It had been about an hour since I initially woke up in the tunnel of the dead.
The walkway was disgusting, the ceiling dripped a fluid akin to blood that had a potent smell of iron, reinforcing the idea that it might actually be blood that was crying from the roof above me.
The walls weren't any better, as if made of flesh, they were rough to the touch but soft as if you were touching a raw lump of meat.
I was told by Sandrus that I would find what I needed if we walked down this path, but the walk had spanned on for quite some time now and I was starting to get curious as to where we were going and how far it would be.
"You have a curious look on your face, my Lord." The more well rounded dwarf-like goblin was looking in my direction. He had clearly noticed that I wasn't satisfied with the situation at hand. I knew with the current strength I'd been granted that I could easily kill one of these small creatures, but without them I would have no clue on where I was going.
The cave finally opened up into a dome-shaped room with four pathways branching off of it. Six signs, likely made out of some sort of wood, were hung above the pathways, but instead of words being written down, detailed drawings had been carved into them, like the creator of the signs intended for the individual to identify the tunnel off of the appearance of the place they wanted to go.
A flawed system, I thought to myself. "So, which way do we go?" I eyed the goblin as he had stopped in the center of the room. His head twisted in my direction and in the blink of an eye he had disappeared.
The faint flutter of footfall proceeded the inhumane movement and before I had even turned around a much larger crash sounded on the floor.
It was the head of a beast.
The small goblin had slain the stealthy dragon sized beast in what could've only been one movement. The goblin placed the bloody knife, that he had carried on his side, back into its small sheath.
I inspected the cut around the beasts neck. It was clean, almost as if it had been cut by a guillotine. I looked back and forth between the knife and the beasts neck, the neck was almost 8 times the length of the blade, it would've been impossible to have made that cut with such a tiny blade.
"Impressed? That was a combination of abilities using the essence of speed. The first to increase my speed and the second to increase the range of my slash." The goblin that had slain the beast clearly took pride in his skills, the face that had maintained a calm expression throughout the whole journey now carried a wide grin.
The soft voice of Setrius started to speak behind me. "But brother..." the young monster sounded worried as he said this, as if his older brother had done something wrong.
"Don't stress Setrius. Even if the Lord is weak enough that he couldn't even feel what I just did, he will learn. That is what the whole ecosystem within this beast is for, to train the soul lords." He took a deep breath as he continued "Us soul-finders are born and bread in order to serve each of the soul lords. You were too young but there was a soul lord 250 years ago. He was weak when he got here too. It is not uncommon."
The words were being said as if I wasn't standing in-between the 'soul-finders'. It was good to put a name on the race of being these creatures were, instead of just referring to them as goblin-like monsters. However, even with my enthusiasm with reading, having read most of the books of Truscia's library in the capital city, I had never once heard of a soul-finder.
Most beings of their height and stature would be classed as E to D rank beasts, but beasts didn't have intelligence. Maybe that's what allowed this soul-finder to grow to such strengths.
"Wait wait wait... 250 years ago? How long have you been alive?" The realization that these things had likely lived over 10 times my life span hit me. "I am 406 years old. The leader of the soul-finders and the only current soul-finder to have met two soul lords."
He had started walking as I racked my brain for how such a small being could live for so long, and inside of another beast to add.
I followed Sandrus as he walked through the path to the right of me. I jogged slightly to catch up to the pair as I had been lost in my thoughts for a minute.
"We are almost to the city. It will take about 10 more minutes." The younger of the two said this time, looking back at me with a smile spread across his face, his fangs prominent in his set of teeth.
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I could feel the tunnel slowly open wider as a set of gates came into view. In clear letters, the name of the city was pasted across the gate.
'Vendan city: City of trials."
As we walked closer to the gate an older man came into view, the first human I've seen in this thing, I thought to myself as he turned and pressed the shaft of his spear into the ground and lowered his head at our arrival.
"Sandrus Soulred." He acknowledged the older soul-finder and then turned towards the youngest, "Setrius Soulred." Before turning towards me he looked the childish soul-finder up and down "Did you lose your Insignia Sir Soulred?"
He seemed to view the two as important figures and was careful with his words.
Setrius reached into his back pocket, and with a quick flash of light, the insignia appeared in his hand.
With a swift move he placed the insignia onto the front of his belt, in the same area that Sandrus had his.
The man started to open his mouth to address me before he was interrupted by Sandrus, "This is the Soul Lord..." The older Soulred brother turned to me and shot me a glance of curiosity. It was then I realized I hadn't told the two anything about myself prior to the attack. "Mercury Bauer."
