Eis dreamed of fire and the orphanage, the place where he had stood frozen, watching as everything he knew was consumed by flames. The air was thick with smoke, billowing up to the heavens, while the greedy fire devoured everything in its path. The screams of children and desperate pleas for help filled the air, cutting through the crackling of burning wood.
Eis stood just outside, trembling, his fists clenched so tightly that blood seeped from where his nails dug into his palms. He was helpless, weak, utterly useless. The feeling of powerlessness gnawed at him, a torment far worse than the flames.
Then, as if conjured from the smoke itself, a man appeared.
He was dressed like a nobleman, with a sharp black suit and a top hat, an elegant cane in one gloved hand. His attire was immaculate, all in stylish black, a stark contrast to his piercing green eyes that seemed to mock whoever they gazed upon.
"You shouldn't be here, boy," the man said, his smile thin and cold, never reaching those unsettling eyes. "Look at what you've done!"
"No," Eis whispered, his voice barely audible, raw from the tears he had shed. "It wasn't me. You have to believe me!"
"Oh, I believe you, my boy," the man said, leaning closer, his voice a sinister whisper in Eis' ear. "But no one else will. It's easy enough to look at the other incidents you've been involved in. You're just a rat, Eissen. No one will care if you disappear. Just go! Run and never come back!" His voice rose to a shout, and Eis, driven by fear and guilt, began to run.
He ran until his lungs burned and his legs threatened to give out beneath him. He ran until he reached The Belows, the only place where he could disappear.
Or maybe he never stopped running, even after he got there.
Suddenly, the dream halted as a mass of impenetrable blackness enveloped Eis' consciousness. He felt disoriented, caught between the realms of sleep and wakefulness, as though suspended in a dream yet fully aware of it.
For a few tense seconds, nothing happened. Then, without warning, an explosion of raw energy detonated within Eis' soul.
His body jerked violently upward, his eyes rolling back until only the whites were visible.
In the next instant, his vision began to shift.
Eis found himself standing in an endless expanse of snow, the world around him dominated by a raging blizzard powerful enough to uproot trees. The frozen sea stretched out before him, and at its desolate shore stood a man with hair as white as the snow and skin like flawless porcelain. The man's black eyes turned slowly, locking onto Eis' gaze. Then, the vision changed.
Eis was deep within an ancient jungle, where towering trees reached hundreds of meters into the sky. The flora was so dense that visibility extended no more than a few meters. Predators moved silently among the trees, stalking unseen prey with deadly intent.
But Eis' attention was drawn downward, to a vast pit plunging hundreds of meters into the earth. A massive yellow eye with an inverted iris opened from its depths, staring directly into Eis' soul. The connection lasted only a heartbeat before the vision shifted again.
Eis was now in a vast desert, where dunes stretched endlessly under the sun. The heat was oppressive, searing even within this dream. To his left stood a colossal pyramid, its size beyond comprehension, stretching kilometers wide and several kilometers tall.
At the entrance, a woman holding an ancient staff gazed at him with intense purple eyes, filled with a mystic power. Her lips moved as if to speak, but no sound reached him. Before he could react, the vision changed once more.
He was now deep beneath the ocean, witnessing a war of unimaginable scale. A massive gate stood at the center, and from it poured nightmarish creatures, engaging in battle with leviathans, mermaids, and other sea-dwelling humanoids.
The battle raged with ferocity, but Eis' eyes were drawn to the colossal creature within the portal, leading the nightmarish forces. He strained to make out its features, but just as clarity was within reach, its red eyes turned on him.
In that instant, Eis felt his soul ignite, burning to ashes only to be reformed and burned again in an endless cycle of agony. The torment was excruciating, overwhelming every fiber of his being.
He woke up with a scream, clutching his head, his forehead drenched in cold sweat. "It was just a dream," he whispered, trying to steady his frantic breathing. But the vividness of the visions left a lingering sense of dread, as if the dream was more than just a nightmare.
"Indeed, it was just a dream," a man's voice echoed from behind Eis. Before he could react, the cold steel of a dagger pressed against his throat. "No need to rush. Stay calm, and you might just keep your life," the man said smoothly.
