Chapter 26

When Takuya finally came to, he was greeted with an immediate assault to his various senses. A sudden shock of illumination nearly burnt his retinas as he tried to opened his eyes. No longer was it the dark world he was in earlier, but instead a plane of brilliance so bright he could barely look up. Then came the notice of a strange scent.

Before, the rotting smell of death clung to him but now in the air there was a new and different smell. A sweet aroma of freshness and vegetation, a completely alien smell that stung his nose.

“Ugh ... Argh!” He coughed as he struggled to pick himself up. Everything hurts. His whole body was throbbing like mad, and there was a feeling of extraordinary pressure. It was as if he was being crushed, his muscles ached, and he could barely move. Struggling to stand, he could only weakly limp before falling to the ground again as the taste of blood filled his mouth.

There he laid on the ground, helpless as he desperately tried to adjust to his surroundings.

Greenery, a breathtaking field stretching as far as the eye can see. A dazzling plane that he has never seen before. Thinking that he was just hallucinating, he furiously blinked his eyes and struggled to his back.

“Uwaah!” He cried out in pain as he fell over with a hard thud. He was not dreaming, the agonizing pain through his body confirmed that. Looking up he could see lights shining down, so bright that they were almost blinding him. The skies above him were not skies, but instead a parasol like cover that went on almost forever beyond the horizons.

It was hard to see but as he squinted his eyes, he could make out what looked to be tree leaves. The lights themselves came from the endless amount of glitters hanging high above, glimmering down like stars in a night sky.

“Where ... where the hell am I?” He weakly exclaimed as his eyes slowly moved across the strange scenery. He wriggled what little parts of the body he could still move, but he was completely paralyzed by pain. Unable to do anything, he could only close his eyes again...

BZZT BZZT

Suddenly jolted awake by the feeling of a vibration in his pocket, Takuya opened his eyes to another blinding flash of light as he threw his hands over his face. Finally able to move again, although in a daze, he carefully picked himself up.

The stale taste of blood swirled in his mouth as he spat it out, telling him that he had been sleeping for a good amount of time. His body ached and there was still a feeling of pressure, but he was no longer paralyzed, as the pain had significantly numbed down.

BZZT BZZT

Another feeling of vibration. He quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out his cellphone.

“Takuya, thank god!” Came the appearance of a frantic Juntaro as he was banging on the screen.

“Senpai?! What’s going on?”

“No time for that! I’m down to less than 2% of power on this phone and there’s no place for me to jump to!” Mouth the words from his lips, a look of fear on his face.

Takuya glanced over to the power and saw that he was right. His battery was on critical and could turn off at any moment.

“Please, you’ve got to help me! I-I DON’T WANT TO DIE!”

“O-okay! What do I do?”

“Do you have any of the chargebombs I made for you?! The yellow flip phones!”

Takuya ran his hands across his clothes but began to panic as he noticed much of his equipment were missing.

“I got one!” He let out a breath of relief as he was finally able to pull out the desired item from his back pocket.

“YES! Quickly, turn it on and place it on top of this phone then step back!” Juntaro instructed.

Takuya nodded as he hastily did as he was told and moved a safe distance away. A blinding flash of electricity then burst from the flip phone, causing him to cover his eyes in surprise. Peeking through his fingers, he watched as the electricity was absorbed into his cellphone.

“Phew...” Juntaro gave a sigh of relief as he popped out from a live chat. “That was way too close for comfort.”

“Senpai? What happened?” He asked as he reached for the phone, but pulled his hand back in pain from a sudden jolt of static on his fingers. “Ow!”

“Whoa, hold on! Don’t touch me yet! I’m still pretty hot.” He warned.

“Senpai, what did you do?”

“It’s a little crude, but I manually converted and took in the electricity from the chargebomb.” He explained. “Of course, I couldn’t take in the full amount and had to disperse most of it, so it wouldn’t ruined the internal circuitry, but I was able to at least charge the phone.”

“You can do that?”

“It’s just an emergency conversion. Even now, I’m only at 56%. Damn, I’ll barely last an hour at this rate.” Juntaro clicked his tongue.

“That doesn’t sound good. Are you going to be alright? That was the only one I had.” Takuya asked with concern as he carefully picked up his phone from the ground.

“For now, it’ll have to do. I’m still rebooting my systems. They were knocked offline when we were suddenly thrown into that fiasco earlier. Although, I’m going to have to keep my energy usage to a minimum and can only run the essentials.” He sighed. “Speaking of which, what the heck happened?”

“You’re asking me? I was going to ask you the same question. The last thing I remember was everything turning white and the Prez ... wait a minute.” Takuya suddenly realized. “W-where is the Prez?”

“Huh?! You’re telling me you hadn’t noticed he wasn’t with you? What the hell, man!?” Juntaro yelled at him.

“I just woke up! I don’t even know where I am right now!”

“Alright, hold on. My scanner is still processing—HOLY CRAP! What the hell Is all this?” Juntaro exclaimed as he finally started to looked around. “Is that grass? What’s with all this light from—the sky?! Wait, is that even sky? Are those stars?! And what the holy heck is that over there?!”

“What are you talking abou-” Takuya’s jaw dropped the moment he laid eyes on where Juntaro was pointing. In front of him stood a monumental silvery tower that stretched far and wide.

“Is ... is that a tree?!” Juntaro exclaimed.

“A tree?!”

There were no words that could be used to fully describe the colossal structure before them. Calling it a tree was indeed the only closest description they could use. Pure silver, the surface was radiant and shining like a crystal. Its height reached so far past the skies that it almost seems as if it was part of the heavens, like a pillar that descended from above and embedded itself to the very earth they stood on.

Surrounding them was a field of flowers, too numerous to count and completely alien from any known species, that spread far beyond their sights. Like a never-ending grove along the base of the tree, they were blending together with the evergreens. Protruding from the ground near the tree were colossal roots that spread throughout the area, shining silver and reflecting the lights that came down from above like shards of mirrors. They were almost translucent as they shoot out and coiled around the tree itself, wrapping like glass hands that spiral upwards.

“This ... is this thing organic?” Takuya gasped as he fixed his gaze upon the bewildering sight.

The tree did not look like it was a living being. Its sterile color and shape were more reminiscent of something mechanical yet at the same time there was a strange semblance of life.

As if the tree was slightly trembling.

BABUMP BABUMP BABUMP

Takuya felt it. A resonance, like the beating of an artery from a colossal being, was coming from the tree. It was calling to him, with each pulse beckoning him closer and closer.