Visitor

"Athwart."

"Athwart." a soft voice echoed out in the darkness.

"Athwart." the voice once again sounded out. It was louder and clearer than the first.

"Athwart!" as if shouted in my ear, the familiar voice managed to wake me back to reality.

I abruptly opened my eyes and saw the murals painted on the ceiling.

I remembered Nigh told me that these murals changes everyday, and everyday was a new story. This time it was of a three people facing each other, 2 men and a woman. A robust man was basked in white light while the frail looking old man was basked in darkness, in the middle was the woman in her youth and there was nothing around her like the other two.

A light headache started to assault Athwart's consciousness. He tried moving his boy and felt the pain coming from every part of him. It felt like this was the first movement he made after not moving for centuries.

The pain was now manageable, he started to stretch his arms and feet out and heard the popping sounds of his joints. As he saw the skin of his arms, he was again startled of how white they became, he could even see the big veins underneath due to how pale it was.

He tried to leave the embrace of soft and comfortable mattress and landed his feet on the cold surface of the floor.

He was wearing an unfastened robe, which shows two encircled tattoos. The tattoo of the scythe became bigger and was now encircled, below it was a smaller encircled tattoo of a sword. He was surprised at the sudden addition of a tattoo on his chest.

"I would have to ask this to Nigh." he thought to himself. He adjusted the robe and tied the robe's tie to his waist.

He walked a few steps, then stopped as he noticed something. He felt an unfamiliar feeling. He looked around the room and felt that unfamiliar feeling again. He was not a person who was very picky with things but somehow he felt that the room felt dirty and he was disgusted by it.

What made him more confused was that this disgusted feeling kept on appearing and disappearing.

"What's this?" he asked himself. He tried to ignore it, he has a lot to ask to Nigh. He continued his steps to the door.

Outside the door of Athwart's room, 2 soldiers guarded the entrance of the room.

At this moment, they tilted their head as they heard the movement of the doorknob.

The door made a creaking sound and revealed the face of Athwart. The soldiers were startled at first but immediately recovered.

They did not speak to each other but, as if planned, they took action at the same time, one rushed down towards the stairs while the other went to Athwart's side and immediately supported him as he walk. Together, they descended the flight of stairs that lead down to the main hall.

At the basement, Nigh and the beauty were alone. The beauty has her eyes closed at the moment. Then suddenly, her eyes opened.

"It's done." a smile appeared on her face.

The doors of the basement abruptly opened and a soldier, Nigh's follower, came out of it.

The soldier did not speak, but Nigh knew what the soldier's presence in here meant.

An excited smile surfaced on the face of Nigh and he immediately dash out of the room, ignoring the beauty who was also smiling and seemed more excited than him.

As Nigh went out of the basement and neared the stairs to the upper floor of the residence, he saw two figures descending the stairs, one was his follower and the other was Athwart.

When Nigh's gaze landed on the youth, a smile escaped his mouth. However, he could not help but notice the difference in appearance of the previous Athwart to the current him.

Nigh approached the weak Athwart and gave him a big hug. He felt happy that he was already awake, but at the same time, could not help but worry that there was something that was brought along by the change.

A slight fluctuation was released from Nigh that traveled and inspected every part of Athwart.

After he was satisfied and was assured that there was nothing wrong, he released Athwart from his hug.

"Let's get you a meal, you must be hungry. I'll explain as you eat." the smiling Nigh then took the role of Athwart's support and lead him to the other side of the main hall.

At the table, where a sumptuous meal was prepared, Athwart lifted the spoon full of food shoved it in his mouth.

Nigh was also seated on Athwart's right side of the table as he ate his food in an unhurried manner.

When his hunger was slightly satiated, Athwart put the spoon and fork down he's holding and burped in satisfaction.

"It was delicious." he said to the soldier that prepared the food. The soldier flash a smile on his face and immediately went back to the kitchen to cook for more.

"Round 2 sounds good." Athwart looked at the empty plates and laughed to himself.

