"Protect the grove! Don't let a single one of them through!" A grave voice rumbled over the battlefield, overwhelming even the deafening sounds of conflict.

 

The screams woke Red from his stupor. Feeling over his body gradually returned and his eyes slowly took in his surroundings. What had once been a beautiful palace had been mostly leveled to fine powder by all the explosions, the sole exception being a white temple. His vision was blurry but even then he could still make out the motionless figures around him. Countless bodies laid on the ground clad in shining armor.

 

'My allies.'

 

They were trying to fend off an invader, but recalling the details was made difficult by the sudden re-emergence of a dull pain spreading outward from his stomach. Looking down, Red was unnerved. There was a large hole going through his belly, large enough to see out the other side. He was surprised and rather glad that he was even still alive.

 

Loud thumps followed. Turning his attention away from his injury, he looked up just in time to see more bodies falling from the sky. These men were dead before they even hit the ground. He followed the direction where they had been coming from, looking up above. Far beyond in the sky, he saw a sight his mind had a hard time wrapping around.

 

An enormous vortex spanned the heavenly horizon as far as the eye could see, slowly rotating as more and more golden-like beings poured through it. They had an additional eye on their forehead, wings on their back, and additional limbs. They were the invaders. Rushing below, they soon clashed against the defending human forces, blinding spells and huge disorienting explosions bombarding the senses incessantly. Despite heavily outnumbering the invaders, Red could see his allies being pushed back and killed more and more as the seconds ticked by.

 

Amongst them, one figure held still against the swarming tides of enemies. Holding a single glowing blade in his hand, this single man clashed against multiple invaders at the same time, holding the line almost by his lonesome. Red instinctively recognized the man as his leader, whose voice rumbled through the battlefield. He didn't know why, but the sight of his figure fighting alone against so many enemies lit a burning spark within his spirit and forced him to his feet despite his wound, ready to rejoin the battle.

 

Suddenly, a flash of light came from the vortex, blinding everyone on the battlefield and putting the fight to a momentary stop. When everyone’s eyes were able to see again, they noticed in the place where that human warrior once stood, only a figure wrapped in burning white flames could be seen.

 

“Don’t… Let them…” As the general struggled to let any words out, the flames slowly burned away at his body, until finally nothing was left in place, as if the man had never been there.

 

The invaders roared seeing their biggest obstacle being reduced to ashes and pushed the defenders back with renewed vigor. Casualties mounting, they began to flee and scatter into a rout.

 

Looking up, Red watched as a gigantic, rune-covered golden arm emerged from the vortex. It pointed down with its index finger at the last standing temple down below and a beam of condensed white flames shot towards it in blinding speed. A cloud of fire started expanding from where it hit, slowly consuming everything in its path until it reached the very heavens itself with no sign of stopping. It was the end of the world.

 

‘How bright…’

 

This was the last thing Red thought before the flames consumed him too.

 

….

 

“Red.” A loud voice woke him up. “Wake up, your food is here.”

 

Just as suddenly as the dream had started, it had ended too. When he opened his eyes, what greeted Red wasn’t the bright sky lit up by a war between gods, but rather the rock ceiling of a cave dimly lit by torches.

 

“Had another dream?” The same voice asked. Sitting up, Red saw a middle-aged man staring at him while holding up a piece of bread in his direction. His battle-worn face was covered by a bushy greying beard and featured a scar that crossed over his nose.

 

Red nodded, before grabbing the bread from the man’s hand and unceremoniously taking a bite.

 

“What was it about?” The man proceeded to ask.

 

“White fire…” The boy responded impassively in between bites. All around him he could see other slaves in ragged clothing eating their own pieces of bread just as eagerly, while a handful of the burlier slaves distributed the food from a basket.

 

“Is that so?...” Seeing that the boy didn’t seem interested in elaborating, the man let the matter go. Sitting down nearby, he started eating his bread too, a far larger piece than the one he had given to Red.

 

His name was Viran, and he was the self-denominated leader of the slaves in the cave. The man was a former soldier, and this was made evident soon enough when he beat everyone who questioned his rules into obedience and set his own rules in this almost lawless land.

 

All the slaves down here were assigned to gather precious ores. At the end of every three days, they could exchange what they had gathered for food and some other goods with the guards near the cave’s entrance.

 

Suffice it to say, the overseers of the mine really didn’t care about how they handled things down there as long as they got what they wanted. The exchange rates were horrible and there was barely enough food to go by. Before Viran got here this was a lawless land where slaves would backstab each other over a piece of bread, and sometimes even resort to cannibalism. Now, after he beat all of them into submission, Viran had made the gathering of slaves into a semi-functioning society, gathering ores more efficiently to exchange all at once and distributing the food according to each person’s contribution, as well as generally outlawing murder and fighting.

 

Of course, this was beneficial to the barely ten-year-old Red, even if in the end their new leader did get a bigger part of the food than he deserved. He didn’t have the strength to contend with the older slaves even if he did gather more ores, and so he had to often give a big part of his food to other people just so they wouldn’t beat him to death before Viran arrived. Now instead of living in a perpetually starving state, he was filled enough to get by the cave tunnels more easily.

