Heavenly Continent: Center of the Bestial Abyss, Year 1067

The pattering of footsteps echoed through the dark corridor. A man and a woman ran down the passageway, their breaths shallow and uneven. The woman, a peerless beauty, was carrying a child in her arms as she stumbled along. The man, a well-built man with the aura of a conqueror, was clutching his abdomen, trying to hold his guts inside. Literally. A gaping wound stretched along the majority of his waist, a wound that was enough to kill any ordinary person instantly.

The woman panted heavily as she was running, as if she was completely drained of energy.

"Caleb. Just hold on a little bit longer. We're almost there!"

The man named Caleb raised a haggard face and grimaced in pain as his intestines threatened to slip through his bloody fingers.

"Veola, I know... it seems... as though our plan... failed. There's only... one choice left."

Whatever this choice was, the two of them set determined faces and kept on running at maximum speed.

Moments later, loud voices and heavy footsteps could be heard in the section of the hall they just passed. An old man with a sunken face emerged, along with a hundred men dressed in strange robes. Currently, that face was contorted in anger and grief, creating a mask that seemed like death incarnate. The aura around him vibrated heavily, releasing power that was threatening to collapse the corridor around them.

"Veola! Come back here! The crimes that you have committed are unforgivable! I am willing to forgive you if you repent, but that man beside you must die a torturous death."

Without answering, the couple kept on running without pause, seemingly ignoring the old man's offer behind them. Furiously roaring, the old man increased his speed to his limits, causing cracks to emerge on the walls beside him. The aura of power around him increased twofold, and he began releasing a suffocating killing intent to the area in front of him.

Suddenly, Veola and Caleb stopped next to a seemingly plain wall. At the same time, they placed their palms on the wall, releasing the full extent of their power on the dull rock. The outline of a door appeared on the rock, and the wall fell away to reveal a dark room. The two of them rushed in. Taking a last look at the corridor outside and listening to the angry voices of their pursuers, Veola and Caleb each pushed a button on the opposite sides of the doorway. With a loud roaring sound, the area above the doorway immediately collapsed, blocking the entrance. However, this mechanism was not the only obstacle. A barrier of energy immediately formed around the room, using a dragon's eye in the center of the room as the energy source.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

This barrier is called the Spacial Cage. It is a tenth rank barrier magic of the highest difficulty, usually requiring at least ten magicians at the peak of cultivation to complete. However, Veola, a magician herself, spent the last fifteen years inserting magic power into the eye every day, eventually amassing enough energy to keep the barrier sustained for one hundred years. The Cage distorts the space that it comes into contact with, preventing anyone from passing through, as there is no possible route through the barrier.

Caleb immediately collapsed as the Cage set itself up. Gasping, he manage to whisper to Veola, "I do not have much time left. If we are going to perform the Technique, then we have to do it now while I still have enough Life Force leftover."

Veola's face was downcast.

"Are you sure you want to do this? If we use Forbidden Techniques of this level, our Life Force will be immediately consumed, not even leaving a corpse behind. Are you sure that our child would want this?"

"There is no time to argue. This is the only way. Let's get started."

Caleb painfully pulled himself into a meditative position and closed his eyes. Veola sighed and did the same. With expressions of concentration on their faces, a slow stream of energy emerged from their bodies and converged on the child. This child immediately woke up and began to cry, seemingly sensitive to its parents' plights. These slow streams of energy eventually became larger and larger, until there was a roaring river of Energy pouring out from both Caleb and Veola. Before each other's eyes, they aged at rates many times faster than normal. In the span of about ten minutes, they had each aged about eighty years, becoming old and stooped. When their Life Forces were used up, they collapsed.

Caleb was already dead, his body disintegrated, and the natural breeze in the cavern scattered his remains into the air. However, Veola was still holding on with a determination that broke even God's will. She crawled over to the sleeping child, now encased in a cocoon of energy.

"Deon, I'm sorry. This method was the only choice. Please live on and carry your parents' will. I leave the rest to you."

With these words, Veola's body scattered to the air.