Suta POV

Footsteps softly exhorted against the air of darkness. Suta was tired, tired and confused. He walked with slacked arms. He shouldered a great deal right now. His mind was a cloudy fog. Most of all, he couldn't stop remembering that night when his world turned upside down. So much has taken place since then. The darkness was a thick cloud practically blinding his view. But Suta felt no real fear. His body almost mechanically worked ahead without stopping. At the same time, Suta was vigilant. The time he spent fending for his life in that jungle had left him in a state far removed from a peaceful reality. His body was poised to react to the faintest sounds, even in despair.

A few feet ahead, he noticed tiny freckles dotting the side. Curiosity drew him closer as he observed a scale of blue rocks glowing against the earthy walls. The blue crystallised stones trailed further into the silent abyss ahead. Suta kept his walk closer to the wall. It helped him see.

"Huh, what was that?" A soft wheezing sound found his ears. Suta narrowed his eyes ahead; there was no mistaking it. A deep frown scrunched his brows closer. "Why...why is that thing here!"

A shimmering grey portal blocked the rest of the narrow tunnel. A gentle hum emanated past his ears, Suta drew closer until he reached the face of the thing. If Suta hadn't seen too many dark dreams because of this...thing, he might've felt somewhat fascinated by it.

He brushed his finger lightly against the wet surface.

"Another ancient gateway, hidden within the chasm." He sighed, wondering when this hell would end. After turning around to confirm there was no possible way back, Suta exhaled and accepted his fate. He chose to remove all reasons to retreat and stepped forward.

Suta's mind began to whirl. Before he could gasp, the light intensified, blinding him completely. He felt a sudden jolt as if he'd been yanked forward by an invisible hand, and then... nothing.

***

When Suta opened his eyes, he found himself lying on a cold, damp stone, the sound of dripping water echoing in his ears. Slowly, he sat up, wincing at the soreness in his muscles. Gio and Verdi were beside him, looking equally disoriented. The sheer shock of seeing them almost made him yell.

"W-wh-e-where did you two..."

"Where?" Gio grunted, his gaze darting around the unfamiliar surroundings.

"Verdi, you're okay? Haha, what a relief!" Suta grabbed hold of the startled fairy and pressed his cheeks firmly against its tiny, lithe body.

Verdi went red as a tomato. He was trying his very best to formulate his words.

"Mis-mister wh-whats gotten into you?"

Suta drew himself away and stared into those familiar large eyes, filled with doubt and confusion. Next, Suta glanced at the blue-skinned carp; Gio was also just as bewildered by his behaviour.

Then it dawned upon him coldly, "H-hey, how long were we separated for?" Both Gio and Verdi looked at him cluelessly. "Separated? M-mister, we were only in that weird thingy for a few minutes. You told us to jump, remember? Mister, is everything OK?"

Verdi's round face was filled with concern. Quickly reminding Suta of what his face must look like right now. But inside, things weren't ok. They were far from ok, considering he had spent what felt like a good few days roaming underground. And then he remembered Zoroth and those dark pledges. He shook his head from side to side. He made haste to remove any problematic looks and creased a half-broken smile.

"N-nothing, I think I hit my head on the way. R-right, ahem, so where are we now?"

Suta steadily rose. His legs felt shaky beneath him. He was now in a vast cavern, its walls lined with glowing crystals that cast an eerie blue light. The air was different here - warmer and tinged with a strange, metallic scent. 'Somehow, this cave is filled with random portals that take us to another part.' The scary part about that truth was inwardly knowing this all felt like someone was pulling the string. That thought made him more paranoid than anything. He heard Verdis fluttering wings before he appeared by the side of his face.

"Mister, where are we now?"

"I don't know," Said Suta. "But I have a feeling we're not in the tunnels anymore."

The ground beneath them was covered in this strange mirror-like surface, like glowing crystals melded with ice. Suta scanned the spacious area deeply this time; he had no illusion that this was somewhere completely different from the sinking ruins he previously found himself roaming.

