Chapter 50: Revelation
"Okay, we’re good."
Juli wiped her brow.
"You scared the hell outta me with that pause!"
"Better safe than sorry."
He turned the book over in his hand. There was nothing special about it, but it had a lure that made you want to open it immediately.
The leather was rough under his fingers, the edges of the pages curled inward with age, and the clasp opened with a soft click the moment he pressed it.
The first page held a single sentence written messily over a crumpled page: "to whoever finds this, take it and run. the depths have woken up."
Eli’s blood went cold.
’What in the world... Is there something like this when I played the game?’
He didn’t remember a single detail about this mysterious book. It wasn’t a matter of skipping parts of the story; he would have remembered such a strange event if it had happened.
Maybe he had found it too early. He could think of plenty of ways this book might have appeared: the labyrinth could have been discovered before the events of the story but presented as a first discovery because no one could have known, or someone outside the story might have found the diary and taken it.
Either way, the content sounded foreboding.
Juli leaned over his shoulder and squinted at the page.
"Take it and run? Take what? The book? Or another treasure?"
Eli hummed.
"It may just be the book. I don’t see anything around here."
She frowned and reached over to flip the page herself.
The second page was packed with text, smudged in places that portrayed the writer’s deep fear: "the carvings on t-e walls are sigils. i confirmed it this morning when one of them li- under torchlight. They are older than anything in our archives. it’s from the purification war. i’m certain. this patterns belong to the RED MOON."
Eli stopped breathing for a second.
’...You’ve gotta be kidding me.’
Juli leaned even closer.
"Red Moon? Like, the Red Moon we’ve all been discussing!?"
Eli reread the line twice to make sure he saw it correctly.
’Damn... so this labyrinth was used as a monster lair by the Red Moon. No wonder!’
This explained both the lack of monsters nearby and their abundance later in the game’s story. The Red Moon had been preparing its monsters in the depths of the labyrinth, unbeknownst to everyone. And this feast was definitely prepared for when Joanne departed for the capital.
The entry log even proved this.
Eli flipped the page, revealing even more info: "the monsters down here look wrong. their cores carry a ring of darker mana wrapped around the natural one. they are breeding anomalies and calamities. but for what? i need to know why."
His eyes lingered on the pages, literal proof that monsters would invade alongside these Moonwatchers. Before, he had no choice but to withhold this information because there was no evidence, not even a hint or conjecture, which left him stumped.
But now...
’This... this is a game-changer!’
He held the diary up.
’Holy fuck. What a gain!’
Eli certainly didn’t expect to find a notebook of all things in a labyrinth he had treated as a farming stage to grow stronger.
His mouth twitched into the most unhinged smile.
Juli noticed it immediately.
"Elise, why are you smiling like that...? Stop! You look creepy!"
Eli lightly put a hand on Juli’s shoulder.
"Juli, this is the best worst thing that has happened to us."
"...What does that even mean?"
He flipped to the next page, and it wrote: "i overheard two moons in the lower chambers. they spoke something about releasing a flood. the mutated monsters will be driven up through the surface cracks into the city above, while their brethren strike the academies."
Eli flipped to the last entry, ink was blotted and blurred: "i’ll go down deeper to investigate now. i leave my diary h-re, so if you found this, as—e that i’m already dead. go and alert the House, the aca-mies, anyon-. don’t dig deeper."
He closed the diary and held it against his chest.
The weight of that last entry sat heavy in his bones. The writer, whoever this was, most certainly was dead somewhere below, lured by their own sense of duty.
Eli quietly admired their courage. They had every reason to climb back up the steps and run, and yet they chose to leave his findings behind as a safety net and head deeper anyway.
On the other hand, it was an extremely reckless move, and one he had to criticize. If the circumstances didn’t allow them to return to Florentine, fine. But if they had a choice and still decided to infiltrate a Red Moon base without alerting the necessary personnel, that was stupidity.
The original story wouldn’t have happened if this person had reported their findings to Joanne, Irene, or anyone else with the power to influence.
Still, Eli couldn’t blame a dead person. He didn’t know what situation they had been in, nor had he felt the overwhelming emotions they had.
He slid the diary into the coat’s inner pocket and fastened the flap twice for good measure. Losing this book between here and Joanne’s desk was almost more frightening than the lair itself.
Juli watched him with one eyebrow raised.
"I suppose we need to show this to Ma Joanne, correct? Those are some disturbing accounts."
"Yes." Eli nodded. "Let’s return. Fast."
"Fuck."
Juli sheathed her sword and turned toward the corridor.
Eli followed close behind, one hand pressed against his coat to keep the diary safe.
They quickly covered ground and returned to the stairwell.
The climbed the mossy steps two at a time. Soon, they emerged into the clearing, and the afternoon light hit Eli first.
Then, he heard Juli’s breath catch in front of him.
A lone figure stood at the edge of the trees, almost entirely shadowed by the canopy.
Eli had never seen her go that still.
"...No way," she said, her voice came out small, almost like a child’s. "What are you doing here...?"
The diary pressed heavier against Eli’s ribs.