The Grand Battle [Game Over!]

Originally posted on MSPA by Aryogaton.

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Aeon stepped to the side, dodging one flying knife and catching another with his adaptive tool, now turned into something with some resemblance to a tennis racquet. He took the knife, flung it back at the vacuum cleaner, which deflected it with another knife with little effort.

“This fight is unnecessary” Aeon said, narrowly dodging another knife.

“Irrelevant. This unit will obey its orders regardless of such circumstances.”

Aeon caught another knife with his racquet-esque weapon, but failed to dodge another knife, which hit him squarely in the arm. It bounced off, leaving a smaller wound than expected—silver knifes are not known for their particular sharpness.

“You realize… that this setting provides us with the opportunity to leave the game? You can go back to Konka Rar, or whatever his name was.”

Eximo did not show any sign of thought to the statement. “Although such an opportunity is beneficial to this unit, allowing it to happen would cause this unit to disobey direct orders.”

Eximo flung four knives at once, and Aeon ducked under the table. He heard the machine move to the side, trying to flank him. He stepped, head down, in the other direction, until the two switched places. Aeon took the opportunity and broke into a run towards the only exit, now that Eximo was no longer in the way.

Aeon banked a left, right, and stopped at a particularly long shelf. He concentrated on an arbitrary book, grabbed a moving ladder before it even came to a halt, and held on to it as he made his escape.

Midway through, Aeon remembered something. Damnit. I forgot the book and her quicksilver.

***

Ari stepped from behind the bookshelf, and confronted Eximo.

“Lifeform Aeon has escaped. This is unfortunate. Requesting unknown lifeform guide this unit towards lifeform Aeon.”

“One would think that you'd be able to at least try to stop him, but I suppose you can't teach a machine new tricks. Follow me.” Eximo followed.

Well that ended sooner than I expected. But, at least he was distracted long enough to get this back. Shouldn't've let him have it in the first place. He looked at the semi-lustrous object in his hand. Who would've thought the world of now revolved around something so innocent?

***

Aeon stepped from the ladder, somewhat satisfied at his distance from Eximo. He figured that he was in a particularly obscure part of the library—the silence and dust penetrated more than before. He began to walk arbitrarily, cursing himself for forgetting the two objects that could have freed him from this nightmare. Not paying attention to his surroundings, he stopped at a dead end.

Under normal circumstances Aeon would have turned around and chose a different path, but the particular shelf that dominated the dead-end wall piqued his interest. It was much more elaborately carved than the others, and was evidently made of newer wood. In fact, unlike the rest of the shelves, the varnish was still intact, and it was not particularly covered in dust. Combined with the trend of more dust in the surrounding shelves, this was a peculiarity.

The bottom half of the shelf was somewhat similar to the others, being packed with books of many shapes, sizes, and colors. However, the rest of the bookshelf was solid wood carved in exquisite patterns. This half housed nine slots, eight arranged upright and horizontal, and the ninth flat and above the others. All but one of the eight upright slots was empty, and had a fairly plain book in it. The ninth was covered by what looked like a drawer door, its knob replaced with an incredibly elaborate lock that Aeon knew spanned many dimensions.

Aeon stepped forward and removed the last book in the row of eight. It was plain, had no title, and its front cover was nearly indistinguishable from its back. Flipping through the pages, Aeon saw that it was completely empty, save for the first page, which had an empty list. It had one line at the top, and eight numbered lines accompanied with a small square beside it.

Finding the book useless, Aeon replaced it in the same slot it was in before, hoping he did not place it upside-down. He then turned his attention to the shelf of books beneath the slots. He arbitrarily chose and removed a book, and examined it. It was green in color, with elaborate light green trimmings. The title, which made no sense to Aeon, was Pon DeFor. He flipped through it, and saw that it was a biography.

Aeon replaced the green book and took another, this time violet with light pink trimmings. The title was Drake Eon. Again, Aeon saw that it was a biography of a person he did not know, and replaced it. The third book, a red one, at first seemed to be like the others. However, the title immediately caught Aeon's attention: Ari _____. The last name was scratched out. He began to frantically flip through the pages, but was soon interrupted when the book seemingly flew into the air, closed itself, and replaced itself back in the shelf. Aeon caught a glimpse of a disembodied hand of light holding the spine of the book, before it disappeared.

“Well shit man, you really love to read, don't you?” Aeon stood and turned, and saw Ari standing passively. “Sometimes there are just things you're not supposed to see.”

Aeon attempted to pay attention to Ari's words, but could not help but think about the content of the shelf. If these books are biographies of the Gentlemen, then the Director could be in there. Then again, the Director wouldn't leave his own book out in the open like that.

“It's a marvel, these books. They're not just tomes of information; they're connected to the very fabric of this universe itself.” Ari began to walk towards shelf, and Aeon stepped to the side.

There were many more than eight books in there, so there must be many more than eight Gentlemen. Maybe there are more games like this?

Ari stopped at the shelf, and removed the blank book in the slot. He began flipping through it, despite its lack of content. At last, he closed the book, and it vanished.

“Then again, it's not like you know anything about that.”

I need to get this guy away from me, so I can study these in peace.

“Or… do you? You seem to have read quite a bit in that cheater's guide you had back there.”

But there's no way he's going to leave me here by myself.

“Okay, okay. You don't want to listen, so I'm not going to talk. By the way, the vacuum cleaner is on his way here.”

As if on cue, the whir of machinery began to be heard, and was clearly getting closer. Aeon silently cursed to himself as he ran past Ari and out of the dead end, intent on keeping as much distance from the machine as possible.

Have fun, Ari thought as he vanished into the higher dimensions.