As I walk through the main road in the direction of the city center, I continue to hear more and more talk about the arrived heroes, but contrary to the mood that is inside of the streets, I am neither happy nor excited. I just continue to think about what exactly should my next series of actions be.

By 'closed' they could mean several things, and the most logical reason would be that, the entrance into dungeon is just simply denied to adventurers who are trying to enter.

That is the most logical and easy explanation.

But somehow everything in me is screaming that it is not the case. That there is something more to it.

[You should have gotten used to it by now. How many times things should repeat themselves for you to learn. Accept it already. If there are several alternatives, with good and bad options, it will always be the worst possible case.]

I feel as Luna clutches stronger to me each time someone passes close to us. Her scared blue eyes are trying to evade direct contact with anyone. She just buries her face into my chest, trying to hide herself from the world. The only thing I can do is to put my other arm around her, essentially walking while hugging her with both hands.

Can you blame her?

I don't know how to exactly explain it, but the past week with Luna was the longest I ever had. There weren't many events, no battles for life, but I felt the most alive. Somehow trying to nurture this little bundle, I myself was brought back to life. Those curious and innocent eyes, which were terrified of the world, but had that indescribable spark in them, somehow captured me. Those eyes want to know, want to learn, but the world already showed it's ugly side to her.

As I walk deeper into the city, evading the huge crowds of the cocky adventurers and big coaches, with rich merchants in them. My eyes scan the still active evening street, until I finally find a hanging symbol of inn on the wall of huge three-story building. Loud sounds of drinking and singing is coming out of the big arc acting as main door of building. It is already so dark, that I don't have an option of searching another inn right now.

As I get closer to the main door, a huge demi-human with wolf ears walks out of it. The moment he looks down at me and Luna, her tiny hands clutch much stronger as she tries to hide herself in me. He glances at me in disgust and proceeds forward, as round flat gold medal with strange symbol on it swings around his neck.

A demi-human walking around in open could mean only one thing. A merchant.

And that metal more likely is a proof that he is an official merchant, giving him special right to trade in the city. Dozen naked demi-human, boys and girls, with features of wolf and cat people of Paletia, and metal chain around their necks, follow him, with their height not even reaching the waist of the wolfman. They quickly stammer their tiny feet to keep up with the pace of their owner.

Even their own kind.

Trash.

The sword is still hanging on my hip. I could end him here and now, free the children, save them. But feeling of someone small clutching to my chest returns me to reality. Looking at her I find her gaze fixed on the leaving group as they go further and further, disappearing in the still steady stream of people. Her trembling finally decreases.

I could save them, I could, but now there is someone more... dependent on me right now. I swallow the desire taking a deeper breath.

['Important' is the word you wanted to say. Important. So one life is worth more than dozen of others?]

[How is that different than them? You constantly criticize everyone for their selfishness, how they always prioritize themselves and their loved ones. But somehow in the end you do exactly the same thing.]

[Hypocrite.]

The words that "I can not save everyone" are empty right now, just something that people would say to sleep better.

But it won't work on me. And I know exactly what is awaiting me in my dreams.

The cold feeling of disgust and self loathe somehow calms me down and I look again at Luna. Her terrified eyes meet mine. I pat her head to calm her down, but several loud whistles make me look at the opposite side of the road.

This is an adventurer city, even if it is bursting with trade. The dungeon is the center of it all, and logically, everything is created around adventures, which are commonly called 'divers'. The three story brothel on the opposite side of the street is a bright example to that. Skimpy clad women are standing on the balconies, in the window frames and in front of exit giving different 'signals' to people passing by. The 'signals' range from coquettish winking to outright showing their nude breast and crotch area.

Men walk leering and whistling at the women, many walk in and out of the building, most of them in groups, coming in and from the inn. They all are so consumed by lust, instincts and desires that they don't even understand that. Listening and following instincts is something that can save one in dungeon, but in the long term it causes one to slowly degrade to something akin to animal.

Pleasure of flesh all they desire. Eat, fuck and enjoy. Corruption of body, soul and mind.

Is this really the best we can do? Is this really the best we can be?

I see 'him' in them. They believe him to be just a fairy tale, a story you tell kids. Something that they will laugh about as they grow up. But he is real, too real. You just need to look deeper, but people don't want to. Life is much easier that way.

The blind will not see. The deaf will not hear. The unbelieving will not believe.

Shit.

Now I sound like those White-beards from Whiterock. Fucking useless fanatics.

As I enter the inn, many eyes turn and look at me, but nearly immediately turn back with a scoff and chuckle, few glare at me in disgust before that.

I am not sure what exactly the cause for such reaction is. There can be several reasons, the shirt I wear, that is actually just a big dirty cloth, which has a single hole in the center for my head, the demi-human child in my arms, or simply that they expected someone else.

Doesn't matter.

I walk to the man in his forties behind the inn counter and greet him.

"Good evening."

He looks at me, then at the child in my arms, after which he scoffs in disgust.

"We don't have free food. Get out before I call the guards, vermin."

I don't have time for this.

I take out a single gold coin and throw in on the counter. As the coin bounces several times and stops flat, his eyes bulge out.

"A single room for a week. The best one you have. Prepare a hot bath and a decent meal right now. I am tired and hungry."

"Ye-"

"And one more thing. Look at me that way one more time, and this inn will have your severed head as a new chandelier."

I walk to the corner of the inn and sit down behind a single table with two chairs, without giving the owner time to apologize or say anything in return. I sit on one of chairs and place Luna on my lap, she is too weak to sit on a chair herself, both physically and psychologically, at least for now. People in the inn continued to talk, few started whispering between themselves, few even looked my way.

Same shit over and over again.

After about half a minute a young woman came and placed some kind of beverage, bread and several small snacks. The smell of alcohol coming from beverage is apparent. Drinking alcohol is the last thing I will do here.

