Kaiser awoke slowly, standing, strangely, dim orange lights entering his vision as he picked up the smell of sulfur in the air. In front and behind him, darkness stretched for what he could assume was an eternity. The only reason he could see was because of two lamps hanging on the wall that gave him a few meters of sanctity in the darkness. The walls to his sides were composed of innumerable metal pipes that twisted and turned to form a cohesive and solid mass.

Weighing his options, Kaiser decided against trying to ignite a hole through the pipes. He had no idea where he was and why he was there, the last memory he had being the blinding light that shocked him at Eldwin’s orders and Hektor’s will. Burning a hole through the tunnel would be too risky, he thought. It would burn away all the oxygen in the vicinity, and he would suffocate.

The atmosphere began to set in for Kaiser. He felt a strange familiarity towards the place but had no recollection of ever having seen it before. Still, the thought gnawed away at the back of his mind that he had surely witnessed the oppressive, hidden horrors here.

“Hello!?” Kaiser shouted to the darkness down the left. After a minute of waiting, there was no response. “Hello!?” He shouted down the right. Still, no response but the echo of his own voice sounding through the pipe-scape.

Kaiser lowered himself to the ground and put his ear to the concrete. It was unnaturally cold and he could feel his heat begin to be sapped away, as if the floor was trying to steal it. Kaiser knocked on the ground. It felt solid and he didn’t hear any reverberation from within.

“Kin!?” Kaiser shouted. Just like before, no response came. He was completely and utterly alone, accompanied only by fear and hunger.

Kaiser contemplated on which direction to walk in. He pulled a silvion out of his pocket and tossed it, catching it and laying it on his arm. He had already formed the idea that heads meant right and tails meant left. The symbol Kaiser saw was the sword of justice, the blade wielded by Wiegraf the White, and so he headed left but not before taking his rosary out.

“Fire,” Kaiser said as a ball of flame erupted in his left hand.

It took a great deal of concentration to keep the flame from fizzling out and become a short-lived combustion. Priests were traditionally trained to maintain a flame with little effort, but Kaiser—a man of the nigh sinful clerical order—had only trained to take the energy that created all miracles—the caster’s soul—and unleash it all at once in a violent burst.

The orb of flame, no larger than Kaiser’s fist, radiated softly as it hovered in his hand. Kaiser stepped forward, into the darkness, slowly, cautiously. The orb of flame only projected light several meters forward. It provided a small haven of light for Kaiser as he advanced through the darkness. Yet, with every step, the flame and its yellow hue quickly faded. Ten steps in and the flame had been reduced to a cinder.

“Why?” Kaiser said as he conjured a new flame by speaking the command word.

With each reignition of the flame, a tingling numbness began to grow in Kaiser’s arm. No such feeling came when he used Wiegrafian magic traditionally, with a large prayer circle, candles, and a sacrificial ingredient, usually food or metal. Drawing the circle on an article of clothing was no good Kaiser found. There was no intimacy between Wiegraf and the caster when the miracle was cast with such an indirect catalyst. But, by drawing the circle on one’s hand, just as Kaiser did, it took a bit of their soul with each use. Kaiser only had a fundamental understanding of the concept of spiritual sacrifice but didn’t want to believe it to truly be real. He wanted to believe there was no such sacrifice involved, that his light would burn and burn with no need for kindling.

He walked for what felt like ages. At least a dozen flames had been ignited and burnt off before a sound echoed through the tunnel that wasn’t Kaiser’s footsteps. In front of him and behind him, the sound of squelching, wet flesh grew louder and louder. It sounded like slabs of raw meat hitting the ground, being dragged across it, and being lifted back up before the process started all over.

Several meters in front of him, Kaiser made out a silhouette. It advanced towards him slowly. The sounds behind him felt closer with each second. The creature stumbled out of the shadows.

