Chapter 10: 10/Golden Door
Nikoletta got to the center of the flying island, followed by Alice and Mirror.
Here, instead of the glass statue of a woman, there was a small lake. Inside, some small fishes were peacefully swimming.
Somewhere in that lake, there was a door made entierly of gold, or at least of something that looked like gold. Strangely, the Golden Door was barely taller than Alice.
The young girl was surprised. From what she had understood, the woman who created this door was extremly tall, to an inhuman extent.
Why chose to create such a small door ?
Apparently, neither Nikoletta nor Mirror seemed to even ask themselves this questions.
Maybe because they both knew why.
Nikoletta, First Blade of the Fourth Ring, stopped before walking into the shallow water.
"It's here that our paths shall diverge, Lightbringer. I wish you luck, and I hope that you will one day reach the Temple of Light."
"About that... you told me a lot of things about the City of Flowers, but you didn't really specify what I was supossed to do after that."
Nikoletta sighed. At least Alice thought she sighed. With Nikoletta, it was always hard to guess these sort of things.
"I'm really sorry, Lightbringer, but I passed way too much time here too accurately remember the complex and ever-changing geography of the Sky. I'm pretty sure the fastest way to get to the Temple of Light from the City of Flowers is the East Door. Then, after a few dangerless Rooms, you should find the Tower of the Truth. Here, I'm pretty sure you should be capable of finding someone who both know english and know how to get to the Temple of Light."
Alice blinked several time. Not everyone in the Sky spoke english ? As if all of this wasn't hard enough already.
"I'm curious now. Why and how have you learned english ?"
"It's not the moment to talk about that. Let's just say you Lightbringer are so important that you managed to bring an entire language into our world, and spread it."
Alice frowned. Nikoletta hadn't really answered.
"No more question, said the imposing Hearth Eater. It's time for you to go, really."
Alice replied:
"Are you sure you don't want to come with us ?"
"Sadly, it's impossible. I still have things to do here."
Alice would have like knowing what these things were, but she already knew that Nikoletta wouldn't provide a trustful answer.
"Too bad... Farewell, Nikoletta. And thanks for everything you did for us."
"Farewell, Lightbringer."
Mirror stayed silent.
Even though her relationship with Nikoletta had somewhat improved, these two still hated each other a lot. Nikoletta straight up ignored Mirror most of the time, and the clone of Alice always mocked her when she wasn't around.
Under the piercing gaze of the Heart Eater, the two girls walked into the lake, advancing towards the Golden Door in the center. The lake wasn't deep at all, so there was no need to swim.
Which was a really good thing, because Alice didn't knew how to do that.
Their shoes were going to get wet, but that was nothing compared to dying drowned.
The trip that take them to the Golden Door was both short and uneventful, yet Alice felt really tense during it.
She was approaching the finish line. Of course she felt stress.
But in the end, nothing bad happened. The Door didn't suddenly disappear, Nikoletta didn't attack them from behind, Mirror didn't try to kill her...
Alice could barely believe it. This felt too good to be real.
And yet, it was.
When the two girls arrived before the Golden Door, Alice could not open but be fascinated by it, to the point where she forgot about her irrealistic worries.
The Golden Door was not only made entierly of gold, but it was also incised with care.
In the middle of the Door figured some runes oddly similar to the one in the message the creator of the island wrote, next to the english part of the text.
And just like in the message, there was also a few words of english here. Three words.
"Created by Stranger."
Under the text, there was a representation of someone she recognized instantly. A woman woth both a sword and a shield. It was a representation of the crazy person who apparently created this Room, the person who refered herslef as "the stranger".
On each sides of the Door, two other beings were represented, each of them taking much more space than the creator of the Room herself.
The being on the left was a woman that had extremly long hairs, and an orb in her hands. The being on the right had demon-like horns on top of his head, and was brandishing a sword.
Who these two were, Alice had no idea. That was likely not important anyway.
Mirror likely thought the same thing, because, rather than looking closely at the Door, she instead opened it with the key she got from the chest she found a while back.
The Door opened in a loud sound.
Alice looked at what was on the other side.
What laid behind that Door... was unfathomable darkness. It almost felt as if there was void in front of her.
"Is this normal ?"
Mirror replied without even looking at Alice:
"Yeah, it's like that for every Golden Door."
"How do you know ? You never saw another Golden Door before, right ?"
"I know things I shouldn't. Just trust me."
Alice almost smiled. Mirror wasn't even trying to hide the fact that she came from the future or some similar stuff anymore.
"It's weird... I don't know how long we stayed there, in this Room, because there is no day-night cycle, but I'm pretty sure it's less than three days. Yet, it's as if I stayed here for weeks."
"I understand the feeling, replied Mirror. It's because so many things happened in those less than three days. Some of these things being... strange."
For several seconds, nothing happened. Mirror and Alice simply stared at the void in front of them, like two friends watching the stars at night.
Alice was the first to break the eerie silence.
"So, what do we do now ? We just... advance ? Just like that ?"
"Yeah. I'm going first."
Mirror confidently walked forward... and disappeared into the darkness.
Alice hesitated for a few seconds, before following her comrade.
As soon as her body touched the void, she immediatly felt as if she was transported somewhere.
She had succeded.
She had escaped the Forest of Glass. She had survived despite all the strange things thrown at her.
She survived despite the thirst, despite the hunger, despite the white haired clone, despite the strange Mirror, and most important of all, despite herself.
Little did she know, the next Room was going to be worse. Far worse.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone