understand if she hated him because he hated himself for it.

"Yasmin, I—"

He tried to talk, but she cut him off with her usual cold expression.

"I just need some time to restore my life energy."

She then sat on the ground with her legs crossed, closed her eyes, and started to meditate.

Qasim watched her before biting his lips and lowering his head as shame started eating him up.

...

After ten minutes, Yasmin opened her eyes and looked at the boy behind her.

She saw him sitting on the ground with his head down and his arms twitching. A blue aura surrounded him, and she realized how he felt.

Yasmin turned her head around and gave a small sigh as she thought for a moment before standing up.

Qasim felt something touching his head, and when he looked up, he saw Yasmin giving him a hand to help him stand up.

He moved his eyes to the side, avoiding her gaze as he tried to speak.

"Yasmin, I—"

But he was interrupted by her grabbing him by his clothes and pulling him to his feet before asking him,

"Important things first, where are we and how did we get here?"

Qasim blinked a couple of times before shaking his head.

That’s right, most important things first...

He then explained to her how they had gotten into this place, how that woman had managed to kill the monsters effortlessly, and how he couldn’t use any magic or Nahr’Keth. He also told her that he had no idea where they were.

Yasmin nodded slowly as she looked ahead before commenting,

"Strange unknown place, magic and Nahr’Keth doesn’t work at all... And that woman doesn’t care to explain, so it’s better if we find someone or something that might help."

She then started walking down the hallway, with Qasim following behind.

They moved very carefully, with Qasim trying to copy Yasmin’s light movements.

She is so strong in direct fighting that I sometimes forget that she is an assassin...

After several minutes, they didn’t pass by any new chambers or people, just a long, endless, dark hallway.

Until something changed.

They finally saw the light at the end and slowly moved toward it, only to be left stunned by the view outside.

There were no monsters, no traps, and no killer waiting for them outside.

Instead, there was a city sculpted from pure, iridescent pearl-stone, rising like a frozen tidal wave against a dark twilight sky.

At the city’s highest peak stood a colossal, spiraling spire of obsidian and beautifully forged silver, housing a massive, rotating sphere of what looked like compressed starfire.

A single, blindingly brilliant beam of pure white light cut through the dark sky, sweeping across the whole city like a celestial lighthouse.

Qasim and Yasmin took a step forward, where they felt the warmth of the light. The air tasted of crisp ozone, vibrating softly every time the giant lens of the beacon turned overhead.

Long, dramatic shadows danced and stretched across the city’s buildings, which were made from beautiful pearly green stone that shone brightly as it reflected the light.

Opposite to the coldness of the woman’s chamber, this scene made them feel some kind of safety.

Then they heard something screaming at them.

"Stop right where you are and don’t move!"