Basked in the yellow hue of flame, the horrible being assaulted Kaiser’s eyes with its repulsiveness. Kaiser took a step back in fear as he analyzed the thing. It was a savage creature, bipedal, with a bloodied stump for one of its arms, its other arm having a jagged yellow protrusion as long as its hairy legs. Its misshapen torso was covered in a dark green fluid that emanated a horrific stench. Kaiser nearly vomited as it hit his nostrils. It had what Kaiser could only assume to be a head, only it looked as if something far larger had crushed it until shards of bone protruded from it.

“Stay back!” Kaiser shouted at the creature.

The creature advanced, its wet, skinless feet hitting the ground with the disgusting slamming sound that had warned Kaiser of its presence initially.

“I’m warning you!”

The same sound of wet thumping steps was too close to Kaiser’s back for him to remain calm anymore. The creature, even lacking eyes, saw the fear in Kaiser’s face. It took a hefty step forward and violently swung with its blade-arm, gashing Kaiser across the chest. The only thing which stopped its blade from cleaving Kaiser in twain was his clerical jacket. It was sturdy enough to resist just the one attack, but the right sleeve was already beginning to fall to tatters.

“Fire!” Kaiser shouted.

A ball of fire burst over the creature’s face, sending it wailing and screeching in pain. Its shrieks, Kaiser thought, only served as greater inspiration for whatever was behind him. He pushed past the creature which had now quelled the flames, wildly swinging its blade-arm to try and catch Kaiser. The thumping steps behind him turned to a quick sprint.

The flame Kaiser had used to light his way had gone out, reduced to cinders in the dark. Kaiser ran blindly through the shadows. Static numbness crept up his left arm as burning, slashing pain poisoned his right and his chest. He felt hot fluid begin to drop down his body the more he sprinted. The pain only made Kaiser run faster. The steps behind him hadn’t let up. Whatever was pursuing him had no intent on letting him go.

Kaiser slammed into cold steel, tripped, and fell to the ground. He panted and raised his rosary.

“Fire,” Kaiser let out between bated breaths.

A star of light was born inside the darkness. Kaiser looked back to where he had run from and couldn’t even see the faint hue of the lamps from where he originally awoke. But, a shape in the darkness, a small one, advanced towards him. There were only more walls formed out of masses of pipes to Kaiser’s right, and, to his left, a continuation of the tunnel. Kaiser scrambled for his revolver and aimed it at the figure in the blackness, holding his aim using his right arm so his left may focus on maintaining the orb of flame.

“Relax, would you?” The figure said. They stepped into the light, making it clear they were Caligula. “I was also running from those creatures. Apologies if I surprised you, but I didn’t want to risk running into you with these restraints,” Caligula said as he raised his hands to show that they were cuffed. “But. . . it cannot be helped.”

“What?” Kaiser asked, still out of breath.

“Stay calm. There’s no point in panicking right now. The hall to your left is the only way to continue, right? Let’s carry on.”

“How can I stay calm in a situation like this?”

“It is the only thing you can do. Let’s go.”

Kaiser got back up. He felt his wound.

“Quite the nasty cut. You’ll be alright. It doesn’t look like it hit any organs, nor does it look deep.”

Kaiser tore the tattered right sleeve of his jacket off and tore up the right sleeve of his buttoned white shirt. The shirt’s fabric was rather flexible. He placed the sleeve of his thick jacket over his wound and wrapped it around his torso, tying it in place with the sleeve of his shirt.

Caligula sighed and reached into his pocket, pulling out a thin metal needle. He turned his wrist, inserting the needle into a hole in the cuffs. He pried and pushed for a minute or so until the sound of a mechanical click echoed throughout the halls.

“Impressive, is it not?” Caligula remarked.

“Let’s hurry out of here. . .” Kaiser said as he patted down on his makeshift bandages.

“But of course,” Caligula said with a playful bow. “You lead the way. Branko confiscated my pistol when he arrested me.”

Before Kaiser could respond, he could hear the echoes of wet steps in the darkness behind Caligula. “Step aside,” he said as Caligula did so.

