-"ever since this child joined me, i felt strangely at ease, like a guardian angel's kind gaze. Thank you, Sunchild" -Tahir Vardion

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-"what do you know of the old world, child?"

-"not much, but i like misteries!"

Tahir looks forward, almost reminicing on his childhood and the ignorance of a young child. Ezra brought him memories, the memories which bring Tahir great pain.

He begins tearing up.

-"the ruins" he says in a shaky voice "we will go to the ruins."

-"the ruins? What ruins?"

-"the ruins of the old world, i meant to go there before you stopped me. I heard the walls tell a story and i want to see for myself."

-"where do we go?"

-"through the forest, there were many battles against demons here so a strange flower grew, don't touch it. Its poisonous."

Ezra begins remembering the dream he had six days ago but quickly brushes it off focusing on the road ahead.

They walk into the forest and Tahir quickly draws his sword and gets his guard up in case of a battle.

Ezra gets a bit scared but tries not to focus on the feeling of sudden fear, there is much unknown and unexplored in the forest which was the leading cause for the battles against the demons and the creation of their hideouts in the depths of the forest.

A feeling of unease can sensed the moment a person enters the forest and it only get worse as you go deeper in, this feeling has led to people going insane and seeing halucinations and images of monsters and spirits which grew the reputation of the place itself.

Its branded by the people as haunted and many legends were developed talking about it, as well as many books and stories surrounding it.

However, the more it was explored the more the legends died down, now, barely anybody talks about "the all seeing one" or "the deer creature" and most have come to agree that the conspiracy theories are false apart from a small group of people named "the truth seekers" who, as their name suggests, seek the "truth" of the forest no matter how false their "truth" is.

-"aren't there any other ways we can go through to get to the ruins...?" Ezra asks looking around frantically shaking his head.

-"why? Are you getting cold feet?" Tehir says teasingly.

He laughs but is interupted by a sound coming from the bushes behind a tree.

They both get scared and back up trying to make as little noise as possible while having their guard up.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

They both hear footsteps infront of them and Ezra tries his best to not scream and passes out in the process.

-"Ezra?" Tehir asks getting even more afraid as he sees Ezra unconcious on the ground.

He quickly looks forward to see a deranged individual, looking malnurished and pale in the face, he makes sounds that can only be described as screams for help that turn into roars as the person attacks with a broken hilt of a sword that looks to be rusted and heavily chipped as well.

Such a weapon although dull and weak was dangerous as it could spread all types of deceases with a single cut, they were too far deep in the forest and too far away from any sort of hospital or help center which means they would contract tetanus before being able to even get help, not to mention to cost.

It was already night time and they have been traveling for a full day, had very little supplies and were tired like never before so returning from their mission was a death sentence.

Tahir blocks the attack and pushes the walking corpse to the ground but it doesn't look injured, it gets up and attacks relentlessly, it looks like it hasn't eaten in days and yet moves like a fully healthy person.

It is so far gone in insanity that it no longer feels pain, hunger or thirst.

Only a lust for blood.

Tahir blocks most of its attacks and dodges the rest but every counter attack feels deeply rooted in fear of being cut. His blade begins rusting the more they exchange blows and he looks more fearful as he is being pushed back by the insane individual.

The rust has spread to most of his blade as they've been fighting for thirty minutes.

He is growing tired and his defense is falling short, it feels as if his hand is about to fall off if he continues the battle. Just then, the blade breaks in two parts at the halfway point of the blade and the individual tries to slash his neck.

Tahir is running away out of fear but the individual gets cut in half by a 10 meter golden whip that looks to be made of chains but with a sharp arrow-looking point at the very end of it with Ezra holding the handle attached to the whip, he has a serious expression on his face, his eyes glowing golden.

-"hah, impressed?" Ezra says.

-"not really i could do it better." Tahir replies.

-"yeah, right. Why didn't you use a spell while fighting the corpse?"

-"i-"

-"no need to lie, i already know you have no manna" Ezra says in the most teasing voice possible.

-"you- how did you know?"

-"i could sense it from the moment we met, your soul had no presence, you were either a very skilled spellcaster or had no manna. And it doesn't help with the fact you constantly lie to people about your manna, falsely branding yourself as a spellcaster trying to hide the fact you were weak.

By now, you'll get thrown in prison for lying." Ezra says very quickly and in a very serious tone to expose Tahir's lies.

-"don't worry Tahir, i won't tell~" Ezra again, begins teasing him.

Ezra moves in front of Tahir and signals him to follow behind, and he does so but looks down in shame, like a child that just got scolded after breaking a vase.

But Ezra walks like he was entirely trying to spite Tahir for getting scolded by a child no older than fourteen.

They ended up walking up to a building. the building was small, but had runes, murals and looked as if it were hundreds of years old. It had a strange aura around the building like it was protected by a spell or curse, it also felt strangely ancient and powerful even though it was only a place where olden stories and legends were kept.

-"how do we get in?"

Tahir walks up to it and touches the door while holding an object in the same hand, the door glowed golden and opened.

They walk in and see stairs going down away from the door in a room, the room takes the form of a labyrinth going miles to no end and there are somehow torches all across from the walls, they don't look like they were ever replaced or re-lit but rather continued to burn throughout the centuries.

The place is also strangely wet as well, walking on the ground feeling like walking only on water.

Through the quiet hallways an echoing sound of a sword being unsheathed can be heard, footsteps following closely behind the echo.

-"i'll fucking kill you, EZRA!"