Several people in the corner of the inn again glanced at me, while whispering something between themselves.

So who will act first, the amateurs or the professionals?

Luna's eyes fix on the snacks on the table. With my right hand I bring the plates closer to her. Luna looks at we with a questioning look, to which I simply respond with 'eat'. While Luna is nibbling the bread and the snacks from the plates, a person with wild black hair and a big unkempt beard, together with several more, similar looking, people stood up on the opposite side of the inn and started slowly walking to me, while the inn got very quite.

Amateurs it is then.

As soon as they got to the table, Luna stopped eating and while looking at them, tightly clutched to my chest, trying to hide herself in my side while trembling.

"You were quite rude to the old Tom there." the leader with unkempt beard says, as a wide grin with missing teeth spreads across his face, and then continues "It looks like you are new here. You come to our city, treat our favorite inn keeper badly, and even threaten him."

"We will teach you a local lesson, scum." said a henchman on the right.

"Come with us. We don't want to damage the inn or even taint it with the blood of likes of you."

The middle one extended his hand to grab me by my make-shift shirt. As if something was lit inside of me, I start burning with violent thought. The moment he touches my shirt I grab his hand and rotate it with force causing him to fall on the floor flat on his stomach. With my foot I stomp on his shoulder blade, which causes sound of audible crack to travel across the room. It is shortly followed by wail of agony that fills the inn. Without missing a beat, I rip his arm out of the socket and color the floor blood red. Another, a much louder scream, sounds from beneath my foot.

The two other henchmen jump back in horror and take out their swords and point them at me. Standing petrified, their eyes bouncing between their screaming comrade and his detached arm in my hand.

Turning to look at the location where the group came from, I try to identify the real leader of the group, and I easily find the one. Bulky looking guy in his forties, with calm and confident look, surrounded by several young girls and a group of even bulkier guys in different types of armors.

I make an eye contact with the bulky guy, giving him a quite threatening look, I taunt him to take action, but he continues to stare at me with a stone face.

I am really tired of this bullshit. Exchanging threating looks to test out whose cock is bigger.

Throwing the still bleeding arm at the original owner I announce with deep voice. "Touch me again and I will rip you all apart."

The bulky guy makes a small half-smile and nods at the two still standing idiots which glance back at him with terrified look. They make few uncertain steps to their bleeding comrade, picking him up together with his detached arm they start walking to the inn exit.

Only now do I notice that the scar started burning again at some point.

Shit.

A few seconds later the same young woman as before comes and quickly places several streaming dishes, bowl of soup and stealthily throws something into the wooden mug with alcohol, believing that I am still looking at the opposite side of inn.

What?

"Hold it." I growl.

The woman freezes before she could even take few steps away, and slowly turns around. She tries her best to look confused, but her scared eyes meet mine, and I recognize that look, look of someone who was caught and is awaiting violence.

"Come here."

She slowly and quietly steps back to my table with uncertain gait.

"Y-yes?"

Her fearful glance at the mug, that lasted but a fraction of a second, tells me enough. Amateurs failed. Now professionals stepped in.

"You will drink it."

"W-what?" she replies making another glance at the mug.

I move the mug to her and state shortly. "Drink."

The waitress is hesitating for several seconds until the bartender, whose name I didn't even care to remember, from what the crippled and unconscious blood rag said, walks to the table. On the way he makes several long glances at the bleeding idiot being dragged away and the pool of blood near me. As soon as he gets to the table he looks confused and scared. His Adam's apple visibly moves and he swallowed his saliva, after which he mumbles. "I-is there a problem, Sir?" He then looks at waitress, then at the food. "Is the food not to your liking?" he says fearfully turning back to me.

He looked at the food, but his gaze never stopped at the mug.

It can't be...

High-stuck and cocky, but a total moron. Having a viper inside his den...

But it doesn't matter.

"Either she will drink it." I say pointing to the mug. "Or you will."

His brows furrow, he looks at the mug trying to puzzle something, and then the long seconds of confusion are slowly replaced by realization. Turning to the young woman, he looks in horror at the waitress, which already made few steps back and started running away.

Strangely, or not so strangely, no one stopped her on her way out of the inn.

The innkeeper turns back to me and stares at the mug while trembling, his Adam's apple moves again.

The warm clutch at my chest makes me look down at the astonished child. Her open eyes look at me in blend of fear and amazement, as if something that is beyond her expectation happened, as if she saw a...

Wait.

She didn't see me 'cleaning' the that camp. And when she was sleeping cuddled to my chest, she never reacted to the symbol on my chest.

[Isn't it nice? The first person who not just accepted you, but also has no idea who or what you are, and more likely doesn't even care.]

Taking another deeper breath I try to calm down. There is no need for her to see more violence.

There is already too much violence in the world.

While the bartender is still staring at the mug, I push it off the table, and it falls down, splashing it's content across the floor. Startled he looks at me, expecting the worst.

I sigh deeply and say as calm as I can. "Next time be careful who you hire."

He stands for few seconds trying to digest what was just said, and then sharply bows. "Thank you very much." he says loudly and starts slowly walking away with his legs trembling on each step he takes, while the mug is still lying on the floor.

I have taken one too many enough lives already, no need for more.

I take the bowl with soup and start feeding Luna with a spoon. It took some effort, as the child is still weak, and by the looks of it has not ate soup for quite some time.

There were few dangerous glances, but no one took any more action.

At least for now...

Looking like a hobo has few good and bad consequences. No one thinks that I have anything valuable, so they don't even care looking deeper. Like if you see a small rat running around. Who cares about a small rat? But, what if that rat has a gold coin in its mouth? Things change, you can simply kill the rat and take that gold coin. That rat more likely found it randomly. Who will care about a rat? Or hobo in this case.

