Argh...
A groan of pain and soft sighs escape his lips as he feels a headache coming on.
His eyes begin to open slowly, gradually regaining consciousness.
The young man, with his eyes half open, while lying on a mattress, looks up at the concrete ceiling above him and notices that there is a damp cloth on his forehead.
– "What's that doing here?" – he asks himself, showing a confused expression.
He takes the cloth in his hands and removes it from his forehead, placing it on the floor next to him. However, he soon realizes that his body is beginning to heat up.
– "How hot..." – mutters the teenager, still with his eyes half open and a manifest expression of extreme exhaustion.
As the perspiration becomes evident, he feels the need to support his forehead with his arm, while a pain shoots through his head.
– "Bloody hell, I'm boiling!" – he exclaims, surprised to find his own temperature, probably feverish.
The young man struggles to open his eyes a little more and, as he does so, he notices that the mattress he is lying on has several holes in it and is covered in dust.
The mattress is on the floor, next to a brick wall.
Looking to the side, he sees puddles of urine on the dirt floor, accompanied by various feces.
Feeling a deep sense of contempt, he quickly realizes that only the edges of the mattress are affected by the urine.
He then carries out a more comprehensive analysis of the room he is in.
The room measures 5x5 meters and has leaks in the concrete ceiling.
In addition, the room is half empty, with only an old mattress, a hole in the wall that looks like a window, a curtain that replaces the door and a bulb-shaped lamp hanging from the concrete ceiling.
A dark wooden coat rack complements the room.
Light armor hangs from this rack. Most of the armor is made of flexible materials such as leather or reinforced fabric.
The suit consists of a knee-length skirt made up of layers of segmented plates with an opaque black metallic base, which ensures lightness and flexibility.
Ornamental lines in soft orange run along the edges and central details of the plates, reflecting the light with a subtle glow. Between the black sections, bands of soft red fabric create a harmonious contrast.
In the center of the skirt, fastened by a discreet sash, is a fox mask in aged silver, adorned with delicate carvings that highlight its mystical contours.
He also sees black tights, smooth and fitted to the body, on each of her legs. The gloves, made of a soft and resistant black leather, cover the entire hand, although there are tears in the fingers, giving the costume a worn appearance.
The forearms are protected by segmented metal armbands, which adjust perfectly to the shape of the arm.
The armbands are finished in a soft shade of light red, adorned with subtle light orange lines that create an aesthetic contrast of great elegance.
In the center of each plate is a small gold shield symbol, meticulously carved and polished, which adds to the visual appeal of the outfit.
The shirt, made from a reinforced black fabric, provides coverage for the torso, sleeves and neck, fitting snugly to the body without limiting the wearer's mobility.
On top of this fabric, a shiny gold medal hangs delicately, positioned close to the left side of the chest.
The medal has a precisely sculpted design, depicting a sword leaning in front of a shield. The knee pads are of the "worker" type.
They are made from lightweight leather in a soft shade of orange. The shoulder pads, made of polished black metal, have an angular, segmented shape, reminiscent of the classic design of medieval armor.
Lightweight and well-fitting on the shoulders, these pieces provide efficient protection without compromising freedom of movement, and their dark metallic finish gives the suit a discreet grandeur.
After looking at the armor, the young man remembers the human fox that wore it and begins a gradual process of remembering the events that preceded his fainting spell.
– "I was saved, wasn't...?" – the boy asks himself, confusion and fatigue evident in his expression.
As he slowly revives his memories, he glimpses images of an earlier moment in his mind, picturing himself being carried on the shoulders of a young fox, who rescued him from an army of ants. However, his memories are abruptly interrupted by an intense headache.
ARGH!!!
With an involuntary gesture of pain, the young man feels a sharp stab in his head, similar to the sensation of being hit.
Trying to minimize the pain as much as possible, the young man remembers the enchanting scent of the young woman's hair, her beautiful, soft hair in a shade that combines red and orange.
However, this sweet aroma is quickly overshadowed by the unbearable smell of urine and feces that permeates the room. In a deliberate move, he slowly sits down on the mattress, taking care not to cause any more pain in his head.
The teenager, still fatigued, gradually gets up and recalls the reason for his fainting spell.
"Oh, that's right, I fainted from exhaustion." – he thinks, reflecting clearly, although his face remains marked by exhaustion.
