The mines to which Nero was taken were on the far outskirts of the Holy City.

Nero had to travel an inexhaustible distance just to get there. Only now did Nero understand the actual dimensions of this gigantic city.

All he was used to was a small village that you could cross in a few minutes.

People stared at him with hatred and contempt, but Nero didn't care. The only thing he concentrated on was finding an escape route. Unfortunately, there was not a single opportunity along the entire path. Not only was he tied up all over his body, but a whole lot of guards were constantly patrolling the entire city. Even the guards around him, who kept a permanent eye on him, did not give any possibility.

Nero growled inwardly.

After a long walk, they came to the city wall and stepped outside. Immediately, a corrosive stench rose to Nero's nose. Tears came to Nero's eyes, not only because the smell was so burning, but because it brought back bad memories from the past. It was the smell of rotting corpses.

Nero pulled himself together and suppressed the emotions. They continued walking and soon came to the entrance of the mines. Dozens of guards patrolled the area.

They had to make sure that none of the captives escaped. The entrance to the mine itself was not large. Every now and then Nero saw people in torn clothes stepping out of the hole, carrying buckets and carts full of rubble and stones. They poured it onto a large pile next to the entrance to the mine.

A cart just came out of the mine, a pile of corpses lying on it. A knight with a deadpan face pushed it along. He passed him and greeted Nero's warden. The latter nodded to him briefly as well and then went on. When they arrived at the entrance, two guards blocked them. They crossed their long spears and demanded identification. The warden lifted a piece of paper on which was the unmistakable seal of the Holy Court. The guards at the entrance looked at it and opened the way,

"Take the boy to cave four! One of the supervisors should take him from there," said the right one gruffly.

"All right. Come on, boy!"

With that, Nero was dragged into the cave. He had no choice but to surrender to the situation.

They walked for a while along a long tunnel lit by torches. To prevent a collapse, the tunnel was fortified with wooden racks that stretched across the entire wall and ceiling like the skeleton of a monstrous creature. Guards stood every few meters, watching with annoyed expressions to make sure no one left the tunnel without permission. The further they went, the darker Nero's expression became.

How was he supposed to escape from this hole?

After a while, the tunnel opened into a wide cave with seven different passages. Two guards stood in front of each tunnel. Nero was dragged to the fourth tunnel from the right.

Quickly, the warden verified his identity again and handed Nero over to the guards. The one guard, a muscular bald man, called into the tunnel,

"JELLOS! COME ON!"

After some time, an old man came sneaking out of the cave. He looked as if he would crumble into dust at any moment,

"How can I he...*cough*cough*"

He broke into a cough in mid-sentence.

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The guard ignored it and gave cold orders,

"This here is Nero. He's new, give him a place and show him what to do!"

The old man, apparently named Jellos, looked at Nero and his eyes widened,

"But this is just a little boy?"

"You can give a shit. Just do your job!" said the guard gruffly.

The old man sighed, "Come on kid."

Nero had no choice but to follow the old man. He had seen how many men guarded these tunnels, and to alert them unnecessarily now would only make them more wary of him.

As the old man walked through the tunnel, he explained what the mines were and how they were constructed. The mine was a gigantic labyrinth that had existed for centuries. The old man did not know exactly how many people worked in these caves, but he was sure there were over three thousand.

New criminals were arriving all the time, but just as quickly people were dying in this hell. Nero's job was to knock stones out of the wall and widen one of the passages. Every half hour another criminal would come into his tunnel and pick up his rubble. In the process, one is supposed to look for rare minerals or crystals. As soon as any are discovered, they must be immediately reported to the guards and delivered.

The man also mentioned that keeping these minerals was of course forbidden, but no one did it anyway because it was unnecessary in these caves. Food was served twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening.

But since the natural light of the sun does not penetrate that far into the mine, the meal is announced with a bell that rings every two hours. The echo of the bell resounds throughout the mine and it was usually impossible to miss it. Jellos was the supervisor of the fourth tunnel, a worker who had worked here for 28 years. He came to the mine because he had stolen money from a high priest.

After twenty years of good and diligent work, he was then promoted to leader. As a leader, one has a much more comfortable life and only has to make sure that the other criminals did their work. Of course, one also had to take care of the organization of the caves.

Jellos led Nero to his passage and gave him his task. Nero just had to punch into the wall. Again and again and again.

Years flew by.

The work was brutal and Nero was often on the verge of collapse. At first, the old man was there and he took pity on the boy. He often gave him breaks and let him stop early and rest. But after two years, his time had come and he was released. A new supervisor came into "power."

He was a brutal man who took every bit of strength out of Nero. Whenever Nero had a short break and the new leader noticed, Nero was immediately whipped.

Nero's efforts increased fivefold and had it not been for the generosity of the last supervisor, Nero would never have been able to slowly adjust to his new circumstances. This was the only reason he survived the next seven years in a superior manner. Nero had now reached about his seventeenth year, but unfortunately, the meals were very meager and little, so he could neither build muscles nor grow properly. Therefore, he was also somewhat smaller than the average man. His skin became even paler than before and his mind became numb.

To prevent the madness, Nero immersed himself in everyday life and reduced his thoughts to a minimum. The pain didn't bother him anymore either. He just did what he was supposed to do. Dig. Always digging.

But deep inside him, still slumbered the will of freedom. He wanted to be freed from these shackles and take revenge on the people. Meanwhile, it was no longer specific people, but the entire race itself. Unfortunately, his only hope was to survive the agony of this torture and serve the thirty years. At least that's what he thought. Because eleven years after he was brought to this mine, something strange happened. Like every day, Nero was continuously hitting the wall in a delirious rhythm, knocking out chunks of stone upon chunks of stone, when all of a sudden a vein of strange black crystal appeared in front of him.

At first, Nero ignored it and continued to strike, but his pickaxe bounced off the vein and shattered. Wooden splinters rammed into Nero's hand and the pain made him snap back from his trance.

He looked at his hand and fervently hoped it wasn't broken. Fortunately for him, it wasn't, and it appeared to be only sprained.

But even that was bad news because it would mean he couldn't work as well for the next few days and would get punished by the supervisor. Nero looked up and his black eyes met the equally black crystal in the wall.

He frowned,

-What the fuck is it? I've never seen a stone like that before.-

Nero took one of the spare pick axes and hit the stone again. But again it simply bounced off without leaving even the slightest scratch.

"Damn it!" cursed Nero, looking at his hand again.

A broken bone was equivalent to a death sentence in these caves. Nero was not naive and did not hit the stone a third time. Once could be just unfortunate, but a second time dispelled the doubts. This crystal wasn't going to break.

Nero walked to the crystal, reached out his hand, and tried to pull it out of the wall. It was a hopeless try, but surprisingly he just broke a part of the crystal out and something incredible happened. The entire vein started to crumble and break.

Then the whole mass melted into a black stream and entered Nero's body.