The Dawn of the New World

Fulke and the rest swiftly caught up with Ceni who was standing at the entrance of the worn-out structure.

"What is it?" Fulke asked in a feeble voice but didn't get a response. Instead, Ceni moved aside, letting them see what was inside. Tey all went closer, peaking their heads in one by one.

First came the smell. The smell of death and excrement mixed together.

There was only one room inside the structure which was filled with half-eaten human corpses. There were obvious bite marks along the abdomens and the necks, many of them missing limbs and internal organs.

On the back right corner was a small pile of human faeces with the smell of urine mixed in. Different types of worms wriggled on the ground, occasionally falling from the decaying bodies. At a first glance, there were several dozen of them. It looked like they had been dead for a little while.

Three of the youngsters including Riane instantly threw up what little food they had eaten.

"Move back," Fulke pushed all of them aside and entered the structure. He came out a few minutes later.

"He isn't here, nor are your friends, Princess. It looks like most of them were severely injured and died of natural causes. But having to spend their last few hours in such a manner and then having their remains being feasted on by those monsters, it is not an honorable death," Fulke commented despondently. By 'he' he obviously meant Hao Xuan.

Ceni let out a deep breath, almost falling to the ground in a moment of weakness. But it was unknown whether the relief she felt was for her friends or Hao Xuan but either way, she was grateful.

"Thank you," she mumbled meekly and stood up straight using a rock as support. Fulke nodded in response. Ceni looked towards the dark pit that seemed ever more threatening under the cover of darkness.

"We have to go deeper into the hole, that's the only place they could have been taken. I can still feel them closeby."

"Alright, let's go," Fulke agreed quickly. From what they had seen so far, it didn't bode well for the survivors. After making sure the youngsters were alright they went in.

As they entered the hole, the sound of rain and the battle outside weakened and when they were just a few meters in, it became deathly silent. The only noise came from their own breathing and footsteps.

Thankfully, there were still some sources of light left along the path down otherwise they would not have been able to see very clearly.

Some 5 odd minutes later they finally arrived at the bottom, in front of the giant door that was bent inwards from one side. Fulke motioned for them to stop.

"There are signs of a battle here," he pointed at the remnant Qi floating about in the cracks on the walls and multiple burn marks that looked like that were made by something sharp and extremely hot.

Fulke opened his hands and his massive cleaver appeared. It had a curved, pointy front end and another small gap in the center of the blade itself. This way it could be held with both his hands horizontally.

It was glowing with a bright red light in the darkness. From the outside, it looked there was magma flowing inside the blade.

The temperature actually rose by several degrees as he channeled some Qi into it.

Hazel was using her Azura longsword while Ceni held two red swords with a similar design as the ones Dai Zhi had, but there were no runes on her.

Riane called out her weapon which surprised everyone. It was a paper fan with some intricate designs on it.

The three young men all used swords as well.

The vault door was cracked open already so they easily walked in. Inside was the old stone hallway. They followed it for a couple of minutes with bated breaths until it opened into the giant circular room.

"W-Who is it!"

Before they could step through, a shaking voice came from the inside. Seeing as they were found out, the group increased their pace and sprinted inside.

But what welcomed them was not a battle but the haggard faces of their fellow participants. A little over a hundred people were huddled up together in this otherwise empty room.

"Wha- it's you guys! We're saved!"

"Reinforcements have arrived everyone!"

The 'prisoners' jumped in joy upon seeing fellow human faces and ran towards them.

"What's...going on..." Hazel mumbled absentmindedly.

They were all a little taken aback. Expecting a fight but to be met with these guys instead.

"Iris! Klem!" Ceni shouted while looking around. A girl pushed some people aside and came out from the crowd and her expression brightened upon seeing Ceni.

"Ceni, Iris needs help!" she shouted and ran towards the back.

Ceni followed her and found a few people covered in bloody bandages near the wall. Her friend Iris was one of them.

She bent down and checked her condition before inquiring about them. Fulke and Hazel had also followed her over.

"How did you guys get out? What happened to the monsters?" she asked in a low voice.

Klem was a girl about the same age as Ceni with dark blue hair. She leaned in and whispered.

"I don't know what really happened. We were locked up in cages. We couldn't see or hear anything from the outside but suddenly the doors opened and a man appeared. He told us all to go help the others and go into the pit and wait to be rescued once we were all out."

"A man? What man?" It was Fulke who spoke up this time.

"You know, that Deimos guy. The 2nd guardian. We thought he was part of a bigger group so we did as told."

"Where is he then? The guardian," Ceni asked, her voice somewhat impatient but other than Fulke no one caught it.

Klem shrugged innocently.

"I thought I saw him run down here but when we came down, there was nobody here."