Part 1

Cold.

A sudden wave of cold rushed through my body. It pierced my mouth, brain, throat, and stomach only to end up breaking in my lungs. Pushed by my instincts, I gasped for air only to result in the pain and cold spreading further, harder, deeper. I tried to escape from whatever was happening to me, but something was interfering, trying to obstruct me. My arms and legs felt heavy as I moved and kicked. Only when I felt my body getting slowly dragged deeper into that obstructing opponent did I realize: I was drowning.

I panicked for only but a moment. I was never a huge fan of water anyway. I moved my arms and legs once again, this time with the purpose of raising to the surface, even though I had no idea how deep I actually was. I felt my body growing more tired and colder with every little movement I made. The darkness was surrounding me, not only visually but also physically. The water I was swimming in was so colorless that felt like swimming through the night itself. I could see neither the bottom or the surface. I wasn’t even sure I could reach the top without extinguishing the few energies I had left. Then, without any sort of warning, a hand grabbed the top of my collar and pulled me upwards, towards the surface. I couldn’t see who it was the one that dragged me, in that complete darkness I wasn't even able to look at my body properly. But, for the first time ever since I came to this world, I thanked the gods.

The air was stale yet cold and pleasurable once it began filling my lungs. With the right fluid back inside where it belonged, my currently fading conscience stopped wavering and, in the small window of time before my eyes shut, I was able to get a small grasp of my surroundings. Below me stood a body of water as black as the night with no end in sight, on top of me a ceiling of cold, black stone lit up only by azure dim lights supposedly coming from some sort of plant stuck on it. The hole we came from was nowhere to be seen. Nothing remained of that tiny, pale scar on the surface of the earth. With that, my eyes closed and my consciousness began drifting into a flow of its own.

I woke up sometime later, the fear of drowning still ringing inside my fibers. I was on stable ground, covered by various layers of clothes. In front of me, about four meters away, was a small fire burning with the wet remnants of our wagon. The black smoke it generated easily mixed with the darkness of the place I was in.

“Finally awake, uh-” Said a loud and vaguely familiar voice from beside me “- Though you were dead for a moment there!”

I turned around, rapidly, almost losing consciousness once again while doing so, and the first thing I noticed was the thick mass of hair that resembled a lion’s mane belonging to Ros. He stood beside me with nothing but his pants and leather boots on. His chest was covered by an excessive amount of reddened bandages. Half of his torso was covered with them. His face was tired. Even more than his usual tiredness while his eyes were empty, devoid of any will or intention.

For a moment I wasn’t able to formulate any word. My throat was burning and my tongue was numb, hence I looked over him and spotted the rest of the company. Namisatto was right behind him, scavenging through some linen sacks. He looked pale and tired but there were no signs of injuries on his body. Further away from him, on the edge between water and land, was my brother, Lucas, busying himself with some strange kind of fishing with a rope. He seemed too busy to even figure out what was happening around him. Then Lauter, with his eyes half-closed and his mouth open as he softly snored, stood by my other side. He too was covered in layers upon layer of clothes.

“Wha…What has…happened?” I asked as soon I could feel the fire in my throat diminishing.

“We got lucky, that’s what happened. The hole opened by the earthquake lead us directly into some sort of underground lake. A hundred meters before and we would’ve all ended up splattered to the ground… You almost drowned in the fall. Namisatto went looking for you once he didn’t see you coming to the surface. You’ve been out cold for three hours, ‘gotta thank the bastard for saving your skin! Hahaha!” Answered Ros while offering a flask of water and a piece of smoked meat from a jar.

“W-What about the others?” I asked in return.

“They…-” His face darkened before giving me the answer “-They weren’t as lucky as us… You can see him too, there in the distance. Ario wasn’t able to land on water. A rock pierced him. It was too high to get him down, his soul be at peace”

“And Rione?”

“At the bottom of the lake. The poor bastard didn’t know how to swim. By the time his screams reached my ears they were only echos… I wasn’t able to save him”

“I…see” I answered. Saying anything else would’ve been pointless and a waste of precious breaths.

