WebNovels

Chapter 11 - [...Marrying The Blood Queen]

In the heart of the abyssal darkness, the thick roots the colossal ancient trees swayed lightly.

Down there, a young man with silken black hair and a missing right arm was currently hugging the huge branch tightly like a teddy bear.

Fresh drops of blood originated from his left side of the body and slowly trailed down, smearing both the ancient roots, and abyss with his blood.

His legs were currently tightly sandwiched between the thick roots, slowly loosening and tightening at a regular interval in a periodic motion. Gradually, the boy with the missing arm slowly descended into the darkness.

'please…please…please'

Flame pleaded as his body threatened to shiver, but he gritted and continued to descend.

He then stopped at some distance and tried to pull the vertical roots to his side, so that he might be able to find a web of tangled horizontal roots to rest.

He repeated the same process countless times and failed countless times.

In the end, Flame chose the option which he could actually do, rather than what he wished to do.

Not everything can be just wished for and get done.

The world is a cruel place and it only became more cruel after the appearance of The Rifts. Flame wasn't aware how the people of the ancient world lived, but he was aware of one thing about them.

They don't have to care about fighting monster!

Like the headless Crystal Thorns! Like that lecherous leech!

The dangers of that time must be much simpler than now. what could have been the worst thing happened?

A flood? A tsunami? An earthquake? A nuclear explosion?...

well the last one might be bad.

But not as bad as what Flame was currently facing.

He doesn't know how much time has passed and how much time had it been since he had put something in his mouth to eat.

He had been relentlessly climbing down the charred vines, covered himself with ancient soot and bleed himself some more.

Right now, he felt that it might have been better getting plunged by that spiked hand of the giant rather than facing nothingness. It was so strange and frightening to have eyes, but couldn't use them to see.

At least in the case of the giant, he would have only experienced pain for a moment or two before kissing goodbye to his wretched life.

In fact, there isn't even anything better to do back at home for him. of course he had to buy medicines for his mom and cook her food, but who is doing that now?

He must be here for at least two or three days. Who was making food for her? Who was washing her clothes down? Who was checking her prosthetics? Who was waking her up early in the morning and reminding her to take medicines?

Suddenly, Flame felt a strange urge to cry and just leave the charred ancient root. He felt so lonely. 

Ever since he remembered his childhood, he had only seen himself playing with the little white snake and learning cooking from his mom.

Even if he was stuck inside a harrowing Rift or caught stealing, Lucy was always with him, never leaving by his side.

'Damnit stop!'

Flame cursed inwardly and stopped again on the vertical branch.

He then took some heavy breaths and focused on keeping his footing rigid and tightened the hug around his left shoulder. Instantly, the miniscule sharp protrusion from the roots gnawed deeper into his skin and drawing out blood.

He ignored the pain and leaned his body weight on one side, pushing away the neighboring roots. the root immediately relented to the natural laws and swayed slightly. After performing one complete oscillation, Flame repeated the same process and continued to build momentum.

He will continue to do this until he could feel the solid wall of the chasm.

While his mind reeled back, remembering the number of times it had took him before to touch the wall, he suddenly flinched and eyes widened.

An extreme sense of happiness washed over his fatigued body and he suddenly felt the strength in his body miraculously returning. He finally felt something other than wall!

And he was too familiar with the thick base and heavy weight of the roots to not recognize them.

He carefully checked that there were more than two to three roots, so that he could rest his body on it for a while, and after confirming, he built some more momentum and jumped towards the root bed.

The web of huge thick roots shook violently and ancient crips of soot floated in the mirroring darkness.

Flame coughed a couple of times and waited for the roots to stabilize themselves.

After Flame comforted his mind to the fact that it was safe now, he immediately pushed away and laid his back on the root bed.

He still stared into the darkness,

albeit a different one…

"NO-no! don't sleep"

Flame instantly slapped his face and shook his head violently.

Sleep. One of the most important factors which he had missed to factor in his equation. Somehow, today, Flame was meeting many circumstances when he forgot that he was nothing but a mere Descendant. He didn't have any supernatural power or a Lineage like the Awakened of Chaotic grade beings.

He was just merely better than those who were already dead.

In other words, still a human. a better human.

Even thought, he still couldn't escape sleep.

If he was to sleep here, the infinitesimal chances of his survival would also slumber. he will instantly fall down in darkness and then turn into a meat paste, getting lost in the other meat pastes of the Headless monsters.

Maybe he will get his body pierced by the crystalline spikes too.

His blood will flow in the forgotten depths of the foreign world behind the Rifts and he will be lost forever.

'yes that is good! fear! That was what I need to use. The more I fear the more will I be able to avoid the causes of fear. If I continue to threaten myself of the agony, I might be able to manage…'

Flame allowed his thoughts to swirl, twirl and wander in his mind, but…in an organized manner that can make him shudder.

Somehow, Flame remembered a famous line once, spoke by a famous person

'Fear is the Arcane source of strength!'

…but of course there was not only fear which was helping him stay alive.

Currently, Flame felt his body burning. Beads of sweat formed around his nose and just by shaking his head a little he could feel the wetness of the sweat scatter around him.

He had finally found something.

A lead.

When he was at the upper area of the chasm, he was feeling like lying naked in the winter season…though practically he was.

But as Flame continued to descend, the chilling coldness was slowly replaced by the comforting warmth. It was very small to notice, but what better could be than a naked body bruised from head to toe?

And by descending further down, Flame was sure that he had made correct decision earlier

Being able to feel heat meant many things.

It could mean light and light could mean there will be no darkness. If there will be no darkness, he might be able to finally see!. Other than that, light could also indicate some kind of land, after all even the land can reflect light to an extent and could emit geothermal waves from it. light also meant that there will be no more bottom less chasm. He could feel hope.

But somehow, Flame had one of the most outrageous thoughts in the history of outrageous thoughts.

He even felt prideful thinking that he had thought of something so optimistic.

"I believe there must be some sort of little city with some other inhabitants like on the ground. Ah, let's expand that more. As the monster of the land have everything except their head, the people of this place will have nothing, but except their head! And everything they see through their eyes will be ceased to exist. Like, the opposite of sucking of blood, they will suck soul. Yeah, that sounds better. In fact, awesome! I think I might be able to write a book on such imagination. Also, I can marry the Blood queen later on. Oh my Queen! That would be awesome, I should consider it in my plans for the future…"

Flame continued his subconscious process and gave his body the rightful rest.

Soon, enough he felt, he somehow got lost of the thoughts and suddenly the thoughts became more and more optimistic and he felt drowsiness racing back on him.

Slap!

Flame shook his head and then took deep breath

And then jumped into the dark abyssal chasm.

Flame continued to descend deeper into the darkness and rested at some more places. Luckily, he didn't have to face similar problem like he faced in the first half of his journey. He was able to find some roots of bed and rest his body.

After some unknown amount of time passed, Flame felt the sleep become more and more unbearable, but that when he finally saw something which sobered him up completely!

"L-Light?"

He said in disbelief and continued to descend.

As the he climbed further down, he was able to see more and more things.

He saw his bruised body, the thick charred roots, his missing right hand and most importantly…a surface.

There was a warmly glowing orange ground and above it, was a mist of eternally swirling darkness.

Flame would have given his time to appreciate the eerie magical phenomenon if not for the sudden wave of extreme weakness coursing through his entire body.

Instantly, his grip on the root weakened and his body fell down, hitting the hard ground.

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