Elliot
The owner of the mansion had been particularly pleasant, and the maids had been instructed by the visitor who analyzed each one's abilities.
The only thing Elliot could do now was think,whether he was dreaming, or if he had finally lost his sanity.
Sometimes he blinked, trying to wake up, only to realize he had been staring at the floor for too long.
Cassius and Noah served as undeniable proof of the reality of this world; he couldn't possibly hallucinate his own friends, could he?
"Elliot, you don't look very well"
Noah placed a hand on his friend's shoulder.
"Of course he's not well, we should be freaking out! We're in an unknown world, we almost died to monsters in a bizarre place, and now we have strange abilities? None of this can be real, it doesn't make sense for it to be real."
Noah only sighed at Cass's crisis.
"Maybe it doesn't make sense, but do you remember our last days on Earth? It was obvious that when we started hearing the whispers, something different from anything normal would happen to us. Not even the government managed to figure out what was happening to the tormented."
"That name feels pretty fitting now" Cass joked.
"In any case, the owner of the house gave us a room with three beds, and food. Wherever we are, at least we have shelter and supplies."
Elliot pushed away his negative thoughts. He smelled his clothes everyone had received new ones, and his smelled very good. The maids had done an excellent job.
"Alright, alright, let's get to what matters. It's been two days since we arrived here. The maids who learned our language said that something will happen to us on the sixth day."
"True, Elliot, but isn't it a bit strange how fast they learned our language? Were they pretending not to understand before?" Cass fiddled with his ocarina while speaking.
"We saw a monster with a flower instead of a head that had superhuman strength, and a girl with pointed ears who looked like nothing we've ever seen. I think learning a language in a day would be the most normal thing around here." Noah picked up his book during the conversation.
"That's true, Elliot. So… what should we do?"
Elliot stared at Noah's book while reflecting on his comment. Did they really need to do something? Something good could be waiting for them on the sixth day, this thought quickly twisted into a sarcastic smile on Elliot's face. Nothing in this world so far had come entirely good.
"The plan is simple. Try your best to learn the language used here, and the signs too. You never know when we might find another one like Pearl. Absorb all the information you can."
Both nodded.
"And what about Pochi?"
"What about her, Cass?"
Cassius stared at Elliot; his question was obvious, but Elliot wasn't willing to risk adding an unknown person to their group, even if she came from the same world they did.
After the short meeting, everyone went to different places. Elliot went after one of the maids. Walking through the marble hallways, he stared at the walls from time to time to observe the paintings. He still didn't feel any sense of familiarity in this place, which was good. Elliot had the strange feeling that once he got used to this place, he would be trapped in it forever.
While lost in thought, someone bumped into him.
A girl with white hair, pointed ears, and a distracted gaze looked at Elliot.
"Oh, I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"
Elliot received no answer, and immediately slapped his own face.
"She doesn't understand my language."
Even so, the girl seemed to understand Elliot's intentions when he tried to help her up. She smiled sweetly.
She made a few hand signs, and the boy shrugged.
"I'm sorry, I don't understand."
The girl also shrugged and grabbed his hand. Elliot felt his cheeks heating up.
"What are you doing?"
Without warning, he was dragged through the hallways. One of the maids with short blond hair watched them silently, as the pair hurried from one place to another inside the mansion.
Elliot had no idea where he was being taken, but he decided to let the girl guide him.
Pearl finally reached an imposing and large wooden door with two golden handles. A strange symbol was engraved in its center.
She opened it without hesitation, revealing a huge library with shelves that reached the ceiling. Large crystal lamps illuminated the aisles, which were nothing more than shelves dividing the room in half.
"T-this is paradise! If only I could read in this language…"
Pearl ignored grumpy Elliot and went to a small table with lit candles. A large pile of books fell when she grabbed one.
Elliot was stunned to realize he could read the title.
"'Languages of Aeternis, translated into English revised by David Skycode?"
'Red cover, smell of old paper this book had to be at least two years old'
"That's crazy… may I take it?"
Elliot pointed to the book and then to himself. Pearl shrugged.
'She's shrugging after seeing me do that? Pearl probably thinks that means something positive. Heh, how cute'
Elliot sat in one of the chairs and began flipping through the book. It really "was" written in English, and it contained pronunciation details, step-by-step explanations on how to learn the language of this city, as well as a guide on how to survive in it.
'This is a gold mine! I wonder how many people contributed to writing this manuscript'
Pearl sat beside Elliot and started reading something whose title he didn't understand.
A comfortable silence filled the room as both read without worry.
The same routine would repeat for the next four days until Elliot read something important that would affect them.
Sweat dripped down the boy's face as he ran desperately toward the bedroom.
When he burst inside, Noah and Cassius almost fell off their beds.
"Jesus, man! What's with the rush?" Cass dropped the ocarina from his mouth.
"Cass, Noah, we have a problem."
Elliot grabbed the book and pointed to the part he had just read.
"Chapter Five, 'Tormented': after transmigration, they must prepare. After five days, they will be transported to a random world depending on their affin… affinity…? What the hell is this?"
A man entered the room, and the trio almost had a heart attack, but Elliot relaxed when he saw it was just the owner of the house, accompanied by the blond maid, Pearl, and Pochi.
The man said something unintelligible.
"Please follow us" The maid translated, and everyone obeyed.
It had been a while since Elliot had left the mansion, in fact, none of the three had. Elliot had asked them to stay within the boundaries of the house to avoid getting lost, being kidnapped, or simply never coming back, since none of them had learned the locals' language yet.
The seven people walked into the street.
A smell of iron and plants filled Elliot's nose; he sneezed.
The man pointed to the sky and said a few words. Everyone waited for the maid to translate.
"As you may have noticed, above us there are several different skies."
Cassius had been the first to notice this, and Noah soon realized it wasn't just different skies the light itself behaved strangely. There was something more to the fragmented sky, divided into transparent bubbles.
"Each one of these skies is actually a different world, one that is going to end. For some reason, when you are transported by the whispers to this world, after six days you will be sent to one of those places randomly."
Elliot sighed.
"I see… and what happens there?"
The boy waited for the maid to translate his question, and the answer came shortly.
"Each world is different and ends in its own unique way. You will arrive there in the place of one of the locals. All you must do is survive until the end of that world, and then you will be transported back here."
"Any tips on how we can survive?"
No one answered.
Pochi, Noah, Pearl, and Cassius fell to the ground in pain as something echoed inside their minds.
Elliot was no longer in the steam city.
He was in an endless white void, nothing existed there except white, until vines began sprouting from his head.
Strangely, he felt no pain, only discomfort.
Elliot had been transported to his first challenge.