An hour later, Amelia woke up. Logan had been trying very hard not to think about what would happen if the egg eventually hatched within his body. He hoped the creature inside would appear beside him rather than the alternate, but that wasn’t a very nice thought so he decided to check out the painting instead.

The meteor shower was as indecipherable as ever. Logan examined the field of flowers next, finding that they were much more digestible thanks to his enhanced mind. Still, the hour he spent studying gave him a vague idea of when he should be done. The only problem was that he didn’t know if he needed to comprehend the entire field or just a single flower.

In the former case, Logan would be done in months to years. He would be finished quite soon if he just had to comprehend a single flower. A few days was the absolute latest he would take. He wasn’t in a rush anymore so he immediately stopped when he heard a groan.

“What happened?” Amelia mumbled, sitting up off the floor.

Logan turned away. It took a moment to hear a yelp before she quickly put the robe on. He waited until she walked over to look her way.

“What the hell is going on?” She said, shock and confusion written on her face.

Explaining what he could, Logan gave up on repeating himself after the third person woke up. He didn’t want to tell the same story nine times, so he waited another hour before going over everything with the whole group.

Currently, Amelia’s friends consisted of herself, Tom, James, and Stephanie. Melissa had passed away along with a number of the older folks from the church. That left a total of ten people. Five were young and the others were in their fifties and sixties.

Of the five churchgoers, Deon was the name of the priest. He and his wife, who had unfortunately passed away, were the youngest of the lot. He was in his forties and clearly spearheaded the hiking plan. Not only was he fit, but he was also the only one in the group who wasn’t overweight.

While three of the churchgoers deferred to Deon for the most part, one of them didn’t. Janet stood on his left with her arms crossed. She had an arrogant expression of self-righteous entitlement that nearly made Logan groan.

She repeatedly interrupted him and asked stupid questions, derailing the discussion several times. Her husband tried to get her to shut up, but he was clearly very henpecked. She screamed at him twice for interrupting her, which she had ironically done to Logan a few times now.

That left the poor guy to silently step back with the other older gentleman and his wife.

“Anyway,” Janet huffed, turning back to Logan after screaming at her husband. “What did you do with my clothes? Do you think I won’t call the police on you?”

“For the last time, I don’t have your clothes,” Logan growled, pulling at his white robes. “All of our personal items were burned away by the flames. Now, could you please stop interrupting me? We’re all stuck here together and almost certainly should’ve lost our lives, so be glad you still have that and your hair, alright?”

The last thing Logan wanted to see was some bald old hag. Thankfully, the flames were the manifestation of a person’s life force being burned away. For some reason, that meant it wouldn’t harm body hair, nails, or any kind of matter that was considered a part of the individual.

Janet snorted. “If I burned to death, why am I still alive?”

Janet grinned like she had caught him in a lie, making the younger people around Logan groan. After getting struck by the mental attack, everyone in the vicinity was apparently also struck by a weakened version of it. No one could recall anything after entering into the cavern. Not even being burned to death, which would have likely scarred a few people for life.

It should’ve done the same to Logan if his mind wasn’t so powerful. He would need to keep studying the painting in his spare time. It would be a few days before he comprehended a flower, but it would be worth the effort. Enhancing his mind had saved his life once already, so he wouldn’t be surprised if it did so again.

Logan continued to explain with minimal interruptions. There were a few clarifying questions here and there, but they were either unknown or straightforward enough to be answered with a sentence or two. He thought it was finally over when Janet spoke up. She started by demanding a phone charger even though she had no phone, and then she asked what they were doing for food when she realised this fact.

Somehow, Logan was supposed to be able to solve all of these problems, none of which he really had an answer to. Amelia apparently had some experience with entitled people because she enthusiastically agreed with the older woman.

She said they needed supplies and that they would go and search for them right away. Logan kept quiet, not daring to tell any of the churchgoers to do anything in case Janet refused or threw a tantrum. He just decided to leave Deon, the priest, to sort them all out.

Amelia pushed Logan down the hallway and called out to the rest of her friends, asking them to help search for anything they could take on their journey back up to the surface.

Logan guided them into a room with furniture in it. Once inside, Amelia sat on the edge of the couch with her legs up since it was so cold. It was made of crystal, but the cushions on it were animal furs and stuffed with something plush and soft.

Logan followed her, sitting in the middle of the couch beside her. Tom glared at him and sat down on his right. That made him think they were dating, but Amelia didn’t give the man any attention after being revived. They didn’t even stand beside each other when Logan explained the situation.

Crap, am I getting in the middle of some unrequited crush? Logan thought, wondering if he could move seats without it being too weird.

James and Stephanie sat in two armchairs on the other side of the table before Logan could make a decision. James’ eyes were a bit hollow for understandable reasons. Stephanie, on the other hand, was bubbly like a newly opened can of soft drink. She even had a big smile on her face, euphoric at the fact that she was still alive.

Everyone remained silent for a few moments until Amelia opened up the conversation. “So, the egg is in your stomach?”

