Library of Rain

Lon took the book out of Rain’s hands, face a mask of nervous excitement. He ran his hands over the stitched leather cover, fingers lingering over the seams between leather pieces. He looked closer at the claws on the string before finally taking a deep breath and opening the book.

 

Rain watched all this in fidgety silence. When he finally started reading, she could see a faint warping around him and the book. If she had to guess, it was closer to the impression valuable things made on reality than the discoloration that happened when people told lies. She kind of hoped Lon would take a while so she could figure out what was going on. 

 

When Lon turned the page, Rain realized she should have told him to take breaks and check his corruption instead of reading the whole book. This book might be like the tome of chromatic truths and only require a single chapter to get a skill. 

 

She decided to let him keep reading for now. A couple of pages wouldn’t do that much, and if this book was like the Tome of Chromatic Truths, he would probably feel the skill being forced on him. 

 

Lon kept reading; as he did, the strange warping around him grew stronger and stronger. After his fifth page, Rain decided she needed to stop him from reading further until they could assess his corruption levels. 

 

“Lon, you should take a break.”

 

He ignored her.

 

“Lon, you need to take a break now!”

 

Lon didn’t even pause as he turned the page. 

 

“Lon, do you hear me? It could be bad if you don’t stop.”

 

Nothing. 

 

Rain reached out to shake Lon out of whatever stupor he was in but found she couldn't touch him. The aura around him rebuffed her attempts. 

 

Meanwhile, Lon turned another page.

 

The warping around Lon began to shift from a slight distortion, similar to the kind hot temperatures make, to ghostly hands reaching out of the book, holding gifts and offering them to Lon. 

 

Rain needed to stop Lon before he got hurt. Taking the bonded ver she had on her, she tossed it between Lon's feet and warped to it. Hopefully, her appearing under him would knock him down and break him out of whatever trance he was in. Instead, as she warped, she felt a force hit her like a punch to the gut, and she appeared a foot short of Lon and the coin. The coin immediately destroyed itself despite being fresh. 

 

At this point, Rain didn’t know what else she could do other than wait and hope her friend was alright. Another ten minutes passed. The distorted arms from the book became more solid with every passing second. Before reaching the halfway point in the book, Lon seemed to return to himself and snapped the book shut.

 

“Ugg, that was… odd.” Lon groaned.

 

Before Rain could ask him if he was alright, Mr. Purple appeared with a message.

 

[Reader Talon has attained the skill: Battle Enhancement.]

 

[Creating class around Battle Enhancement for reader Talon.]

 

Lon stared at Rain, a look of dazed wonder in his eyes. “Rain, it worked.” 

 

[Notice: Reader Talon is exceptionally vulnerable to the corrupting influence; all corruption gained will be increased by 500%.]

 

[Notice: Reader Talon’s mental corruption has risen 100%. Current mental corruption 100%.]

 

[Notice: Reader Talon’s physical corruption has risen 100%. Current physical corruption 100%.]

 

More messages from Mr. Purple appeared, but Rain ignored them as Lon's expression shifted from joy to confusion to hunger. Then, his body began to morph. His legs grew longer, and his feet elongated, ripping apart his shoes as he shifted his stance to stand on his toes. His feet looked more like those of a dog than a man. His shirt ripped as a third arm sprouted underneath his left arm. This new appendage had two elbows, allowing it to move in ways no arm should. Each of his three hands was tipped with long claws that dripped a viscous black ooze. 

 

The thing that scared Rain the most, though, was his face. So very little had changed with his face. His mouth was wider and filled with sharp teeth, and a third eye had sprouted above his left eye. It was still a familiar face, but those changes made it feel so very off. 

 

Lon took an awkward step towards Rain. Nothing moved right, as though his muscles and bones were in all the wrong places. His strange anatomy looked all the more unnatural under his perfectly normal pale human skin. Rain could see the goosebumps on his exposed arms.

 

“Lon,” Rain managed in a tiny voice. 

 

Lon opened his mouth and screamed, hitting pitches that no human voice should ever reach. Rain felt her body lock up, and Mr. Purple returned with more messages. She ignored them like the rest. 

 

Lon took another step towards Rain. He was close enough that she could touch him if she could move. He grinned, showing his jagged teeth, and slashed at Rain with his claws. Before he could make contact, Rain warped to the coin she kept as an escape route in case of trouble, appearing behind a bush in a neighborhood ten minutes from Lon. She toppled over the moment she appeared still paralyzed.

 

As she tried to regain control of her limbs, Mr. Purple kindly showed her a message. 

 

[You have been paralyzed by the skill ‘Talon’s Rage’ paralyze duration 30 seconds.]

