"Ugh," The familiar, unwelco feeling of déjà vu hit Eliot again as he woke up with a pained groan. Imdiately following was a wave of agonizing dizziness, making him feel as though he were freefalling with absolutely no control over his body.
This haze lasted a miserable while before it faded, leaving behind a weary, exhausted body. Every joint ached viciously for no obvious reason. "Argh," he grunted, trying to contain the pain and collect himself.
Once his senses returned, the next realization was that he was on his feet, and sothing was binding his legs so tightly he couldn’t move. "...W-what the hell is this...?" he forced out, breath shallow. His vision was slowly sharpening.
"Oh, the princess has finally co around. Jolly for us." A voice drew him. He turned his eyes toward a bleary figure, but the residual dizziness was still too strong. "Ugh," he closed his eyes again.
"Must you be a complete jerk right now? We’re about to die," a sharp female voice retorted.
"How else am I supposed to act? Grateful?" the male voice sneered back.
"Maybe like a normal human being for the last twenty minutes of your miserable life?"
"...Hard pass," he stated simply.
"Fine. Rot," the girl snapped.
"Suit yourself." The female voice gave up, and then a new voice spoke, seemingly directed at Eliot.
"Hey, are you okay over there?" The voice belonged to another person Eliot was still too disoriented to make out clearly.
"Hold on. You’ve been silent since we were tied up, but he groans and suddenly you find your voice?" It was the sarcastic guy again, sounding genuinely annoyed this ti.
She ignored him.
"Hey,"
Nothing.
"She’s not into you, Ben, let it go," ca a third, calm male voice.
"So she’s into this bastard with an obviously fake face? He’s probably using so cheap relic to enhance his looks," the young man, whose na was probably Ben, sneered.
"Ben, just shut up and worry about how you’ll make it out of this alive, instead of being jealous of soone’s looks," the first girl chid in.
"Tch."
At this point, full clarity had returned to Eliot. The sight before him was startling: a young man bound to a solid, wooden pillar—Ben, clearly. Next to him was a girl, likewise tied to a pillar; she seed to be the one who had just shut him up.
"Why... haah... are you all tied up?" Eliot managed, feeling oddly winded.
"Oh, brilliant observation. Why do you think, genius? Sa reason you are," Ben spat, glaring.
"Do I know... you?" Eliot asked, genuinely confused about the hostility.
"Thankfully, no. I’d rember a walking fraud if I’d t one."
The scarred young man shifted. "Ignore him. That’s Ben. He’s... always like this. And no, you don’t know any of us."
He looked toward the girl beside Ben.
’Nedia, what’s happening?’
[When you finally made it to the peak of the mountain, you were ambushed and captured.]
’By monsters?’ he asked internally.
[No, humans. They had color.]
’That’s right, color,’ he finally noted that the people around him had a normal color palette, unlike the world around them.
"What’s your na?" He heard the question. He looked past many other people, still tied to pillars, who seed unconscious, toward a young girl with literal golden hair and jade green eyes.
He froze just on seeing her.
"Are you... real?" was his first question. He simply couldn’t help himself. How could soone so... beautiful... exist?
"As real as you are," she replied, then frowned, as though noticing sothing odd about him.
"Just turn off the damned relic already! You can fool them all you want, but you can’t fool ," It was Ben again.
"Ben, just stop," Eliot looked further to another young man who wasn’t unconscious. This one was bloody and covered in scars from head to toe.
"Stop what?!" Ben demanded.
"Stop being a prick. Can’t you see he’s afraid?"
"Afraid?" Eliot blurted, tilting his head. He was feeling many things right now, but fear simply wasn’t one of them. That was one of the emotions that had been suppressed until it was barely noticeable.
"Yes. You’re in an unfamiliar place, tied up. Aren’t you afraid?" the scarred young man asked.
"Why are we tied up again?" Eliot asked, ignoring the question.
"To be sacrificed," he heard. He looked beside the annoyed Ben to the girl with hazel hair and blue eyes.
"I’m sorry... what?" He frowned harder.
"We are about to be sacrificed to the nasty creatures of this world by a group of psychopaths who want to get to the next world," she added matter-of-factly.
"Next... world?" Eliot tilted his head.
"Gosh, you ask a lot of questions for a fraud," No brains were needed to know who spoke, but Eliot simply ignored Ben.
"Alright, I’ll explain, but first, what’s your na?" the beautiful golden-haired girl asked, smiling in a way that shouldn’t be possible for soone tied to a pillar and talking about sacrifice.
"Is there a reason?"
"Isn’t it common courtesy?" she tilted her head.
"No, I think you have to go first," Eliot countered.
"Yeah, you’re right. I’m lody Helian," she introduced herself.
"...Eliot," was all he gave.
"Eliot. No surna or last na?"
"Yes," Eliot replied, then added, "So, can you tell ?" he prompted.
"Well, I don’t know much, and no one here does, but what we do know is that soone found a way to escape this phase of the Mystic World to get to the Main World."
"...Huh?" He frowned.
"Doesn’t make sense, right?" She gave a small shrug.
"So this isn’t the main part of the Mystic World?" he asked.
"Apparently not. It seems this is like an auxiliary area, or more like a first trial. According to the people who captured us, this specific world we’re in has a limited number of people, and for us to get to the next world..."
"...A number of them have to be killed," Eliot pieced it together instantly. "That’s what the sacrifice is for."
"Yes, give or take."
"But why not just kill us themselves and get it over with?" he asked.
"I don’t know. Maybe they’re being careful. Killing us themselves might break the rule," she suggested.
Eliot looked about. There were maybe three conscious people across from him. Roughly six or seven captives in total.
"Hey, they’re coming," soone said, causing everyone to tense.
Eliot tried to look, but the way he was tied made it difficult to see behind him.
Then a voice spoke from the front.
"It’s ti."
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