The orb of flame had faded just as the footsteps stopped. Kaiser precariously put away his revolver, taking out his rosary once again. He focused his mind towards killing intent. Caligula stood there, unflinching in the endless darkness that consumed them. Only did he jump after Kaiser shouted, “Fire!” as a brilliant flame followed up a powerful combustion.

The creature with its bladed arm and disfigured head screeched in pain as its torso was consumed by the flames of Kaiser’s magic. Its head had taken on a black char. The flames of the previous combustion had even left its black mark on its protruding bones. The creature let out an ungodly scream of pure fear. Only now did Caligula feel shivers. Only now did he feel the mortality of the situation. He had thought little of the danger for the short time he had been in the unfamiliar location, but now, as if the reaper itself had knocked on his head, he felt a cold pressure oppressing him. He felt true fear. But, Kaiser did not succumb to the crippling pulse and anxiety the horror seemed to emanate.

“Fire!” Kaiser shouted as another cloud of flame enveloped the creature’s body. Its bloody legs, sinew and bone visible, caught aflame. For all his courage, Kaiser felt his accuracy worsen from the pain of his injuries. The creature stumbled forward and onto the ground, reaching for Kaiser with the elongated jagged bone that replaced one of its arms. Kaiser stepped firmly on the arm, crushing it into the ground. He kneeled down to the creature and pointed his rosary straight to its head. “Fire,” Kaiser said as the foul thing’s head became consumed in flames.

Even as it died, the creature still attempted to stand back up. It tried to use its blade as a cane, or push itself back up with its bloodied stump, but all to no avail. After a dozen seconds of struggle, it lay lifeless on the ground, the flames on its body burning intensely to consume it before they too quickly faded into embers.

“Well then. . .” Caligula said as he wiped his brow of sweat. “I’d not thought you were one capable of using Wiegrafian magics.”

Kaiser did not turn around. He remained fixated on the lifeless body of the creature. Half of its body had been reduced to ash, and its head had been reduced to a crisped black substance with tar-like liquid seeping from it, what Kaiser thought was its blood. Kaiser collapsed, holding his left arm tight. A surge of numbness, the sensation of millions of ants crawling all over his arm, overtook his senses. His visions were indescribable. Pained, eldritch, and fearful, an image of the inconceivable flashed before his eyes.

“Kaiser!” Caligula rushed over to him.

Kaiser relented. He pushed back against the pressure building in his eyes. He writhed on the ground until he finally seized back control of his muscles, remaining stilled.

“What was that?” Caligula asked as he helped Kaiser stand back up.

“I don’t know. . .” Kaiser strained. “I saw. . . a figure.”

“What do you mean?”

“I saw a man in white.”

“Anything more?”

Kaiser shook his head no. He felt his left arm. Feeling and warmth began to return to it.

“What happened to your arm?” Caligula asked.

“It felt as if it wasn’t there for just a moment—after I cast so many miracles.”

“Unfortunate.” Caligula reached into his pocket and took out a lighter. “If only I had a cigar. . . Well, we can use this to light the way. We haven’t the materials for a torch, but this lighter should last forty minutes. That should be more than enough time to regroup with Branko’s squad.”

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“Regroup? But aren’t I wanted?”

Caligula shook his head. “Both you and I. But, he’s likely just as confused about what this place even is, much less where it is. One second everyone was gathered in the town square and the next we ended up here. It’d be foolish to seek out justice in a situation like this. Survival takes all precedence. Even a man as weak as Branko must know that.”

“Weak?” Kaiser asked as he and Caligula began to trudge along, Caligula assisting Kaiser with one arm while holding the dim lighter with the other.

“Being a hero of Draux is no Bienvenuan feat. He may have the strength of a god in human skin, but his mind is weak. He’s only a hero because of commandment Gaston.”

“Are they friends?”

“I suppose. Though, I wouldn’t know how Gaston took a liking to him. He’s one to put a bullet in someone’s head for little reason instead of befriending them.”

