Chapter nine

Arin felt as if the darkness around him would soon enclose him, his hands spread out to the rocky walls on his sides. Deprived of most of his senses he felt a bit consoled by touching the rough surface of the walls. Perhaps this was the only thing that grounded him to reality in this endless journey within the abyss.

The torch that he carried with him along with the scant food supplies had long since been used up. He had started the journey alongside Maere in hopes of escaping from the underground structure but very soon his hope was replaced by despair as the tunnels had expanded endlessly with numerous routes that made it impossible to keep track.

If it was not for the continuous sound of footsteps in front of him, Arin would have started to doubt whether Maere was here as well. Maere had been leading them both from the start and when Arin asked " How do you know where we need to go? "

All he received as a reply was a grunt before they started moving once more. Left with no alternative option he stuck to following Maere. Periodically Maere would stop and snap his fingers a few times before moving on, Arin assumed that he did it so that Arin wouldn't lose him.

However Arin was sure that he could only manage a few more steps before collapsing. His strength had long since been used up and he had been running on will power alone, yet now even that had evaporated. Swallowing the bone dry feeling in his mouth Arin felt his limbs give away as he fell to the ground.

"Aah" he really did not see himself dying in some underground labyrinth and possibly never be discovered. It seemed only right that Maere to leave him behind. Currently the stone cold floor felt really comforting, welcoming his exhausted state to an eternal rest.

" Tsch! " Maere was frustrated. To traverse such a labyrinth in his current mortal state was really challenging even at his caliber. there was only so much you could do in the body of a child, and now he was stuck with another burden to carry. Tempted to leave Arin behind, Maere turned back and slowly heaved his body up and supported it on top of his own. In a few moments he collapsed under its weight.

His rage towards the person who had him re enter the world had reached a new level.

Taking a deep breath, Maere closed his eyes and searched within. Soon an empty vessel entered his vision, Maere dipped his hand within and felt a circular object rotating in his palm. Instantly Maere grabbed it tightly causing the object to shake violently. Waves of power surged as it tried to escape from the hand.

Maere felt a sharp pain travel up his body and at the last moment he let it go. Even so the pain did not end there as Maere writhed in pain as a yellow fog surrounded him.

Soon after Arins body was pulled up by a larger pair of hands. The figure of a man could be seen carrying Arin as he resumed walking through the tunnels. The clothes on his back was soaked in blood that dripped to the floor.

Internally Maere cursed loudly, for his under developed body to intake magic,it was going to have serious consequences.

....................

The first warm rays of sunshine had arrived to banish the darkness of night occupying the village of Samra.

Its residents were all blissfully asleep, enjoying the comfortable retreat they had after their tiring day to day life.

Yet even at this odd hour, a certain young boy named Feci could be seen gently closing the door and sneaking out of his house. His body shivered uncontrollably as a cold wind blew past him. Although the days in the desert were sweltering hot, the nights were incomparably cold as well.

Hesitation made its way in to his heart. Did Feci really have to wake up this early and sneak out without his parents knowledge. Especially considering the fact that if his father found out out about his little adventure, he would be lucky if he only landed with a few bruises.

Realizing the consequences, Feci couldn't help but refresh his memory, why was he doing something like this ?

He frowned as he recalled the ridicule he had to endure for the last two weeks. It all started when Gare who was slightly older than him, started to brag to everyone about how his father was chosen as warrior directly serving under the chief.

Everyone started to envy Gare, even his own friends. Driven by impulse, Feci announced that he too would one day become a brave warrior under the chief. And the result was...

Everyone laughed at the son of the shepherd who aspired to become a warrior. Ever since then Feci had become an object of mockery.Fed up with the constant humiliation, he decided to do something that even ol'Gare wouldn't dare.

He was going to secretly venture into a cave located at the edge of the village, the locals had named ' Devils Abode '. For generations Stories had been passed down about a creature that bathed in blood and feasted on souls in the village of Samra.

Of course they were people that were more realistic like his father who said the there was probably an animal that lived there. So Feci decided he wasn't idiotic enough to actually explore it, whether there was something residing in there or not. He was merely going to go there and leave a mark near the entrance and brag about it later.

Hopefully he would get back before his parents woke up.

Nodding at how incredibly smart he was to form an impeccable plan, Feci rubbed some warmth into his body before he sped off into the fading night.

Due to the their village being small and his familiarity with its path, he was able to arrive at the village outskirts in no time despite the limited amount of light. Finding a place to conceal himself, feci squinted his eyes at his last obstacle in the village.

The guard assigned on night duty to protect this entrance of the village.

' Sigh ' Fortunately, the guard was fast asleep in his post. Normally Feci would be a bit mad at the fact that the guard was letting down the reputation of warriors by slacking off, but right now it was the ideal situation.

Stealthily Feci exited the village, what lay ahead of him was a thorny forest not uncommon in the desert behind which was the infamous ' Devils Abode '.

By now batches of fresh sunlight were quickly arriving causing Feci to slightly panic. Morning time was approaching fast, he really didn't like getting, how his sweet mother put it,disciplined.

Taking out one of the long staff's his father used for rearing sheep Feci had brought with him in preparation, He started to navigate through the thorny bushes.

' Hah ' By the time he got out of the bushes, Feci couldn't help but let out a sigh. The condition of his clothes were such that they were one tear short of him running around naked. How would he explain this to the big boss (Mother).They weren't drowning in wealth for him to tear clothes any time he wanted.

Perhaps he could say that he had fell down when he went to answer nature's call, maybe it would work ?

An eerie chill Feci suddenly felt from behind combined with a beastly moan shocked him out of his skin. As he slowly turned around, Feci was faced with a three meter wide gaping hole that emerged form the earth.

" D-devils Ab-bode ! " With the mixture of light and darkness coloring the surrounding combined with the sound of the light wind being carried around, Devils Abode was completely living up to its name. Feci realized that hearing about something scary was way different when actually facing it.

' Gulp ' Conjuring up all his courage he edged towards the mouth of the cave. Every step he took felt like traversing hundreds of kilometers, his heart rate seemed to double or triple its speed as it was bombarded with scary thoughts. All that kept him going was the thought ' he just needed to make a mark to prove his story '.

At the same times thoughts like ' what if he never made it ?, was there really a devil in there ?, how many people would cry at his funeral ?, (genuine concern).

Feci now stood directly at the entrance as his eyes explored the steep looking insides of the cave. The ground inside was composed of solid rock that curved and twisted in a quite mysterious way. Confirming that there was no sign of life or movement in the cave, Feci quickly crouched down and started to scratch an ' X ' shape on the rocky floor.

However soon the he was interrupted as a heavy thumping sound was caught by his keen ears.Immediately all the hair on his body stood on an end as he heard the heavy 'thump' once more, this time it was combined with the sound of small stones shifting as something made it way through.

'I knew it' There was no way he could visit The Devil Abode and come out unscathed, slowly Feci forced himself to turn around, if he was going to die at least he should get to see what a devil looks like.

Something moved in the dark abyss of the cave as its figure started to become clearer. A few strands of red emerged before a head full of scarlet colored head revealed itself. Its body was a bit taller than Feci although all its limbs seemed to dangle lifelessly.

Feci let a sigh of relief, red hair was not natural but he could allow it if it was the devil. At least it wasn't as scary-..

Before he could finish that thought, a smaller pair of hands emerged from behind the original arms and moved the head to reveal a second face underneath with blood shot eyes covered with dirt.

Alas this was enough to break the last strand of sanity left within, in a few moments the village of Samra heard a blood curdling scream that would go down in history.