"I'm sorry little guy but this is for the best"
Sekhm said while grinning mischievously.
His brown eyes burned with fury.
Yozrasef's face turned instinctively sensing something abnormal about to happen.
"What do you—?"
Yozrasef tried to ask, barely speaking but his sentence was cut off as brutal kick crashed into his spine, sending him flying like a ragdoll into the crater.
Yozrasef crashed on the ground rolling and groaning loudly in pain due to the harsh impact and the rockish-land-land surface.
Once again, yozrasef was surrounded with darkness.
Confusion wrapped around his face, disbelief anchoring his features.
'Why..why..why did he kick me!?.'
'What have i done to deserve this!?..'
' I shouldn't have trusted any of them!..they are nothing...but killers..'
His head raced with thoughts of confusion, his naive self couldn't believe why did that happen.
He tried to piece together what happened and as he did, he couldn't help but deduce that he was kicked here so they can get rid of him.
'Yeah..they definitely thought of me as dead weight'
For the first time, a tear slid down yozrasef's cheek.
'...they definitely believed that im useless bastard... I cant blame them..'
His salt tears ran down on the scratches on his face that he got from the fall, it burned him.
For the first time, yozrasef the weight of loneliness, he couldn't explain it, he felt vulnerable and lonely more than he did in the past afew days.
He felt betrayed after letting his guard down, he disliked how stupid he think he was.
His chest burned with unexplainable fire.
A Fire that glew menacingly through his crimson eyes.
'Even so...I gotta...i gotta prove them wrong..'
his crimson glowing eyes blinked as he scanned his surroundings, he found himself on the cliff of one of the tunnels.
Through the deep pits of the tunnel he could see the light, white light signaling hope for his hopeless self.
'No matter what...i will survive..'
Yozrasef once again reminded himself of his unwavering conviction.
Yozrasef gripped on every bit of strength he had left and stood up.
He raised his chin and looked above him, his eyes scanned the distance from the bottom to the surface, trying to find any holes to dig his feet through and climb.
Unfortunately, he didn't find any.
Measuring the distance from the bottom of the crater and the surface, it would be 6 meters in length.
The surface of the crater was solid.
'Even if its solid, I gotta try'
Yozrasef looked at the dagger in his hand then reverted his gaze back to the wall.
'No..it will break, I cant risk the dagger blade nor the half spear, the only weapons I have for surviving, I dont know what might appear any soon..'
Yozrasef thought inwardly as he released the chains and the shackles from his weapons.
He sheathed his dagger in the sheath he had on his belt and threw away the spear.
'There is no place for it on me..ehh.. I can survive with the dagger..right..right'
Yozrasef gritted his teeth in frustration and worry as his eyes reverted back to the wall as he wrapped the chains on his wrists.
'Hmm maybe if I tried this—.'
Yozrasef thought inwardly after wrapping the chains, his finger trailed across the wall.
He tried to dig the fingers of his hand through the walls.
But unfortunately, he couldn't.
His finger-nails bled from how many times he tried.
At the end, he stopped trying, but he will never stop trying to survive.
Yozrasef looked at his bleeding hands, the blood trailed down the chains, dripping down on the ground.
The smell of blood and metal and the jagged-land filled his nostrils along with the inhaled oxygen.
He closed his eyes for minute then he opened it, the fire inside his crimson eyes glew with more intensity.
' I guess there is no possible way out other than going through the tunnels.'
He thought inwardly as he He diverted his gaze towards the tunnel he was once on ouldn't come up with any.
Crouching on his two knees he began to infiltrate the tunnel.
Once yozrasef crouched on his limbs entering the tunnel, he could feel a heavy pressure gnawed on his entire being, trying to press on him with the ground.
Its as if the the whole tunnel is trying too swallow him.
The light at the end of the tunnel faded from his sight, replaced by darkness.
He can't see it anymore.
'The light—...even if it disappeared..I will get out of here!'
Yozrasef startled and almost broke down, sweat poured down his forehead from the pressure but his resolve and conviction to survive never broke down.
'Now that I remember the pressure is nearly the same one I experienced when that weird creepy lizard descended from the sea of darkness like ceiling...hmm..'
Yozrasef thought inwardly as he started to realize a few things about the atmosphere of the tunnels, the similarities they carry with the prison he was jailed inside before.
He kept moving and as he did, the pressure intensified.
His limbs felt like they are going to break, the shaking is getting out of hand along the pressure.
Through out of all this, the glow in yozrasef's didn't die, despite how the world seemed unfair and harsh for him he didn't stop moving.
