Humanity ?

Later in the day, the bell rings to signal the end of classes. An almost usual Monday for Marc and the others. He calmly exited his classroom and started towards Elie's class. But Gibbs, one of his "friends" came to meet him. They hadn't spoken in a long time, and Marc didn't particularly want to talk to him.

"How are you, Marc? It's been a long time since we've talked like this. Did you see the last chapter of The Fall of the Sky?"

Marc was surprised to see him again. He didn't really consider Gibbs a friend anymore. Their relationship had dried up because he no longer spoke to each other. But every time he ran into him again, he'd make small talk.

"I haven't had time to see the last of them. I've been a little busy lately."

Gibbs tossed his friend a narcissistic smile.

"Yes, you have. Managing a girl must be tough isn't it?"

"We're not a couple."

"But yes, but yes. These days, you're putting yourselves squarely next to each other in class whenever you can."

"We're not a couple."

"Tell me, have you ever done it or not?"

"We're not a couple."

"But yes. But yes. Anyway. Check out the last few chapters of The Fall of the Sky. The new antagonist, he rocks."

Marc remembered this character. The same as the man in black.

"Is that right?"

"Yeah. I hear he's gonna kill everybody. He looks too strong."

A perfect copy of the man he hated without being able to kill him. Without being able to do anything to him.

"I'll go watch."

"You better. Hi."

Once again, he watched his "friend" leave with his buddies. Forgetting him for the day, he didn't even walk with him to the bus stop. They were friends, though, but their relationship was more that of mere acquaintance.

"Hi."

He watched him go and couldn't even hold it in.

"Hey Marc, what are you doing? We're waiting for you."

Elie waved to him from down the hall. Nathanaël and Jin were there too. Even Chris accompanied them, embarrassed, behind the group.

"Waiting for the deluge?"

He contemplated his group and his dark eyes lit up. He had friends. Real friends.

"Marc?"

He smiled in retrospect.

"Coming. Coming."

He walked proudly toward his group, which at that moment he could consider family. Maybe not Chris.

As Marc boarded his bus, he noticed even more auras emanating from several objects. Faint auras, coming out of certain things. He couldn't understand why objects gave off auras and humans very little.

"It's weird, isn't it? Why do objects give off auras too?"

Elie in turn looked outside. She noticed the same thing, but for her, the aura of the objects was even weaker.

"Maybe the bigger the object, the bigger its aura?"

"Maybe."

The ride didn't last long. Jin sat behind Marc and Elie and said nothing during the journey. When they arrived home, they got off the bus and each went home, except for Jin who went to Marc's house.

"See you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow."

"Bye."

As soon as Marc returned to his room, he continued his search. He remembered Chris's words.

"Maybe this famous hourglass means we're all going to die and you're standing there laughing at Marc's inability to read the mood."

Marc still didn't understand why the others said he had trouble reading the mood. He understood why Chris was upset. He himself was stressing about the day, but there was nothing he could do about it. All he could do was continue his research and wait for it to fall from the sky.

"He wasn't wrong, but there's nothing we can do about it."

Marc decided to stop his fruitless search. This world had been well hidden from the real world all this time. It also meant that something had changed there to such an extent that the real world was affected. However, it could also mean that they had managed to hide all traces of their presence in this world. Even Lavoisi had strangely disappeared.

"Did he die naturally or was he killed by those guys?"

So many unanswered questions. Marc lay back on his bed and switched on his phone.

"I should check out those new chapters. After all, the antagonist looked a little too much like the man in black."

The chapters hadn't shown anything special, though. Marc noticed that the author had concentrated on the dark, secretive side of the Man in Black. Nothing had been revealed about him, and his little appearances left the characters puzzled.

"No wonder."

Marc was very attached to his character. He accompanied the hero's group as a discreet but effective guy. Sometimes he'd leave the group to mind his own business, such as killing a very powerful monster away from the kingdom. One of his character's most impressive techniques in this novel was...

"Black Night."

As his name suggested, the figure covered a large area in darkness. Everyone around him could see nothing, except him. Over a long period of time, the character could often do whatever he wished with his opponents. But sometimes this technique proved ineffective, as when he faced the story's main character, who could feel his energy through the dark. It was for this reason that he had joined the group. He'd lost. But even so, he perfected his attack to make the darkness interact with its surroundings. It was no longer the character attacking alone, but his attack acting with him. He had constantly increased his knowledge and techniques, which had made him much stronger than the hero.

Marc loved him very much. If he could have unleashed "Black Night" in real life to get out of certain situations, he would have done so directly. Suddenly, as he read the last lines, he noticed something strange. They spoke of the man in black heading for a place where it was snowing hard. A place where the snow didn't dry up after it had been stepped on. A place where the mountains rose very high, and at the highest of the peaks was...

