Disciple of Madness

It all started as an illusion. An illusion that soon lost its form to become a reality. Humans found it perfectly normal to find harrowing creatures among them, they found it completely normal seeing one of their own getting devoured by the horrors. They whispered it was sacrifice. They said it was embracing safety. Even though they knew these creatures were unspeakable horrors, they still didn't mind until one day someone did. A scream tore through the throats of the young boy, reverberating through the plains; the mountains shook, avalanches rocked the land, the ground beneath shook and crumbled,the air tensed its vibrations destructive,the lakes rippled,the seas roared and the oceans' fury buried everything beneath it...the reality no longer remained sane and under the weight of the Will imposed by the boy, the illusion finally gave way to the something more harrwoing--Chaos. War ensued, killing millions. Nobody knew their own nemesis. Interbreeding occured rapidly, new creatures came into existence only to die from the blades of unknown swords...and a cycle started. This was the birth of the First Loop.

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Adrian pushed forward, his hand gripping the ridge of the weathered rock. Pushing the sole of his foot, he balanced himself and rose again.

The slope had now become steep, no more was the gentle surface present. No more could he simply walk upwards without facing any problems. His pockets felt heavier under the weight of the multiple aetherite crystals he carried. They were the heart of this operation.

He glanced up. Glasses of green grasses could be seen a little height above. His gaze went past it and he saw the gentle slope once again.

He was about to enter the Duke's territory on the Dawn Mountains. A privileged's marked territory.

After some struggle, he finally reached the gentle grassy slope. He dusted his dirt-stained clothes and looked around.

Ahead lay the first signs of a road paved in circles around the perimeter of the mountains. The road led both downwards to the camp of the miners, diggers and the soldiers and upwards towards something unseen.

Adrian's eyes darted towards the camp as he neared the road. Small and large tents crowded the ground though each of them looked like mushrooms dotted over vast fields, up from here.

Most of them were lighted with oiled lamps, probably busy with managing the piles of ores for transportation to the Duke household.

Out of the tents were guards patrolling in pairs and in different shifts. At times, few of them would go to a nearby place which was hidden from Adrian's view. He leaned a bit more towards the edge and squinted his eyes.

After a minute though, he closed them and tilted his head back.

Torture.

The slaves were being tortured. Adrian knew this routine quite well.

The Dawn Mountains were a desolate place, one that sucked away your morality and left you brazen. In such a place away from their family, from their lands the guards turned towards the slaves.

Each day they would overwork these slaves, make them dig without a proper meal and pick out the faulty ones for detention or so they say.

Then come evening, the men among the detained slaves would be made to battle each other.

It couldn't even be called a battle. The men, malnourished and already tortured, would flail and with movements like that of a drunkard would hit their opponents.

And when their body refused to move? The soldiers would whip them, ignoring their pleas for forgiveness and covering their backs with glaring blisters and stripped bloody muscles that peeked out of their skin.

The women had the worst fate. They were abused, sexually exploited and forced into entertaining these soldiers.

The Duke Houshold have long since turned a blindeye to the inhumane treatment of the slaves and the criminal acts of the soldiers.

All they cared about was the wealth they generated from it.

For them, slaves were replaceable and wealth was priceless.

Once Adrian and Luna, two small kids had been there, had suffered with all the others. They had been worked ruthlessly and made to scavenge for pieces of food thrown out to children like them.

Adrian still remembered the day he met Luna. A girl with no soul left in her. No emotions. Dull and hollow eyes. She had stared at Adrian as he had stepped in the moonlight.

He still remembered as he saw two people biting her skin, almost as if devouring her for food. But even then, she hadn't cried even when her soft muscles were in their teeth, her blood flowing like waterfalls.

Adrian had killed them that night. Many months later after they escaped from the place, Adrian came to know those two were in fact Luna's parents.

Now looking back at the same camp, his memories became fresher. His jaw clenched. His breathing became a bit ragged. But then he shook his head, reminding himself, promising himself to see better days. A day when he would liberate them and give them a place to be called home.

"Looks like a slave camp to me. What do you think? Are they slave traders?" He waited patiently as he watched for signs of movements in the camp.

[Probably they could have dealt with trading them for extra coins.But if you were to see a single one of them, you wo6get to know they can'teven be sold. Even the buyers have some standards. They would atleast want a human slave, not a creature that only looked like a human but didn't behave as one.]

"Ohh? Even buyers are supposed to have some standards nowadays?" He gave a wry chuckle in response.

Evelyn's not-so- amused voice returned, her voice suggesting that she understood the jab he took at her.

[ Just stay away from that place. That's a disgusting place, one where morals are washed in debauchery and cruelty is borne with heavy hands.]

Adrian's eyes gleamed in a sudden stroke of happiness as he heard her words.

He was now confirmed that Evelyn wasn't aware of his own slavery in the Dawn Mountains.

That meant she didn't have track of much of his life at all. Adrian suddenly felt himself progressing in his quest of solving the piece of jigsaw named 'Evelyn'.

Getting up, he joined the road as he asked in a casual tone. "Is it that bad there?"

[What is bad here?]

"Slavery, I mean."

[Oh, slavery is completely banned here.]

"Must be good then. Feeling the real taste of freedom." He tucked his hands in his pockets.

[You are saying something my forefathers once envisioned of. But...freedom, it was never the final goal. We have our share of problems as well. People in your lands are bound to slavery with heavy rattling chains. People in my planet are bound to slavery mentally, held by the crutches of the elites.]

He soon slowed down. At the side of the road, there was a cave. The rocky stalagmite formation of the cave opened at a narrow passage. One would need to lie on the ground to even enter it.

Boulders, cliffs and other rocks outcropped the cave from behind it.

"This should do the work." Adrian walked to the cave, his hands checking for the crystals.