The night came too quickly and I decided that it is time to sleep. We can take a bath tomorrow too. It has been quite some time since I slept on a normal bed. I took the keys from the innkeeper and slowly walked up to the room, which was on the second floor. The room has two beds, a table, couple of chairs and a big metal chest acting as a wardrobe.

Best room...

Locking the door with the key I laid dozing Luna on one bed and covered her with the blanket. Caressing her head my hand come across two bumps on her head. I am reminded that her ears were ripped off, not cut, the area is too rough for it to be cut clean.

I know that I have asked this questions more times than I can count, but still. How can people be so cruel to each other? How do they even justify their action? How are they even able to sleep at night?

Luna closes her eyes with a slight purr and starts breathing slowly and evenly. Her sweet and innocent smile warms something long frozen in my chest. She needs to sleep to get better faster. Taking several steps to the other side of the room I fall down on my bed without even covering myself with a blanket.

Even I get tired. Nothing is eternal. Nothing.

Before I knew it, darkness consumed my mind.

...

A scream wakes me up, and I instinctively jump out of the bed, preparing to send the foe to afterlife in the most grotesque way possible.

But looking around the dark room I find it empty, and the only movement in the room is the thrashing on the other bed. Leaping to the other bed I find Luna crying and screaming with closed eyes. But the moment I touch her, her eyes shoot wide open, her tear filled and unfocused gaze scans everything around, until her eyes stop meeting mine. For few long seconds her face holds a expression which I can only describe as a mix of relief and fear. But the seconds end, and another deep wail fills the room, as she she clutches to me.

She starts begging not to leave her, that she will be a good girl, that she will do everything I say. She continued to beg clutched to me.

In my petrified state I try to calm her down, to tell her that 'everything will be okay', that 'everything is fine'. But I just continue to stare at her as she cries into my chest. Finally as if breaking the chains my hands move and I slowly clutch her to my chest, caressing her head and repeating again and again, "Everything will be okay. Everything will be fine."

As she finally calms down I pick her up and take her to my bed. Laying down with her I cover her with my blanket. Her eyes slowly close as tears continue to fall from them. After few minutes her tears stop and she start mumbling something inaudible, but I just continue to caress her head. After few more minutes silence returns to the room as Luna falls asleep.

[Okay? Fine? ... Right. You know full well that this is a lie.]

"No" I mumble hugging Luna closer, trying to swat the thoughts away

['No' what? You know exactly how it will end! If she stays with us she will die as everyone has before her! We are not able to save anyone or anything! Only destroy and kill!]

[We don't even have time. That rage started appearing again. We nearly had another episode. How long until we lash at her?! HUH?! Is there even 'we'? Maybe there is no longer us, but only 'HIM'.]

[And even if using some magical way we stay sane long enough, what can a cripple like us give her? What future is there for her?]

[You already did the worst possible thing, you got us attached to her.]

[Why do you continue to torture us? Why? How do you expect us to leave her here, alone, with fate not much better than ours?]

[How do you expect me to leave her alone in this world?]

[How?]

...

I wake up to the morning sun which is positioned in such a way that the light hits me directly in the eyes. Shifting a bit, I look down to find Luna sleeping calmly, still clutched to me, but with a very happy smile on her face. As if the last night events were just a nightmare. But it wasn't, the lines left by tears are still present on her totally innocent face.

I start to tenderly caress her small head. She shifts sweetly, and a small groan escapes from her mouth. Luna slowly opens her eyes and after few blinks, looks at me with the biggest and happiest smile I have ever seen.

"Daddy." she whispers softly. I just continue to caress her head while she closes her eyes in content and continues to smile.

A sound of empty stomach grumbling, replaces her face from happy smile to embarrassed and ashamed one. I softly smile and pick her up. There are few things I need to do today, but one thing has a much higher priority.

I walk down to the innkeeper with Luna in my arms and ask him for a hot bath, and as it is still very early the bath should be unoccupied.

Adventurers, dungeoneers and divers don't have a concept of time. They live and sleep when they feel like it. And because of that many services for them are available at any moment of the day.

I enter the bathroom that is at the back of the inn and find metal bathtub already filled with hot water. I slowly walk to the bathtub with Luna in my arms. Her wide eyes jump between the water in the bathtub and the hot steam that is coming from it. I touch the water to check the temperature, and find it warm enough. Her small hands stretch to water and after touching it, her eyes shoot wide open as she turns to me. Her eyes tell me that she never knew that such thing could exist.

Such thing...

I undress Luna and slowly submerge her into the water until she fully sits in it, and it reaches her neck. I stand on my knees and taking a small bowl start slowly pouring warm water on her head. She shakes her head and with hands brushes away the water streaming down her face, after which a very happy smile appears on her face. Using the sponge I starts to washing her, and after few minutes of vigorous rubbing off the dirt from her face, body and hair, she looks like nearly any other child in a city.

Warm bath, a very simple thing, but what happiness it can bring.

While washing her head and back, I am reminded again that her ears were savagely ripped out. I knew about the ears, but only after washing her back did I find what remained of her tail. Tail is not just some random piece of skin, it is a whole limb, with bones, muscles, and nerves. But it is missing. To most demi-humans that would be akin of losing hand or leg.

Luna continues to sit in the water playing with it, until she calms down and tries to look at herself in the reflection. Her curious eyes are looking at the water while she touches her face to make sure that it is actually her. As the water in the bathtub calms down I see something in the refection. Something that makes me shudder. The sun is positioned in such a way that the reflection looks just like a mirror.

Nearly all of my hair is already grey, and when looked at specific angle, I really look like Ojari, no wonder Luna thinks I am her father. A very exhausted person with skeletal thin face and limbs with dark circles under eyes is staring back at me. Comparable to past there weren't many fight, but right now I look much worse than when I was in north. But that is not a problem at all, because there is much bigger issue.

The scar.