Once on his feet, the young man looks up at the window and is surprised to see several other houses similar to the one he is in, with brick walls and concrete roofs.
Questioned by the reality that people live in that arid, barren area, the boy wonders if they have basic resources such as water and food.
However, he quickly discards this line of thought and turns to the curtain that takes the place of a door. Advancing hesitantly, he emits slight groans due to tiredness and pain.
After walking around the excrement and urine in the room, he finally reaches the curtain and opens it.
Behind the curtains, the same flat, barren space is revealed, characterized by cracks in the ground and infertile earth, to which the young man had already become accustomed, without many surprises. So he simply leaves the house.
He sees a path made up of small stones and decides to follow it, in the hope that it will lead him somewhere.
During his walk, the teenager observes the houses that appear to be abandoned and wonders if life once existed there.
After two minutes of walking, he comes to an underground opening. The darkness is total in this hole and there is no safety in entering it. However, he reflects:
"What does it matter? I don't care what happens anymore."
With an expression of indifference, the young man begins his descent through the opening into the subsoil.
As he went deeper, the darkness around him intensified, to the point where the environment became completely impenetrable to light.
Thinking to himself, the young man asks: "I've been going down for at least a minute; is there no end to these stairs?"
Suddenly, he slips on a liquid and begins to fall vertiginously into the hole, bouncing against the ground until he reaches the bottom, while a light intensifies as he continues his fall.
Falling face down, with no visibility whatsoever, the boy can do nothing but scream:
– "MY HEAD!" - an explosion of pain flashes across his face.
Feeling excruciating pain and overwhelming fatigue, he can barely move, his skull seems about to crack.
Gathering enough strength, he manages to turn his head forward and then realizes that the stairs have led him to an underground tunnel of considerable dimensions, approximately 15 by 8 meters.
The tunnel is illuminated by torches arranged on the side walls, five feet apart, and has significant humidity.
Its floor, walls and ceiling are made up of a mixture of earth and plant resins, with a pasty and sticky consistency, a peculiar aspect for what could be considered soil.
Observing his surroundings carefully, the young man soon notices the presence of a neon green liquid.
– "DID I SCORP IN THAT SUBSTANCE?" – exclaims the young man, expressing his indignation and anger loud and clear.
Outraged by everything that had happened so far, without hesitation he exclaimed vehemently, hurling insults at the world.
– "WHAT A SHITTY WORLD!"
After these words, he abruptly hears laughter echoing in his mind, remembering the voice that brought him to this world, while a grotesque vision of laughter invades his thoughts.
"HAHAHAHA!"
The young man, hearing the voice mocking him, lost his composure, especially after everything he had faced because of it. He let off steam, his voice seeming to resound in a lonely cry:
– "YOU DISGRACED MESSENGER, I'M STILL GOING TO KILL YOU!"
The young man struggled to regain enough strength to at least make it to the end of the tunnel, in the hope of finding a way out, because he didn't want to perish there from thirst, hunger or pain. So he gradually stood up and started walking.
He felt more comfortable when he realized that the darkness had diminished. As he progressed through the tunnel, a neon green liquid began to appear, giving off an acidic smell.
Alongside this liquid, he noticed the presence of several objects on the floor, which he touched occasionally. The objects were of considerable size, but their nature remained uncertain, although they had a strangely furry texture.
After a long walk through the tunnel, he came to a new opening, which was completely covered in that neon green liquid, giving the impression that the hole was green by nature. It was probably impossible to walk through that space without slipping.
Unsure of the composition of the liquid, he hesitated at first; however, due to the tiredness and pain he was feeling, he decided to go ahead.
He then prepared himself, gained momentum and slid down the hole, reaching the end and falling onto a filthy floor covered in the green liquid, thinking to himself:
– "Ew, that's disgusting, this liquid gives off an unbearable stench." – the expression of disgust on his face resembled a reaction of nausea, making him consider that liquid as vomit.
While worrying about his dirty clothes, he looked ahead and saw the young woman from before, completely bloodied and almost unable to wield her sword. In front of her, one of the huge ants was cornering her.
At that moment, he remembered the acidic smell, the green liquid and the large furry objects he had touched; all of this belonged to the ants, because the objects were their paws and the liquid was their blood.