 

That was useful to know. It was a pity there was no way to read a message in the middle of stressful situations. Rain composed herself and made a deliberate effort to gather her thoughts as the skill's effect faded. She needed a way to capture Lon. If she could hold him, she might be able to find a way to reverse the corruption. 

 

The only place in Tineak she might be able to keep him in secret was the Dead Ring. But she didn’t know it well, and getting Lon there without him hurting someone or getting hurt was slim. Alternatively, she could lure him into her library and lock him in. That would help keep him isolated but would also make her library inaccessible. There was also the chance he might read something in there and worsen his condition. 

 

Rain started to feel her toes. It was time to get back to Lon. Pulling herself to her feet, she started an awkward run back, stumbling along as she tried to regain full control of her limbs. People looked at her oddly as she shuffled by.

 

Rain decided that locking him in the library would be the best solution until she could find someplace else to hold him. 

 

By this point, she had fully recovered from the paralyzation skill and was running as fast as her legs could take her. People had gone from odd looks as she stumbled to angry looks as she knifed between them and jumped over things that got in her way.

 

The best plan to get Lon into the library would be to get him to charge at her while she stood in front of an open doorway. She could dive out of the way before he got her and close the door. Given Lon’s new form, he would likely be able to change direction faster than her, so diving out of the way at the last second wouldn’t work. However, if she dropped a coin to the side and warped to it, she could dodge out of the way at the last second without giving away that she planned to dodge.

 

By this point, Rain was close enough to hear faint shouts and metal clanging. People were also fleeing the area. That wasn’t a good sign. She needed to hurry before someone got hurt.

 

As she turned the last corner, a new sense joined the sound of fighting. The smell of blood. Laying in the street just outside the alley where Rain had given Lon the book were three corpses: two men and a teenage girl. They had all been ripped open with sharp claws. One of the men was missing a large portion of his chest. Ragged teeth marks covered the edge of the wound. 

 

In the street, six guards in blue uniforms emblazoned with the Star of Tineak tried to keep a bleeding Lon at bay with their spears. Lon growled and swiped his claws in the direction of one of the guards. As he made the motion, claws of light detached from his hand and flew into the guard, carving deep gouges into his chest and causing him to fall backward. 

 

Another guard, seeing Lon's distraction, tried to stab him in the side. Lon caught the attack with his third arm and pulled the guard towards him, clawing the guard in the face. The guard screamed and clutched his face as if it were on fire. A third guard, this one older, yelled at the others.

 

“Stay back. We just need to hold it until a classer arrives.”

 

The others took this advice and tried to hold Lon back without engaging him. This was a problem for Rain; if Lon was being pinned down, she wouldn’t be able to trick him into the library. Looking around, she scanned for anything that might help her salvage this. Her eyes were drawn back to the corpses outside the alley. The book! If she destroyed it, maybe it would undo what happened to Lon!

 

Rain ran to the alley, jumping over the corpses and pools of blood, and bolted down to where the book lay innocently on the ground. When she reached it, she closed her eyes and opened the book. She could feel it trying to reach her, but with her eyes closed, it couldn’t make contact. Grabbing for the first page, Rain began ripping it out of the book. The moment the page started to tear, the book dissolved. Opening her eyes, Rain saw motes of light floating away from where the book used to be. Had that done anything?

 

Rain ran back to the opening of the main street to find Lon still fighting the guards. One more of the guards lay unmoving on the ground. 

 

It didn’t work. She needed a plan that would work. She started looking over the street again, hoping she missed something she could use to fix all this.

 

Two new figures entered the scene: a man in silvery armor carrying a steel sword led by another guard. As they arrived, the guard pointed at Lon, too out of breath to speak. The man in silver patted him on the back and told him to rest.

 

“Guardsmen, pull back. I will deal with this abomination.”

 

The guards disengaged at the man in silver’s words and ran for all they were worth. 

 

Lon eyed the man in silver wearily as he took a bite from a severed arm he had picked up somewhere.

 

The man in silver casually approached Lon as though Lon posed no threat.

 

Lon swiped his hands, sending claws of light towards the man. As the claws reached the man in silver, he beat them out of the air with his sword using minimal effort. Seeing this, Lon screamed, paralyzing Rain all the way back where she stood. The man in silver, however, seemed unaffected. When he was ten feet from Lon, he crouched down, pointing the tip of his sword at Lon; then, fast as a bolt of lightning, the man in silver was behind Lon. The man slowly stood up straight as Lon toppled to the ground, head rolling off his shoulders. 

 

Rain could do nothing but watch. The bodies in the street, and now Lon, a kind boy who stood up for what he thought was right, the first and only friend she ever had, they were all dead, and it was all her fault.