Chương 28: Gravity Crush.

Aeris was frozen, her eyes were focused on Eli. A tear dropped from her eye. It was floating in the zero- gravity. Then it moved, just a few centimeters towards Eli. My heart stopped in that very second, and my eyes widened. In that split second, I realised… … That I had made a huge mistake. … It was not Eli, who was in danger. …. It was me and Aeris. We were about… … To get crushed. … 00: 00 At that moment everything just slowed just for a second, My head turned towards Aeris, and my body leaned towards her.

The display changed. MYSTERY LOG GRAVITY ACTIVATED A sudden burst of gravity was released, Aeris and I were about to get crushed. In that split second, I grabbed Aeris's forehand and pulled her towards my direction above me, while my body went opposite towards her. I didn't think of anything, It was just a pure instinct that my body moved on its own and went behind Aeris. There was about two metres of distance between us.

The gravity pressure was too much even though I was underneath her, it would still crush me and her. There was no way that I would avoid the gravity without getting hurt. I knew it very well that, that the fall would break my bones. There was no other choice.

"Activate advance recovery." I whispered. The display changed. TECHNOLOGY LOG ADVANCE RECOVERY: ACTIVATED I knew I would somehow be able to recover from it, but Aeris wouldn't. I had to make her fall slow so she would avoid major Impact. She was right about me and we were just about to be crushed, I kicked on her back to slow down her falling momentum. In that one second my body landed on the other side with a massive crushing force. CRACK. I felt something cracking inside my body, bones snapped and broke inside.

I was able to adjust myself at that moment. I made sure the angle of impact of my body was my arms. It hit first, then my shoulders, it got dislocated. Aeris was going to land in that split second, right after my fall. I rolled my body, as she was falling right above me. I knew she wasn't able to survive the gravity crush, so I cushioned my body to prevent her from a major impact that could end her life. She landed on me and quickly rolled over. I coughed blood. A sharp pain shot across my body.

For a moment, I felt that it was the end for me, the sharp buzzing noise rang my ears as loud as it could. My neck turned slightly to the right and I looked over my shoulders it was broken dislocated from my joint. Is this how I die?

"Nova!" The voice echoed. I turned my head to left, "Nova!" Aeris was in tears and Eli was more worried than ever.

"Nova, can you hear me. No, why did you do that." The voice was still unclear. I am glad, I was able to save her. Suddenly, it went black. Just for a second, then a warmth spread inside my arms and the rest of the body, it was intense. My eyes opened wide.

"Arghhh." My bones were twitching in my shoulders, I felt the pain which was even more than the fall.

"Aaahhh!" I screamed louder than I could.

"What's happening to here Aeris." Eli said.

"I don't know, but we have to do something."

"But how?" He asked. I had managed to survive the deadly impact and activated the advance recovery when I was falling. If I had landed on my back or on my stomach I wouldn't be alive. The amount of gravity force would've killed me instantly, my spinal cord would have got crushed, or my head would have crashed into the surface. I doubt even Advance Recovery could have saved me from that.

"Oh… no, She is in pain and coughing blood." Aeris shouted.

"It's okay…" I mumbled in a low voice.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. I have healing magic with me."

"No you're not fine… And, I don't care whatever magic you have, just don't move and try to stay still." she said.

"Aeris." I paused.

"Are you hurt?" I asked her.

"No I am not hurt, you saved me at the last second. So stop worrying about me." A hint of a smile came to my face. I was able to move, I slowly sat up.

"I'm glad that you are okay." I smiled. She gritted her teeth and shouted at me.

"You idiot. Don't be proud of that, look at yourself. You're in the worst condition right now. What if you had died… huh? Why go on such lengths to save me?" She asked.

"We were both about to die." Cough "And I don't see you having the healing ability... Like I do." I smiled. Her eyes were teary and she hugged me.

"ouuch, slowly it still hurts like a hell" I gently patted her back. Then she looked at me intensely.

