"Olyahim." I took a deep breath.

"Yeah?" He sighed as be got up to dust himself off.

"He's not really dead, is he?"

"Hrm..." He took a long pause before finishing it off with a deep sigh, "Yep. He's dead alright."

"Shiiiiit..." I looked up at the ceiling, "Fuck!"

"For now, don't touch that wall." He warned halfheartedly, "I only felt its surface for a second before that bright light came on. He was leaning on it for a good couple of seconds after he pushed me, so it's gotta be something to do with that. Shiet...!"

"What the fuck, why the FUCK is this even a thing!?" I slammed my fist on another wall, "He touched a fucking wall for a few seconds and just fucking died!? The fuck is wrong with this dungeon, man!?"

"Calm down, Schnell."

"What do you mean calm down, my best friend is dead!" I shook him up before noticing his face, "O-Olya..."

"He was my friend too, y'know?" He wiped the snot and tears off his sleeve before thinking rationally, "Shiet, what do we do now? If his body starts rotting we might get sick from the fumes before the ship comes to pick us up."

"Sigh... We got bandages." I figured, "It ain't much, but at least that way we can keep him from decomposin'. At the very least he won't be stinkin' up the place for a while. N-No, this has to be a joke or somethin'...!"

"He didn't even hesitate to push me off the moment he saw that suspicious light come on." Olya reasoned, "As I thought, this whole place is a death trap. There's gotta be someone behind that wall that killed him."

"Why do you say that?" I asked.

"Well it can't have happened on its fucking own, can it?" He got pissy, "Look, we got two options now - Wrap Shaid up and run outside into the cold, or find whoever did this to him and take this entire place over after we get our revenge."

"Olya, you've always been the brains of the operation." I looked at him seriously, "You can't seriously think we stand a chance against some unknown force at play here."

"Does it matter?" Olya lost the strength in his shoulders as he slumped a bit, "Regardless of if we succeed or not, does it even matter anymore? Shaid's gone, and we need to let his soul rest in peace."

"Shaid saved you from being the one lying on the floor over there." I pointed to Shaid's body, "Don't go throwin' that chance he gave you away. I say we leave and take his body back home to be buried. Cheh, his parents ain't gonna be happy to see this..."

"...So you're giving up?" Olya looked as if he recalled something, "Our dear friend just died on his 20th birthday, and you're just gonna believe he's gone for good, huh?"

"The fuck are you talkin' about?" I disliked his hopeful tone, "He's dead. You said it yourself, man. Don't go givin' me false hope."

"It might be time to finally test out my hypothesis." He took out a Purple book from his backpack, "Schnell, do you believe in the unknown?"

"Olya?" I tilted my head, but answered anyways, "Uhh, I guess?"

"I guessed as much. The unknown is everything we haven't yet seen, if we're gonna travel the entire World, then we should have an open mind about everything, no matter how unrealistic it may seem." He said as he jotted something down, "It's a small chance, but anyone can tell from a distance that we're dealing with some paranormal shiet, bud. If some stupid ass light can kill someone as full of life as Shaid, then we might be able to bring him back somehow."

"Olya, you gotta let go." I glanced over at Shaid before dejectedly accepting the fact, "He's dead, and I understand you may be feelin' guilty over it, but just know that it's not your fault..."

"Schnell, you don't get it." He addressed me as he continued jotting something down on his book, "He didn't save you, so you don't feel as guilty, surely. Don't get me wrong, I know you're feeling more sad than anyone over this, but right now I feel like the biggest waste in the World. He, a young man with his whole life ahead of him, threw it all away just to save a useless old fatass like me. I ain't letting him leave this damned mortal coil before me, and if that means forcefully reviving him by any means necessary, then so be it, cause I ain't continuing this journey without him."

"...We need to go." I picked Shaid up before turning back, "You're not thinkin' straight, man. Ain't no way to bring him back once he's croaked. Let's just go back to the top and survive until that fuckin' captain comes back for us. Please, Olya."

"Schnell, trust me." He continued writing tirelessly in his book, "I'll revive him no matter what, so please trust me."

"I'll trust you when you tell me why you're so confident." I continued walking out of the room we were in, when his words caught my attention.

"This book can alter reality." He suddenly raised his voice to tell me, "It was just a hunch until recently, but when Shaid died, it all but confirmed it. This Purple book that I randomly found 2 years ago in the dock town while we were selling the old man's wares, whatever I write in it comes true."

"...Yeah right." I smirked, "So you wrote down that Shaid died? As if-"

"I did." He stated openly, "Since this notebook was empty, I used it as a travel log, wherein I killed off Shaid as a joke. He obviously made me erase it, but it looks like the book remembers everything."

"Olya...!" I turned around to berate him, "Cut the crap, man! A stupid book killed my friend cause you manifested it? Have you gone mad!? He died because of that fuckin' light, not you!"