"Yes... Mercury. We found his soul in the tunnel of the dead and brought him here first. As the king commanded." The Soldier looked stunned and stared at me for a brief moment before realizing it could be taken as a rude gesture.
He bowed after he came to his senses. Which shocked me entirely, what sort of status do these 'Soul Lords' have in this place. I'd never been bowed too before, it felt foreign. It didn't feel right. I was always the one bowing to others, even people I despised, it was trained into us of the lower class.
"Please, I didn't do anything worthy of such a greeting. What is your name, if I may ask?" I addressed the tall soldier directly and he rose from his bow with a speed that could've rivaled the essence ability Sandrus used earlier. "Godwin Desrath, Sir." He responded with a military tone.
The gate started opening once Godwin had shouted up at someone sitting on a watchtower above. The town was a sight to behold, there were buildings all around me, a clear stone path wide enough to fit two carriages took us down to the center of the visible city before it split off into 3 more paths.
At the crossroad Godwin lead us on the left hand path and walked up another 200 meters before stopping outside of a building that looked similar to a nobleman's house.
"This is the finest inn that you will find in this city. I'll talk to my father to find you a free house you can live in whilst you're stationed in this city, but until then please, make yourself comfortable here."
The soldier saluted again and held his spear to his side upright before turning around and walking back towards the crossroad with a certain amount of purpose.
"He's right, this is definitely the fanciest establishment in this city. Although a big and important city, its quite underdeveloped. Please, rest well tonight and by tomorrow we will start your training." Sandrus proceeded to smile widely at me and walk off with his brother scurrying in tow.
He had given me an insignia, almost the same as his own, before we had entered the city. Setrius had told me about how this insignia showed that I was a prized friend of the Soulred house, meaning I could walk around freely throughout the city without being questioned.
There was one thing that concerned me though. There didn't seem to be many people walking around. two or three people would pass me every minute, each of them giving me curious looks, but it didn't seem like the regular bustle I experienced in the cities on my home planet.
However putting that aside I opened the door to the inn. A bell rang above me and startled me for a moment before a middle aged man with a long brown beard and round glasses that covered most of his small head addressed me. "How may I help you, it is the middle of the night you know."
His voice was bordering on sounding irritated but I ignored it, instead choosing to hear the part about the time of day it was. It was impossible to tell what time it was as the entire city was closed off, surrounded by what I could only assume was the flesh of the beast.
A clock on the wall came to my attention and I looked up to see that it was around one in the morning.
I wondered how they managed to get this time, or whether it was a guess. It must not have mattered to them, as they didn't see the sun rise or set.
"Hellooo? Are you awake... gah another useless sleepwalker." The man put his head back in his arms and looked as if he was about to fall asleep again. "Ah, sorry, I was wondering if you had any rooms I could stay in for the time being. My friends recommended me this place, in truth i'm not from around here so I don't know how everything works."
"Huh so that's why you were looking around like a damn cat." The man, clearly not hiding his irritation now, snarled at me before raising his face into a weary look and saying "Yes there is a room, however it will cost you 2 silver for the night." He looked at me, smug, as if he knew I didn't have any money on me to pay for the inn
I reached for my insignia and showed the clerk, he took a step back, stunned, before turning to me "Right away sir. Please forgive me for my rudeness. I meant no disrespect to the house of Soulred."
He bowed and took me up the stairs and to the third room on the right. "This suite should be to your liking, I will send someone up to bring you breakfast at 9." He unlocked the door and gestured for me to enter. "Thank you for your hospitality." I responded before closing the door on him.
It was only when I hit the bed in my slightly large room that I realized how tired I had gotten.
Within seconds of settling in my new bed, I had started to fall asleep. It was a nice feeling. The darkness I had gotten used to but with this time with the warmth of a bed beneath me.
Then I slowly drifted into unconsciousness.
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The fractured floor beneath me shined bright with cracks of light connecting, giving it the look of a shattered pane of glass.
I looked up to see the face of my sister disintegrating in front of me, the image refreshing in my mind as I watched her fall apart again.
Tears fell from the corners of my eyes as the scene repeated in front of me.
A scream wanted to rip from my lungs as the world collapsed around me and I started falling into the jaws of the beast, this time maintaining my body.
But I couldn't scream, the fear overtook me and I closed my eyes and tried to drown out the noise of the world collapsing.
My eyes forcefully opened and the scene of the fractured floor beneath me reappeared and my sister disintegrated in front of me once again.
I must be in hell.