"Marcus?" Eis asked, his body tensing for a moment before he recognized the voice.
"Right on point, boy. You really messed up this time if the boss had to send me to fetch you," Marcus replied.
"To fetch me?" Eis exhaled in relief, some of the tension leaving his body. "I thought you were here to unburden me of life right here and now."
"For someone who claims to have accepted death, you sure sound relieved," Marcus said with a grin, pulling the dagger away from Eis' throat and tucking it back into his long, black cloak.
"What can I say? I'm a busy man with things to do before I go." Eis shot back with a grin of his own, the bravado returning to his voice.
"Crazy as always." Marcus shook his head. "Let's get moving. We don't have all day. The boss is waiting."
"The Snake is really that worried about my debts, huh? I'm just a small fish, yet I seem to get his attention all the time," Eis remarked, fishing for any sign that they might have discovered the fate of the boss' goons.
"You know he doesn't like you calling him that," Marcus sighed, his voice dropping into a more serious tone. "Eis, do you even realize how often the boss has turned a blind eye to your antics? There was a time I thought you were his blood or something, the way he overlooked your nonsense."
"Did you just call me a bastard? Man, that hurts." Eis clutched his chest dramatically, feigning injury.
"Move your ass, or I'll carve you up just enough to get you serious," Marcus growled.
"Alright! Alright! No need to get cranky!" Eis relented, raising his hands in mock surrender.
If anyone else had seen how casually Eis was acting with Snake's right-hand man, they would have choked on their disbelief. Marcus, the man known as "The Shadow," had long since passed the three-digit mark in his body count—a grim total accumulated over years of working for the de facto ruler of The Belows. Working for the Snake was anything but peaceful, after all.
Without further conversation, Eis followed Marcus into the narrow, winding streets of The Belows. The crowds parted as Marcus approached, people recognizing him instantly and moving out of his path like rats fleeing from a predator. They avoided eye contact, not daring to draw his attention.
On the other hand, Eis was lost in thought, trailing behind Marcus mechanically. The meaning of visions still tormented him, and his mind worked overtime to make sense of what he saw.
Having time to think about it, he was sure they were not a dream. They felt too real and too detailed to be something else. But what was he supposed to do with that knowledge? He wasn't an awakened, with grand powers or destiny. The creatures in those visions—were they allies or enemies? Were they even human? That thing in the jungle definitely wasn't!
Lost in thought, he noticed they were not going straight to the Snake's office.
"Hey, Marcus, planning to kill me and dump my body somewhere? Where the hell are we going?"
"I have to run an errand first." He said, ignoring Eis' antics. "When we get there, shut up and let me do the talking. And for once, don't do anything stupid. I'm serious, Eis."
"Couldn't have done this before storming into my place and dragging me a "long?" Eis muttered, but Marcus's glare was enough to silence any further complaints.
They continued in silence for several more minutes before they arrived at a rundown building indistinguishable from the dilapidated structures around it. If Eis had passed by this place on his own, he wouldn't have given it a second glance.
Marcus walked straight to the door, opened it without knocking, and stepped inside, with Eis following close behind.
The interior reeked of mold and decay, the air thick with the stench of rot. The room was dimly lit, with no windows to let in the light, only a single, weak candle flickering in the corner. A man in tattered clothes stood in the center of the room, turning toward them with a loaded crossbow aimed directly at Marcus.
"Who are you?" the man shouted, but before he could do anything more, a dagger flew through the air and embedded itself in his throat. The man's eyes widened in shock, his grip on the crossbow loosening as his life drained away.
Before the body could hit the floor, Marcus was already there, catching it and retrieving his weapon with practiced ease. He moved swiftly to a trapdoor in the floor, opening it silently before descending into the darkness below.
Eis glanced at the corpse, shaking his head. "Nice talk," he muttered, then followed Marcus down into the hidden passage.