The bright thin line on right side of my face is no more. The thing on the right side of my face is at least two centimeters wide in the widest area and the whole thing is nearly fully black in color.

[How much of us is really us?]

After washing Luna and quickly cleaning myself, we dress up and walk to the nearest shop to buy few clothes for Luna. Underwear, pants, shirt, shoes and few more things. Simple things, that brought an astonished reaction. Luna didn't even want to wear them. She just sat there clutching her new clothes as a treasure. In the end, with some effort, I was able to convince her to put them on. It took even more effort to stop her thanking me.

We took the extra pairs of clothes and put them into our inn's room chest. It also took some more effort to convince her to leave them there. But after I promised that we will return back she finally agreed.

As we exit the inn I turn to the location of huge white structure standing much, much higher that any other in the vicinity, with a flat circular symbol on top of it's huge dome, visible from the whole city.

...

The entrance into the building is quite big. Many organizations like to build huge structure, with huge door, to make all the visitors feel small and insignificant, this one is not an exception. The ten meter wide stairs leading to the white building uphill only contributing to that effect, more likely specifically designed by the architects.

The queue in front of the building entrance moves slowly as each group enters it only through the huge main doors. Most of them are adventurers with either some kind of limb missing or really bad wounds. But everything is orderly, as no one wants to cause any problems, it will just backfire in the end.

After about an hour our turn comes, and I enter the building through the huge doors. It takes about a minute to walk through the hundred meters long corridor, which is filled with huge white statues, until at the end of it I exit into a huge room. The first thing that comes into the sight is the enormous white marble table on an elevated platform, with several old and young priest siting behind it.

Guards tell me to proceed and sit on a small stone bench with tiny stone table in front of it, which is about ten meters away from the main table. There are many guards in plate armor near the bench, but at least twice more near the big table.

While I am sitting, one of the older priests continues to scribble something into a parchment in front of him. After about a minute of scribbling he looks up at me and with a fake smile and asks in a very sweet and monotone voice.

"The church of Endless Sun greets you. May the god's spirit bless you."

A young boy near me comes closer and whispers quietly.

"Please place your donation on the table."

I place the pouch with required amount on the small table. The boy picks the pouch and quickly caries it to the main table, where he places it softly in front of the priests. One of the younger priests pours out the content of the pouch into some kind of plate in front of him. After counting the coins, young priest writes something into his parchment and gives a nod to the older priest.

The older one turns back to me and with the same fake smile continues.

"What can the church of Endless Sun do for you?"

I describe to them what I came for, and what I would like them to do.

One of the priest chants a spell and his eyes turn bright green. He looks in my direction for a very long minute, after which he closes his eyes. As he opens them again they already stopped glowing. He bends to the older priest in the center of the table and whispers something into his ear. The older priest turn to me and just stares in my direction.

The silence continues for another minute.

"No" he states coldly, while the younger one looks in disgust at Luna on my knees.

"We not provide service for demi-humans." he continue.

The arrogant look they have, is the same I have seen many times. They are humble and polite as long as they are your subordinates, but as soon as they are given even a bit of power they show their true colors. Give them an opportunity to collect taxes and they squeeze people dry, give them power or control and they will think of themselves as gods, those that decide if others shall live or die.

The scar starts burning again, but I start breathing deeper to take control and not color the huge room in red.

It has been less than a day since the last time.

Shit.

Taking several deep breaths I try to continue.

"Additional to the fifty gold coins in church donation, I am willing to 'contribute' an additional, 'personal' fee, if you heal only her legs."

The older one looks totally apathetic to my attempt to bribe him separately. He slides all the gold coins on the plate in front of him, into something behind the stone table, which is not visible from my position.

He continues with the same cold and monotone voice.

"The church will gladly accept the donation, but as ordered by the Arch-Bishop of Central Endless Sun church, demi-humans shall receive neither healing nor blessing."

The younger one smirks slight with a look of pure superiority. Several guard in platemail armor, which are standing around the room, started walking to me and Luna to 'escort' us out.

The blood starts boiling in me, as I feel whistling in my ears because of high blood pressure.

I could kill them all, murder them, destroy this church and make sure no new will be built.

I could burn the whole-

The movement of soft bundle in my arms interrupts my thought. I look down at Luna as she is looking around frightened not understanding what is being said.

[You could. You could do much more. But she will get hurt for sure. This is no longer about us.]

[You can feel it, don't you? One wrong step and it is as if she will disappear.]

[Enough. Control it. There is still US, even if most part was eaten by him.]

Taking another deep breath I try to think of another way to make them heal her legs, but none come to my mind. And even if I showed my symbol of Blood Brotherhood, it would mean nothing here.

Several guards are already standing near me, and in short bark demand I stand up and follow them. I stand up and start walking after them to the left corridor of the room. The corridor looks similar to the one I entered, but much smaller and darker. After about a minute of walking I exit to some kind of back alley, after which the guards slams the door shut behind me.

I continue walking through the thin back alley for few minutes until I exit to the main road. From here I can see the start of white stairs which lead to the church. My blood pressure finally starts to calm down.

I should not lose the control, nothing good will come of it.

Come through the grand main entrance, but exit through some kind of back alley.

As I look around the main road, which is filled with people traveling back and forth, I see a display of pure hypocrisy to something that was said few minutes ago.

A whorehouse with a theme. Slave demi-humans.

The same main road which has the stairs that lead to the church has whorehouse.

So it is okay to enslave and fuck demi-humans, but not heal them.

Taking another deep breath I try to clear my mind. The impulses have become much stronger, and the time between them shortens each time.

In the end it doesn't matter, if healers here will not fix her legs, the shamans at Paletia will do it. The travel will be much harder without healthy legs, but nothing gold can't fix.

They didn't even return gold.

[Why would they? You brought it in, and they took it. Who can prove that you even had the money in the first place. Your word against theirs. We are neither the first nor the last they scammed.]