"A cathedral."

It clicked for Marc immediately. There was no doubt. The author knew something. He wrote a comment to it as his hands grew increasingly clammy.

"What do you know about this man? How long have you known about him? Do you know there's another world? Do you know people who go there too..."

Marc could no longer write. His fingers were trembling, but he retrieved his phone and sent the comment despite his tremors. The author didn't reply right away. He didn't reply until very late in the night. Whereas he usually replied within ten minutes of receiving a comment, this time he waited 5 hours. 5 hours during which Marc's heart wouldn't stop beating. He paced back and forth a hundred times, trying to look away during those long hours, but nothing could stop him from stressing out. Finally, he received the author's comment.

"I assure you I don't know what you're talking about. I write the things that come into my head. That's how we write our stories. If this is similar to one of the stories you know, I beg your pardon."

No. No. No. That wasn't what Marc wanted to hear. He wanted answers and he had, once again, received nothing. Nothing had progressed.

"I...It's all for this. I'm going to get some sleep. "

Marc lay down on his bed before realizing he'd been sweating all this time.

"Ha...I'd better take a shower."

He was demoralized. Dark circles were beginning to appear on his face. Like a zombie, he went to his bathroom to shower before returning to bed.

"Why...why...why, why, why, why, why, why? Why me? Why did I have to be shown these visions when there was nothing I could do anyway?"

At first, he just wanted to know. Then, he wanted revenge. But now he could only stand by helplessly in the face of what was about to happen. But if he became strong, if an army were to descend on earth, he couldn't defeat it. He didn't have superpowers, they did. Even if he went back there, the risk of dying would still be high.

Marc lay there thinking about everything and nothing at once. His thoughts rambled and often collided. He tried to make connections with everything he'd seen in the other world before he left on chemistry. At last, he found the answer to one of his math calculations. Sleep set in, and he later saw himself, alone, in the middle of the darkness of "Black Night". His character's attack in "The fall of the sky" could not have seemed more real.

"Wow."

As expected, Marc couldn't see a thing. The attack was even more terrifying when he was in it.

"I can't believe it. I can get so lost in my own thoughts l...."

Marc fell silent. So did his face. In place of the surprise left by "Black Night" was now the terror left by the man in black. There he was. His six wings on his back. Facing Marc. They stared at each other. Even though Marc strongly doubted the man in black was looking at him. By the way, Marc wasn't thinking anymore. His soul had abandoned him. Even his face would show no expression other than fear. His eyes and dark circles widened. His mouth opened slightly. His eyebrows rose too. This was Marc's true expression. A mixture of fear, astonishment and terror. Then, suddenly, with all his expressions branded on his face, hatred was added. His eyebrows furrowed slightly and the corner of his mouth turned up. Marc was afraid, yes, but his desire to kill him remained in his heart like an incurable disease. Incurable, until he was dead.

Marc's expression hardened. He didn't want to be afraid anymore. He wanted to kill him. This desire fed a hatred in him that could not be restrained. But the whole process came to an end when the man in black began to smile. A smile that brought back bad memories for Marc, who began to back away. His breathing became labored as he remembered the horrible laugh the man in black had let out in the cathedral. However, the man in black disappeared just after smiling and Marc was left alone in "Black Night".

"Damn it. If this keeps up. I won't even be able to take a swing at him."

"Here?"

Marc heard a voice. But no one was supposed to be here. Even so, in the darkness around him, he saw the character from "The fall of the sky" story advancing toward him.

"Ah. It's true I'm in a dream."

"Who are you? I didn't expect to see anyone in my field other than the people I've locked up in it."

Marc looked at his character. He was dressed in classic clothes. A white T-shirt and wide black pants. The sneakers he wore looked modern even though they clearly came from a world where technology wasn't as developed as in the real world. His short black hair went in all directions, but it suited him. His red eyes lit up Marc, who saw that he too had dark circles. If he wasn't clutching Goliak's killer sword, Marc might have thought he was safe. Even so, he was ready to joke and began to smile.

"I am you."

Just as quickly, his character's sword found its way into his heart. Marc began coughing up blood.

"All right, then. I can see it in our eyes. We're the same. But if you're me, you should know there's only one."

Marc tried to draw his sword. Abandoning all hope and knowing it was all a charade, he smiled before speaking to his character.

"I also know you didn't have to do this, Zeymond."

Zeymond looked into Marc's eyes before watching him die without changing his expressions. His cold eyes stared at his body on the ground.

"I know. But I realize now that we weren't quite the same, you and I."

Zeymond turned and moved in one direction until his back was no longer visible.