All of these are written by Kevin Ashton?

I staggered back in disbelief. Up until now, I had only ever read eight of Ashton's works.

Now, one hundred volumes stood before my eyes. I scanned them again from top to bottom. There was no mistake. Beneath every title, the name Kevin Ashton was etched in crisp, clear letters.

I couldn't help but remember the twenty-volume collection Marquis Ivote had once shown me. At first, I thought it was proof of a founding family's influence and power, but those twenty had all been fakes. I did not gain any Wisdom, and there was no special message. Nothing. Now, confronted with a hundred of Ashton's works, suspicion gnawed at me.

Could these all be genuine? Even a single one of them?

I reached for the thinnest book, hidden in a difficult place to reach deep within the imperial archives. I didn't think the books were fake, and yet... the sheer number before me, one hundred in total, felt absurdly unreal.

I cracked open the cover. Isaac and Naneow both stood still, silently watching. Neither mentioned the time nor the marquis who might already be walking to his death. The impossibility of this place caught our attention and entranced us.

The Last – Kevin Ashton

I turned the page.

Rustle.

One of the most important tasks in life is to come to terms with death.

The first line caught in my throat. Of all subjects, it had to be that. It applied to all three of us present: myself, who could not properly die; and Isaac and Naneow, who merely postponed it.

Naneow's voice came from my side. "This book feels... strange."

I didn't need to ask why. I turned another page to find a blank, white page.

Rustle.

The next page was also blank. Then another, and another. The pure white sheets had been untouched by ink. From five pages to ten, then twenty... all of them empty.

I turned, unsettled. "Could it be one of those books that requires a reagent or heat to reveal the text?"

"No." Naneow pressed a finger against the page and shook her head. "There's nothing. It's clean."

"No trace of magic, either," Isaac added.

"It's just paper."

"How is that...."

I kept turning. I turned forty pages, then fifty. All were blank. It didn't take long to reach the end. After flipping through emptiness, the final line at the very bottom of the last page leaped out at me:

...Just as curiosity compels us to turn to the final page, so too must we stride toward ultimate annihilation.

Ultimate annihilation?

It felt like the perfect contradiction to the opening line about overcoming death. Whatever the meaning, it was the last sentence, and the second true line in the entire book.

Ding!

[Wisdom has increased by 1.]

I froze, then shut the book in my hands. "..."

Isaac caught on instantly. "It's real, isn't it?"

I gave a silent nod. Kevin Ashton's works only increased my attributes when I read them cover to cover.

But... is this truly genuine?

The fairy tale I had once seen, where torn pages still granted power, was different. This was not a fragment; it had only blank pages from beginning to end. Only the first and last lines were written.

Could this truly be a finished work?

"Let's move for now..."

I swept the hundred books into my inventory. There was no time to test them individually. Even though the pages were empty, I had carefully turned through them. Too much time had already slipped by, and the marquis was still descending. If I had no intention of abandoning him, I had to hurry.

The overwhelming shock of seeing Ashton's hundred volumes faded as soon as I closed the book. Strangely, I felt relief. Since there was no content, it was easy to confirm the authenticity.

Thinking about it, is it not absurd that reading Ashton's books raises Wisdom at all? Then perhaps... even blank paper could serve the same purpose. Could Ashton have anticipated this very moment that I would come here and choose the thinnest book?

The thought was ridiculous, yet it flickered in my mind.

As I finished sweeping the last of the books into my inventory, a faint pressure stirred within it.

Naneow tilted her head, watching the books vanish into the air. "That space... it seems to have a limit?"

"Seems so," I answered.

The form could shift freely, and the capacity was vast, but it wasn't endless. Right now, my inventory level was marked only with a question mark. Still, I remembered that when the level had risen before, so had the storage capacity. I could only assume it would expand again with greater mastery.

Is it luck?

The final book fit perfectly. Not a page more could be stored.

"Let's go."

Woooooong.

Suddenly, a deep vibration rippled through the air. Black arcs spread outward like waves from a stone cast into a distant lake.

"The boundary's been triggered," Isaac said, resonating his inventory with mine.

"Because of us?" I asked.

"Either our intrusion, or that bastard who went in first. Something pushed it past the threshold."

"Why now? We've already descended so far."

"Because we've gone past what the keepers allow. We only gathered books, so chances are, the one ahead caused trouble."

"Then we keep moving."

None of us disagreed. Isaac woke Miyu up. It kicked up with all four legs, eyes sharp. Miyu must have broken free of Isaac's hypnosis.

"Good..." Isaac muttered.

"What is?"

"If the marquis realized it'd been under my spell, he wouldn't take it kindly. At least it's thinking straight now."

Naneow gave a faint smile. "Indeed, crow sorcerer. A simple trance is one thing, but prolonged compulsion like yours could have scarred its subconscious."

"Keheheh. You slaughter beasts and men without blinking, yet you fret over a horse's subconscious?"

"It's about dignity, nothing more. Not something to weigh on scales."

They joked deliberately, keeping the tension at bay as we pressed forward.

