If I fixed everything up, can I still go home?

What do you think, stranger?

Please answer me. It's so lonely out here.

Prop Hunting Game!

~°°~

Alarm. Five o'clock.

When Thalia Kruger woke up, there was something off. It's certainly not caused by the smudge in her boots like the other day nor was it like the other other day which was caused by having a really, really bad hair day where her bangs weren't cooperating.

No. This one was different and heavy enough to cost her that one point in the last exam.

Calendar. First week of September. Wednesday.

The Newcomers' Welcome would be in just a few more days. She opened her locker and took the books needed for her next lesson.

She gritted her teeth.

Nice. More loud annoying brats. She enjoyed the quiet peace these days. It would most likely disappear soon.

What's even worse was the fact that her sworn rival is mingling with a bunch of low rankers again. They—as the highest rankers—should be focusing on improving and honing their skills for the impending Graduation.

For the world.

For Helen Sevhe and her father.

~°°~

"Oi. Oi!" Boreas' voice rang furiously as he smacked Eris in the head, waking them up from their nap. "Wake up."

"Heindell," Professor Jhlor called. "As you are so attuned to Practical Magic that you dare sleep in my class, please stand up and explain the Stuck, Wheeless Carriage Theory."

Eris stood up, blinking like a lost goldfish. "Right—so um, it's the theory where the carriages got... stuck."

The Professor smiled wanly.

On the sea of many, only Boreas' hand was raised up. Another hand shot up.

"Yes, Kruger?"

Short, blonde with fiercely blue eyes stood up. "The Stuck, Wheeless Carriage Theory refers to a scenario where a carriage gets stuck and how the different categories would solve this enigma. The Burst will make a burst of magic to make the carriage move, Borrow will make the earth itself move, Creation will make another set of wheels and Metamorph will turn into a giant and carry the carriage. In short, it tells efficiently the differences of the categories."

Professor Jhlor nodded. "Very good. As you are all officially Peculiar users, this subject will be very important so I'd really prefer it if you don't sleep through it." His eyes narrowed at Eris. "Now, I think some of you have noticed that your blood has become rather different. Bluish. That is just the effect of Peculiars settling into your body."

He took out a knife and slashed the back of his wrist. Red blood dripped down. "It'll return back to its original color soon enough. I just wanted to tell you all because our dearest nurse almost got an epileptic shock at the number of students going to the nurse office for this reason."

He hid back his knife into his coat and wiped the blood off his hand. "Now, with all that explained, I want you all to open your books at page 289 which focuses on the contents of your Peculiars. Now, as we all know every Peculiars have their own sets of rules. It is best to figure each and every of them thoroughly—"

Eris' Peculiar plopped clumsily to their side as they opened their Theoretical Peculiars to the mentioned page.

Out of the sudden, the class door opens and Rycella Gullerva strode in.

Dark glares stabbed behind Eris. Despite everything, they supposed that it wasn't easy to change their minds about Rycella. Lethe certainly still did not change her mind. There was a bit of hesitancy now though, which Eris took as a win.

The red head looked at them meaningfully.

Eris rested their head on their hands, leaving three fingers up. See? They thought smugly. They can be subtle.

Rycella looked away. She planted them successfully. Eris didn't need any symbols or secret messages. Now, to the actual struggle which is themselves or more specifically, their Peculiar which is what is needed to finish this mission.

It's not stressful at all. Like totally. It's fine, it's surely gonna be easy—

~°°~

Rycella awkwardly patted their back as Eris Heindell puked in the bathroom. She pushed curly hair out off Eris' face, caressing dark soft skin.

"Go, go, go. Um. Puke the anxiety out," the red head encouraged, even as her own nose curled up due to the sound and the stench.

~°°~

"So here's the plan that Boreas and I planned out," Lethe dramatically motioned her hands into... something as her dark, wild curls frantically spread out. "Wait, actually can I borrow your glasses, dude?"

Boreas raised his hand. "I just want to clarify that I'm the one who planned this."

