"Make one more step and I will kill you." Harid threatened when he saw the glint of a knife's blade in a stranger's hand and pulled out a knife of his own. His abrupt move made the attacker pause his action, he was without doubt taken by surprise by Harid's ability to move swiftly and decisively. However, it was clear that his injury was not just a scratch and he was in a disadvantage if a fight broke out.

"In you state, you are dreaming." The man that had crawled close to him beneath the rubble scoffed, he could see that Harid was injured enough that his movement was impeded. After a few seconds, he looked at the tip of his weapon and his lips stretched into an amused smile.

"You are Snake, right? It seems that your slithering is finally over." The man lifted his knife above his head in a reverse grip, preparing to strike Harid.

"All Ashes can teleport, my teleport is above the rubble. The moment I use it, the Lurker will come and kill me, eating me exactly in the middle of this place." Harid stared at the man with a knife and took the cloth that he was using to stop blood flowing out of his injury and placed it next to him.

"After that, the beast will be quite close to you, smelling blood from under the tower's debris." Harid spoke quickly while looking at the attacker to discern if he recognized what he was hinting by his words when he nodded at the blood soaked piece of cloth with his chin.

"Nah, you are bluffing. Your destination is elsewhere." The attacker stopped for a while and thought about his words.

"If it was, I would have no need for this charade and simply teleported away. Don't you think?" Harid countered and the stranger's face distorted with displeasure.

"Simply shut up and wait until it is gone, then we will both be safe."

"Yeah, we will both be safe." The man muttered while staring hatefully at Harid. It was clear what was going through his head.

  Harid could take out his gun from the bag somewhere next to him, but he would be unable to shoot with the Lurker around anyway. Lurkers could be easily killed by guns, but the knights were the problem. For a time, they were locked in a stalemate while looking at each other.

  Suddenly, both of them instinctively clenched their teeth and ducked when a loud explosion sounded in the direction of the subway entrance. A second later, Harid recognized the sound as a grenade's explosion and what followed was a mixture of chaotic shouts and gunshots of a group of people that doubtlessly arrived along with the unexpected booming sound.

"That was some timing." The man clearly knew something about the group, but the problem was the excessive noise the people outside were making. While waiting and listening to the happenings not too far away, both of them were clear about their security worsening with every second as more and more monstrous occupants of the ruined realm of nightmares would be attracted by the disturbance.

"Now, lift that rock and we are out of here. The noise is too loud, we can't stay here." Harid had finally discovered the exact location of the gun he had lost track of during his fall and pointed it at the stranger. The man wanted to argue, but he interrupted him before he was able to point out the obvious.

"My leg is stuck, either you help me lift the boulder, or I do not mind taking you down with me." He watched the man's expression turn ugly, obviously disgusted by his blackmail, but there was little he could do.

"You will pay for this, Snake." Unwilling, he came closer and successfully rolled over the debris which had been lying on Harid's leg, making him grunt in pain. Without taking his eyes off his target even for a second, Harid stood up only to find out that it would be difficult for him to walk right away without any aid, although he was grateful that his leg was not broken.

"Help me, we are getting out of here." He gestured at his newfound mate who cooperated without saying a word. Yet, it was most likely only because the next time he planned to speak to him was not with his words, but his knife. Despite the obvious intentions of his helper, Harid had no other option and had to be on his toes and watch for any signs that his support had decided to get rid of him.

"What is your name?" He asked before the man's hand wrapped around his waist, getting a cold response.

"Zach."

"Nice to meet you Zach, my name is . . "

"Snake, I know already." The man cut him off with a cold glint in his eyes. At first, Harid intended to correct him, but decided against it when he arrived to a conclusion that nothing he would say could change the image of a gangster he had built up for himself, especially given the limited time they had.

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"Fine, we just need to get out of here. Details can wait." Haird sighed and they began to move with gradually increasing speed, his legs not giving him as much trouble as he had originally expected. Still, he was far from being optimistic, it could only mean that his dizziness was not caused by his leg injury, but by his punctured rib. He had no idea how serious bone injuries were, but he would surely not be able to simply wave it away after a few days.

