The stone floor was cold against my face, I felt so tired, the little air I managed to inhale was stale with the smell of blood, and every time I breathed there was this painful tightness in my chest, which seemed to increase when I coughed or got greedy on the amount of oxygen intake.

I wasn't sure of how much time had passed, I might have slept for a while, but after some time came a knocking on the door.

"Sir, may we come in?" said the voice

Without a answer, a stronger knock followed. "Sir—"

I heard the sound of wood cracking on impact and opened my eyes, Drak was standing by the rectangular frame where the door should be, with Setros by his side.

"Well, this isn't good," said Setros.

"What the fuck happened here?!" said Drak, hurrying to Hadrum's side. "No no no no no."

"Fuck, fuck," he continued, taking out Hadrum's breastplate, finger in front of his nostrils and the other on his chest, "he's alive, but his breathing is weak."

"I'll bring Len," said Setros.

"Wait," said Drak, standing up and looking around. "We have to understand what happened here first, if we don—"

He looked at me, noticing I was awake.

"You!" said Drak, the anger clear in his voice, "What happened here? Did you do this?! I knew this was a fucking mistake."

He grabbed me by my hair and lifted my head closer to him. "Tell me what happened, now."

"He..." I started, but the pain and air shortness prevented me from uttering anything further, except a cough with a small, yet concerning, amount of blood.

"Well?!" he said, pulling my hair higher.

"Drak," said Setros.

"What?! We don't have time for this, soon the real fucking guards will be showing up here."

Setros didn't protest further.

"You have three drops to tell me what happened," continued Drak.

"He... was... hurting them," I said, all I could manage.

However long "three drops" were, he didn't get there, letting go of my hair.

"Damn it. Are you a child? People get hurt, that's what they do, deal with it," he said, standing. "Why do you think we're doing this for? This is our only chance."

Setros put the door back on the frame and we just stayed there in silence, with the candles long gone, the only illumination was the dim blueish light coming from outside, through the slightly open door.

"What do we do now?" asked Setros.

"I don't know," he answered.

"Should I bring Len?"

When Drak didn't answer, Setros repeated, "Drak?"

"Yes, say the prince requested him, to... interrogate him."

"The prince?" asked Setros, looking at Hadrum's body.

"Yes, so they don't ask questions."

"Em," responded Setros, closing the door behind him, making the small space for the light to pass even smaller.

It was just me and him in the room, dark enough that I couldn't properly see his face.

"This mission is our last chance," he started, looking at each body on the floor in turn, "to change this."

He started to slowly walk deeper into the house, towards the woman and the guard.

"I used to believe in Tamir, when I was a child," he said, "'A place so vast that you can't see the end above you'. I couldn't even imagine it."

As he walked towards the father and child's body, I forced myself to turn my body upwards, trying to improve my breathing, the pain threatening to break something inside me, making me let out a short scream among my controlled grunt.

"And I had these dreams... where I left this place, willingly going to the tunnels, where the monsters could reach me," he continued, walking near the girl and picking something up from the ground, "I just started running. I ran and ran, and ran, and ran. Probably going fades just running."

"I remember the feeling perfectly, so much hope. Hope that if I just kept going, I would get there... but It always ended the same way," he said, walking back towards me, "I always ended up back here."

He stopped, looking at Hadrum.

"You know what I learned from those dreams?"

I now saw what he was holding.

"No matter where you go, here or there. No matter how far you run, you can't escape the monsters," he said, sticking the broken spear on Hadrum's chest.

"So I stopped running."

I watched as the rise and fall of the shaft sticking out of Hadrum's body eventually stopped.

"It's us," said Setros, opening the door and getting inside, followed by Len.

"I might be a genius, compared to you guys, but I don't think I can fix that," said Len.

"What happened?" asked Setros.

Len got closer and started to examine Hadrum.

"I had to do it," said Drak, "if he recovered before we reached the capital, he might have changed his mind and performed the execution himself. We need the king."

"So you killed him?" asked Setros.

"Barely," said Len, "you almost didn't reach the heart. And this..."

A blue light started to appear under his hand, moving like a flame, licking out of the borders and disappearing at the back.

"This shirt is an Infusion, a really strong one, I'm guessing by the color that it was an Arda," said Len, "if he was conscious and controlling his Ilis, that spear would be as effective as a toy. Or it should have."

His hand moved to the other wound, the one without a piece of wood stuck in it.

"I'm assuming you didn't do this?" asked Len.

"He did," said Drak, pointing to me.

"What is that?!" said Len, looking at me.

"What?" asked Drak.

"Did your stupidity finally made you literally blind? His arm!" said Len, coming closer to me and touching my left arm with his blue fire covered hands.

I looked at my arm and was surprised to see it was still covered by the purple carapace, cracked in some places but still there, which made me concerned because I had long stopped feeding it Lu.

"You probably didn't notice, but we're in a dark room full of corpses, including the prince's," said Drak, "his arm is the last thing in my mind."

"It's an Infusion too! I've never seen an infused limb."

"They can do that now?" asked Setros.

"Not that I know of, and if anyone had it, would be a noble," said Len, "not a nobody like... wait, this isn't a normal Infusion, there's some—"

A red light surged under the blue on his palm, just before a small magenta explosion occurred, enough to make Len stumble backwards and fall on his ass. But he was laughing.

"What was that?" asked Drak.

Len just kept laughing as if the funniest joke had been told to him.

"Len, explain," said Setros.

"His arm!" he said, gleefully, "It's a sernaz Infusion, there's a living sectioned inside of him!"

"What?! How?" asked Drak.

"Is the king doing experiments with people, now?" said Setros

"You idiots don't get it, do you? There shouldn't be anyone capable or willing to do this in Arness, it's taboo for a reason."

"What are you implying? Stop wasting our time and just say it," said Drak.

"He's saying he's definitely not from here, and someone out there helped him do that," said Setros.

"Ah... this is amazing, I want to have another feel at it," continued Len.

"No, we don't have time, start healing him," said Drak, "Setros and I will bury the bodies, they should have a shovel somewhere around here."

Len put his blue flames on my chest and I started to feel things move inside me, it wasn't exactly painful, it was more of a extremely uncomfortable feeling, but I was starting to feel my breathing become increasingly easier.

"What was your name again?" asked Len.

"Michael," I answered, surprised by how easier it was.

"Well, Mika, since you let me feel something so exciting, I'll tell you something interesting in turn," he whispered, while Setros and Drak looked for something to dig with. "Your friend here has took some deep roots in your body."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

He sighed, "I meant, and this is just a theory, that eventually this won't be your body anymore."