Tempest: What are you waiting for? Open the door.

Shen: They came here, it's locked. I will need some time to crack it.

As he said so, Shen began working on manipulating the gears inside the door at the end of the path of the factory. Before, there were no locking mechanisms. It could only mean that the seven bastards did come by here. Did they hope to get that or have they really left the door here?

In any case, they would know soon enough. While waiting for Shen to settle the score with the lock, the others were explaining how the factory worked to Adeline and Cynthia. Mainly how it operated and through what kind of Magic and Engravings. It was far beyond their understanding but just knowing about it was already a great opportunity. They could always learn more later when it came to the parts they couldn't understand yet.

It took Shen a few hours to open the door. It opened like any other door of the complex by moving upwards. However, as it did, things fell down at the feet of the group. Heads. Severed heads. Lots of them. And the trio could recognize them fairly easily.

The two girls were vomitting on the side while the trio remained silent in front of the scene, hard cold expressions on their faces and fists tightened.

Adeline: W-w-who are those people?!

Lera: ...They were our families.

After Lera answered, the two girls looked at the three men that remained as if frozen in time. Knowing that your family had been slaughtered was one thing. One thing already very hard to swallow. Impossible even. A pain you could only live with and never forget. But seeing their heads bundled up and forcefully cramed in a single room... There was nothing that could describe the pain, the sadness, the anger, that they felt.

It took a long time for them to regain their senses. Enough of it to proceed in such a situation. Atem pat his comrades shoulders as he said:

Atem: I'll cremate them.

Under the silent gazes of three men and three women, hundreds of severed heads burnt to cinders. The group watched as the remains were slowly taking on fire. Respectfully, their gaze remained strong and they watched. This was the only funeral that their loved ones could ever get. They hoped to let their souls rest in peace, sincerely wishing that whatever laid beyond life was filled with happiness.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

It took a long time for everything to become ashes. As it was finishing, Shen gave a little speech:

Shen: Ashes to ashes, never to breathe again. Our times together were shorter than we wished but the memories of it true and never to be forgotten. Thank you for everything, may all of you rest in peace.

Under the tearing eyes of the girls, the three men bowed deeply to the room that was still in fire. They stayed like that until their was nothing left to be burnt in the room and the fire died down. As they once more looked up, they took a deep breath and moved forward. Atem turned towards the girl with a sad smile on his face. It was probably one of those rare moments where his expression was honest to his feelings. He told them:

Atem: Let's go.

While the pain was there and here to stay, they had to move forward. Life was as such. Whether you liked or not, not like anyone liked it. Even if there were deaths, life went on. And that too was a burden that they had to keep holding as they kept living. They would live while those they knew would always die. Regardless, the only thing they could do was to move on, as tough as it was.

The next room was nothing special since it was now empty. As they entered, they could spot two doors. One was looking like the previous doors but the other was fairly different. It was a dark door with a face of a mad spirirt painted in red like blood upon it. It was quite unsettling to look straight towards it.

Tempest: They might really have left it there.

The others noddedin agreement. However, Shen did not go towards that door but the other one instead. The one that had been there. He reached it and opened it easily. It wasn't a door like any others. It was one only his Magic wavelength could ever open and close. And the reason for that was that this was the core of the factory. It was where the energy came from.

As the door opened, the group saw that there was only a single thing inside. A single tube with a crystal suspended inside. In the shape of a losange, its colors were in perpetual change. Randomly, small portals opened around it and some blue flow was aspired inside it from the crystal.

Cynthia: What's that?

Shen: A world's seed. Well, a part of it. This is what has and is powering the entire factory.

Tempest: So they still failed to steal it.

Lera: They did steal everything else.

Shen approched the tube and placed a hand on it. He felt the pulsing power through the glass container. He turned back around and told Lera:

Shen: There is still around 53 Divens, should be enough to restart the origin, right?

Lera: ...But the dungeon would shut down. If we did that...The people...

Shen: Sometimes you have to make sacrifices. They will find ways. They always do.

Lera: Alright. I know the priority. Please, proceed.

Shen nodded in acknowledgement and poured Magic into the container. After but a moment, portals stopped appearing and the glass began to life itself into the ceiling liberating the seed. Shen took it in his hand. It was hard to believe that such a small thing, palm sized, could contain so much power.

He gazed at it for a moment before he turned to Lera and handed it to her.

Shen: Don't lose this one.

Lera: Don't steal it.