I've looked at the world as if it was good. Knowing that it wasn't, and I shouldn't be making the mistake of believing so.

There is no path in front of me, as I tap my sanity away on walls of stone. Encased in an earthen tomb.

It was a wonder as to how I could still breath.

With hands shivering and quaking.

I knew that among those trapped like me, very few still lived.

Those who haven't paced themselves have gone mad with hunger and thirst.

The amount of water and food given at the start was plentiful, but those who did not ration their food, found their servings lessen by the day, until barely anything was left.

I was down to my final plate and bottle.

My eyes closed and my body almost completely mute, was slowly deteriorating. But that was hardly something I cared about.

I slowly breathed in a good breath, slowly breaking down what little I could and scraping at the wall, at what I remembered to be the thinnest part. Leading outside.

Not with my bare hands. They would heal too slowly.

With a small bar of steel which was most unyielding. To make it, a bar of steel has to be tested to last to the point of breaking and surpass it's limits.

Rare. People would kill for such a precious metal. If they could recognize it.

Normally hidden inside a wooden cane, it had no trace.

I carved my way through the wall. Knowing that those who had sealed us in, cared not for our deaths.

This brutal test was to harvest those that survived.

A damning thought.

Every other person here were those who have taken their first steps on the path to immortality. I was still mortal, my efforts instead being concentrated onto this bar of steel.

It would last when I wouldn't.

My talent in cultivation through breathing methods and detecting qi could be summed up as useless.

But such orthodox methods were for the Blessed and chosen of the heavens.

Not people like I.

I swung the metal bar as the wall remained firm. I was not strong enough to do more than chip away at it. Slowly and painstakingly.

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Today was the last day I would live so I fed my blood to the metal. To feel through it.

With hands grasped around a metal hilt, I swung the molded sledgehammer with reckless abandon, as each blow could be heard.

I slowed as I saw the smallest cracks. Wiped my blood away as it changed back to a bar, and stowed it away.

I used my legs to kick away the last Fragments blocking my exit, and stared at the gap.

My cane extended forward.

As it was bit down on. I could hear something growling outside. A beast.

I fought desperately to keep it in my grip, pulling hard against the teeth as a sudden thud caved in the wall of my tomb, the beast being splattered across the remains.

A child, ashen faced with a shudder held a battered shield, their hair horribly burnt. Their orange eyes held embers.

"This Homura Arisu has wasted a valuable flame conflagration talisman for you. Be thankful that my mercy and kindness is-"

I grabbed the stupid girl and pulled her away from the jaws that snapped down from above.

All the fool has done is wake up the entire nest of Cerids.

We were going to die. I had no choice but to try.

I plunged my cane into the carcass of the cerid, and the metal absorbed the blood, thirsty and voracious.

It resonated as I grimaced, grabbing it by the end and stabbing the sharp end into my core. Before pulling it out with significant bother.

For a few minutes my eyes and ears drastically changed in sensitivity. My body, weak and frail was strengthened greatly.

My gaze fell onto the one that lunged at my face.

My cane rose through a Cerid's chest, wood pulsing open slowly as it exposed the edges of the blade.

Another bit me in the shoulder but reeled back as their tongue was burnt with molten metal.

The pain was sharp, but my fingers dug into it's eye and with a twist, nails bore through it's skull.

The cane was like a razor lined needle. Punching through the flesh and bone with ease.

Swish, slash, flick, stab.

It didn't feel anywhere near as heavy as it was before. Before long, the beasts were all dead.

The child whimpering in fear. Backing away in terror as they watched from the corner, lightly shielded by rubble.

"Please! Don't eat me."

I reached down and pulled out my cane, covered in slimey blood.

I walked over to the kid, who must have had quite a nice time, eating whatever treat they managed to sneak away from the watching eye of the one who stuck them in this hellscape. They sure didn't look half starved.

"You don't get it, do you?"

I asked. Concerned.

I sighed.

And pointed at the corpses.

"A test. To see if we could be vicious enough to eat what was trying to eat us, weak as we are, half starved.

And after that. If those who fought were strong enough to bend the others to their will, or be picked off.

After that..."

I trailed off.

They didn't need to hear that. If we would each eat other, or kill off those who couldn't win.

"Demonic sect methods. We're likely a batch they're preparing, the scouts they've sent out were searching for talent, whatever it was.

Upon leaving no traces, we will either be brainwashed to join them, or be used as fuel or weapons."

I said. Tearing off a patch of fur to clean the cane. The wood didn't enjoy drinking blood.

I had to cough out the blood. Black coiling strands which got caught in my throat. I chilled the strands so I could grasp it and slowly tug it out of my throat.

"Unordothox practitioner, Makoto Kurogane. I have not taken the first step to immortality."

She blinked, pointing at the destruction.

"How! They're!"

I shook my head.

"Merely beasts and creatures. As strong and ferocious as they may be, they do not have wisdom nor qi."

Drops of sweat poured down my brow as my body burned up, sweltering.

The shakes were quite a grevious.

As my skin burnt, my eyes wandered. The ceiling, the floor, the walls. And the rest.

"Store the carcasses. You may need the food."

I told the girl who waved her hand over the bodies.

Gone with a wave of her hand. Knew it, she was horrifically rich. Could make a profit from just stealing a single item from her.

Nah. She had nothing I wanted. I stumbled over to their side as I collapsed on the rubble.

It was softer than I thought.