Kaiser and Caligula stopped talking to focus on moving ahead. Unlike the hall they were attacked in, the one they walked down, which looked all the same as the previous one, had no twists or turns. The two could only hear the sound of their own footsteps. Strangely, it unsettled Kaiser more to know only he and Caligula remained. An eerie sense of loneliness set in the longer they walked. The orange hue the lighter gave off was only bright enough to illuminate a meter or so to their front and back, but Kaiser was too wary to cast another miracle and Caligula knew this.

“How long have we been walking?” Caligula asked.

“Around ten minutes.”

Kaiser put his hand up and Caligula stopped helping him.

“Are you alright to walk on your own?”

“Yeah. The feeling in my arm’s back, and I don’t feel weak anymore. I don’t know what was happening to me earlier.”

Caligula nodded his head.

“By the way, Caligula.”

“Hm?”

“You don’t have any ill will towards me, right?”

“Why would I?”

“You don’t think I had anything to do with your arrest, right?”

Caligula shook his head no and grinned. “No. Branko did. And possibly that Glascanian lieutenant-general. They deduced I had to have been the one who killed Von. My gun had two bullets missing and, when they inspected your revolver before you entered the cellar to talk, they found six shots still in it. You didn’t happen to pack any extra bullets, right?

“No. At least, I didn’t leave them in the room.”

“That’s the last piece of information they used to convict me of Von’s murder. They were going to shoot me in the woods for fear of me killing any more of them, but Branko didn’t want that. No, he needed an eye witness to confirm their suspicions absolutely, but they couldn’t trust Jean. Branko, that sniveling coward, wanted you to testify.”

“And yet when I returned to town at night, he came out to arrest me. Why would he trust Eldwin’s word about the scheme to kill him, and how I was involved in it?”

“I have no idea why he’d trust an enemy. Maybe they’re friends. Maybe, they’re conspiring together. Perhaps that giant, Branko, has feelings for the codger.”

Kaiser chuckled. “Well, that’d be absurd, wouldn’t it?”

“Not at all,” Caligula said. “The world is strange. That’s the only absolute I know.”

“So, since he doesn’t trust Jean or I, that means you’ve got no reason to kill me?”

“Correct. At this point, I’m not even sure I could do it. I saw what you did to that creature earlier. When I awoke in this place, another soldier woke up right next to me. We didn’t know where the others were and decided to stay together. Of course, he didn’t trust me enough to undo my cuffs, and I didn’t have a chance to undo them myself. He said he’d shoot me if I did anything funny. We encountered that thing and he shot it. It just. . . absorbed the shots. In the darkness and panic, we weren’t even sure how many shots landed, but we knew it had to have been hit quite a few times. It walked up to him and decapitated him like a knife cutting through butter. But, those flames you conjured seemed to do a fine job at putting it down. It didn’t even react to being shot, but one or two spells from you—”

Kaiser interrupted. “Miracles.”

“One or two miracles from you and that thing finally went down.”

“Do you think it might’ve been weakened from the gunshots?”

“Not at all. What I do know is that whatever that ability of yours is—be it magic or miracle—it can hurt these things. It can kill them. But, it seems even you aren’t safe from their power.”

“Unfortunately so.”

The two stopped. Regardless of how close they walked into the darkness ahead, it consumed the light from Caligula’s lighter.

“Let me test this,” Caligula said before Kaiser had even finished trying to understand what was going on.

Caligula put one foot forward. The darkness instantly consumed it. Caligula could no longer see it, but he felt nothing trying to touch it. He loudly tapped it three times and waited ten seconds. Nothing came. Caligula stomped. He waited ten seconds again. Nothing came. “It’s safe,” Caligula said back to Kaiser.

“Won’t you go forward?”

“No. I’m heading back.”

“But the lighter will die long before you make it back the other way. And, what if there are more of that thing I killed? You can’t use miracles, and I’m injured and still haven’t recovered.”

