Disciple of Madness

When the Shattered Devil looked at him with those holes, Adrian realised he wasn't on Zenim anymore.

No way could a newborn Shattered creature be on Zenim. They were believed to be bred in Hell.

Is this Hell? Adrian questioned himself as he looked around him.

The mist looked quite eerie, sending chills down his spine. He felt a sense of dread, a feeling of trepidation to exit this place as soon as possible.

The Devil coughed once more and that was when Adrian remembered that ...there were coughing sounds all over the place.

As he squinted his eyes, the forms of the other newborn Devils came into view. They were all rooted in their place and...coughed.

Nothing else.

Adrian resumed walking. He wet his chapped lips trying to drown the deep anxiousness settling in his chest.

The more he walked, the more the fog around him thickened.

The slight blowing air also seemed unnatural. It felt cold, damp and...foreign. Just like the air one breathes in an abandoned basement during winter.

Adrian's lungs felt a bit heavy as he moved on. It seemed he was also having slight breathing problems.

He really wanted to get out of the place but there was nothing in sight. He tapped into his powers to light some fire.

But...nothing happened. At that moment Adrian realised that his powers were also gone. His connection to Evelyn was cut away as well.

His body was nothing more than an empty vessel.

"Just what did Luna do that I came into...Hell?" He spoke softly. But then he touched his ears.

He couldn't hear the words he just spoke.

He spoke again. Still he didn't hear his sound.

He looked around him in confusion. Did he become deaf?

'No, that shouldn't be the case.' He thought with a shake of his head as he took in the coughing Devils. He could still hear their irritating but constant coughs as well as the occasional wheezing sound of the wind passing by him.

"My children... Don't be like that." A sudden whisper broke the monotonity of the situation.

"You shall all grow up soon. And then we shall once again be ruling what was once ours. The lands that were seized from us...My birthplace."

"So hold on, children. You are growing up fine enough. Just a while more, just a while more."

Meanwhile, Adrian felt his body getting crushed under huge tons of pressure and that increased the more words were spoken by the unknown human voice.

"Hmm? Who are you?" The voice questioned and Adrian felt it being targeted at him. With great effort, he lifted his head and saw the most ahead of him darkening as if a dangerous entity was approaching him.

"You do not belong here....but you can be the first one to shed their blood for my children. They have been hungry for a long time."

The thick darkness spread in the white mists, engulfing them and showing its dominance.

"Go, my children. Your feast is right there." As the darkness engulfed the Devils, their behaviour changed suddenly.

They no longer coughed and suddenly grew a pair of feet.

Almost hesitantly a Devil took his first step towards him, as if unsure of his own walking.

Seeing their brother take his first step, the others imitated it.

Soon Adrian faced an uncountable number of horrors walking toward him. To make it worst, he couldn't even move from his spot.

Meanwhile the darkness that claimed itself to be the father of the Devils watched him, pressured him to stand at one spot only.

Adrian watched in helplessness as the newborn Devils approached him.

Out of the blue, there was a clicking sound all over the place just like the sound of a door being locked.

Adrian suddenly found his mind reeling from an unknown impact. His ears rang as he lost his consciousness temporarily and came back to the real world.

The mists around him no longer looked unnatural. No longer was the darkness present.

"Damn it, what's this shitty thing?" Someone cried out.

Adrian soon came to his senses, slightly disoriented by the sudden transferring between worlds as he stumbled forward.

But moments later he regained his balance and ran towards the mountains without giving a second thought or even without looking back. He was slightly shaken from the turn of events that took place.

Though internally he asked himself, 'What was that place? And why were there so many Shattered Devils?'

He didn't even want to think of the otherwordly presence.

Adrian understood that the entity was powerful. Something he would never want to encounter again.

∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆

Adrian looked up at the rising rocky edge and then at the pale night sky.

He was at the bottom of the Dawn Mountains.

'Guess it's gonna be a rocky climb now.' With a lazy stretch of his body, he started climbing. The shadows of the mountain gave him the necessary cover from the unnecessary gazes that might accidentally spot him.

The slope was gentle at the bottom, making it quite easy for him to climb. At first it was all rocks and rocks. There were no roads cut through this area.

The roads lay on the other side of the mountains where House Versicos had their main camp, fully utilised on digging and mining the Aetherite ores from the Dawn Mountains.

To the citizens of the kingdom, House Versicos was seen as a sort of heroes for undergoing such tedious tasks and taking risky steps against the horrors present at the mountain peak.

But the reality wasn't so sweet. As someone who had spent six years of his life on this same mountain, he knew the cruelty and the inhumane measures the Duke houshold had undertaken, all in order to maximise their profits.

The Duke would hold a show of rewarding the workers in front of the public. But these workers were just hired actors whose sole role would be to evoke sympathy among the general people from whom the Duke would then charge extra taxes for the well-being of the selfless workers.

' The miners in the mountains aren't even workers. They are slaves bought from the slave market.'

His eyes darkened as he said, "Just like I was one of them."