Re: I must complete all my Missions-Chapter 20: The Prophecy

The silence that filled the hall was thick, disturbed by the soft pulsing glow of the murals.

Dimm continued staring at the scroll lying harmlessly before him on the marble pavement. His brow furrowed as he knelt with one knee down, the other up and his arms resting on his raised thigh. He reached toward the parchment but hesitated.

Khobba stood not far beside him, watching him intensely with her finger curling into her mouth.

She said it must be read with the heart. Dimm repeatedly thought, his eyes not leaving the scroll.

Minxx didn't even care to interfere. She gave no response, only her presence pressed unto Dimm to know the necessity of unfolding what the scroll held.

Dimm inhaled deeply, then, closed his eyes, and placed his hands gently on the scroll.

And in that stillness, memories flickered like stars in his mind. He suddenly got engrossed in a trance. And in that trance, he began to see the imagination of things.

Beneath a stitched skyline with flickering neon, a figure seemed to be moving silently through the digital city's alley. Holograms blinked in and out, casting spectral light on rusted data towers.

Each step the figure took, distorted the reality of the city. Its footprints faded, and everything truth displayed by the holograms dissolved into illusion.

It was just as if there wasn't anything real in the world again.

Dimm only stood by a corner, as if he didn't exist, when yet, he apparated to another kind of world, or maybe, the digital city setting changed its scene.

In this scene, high above, in a place no one could reach, bright lights illuminated the whole environment. Big machines moved at their command, shaping what was right and wrong.

Their voices were soft and sweet, sliding into people's minds like lullabies.

"Follow us," they said, "and you will be safe."

But behind the soft words, was a harsh truth. For every smile they gave, something was taken. And even, no one saw the price being paid for following these words.

Then, amid this scene, one of the men who spoke raised a key. A golden key.

A brave boy ran to grab the golden key. He thought it would give him power. But as he touched it, glowing chains shot out and wrapped around him. He tried to pull away, but the chains pulled harder.

On a screen nearby, strange letters blinked: You are caught.

Only then did the boy realize that the key was a trick. It wasn't a gift—it was a trap.

Still in this trance, the scene yet changed again. Revealing a girl who stepped onto a glowing stage. From the sky, strings hung tied to her hands and feet.

She smiled, twirled, and bowed just like the others with her did. Each time she fell, the strings pulled her back up. This was the same for her crew.

She continued dancing, never stopping.

Then, light shows on a group of five men who watched and got entertained by the dance. They never saw the empty, tired look in the girl's as well as other's eyes.

All they wanted, was to get entertained.

And the scene changed yet again.

This time, it played in the middle of a broken city where individuals tagged as players moved like ghosts. They ran, fought, won and lost.

Light showed particularly on one boy who reached the top of a tall tower, raising his hands and waiting for cheers. But he got none.

Then, the boy looked down. All the others were still running in circles, chasing things they would never get.

Above them all, hidden in the clouds, giant hands moved levers and buttons. They all watched, and laughed. And just at the moment, the boy fell off the tower, landing on the ground beneath.

He was going to start all over, just as if it was a loop play they engaged in.

But what really happened? The giant hands had moved the levers and buttons, and this caused a change in the rules of the play.

There seemed to be no finish line. No real prize. The game was just unending.

And this was when, with a gasp, Dimm awoke from his trance. He was still in the royal hall.

And in his sight, Khobba had taken a step back. Even Minxx sat straighter on her throne.

"I can see it," Dimm muttered, his chin widening into a grin. "It worked. I can see it."

He raised the scroll from the pavement it laid on, and his expression changed to something serious.

"It is a poem. A poem that somehow entails the truth about what's happening in a place," Dimm reported.

"We can't see the poem. But you can. So, read it," Minxx instructed.

Dimm straightened up, stretching the clothes that tugged on his chest and brought the scroll into his view.

"Hmm...hmm," he cleared his throat and began to recite.

In a hidden world, where dark things shine,

A place of light that isn't fine.

The wires buzz, the numbers flow,

But the real truth, we'll never know.

Up above, the bright eyes see,

They make the rules for you and me.

They speak so softly, they sound so kind,

But hide the price we'll one day find.

The brave all come to win the game,

They chase a prize that has no name.

A golden key, name them, a royal chair—

But coded traps are waiting there.

Like dolls on strings, they move and spin,

They play again but never win.

They fall, they rise, they dance in pain,

And never ask, "Who holds the chain?"

This game goes on, it has no end.

There is no prize, no love, no friend.

Just hidden hands that pull each thread,

While gods above eat all instead.

After reading it, Dimm opened his eyes wide and looked straight into Minxx's own. "Don't tell me this has something to do with this game."

Minxx's eyes narrowed, as she tilted, heading back to go and sit on the throne. "You have seen it."

"And Khobba... she's part of it?" Dimm asked.

"Every PC (Player Character) in this game is part of it," Minxx said, looking sideways to be sure the other elves didn't understand what she meant. "You understood?"

The way Minxx had turned sharply after uttering the world hinted to Dimm what it meant. Earlier, she had told him that she wasn't an NPC like the other elves.

'If she isn't...' Dimm thought. 'This is getting me interested the more.'

The Queen leaned forward instead, folding her fingers beneath her chin. "This only means that our decision to accept you was no coincidence."

Dimm folded the scroll, handing it back to the maid who had come to collect it.

"This scroll is said to be four centuries years old. Passed on from generation unto generation," Minxx said, raising the scroll which she collected from the maid.

"It was passed down to me by the Late Queen mother. According to her instructions, she regarded what was contained in this scroll as a prophecy. A prophecy that none has been able to decrypt after it was passed on by the author of its content."

"A prophecy that will only begin to unfold in the fifth generation, our generation."

Minxx now sounded somewhat awkward. Somewhat strange, as she stood from her throne.

Like play, Minxx began to remove the beads she wore on her neck. Stripping herself off anything that proved she was a queen.

"And there was an instruction that must hold, for any being who can decrypt The Prophecy."

"First, he must be acknowledged as the one true him...and as such, all knees must bow, even at the mention of his presence, and all that he comes across must serve and support him."

"Hail the One True Him!"

"Hail the One True Him!!"

Dimm was shocked at the whole turn-up of events. He turned his head behind to realize almost all the elves of the village had gathered in this hall.

It was a very large hall, and so could contain as much as any crowd required.

Everybody, even Minxx and Khobba, bowed before him, as he stood dignified.

Lost in the moment of what was happening, Dimm bent over to Khobba, and with a hushed tone, he murmured. "I'm just seventeen you know. Isn't this a burden?"

But, it didn't concern Minxx. She was already behind Dimm waiting for him to raise his head. And when he did, she signaled him with her hands to climb the pavement.

"You need to address us," she said, her words sounding like a bullet in the ears of Dimm.

"Huh. What?"

The source of this c𝐨ntent is freeweɓnovēl.coɱ.