In silence, I ate my fill and drank my water until strength began running through my body once again. I took off the layers of clothes and got rid of my own ones. I checked for cuts or open wounds but found any, except for a couple of bruises on my back. I dressed up again and sat closer to the fire while keeping enough distance so as not to breathe in the smoke. By the time I had sat down, my brother was done with his fishing. As he spotted me, his eyes gleamed with newfound life and he ran toward me with his arms open. The next moment he was hugging me so tight that my aching body began screaming for relief. It took a while for him to settle down and explain the situation.

“So you’ve been trying to gather whatever was salvageable from the wagon, right?-” I asked once he was done roughly explaining his work so far “- How is it going?”

“Bad, honestly. Most of the food is soaked and the wood, well, you can imagine. I was able to salvage most of our stuff, since it was floating, and it's now ‘round here drying but it’s not much. Food is especially low”

“Better than having nothing, ain’t it?” Said Lauter who joined us around the fire midway.

“That’s for sure!-” Replied Ros “- The question is, now what do we do?”

Silence fell upon us.

“Has any of you explored a bit?” I asked, half sure that none would have.

“I did-” Surprisingly replied Namisatto with a grim look on his face “- And it’s strange I tell you. Not far from here, there are tunnels. A whole lot of them. They are dark and cold. Some go up, others down and some straight. I-I don’t know what to think” The fear in his voice, the uncertainty of the situation and the realization that he had just escaped death. All could be understood promptly.

“...Then, what about the hole we came from?” I continued.

“Close” Was Lucas’ reply.

“Close?” I inquired unsure whether I heard correctly.

“Yes, closed like a prostitute’s legs to a poor guy!-” Shouted Ros “- This…! All of this is nuts! I tell you, it’s fucking nuts! Where in the gods’ names have we fallen?!”

“...Can’t say for sure-” I said while my expression darkened and I weighed my words carefully “- but the mana here is…murky. I can’t say that I’ve been around much but the mana here is not normal it’s as if..”

“As if what?!” Shouted Ros again, clearly getting upset by my slowness.

“A dungeon, right?” Asked Namisatto. His expression spiraled into even deeper darkness with every syllable.

“Yes…a dungeon” I replied to everyone’s astonished and deathly scared expressions. It was a common story for a group of adventurers to end up being trapped in a dungeon. Mothers and fathers always taught their children to treat dungeons and caves with carefulness since most of the stories about dungeons all ended up in gruesome death.

Part 2

The hours following the revelation were heavy with shouts, almost to the point of fists. It started all with me saying we found ourselves in a dungeon. Ros freaked out. When we finally managed to calm him down and began discussing our situation, he kept on saying we had to wait on the shore of the underground lake for the soldiers. When I proposed to take one of the tunnels to search for a way out and Lucas supported my decision, he exploded. It took us another half an hour and my precious energies to heal his now re-opened wounds before he could settle down. Namisatto, them, took it upon himself to convince him it was the best option. Lauter wasn’t too sure about it either, but he at least knew that staying still would result in nothing.

Once everyone was of the same opinion, we spent some time gathering whatever was necessary or useful for traveling in the tunnels. Clothes and weapons weren't a problem. I had lost the sword I bought in Alamara, the lake took it, but I still carried the bluish wand and the dagger stuck to my chest. Lucas had his sword and so did Lauter and Ros, who was able to salvage Airo’s short sword. Namisatto was the only one without a weapon so we gave him the role of carrying most of our stuff, especially food and clothes.

The real issue was food and water. We had enough food to sustain four people for about three days, but what happened after that? Would we be able to gather food after those three days inside the tunnels? Water too, we had flasks filled with drinkable water but once they were empty, our death would’ve been imminent. To that end, we did some experiments. First was the lake’s water, which was surprisingly drinkable. Lucas was the tester since he had the best physique among us hence the less susceptible to sickness. A second test was taken with magic-generated water. I had always wondered whether the water I created with magic was drinkable or not and, after various attempts, I was able to tinker with one of the basic water-type spells and made it so that the water would be something resembling drinkable water. It didn’t contain any mineral salts nor it had any taste but at least it got rid of thirst. It was enough.