But I was the one who could retaliate. Someone who could punish them.

[You could.]

The warmth coming from the bundle in my arms return me to the current problems. I look into her eyes, which started to shine much brighter than they were few days ago. She looks back at me with questioning gaze and whispers. "Daddy?" I tenderly caress Luna's head to which she responds with soft purr and eyes closed in content.

Continue moving, never stop, stand up after every fall, only then you will see the next day...

Ship.

...

"I repeat the last fucking time! It is not a problem of money, there are just no ships going to Paletia this season at all. Dead Ocean current goes the opposite direction right now. After my ships return from Qing we will take you both together, even for a single bloody gold coin, but that will be only after I return from Qing in about three months. Enough. I have stuff to do."

He was the last one.

I first tried the small ships with crew less than dozen, they are usually the ones who are more desperate for coin, and would gladly travel anywhere. But that failed. Then I tried again with bigger, and bigger, but in the end, I went for the biggest flotilla. And the answer is always the same, "Ocean current goes the wrong way", "few months", "not now".

Few months...

I don't think I will be able to hold longer than a week, a single month is unimaginable, but three... Will the the thing I become in three months even care?

Maybe if I find someone...

[Yeah right. 'Here is an non-slave demi-human without documents and a bag of gold. Please get her to Paletia in few months safe and healthy.']

[Such people don't exist. It doesn't matter how trustworthy they are, no one will risk their life for someone who they don't know. Even if you will be able to intimidate them. The moment when they will need to act, you will be long gone. No one fears the people long dead. In the best case scenario, the moment you disappear, they will sell her and take the gold for themselves, in the worst...]

What do I do...

I look around the port again to check if I may have missed a ship. But the only thing I see is the same people I spoke with and their very busy crew, who are loading wooden crates on the ships. The thick fog, which is slowly moving to the city on the horizon, only increases the gloominess of situation.

What do I do?

...

While looking into the 'Damned Library' I found some information about dungeons too.

Not the usual bullshit like "Sirana, goddess of wind and trees, blessed her creations, high elves, with Limotar, dungeon of beginnings", but rather the cataloged knowledge which may be as close to truth as it possible can be.

There are natural flows of essence in the world. The same as ocean currents, seasonal change and tropical winds, there exists mana rivers. They flow mostly underground, carrying mana from all around the world, revitalizing the whole planet. No one is sure if the reason for the flow of the mana rivers is the result of magnetic fields, which cause the chaotic behavior of mana on the poles, or something totally different.

When these rivers merge, mana focus points, or high density mana regions appear. They can be anything, a big patch of earth somewhere in a forest, an underwater area, but mostly it is underground areas or caves.

In those areas, where the mana density is especially high, local creatures change, becoming 'monsters'. They become bigger, stronger, faster and smarter.

Most of the sentient species in the world can't gather or control the ambient mana, that is the special ability of 'monsters' and spirits. Everyone else has to either train as mage, enforcer, or some other alternative, in order to exchange internal mana with the spirits for the mana. One of the most popular alternatives is to collect mana directly, which means squeezing it out of monster blood, harvesting plants rich with mana, or 'anything' else containing even a bit of mana.

And when you have pure mana, you 'bind' it, and use it as your own.

It takes several steps to bind pure mana. First of all, because mana naturally dissipates into air, the binder needs to make sure that the mana is in some kind of container, made of tusal, or how most call it, metal slag from mithril. Tusal does not absorb mana, can not be enchanted, and generally believed to be just trash material, but it is perfect container for mana. Then comes the iteration, the binder sends his own mana into the container to slowly 'take control' of natural mana, fuse with it. And with each iteration natural mana bend more and more, after many iterations it becomes truly yours.

Many rich, but unskilled mages and enforcers use binded mana to even slightly increase their strength. But the amount used by them will never compare to the sheer amount used by enchanters to produce enchanted weapons. Plus, the price is just astronomical.

But I can't be sure about the actual difference 'binded' mana can give. I only read about it. You can't bind something, if you have nothing. No mana, no binding.

Walking through the main street I finally reach the dungeon plaza, an absurdly huge area, with red marble floor, columns and statues on them. Some parts of the marble floor is made of mosaic, showing picture of dungeon city history, it's battles, heroes and achievements. But the center piece of it is the building with stairs leading to the dungeon entrance, located in the north part of the plaza, with even bigger columns and statues made out of black marble right at the base of the volcano.

This place is usually filled with adventurers, specialized traders which are trying to sell their wares to the ones traveling into or out of the dungeon. But somehow the number of people is just too big, and I don't see any merchant stalls open, just sea of people standing looking in the direction of the dungeon entrance, some whispering between each other, but most just look in silence.

Looking in the same direction I find a huge magic formation blocking the entrance into the dungeon. But more importantly, I see something that I believed I would never see, is standing right there, right in front of everyone, publicly in open.

Several dozen warriors, in lavish blood-red and white full-plate armor, all standing proud, with their chins held high looking down on the people around. The problem is what symbol is on their chest armor. The same insignia I have 'burned' on my chest, colored bright gold. They are standing on the lower steps of wide stairs which lead to the dungeon entrance.

The New Brotherhood.

The few seconds of pure shock are ended by the booming voice coming from a huge guy in golden armor with blond hair on the top stairs. By either side of him are at least dozen people, and each one of them has extremely colorful armor, of totally different color, with enchantments that would make any ruler jealous. But what makes them stand out even more is the ambient mana seeping out of them that is visible even to naked eye.

Heroes.

Not one, not two, but at least dozen.

FUCKING DOZEN HEROES.

None of them look familiar.

Dozen new heroes...

How did..? When did they..? Who was even able to..?

I stop my track of thought short, as I already missed big part of the speech.