'Keep moving'
The voice of the jackal–headed being rang through his head, charging his body with more vitality.
But despite the new vitality and hope, the pressure seemed that it has its own mind to understand the changes that is occurring to yozrasef, the pressure on him grew monstrous, 2 times more than before.
The pressure forced yozrasef to crawl instead of crouching.
Tightly pressing his body against the jagged ground.
Raising his right hand, he placed his wrist forward, pulling himself forward simultaneously his leg pushed from behind.
At that moment yozrasef understood that his arm movement is connected to his legs movement to maximize the force behind movement.
He kept moving forwards in the same way and fortunately realization gnawed on him.
'when I was evading the attacks of the lizard, I instinctively relied on my feet to evade but to counter attack I used my feet movement to center my balance which maximized the force behind my spear and dagger lunges'
Yozrasef's crimson eyes shone with vitality.
The pressure intensified but even it did, yozrasef paid little to no Attention towards it.
He kept on crawling, his once heavy breathing stabilized and as it did the toll on his muscles began to be noticed.
Yozrasef's core muscles wasn't just being torn apart.
His core was totally shredded by the crawling.
The pain burned through every breath and every twich of muscle under the concentration and inhumane pressure.
With every crawl, a searing pain tore through his abdomen, shoulder, the muscles of his arms, his glutes and quads.
The pain led yozrasef's breathing to get ragged once again which made him clench his jaws hard and when he did, his movement slowed down.
Once again he realized that, ragged breathing slows him down so he stopped his movement.
The pressure in the air lessened since he stopped his movement.
Which made yozrasef actually believe that this place is truly abnormal.
The abnormality of this place made Yozrasef's survival instinct scream, the structure of the wall reminded him of the place he woke up in, the prison.
Yozrasef took a deep breath, clearing his head.
'I need to get out...i need to survive, no need for useless deductions now'
Yozrasef took another breath in, stabilizing his racing heart while the words of sekhm ran through his mind.
' if i stabilize my movement, my heart will beat slower and spend less stamina—....the breathing, I need to control my breathing..just like how I did when I fought the twin lizards, i controlled my breathing and right after that I was able to overturn the tables'
Yozrasef's eyes shone with realization, he didn't see the light but he didn't mind that he lost the sight of the light, cause the light inside of himself shone brighter than ever.
Yozrasef took in deep breath and release his breath a bit by a bit along his movement as he moved forward again.
The tunnel kept on pulsing heavy pressure like a demon releasing malice from its jaws but this time it was 10 times harder than before.
Once again, yozrasef felt as if the tunnel could read him and the changes that is occurring to him.
Brushing off the useless feelings, yozrasef focused on crawling and moving forward.
As he moved and dividing his breath along his movement, he felt something is messing once again.
Everytime, he moved a limb forward, he released a breath but he felt much more tiresome than before so he stopped in his movement.
'Then lets do this the other way'
Yozrasef took deep breath after every limb movement, steady and slow.
As he executed his movement, his feelings entirely changed along the movement.
Time went by, the unbearable pain that has been searing and tore down his muscles multiplied but his stamina felt extended cause of his breathing, despite the fact that he feel like he would die from the pain and the ever raising pressure in the place.
Unfortunately, tiredness invaded and overwhelmed yozrasef's mind.
Yozrasef glowing crimson eyes blinked and as it did, he couldn't differentiate the darkness of his eyelids or the darkness that surrounded him in the tunnel.
Eventually, the pain of his sore muscles and the pressure, pressured him to rest but he couldn't, something screamed at him, warning him if he rested for a second he will die.
His instincts and his inner demons clashed inside him, screaming and yelling.
It's as if his instincts and inner demons are becoming self aware inside his head.
'Come on, you can sleep—' seductive tone of voice
Stop...
'hey! Stop moving, will you?' Anger tone of voice
Shut..up...
'why are you even bothered to tell him what to do?' Skeptical tone of voice
Why...are you..doing..this to me..
'He is gonna die anyway, right?'the same skeptical tone of voice
Please...
'I mean what is gonna happen if you sleep — die?? That's bullshit' rational tone of voice
No...
'maybe, letting him die struggling would be a mercy for him, right?' Overthinking tone of voice
No..
' oh please, stop petting him— he is useless— dead weight and on top of that a bastard with no background—' ridiculing tone of voice
'isn't he the reason why his m—' malicious tone of voice
'aye!, tell that guy to shut up— he should never remember!!—' the anger tone of voice
'why?...isn't that too much?' Petty tone of voice
'He deserves death..' cold tone of voice
'Come on we already have done enough—'disdain tone of voice
' who and what are you fighting for?' Genuine tone of voice
Voices spoke inside yozrasef's head.
he could feel gazes of mockery through the darkness.