With our bags filled, rested bodies and makeshift torches we began traveling in the rightmost tunnel, one of the two who led upwards. It was a pained decision for me to choose that, not became of an ill feeling or anything of the sort, rather to find the exit going upwards was the most obvious choice. No, the fact is, I didn’t want to find the exit, not at that time at the very least. The reason was because of a fear eating me slowly from inside until I could bear it alone no more and voiced it out loud only for Lucas to hear.

“Listen, Lucas, can I talk to you for a second?-” I said right before the wide entrance of the tunnel “- In private”

“What’s the matter?” Asked him as I led us to a more secluded zone of the cave.

“I’m worried” I replied bluntly.

“Yeah, me too. It’s my first time being in a du-”

“No, not because of that!... You saw it too, right? How the earthquake struck the city-” I made a small pause, waiting for a reply that didn’t come, his silence spoke louder than words “- I’m worried about our family. What if they are like us? The only one that can fight is father and he could’ve been at the shop. I can’t say for sure, but dungeons house monsters and…and…-” Tears began filling my eyes as I struggled to make the words leave my throat “- I-I don’t wanna lose them. I can’t lose them!”

“I know, Raph, it’s my family too-” Replied Lucas in all seriousness. His usual goofy expression and cheerful tone had completely disappeared “- If it was for me I would already be running around the tunnels looking for them, but we can’t. We have a responsibility towards Ros, Lauter and Namisatto. Remember what our master at the dojo told us?”

“A sword doesn't simply cut down foes, it helps those in need” I replied recalling the words our master gave us when we left.

“Exactly, and those three are in need of us. Your magic and my sword. Do you think they could survive if we are not around them?”

“Our family is more important than them, Lucas!” I shouted with my face closing in on his.

“Yes, that’s why we will help them only until they can fend for themselves or we find someone else. Then, we’ll search the whole dungeon for our family. Until then, believe that the earthquake spared them” Replied Lucas after firmly grabbing my shoulder and shaking me like a box of cereals.

“...I don’t like this. I don’t like this one bit…But you are right. Fine, let’s do like you said but the moment we hear something about our family I’ll them, understood?”

“I wouldn’t do anything else, brother!” Encouraged me Lucas, cleaning the remnants of tears out of my eyes. I was so glad that he was someone I could call “brother”.

And so, we delved into the tunnels. The tunnel we chose was one that had a walkable slope, wide enough for three people to walk side by side and around four meters high. The walls were made of the same black stone that composed the cave but smoother, unnaturally so. The way the ground we walked had ups and straights made me think it was man-made but I soon discarded that thought. Who would ever build something soo deep underground?

We walked in line, slowly, looking out for every possible danger. We were all on edge. Lucas walked in front, the unsheathed sword in one hand and a torch in the other. I walked behind him with the wand firmly gripped between my fingers. I hadn't spoken about it to no one but Lucas of the role I took. I was scouting using natural mana, searching for possible threats by sensing changes in its complicated membrane. It wasn’t impossible but it required me more concentration than it would on the surface because of its murkiness. Behind me were, in order, Namisatto carrying most of our stuff and a torch, Ros and finally Lauter.

With this setup, we walked for hours in the tunnel, unable to clearly discern time if not for our internal clock. We made as few breaks as possible, but not all of us were trained to fatigue, Namisatto most of all. We walked and walked. Through the enlarging tunnel and the thinning one, came across crossroads and huge open spaces big enough to fit ten and more houses. We came across rats as big as a cat and spiders as big as a rat but all fled at our sight. Monotony was added to the things we had to fight on our journey.

A day passed without anything of note happening. We slept in one big open space using clothes and cloths as makeshift sleeping bags, drank as little water as possible and ate just enough dried meat to get rid of the hunger. We didn’t set up a fire, the smoke could’ve killed us or attracted threats from other tunnels so our only source of heat were the torches. Three people stood as lookouts while the other two slept for two hours, then change. This way, we always had someone keeping a look at the nearby tunnels.

