The party was now behind us and with that came the realization that I had not gone to give reports in a few days. Somehow, Nor had managed to convince the guards that I was severely sick and laying in rest. The guards were unconvinced at first, but when Nor told them that I was on my deathbed with a worried voice, they laughed at him and walked off towards a different section of the mine. I had wanted to go and beat the shit out of the guard - perhaps out of a burst of emotion - but Nor had held me back. I calmed down and I went back to my usual schedule of giving reports daily. It was hard not to look at the guard with eyes full of hatred, but the guard either seemed not to notice or just didn’t care enough about my thoughts - I decided that I would beat him one day. 

It was now one day before it officially hit the day that I, and many others, had been down in these mines for a year. It was nothing to be happy about, but I still felt some pride from the idea that I had survived through it all. I continued to mourn the loss of those from the cave-in, but they no longer felt like a shackle that had coiled tightly around me - they were reminders of what could happen to the people I cared about in the future. We had left the spot where the cave-in had happened alone, but something had happened there that the beastmen and forest races considered a blessing from the gods. So during the break, I asked Rosa what they were talking about. I would go check on the site of the cave-in afterward. 

“There is an old tale about the first dwarves that roamed this world. The dwarves worked day and night with flames that could melt metals and stone. This was their duty in this world given to them by their creator, however, with flame comes thirst, and as the need to quench this thirst grew, many dwarves rebelled in frustration and anger. One day, their creator descended and left behind an eternal spring that is said to have long disappeared during the many eons that have passed. However, many races that originate from the forest believe that the spring was the first source of water that has been with us for generations, giving us strength and life to this very day. You should go check it out Sol, I’ll come to you once I’m done preparing for something else.”

As I listened and nodded my head, I realized how little I knew about the world, quickly becoming excited to explore it in the future. After listening to the tale, I went to the cave that had collapsed and wondered what exactly had happened that would make the beastmen and others from the forest so reverent towards a god they never talked about before. 

As I entered, I saw little streams of water trickling beneath my feet. It stung from all the cuts I had on the bottom of my foot, but at the same time, it felt refreshing. I followed the stream which eventually became larger and larger until eventually, I reached the back of the tunnel for the second time. There, beneath where he had written the message to me, was a whole as large as a fist that spurted water out at an incredible rate. The first thing that came to mind was that this was Sho’s final message. Perhaps he had not intended for it to be so, but to me, it seemed like he had used his final strengths to provide us hope and vitality for the future. However, the second thing that came to mind was that this needed to be hidden before the guards found out what we had been able to get our hands-on. 

As I got up to go ask for help, I heard a loud explosion nearby. The entire cavern shook from the impact and I fell on my ass. I was surprised, but I quickly recovered to go check out what the deal was. As I left the cave system, I saw flames going up left and right with screams everywhere. At that moment, the only thing I felt was confusion. I did not understand a thing that was going on except for the fact that I saw a few people fighting guards. I saw several people leave towards the entrance of the Cave B area and decided that I would follow them when I saw that Nor was in the mix. For the first time in a year, I had left Cave B and was now at the place where everyone had been separated into different parts of the cave. Nor and some others seemed to know where they were going, and I continued to mindlessly follow them. 

All of a sudden, I saw a guard lunge at me with a long blade from my left side. I had not expected an attack let alone prepared for one, but I felt that I could take on one guard after all the time Nor had taught me. I ducked under his sword and stepped forward to throw a direct hit at his solar plexus. As I lunged at him, I noticed that he was farther away than I had expected and my fist never reached the guard. Instead, the guard quickly recovered his stance and swung it down right at me. I had regained my balance and retreated to recover from the fault earlier. The guard looked at me indifferently after the clash which made me upset. I had thought that I would have at least pissed him off after being unable to kill a child in one shot, but he was not. This annoyed me and I quickly lunged at him once again to catch him off guard, I pretended to lunge left and instead ran to the right side of him. It would be an easy win with Nor’s techniques after all.

Before I could understand what happened, the guard that had been in front of me grabbed me out of mid-air by the neck. I couldn’t breathe and I tried to conjure up a flame of fire to shoot at him, but he quickly cut that arm off. I stared at the place the blade had cut through and I couldn’t comprehend what had just happened. I could feel what was there, but I could not move the thing that should have been there. As I stared at my right arm shocked, I was thrown to the ground with enough force to knock the breath out of me. Perhaps from the shock or something else, I did not faint right away. I saw the guard walk towards me and I started screaming out of a primal instinct - I was no more than prey in front of this guard. The guard then put his hands together.

“May Raksha Bless You”

“Fuck! Shit! Fucking asshole! STEP BACK YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT”

I yelled at him as loud as I could, hoping to stop him, but the look of his eyes from underneath his mask stopped me. He looked like he was looking at nothing other than a piece of shit. Something comparable to the trash and not worth looking at. Blood continued to spur out of my arm, but I took no notice of the pain as he lifted his long sword above his head to throw it down straight through me. I felt death embrace me. 

“Don’t you dare kill him!”

I heard a yell from a distance and expected it to be Rosa, Nor, or someone from Cave B that I knew. But it was someone completely different - it was the girl from the ethereal dreams I had. She was also the only other human leader I knew of in Group B, but I had never talked to her. The guard hesitated for a split second and I quickly threw up. The guard took notice and came after me from just behind. I didn’t know how I was going to fight with just one arm and decided to make a run for it. Not wanting to leave the girl here alone, I decided I would take her with me and hide somewhere where the guard wouldn’t be able to find us. I ran with her back into Cave B where fights were getting more intense. Someone who had been fighting ran over to us.

“Wha! What the hell are kids doing here! Go back to the break area!”

It seemed like he did not notice the girl who was next to me. I decided to hurry towards the direction he pointed towards while the man blocked the guard who I had been fighting earlier. We ran quickly through the burning flames and clanging of metal. Blood lay all over the ground and bodies were punctured or cut completely. Some were guards, while others were people I knew from group B, and while I felt the urge to mourn, I knew that this wasn’t the time to do such an irrational thing. I ran and ran with no intention to stop and the girl seemed like she was doing just fine. As we continued to run, pain ripped through my body, but the sense of urgency and fear was bigger than everything else I was feeling.

We finally reached the break area and saw a few people that were injured and in need of healing. To my relief, I saw that Rosa was there, treating people before they went back towards the direction we had run away from. I was afraid to even ask what had happened, so I took a seat. Rosa didn’t seem to have noticed that I was here, and I didn’t want to bother her - there was also something else to take care of anyways. Because of either the rush of blood to my head or the sound of my heart pounding hard, I had forgotten about my arm that was in pain and needed to be treated quickly. Instead, I turned my head around to see that the girl had plopped herself down next to me. 

“Who are you?”

She stared back, with those dark, crimson eyes that seemed to penetrate the soul.

P.S. SAO Movie last night was rather interesting. I recommend only watching for enjoyment purposes because plot-wise, it was rough to say the least. Anyways, hope you enjoyed this chapter and please continue to support me! Have a wonderful weekend!