The faces of disdain.
The face of petty.
But through all of these repeated and ever yelling voices and those gazes, yozrasef kept moving.
" i...— dont....care..how many..t–imes..you..try..to—force me...to....to give—up... I will not give..up!"
Yozrasef spoke out loud trying to wake himself up, fighting his own demons to sleep.
Then yozrasef heard it.
Through all of these voices, yozrasef heard it.
'keep...moving...keep moving..my son'
Low whisper that invaded his ears, those ears that are bleeding from the heavy pressure.
That was everything that yozrasef wanted to hear.
The voice felt real unlike the other, it felt nostalgic.
Suddenly the scenery before yozrasef altered.
The light he once lost its sight, returned and obscuring his senses like when venom envelopes its host.
Back again to the throne he once sat on before.
He was sitting on the throne, the throne felt unfitting for his now small body.
Its as if he aged years back, returning when he was just a kid.
Then he heard it once again, the voice.
The voice felt really vivid, but the face was shrouded in darkness.
The attire of the Body reminded him of the guy that called him his son.
The guy approached him and the voice became clear.
' my son...one of the main aspects of the human...his ability to adapt in order to survive...'
The guy took a breathing before continuing.
'If you find yourself in situation where death feels merciful and bearable than living...keep pushing, dont give in, life is too precious to waste it over a fleeting and never lasting periods of struggles in life.. keep moving my son..'
With this the voice and the light disappeared.
The flashback he experienced ended with bringing clarity to his mind, yozrasef didn't even stop crawling through out his flashback.
' fuck..all of you'
Yozrasef cursed his demons and in response, they all laughed and faded to the back of his mind.
Yozrasef kept on moving.
His muscles screamed at him begging him to stop but he didn't.
He kept on crawling, until he lost track of time.
His head felt numb.
The pain coming from his muscles was the only thing bringing his consciousness back.
As he was crawling, yozrasef saw a tiny hole, the size of a fist.
Through that hole, light was sleeping through, enlighting tiny portion of the tunnel.
witnessing that light, yozrasef fastened his pace, like a child in a cradle wobbling his hands in excitement on the sight of witnessing the embrace of his mother.
In the matter of 5 minutes, yozrasef reached the hole.
As he did, he extended his right hand forward punching the soiled wall through wall.
As he was doing so, familiar held his hand pulling him out.
Three hours ago,
Sekhm stood there on the edge of crater after kicking yozrasef inside it.
'That must have been a shock for him..great..he forgot everything so maybe teaching him about betrayal would be great...right?'
Sekhm scratched his cheeks while thinking, he couldn't help but feel bad for what he has done to the poor guy.
He felt that this is something, yozrasef will understand and thank him for it in the future.
To teach him about how vile humans can be.
That slitting throats is not the only way to kill human being but one of the ways.
That betrayal is sharper than the edges of the finest swords.
That cheating can kill the human inside, numbing him from the pleasures of life for the rest of his life.
Only the strong the can heal their wounds by moving forward.
This world only accepts warriors especially the wicked of them all.
Its a living hell for the weak but heaven for the oppresser.
The question is, will yozrasef understand?
Will yozrasef at least fight for his life?
Will yozrasef understand that this training is not only about training his muscles but his mindset as well?
Sekhm closed his eyes, inhaling breath deeply.
The smell of sand, blood, metal and rotten flesh that filled the abyss entered his nosrtils.
' oh eternal light, guide him.
Guide us.
Dont give up on us.'
Sekhm prayed inwardly.
Lost in his own mind, sekhm heard footsteps coming from behind.
Turning his head around, he saw her.
It was khet.
Khet's nose was twitching like a dog looking for its owner.
Smelling the scents that is mixed through the blowing wind, looking for the direction of particular scent.
The scent lead her to the crater, khet not knowing it was a crater, tripped forward on the edge of the crater.
When khet was about to fall into the Crater, huge hand wrapped on its wrists, pulled her back.
"Hey, are you— nope that would sound bad— why are you here?"
Sekhm held his tongue from asking the blind if he is blind.
Changing the question he asked in genuine tone of voice.
"Ahh...oh..I was looking for yozrasef—"
Khet stated cluelessly and innocently.
" you know you almost fell inside six–meter–deep crater?"
Sekhm asked in scolding tone but with genuine care.
"Ahh..i see..—wait why is yozrasef in the crater?—..wait dont tell me— that crater?"