Trying to find some answers within his thoughts, he turned towards Gio, who had been cautiously pacing around the spacious glass floor. Even the 100+ year-old creature like him held no answer for where they were right now. Suta traced the walls covered in bright stones up to its high-raised ceiling above.

The depths of this place felt untold; he could see just enough of the rising cave until a deep shroud of darkness hung far above.

'We couldn't have fallen from up there? Could we…' he asked himself.

Suta saw a wide tunnel leading towards another open space a few yards ahead of him. Verdi sat perched on his shoulder, fidgeting uncomfortably. He could sense the uneasiness around the little fairy. Suta was still wondering how time had differed between his own experience and the reality both Gio and Verdi had faced. He moved his gaze towards the left side of the cave. Gio seemed rather bothered about something over there; he hadn't moved from that same spot for a while now, staring at the walls covered in glowing stones.

"H-hey! What're you looking at?" asked Suta with slight concern. Gio didn't respond straight away, but when he did, his demeanour seemed somewhat odd, giving Suta the feeling he was hiding his true thoughts.

They all eventually made their way through the wide tunnel. Suta couldn't peel his gaze away from the reflective ground beneath them along their walk. This place was by far extraordinary and somewhat eerily mysterious at the same time. It somewhat half reminded him of that equally glassed hall shrouded in mystique and misery.

Just thinking about that fishbowl head made his stomach ache again. Between that figure and the talking cloudy wisp Zoroth. He couldn't decide which one filled him with the most anxiety.

They soon entered into the conjoined spacious area. The first thing he noticed was this unmissable gaping hole below. He almost retraced his footsteps the moment his gaze fell upon the large pool of darkness. Standing so close, he sensed the hole was quite deep, judging solely by the echoes whispering from its belly below.

"Where in the world are we?" Suta asked himself in slight distress.

Again, he was being tormented by the unknown forces at work. To think that chasm was a portal, he dreaded to find out what its purpose was now that he took a careful look around this area.

"Mister, look up there!" Verdi's voice roused his attention, drawing his gaze upward where he traced a thin, spiralling blue footpath aligned against the walls. A peculiar sight stoked great intrigue as he observed the rising wall. Countless Iron bars barring over tiny cavernous pockets. Suta counted at least 20 open mouths caged behind tall, thick, rusty iron bars. He followed the thin path up to the top, where he noticed the path winding past where his eyes could see.

Suddenly, a thought struck his ever-thinking mind. There had to be a way out of this place, and he was willing to bargain on one of these winding paths leading them to it. Without a second thought, Suta began ascending the thin path carefully. Suta immediately recalled those similar cages he met back in that other hall with the giant bud, because of which, staring at those iron-barred holes against the wall gave him a troubling feeling.

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Something told him this place was more complex than what he initially thought.

Verdi quickly ascended towards his ears.

"Mister, I can sense something," the fairy whispered slightly uneasily.

Suta felt it, too; an odd, eerie silence hung around them. He wanted nothing more than to ascend this path without any mishaps or surprises, so he tried his best to ignore his gut feeling.

"Tsk! I know…but what is it? Are there enemies? How many of them? Are they coming from above or below us?" He hurriedly asked, shifting his gaze all around frantically.

Verdi seemed troubled watching him but slowly spoke on what it meant.

"I don't…think so. It feels similar…"

"Si-similar to what?" Suta insisted, almost eagerly. It could be another monster, maybe something worse than he had faced so far.

"To-to you, mister…th-they smell just like you."

***

The news hadn't surprised him so much that he believed there were others like him dwelling here. But it did affirm one of his fears, that they were not alone right now, and with that, there was no way of knowing the enemies' threat level. Verdi had never been wrong so far along their journey. Verdi's sensory abilities were one of the most important aspects of his growth. So he took what the fairy told him at face value.

'The more I think about it, these iron bars built in place remind me of a…'

"This must be a prison," Gio announced after a noticeable period of silence from the carp. Suta gulped loudly in response; he had just arrived at the same conclusion. He was hoping, more than anything, that he wasn't about to release another Zoroth into the world unwillingly.

