Aegis: Pandora's Box

Don't Skip Meals

He inspects the object and place it on the table. “A metal ball?” he says to himself and thinks that its ordinary but after realizing that the ball is covered in dust, Ibis rubs it off and reveals the strange design on the ball’s surface.

“What is this? It can't be used as a paperweight since it will just roll around, is this a toy?” While Ibis thinks of the possibility of the ball’s use, he remembers that he read about artifacts in the past.

His eyes lit the moment it crosses his mind. “The only thing that I have to do now is understand how it works.” He says to himself.

Ibis decided, this is one of the ways he can cope up with his frustrations in life. “I might forget the tragedies in my life with this.” He whispers to himself.

And grabs the book to look for the instructions in how the metal ball can be used.

-A few days have passed-

Ibis’ mother walks inside his room only to find it in complete mess. Books and papers lie around the floor scattered. “This kids really is-“

The sight of the messy room makes her mad and on the corner of the room, beside the window, she sees her son sleeping while writing something. Her anger subsides and takes a blanket and covers him up. “Poor child, I hope you find what you are looking for.”

Without doing much, she leaves the room and heads downstairs where her husband is drinking tea. “Is he still asleep?” he asks while reading a book. “Yes. It seems like he is up all night reading some books.” She replies as she readies his breakfast.

“That kid- when will he learn to give up? Is he still researching for ways to have magic affinity?” his father is ready to scorn him, but before he gets the chance, his wife rebukes him. “No. It is not of ways to gain magic affinity.”

Her husband looks in her direction. “Everyone knows that young are born with the affinity. That is not something that can be gained. Ibis just hopes that he might be able to find a way in the past but now, that is not what he is reading.” She adds in.

Hearing this from her, his husband calms down and sits back. “What is he reading then?” she looks at him and give him a pleasant smile. “Artifacts. Strange, right? Not many people are interested in artifacts that much since their magic is their main focus.”

This brings a smile to her husband’s face. “Strange, indeed. To think that Ibis would be interested in artifacts. I remember back in the day that is used to be obsessed with artifacts as well.” His wife smiles back as she also recalls those times.

“Well, as long as it distracts him. That is good enough for me. I can’t pressure him to take over the town just like everyone else after all.” His wife nod her head and agrees to his words. “Now, dear. Eat while your food is still warm.”

He happily enjoys his wife’s prepared meal and leaves for his office after he finishes eating. “I’ll get going.”

“Take care!”

Just before leaving, he looks at Ibis’ window and sees that his son is already going back to work right after waking up. He sees an impressive sight and laughs to himself. “Go for it, my boy.” He says to himself before leaving.

-Meanwhile-

“I still don’t get it. I don’t find the connection of the book to the metal ball. Is this really an artifact?” Ibis have skimmed through countless books about artifacts in hopes to find something that will lead to the metal ball, but after all those days that he spent searching, he did not get any results.

THUD!

“I can’t go on. I have yet to eat, and now I am mentally drained.” He looks at the metal ball sitting in front of him. He made a specialized stand that will hold the ball while searching for the books about artifacts.

He can roll it as he likes and see the strange designs etched on the surface. And as he scans the surface, he finds a strange rune-like carving. “What’s this? This was not here last time.” He thinks to himself.

The moment Ibis touch the rune-like carving, his surroundings turns pitch black. He pulls his hand away in response, and he returns back to his room.

HUFF! HUFF! HUFF!

“What the hell just happened?” Ibis starts to break some cold sweat while backing away from the metal ball. That happened in an instant that he can’t process what happened.

“Is this the effect of skipping a meal. Wait- am I going crazy?” he thinks to himself and slowly tries to muster his courage to touch the rune-like carving again. And the same thing happens but this time, Ibis is able to look inside that pitch black world and sees something shining floating towards him before backing out again.

“This is crazy. Yes, I should definitely not skip on my meal.” Ibis says to himself and walks out of his room to get some breakfast without hesitation.

Right after eating his breakfast, Ibis returns to his room and brings a stick. “I know this is crazy, but it doesn’t hurt to try.” He says to himself.

Ibis tries to touch the same spot with the use of the stick but nothing happens. “I knew it. It was all a hallucination.” He laughs to himself and sits comfortably in front of the metal ball. “Hah~ I should have known that it was not real. Maybe being alone for a few days got to my head.” He adds and even takes the metal ball to his hand.

“You silly guy, did you really think that there is something like this-“

POOOF!

The moment Ibis touch the rune-like carving, he is instantly brought back to the same pitch black world and this time, the shining object is floating in front of him.

-Welcome, fourth holder of Aegis-