"...in order to protect everyone. We understand that it will cause a major inconvenience to the residents of South Dungeon city, but fear not, the dungeon will be re-opened very soon. We understand that our words may not inspire confidence, but fear not, we will do everything in our power to resolve the problem as fast as possible. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for understanding."

Finishes the one in the middle after which the heroes make a slight bow to the people around, to which the people react with ovation, praise, and whistles.

They closed the main entrance into the dungeon with hero magic.

God damn it.

How long will it last?

The whole city life is structured around gathering materials from the dungeon monsters, and closing it even for a day would damage the economy greatly, but this...

The fancy words from the objects of their worship will hold people in line for some time. People soften up when the people they read legends about, or those they idolize ask them for something.

Cult of heroes.

They are the best, the most noble, the personification of justice.

Right?

But everyone needs to eat. Pretty words are worth nothing when your stomach is empty. So, there is only one question.

How long will it last?

Heroes start walking in the direction of the castle with the new brotherhood protecting them from the crowd of their worshipers. But they don't need to do much, people are simply afraid to come close, even the once in a lifetime opportunity to touch the heroes does not overpower the pure horror the Blood Brotherhood symbol brings.

As soon as the procession is no longer visible, people start talking with each other much louder, their emotions bursting out of them, as if it is the happiest day of their life.

I never understood the obsession with 'idols'. They are made out of flesh and blood as everyone else.

Well, there are exceptions, as overwhelming mana allowed some to transcend what it means to be a being of 'flesh and blood'.

[Maybe because you have just hunted and killed too many of those idols. Or maybe, after everything we learned, you know that all the idols are fake.]

[Maybe you just hate that they are fake?]

[Maybe deep down, as everyone else, you wished that there was truth to stories, to the ideals they inspire.]

[Maybe you wanted to be-]

Stop.

Every plan just fell apart. I need to start again. Maybe if-

Sound of stomach grumbling coming from the Luna in my arms notifies me that I forgot how quickly the time passes. Luna looks at me scared as if she did something wrong, and will be punished. I start caressing her head by pure instinct, to which she react by relaxing and closing her eyes in content.

Afraid because she got hungry...

You can't just become 'normal'. Some scars heal, some don't. She is a still a small child, so it should be easier, it will take time and effort, but in the end healing is possible.

Looking and at the setting sun I decide to return to the inn.

...

I returned to the inn and found nearly exactly the same view as previous day, drunk men around the inn entrance, and the brothel on the opposite side, with girls trying to catch attention, the only difference that this time there is thick fog covering the whole city.

As I enter the arc many people, on each floor, turn to look at me, after which they return back to their drinks with a scoff.

I look around for a free place and find the same spot with two chairs and a small table free. When I come up to bartender, he bows slight with a fearful greeting "Welcome back, sir".

"Soup, bread and some milk."

"Yes." he replies with another bow.

I walk to the the table and looking at Luna decide to check how much she has healed by slowly placing her on the chair. For few long seconds she wobbles while holding to my hands. Few more silent seconds pass as she finally finds stability, and smiles at me with her wide and innocent smile. I smile back and caress her head. This is a major step and I am happy that her back muscles finally healed a bit. Even though she can sit straight all by herself, her tiny hand is still clutched to make-shift coat made of old tent that I wear.

She looks in my eyes in fear of something. I sit next to her and ask in Yungi "What's wrong?"

After few seconds of silence she mumbles "D-daddy, p-please, don't leave..."

Clutching her to my chest I caress her head. I barely squeeze out of myself "Everything will be okay."

[You couldn't say 'I will not'.]

[You could not.]

I continue to caress her head in silence, while her tiny hands are still clutching to me.

The bartender comes with several bowls and plates, which he places softly on table. He nervously looks at me after which he takes a bite and sip from each bowl and looks at me. I nod and after another bow he slowly walks away.

It looks like the food is not poisoned this time.

I place the mug with milk in front of Luna. She looks at the liquid in the mug strangely for few seconds. After that she sniffs it and takes a small sip out of the mug. Her eyes instantly shoot up as she turns her head to me and exclaimed in excitement with a huge smile "It's sweet!"

I just continue to caress her head in silence as she drinks the milk. By the reaction, it was more likely the first time she tasted the milk.

Warm bath and milk. How little some need for happiness.

[And what do YOU need for happiness?]

[Is there actually something that you want? Not something that is a normal, expected, something that is usually wanted by everyone. I don't mean the 'success', 'health', 'luck' and other bullshit people wish each other.]

[When was the last time you truly desired?]

I move the food to Luna, and tell her to eat while it is still warm. She closes hear eyes in content with a smile stretched across her face, as I continue to caress her head.

What do I do?

How do I get Luna across the ocean?

And the dungeon. Entrance into the volcano is located at the bottom of dungeon, but I need to get through the Hero barrier somehow. According to my knowledge any barrier should have a base pillar on both sides. If one pillar is damaged or destroyed the barrier should fall apart. If I find and destroy the pillar on outside then maybe I could enter the dungeon, and from there if I evade the monsters and just run I could reach the volcano core.

There also must be another entrance into the dungeon, a back door of sort. Must be. The heroes somehow will enter the dungeon, therefore there must be... something.

[And what if during the creation of barrier they placed an ignore filter on themselves to phase through the barrier itself.]

Fuck.

As I think over the two issues trying to find solution to it, sound of loud footstep sweeps across the inn as at least thirty people in mercenary armor come to my table, fully armed, with weapons unsheathed and crossbow in open. A bulky guy in his forties comes in front and gives me a confident grin, after which he walks to the side, and comes to a table with several people sitting behind it, which is quickly vacated. As he sits down the bartender quickly brings him a big mug and some kind of grilled meat. He starts eating and drinking while looking at me with amused look.

I saw him somewhere before.

Oh.

The guy from yesterday, who sent those idiots.