Khet admitted her mistake but immediately questioned sekhm in shocked tone.
Her voice shakes in realization
" yeah— I mean its dangerous but for some reason, I believe this guy coul—"
Sekhm scratched his cheek admitting that yozrasef entered the crater.
"What do you mean!? He is in the human ranks!?...are you intending to kill him?"
Khet felt uneasy about the situation and backed off.
"Huh? Where did that come from? Wai—"
Sekhm cut himself off mid sentence after asking cluelessly just to pull back the girl away from the crater again.
"You—are you attempting to kill yourself?are you out of your mind?!"
Sekhm yelled in startled behaviour that is mixed with worrisome.
"Ahh..im sorry.."
Khet apologized, a drop of sweat poured down her forehead, realizing her mistake.
"Ahh— just forget it...dont worry about it and that guy— he is training his body to understand it..he will survive"
Sekhm spoke after composing himself once more, he patted khet's head reassuring her.
Silence settled between them for 30 minutes.
Khet sat down on the edge of the cliff.
Sekhm stood beside her, his face darkened in worry.
"You...you feel that..right?"
Khet spoke breaking the silence, asking cautiously.
"Yeah— I do, this is One of the crater's traits, it releases waves of energy to Attract entities around it—"
Sekhm spoke then Paused for a second.
"Its a type of hypnosis trait, that draws creatures who are on the verge of surpassing their human limits and below that, do you know how we got this land?"
Sekhm continued then tosed a question towards khet.
But in response, khet shaked her head left and right, admitting her ignorance on the story behind the crater.
"In summary, The land we currently on, we occupied it ages ago— this crater is training ground for the naunets, that's why its abnormal for us humans—"
Sekhm paused as he sat on the cliff of the crater beside khet.
"After a bloody and gut trenching war we went through to occupy this land, we settled in and some of our comrades, explored the land, the first part of this land we came to was this crater—"
Khet listened with interest, her ears twitched along her nose as she turned her head in the direction of the sitting Sekhm.
"Some of our men, decided to infiltrate the crater and even asked the higher ups for permission, they declined the request out of worry over their men but upon, hearing the abnormal traits of this place, they came in person and gave their order for full exploring mission."
Sekhm paused to take a deep then he continued, his eyes flashed with memories.
"At that time, I was among those who were deployed on this battlefield, I was ordered by the higher ups to stand by with them and oversee the situation.
The team consisted of 7 third rated warriors, warriors who are in the third floor level.
I stood by, where me and you are sitting on now and waited.
An Hour, two, three, four until it was the eighth hour, there was no response, nobody came out,
I was worried about my comrades, until I felt movement coming
From beneath me, I looked behind and I found 3 hands stabbed their way out of the ground"
Sekhm paused once again, closed his eyes for a second then continued.
"There were only three humans who have survived, I pulled each one of them.
their power level reached the third stage of the third floor, they were on the verge of gaining enlightenment to advance, the fact they were already on the 2 stage and they immediately jump a whole stage worth of 6 months at the average was unusual, nevertheless, That transformation intrigued me, then I wondered, where are the rest."
Vein bulged through his forehead after pausing for a breathing.
"They never came out. they were deemed dead.
After the three humans woke up from 3 days worth of sleep.They explained their experience inside that crater.
The crater came to each one of them in unique and different way, it all depends on the person and what they Lack and train them based on it which we deduced after the interrogation of the three survivors, its mysterious training ground but truly effective if our deductions are true"
Sekhm sighed deeply then continued.
" you know—I dont know anything about yozrasef, to find a training method to help him grow—so I thought this crater fits him, since this crater is like a mental type of training ground, I planted the idea of his training method and the atmosphere of the crater which is not what truly look like, inside his head before throwing him in, its shape would change reflecting what he think or what he last thought of like a mirror, which is something I theorized —its terrifying place for sure —whether he survive or not its up to him"
Sekhm ended his explanation and khet couldn't help but feel uneasy.
She sat in silence, digesting every word that sekhm uttered.
"I dont know..I dont know if you helped him or sent him to death's doorsteps..lets pray that he would survive this..."
Khet spoke calmly, she held her hands together, praying along sekhm who closed his eyes.
' may the eternal light guide him'
Both of them repeated the same line under their breath three times.
After that, they Waited.
They waited in patience for the first hour.
The patience turned into worry.
Every minute passed they exchanged meaningful glances that worrisome was conveyed through it.
Two hours passed, sekhm stood and kept going back and forth, drop of sweat ran down his forhead.