It was frustrating not knowing if the sun was up or not, not even knowing how much time had truly passed. After three turns of guard each, we decided it was enough rest and began our journey anew. For an entire day, we walked all over the tunnels losing our way more than once in that natural labyrinth of black stone. To put an end to that we decided to mark the stone every once in a while and at each crossroad with arrows to indicate our direction. Using this method we figured that the majority of the tunnels all brought to one huge room with tall stalactites dripping neon bluish liquid over the floor and creating stalagmites of a strange black color with veins of neon-blue. To satisfy my curiosity, I filled an empty jar with it. I wasn’t sure what I would do with it or what kind of liquid it was but I was mesmerized by its color and shades.

On the “morning” of the third day, the pressure on our moods heightened. The water had become no problem since we solved it on the first day by mixing magic-generated water with that of the lake and ours. It was our food stocks that were running thin. We had less than half a day, counting breaks. The decision was unanimous. We had to hunt.

Using the meat we had left we set up traps for the rats. None of us were experts in that field, unlike the only hunter we had in our group, Ario, before his early departure from this world. We came up with the idea of tying the meat to one end of the robe while one of us held the other. Another rope was tied to a piece of wood holding back a set of stones. When the first rope-holder warned us that the bait had worked, the second rope-holder would pull his rope and let the stones fall on the clueless rat. The rest of us had to finish the job.

it wasn’t easy at all at first but after waisting more than five pieces of meat we began catching some prey. At the end of the day, we had enough food to last us for a while. Before going to bed, everyone busied themselves with cleaning the meat with water generated by me and burning the waste as far away from the camp as possible.

That night we set camp inside one huge cave with a ceiling more than ten meters high and a circumference of more than a hundred meters. It could have been mistaken for a dome if not for the black stone. On the fire we cooked the necessary meat for the dinner and smoked the rest under a set of heated rocks, embers and charcoals. While doing so, everyone’s mood seemed to lighten, all except for Namisatto.

“Something’s bothering you?” I asked while sitting beside him and moving the embers of the fire with the tip of my dagger.

“Ario and Rione” Replied the blonde man while playing with two rocks in his hands.

“Yes…I hadn't known them for long but…I don’t think neither of them deserved to die like that”

“No, no, it’s not that” Shaked his head the bard.

“Then what is it?” I asked now intrigued by the sudden strong will of the always so meek man.

“...Do you know about the Circle?” Asked the man with piercing eyes.

“The circle?-” I asked “- What’s that?”

“The Circle of Life, Death and Rebirth. The fate of every soul in this world, be it demon’s, human’s or elf’s. I see you are not a man of faith by your expression. Let me explain…The primordial gods gave life to all you see in the world and chose a race that resembled them to populate the lands. They could not create a life from nothingness so they spent part of their immense power to generate a set number of souls that they dived in fair numbers between each other so that every race would be equal. Then, in order not to waste more power every time a member of a race died, they created three beings: Life, Death and Time. The three Great Spirits, the Pillars that hold the world and supervise the souls. Time rules over the lifespan of every mortal being and watches the hourglass of their lives. Death has the role of separating the souls from their bodies when Times decides so. Then Life blows it’s wind into the soul and gifts it a new body. Like this, the Circle of life, death and rebirth is complete” Explained Namisatto with the ability of a preaching priest and the charm specific of a bard.

“Wow…this is most interesting…I’ll have to think about this, honestly you gave me much to think. Maybe even too much for this situation. But still, this doesn’t explain why you are so down”

“Do not take it as offense, but you really know nothing about religion, right?-” Inquired the man with a skeptical look on his face “- There is a reason why funerals are always so important and carried with the maximum respect, as there is a reason why adventurers try to avoid dungeons as much as possible and soldiers search for the bodies of their fallen comrades. If a body is not buried properly, with the right rituals and blessings…then the soul is cast aside by the Pillars and it can never enter the Circle again”

“If it can’t enter the Circle again, where does the soul go?”