The redhead sighed and gave her glasses. Lethe pushed Rycella's glasses into the bridge of her nose as she twirled a marker in her other hand. "Cue the action music, the glasses and the whiteboard." Eris turned into a speaker while Boreas held out a small whiteboard. Music raged in the air. "So this is the plan. I call it... the Prop Hunting Game. We need to atleast know something about the Walls as Boreas had said the other week before, y'know, someone dragged another certain someone right into our secret spot. Even though that someone knows that the certain someone is a traitor and most likely—"

Boreas coughed politely.

"Right. Of course. No fighting. We'll talk about it later." Lethe glared. "Anyways, firstly, Boreas said we need a distraction. And I have the perfect idea for it." She took out something from her bag.

Boreas groaned at the sight of a very familiar looking necklace. "I said distraction. Not accidental homicide."

"Shush! Now, now, we may not have the best experience with this but you have to agree that it's very, very destructive. If we set it to look for the floating candles and to students' and Professors' uniforms, one cannot imagine the chaos it will cause..." the brunette clutched her chest with a hand, melodic with a dramatized tone. "We need to duplicate it, place it in every room possible and set them all off at the same time. We will burn through the expectations."

Boreas glowered at the wording. Rycella peered at the strange necklace curiously. She had to squint though because someone took away her glasses.

"You only need a sample of people's things to have it set on. Since Rice Guava is kinda an apprentice nurse, you're gonna be the one to take the samples and you'll set them in each room of the Dome."

~°°~

Screams echoed everywhere. Fire blazed through and a raging chaos shackled Professors, students and the floating candles (especially the floating candles) into panic. The school nurses frantically carried injured students away, looking quite aghast as if questioning the meaning of their lives. They made a hundred of those necklaces. It was shockingly easy to make.

"How and why on earth did you guys invent that thing?" There was a very, very concerned look on Rycella's face.

"For Eris' stuff," Boreas and Lethe said in chorus. The small girl looked even smaller then, burying their darkened, embarrassed face into calloused hands.

Rycella watched as a nurse and four students were hit in the head in one quick bullseye by a necklace before it ricocheted, destroyed a chandelier and burst through the school roof. Her lips thinned into a straight line. "You guys are all insane."

~°°~

"In that sort of chaos, it wouldn't weird if we just suddenly split up, wouldn't it? This leads us to the Second phase." Lethe raised up two of her fingers. "While they are distracted, Rice Guava, Eris and I will go to the Wall. Boreas, you have to stay for a lookout. In case there is trouble you teleport to us and then, teleport us away."

~°°~

One necklace almost hit Boreas but the pale boy had teleported away, leaving the three of them. Somewhere he could see almost everything. The school rooftop. And it wouldn't be weird too because of the rampage inside(although some necklaces were able to puncture their way out). Many students have come up too, bloodied and burned.

Oh well, nothing that Healing Glyphs and Potions wouldn't fix.

Boreas took out a melting piece of chocolate and ate it. His eyes widened.

"They really are in a disarray," he muttered under his breath, seemingly staring at nothing.

He took one necklace out of his pockets—one that was set with Rycella's hair. He activated it.

~°°~

"Now, Eris needs to discreetly transform into a closed off kart or something with me inside it in order for us to not be detected. Rice Guava, being the traitor ever since she was alive, can push us to the Wall without Professors caring."

~°°~

Rycella fell, forehead bleeding.

The necklace stopped when it hit its target.

When a necklace ricocheted to Lethe, Eris took one deep breath and turned themselves into a shield. The lack of oxygen became easier to handle now. The most challenging part was the changing subtly into kart. Calmly pictorize it, Eris Heindell. The flying, moving kart that Professors use to carry their things. The wooden handle, the squeaky wheels as it goes to the tiles and the dusty lid that couldn't be scrubbed cleaned. The smell of books and paper it carries.

"Nice.." muttered Rycella, who had already stood up, a tinge of pride in her voice. "Let's go."

The plan worked perfectly. Which left them to—

~°°~

Lethe twirled Rycella's glasses. "The third phase. Now, just in case, I brewed all of you a Speed Potion and Invisibility Potions although the latter doesn't really work against monsters. I gave Boreas some Alertness Potion albeit he probably doesn't need it because he drank black coffee."

Boreas massaged the sharp bridge of his nose. "Oh, good lord. Get to the point."