“Those are all true, yes, but I’ll take that risk instead of stepping into the all-consuming darkness right in front of us. It’s not ordinary. You can’t explain it away using any kind of science. It’s almost as if the darkness is alive, and it’s consuming all light near it. Even if miracles exist, could you really explain the properties of the darkness away with any kind of magics or fact?”

Kaiser lowered his head.

“We ‘re not even sure of where we are. We could be underground, or very much be in the depths of hell for all we know.”

Kaiser took a deep breath and put his foot in the darkness. He took another step forward. Half his body had been consumed by it.

“What are you doing. . .?” Caligula asked, bewildered by Kaiser’s stupidity. “Did you not just hear what I said!?”

Caligula rushed up to Kaiser and tried to grab his hand, but it was too late. Kaiser had been consumed by the endless void. Kaiser tried to turn around to speak, but he saw nothing. Caligula and the long hall of twisting pipes and cold concrete floors were gone. He tried to speak, but even he couldn’t hear his own voice. The air was totally still. Kaiser was unsure if he was even walking on solid ground.

“Kin. . .” Kaiser muttered. “Why do I care?” He asked himself, hesitant to advance. “I did not come here for something so menial.”

In the darkness, believing there was nothing he could do, Kaiser sat down. Even though everything was pitch black, he could still see himself and his personal belongings.

Kaiser clutched his silver rosary tight in his hands and closed his eyes. He prayed. He didn’t know what his faith was directed at, but he prayed for good fortune. He prayed for success. Most of all, he prayed for a path—a path to a world away from the world of vengeance he had steeped himself in. He questioned if that world was one where he still had something to gain, or if there ever was something to gain. Satisfaction was all that could be had from killing Gaston. After Gaston killed his mother and father, after Branko took him into his care for a short while, after he had spent half a decade studying at the Church of the Messiah of White—only if he might gain the slightest advantage in his quest through his knowledge on miracles—he was sure, brimming with confidence, that it was all worth it. He could not stray from the path. No, he had delved too deep into the abyss of revenge. Yet, he felt a strange feeling—one that he had never felt before—when he briefly cared for Kin. To protect felt better than to destroy.

“Forgive me,” Kaiser said to himself, finishing his prayer with a short bow as he put away his rosary.

Kaiser stood back up. The flame of determination had been birthed, and it burnt through his eyes. He set forward, walking further and further into the abyss. No matter how pointless it was, no matter the danger, even if he couldn’t walk without feeling pain, moving forward was the only thing he could do.

Kaiser lost track of the time as he advanced. But, through his steps, he encountered a singular brown door standing in the middle of the sea of blackness. He rushed towards it and felt it gently. He thought that he had to have been hallucinating, that the door had to be some kind of illusion, but it felt completely real. He reached for its brass knob and turned with excitement. A transient yellow light washed over him. His vision failed him as he walked through the door. A pressure built in his head. It felt as if static was flooding through his brain, but he didn’t care. He moved forward, and, with his final step, had become completely basked in the yellow light. Now, consciousness failed him, and he felt his body collapse, as if it were overwhelmed by a force not meant to be comprehended by any. As his thoughts faded, Kaiser knew deep in his heart this was only a prelude to this place, whatever it may be.

Dark. Everything had turned dark. Then, with a flash of yellow light, Kaiser found himself in a completely new place. He felt floaty—as if he were in a dream—and all worries in him washed away.

Kaiser looked around and quickly deduced he was on a train. The traincar he was in quietly thumped rhythmically. Outside the large windows, a forest stretched on into an infinite fog. The traincar’s inside was basked in the faint glow of a yellow hue. The hue was weak where Kaiser sat—a vermillion red seat towards the back—but when he looked out from his seat, he found that the interior of the traincar stretched onward without limit. Eventually, it disappeared into pure yellow, being consumed by the hue.

“Is anyone here?” Kaiser asked as he got up from his seat, expecting that he’d have to balance himself. But, despite the train moving, the dark plank ground felt completely stable.