  A bitter smile appeared on his lips when they finally exited the rubble on the other side of the commotion and what greeted them was the image of the faraway tower, with its pointy azure roof almost blending with the sky. He would say that he was fated to reach it if he was a believer. There was no reason not to try to reach the tower this way, although he had decided against it before, the part of the ruins taken over by vegetation that lied between The Azure Tower and his former base was making him uneasy. There were many plants that he had never seen before and there might be dangers he was unaware of like unknown venomous insects, snakes and naturally plants.

"Move it, we do not have all day." Zach urged him while looking in the direction of his former gang, listening to the chaos that was showing no signs of stopping.

  Harid stretched his step without a word, enduring the sudden wave of dizziness. He had no idea how long he could walk before losing consciousness, but he had to stay awake, because he was sure that his mate was planning to leave him behind if given the slightest opportunity. He did not blame him, he would have done the same.

"Awake, awake." After a while, his breathing quickened and turned shallow, he stared to lose track of time and place. Focusing his brain on something, anything to stay awake, he began looking around them as they made their way in the direction only few dared to venture in.

  They were going to walk through the part of the city swallowed by vegetation, the blades of grass and palm leaves blending in front of Harid's eyes into one single mass that shifted in the gentle wind.

  He could no longer remember how long he had been in the ruined city, but it felt like a lifetime, every day a new struggle for survival, his illusions, hopes and moral code dying with every passing hour he spent inside the otherworldly city ruin. He had questioned many times what was the connection between the ruins and its monstrous inhabitants, the tattoos and the sudden one-way portal that appeared on Earth, but he could not make sense of it. Was it just some random apocalypse, or an elaborate plan? Or maybe a mixture of both?

  His gut was telling him that the third, most complicated option was the right answer, but his consciousness faded away into darkness before he was able to think further, the gun that kept pointing at his unwilling companion slowly falling out of his hand.

Year 347 After Enlightenment, Karnas, the capital city of The Ulyan Empire

"It has gone too far, as I have predicted." A man adorned with a large azure cloak looked out of a tall window with a frown, his bright, green eyes almost shining in a specific direction from under his hood. In the distance, there was a black structure towering to the sky and right at that moment, it was the center of a great commotion. Sparkling in the sun, bright golden dots started to swarm around the place as if the black tower had turned into a hive of bees.

"Only a man's pride is more dangerous than his greed." He touched his beard that was the same color as the walls of his home, the same as the color of the sky. Placing the paper in his hands back onto a table next to him, he sighed and walked away from the window with resolute steps.

  Although he had feared that this moment would come one day, a master of mysteries was always prepared and he liked to think about himself as such.

"Quick, execute the placement of baits!" He gestured with his right hand and strange creatures that were something in between a drone and a dragonfly began to pick up the surprisingly ordinary looking garbage bins that were standing aligned neatly along the wall.

"As long as some of them are placed successfully, the saturation will reach the required value. The delay should be increased, I want the kind of fools like him to be gone by the time the spell activates." The man dressed in luxurious azure clothes continued to walk though the corridor while muttering words that only he knew the full meaning of.

  Walking through his domain of glass, steel and polished stone, his eyes lingered for the last time on his magnificent base as well as a piece of art it represented. He felt a pang of pain in his hear when he imagined what awaited his seat of power during the forthcoming years of chaos. Despite his nostalgia, he knew that what he had could be rebuild anew as long as he survived and with his future position he would have enough power and wealth to build his tower higher, greater than ever before. In the future, there would be no one to stand in his way anymore, no competition, no discussion.

"Prepare the great reset protocol, set the initiation time to one hour from now." He ordered again to his strange flying creatures and they rushed in all directions to execute his command.

"One spell and we are done, in the end every incompetence can be used as a fuel by those competent." The expression on his face changed for a second, the wise and patient visage replaced with one of ambition and madness.