Khet sat down praying non-stop
'I may not know him, but he is still a human being, he is comrade as well—how can it be more cruel than losing your own life that you dont remember a thing about?— not just that but you die while trying to figure things Out...'
Sekhm thought inwardly feeling how unfair the situation is.
'No—no, no, I refuse to believe a guy like him would lose his life, that— guy who have entered a place like this without energy? A guy who survived and even killed naunets?? That's not possible.'
Sekhm thought inwardly, refusing the idea of yozrasef dying.
'Whatever the eternal light decides for the pitiful soul, yozrasef, we will accept it...i hope that's the right mindset...mother, if you were here beside me...im sure you would have told me to be patient...let the course of fate take its natural path, whatever it is, we will adjust ourselves to the changes of the world...fate sure is incomprehensible part of life..right mother?'
Khet wrestled with her own thoughts as time went by.
Another hour passes.
Spontaneously, they felt the jagged—land under their feet trembled.
Khet was the first to react feeling the vibration through her hand caressing the ground.
Immediately, Khet felt something making its way out of the ground
'Earth worm?! Here!?'
She thought inwardly that it was another monster and panicked.
She immediately stood up, her left hand was placed firmly on the handle of the sword.
Watching her in silence, sekhm glanced over the ground.
"He is coming out."
Sekhm stated those words as right hand punched its way out through the ground, chains wrapped tightly around it.
At that moment, khet realized who sekhm was talking about.
Sekhm hurried towards the hand, attempted to pull him.
As he pulled him out the ground opened up like a predator letting of their prey.
Yozrasef's attire was in shambles, crusted with dried blood from the scratches carved across his face.
A brutal souvenir of he got scratches he got due to his fall inside the crater.
His knees were stained with blackened blood, a testament to hours of crawling.
His fingernails, dark as coal, bled dry from clawing, trying to dig through the walls of the crater in desperate defiance.
His half opened eyes gleamed with anger and pain but most importantly murderous glint.
His crimson eyes shone with that murderous look 'if you dont explain yourself I will kill you' despite that he was lifted by his right hand effortlessly from the ground, he didn't feel discouraged after witnessing the being who he believe betrayed him.
The ground closed from beneath his feet, at that minute, sekhm let him go
Yozrasef landed in both of his feet and immediately lost balance and fell to his knees.
Yozrasef's muscles were burning, severe pain tore through out his entire body.
He felt hundred blades stabbing his entire being but the worse part, his limbs didn't fall off so the pain continued nonstop.
Yozrasef glanced over the shocked sekhm.
"I..survived..you thought...you thought you could get rid of me?—"
Yozrasef spoke, his voice was dry which caused him to cough severely.
"I crawled for...days..to get you..— to get you, I crawled what I believed was twenty–four–meters tunnel...but in reality it wasnt..why did you try to get rid off me?!"
Yozrasef yelled at the end, he couldn't hold his anger and frustration of how unfair this is.
" what have I done to you!?...I fought with you! I saved you despite how weak I am!—"
Streams of tears rolled down his eyes, mixed with the dried blood of the scratches on his face made him it look like tears of blood.
"Why!?— tell me!!"
Yozrasef yelled non stop during that, sekhm stood there in silence, mouth half open.
Khet stood there too, her mouth was half open but was covered by her right hand, the blood and metal scent that followed yozrasef was intense.
The pain in his voice triggered her emotionally made her feel petty for him.
It triggered visions of her past which played through her mind eyes.
Someone who has lost his memories to experience such a shock is pretty harsh.
For her, yozrasef was no different than a child who is meeting the real world for the first time.
But for sekhm, yozrasef was like unfinished piece of art, an art that is made of obsiden, so dark to the point you cant see or comprehend its form, but when sekhm looks at that unfinished piece of art, his heart aches with guilt for leading it to go through that traumatic experience.
Khet tried to speak but she couldn't, she felt out of place.
She knew that the person who should speak was sekhm so she bit her lips, controlling herself from over stepping her boundaries.
Sekhm clenched his jaws for second then he approached yozrasef slowly.
Reaching the kneeling yozrasef, sekhm looked down at him.
Yozrasef looked back at him, his half closed eyes blurred by the tears of blood which made Sekhm's cold—stone face crack with petty.
Yozrasef turned his head down, he knew he couldn't fight.
Even if he was physically in top condition, he won't land solid hit on sekhm.
He accepted what he thinks is fate, which would be being killed.
Then.
Spontaneously, Sekhm's right hand blurred mid–air, right after that yozrasef collapsed on the ground.
Yozrasef was knocked out.