For a few moments, Dariush stood there.
Then suddenly, the click of a heel could be heard. Dariush turned his head to see who it was, and he saw that it was Eira.
Dariush turned to her as she approached him.
Eira, with slight worry in her expression, softly said: "Is everything alright? You seem... stressed."
Dariush's expression softened, and he said: "Yeah, that's right. But I am okay. Even if nothing is okay."
Eira shook her head and said: "No, you are not okay. Tell me what it is. I am always here for you."
Dariush hesitated for a moment and then said: "Okay... I will say what it is..."
Suddenly, a whisper came. A low woman's voice that was sad: "Silence..."
After that word... time stopped. Nothing could move except Dariush's eyes. He could see, feel, and smell... but couldn't move.
His eyes widened in horror. Then his eyes flicked everywhere frantically, still... he couldn't move his body. Just his eyes.
After a few moments of silence and horror... Dariush's eyes finally landed on Eira... but there was something wrong.
There was another woman instead of her. A woman with no face, pale and completely white skin. Her body was glitching. She was the same height as Eira. She had blond hair and angel wings.
Dariush's pupils dilated... His heart started pounding in his chest so hard and fast that it hurt him. His breathing became erratically fast and frantic. His body heated up, and he could feel like his muscles were melting.
The woman, with a low voice, said: "If you want the people around you to be okay..."
She paused on purpose. Then she lifted her right arm and put her index finger on her own lips, inhaled shortly, and just did: "Shhhhh..."
At the same time, with each passing moment, Dariush's heartbeat got faster and faster. After she did that... everything turned to normal... but not quite.
Dariush fell back, but Eira caught him while she gasped: "Dariush!" But she realized something very horrible very fast.
Dariush's eyes were fully widened, his mouth open... He had died. No breathing... no movement... He just died... in a single moment.
.
.
.
At the same time, in another side of Shiraz, Kian was in a library. A big, very big library—exactly the biggest library in Shiraz.
He was walking around the library, looking at any book he thought might be about the Enoy empire.
In another side of Shiraz, Shira and Cobra were walking in the street. Today Shiraz was more crowded and buzzing even louder. From people talking, people walking, carriages—some with horses and some with steam-electronic technology.
Even the sky was buzzing, with wyverns and birds. On all of the wyverns, there was a person riding them—some elf, some demon, some human, or even orcs.
The world... was still keep going... even without Dariush.
Back to Eira. Eira knelt on the ground. Dariush's lifeless body was in her embrace, and she looked down at him with dead eyes.
Her expression was cold, her gaze was dead, cold. She was clearly in shock.
And there was a deafening silence... only broken by her hollow breathing.
Her breathing was visible in the cold air. Her lips were dry... and her body was completely limp... yet she held Dariush's body tightly.
She pulled his body to her chest... and just kissed his cold forehead with trembling lips.
What if: If Dariush died here, Eira would become a cold-blooded vampire. She would lose her emotions—all of them. She would seek revenge but find none to kill. She would never find anything, nothing. And after 500 years of seeking revenge and finding nothing... she would commit suicide.
But... that is not what is going to happen today.
.
Death count: 3
.
Dariush opened his eyes slowly... finding himself on the same chair where he had been in the library of his mansion.
He immediately started looking everywhere frantically. His body was still hot; his heart rate was normal in such a strange way.
But still... the silence was deafening, only broken by Dariush's heavy breaths. He slowly started to calm down. He straightened his posture. He looked up, then to his sides, and then at his body. At the same time, he took deep breaths.
His fists were balled. He opened his fists and then saw something that made him freeze in place.
In his right palm, there was a word. It was written: death count: 3.
And in his left one, it was written: I have a challenge for you. Prepare yourself for everything.
The words were like they had been written with a hot iron. Immediately, they healed after he saw them.
Dariush slumped back into the chair and sighed deeply, running a hand through his hair and said: "Author... what are you? Did you just... give me the power of 'return by death'? And just... dropped me in this world where everyone is my enemy—I mean, every single person in it?"
He tried to stand up, but his legs were weak, so he just slumped back into the chair. He muttered to himself: "Fuck..."
His eyes caught the book beside him on the small table. He hesitantly picked it up and opened it—exactly where he had seen the words "not now." But that word wasn't there anymore. The topic of that page said: Phase Basic Information. And there was actually writing about it.
His eyes narrowed suspiciously. Then his eyes flicked around the room. Then his gaze finally fell on the page.
Then he said to himself: "You are such a pain in the ass... But I think I am going to like that." (He smirked faintly.)