Rise of The Holy-Realm Rebel

One thing was certain, time had passed. A whole lot of it had gone by during my time asleep. And this of course meant the world had changed.

Thanks to my cellmate I had been able to come to the understanding of the world I had awoken to. And frankly, it scared me.

"The Empire of Ushan," I muttered, head bowed whilst I thought thoughts. My heart trembled at the implication of that title.

I knew Ushan, I knew it more than anything. I was its leader after all. That was before I left. But it had only been a small country at best. Not a whole damn Empire!

According to Reg; the only cellmate whose name I had bothered to know, the empire had gotten power-hungry and was now on a quest to take over the entire world!

I cringed at that detail, but it was true. This war had only recently started, but sparks had been flying way before now.

The publicly available news had never shied away from revealing how hostile the Empire had been and the fact that its actions had started to grow suspicious. This issue was proven true around the borders of other prominent kingdoms.

My head itched as I continued to ponder. "What have I done?" I wondered to myself, stricken by guilt.

I didn't need Reg to explain this since he would not know, but after my actions against the then-largest army, the rest of the world had stayed away from my small country.

Needless to say, this should have been a good thing. Ushan would flourish in peace and begin to grow gradually before stepping into realms on par with other kingdoms.

But it seemed my plan had worked... too well. I deduced that after a century or more someone on the line of leadership grew greedy. The world never dared attack them for fear of what I would do. But I was no longer present!

I swore under my breath.

'This is a mess,' I finally concluded. The works of my had had unfolded into chaos!

I raised my head to gaze at the outside. We had been on a steady pace for the past three hours. Not much time, but enough for hunger to resume its torment.

This whole thing was starting to get to me.

My eyebrows creased in growing annoyance, much of it being as a result of my famished state, with the rest being at myself.

The more I thought about my situation the more I considered it a real test from the world. I cursed the world for its actions then.

What did it want me to do now?

Die at the hands of a nation I had sworn to protect?

Had I even my former level of strength, correcting this mistake would have been much more feasible. Now I knew not when my next meal would come, not to even begin with how I would gain freedom.

The itch on my head grew in intensity and the chains attached to my cuffs clinked as I acted to deal with it.

I noticed my crimson hair. Despite all that I had been through, it surprisingly remained clean, although untidy. It stood out too much, though. I decided on the spot to cut it whenever I had the chance.

Truth be told, this had not been the color I had during the early stages of my path to ascendance. Such a change only came after I crossed over from the Earth-Realm.

Memories that only served as a distraction to my hunger flooded my eyes. Sadness, of course, followed this display. I wondered how my friends were.

'Most likely dead,' I thought. They would never have allowed such to occur were they present.

Suddenly anger unfolded again, this time at whoever had been the perpetrator of this monstrosity.

Still, I found this conclusion rather hard to believe. My said friends had not been weak in their own right. All had stepped into the Sky-Realm, only that my prowess stood far above theirs.

Confusion streamed in now. Other than them, there were no others who carried that type of strength in Ushan. Who could have gained the strength to kill them?

"Help from outsiders?" I wondered, even if my pondering proved to not avail to anything. I needed answers.

Taking a deep breath I voiced a sharp exhale to calm my nerves.

It would be a long time before I could get those answers, getting hasty would only wear me out. Mistakes were bound to happen in such a state.

By all means, I could not get myself killed. If this was a test, then it meant there were still chances of me rectifying everything. While very slim, I knew the world well enough to know it dealt with 'Rebels terribly', but fairly.

A tinge of doubt nearly shattered my conviction though.

If this happened to be something other than a trial orchestrated by the world, then death was most likely on the other end of whatever quest to truth I would take.

I would take it anyway. Death would be far better than slavery.

The hours passed slowly, and the carriages picked up in pace at some point. I forced myself to sleep, and it worked.

By the time I regained consciousness, it was nighttime already, and the entire party of carriages had come to a stop. A break considering how horses also needed rest.

Around us, tall trees stretched towards the sky, burying our presence in their significant height.

Silvery light streamed down from the sky to illuminate the world. Unfortunately, those trees blocked a significant portion of those rays.

Fortunately, small patches of silver light touched the ground here and there. Although everything remained blurry.

This was still so even when flaming torches lit by our captors flickered into existence, both in the distance and closer to us.

Not willing to spend any more time awake since the hunger in my belly had skyrocketed, I squeezed my eyes shut to force sleep again. But to no avail. I slouched my head on the inside of the carriage raising my head to stare at its ceiling. I tasted my mouth... Dry.

'How many days has it been?' I wondered, weak from lack of substance. At this point, I would do anything to get something to eat. Anything at all.

The chattering of the carriage-men got to our ears. We all had similar convictions; anything just to eat.

Someone walked to the rear end of our carriage, I did not recognize him, nor did I care.

Nevertheless, his words forced all of our attention to converge on him.

"There's a limited supply of food for you prisoners," he announced, sliding the steaming bowl he had in his hand into our carriage.

Food!

I hesitated.

They didn't.

In what was no more than a second those formerly tired and hungered men launched themselves into that bowl like ravaging dogs.

A display that brought a cruel smile to the soldier's face.

"There'll be more at your assigned camps, but that is still three days from now," he continued, once all seven men were done eating what they could.

"However, if you want a chance to eat more you can offer to serve some of us... privately."

The implication of his words initially sounded normal, but when he demonstrated by sliding his index finger in and out of his folded palm, we all got the message. And needless to say, were mortified by the very thought.

'Surely no one would volunteer for such,' I thought, wide-eyed. And truthfully no one in their right mind would offer themselves to be used in such abominable ways.

Or so I thought.

I had failed to consider how desperate those men were for food and underestimated the power of maddening hunger.

My heart skipped a beat when chains jingled at the movement of some of those men. I turned to sweep my gaze on the carriage's insides, hoping to find no hands raised.

To my disappointment and bewilderment, all hands were raised... except mine.

An even crueler smile unfolded on the soldier's features, even if his eyes landed on me.

"I'll give you a chance to rethink your decision," he mocked, preying on me. "There's more than enough where we come from."

Seeing I did not budge, he continued.

"I'll make a special offer… just for you. If you volunteer for this you'll be fed well every day of this journey and even when you get to your camp I'll put in the good word for you…"

"In short you'll suffer less." He declared.

Somber, my head remained bowed as I fought intrusive thoughts. The eyes of those other men bore into my skin. I dared not lock gazes with any of them. They had gone mad. And maybe rightfully so.

The soldier eventually scoffed, "Suffer like a fool," he snorted and began to address the others. That interaction faded into the background, and soon I was the only one left in that carriage.

"You really couldn't do anything for a meal," I chuckled at myself, a gesture born out of mockery.

There remained a thin line between dignity and debasement. I chose not to cross that line and paid dearly for it.

The night faded away, but those men never returned.