Elian stayed hidden in the shadows, watching in silence as the children slaughtered each other.
He didn't move or even breathe too loudly, just waited. Until finally, only one of them remained.
The last boy stood over the others. His chest heaving with quick breaths and his sword soaked with the blood of his friends.
His body was covered in cuts, his clothes were torn, his face splattered with blood, but he was grinning.
The dim scattered glow of the orange chest crystals on the ground cast enough light for Elian to see the eerie expression stretched across the survivor's face.
Then the boy reached toward the soft white glow—the Relic—and the moment his fingers touched it, his entire body was swallowed by its light.
The brilliance lasted only a few seconds. When it faded he was still there, standing tall.
He looked down at his arms in disbelief and laughed.
"HAHAHAHAHA!"
His wounds had vanished. His skin was smooth where it had been torn just moments ago.
"I got one! I got a Relic!" he mumbled in dazed joy, then let out a shaky laugh.
But the laughter died a moment later.
His body went stiff as he slowly turned his head. His gaze scanned the blood-soaked floor and the broken corpses of the other children who had once been his allies.
The realization hit him like he was just seeing them for the first time. His knees buckled and he collapsed onto the ground. A choked sob escaped his throat as tears poured out and mixed with the blood on his face.
From a distance, Elian watched it all with a grimace etched across his face.
His hands clenched tighter around the hilt of his sword. None of the teachers had ever said anything about this! About Relics turning people against each other. About battles where the enemy wasn't a monster but your own kind!
But then he remembered that this was the Grave Realm.
Elian exhaled slowly, bitterness creeping into his breath.
In this dark and twisted world, things like this weren't surprising. Maybe someday or even a few hours later he would have to kill another human for a Relic.
He didn't want to. But if he wanted to survive and ever wanted to escape poverty and live a better life, he might not have a choice.
Still, that day wasn't today.
He couldn't take the Relic from the boy, not even if he was somehow able to kill him. A first Relic would always bind itself to the one who first claimed it.
If the bearer died, the Relic would disappear along with them. Only the second, or other unbound Relics could be taken after the bearer died. Fortunately, the teacher had some decency to mention that information.
So Elian turned away.
Without making a sound. He began to retreat, slipping back the way he came and searching for another path.
He found a path leading away from the ruined hall which was a vast and hollow corridor of black stone. Its arched ceiling stretched far above him. The scale of it made it clear this place was not built for humans.
He stepped into the corridor cautiously, his footsteps echoing faintly along the stone walls. But then something slammed into his senses.
RING!
A sudden ringing pierced his ears.
Elian winced and stumbled, pressing his shoulder against the cold wall as the pain grew sharper.
The sound in his head became a scream of pressure. His skull was pounding like it was being split apart. His vision blurred, and then… he saw flashes.
Images erupted across his mind.
A figure cloaked in white appeared in his eye. Their robe shimmered between black and white and kept flickering as if it didn't have any constant form.
The figure's face was wrong. It shifting, contorting, and unreadable. It felt as if Elian wasn't meant to see it, as if the world itself was rejecting the very idea of that face being known.
More flashes followed. Symbols, shadows, shimmering gold liquid, and screams. He also saw a hand reaching toward a dying ember.
Elian's breath caught in a gasp.
He didn't understand the images but one thing burned through the confusion-the feeling of hate. A deep, primal hatred toward that figure. Not fear. Just raw irrational hate.
But he couldn't explain why. Because that was not his experience.
His knees gave out, and he collapsed to the cold floor.
Then, as suddenly as it began, it stopped.
The ringing stopped. The pain vanished. The flashes dissolved into nothingness.
Elian gasped and blinked hard, sweat beading on his skin.
"What the fuck was that…" he whispered under his breath with heart still racing.
He had never seen anything like it before—not even in his worst nightmares.
He sat still for a moment, trying to gather his thoughts. But one suspicion began to take root in his mind, it must be the Relic. It had to be the cause.
The strange vision, hallucinations, and noise in his head. All of it started after he got close to the Relic.
Whatever it was, it wasn't just a source of power. He felt like those Relic had a strange presence that reached to him.
His eyes widened with new dreadful understanding.
Without wasting another second, Elian pushed himself to his feet and broke into a run.
He didn't look back. All that mattered now was getting as far away from that Relic as possible.
After several minutes of running through the corridor, Elian finally stumbled into another chamber.
It was just as vast and endless as the ones before. Its walls hidden behind shadows and the high ceiling lost in darkness.
He paused, chest heaving, and placed a hand over the glowing crystal embedded in his chest.
The soft orange light casting a faint glow that barely touched the floor beneath him.
"Phew… I think I'm far enough now."
He didn't know exactly what had happened back there. But something inside him had screamed to run and put as much distance as possible between himself and that Relic. So he did. He didn't wait for answers or logic. He had chosen to trust his instinct, just as he always had.
But now that he'd stopped, a new problem crept in.
He glanced around, slowly turning in place. The chamber was too big, too empty, and too dark.
He saw no doors, paths, or markings. Just an endless floor of smooth stone and silence.
The passage behind him was already swallowed by shadow and now unreachable by the glow of his crystal.
A sense of isolation pressed in on him. As if he were no longer inside a ruin but instead standing at the center of some giant forgotten kingdom that was made by unknown terrible beings.
The darkness was deep and heavy. It's suffocating him.
Then, he heard it. A soft rustling that was close enough to send ice through his veins.
He froze.
Something was moving in the dark.
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