Chapter 3

‘Ah shit Alfonse.’, I thought to myself.

After sometime, I tried to look around, maybe I could find some way of getting out of here. I pressed the thick wood bars to see if they could be broken easily.

One of the guards glanced at me and said, “These wood bars are strengthened by our master so you can’t break them easily. Just stay there quietly will you.”, while returning his gaze to his front.

I then turned to the old lady and asked her what’s happening.

She told me that the people here don’t welcome newcomers. And that they would kill the men who are not handsome in some ritual for entertainment and bring all the women and the handsome men to the shrine. And after that, no news would come around concerning those people.

“It’s rumored that there is a celestial beast there. He asks for beautiful men and women in exchange for granting protection to the village”, said the old lady, her name was lady Belma.

‘Celestial beast? What rumor did those people spread in order to make the villagers obedient to this degree?’

“Young man, what is your name?”, she asked after a minute of silence.

I couldn’t tell her my real name, because for all I know, I can’t trust people however decent they looked on the exterior. I thought of a name I could use for some time and there was only one name that popped in my head.

“Sam.”, I said.

I chose Sam because it was the most plain name I could think of in that short moment and also I used to use the name as an alias in many undercover missions, so, I am used to being called that.

“Sam… a good name.” she said after pausing.

“Okay Sam, I am sorry but, can I ask you to save my granddaughter, I can’t do anything for her with this old body of mine so…”

“I need to save myself first to help her.”, I said deadpan.

After giving it some thought though, the old lady saved my life so it’s only fair that I do her a favor in return. But I have nothing and even after escaping from this place I don’t know what my next encounter would be. Hell, I don’t even know if I will escape from this hellhole of a place.

At this moment, I did what I do best in my life… wager for a price for the service I am about to provide lady Belma.

“What are you willing to offer for me to save you granddaughter?” I asked.

Belma’s expression couldn’t hide her surprise. But after a few seconds she regained her composure and said, “It’s only natural that you want compensation, so here is a little stone I found in my early days while I was wandering the outskirts. Its not much, but considering I helped you and tended to your injuries, this should suffice”

I took the stone she threw between the bars to my cell by my right hand. I could see some fog like gas moving inside the stone. Its color was black with a bit of golden color mixed in, it’s size was half of my palm. As I leaned in to take a closer look, all my surrounding vanished and I was surrounded by pitch black darkness, it felt just like the void when I was falling from the plane to the sea. However, I could make out some small lights which looked like stars all around me. And after a few seconds I was pulled out of the stone to prison cell I was in.

‘What was that just now?’, I thought.

I turned to lady Belma and I said, “What is this?”

She smiled helplessly and said, “I couldn’t make out what it is. I even asked some people who process etherious stones and they said they have no idea what this stone is.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“What are etherious stones?” I said.

After pausing for a second, the old lady said, “They are stones people use to strengthen weapons and armor. They give the weapons capability to use ether. And make the armor lighter and more sturdy”

‘ether? Is it some kind of magic power’, I thought.

After seeing my confusion the old lady said, “ether is a form of power borrowed by humans to strengthen their bodies. Not all people can use ether. Only the chosen ones can.”

“I was one of them ages ago before I lost my team in the forest of trolls. A troll found me and tried to kill and eat me. I fought to the best of my abilities and killed the troll. But I ended up losing my ability to use ether as a result.”

By the confused look on my face, lady Belma knew that I had no idea what she was talking about and explained everything from the basics.

“Judging by your athletic build, I thought that you were a chosen. But looking at how you don’t know anything about ether, I guess I was wrong.”, said the old lady.

Based on everything the old lady said. The US developed a type of power which they now call ether and tried to use it on the continent of Africa around 400 years ago. After they launched the radiation that spreads the ether to the people through various satellites, a lot of people died because they couldn’t endure the power seeping into their bodies. Some people survived but they became unable to use their five senses and ended up dying after living for some time as a result. Only a minority of the people could endure the power of ether going into their bodies. After seeing the devastating destruction, the powerful countries disagreed and fought against the atrocities of the US. After that, they wiped each other from existence using nuclear bombs to bomb each other. Only a bunch of people survived the war and they couldn’t continue to live in their homeland because of the biowastes and had to travel to a safer place.

The only place which was untainted by the nukes was some parts of the continent of Africa, and that was because the people who could use ether created etheric shields to protect their homes and cities.

The people in the bombed areas of the world had no choice but to travel to the safest places in Africa. People then started to marry and breed interracially and all the world was related to each other.

Some of the generations which came after them then had the ability to use ether from birth, some start to use it after some time of their birth, and some couldn’t use ether until the rest of their lives.

And that’s how the society got divided again. People were respected if they had power. Because if they have power they can do whatever they desire. And ether gave the people power so those who could use ether ruled over those who couldn’t use ether.

150 years or so after the world destruction, people who could use ether started to travel to the rest of the continents in order to explore and find some of the lost technologies of their ancestors. The nuclear byproducts are harmless to those who could use ether as their bodies are adapt to ether which is more potent if fused with the blood. And they could also wrap their bodies in ether to prevent the nuclear byproducts from getting mixed up with ether.

And that was also why the old lady drifted from her team mates. They were going to eastern Asia to explore, and as a result this happened to her.

“How do people learn to use ether?”, I asked her. If maybe I was capable of learning the use of ether, I could use that to get out of here.

And seeing that there are not many people who could ether in this place as the old lady explained earlier, I have a very big chance of making it out alive if I could obtain the ability to use ether.

The old lady told me to imitate what she was doing, and I did as she asked.

I sat cross legged resting my back on the wood bars separating my cell with theirs and put my palms on my knees and closed my eyes.

“Concentrate on your heartbeat, the flow of your blood and the sound of the blood rushing through your ears.”, her voice was so calm and made me wonder if that was one of the skills required to awaken a person’s use of ether.

I started to concentrate as she told me. As I concentrated, I noticed one odd thing about my body, I couldn’t hear my heartbeat. But I could hear something akin to fluid flowing through hard pipes. Surprised, I only continued to sit there in silence for about 20 minutes.

She then said, “Now imagine a dark nothingness where the only sound audible in there is your heartbeat and the flow of your blood, and imagine stars all over the darkness.”

I thought about telling her that I couldn’t hear my heartbeat but I decided against it.

I imagined as she told me to and waited for about three hours. And nothing happened.

Then I opened my eyes and she was resting her head and right shoulder on the wood bar opposite to where my back was leaning against.

I asked if she was sleeping, but she turned to look at me straight and said.

“I am sorry but it looks like you are not a chosen.”, while looking at me with an apologetic smile.

“why do you say that?”, I asked her with a bit of disappointment and worry.

She answered, “when people try this method, some minority of them awakens the use of ether, some of them don’t show any reaction, but the remaining majority tend to have a mark appear on the back of their necks. The mark looks like a burned scar, and it means that their body is negating the ether, that’s why their skin burns like that.”

“And the mark appeared on the back of your neck about 10 minutes ago, and I didn’t want to wake you up immediately because if I did may be you would be disturbed and get into a coma.”