“Explorer of the outer regions,” a foreign voice echoed.

The voice immediately sent shivers into Kaiser’s skin. He reached into his pocket only to find neither his revolver nor his rosary were there.

“Be not afraid,” the voice said with a gentle intensity.

“Who’s there?” Kaiser asked.

Kaiser looked behind him. He could have sworn he saw a door leading to another traincar when he initially woke. Now, there was only a dark plank wall. He turned to face forward only to find a large man in a brown cloak standing several meters away from him. His face was totally shadowed by his hood. The man gave off pure fear, excitement, rage, happiness, sorrow, and any other sensation Kaiser could decipher in the perceptive overload.

“What’s going on here?” Kaiser asked as he backed away from the man.

The man stayed where he was at. He was as unmoving as stone. “You do not know?” He asked in a strange, almost inconceivable tone that strained Kaiser’s ears to decipher.

“What do you mean?”

“What is your name?”

Compelled by the man’s speech, Kaiser immediately answered him despite having no intent to speak. “Kaiser.”

“Then you have been pulled into affairs not meant to be comprehended by you.”

“I already know that. But, if you know anything about what’s going on—what place I was just in—what place I’m in right now—you best answer.”

“You threaten me?”

Kaiser hesitated to speak. Every word the man spoke instilled into Kaiser the great power the man held. “No. . .”

“I would hold no ill will towards you regardless.”

Kaiser remained silent.

“I apologize. I know your mind can barely comprehend what it has just endured, but. . . this is a mere prelude to fate.”

Kaiser snapped, suddenly frustrated by the man’s vagueness. “A prelude? To fate? Just what are you talking about?”

“I speak in such useless tongue for a reason. Forgive me for such a sin.”

“Sin? So you do know what’s going on?”

“I cannot say. But, I can inform you of one thing: This is Strakhan.”

“But how? Strakhan’s just a legend. And, why would I trust your words? Even you said they’re useless, you can’t tell me anything really important even if you wanted to.”

“Perhaps. I’ve forgotten how intriguing you all are. Truly, it is magnificent to speak with one of you again. Place faith in me, Kaiser. You only have so much time to converse with me.”

“Alright. . . then, can you tell me where Strakhan is?”

“It is nowhere. It only exists within the mind of the one that brought you to it.”

“And who brought me to it?”

“A lieutenant-general. You would know his name. It is Eldwin Caedde.”

“You’re lying. How could Eldwin bring me to such a place? With what powers give him the ability to just. . . ‘take’ people and bring them somewhere else in the blink of an eye?”

“Ancient powers that few men know today. Speak with the Drauxian Zett’yrii—the one who lights lamps. I am allowed to give such a basic instruction.”

“And what’s stopping you from giving me more useful information?”

“Human vanity. That is all I can tell you.”

Kaiser stood there for about a minute, weighing his options. If the place he was previously in really was Strakhan, he thought that there might be a possibility to find an exit and leave. But, he recalled his encounter with the creature that nearly cleaved him in two. He thought that there was no way something like that could really exist. He remembered the words of the hooded man and how he said that Strakhan was built in the mind of the one who brought them there.

“Would I leave Strakhan if I killed the one who brought me to it?”

“Perhaps. Though, I cannot give a concrete answer to that question either.”

Kaiser tightened his fist in frustration. “Then get me out of here.”

“But why would you want to do that? This place—created by one greater than I—is the only place you will find refuge. To return to Strakhan would be to return to pure fear. Do you not want more respite?”

“No. Not when I have something important to do.”

The hooded man chuckled in amusement. “Then have it your way. Human conviction is truly a wondrous thing.” He began to walk toward Kaiser. “The death of innocence, the birth of a new hour of man, to become your own god—they are amazing dreams. They could only be thought up by humanity.” He pressed two of his fingers into Kaiser’s forehead, causing him to immediately collapse to the floor. “May you find peace in the waking world. Farewell, explorer of the outer regions.”