บท 32: Caves
The next morning quickly came and Emile was sitting on the red couch in the living space, his knee rhythmically bobbing, his body leaned forward in palpable unease.
After thirty minutes of waiting, Emile finally heard Blood's door slam shut as he slid down the stairs. Unlike Emile who was still wearing the white shirt and black pant combo, Blood was dressed in his black and gold royal attire.
Although Blood was exactly what Emile was waiting for, he felt no sense of relief seeing the boy approach him. Today they had to cross the Hollow Mountains to the labyrinth where they then had to massacre an entire community of creatures.
On his way to Emile, Blood interrupted Jumper and convinced the older man to accompany him to Emile. The two of them arrived and it was finally time to depart.
Jumper took the two to a seemingly random wall of the building and created a rift for them. Going through it, Emile and Blood found themselves on the edge of one of the volcanoes, about halfway up.
Emile looked around and once again failed to spot any signs of life. The side of the volcano was covered in coarse rocks and dried magma. The ground beneath them occasionally cracked from the pressure since so much of the volcano's mass was nothing more than settled ash.
"Where to now?" Emile asked.
Blood pulled an old compass from his pocket and waited for the needle within to settle. He turned around and faced the wall of the volcano beside them.
"That way." He pointed directly into the wall.
Emile's eyes scaled the volcano. He already felt that the two of them were uncomfortably high and now they had to go higher.
"Do we have to climb up?" Emile asked.
"No, we just walk around, but that alone is going to take forever." Blood closed the compass and started walking up the trail they were spit out on.
"Out of curiosity, when do I get my own set of armor and weapons?" Emile asked.
Blood stopped at the question.
"You don't have a weapon?" He repeated.
"No."
Blood turned around and erupted in Emile's face, "Why didn't you say anything before we left?!"
"Why would you assume I had a weapon?!"
"Because most people's weapons are in their soul! You know! Like Jumper's hand cannon!"
"I don't have any relics!" Emile shouted.
Blood put his hands on his face and crouched down, eventually squatting on the ground. He took a deep breath and collected himself.
"Then I hope you're excited to be a blood bank."
Blood walked away after that statement and continued up the trail. Silence accompanied them late into the night until it was time to find a place to rest.
During their ascent, they passed multiple entrances into the caves surrounding the volcano. Blood picked one of them and dropped to the floor.
Meanwhile, Emile stayed awake, unable to sleep on the inhospitable onyx floor. Time ticked by unbearably slow, so Emile decided it was best to explore deeper into the cave.
The walls of the cave spiraled around him as he explored further. They were perfectly smooth, Emile had yet to find a jagged rock. After a while Emile came to a split in the tunnel, forcing him to either go right or left.
He chose left and continued deeper into the center of the volcano, this new path traveling down into the earth. Eventually, Emile began to hear soft whispers echo off the flush walls.
Curious as to what he was hearing, Emile pushed further into the cave until he could register audible words.
"Get him!"
"Gut him!"
"Oh come on! Get back up!"
An onslaught of yells traveled through the tunnels. Emile stopped advancing, he knew he shouldn't make contact with these people. He turned around and hustled back up the tunnel.
He made it back to the split of the tunnel, but then a clear voice spoke beside his ear.
"Leaving so soon?"
It was a man's voice, raspy and deep, like phlegm was caught in his throat.
"Bl—" Emile tried to yell for Blood, but a gloved hand quickly covered his mouth and lunged him backwards.
"Shh—shh—shh—it's okay, it's okay. I just wanna talk." A knife suddenly pushed against Emile's neck, a single streak of blood staining his white shirt.
The man leaned Emile's body into his, he was unfathomably large and his body felt harder than steel. He continued pulling Emile back, each step a slow and methodical process so as to not trip over one another.
"You come to my show uninvited and then leave so suddenly?" He growled into Emile's ear, "Your disrespect will not go unpunished."
Emile began to hear the whispering voices and then the unintelligent screams. Light started to spread around the spiral walls along with an amalgamation of violent shadows.
"Rip him to shreds!"
The yells grew louder as did the light until the man spun Emile around. Beneath them an ocean of people crowded around a makeshift arena.
The arena was dug into the ground, no larger than a standard pool. Two men were in the arena, each bathed in blood. One had a missing arm while the other had a huge gnash over his eye.
One of the people in the crowd threw a sword into the arena below and the man with a missing eye caught the sword, then swiftly impaled it into his opponent's chest.
The crowd exploded. People threw coins, clothes, and weapons into the pit as they cheered the victor's name.
"Chiros! Chiros! Chiros!" The crowd didn't stop until the man named Chiros exited the pit through one of the tunnels.
"Looks like you're up."
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