"Neigh!"

We followed the marquis' trail until we came to a narrow iron door embedded within the vast stone wall of the library. It looked absurdly small, less than a hundredth of the wall's span.

Creak...

The door opened, and a chill darkness spilled forth. Inside, faint strands stretched on, like cords guiding the way. We followed them down.

Isaac explained to me, "As I thought, each floor is completely separate. They're not connected by seamless space, only divided realms."

***

At the end of the dimensional passage, heaps of debris blocked every path. Something had collapsed or been shattered here.

Miyu snorted, pawing and kicking the wreckage aside in order to push forward. The wreckage rose past my knees and stretched endlessly, but none of it seemed dangerous.

"This is the third floor," Naneow said, brushing dust off a half-buried stele.

No skipped levels meant this wasn't a mistaken path. We and the marquis were still descending toward the lowest depths.

Just as Naneow moved ahead with Miyu, the crow's voice stirred in my head. "Try that."

"What?"

"Like when you blocked Ilien's swarm. Use bulk, not storage. Push the wreckage aside with the space itself. This is a good exercise."

"But if I stop thinking of it as storage, everything I just gathered might spill out," I protested.

"That's only a lack of imagination. Think of sheathing the space. Wrap the inventory in an outer shell and expand that."

"Then do as you did before. Form the boundary for me."

The crow's eyes flickered.

"..."

"Why? Do it."

"You must realize it yourself," Isaac instructed in a weary and hollow-sounding voice. "You just need to separate the inside and outside. Maintain the domain and try to pull the expanded inside to the outside."

"Hm..."

"What a fool you are... No, perhaps I'm simply too brilliant, a miracle that even the gods envy. Very well. Just once more, I'll help you." His eyes gleamed. "Division. Alteration. Connection."

Isaac's pocket space split into five floating sigils that twisted in the air before fusing to my own. Suddenly, I felt our domains intertwine.

"I've overlaid a flexible shell over your space. It will hold for a while. Now, the core will respond more easily to your will. Expand it."

"If it's sheathed, then I don't need to think of storage anymore..."

"Correct."

I willed it outward, and the space warped. A membrane stretched in every direction. There was no symmetry, order, or balance, just an impossible-to-name warped bulge, like a crudely crushed half sphere. Yet, it filled the cavern, shoving aside the piled wreckage without missing a single scrap. The debris rattled, trapped between the wall and the membrane.

"Now what?" I asked Isaac.

"Try pushing it further."

"What if the cavern collapses?"

"It won't."

"..."

I trusted him and pressed further. The debris ground between the wall and the membrane, crumbling apart. Black, root-like fragments broke, rubbed down, and fell away into pulp. Among the wreckage, something already crushed to slurry started to seep through.

A sour memory surfaced.

The imperial... breeding pens?

Regardless, it was too late to find out. Everything had melted to pulp.

"Feels good, doesn't it?"

How would he know how it feels, even though he's never experienced it himself?

Yet, I could not deny it. I felt a faint intoxication as I crushed matter between unseen fingers.

Naneow's excited shout snapped me out of it. "Hey, what are you two doing back there? Get over here!"

We hurried, and what awaited us were the same transparent chambers I had seen before, each holding a human body afloat.

"They're alive?"

Each human body pulsed with a heartbeat. Naneow turned, scythe raised toward the nearest chamber.

"What are you—!" I shouted.

Clang!

Her blade, which had cleaved steel like parchment, failed even to scratch the thin glass. She struck again, quick and sharp.

Click.

I heard the chamber of her silver revolver click into place, loading a bullet that could drive back even swordmasters.

"What are you..."

Bang!

The round struck point-blank. The chamber wavered faintly... and that was all.

"Impressive."

On closer inspection, perhaps a hairline mark marred the surface, but shattering it would take countless blows.

"What did you do?" I asked.

Naneow shrugged. "Measured the fluid's resonance."

"And?"

"I don't know how it gained that color, but it's laced with Lurium."

"As expected from one who turned her very blood into Lurium. To find the frequency in a compound solution..."

"It isn't just a cryogenic preservative. Hydrolysis and regulation are actively maintained within." 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Naneow explained everything as though she were conversing directly with Isaac.

Inside... what are these bodies?

The tendrils piercing their flesh disturbed me. They reminded me of the apostle's remnants we'd hunted at Lerazie's shrine.

Crack!

Isaac had already flown to the chambers, circling each suspended body to examine them from every angle.

"Hm... as I thought..." Isaac trailed off.

"You know something?"

Isaac ignored me and instead muttered aloud, "Perfect bodies. No, perfect beings. Each with talents, traits... individuality carved sharp."

Naneow smirked at him. "Don't lick your beak, Isaac Bel'Homec. What you mean to say is something else."

"No, truly, the diversity here is astounding. It's a feast for the eyes."

I couldn't restrain myself from asking, "What are you two babbling about?"

Naneow and the crow turned to me and answered as one: "These flasks, more than half of them..."

Their last words overlapped perfectly.

"Most of these are..."

"...are familiar faces."