"Fine.." The tall girl rolled her eyes. "The chocolates Kai had given to us are insanely magical. They can turn into any potion the eater wants in a few seconds. Now, what if it can make us go through the Walls? And since I trust neither of you two right now—" she stared pointedly at Eris and Rycella, "—I intend to do it myself."

She clapped her hands. "Now, we reach the fourth phase."

Boreas raised his hand again. "There's no fourth phase."

"I made one," Lethe replied. "In this, we celebrate the fuck out."

"... Can I bring down the whiteboard now? You didn't even use it. Also, did you spent half of perfume for today? It's ransacking my nostrils."

On the corner, Eris detransformed, panting heavily on the ground.

"We do have one problem though," Boreas thoughtfully caressed his chin. "The invisible, flesh demon things that are everywhere."

"Oh, those things with four eyeballs?" Rycella piped in the conversation. "Those aren't really demons. If those are real demons, there'd be a hundred missing students everyday."

"Then what are they?"

Rycella licked her lips. "Peculiar. Of course. From what I know, Professor Helica makes them. She can reconstruct dead flesh and by offering her blood she can make them do her bidding. They act as surveillance."

"Oh, like a necromancer!" Lethe's eyes shone brightly in excitement.

Boreas physically shivered. "Does that mean she can technically recreate people? What if she remakes my face and plastered it to somebody and have it murder someone, therefore framing me. That's very disturbing."

Rycella ignored them both. She hummed as a small crease appeared in her forehead. "What worries me is the fact that after she was gone, you guys still saw them. It's either a)." She raised up a finger. "Her life was somehow spared, b) they somehow immediately found another user for her Peculiar. Or lastly." Her eyes flickered. "There's someone with a copy Peculiar."

"So, you're saying that the plan is fucked."

"Not at all. I doubt she was spared. I carried two bodies that night." Rycella said. "There's a bigger chance that what you saw was made by a new user. Therefore, unexperienced. If we can have Boreas to look for them before we proceed, there's a huge chance that the flesh demons are in a disarray."

Boreas nodded. "Wait. What about the gate out? Those are locked."

Lethe looked at him strangely. "There's a gate?"

"You didn't know?" asked Boreas, incredulously.

The brunette opened her mouth to speak but Rycella interjected. "I have the key for it. Don't worry."

"Well, then. It's settled." Lethe grinned as she returned the glasses. "I wore it better, by the way."

The redhead exhaled.

~°°~

Looking at the shaking lid of the kart, Rycella knew that it would only take seconds before Eris would detransform.

She snuck down an alleyway, avoiding a bunch of panicking students and the nurses and Professors that were trying to deescalate the situation.

In the shadows, Rycella watched the wheels turn to lean and short stature, the wood to tattered uniform, dark curls and tired heavy eyes. Lethe Walth came out as well, patting Eris lightly as they grasped for air.

They're barely halfway the Second Sector. Eris could barely hold their breath for one minute. They needed to revise their plan. Good thing Walth seemed to have the same idea.

"We should blend in for a while." They said in chorus.

Lethe looked at her with begrudging respect.

The necklaces had begun rampaging outside, following their running preys. Rycella saw one necklace beheading atleast four statues in the High Street, tearing holes through stones as if they're butter.

Rycella grabbed both of their hands and made a run for it, blending fluently with another group of students. It's important for them to be in a group. Someone might notice that they're weirdly the only ones not chased by a necklace.

The First Sector was no better. Rycella meant it when she said she planted every room a necklace. Ginger hair flowed in the air as she maneuvered through fallen bookshelves, jumping through ripped statues and dodging bulldozing students, her neatly knotted necktie now loose and dancing with her hair.

The Walls loomed closer now, however.

The brunette glanced meaningfully at Eris who grumbled but still complied and turned again.

~°°~

The metallic taste of blood coated Boreas' mouth as an invisible force punctured him, crumbling the roof they were on and forcing him to the ground. Buzzed hair, scarred skin, white eyes and terrible jewelry. Krowan Huine stood, cane in his hand and teeth grinding as a red angry vein appeared in his forehead, seemingly on the verge of popping.

"I know it's you guys.." The usual joking and carefree look on his face was wiped out.