“No,” Logan said, shaking his head. “It’s in some kind of metaphysical space beneath my navel. I can’t really describe it and neither can I feel it in my stomach, but I know it’s there.”

“Weird,” James said.

“What were your powers like from the egg?” Stephanie said, sitting up straighter. “All you said was that the ghost ran away and you killed the skeletons.”

“My body caught on fire,” Logan replied, feeling guilty as Stephanie winced. “I also became very, very strong. The fire didn’t hurt me, but it seemed to burn the ghost quite badly.”

“I… see,” Stephanie swallowed, regaining some colour to her freckled cheeks. “That’s good. You can protect us on the walk back up.”

“I would be more than happy to.”

Silence reigned momentarily, some people most likely thinking about the journey back to society. If there even was something to go back to. Whatever had happened, it was probably going on all over the world. The size of the chasm likely spanned at least half of the mountain range above them. It made him wonder if they were in one of the more dangerous places or if this weird crystal cavern was one of the safer ones.

“Hey,” Amelia said, turning to Logan with a grave expression, “you said that we were revived with the power from the egg, right?”

Logan nodded.

“Do you think that we will start burning up again?”

Everyone’s expressions dropped.

“I don’t know. My current theory is that the revival potions were nothing more than blood drawn from the egg. By making us ingest it, the blood would automatically draw on our life force to nourish itself until it eventually stole every last drop. That would then cause us to spontaneously combust. Since I fed you just the life force and not the blood, you should all be fine.”

“Should?”

“I can’t guarantee that you are safe,” Logan continued, pulling out a vial from the pocket of his robe. “but I will tell you that I can sense every vial in my pocket.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Tom snapped.

“I can sense the vials but can’t feel anything from the four of you. I only hope that means you’re all safe and that what I did is not the same as ingesting the blood.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Tom muttered, shaking his head.

“If you want to test me, you can hide the vials in different rooms and I can point them out.”

No one responded, the people around him glancing at one another until someone made a peep.

“That sounds fun!” Stephanie said, her face lighting up. “Can I try?”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

***

Ten minutes later, Stephanie was pulling off Logan’s blindfold once again. It was just a sash from one of the robes. He looked around the hallway and pointed at three rooms before turning around to face the quirky surfer girl. She was standing there with a cheeky smile on her face and her hands hidden behind her back.

“Why did you only pick three? I hid four vials, dummy!”

Logan grinned and pointed at her. “The last one is behind your back.”

“Damn! I thought I was finally going to get you!”

There was a bang down the hallway and a yelp of pain. Seconds later, Amelia poked her head out of a room while clutching her hand. Unlike her usually pleasant self, she glared at the two with a bit of venom.

“Do you mind helping out, or are you two going to play around all day?”

“I’m just testing his senses!” Stephanie replied, jogging over to Amelia and poking her in the cheek. “Did you find a crate of sour candy or something? Why is your face all scrunched up?”

“No, but I’m stuck in a cavern with this annoying girl I hate, and now my day is ruined.”

“You’re so cruel! Didn’t you burn to death like half an hour ago?”

“I would rather take a quick death than endless suffering.”

The girls went off and continued searching through the crates. Logan was about to go and look himself when James came out of another room and waved him over. They started working together in silence, pushing the top crates off the stacks so that they could see what was beneath them.

There wasn’t much that could be used. While sorting through the miscellaneous garbage, ranging from chunks of raw crystal to piles of scrolls, Logan glanced at the man who was basically a stranger.

“How are you holding up?”

He shrugged. “I’m fine.”

“I know we don’t really know each other, but feel free to come and find me if you need anything.”

“Thanks.”

They got back to work as Logan tried to think of a way to help the man. He would’ve happily revived Mel and the others if their bodies were in one piece, but they were totally gone. Not even a flake of ash remained, their bodies almost perfectly destroyed. Healing a fully intact body was different to reconstituting something from nothing.

***

Logan walked into the main cavern with basically no supplies to his name. He had a robe tied around his shoulders to serve as a backpack, but all it had inside were other robes. There wasn’t a single morsel of food in any of the crates, and neither was there a drop of water.

The vast majority of the crates held absolutely nothing. Logan could only assume that many of the items could be found in the cells beneath them, but from what he had seen while imprisoned, there was nothing but gold, scrolls, and furniture down there.

Surviving for more than a few days was a big issue without food or water. They were kilometres under the earth and had no hope of returning to civilisation any time soon, and that was only if there was a path back up to the surface. They may have to go down to that black lake and wait for a rescue team to come down through the hole in the ceiling.

That meant they had to scavenge for everything they needed, which was a big issue for ten fully grown adults. Things weren’t looking good, and that was putting it lightly. If they couldn’t escape within a week or if no one saved them, starving to death would be all but certain.

Hopefully, the church people had figured something out.

“I will not be sleeping here tonight,” Janet huffed, her index finger stabbing into Deon’s chest. “This place is inhospitable and...”

Logan mentally checked out and stopped walking. He had absolutely no desire to inflict more pain onto himself, and yet he knew he had to for the small chance that they would survive to the end of the week. As long as they made it back to the city, everything would return to normal.