"Schnell..." He then showed me the page he was writing on just now, which simply said "Shaid will be revived and live a happy life", "You're the optimist here, not me. Do me a solid and help me out here, bud."

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

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"You're gonna need to run that back for me." I walked back to where he was, "Are you seriously tellin' me you think you caused all this?"

"And I can fix it all the same." He went back to the start of the book to show me, "See here, I wrote down that we made the greenhouse, and so far it's working perfectly. For as long as we've been in Havana, it gave out immensely positive results."

"So? That doesn't prove..."

"I'm not sure if you've heard, Schnell, but ever since we've left Havana, their crops stopped being as bountiful." He told me, "Some even speculate that they'll fall into ruin in just a couple years. In other words, "as long as we were there, it worked perfectly". Just like it says in the book."

"No way..." I was genuinely surprised, "Wait, so Tanathos and Cassandra..."

"I wrote down a lot of things about the Raamans, but since I erased the first draft entirely, I'm not sure if it's good or not." He looked at the book again, "But with this, I at least know that Shaid will be back eventually. For now, we just gotta wait for him patiently."

"Sigh, listen." I told him flat out, "Even if this story is true, even if you somehow possessed the ability to fix reality with a book and quill, there's just no way you'll be able to preserve his body until he does revive. Olya, snap back to reality, this isn't a healthy way to cope."

"Then it's a simple fix as well!" He angrily scribbled on the book again, "There, see!? I just made it so he isn't actually dead, but just in a comatose state! His body isn't gonna decompose as long as we regularly take care of him!"

I was about to tell him off for his desperate actions, when I suddenly stopped dead in my tracks. On my shoulder, where the cold carcass of Shaid laid spread over it, I suddenly noticed a heartbeat. It was small, weak and slow. So slow in fact that a regular person would surely die if they had it, but it was there. Shaid was, just like that, revived in front of my very Eyes.

"H-His mouth!" Olya pointed out the cold air becoming visible in front of his face, "He's breathing, see!? He's alive now, thanks to the powers of the Book!"

"Shaid!" I immediately let him down carefully on the floor as I tried waking him up, "Shaid, can you hear me!? Holy shit, holy shit...!"

"Schnell, you have to believe me now! I'm not crazy when I say this - the Book is a miracle!" Olya cried out before running to rummage through our luggage, "We need to set up a campfire quick. We can't have him dying on us after we just brought him back!"

"Holy shit, it's actually real..." I darted my gaze between Olya and the comatose Shaid, "He's not awake yet, but he's breathing! You wrote him back into the fucking story, man!"

"It's not over yet, bud!" Olya smirked as the fire crackled on, "Cause now we've got another task to deal with - How are we gonna keep him alive in this state until he wakes up himself?"

"Who cares if he dies again? Just revive him like you did just now!" I smiled.

"What...?" He looked genuinely horrified that I said what I said, "S-Schnell, you don't seriously mean that, do you? Geez, we can't let him die again."

"Well why not?" I figured, "Olya, with this Book, we have the power to do whatever we want. I know your writin' style, you always tend to write about the positives, hence why our journey up until now has mostly been smooth sailin', surely. As long as we have this Book, we're invincible."

"No way, the hell's wrong with you..." He backed away a bit, "The Schnell I know would never say such heartless things."

"Heartless? I'm just stating facts here, though." I reasoned, "That Book, I don't know where it comes from, but I do know that it can raise the dead without issue. With this Book that has granted us great Fortune, we have surpassed death. I'm not sayin' we let Shaid die here, just that we shouldn't feel too bad if he does. C'mon, you're smart, so you can't honestly tell me you don't understand my logic here?"

"I-I guess..." He awkwardly nodded, "I thought you meant we should kill him so we don't have to worry about keeping him alive, but if you put it like that, I guess you're right..."

"Haha, see?" I patted him on the shoulder to liven him up a little, "Oh? Guess you were right about losin' some weight. Your back's got some muscles showin'!"

"Ha-ha, yeah..." He let out a weak chuckle before sitting back down to tend to Shaid, "Now all we have to do is wait for him to wake up, then."

"Oh, here's an idea." I suggested, "Let's fill this place up with as many treasures as we can find. Billions of gold coins, rings that make the wearers destined for each other, a sword that never dulls... Really, with this Book, the only real limit to what we can put in here is our imagination! Haha, I bet he'll be so thrilled to see his lair filled with goodies!"

"Y-Yeah, that might be fun..." He still looked worried.

"Oi, Olya..." I furrowed my brows at him, "Why the long face? You clutched this round completely, so what's the matter? Honestly, I'm still kind of pissed you've been keepin' this Book from us."

"I didn't know if the Book truly could do this." He explained, "I didn't wanna give you false hope."

"Hrm." I plopped my butt down on the floor next to the fireplace, "Right. Thanks for always keepin' it real."

"No problem." He continued feeding the flames bit by bit until we both got drowsy and fell asleep, "As long as he wakes up, it's really no problem at all, bud..."