 

That would have been ideal, however, if it wasn’t for another thing he now had to worry about.

 

“How many [acupoints] have you opened since the last time?” Viran interrupted his meal once again.

 

“...One.” The boy answered sincerely before stuffing what was left of the bread in an improvised pouch in his trousers. The man frowned.

 

“...That’s not enough.”

 

“I’m doing my best.” He told the truth once again.

 

“It’s still not enough...” After a few seconds of silence, Viran spoke again. “I’ve been speaking with the guards… I might be able to get a Vein Opening pill from them soon enough, but you’ll have to have reached the third gate by th-” Suddenly their conversation was interrupted by a scream.

 

Not far away from them, the slaves had formed a circle around two men. One of them bled profusely from his head, where a large rock had made a clear indentation. His skull was fractured. The other one stood above him, with the said weapon in hand, ready to give the final strike before he was tackled to the ground by one of the slaves that had been distributing the food. The slave tried to fight back before another two slaves piled on and immobilized him.

 

Red barely had the time to register what was happening before Viran had already approached the scene with a furious expression. Crouching down, the man examined the other slave’s wound before shaking his head. He had his skull partially crushed already and his eyes wandered over aimlessly while his mouth babbled incomprehensible words. It made for a rather disturbing scene, but the boy was already accustomed to such sights from living down in the caves for years.

 

With practiced movements, Viran put his hands around the man’s necks before twisting it with a sickening crack, putting him out of his misery. All the slaves around watched in fear as their leader stood up again and walked in the aggressor’s direction. Suddenly, the bloodlust-filled state left him and he stared at Viran in fear as two other slaves put him on his knees.

 

“He lied to me! He went into our stash and ate everyt-” Before he could finish, another crack sounded out as Viran twisted the man’s neck like how he had done to his companion. Complete silence filled the large cave chamber as the slaves stared at the two bodies in fear, too afraid to say anything.

 

“Put both of them near the hunting room. It seems we finally have some new bait…” Viran spoke breaking the silence as the burly slaves started to do his bidding. “What are the rest of you staring for?! If you’re done eating go do your job!” The rest of them started spreading and leaving the chamber like startled ants.

 

Shaking his head, Viran attempted to finish his conversation, but before that Red had disappeared just like a ghost. This time, however, Viran only sighed helplessly.

 

...

 

Walking through a narrow tunnel, Red retraced his steps as he did so often. These cave tunnels seemed to be endless. Some slaves said it went miles deep into the ground, but of course, none of them were stupid enough to go and confirm it. As such, it was extremely easy for anyone to get lost in such a place.

 

The red-haired boy, however, was already used to wandering these tunnels from an early age. He had his own markings to recognize the paths he walked by, as well as his own preferred routes to search for minerals and avoid other slaves. Remaining inconspicuous and unnoticed was extremely important for someone as young as him if he wanted to remain alive.

 

So, like a ghost, he walked barefooted through the rocky grounds, the only source of illumination being a bright green rock he held in his hand. This was the so-called moonstone, one of the more common ores down in the cave that the slaves were tasked with gathering. It was abundant enough down here that it was one of the main materials they used in exchanges. Not to mention, it glowed relatively brightly in the dark, being easy to find and offering illumination when torches and such were in short order.

 

With the green stone to shine his way, Red finally arrived upon a small intersection. This path led deeper into the more unexplored areas of the caves, one of the areas full of danger, hence not many people walked by here. Looking around, the boy came upon a small rock mound that mended quite well with the cave background.

 

Throwing the rocks out of the way, a small path opened, one that no adult could ever fit in. Thankfully, if there was any advantage to being a young kind in such an inhospitable environment, it was that he could get into places no one else could.

 

With no hesitation, Red got into all fours and started crawling into the small passage, the moonstone illuminating his way forward. His arms and knees scraped against the rough ground, but the boy barely registered the pain.

 

Soon the passage narrowed even further, such that even the boy had to lay prone on the ground to continue. This was the longest part of the journey. It took him 20 minutes of breathing rarefied air and scraping his front body against pebbles and rocks before the passage started widening enough to crawl again.

 

Then it widened once more, this time allowing the boy to stand up. Ahead of him, he could already see faint purple light from around the corner, different from the one that his green moonstone gave off. As he walked further in, Red finally arrived at his destination.

 

Ahead of him the passage suddenly grew into an enormous chamber, far bigger than the one the slaves gathered in before. Huge black-purple tentacles spread all over its walls, being thicker than multiple humans put side-by-side at some points, and emitting a faint and gentle purple light that allowed one to distinguish its shape.

 

If one followed the tentacles to its root, they would find a strange and bulbous circular shape near the ground, roughly the size of a grown adult, riddled with veins and pulsating weakly as this purple glow flashed from it and spread into its surrounding tentacles, seemingly feeding them with its light like a heart.

 

As Red approached, an oversized human mouth formed on the “heart’s” surface out of nowhere, before it began to move.

 

“Human, is that you?” The boy heard a voice that seemed to belong to a child. Although the mouth formed the words, it seemed like the voice was heard inside of his own mind.

 

“Yeah…” Red responded, unphased by the situation. Fiddling around with his pouch, he picked up a piece of bread. “Here, I brought you food.”