"I swear, if you ever try that again. I'm going to be the one who will kill you. Do you understand?" I nodded. Something happened, we started to float again.

"No, it's happening again." Eli closed his ears.

"Look the wall opened, right over there." Aeris said. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. This time the wall opened, the same one that Eli had mentioned before. His prediction was correct, there was another way which was beyond the wall.

"Let us at least carry you." Aeris said. THE EXIT TIME LIMIT: 00: 10"We need to hurry, only ten seconds are remaining until the wall closes." I said. Both of them were supporting me and going towards the exit. As we entered, we hoped to find the exit. But I was wrong, I should've known that it wasn't the exit. It was yet another room. After that ten seconds had passed on the wall slammed hard behind us. That strange uneasy feeling came back. The mystery log appeared again, in front of everyone.

MYSTERY LOG: QUEST: PROVE YOUR MIGHT SIX DIRECTION EXIST WITHIN THE ROOM, ONLY ONE WILL BE SAFE, THE OTHERS WILL CRUSH YOUR BODY. THE ROOM OBEYS NO NATURAL DIRECTION, FLOOR BECOMES WALL, WALL BECOMES CEILING, CEILING BECOMES FLOOR. CHOOSE WISELY. TIME REMAINING: 00: 02: 00"No, it's going to happen again, isn't it. You said this is a warning." Eli said.

"We are all going to die here." I did not say anything, just looked down. It was all happening because of me and I can't do anything to stop it.

"Eli, stop behaving like a child. We gave you the option to stay out and you chose to come in. So don't you dare get cold feet, or I swear I'll punch you to your death, do you understand." Aeris said. He nodded. This time there was no room for errors, if it were to happen again I would not be able to survive that impact. we had to figure out a way for us. I had to.

"Listen up you two." I paused.

"You are in this mess because of me, so I'll make sure nothing happens to you two. I swear I would figure a way out. But you two have to do exactly as I say." That's right I have to rely on them, only they could do this. I am not in a condition to move.

"Eli, could you please find the next exit, we need to know where it is exactly."

"Okay, I'll do it." He said The Light appeared again exactly when one minute was remaining. It was below our feet this time.

"Aeris, I want you to find —" She interrupted me quickly.

"On it." If anyone was courageous in this situation, it was her. She refused to give up even though she nearly died. I am glad she was not injured. When I was an astronaut, we stayed in a zero- gravity environment all the time. Very few people know that zero- gravity has a microgravity, it's not a perfect zero. When her tear dropped, because of its density and weight, I realized where the gravity was about to release.

If I hadn't noticed those tears dropping down, it would've been too late and we both would have died.

"Hey, I think I found something," Aeris said. I walked to her as quickly as I could. She was crouching down and pointing out the light on the floor, I crouched down near her, but everything looked the same, there was no difference.

"What are you talking about? I don't see anything." Eli said.

"Look closely." I thought she had stumbled upon something so I inspected it from closer, maybe there was a hint about avoiding another gravity crush. And then I saw there were tiny holes in those neon lights on the floor, spread all across.

"What I can't see?" Eli said.

"I found there are some tiny holes in the floor under this light, but when I looked at the rest of the walls I found there was nothing." She is right, there were no holes on the walls when I looked in the previous room. And then the gravity had activated from the source of that neon light which I had thought was a safe zone. I think Aeris had stumbled on something big here. The holes are for gravity to get released, that's what had happened the last time.

If I am right the safe zone is the direction opposite to the light.

"Aeris, thank you, because of you I now have figured out this room. And I know exactly where to stay."

"And where is that?" She asked. I pointed up on the ceiling. 00: 30"We still have a few seconds, When we begin to float again, I want you both to float as high as possible, it's the only way we could survive this." I said.

"But, what if that doesn't work?" Eli asked.

"It will work, I am sure of it. Just trust me."

"You don't have to convince me, I already trust you." Aeris said.