Luna clutches her tiny hands to me as she starts to tremble, burring her face in my side. I put my arm around her to calm her down, but it doesn't help much.

A new more lean looking guy, with sharp eyes, in some kind of uniform comes in front of my table. He is quickly followed by guy with a missing hand.

"Greetings." he starts. "I am Matel Poles, second lieutenant of Dungeon City guard. We have received a complaint that Mr. Carl over here, about yesterday events." he continues while pointing at the guy with missing hand. "Mr. Carl claims that you stole gold from him, and when he confronted you about it, you ripped his arm out. There were many witnesses and they all attest the claims. Return the money that you took, pay Mr. Carl's medical expenses and the punishment for the crime will be minimal."

The people with the crossbows point them at me while grinning from ear to ear, showing that they know exactly what is happening. As I think how to solve this situation, one of the arbalist shoots the arrow into the table.

Luna yelps, and somehow escapes my soft grip. Falling down from her chair to the ground she crawls into the corner and starts to cry while whispering "please don't hurt me" again and again. Begging them to stop.

Everyone starts laughing as the lean guy tries to say something, but his voice is lost as I continue to look at Luna as she bundles into a ball and weeps.

Hundreds upon hundreds of similar images flash through my vision, as they all end up with me on my knees and dead children in my arms. Images end sharply, with a single one, Luna flat on floor with her dead eyes staring into nothing.

My vision is slowly covered in red as seething rage consumes me.

...

The darkness slowly fades away and I return to world of screams.

Looking around I find the whole inn covered in body parts and blood. The number of dead is not possible to count, as there are nearly no whole body left and there are just simply too many body parts lying around. The wails of agony are coming from several people with severed limbs, who are crawling away, screaming in pain and horror. I notice that I am holding something warm in my right hand, and looking down I find the severed head of the leader, the guy in his forties, which didn't speak and always smirked. But the expression on it is petrified in pure terror.

In revulsion I throw away the severed head.

No.

It started happening again.

The still burning hot scar on the right side of my face tells me that it is not the end, and that the next episode is not so far away.

There should have been several more weeks left.

Why...

It takes several deep breaths to restore the circulation of mana inside of my body. As always the body is in critical condition, and only sheer power of will keeping me afloat. Taking several more breaths I try to block the crippling pain throughout the whole body and make it obey my commands. Slowly the pain recedes into background, generally numbing the all sensation throughout the body, but finally giving me control.

I start looking around.

Looking for what?

No.

[No!NO!NO!!]

[FIND LUNA! FIND HER!! NOW!!]

With a rush I leap back to the area, where the table, at which I was sitting should be. I find the whole area covered in blood and body parts. But in the corner there is a small bundle. Coming closer to the bundle, hundreds of similar flashbacks replay again in my mind. And the only thing I can think of is 'please no'. It echoes in my mind as if thousands of voices say it at the same time.

I fall on my knees and touch the bundle with both hands, to which it reacts with a jolt and continuous trembling. Forgetting everything I clutch the bundle to my chest, after which I turn it around and find terrified eyes looking back at me. With my trembling hand I start cleaning Luna's face from blood and gore, in which she is covered. With my palm I caress Luna's face while repeating 'everything will be okay' again, and again as some kind of mantra.

Her eyes recognize me and start watering with a sense of relief.

Clutching her stronger to my chest I continue to caress her head while I continue my chant, as if it will solve all the problems. I look back to the room and hear some kind of movement coming from outside of inn. I stand up and start walking away with a single goal in mind 'get Luna to safety'.

As I am at the inn entrance I peek out to check if someone is outside. What I see is total chaos, people running around and screaming. Many bright red fires throughout the whole city, breaking through the thick fog that covers it tightly.

What the HELL?!

[DOESN'T MATTER! MOVE!!]

I look to the right of inn exit arc, and find my enchanted sword embedded into the wall, which passes through three dead bodies, two of which wear chainmail, with their feet dangling about twenty centimeters above the floor, as if pictures nailed to the wall.

I will need a sword.

With quick motion I grab the pommel of the sword and pull it out of the wall. Sound of bodies falling on the floor follows shortly. With a sword in one hand and Luna in other I leave the inn with a sprint, without missing even a second I try to leave the main and hide in the alleys. I pass many people but they give me attention just for a fraction of a second, as they have more pressing matters.

Just before I dive into the alley, a huge explosion stops me. The shock wave nearly makes me fall. The wave of heat that hits me just few seconds after the explosion, tells me that it was not a simple blast. As I look in the direction, where the epicenter of explosion was, I find the inn in flames.

We were there just few seconds ago... If I was late even for a minute, we would-

[MOVE!]

With force I make my body move. Furtherer into the dark alleys, I don't even know where, but as far as I can get from here.

...

I finally stop running and sit down with my back to the wall of the narrow, dark and empty alley. I clutch still trembling Luna to my chest while I continue to caress her head to calm her down. Her eyes no longer are filled in horror, but fear is still there.

She has seen something that no child should have. Even more.

But it doesn't matter. She is alive. She is with me. I can solve everything else. I simply continue to tenderly hug her and caress her head, trying to calm her down.

What the hell happened back in the inn? I never had an episode so overwhelming. They happened, but before that there was always a struggle, battle for control, like being slowly submerged into swamp water, during which I could change something. But this. This was nothing like what I had before. What changed? Time? Or the curse just went too deep?

What about the fires across the city? It wasn't a single one. There also were no guard around, even after what happened in the inn. Was there something happening in the city itself?

My thoughts are not allowed to finish, as I sense a group of about dozen people coming from both sides of the alley. As I finally hear the sound of soft footsteps, against the cobbled floor of the alley, I stand up clutching Luna to my side and draw the sword. My body is not ready for next confrontation, but no one will be asking that.