With a deep breath, Logan continued walking until Deon noticed him.

The poor guy was clearly not of the same generation as Janet. He flinched every time her poorly manicured nail poked his chest, his body shrinking down just a little as well. Logan was honestly surprised the man wasn’t better at handling entitled old folks since he ran a church. Then again, maybe they were on their best behaviour on Sunday mornings since it was the Lord’s Day.

“Ah, the other hiking group is back,” Deon said, pointing at Logan. “Maybe they know what to do?”

The other churchgoers began to gather around. Amelia’s group was also making its way over, but their search also yielded nothing.

“All we found were more robes,” Logan said, shaking his head. “No food or water, and certainly no beds. There are sleeping mats for what I can only assume to be the monks or ascetics that lived here once upon a time.”

“Are you out of your mind? The next thing you’ll tell me is that we’ll have to use the spare robes as blankets, hmm?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Logan said, shrugging his shoulders. “I didn’t see anything else made of cloth. You can rip up the couches and try to make a bed if you want, but I don’t see that working out too well.”

Janet opened her mouth to complain, but Logan turned his back to her and spoke to Deon. “Did you find anything we can eat? And what about the cells? Did you go down and search there?”

“No food or water. We checked the cavern and the cells but didn’t find anything of note. I think we’ll have to go out and scavenge, but that presents its own issues if what you said about the dead monsters in the pit is true. As I said to Janet, we should stay here tonight before suiting up with the knight’s armour and the weapons we found in the cells. That would give us a fighting chance when we eventually encounter one of those unholy monsters.”

“That’s a solid idea,” Logan said, glancing at Amelia and her group. No one shook their heads or voiced any kind of disagreement. “I guess that’s that. We’ll break up into groups and pick rooms to sleep in.”

From there, everyone besides Janet began to strip the armour from the skeletons that hadn’t fallen into the pit. There were five swords and eleven bodies to work with, most of the blades falling off the bridge when Logan killed the skeleton knights.

Including the crystal dagger that James had found in his cell, that made six weapons and a full suit of armour. While the plate mail was too large for almost everyone to wear, certain pieces could be scavenged without a problem. For instance, the flexible leather shoes and leggings were a godsend. Not having to stand on the freezing stone made walking around the main cavern so much nicer.

Other than that, everyone could put on a set of bracers around their forearms as well as a few other little pieces that weren’t restricted by size or height. The skeleton knights were around two metres tall, meaning no one could wear the full suit without severe chaffing or just looking like a fool.

Logan also tried to use the circlet, but he immediately encountered a problem. His head was too big. He then resorted to holding the diamond against his forehead while thinking very hard, but no one got a headache or became his slave. After passing it around Amelia’s group to try, he eventually hung the golden chain around his neck and let it sit beneath his robes.

The rest of the day was spent trying to come up with ideas on how to fight effectively. Because Logan still had eleven potions, he would be the vanguard against whatever they encountered. Groups of enemies would be avoided until they came across an isolated target. He would then charge at the beast, grabbing its focus while Deon, Tom, and James flanked around it.

One of them could hopefully land a blow that would cripple or kill it. If the meat was edible, they could use the salt from the icicles to cure it. Janet’s husband was a geologist by trade and immediately noticed that the stalactites were salt deposits. After moving the braziers down to the cells, the ambient heat would melt the ice that had formed on the roof, turning it into water that would slowly evaporate into flakes of salt.

There was nothing that could be lit on fire. The ice flames would freeze the meat, but that wouldn’t help make it edible. That left them to set up around a hundred crystal bowls around the cavern to collect the drippings. All they required now was meat to soak it in, but that would have to wait until tomorrow. Everyone was exhausted and needed time to reset after dying and regaining their freedom.

Logan slept at the mouth of the cavern to keep watch for the ghost. Everyone else had separated themselves into groups of two except for Deon. As the odd man out, he remained with Logan to keep watch in shifts. The older couples stayed in separate rooms while Stephanie and Amelia went into their own, forcing Tom and James to bunk together.

Logan had no problems going to sleep after keeping watch for several hours. His head hit the pillow and he was out, but while deep asleep, he suddenly felt like something was nearby. Opening his eyes, he saw a shadow moving down the corridor where everyone was sleeping.

There were only a few ice torches in the hallway, making it almost impossible to see what was going on. Logan peeked around and saw that Deon had fallen asleep despite being on watch. He frowned at that and slowly sat up, his hand sliding over the ground until it came across the sword. It was next to the robe he had been using as a pillow.

With the blade in hand, Logan peeked around the side and into the hallway. He immediately noticed the giant rat sniffing under the door of Amelia and Stephanie’s room. The size of a large dog, it had needle-like fur made out of crystal. The beast was impossible to miss. Its hair sparkled in the dim torchlight of the hallway, the few remaining torches making it shine with blue light.

Logan prepared to wake Deon with a good poke of his sheathed sword when the rat suddenly looked up at him. Despite making no noise, it had somehow noticed his presence. Before he could blink, the thing was screeching as it flew through the air, its claws bared and its fangs shining in the torchlight.