"But why would there be a prison here? Could this be the Queen's doing, or…something else?" He grappled with more fragmented thoughts. His mind fell towards Lysann. That Demi-God seemingly played a more significant role in this world than he had first imagined.

Suta braved his troubled heart and continued his steady climb up the steep, winding path, ascending upwards. They arrived at the first caged hole against the wall, where he nervously peered through the space between the iron bars. But he only found a fog of darkness inside, where no light could reach. This settled his heart for a short moment. But looking along the winding, thin path, there were many more cages.

After they confirmed nothing was inside, they continued their climb; he met the same scenario for the second and the third hole. A tiny bit of reprieve was beginning to settle around his anxious heart. Suta even dared to imagine a reality where this place was barren and empty—no monsters, no strange talking fogs, and certainly no more random portals.

' Perhaps Verdi was mistaken or sensed something far away from here.'

Until...

Gio held its webbed feet by the mouth of the fourth hole. Suta sensed Gio could feel something troubling.

"W-wait, man-cub. Something is…"

Before he could get those words out, a loud harrumph carrying a dense wind behind it moved between the bars. The sudden outburst startled everyone placed on the other side. Gio had almost lost its footing, needing one of its pincers to grab hold of an iron bar. Suta stood on high alert and pulled the glittering red dagger away from his belt.

"Who-who goes there?" He weakly spoke, trying to sound imposing. At first, there was no reply, but through the stillness of the air, Suta could hear hoarse breathing coming from the depths of a figure he imagined was twice his size.

"Who…are…you?" A deep voice groaned hoarsely from the darkness trapped within. At first, a cold shiver ran down Suta's arm before he gritted his teeth to compose his racing heart.

"We-we are-ahem. We've come from the mainland above. M- My name is Suta."

"Hey-hey, what do you think you're doing?" Gio snapped at him abruptly

"What do you mean? What does it look like?" Suta wriggled his arm out of the reach of those meaty blue pincers. He wondered if the blue-shelled carp

"Are you insane, man cub? Nobody knows what type of monster that is! Telling it your name might be one of the perks it needs to control you."

"That sounds stupid, and watch where you're throwing those pincers around." Suta barked back at the ugly fish-looking creature. While Suta was bickering with the blue-shelled carp, they both failed to sense it initially. Its voice arrived like a heralding quake from the depths.

"Hm? M-a-n? Oh- I see. Has it been that long?"

It croaked loud enough for a wisp of dust to kick up from the stone floor. Suta felt Verdi cowering behind its ear; its fluttering wings were a little itchy.

Suta narrowed his gaze through the iron bars. It was hard to see anything, but he could see movements of something broad inside.

The sounds of chains rustling cracked subtly through the darkness again. Suta sensed something moving towards them at a hurrying speed. Before he could brace himself, a large, strange-looking hand crept away from the shadows. The first thing worth noting was its skin's greyish and bark-like texture. Three brass-coloured bands wrapped around two of its fingers. The following harrowing thing about the hand was its actual size. The palm was large enough to pick him up and flatten him altogether, which begged the lingering question: how big was its actual body in size?

The thought made him swallow harshly, trying to imagine if there was a scenario he could overcome having to fight such an imposing figure.

"How long? Hmm, a long time…a long time indeed. Could you enlighten this old one who won the war?" The croaky, deep voice asked.

'The war? ' Suta thought. He turned towards the blue-shelled carp expectantly.

"Why are you looking at me for? Can't say I remember any wars," Gio shrugged, thinking about that question.

"Hehehehe, the Lineage of Dawn lost an age ago, oh ancient one. A fate shared by the Demon King and his conquerors. We spoke about this many times before kekeke."

A foreign voice snapped their attention above. Suta felt his heart racing as he searched the barred caves for signs of life.

"Woohoo, I'm over here! Kekeke." That same childish voice announced itself again. This time, however, he saw an olive-skinned arm dangling between the iron bars directly above them, stuning the trio into silence.

'Crap! Another Zoroth?' Cautiously his fingers smoothed over the butt of his red dagger. But something clicked suddenly within Suta's thoughts.

Just capturing the sounds of that voice told him one thing.

"It can't be... A-another human?"