People in dark robes and hoods fill the alley, blocking the path out. I can see swords and crossbows outline under their robes. My eyes jump between the two groups awaiting who acts first.

Several long seconds of silence are ended by deep old voice, coming from one of member of the group on the right side.

"Why did you start so early? Not everyone was asleep yet."

What?

"Doesn't matter. You will be punished later. What group do you belong to?"

Group?

I finally notice that some of the group have animal features, and there are animal ears peaking from under the robes.

Wait.

If the whole city was in fire...

FUCK! How can I be so unlucky with the timing?!

"Answer me!"

Clutching of tiny hands from my left side reminds me that I am not alone. I can't leave her. If I leave her even for a moment they will use her as hostage, or worse. Gripping the pommel of the sword harder, I make the decision. In utter silence I leap into the group on the right, trying to kill the leader first.

The group react a second too late with a scream, I am already in their mist, blocking them from using their crossbows. Few are already dead as I took the initiative, but it is only the start. My stance is highly unstable, as I have to make sure that my body is always blocking Luna from the trajectory of their attacks.

The fight is much harder than I expected. I have to move a lot as this group of demi-humans seem to be more used to night battles in alleys. Only the fact that I extensively circulate mana throughout my barely functioning body, in combination with maintaining higher speed than the group, and my brute strength, is barely enough to keep me alive and chip their force one by one.

My chaotic movement is also greatly helping in the fight.

With a quick maneuver, and jumps from the wall, I was able to maim several attackers and break out of the circle that they attempt to box me in again and again. More and more bodies fall on the cobbled floor, but things don't look much better for me. I have five arrows embedded in my right leg and torso. Just by sheer luck they didn't hit vital organs.

But Luna is unhurt, everything else doesn't matter.

The group starts to flee, only after there are less than a third of original two groups left. They return to shadows as quickly as they came from it. The alley returns to silence after several seconds.

Only the arrows in my body and the still lying and bleeding bodies on the cobbled stone floor proves that what just happened was not an illusion.

Sound of screams and red light of something burning coming from afar remind me that it is still not finished.

Quickly checking if anything hit Luna, I find her scared eyes us looking back at me, but other from the trembling and death-like grip into me, everything looks fine. I start caressing her head to calm her down.

I need to move. If it is really what I think it is, it is too dangerous to stay here. I need to leave the city immediately. I start walking away from the place of battle but a whistle from behind makes me jump aside, trying to evade whatever was shot.

I look at the direction where the sound should have come from and find a short person with a small crossbow on the building looking down at me. The moment our eyes met the person throws away the small crossbow and starts running away in the opposite direction through the roofs.

The desire to pursue the attacker is stopped short by cough coming from Luna. Looking down at Luna I see confusion on her face quickly replaced by pain as tears starts gathering in her eyes. I look at her closer and find a small arrow embedded in her side. The wound starts bleeding very fast. Fear returns to her eyes as she starts coughing out more blood.

No. NO. NO!

WHAT TO I DO? HOW DO IS STOP THE BLEEDING. WHERE-

[THE HEALER! GET TO CHURCH! THEY WILL HEAL HER! WE WILL MAKE THEM!]

[MOVE OUT!! NOW!!!]

The city is covered in thick fog, with occasional burning houses left and right. I try to remember the direction where the church is located, but that doesn't help at all. The landmarks are not visible at all. Where the FUCK am I?

Wait.

The church was on the hill. And the ocean was to the right of it. Orienting by terrain slope and sound of ocean I try to navigate through the thick fog. Clutching Luna to my chest I run as fast as I can, ignoring the still embedded arrows in me and the bleeding they cause. I will survive, I always have.

"Everything will be okay, Luna, wait just a little more."

Sound of explosion and fire increases the more I run, leaping over the dead bodies which lie on the streets, I again and again try to find the main road. Finally I exit into a very wide road, which should lead directly to the church. I ignore that there is much more fire, and that people are running around, I even spot few mages using water magic, which causes a slight drop in my speed.

Are they healers?

No. They are barely casting simple water spells, and they are in adventurer gear, not healer for sure. I continue running barely feeling the impact my feet get, when they hit the ground. I don't have a way to actually block the pain, only numb all the feelings in a specific area, and right now it may cause more problems, as I can simply trip over myself.

"A bit more. Just a tiny bit more." I say while clutching Luna to my chest and caressing her head.

After about a minute more I finally arrive at the stair leading up to the church. There are many people standing on the stairs and blocking the path, more likely wanting to be treated, but I ignore them. They may want the treatment first, but dead men need no healing, and I can quickly organize that. I shove through the crowd, jumping over several steps, and finally arrive in front of the church entrance, a totally different situation stands in front of me. Unlike all the other buildings in the city, the church is not just burning, but is totally destroyed, with inferno blazing from under the rubble.

Few people are screaming searching for healers, but most just stare at the blazing inferno, with bigger part of them having either burns, or damaged limbs.

There must be someone. Anyone.

I look around and my eyes stop on the ocean horizon. Here, on the higher ground, the fog is not so thick, so the view is a bit better with the moons lighting up the horizon. Hundreds of ships coming to the port with bright red sails. I do not see who is on the ships but I can guess.

People all become silent when they look in the same direction as I am. The few moments of silence are quickly broken by horrified screams, which are followed by even more screaming, as people start running around and down the stairs.

Paletia attacked in the worst, or the best possible moment.

I need to find a healer. Maybe the king has one. If I need to I will force them all.

Looking back to Luna to calm her down, and tell her that everything will be okay, by heart stops. Luna's half-open eyes are not moving.

No.

I brush hair from her face and caress her head, trying to deny what happened.

But her lifeless eyes continue to stay still.

No. No. No.

This must be a dream.

A nightmare. A really bad nightmare.

As people are running and vacating the hill, I just continue to stand, continuing to caress Luna.

This can't be.

No.

No.