This guy can control everything. It finally clicked on Boreas' head. The air itself picked up Boreas and squeezed him in a warning. "You go to them right now and you need to stop whatever the fuck you guys are goddamn planning."

Screams of people witnessing the fight—the two Professors tearing their hair out because the chaos caused by the necklaces hadn't dwindled and now a fight broke out (really, I do pity them sometimes). Boreas trembled, nodding.

Boreas fell.

Krowan dropped to his knees, whispering repeatedly under his breath as his hands gripped his ears, covering it. "It's awakening. Again. What the hell is Rycella thinking?!"

Krowan Huine. That cocky brute who shaved his head for a bet. A person who could control reality. Who decimated a bunch of demons in one blow. Shaking. Shivering, face contorted and twisted in terrible fear and regret.

Hands bleeding, Boreas began to weakly draw a circle.

~°°~

Sweat trickled down on the side of Rycella's forehead. Her leg burned as she ran. The streets finally came to a halt, an iron gate at its end. Rycella's hands dug to her pant pockets, shakily taking out the key. The rusty lock opened with a click. They rushed forward, running and running. After a few seconds, the kart suddenly swerved and burst, turning into the form of Eris Heindell—panting, sweating and gasping for air. Lethe stood up patting the dust off her inside out trousers and uniform, grinning as she patted them in the back. "Nice, nice. Good job Eris!"

"I—a'most—died—!"

Rycella rushed to their side and held out a helping hand. "I'll carry you. Hurry up. We're close."

Eris took it gratefully.

"For a small person, you're very heavy."

"Fuck off."

The grass became taller and taller, blotchy in their skin. A giant tree stood, towering and imposing, a gaping burrow in the bottom of its trunk, the only tree in this place. And Eris didn't know why but they wanted to flee.

Crickets sang out a tune as a few butterflies flickered to their way. Thorny weeds drew cuts on sweaty skin. The grass was as tall as Eris now, almost swallowing the three of them. Few, small flowers stood on the sea of green and they danced in the accordance of the winds. Rycella stopped. The Wall was here. Now close, one couldn't help but be amazed at the sheer size of it. The three of them already knew it's big—it's covering the whole place for gods' sake—but there was a difference to stand near it and realize the sheer scale of it compared to the body of a teeny, tiny human.

"Goddamn," cursed out Lethe, dark eyes flashing in astonishment. "It sure is fucking big. Even one brick of it is bigger than Eris. Not an insult this time for real."

A steel fence eaten by moss stood before the Wall. It's climbable though. Atleast compared to that humongous fucking Wall beyond it. Lethe glanced at Eris and both of them nodded.

Eris clambered to their feet, legs shaking. Her sweat ridden, brown complexion shone like bronze under the light of the Tower, black eyes glinting in determination. They easily turned into a ladder and Lethe climbed on them quickly, jumping to the other side of the fence. The brunette opened her bag and took out the chocolate. She took the tiniest piece and ate it. She tossed the rest of the chocolates to Eris. Then, she grinned her small, secret grin.

She held her palm to the stone.

It happened in a flash. It happened when Lethe touched the Dome Wall.

The earth trembled, chanting glorias to the ????????????????????. The Walls quiver, moving, circling like large wheels. Countless eyes of fiery coals that burnt suns and stars to crisp climbing on each and every arching wheel. All of it. Looking at them. It was a being I couldn't describe fluently. No words suffice enough for its celestial presence.

A being made through the promise of ???????.

I suppose even that information couldn't be given right now. It doesn't matter. Right now, what matters was that this being screamed and the stars were watching. Hearing. Bored. "THE OATH. TO THE SUN."

The chants became louder, ringing in their eardrums. All of the being's eyes turned upwards before it glared at those little figures beneath its shadow. It shook the world it laid upon. Someone dragged Eris Heindell away. The grass near it became dead; barren. As if the God of Death himself had paid a visit. Then, as if it never happened, it glitched out of existence. The Wall is just a Wall.

A circular light from the ground spewed out Boreas but it's too late. Something blue spilled. It fell to the pale boy's cheeks. It painted the wilting grass pale blue.

Lethe Walth's head tumbled to the ground, crumbling, eyes still bright brown like freshly baked pastries.

~°°~