"This time I'll make sure nothing goes wrong." She stared at Eli. Eli quickly changed the topic, avoiding Aeris death stare.

"Hehe… Look, I found the next exit path, it's behind this wall." I calculated the distance of the ceiling and the exit that Eli had pointed at, I had to make sure we stayed close to the exit. The room was the size of a hall. And we only get ten seconds to escape from here, somehow Eli locating skills were helping us. If we hadn't been locating the exit, we might have to stay twice in this room to survive the gravity crush.

"Are you sure it's behind this wall?" I asked.

"Yes, I am sure." He said. 00: 11"Okay now listen carefully, we would only have ten seconds after the gravity unleashes. When we float again, that's our chance to go behind this wall as quickly as we can. So we have to stay ready." Both nodded. 00: 02"Okay, we are about to float, stay ready." The timer came to an end. 00: 00 The display changed. MYSTERY LOG: GRAVITY ACTIVATION IN: 00: 30 We all started to float and the room became zero- gravity again, but this time we knew where we had to go.

"Come on, let's move up." We started heading upward towards the ceiling. Aeris had grabbed Eli's arm and started dragging him up along with her.

"Are you sure this will work?" Eli said.

"Yes it will." It has to work, it has to… 00: 10 Come on please… 00: 08 Please be right. 00: 05 My heart was racing faster than ever, like it would just rip out of my chest any second now. 00: 03 Those seconds felt like day going by, it felt at any second our body would just be crushed by the massive gravitational force. 00: 00 MYSTERY LOG GRAVITY ACTIVATED. The log has activated gravity, My back touched against the wall, but on the same side that I had predicted.

I turned my head to the side, they were still there. Aeris palm was still holding my arms with a tight grasp. I could feel her fingers grasping it tighter each time. I knew she wasn't holding it tighter because she was afraid. Or maybe she was to not let me go.

"It worked." Aeris smiled at me.

"IT WORKED!." She started laughing with an emotion that she had suppressed within her. I couldn't help but smile along with her. I was glad that this time I was right, that this time I was able to save both of them. THE EXIT TIME LIMIT: 00: 10 The gravity phase finished and we started floating again. The exit was below us. Only ten seconds had remained to go into the next room.

"We need to move now!" Three of us quickly went by the opened wall surface one by one, then it slammed shut. But it was not over there was another room waiting,"Oh no, I can't go on anymore… how many more rooms are there." Eli said.

"I don't care how many there are, but I am sure we will get out of here — now that we know how the rooms operate." Aeris said.

"I swear, I'll find a cure even if there are a million rooms waiting for us out there." Her words gave me some confidence, no matter what she was prepared to go all out, even at the cost of her life. She made me believe that we were able to clear this quest no matter what comes next. The mystery log had appeared again. TIME REMAINING: 00: 02: 00"Eli, get to work. Find the next exit." He nodded.

"So Nova, how are you holding up. Is there anything I can do for help?" She said,"My wounds are healing at a good pace, in twelve hours I think, I'll be back as new." I said.

"I'm sorry that I yelled at you back there." She paused.

"Even after all we've been through, you still saved me." Her voice got quieter.

"I want you to know, I will never doubt you ever again. I trust you with my life now, even though you already saved me."

"So thank you. For saving me, back there. I mean it."

"Hey you two, I found the next exit, it's behind this wall." Eli said out loud and we both walked there.

"Okay now we only have to wait for this light to appear." 01: 15"How much time is left for it to appear?" Aeris asked.

"Only a few seconds now." I said. 01: 07"Well I am sure, we would be able to clear this out again. I know Nova can figure it out, don't you think so Eli?"

"Yeah I do." 01: 03"Just wait and see, Nova will easily find the right direction. I just know it." 01: 00 My heart slammed against my chest, I wish what she had said came true, but the log always had something that made it worse. The light had appeared again. … But this time. … There were two. … On both sides of the wall opposite to each other.