"How are you feeling?" a deep voice asked.

"I'm full but I can still handle more." Athwart, touching his big round belly, replied, a big grin formed in his face.

"I mean, after you wake up."

"Oh that?" Athwart, unfastened his robe slid the shoulder part down in order to reveal his tattoo. "I was just about to ask."

"This, " he made a gesture with his finger and my chair moved accordingly to it. I was immediately moved within his reach. " is your symbol." he said as he pointed his finger to the tattoo of the scythe on my chest. He moved his finger down and pointed to the tattoo of the sword, "This was mine." he then added.

I was still in the midst of my shock, as Nigh explained what these tattoo means.

"What the **** was that?" I unconsciously swore out as I recovered from my shock.

Was that what they call magic? Excitement immediately flashed in my eyes as I waited for Nigh's answer.

"A thing you'll have to learn in the next few days. It's basic manipulation." Nigh replied he then took out something from his pocket and showed it to me.

"This is for you." I took the glowing orb from his hand. I felt a cold sensation traveled from the orb to me, together with it was the dimming of the orb's light.

The action took only seconds but to me, it felt like a millenium of years or even longer than that. When the cold sensation entered my body, scenes started to show in my head, informations and events that felt so realistic and vivid, that I can even feel, hear, and smell 'there'. In actuality, they all passed by in a blur, but it felt like I was experiencing each and every one of them during that blur.

Despite the vast volume of information I was dealing with, I did not feel any discomfort. I watched every detail of every events but for some reason, the clarity started to fade, pieces from every information were retained in my mind while the rest faded into inexistence.

When the cold sensation faded, the orb shattered like a broken glass and turned into dust. This helped me regain awareness, and realize that I was still in the dining room with Nigh.

When he noticed that I was already aware of my surroundings, he did not wait for me to speak.

"That was a First-Hand Library." he calmly said.

A Library? Athwart thought to himself. He had gotten numbed to the shocks he got this day and was just accepting all of it.

Almost immediately, information pertaining to First-Hand Library surfaced in his mind.

"Internet..." Athwart, in a daze, said to himself. In his mind, a vast collection of information was presented to him. They were all categorized which enabled him to sift through them quickly.

He only need to think for the specific information that he needed and it will immediately move towards him. The pieces of information which gave him an idea of what First-Hand Library is, was immediately filled.

"So this is what a First-Hand Library is." he thought. He understood every concept, it usage and its production, and why it was needed.

The First-Hand Library is a collection of knowledge and experience accumulated by someone. It enables the user to experience a full-comprehension of the things that is inside the Library for a short period of time.

There were two types of Library usage, one is the Passive Use, where he can peruse the information of the library without limit and second, is the Active Use, so long as his brain could handle it, the Library would forcefully make him understand a concept for a short period of time. In a nutshell, it served like a database.

Although the process felt like it has taken a while, in reality, it only took a second.

"How convenient." Athwart laughed.

"Not everyone has that, so take advantage of it." Nigh interjected.

"Tutorial is over, time to meet our guests." Nigh stood up. With Athwart in tow, they reached the central plaza where the soldiers where gathered.

They were looking towards the dark 'sky' where the occasional booming sounds are heard.

"They are here." a voice in Athwart's mind said.

"Who?" Athwart asked out loud.

Nigh, who mistook that the question was directed towards him, replied.

" The visitor, the envoy and the messenger of the Abyss," suddenly, the sky broke and a big tear appeared on it.

Then three figures came out of it and fell from the sky.

This was the moment that Athwart felt something strange.

When they landed, the impact from the fall never came. The ground seemed to cushioned their land. Athwart, even though there was still a sizable distance away from the three figures, clearly saw everything.

He could clearly see them.

With an inhuman sight, he observed the giant with the two human-like figure.

" Hello, Athwart." As if she was near and not some distance away, Athwart heard the voice of the beautiful woman, one of the three figures that descended the sky.