Feeble light, coming from large azure mushrooms, illuminated a small opening on a long and dark corridor dug in black hard stone.
Mining equipment lay down on the ground next to the fluorescent plants. There were pickaxes, shovels and measuring sticks. Between the objects, there were also the skeletal remains of four people. All was covered with a thick layer of black dust.
Suddenly, a huge flash of green light lit up the entire opening and boundless emerald rays flooded for hundreds of meters the dark tunnel for a single breath, before fading away into nothing.
When the green light dissolved, five people had appeared in the small opening. They were all wearing the same blue working uniform, with a complex black rune on their chest.
First, there was a bald, large young man. A bristly red beard grew all around his large and morbid face. He was occupying most of the space, with his back against a large black rock formation and his body stretched over one of the skeletons.
Near him was a black-haired youth of Asian descent, probably Chinese. He had thick black eyebrows that made him look incredibly arrogant even as he slept. The rune on his uniform wasn't black, like the others but golden. His head rested on one of the voluminous tighs of the red-bearded fatty.
Not too far stood a blonde youth. He was the only one awake. At the moment he had a hand over his hearth and a ragged breath. His reddened blue eyes moved to scan the place around him, widening in surprise when he saw the fatty and the thick brows guy.
'Brother Mark? Li Houji?'
His mind was flooded by old memories: Mark was his best friend! They had roamed the lands for dozens of years together before. As for Houji? He had been his greatest rivals for years, competing in numerous trials and tournaments to determine who was the best. Yet, in the end, he considered him also a friend of some sort.
They were all from the same planet after all! Drifters from Earth, who one day found themselves into this strange world of Illusory Thunder.
'They are alive?'
Both Mark and Houji were dead. However, they were right there, sleeping sonorously next to a large chunk of Vitality Ash.
'Is this another Illusion?'
The last thing the blonde man remembered was the towering figure of Khitava, the Dark Summoner, moving towards him. Did that bastard throw him in an illusion?
The young man tried to summon his cultivation base to break the spell, but instead, his eyes opened even wider in shock.
'My cultivation base?'
He couldn't even feel his own cultivation base! This wasn't possible! Khitava could not be able to use such a powerful illusion technique. Not even a full-fledged Grand Illusionist from the White Moon Empire could do such a thing. Even more, he never heard that the Karui Lord was proficient in illusions. He was a summoner and a hex master, but illusions were a completely different field!
'If this isn't an illusion... then'
The expression of the blond man changed. He tried to spread his spirit sense around him, but he found out that even his very soul wasn't as strong as he remembered it to be. He wasn't even able to create the smallest soul energy probe.
'It's almost as if I had never cultivated...'
Not being able to use his cultivation or his soul to sense thing, like he had become accustomed to, he directly used his eye. His gaze moved along, examining the little opening where he and his two friends were.
A tremor passed all over his body when he saw a thing on the other side of the opening, right on the opposite wall of dark rocks. There, a couple was sleeping tightly hugged together.
"Morgana?" a broken, incredulous voice came out of his throat.
His azure eyes touched one of the two figures: a black-haired woman, with a peculiar beauty mark on the lower part of her left cheek. A complicated look appeared on the blonde man's eyes when he noticed that the man Morgana was hugging moved unconsciously his arm around her.
He was a thin man, black hair and bronzed complexion.
'Sif, he's still alive... this can only mean that... we're truly back to the start!'
The blonde guy stopped looking at the couple sleeping and fished a small ivory talisman from under his clothes. Two cracks appeared on the small object. It looked like it would crumble to pieces at any moment.
Summoning all the soul power that he could manage to use, he dipped it on the small item. It took a couple of minutes to finally break the invisible barrier that blocked his soul energy to broke inside the item.
The blonde youth could feel an immense void inside the small object, a void where he could sense a few drops of silver liquid.
'The Space-Time Sea World Amulet's energy is almost completely gone.'
The small object that the blond man was examining was his most precious treasure: he named it Space-Time Sea World Amulet because it used to contain an infinite quantity of Space-Time Law Energy. It was like an unending sea of silver-white energy.
Now, however, most of it was gone. Only a couple of dozen drops of Space-Time power remained hidden inside the treasure.
'Time-Travel. The Amulet can truly affect time on such large scale!'
The young man was amazed. During his years of cultivation, he had become an expert in space-time techniques: he clearly understood the implication of the things he was seeing around him. The Amulet, the same treasure that randomly brought five young humans from Earth to Illusory Thunder, showcasing an insane power in the Law of Space, was also capable to control Time at such an abnormal level.
It was too bad that now the inner world of the talisman was almost completely void.
'No, it is worth it. This is a second life!'
Khitava was going to kill him. He was sure about it. The Karui Lord had an enmity against him and was a devious fighter and a shrewd tactician. Probably the amulet activated itself to save his owner for certain defeat.
His eyes moved again towards his sleeping friends. He promised himself to not let the past happen again. Then his gaze softened and landed on the sleeping Morgana.
'Nobody is going to touch you ever again.'
The blond man looked at the black rocks that covered the little opening where he was and smiled. This was the perfect place where to start cultivating.
Without waking up the people around him, he just sat down on the floor and started to slowly modulate his breathing to a rhythmic sense. Soon, a green aura started to form all around him. Lines of green energy started gradually linking themselves with various chunks of black rocks around the youth.
At the same time that the blond man started cultivating, immersing himself completely in his technique, two black eyes opened on the other side of the aperture.
It was the man hugging the black-haired woman, Sif. An invisible ripple spread from his body, running all around the place and checking every crane and corner around.
His mouth trembled slightly, and a large vein appeared on his front. He felt like screaming, but he rapidly suppressed the need.
'Fuck, what kind of goddam luck does this bastard have? This isn't even fair!'