“...I-In that case the soul is claimed by the Forsak-” His words were then cut short by Lucas making noise by lightly batting his sword on the stone, sign that it was time for the first turn of guards. Before I could ask further, Namisatto had already taken his position as a guard. I understood that it was an argument that he didn’t want to pick up again.

Part 3

I was sweating.

Sweating as if I was plagued with the highest fever I had ever had. I was in the world of dreams, stuck between being conscious and unconscious, reality and fake. Something more than a lucid dream but also less since I couldn’t control what happened around me. I moved through tunnels of light with black statues at every crossroad. A woman with three faces and five arms. The statues were so ruined that I could not make out much more than that except for the fact that the sculptor was able to discern the true essence of the woman. She was beautiful beyond belief, but her beauty held a secret, it was dangerous.

I walked for what felt like infinity, sweating more with every step until one turn I took led me to a room of complete whiteness. It’s walls were smooth and formed a perfect sphere. I was floating in its middle. Then, a blinding light drowned me and my head began spinning and writhing like an ant burned by the sun. When I came to it, I was standing on the edge of a clearing in the woods.

The air was fresh and the sun had just gone up. It was morning. I tried to walk, explore the place, but my legs were heavy.

[What the fuck is happening?]

I heard panting and groanings full of pain then the smell of fresh blood filled my nostrils bringing to the surface the memories of my killing spree the night of the Gallher’s mansion fire. I pushed away those thoughts with a shake of my head.

I looked around, searching for the source of that smell and found it to be a man laying with his back on a rock in the middle of the clearing. I couldn’t see the man’s face but something told me I knew him. A gut feeling. Then, to my surprise, a boy came running inside the clearing with sweat wetting his neck and little shirt. He had at best five years, maybe even less. Short hair as black as the night swang from side to side as he struggled to keep himself composed to the sight of the bleeding man. Eyes as cold as the harshest of winters, of a light-blue soo deep that the clear sky was a joke in comparison. A clean face without scars or bruises, undeveloped and carrying the little fat on the cheeks characteristic of a kid. If my body wasn’t stuck in place my jaw would’ve dropped together with my knees. That boy at the other end of the clearing was…

[I-Is that…me? H-How is this possible…wait so that means that man is Kyvern?! Fuck! This is the time I get the scar! Am I reliving my own memories? But why here? Why from this side of the clearing….Unless…]

“You seem to be in deep thoughts my dear” Said a female voice sweet and poisonous at the same time as if a child and an old lady spoke at the same time.

I tried to turn around to see the source of the voice behind me but something prevented me from doing even that. Every part of my body was stuck in place except my eyes and lips. I felt powerless, not even my mana answered to my calls.

[Fuck, I can’t move!]

“Of course you can’t move, dear-” Continued the voice with a chuckle suitable for a teenage girl “- This is not a world where you can move freely as you please. I’m surprised you were even able to come here in the first place”

“Who…are…you?” I asked with all the strength and will I could muster.

“Tch, tch, tch…How rude of you to ask a lady that before even saying your name first!”

“Then…my name is…Raphael Bluescale…now tell me…who you…are”

“Mhhh, so you are Raphael Bluescale? Are you really sure that is your only name?”

I could feel her grinning as cold sweat ran all the way down my spine. How did she know about me? Did she know I reincarnated? Could she read minds? All those thoughts began circling around my head until the girl spoke again, this time both inside my mind and my ears, overshadowing everything else.

[Come to me again when you’ll have the answer to my question…my dear]

With those words, light began filling my eyes and head once again as I was being cast out of my memories, the white spheric room, the tunnels and finally that realistic dream.

I rose from my makeshift sleeping bag with the dagger in hand and my clothes drenched in sweat. Everything was normal. Namisatto was sleeping. Ros, Lucas and Lauter were keeping guard over us and the rat meat was being smoked and dried under the heated rocks.

[What the hell have I just experienced?]