TWOD 14
Chapter 14: The Ruin Space
“Wait!” Su Ye called out to Hark.
Hark stopped and looked back at Su Ye. Su Ye smiled and reached for Hark. Hark’s expression instantly turned cold. Although he looked no different than before, he could feel it himself.
Su Ye grabbed his short sword. “I’ll give it back to you when I have time. Thanks,” Su Ye said, and he dashed into his house holding the bronze short sword.
Hark’s mouth opened, and he let out a heavy sigh before turning to leave. After a few steps, he looked back at Su Ye’s house, feeling a strong urge to climb over the wall and get his sword back. It wasn’t an ordinary bronze short sword; it was a magic short sword, sharper than steel, that had cost him a year’s worth of savings.
Inside the house, Su Ye held the short sword and examined it closely. “It’s indeed not an ordinary bronze sword. Good, it can be used for self-defense,” Su Ye thought, beginning to consider how to spend the night. He held the sword, his mind racing. No matter how hard he had tried before, an accident could still happen. If Ravens went mad, or if the person behind him took direct action, Su Ye could die before dawn.
“I can only use the last resort to save myself…” Su Ye thought for a moment, then went into the living room and bowed ninety degrees to the statues of Zeus, Athena, and Vulcan. “Three great gods, I am taking this action only for self-preservation, not out of any disrespect. The truly disrespectful person is the one who would step over you and kill me in front of you.”
After he spoke, Su Ye slowly moved the three statues to the doorway, facing outward. Standing in the dark living room, Su Ye looked at the backs of the three stone statues, feeling a sense of unease. He opened the magic book and carefully sent a letter to the school’s administrative office.
“Someone is coming to kill a student of the Plato Academy tonight—me. I’m not a good student, so I deserve to be ignored, but if I am killed, please, you great mages of the Plato Academy, avenge me if you have the time. I believe you can do it! Respectfully, Su Ye.”
After sending the letter, Su Ye began to search for three-dimensional dynamic magic in the magic book. Soon, a three-dimensional magical image of an old man, about a foot high, floated out of the book. His thick hair and beard were as white as frost, and his face was kind. Though his eyes were indistinct, his overall outline was very detailed. It was Plato.
Su Ye placed the open magic book behind the three statues and unfolded a copy of the letter he had just sent, placing it in front of the magical image of Plato. “Four of you, I entrust my life to you!”
Su Ye bowed very sehttps://orangenuna.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/woman-traveling-in-france-2023-11-27-05-16-47-utc_Easy-Resize.com_.jpgusly. He had done everything he could. If the other party was still determined to kill him, he would die even if he escaped from Athens. He had done his part; the rest was up to fate.
However, Su Ye didn’t go to bed. He sat on a chair in the living room, holding the bronze sword and resting with his eyes closed. Today had been too exhausting. He didn’t know how long it had been before he fell into a deep sleep.
“Huh?” Su Ye blinked repeatedly, looking around. “This dream feels a bit too real.”
Su Ye found himself in a set of ruins. The ground was messy, the steps were worn, stone pillars had fallen, and there were cracks everywhere. Everything was dilapidated and ancient, as if it had existed for countless years. The ruins were only about two hundred square meters and were irregularly circular, surrounded by an endless white light.
After scanning his surroundings, Su Ye looked toward the far end of the circular ruins. There stood a headless statue. Its hands hung at its sides, and it wore a very simple robe. Su Ye couldn’t quite place the style of the robe, as he had seen similar styles in both Eastern and Western cultures, but on closer inspection, there were subtle differences.
In front of the tall headless statue was a round table. Su Ye walked up the steps to the table and realized it was a stone platform. Most of the platform was white, but the white circle in the center was surrounded by ten golden-edged rings. Each ring was engraved with extremely complex black and gold runes that grew progressively larger from the inside out.
As he looked at the platform, Su Ye somehow knew immediately that it was an altar, as if the altar itself had told him. “This is a strange dream…”
Su Ye reached out and touched the platform. The sensation was clear and the texture was strong.
“That’s not right!” Su Ye suddenly said aloud, “Major premise: All Greeks believe in gods. Minor premise: I am a Greek. Conclusion: Therefore, I believe in gods. This…”
Su Ye’s eyes were filled with confusion. Dreams aren’t supposed to have logic, but here he was, spouting a syllogism. Although it was basic logic, it shouldn’t appear in a dream. Su Ye reached out and pinched his leg, but he felt nothing.
“What is going on?” Su Ye tried vahttps://orangenuna.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/woman-traveling-in-france-2023-11-27-05-16-47-utc_Easy-Resize.com_.jpgus things and slowly began to form a guess. “This isn’t a dream. It’s a strange space. My body didn’t come in here, but my consciousness, thoughts, or spirit did. I want to get out!”
In the next moment, Su Ye’s eyes snapped open in the living room. Just as he was about to try something else, he saw the backs of the three gods’ statues and Plato’s magical image at the doorway. He thought for a moment, then picked up the bronze short sword and the money bag and walked outside, being careful not to step over the statues or the magical image. He went to the side and slipped out the door, avoiding any disrespect.
Su Ye bypassed the living room and went into his bedroom. He closed his eyes and thought, “I want to enter.”
Nothing happened.
“I want to enter that place.”
Nothing happened.
Su Ye thought for a while, then began to visualize the altar in his mind. “I want to enter here,” he repeated mentally.
Nothing happened.
Su Ye frowned, deep in thought. He then closed his eyes and began to visualize the headless statue. For some reason, he felt a mystehttps://orangenuna.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/woman-traveling-in-france-2023-11-27-05-16-47-utc_Easy-Resize.com_.jpgus connection form between himself and the statue, similar to the connection he had with the magic book.
“I want to enter!”
Su Ye’s vision went black and then white. He was back in the ruin space.
Su Ye suddenly remembered that when he was swept into the sea by a tsunami in Greece, he had seen a large underwater ruin. The style of this ruin space was exactly the same as that underwater ruin. “Could I have brought a part of that underwater ruin here just before I died? Or is my presence here a result of that underwater ruin?”
Su Ye was completely baffled. He temporarily put aside the question of the ruins’ origin and began to consider what this space was for. “There’s an altar, so it should be for sacrifices.” After finding this key point, he looked around and then down at his hands, which were empty. “Can things from the outside be brought in? If not, can I only sacrifice myself?”
Su Ye stared at the altar for a long time, but he didn’t jump onto it. Instead, with a thought, his vision went white and then black, and he was back in his bedroom. Su Ye thought for a moment. This time, he held on tightly to the money bag and the bronze short sword, imagining himself standing in front of the headless statue with these two items.
His vision went black and then white. Su Ye found himself back in the ruin space, standing right next to the altar. He looked down and smiled with delight. The bronze short sword and the bag of gold coins were in his hands.
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