As Eis and Marcus descended into the tunnel, the stench of rot intensified, assaulting their senses with a nauseating force. Eis gagged, barely holding back the urge to vomit as the air grew thick with decay. The dim light from the sparse torches flickered ominously, casting long shadows that danced along the narrow passage.
After a minute of walking, the duo began to notice the decaying corpses lining the tunnel. The path was barely wide enough for a single person, forcing them to step carefully around the rotting bodies.
Finally, they emerged into a spacious cavern, the floor littered with even more corpses. A cloaked figure was kneeling at the far side of the cavern, one hand raised in the air as it chanted in a language unfamiliar to Eis.
The figure was positioned before a pentagram drawn in blood, with a candle burning at each point. At the center of the pentagram, a corpse twitched violently, as if something inside it was struggling to break free.
In an instant, Marcus acted. A dagger flew from his hand with such speed that Eis barely registered the movement before it embedded itself in the chanting man's skull. The figure collapsed, the life draining from its body as Marcus flicked his wrist, recalling the dagger to his hand.
Eis raised an eyebrow in surprise but, keeping his promise didn't say anything. However, that didn't change the fact that he saw something he never expected to see. 'Marcus is awakened!' That thought kept spinning in his head again and again.
The man in question, however, didn't even spare him a glance, and after checking, the body continued forward, his steps silent like those of a seasoned assassin.
They entered another cavern far larger and better lit than the previous one. The high ground on which they stood led down to a central area filled with ancient statues, each one depicting a figure that might have been a hero or a god—it was impossible for Eis to tell. In the center of the cavern, surrounded by these statues, was a stone altar, and strapped to it was a little girl.
Her eyes, filled with fear, stared at two men above her.
Eis' jaw dropped at the scene. 'What freaks of nature are these bastards, and what the f*ck are they doing?!' He screamed in his head. Before he could even think of doing anything, Marcus sprang into motion.
Two daggers flew from his hands with blinding speed. The two men standing near the altar snapped their heads toward the newcomers, immediately chanting in that same strange language. Red pentagrams flared to life on their palms.
The first dagger struck one of the men in the eye, passing cleanly through his skull with a spray of blood and bone. He crumpled to the ground, dead before he could even react.
The second dagger, however, collided with an invisible wall, a metallic clang echoing through the cavern. The surviving man smiled wickedly.
"F*uck my luck. An acolyte!" Marcus spoke for the first time since they entered this place. "Eis, make some distance from me. This is going to get ugly." He shouted.
Daggers appeared in Marcus's hand, and he began to hurl them with incredible speed, his other hand weaving gestures that altered their trajectories. The weapons became like living creatures, assaulting the acolyte from all sides. With each impact, the barrier flickered, forcing the man to one knee, yet he kept chanting frantically.
The cavern became dark, and the corpse of his fallen comrade started to twitch; in seconds, it rose with glowing red eyes.
Meanwhile, Eis, who had been retreating to give Marcus space, noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned just in time to see another cloaked figure slipping into a hidden tunnel. Instinctively, he gave chase.
Something stirred in him after he looked at the grotesque scenes in this place. He wasn't a hero, nor did he get into anyone's business, but this... this demanded him to do something.
These people, playing with death, filled him with disgust so profound that he could not explain it in words.
He closed the distance quickly and leaped, aiming to drive the dagger into the man's skull.
Yet nothing like that happened.
His target turned with unnatural speed, catching Eis' wrist mid-strike. The man's free hand shot forward, delivering a punch to his chest with such force that Eis was sent flying backward. He slammed into the tunnel wall, a pained cry escaping his lips as the air was driven from his lungs.
The man stepped forward, his hood falling back to reveal a middle-aged face with a short beard and mustache. A golden monocle covered his left eye, and his long, black hair fell over his shoulders.
The man stepped forward to finish Eis, but suddenly, his eyes darted into the distance like he could see through the walls. Making a swift decision, the man uncorked a vial of green liquid and flung it at Eis before disappearing into the tunnel.
Eis struggled to move, his ribs screaming in pain, but the green gas rising from the shattered vial quickly enveloped him. He coughed violently as the fumes filled his lungs, his vision blurring as darkness closed in.