“Drip, Drip!” Alhen could hear the echo of multiple drops of water hitting the floor below.

  He had been searching for about an hour and had yet to find an artifact.

  He currently stood outside an establishment with a sign consisting of geometrical shapes, which he assumed was a language, tired from the constant walking.

  Windows were attached to the walls, something he had forgotten existed until now.

  ‘This city must have been built a long time ago, but it somehow looks even better than the kingdom,’ Alhen thought.

  Of course, the city was destroyed, but the buildings maintained some of their luster.

  With every turn and every inch gone through the city, he marveled at the sight and thought about how it was a shame that everything was destroyed.

  Based on the architecture alone, he could tell that the people who once lived here were advanced for their time.

  ‘How could such an advanced civilization not be heard of until now?’ He wondered.

  Based on the information he had received from the mission objective, this was a fairly recent discovery of an ancient city by a group of hunters.

  There’s no information on how they got here, but it has been a few cycles since then.

  ‘I thought this place was going to be filled with people, but I guess I was wrong. Well, I have been searching for some time now, and no artifacts seem to be in sight.’

  ‘Maybe that’s why they have lost interest. Even if they did, all of the city shouldn’t have been explored; it’s too big for that to happen in only a few cycles.’

  Although there were windows, nothing could be seen inside because of the dirt and dust.

  He had a feeling that something of value would be found in this building based on its antique appearance, even more than the buildings around him.

  “Clank!” He pulled on the silver handle of the door, and it broke with ease.

  The door swung open on its own, revealing the interior; it was completely covered in dust.

  What was once a cozy establishment with a sofa, a carpet, and many old but warm decorations became a horror movie set.

  What he recognized as a television stood in the corner, and a coffee machine stood behind a counter.

  The lack of light made him squint his eyes as he tried to see the whole picture.

  ‘Based on the looks of it, this must have been a bar. How is it possible that the city has this level of technology, when on the outside, this is not the case? Does the television even exist in this world?’ Alhen wondered, although, looking in front of him, that seemed to be the case.

  More questions arose: Is this Earth? Or did people from Earth come here somehow?

  It could have been that the locals invented the television as well with their knowledge.

  He found the thought about how these inventions came to be fascinating, but had to focus on his current task, finding those damn artifacts.

  Stepping inside the establishment, he sent out dust into the air from his footsteps and coughed heavily.

  He had to cover his nose with his jacket, and thankfully, his eyes were covered by his glasses, or else it would be impossible to walk without having them closed.

  It was as if he had been teleported to the future, even though the place didn’t look to be in the best of conditions.

  He tried turning on the tv, to turn on the coffee machine, but they didn’t work.

  “I figured,” he said out loud.

  He strolled through the establishment, trying to find some type of artifact or antique that could be worth something to ‘The Crying Halberd’ for them to make him an official hunter.

  There seemed to be nothing; however, that’s when he noticed a door in the corner, hidden by the darkness.

  As he went to look what was inside, he heard shouts coming from outside.

  “Aghh! Stop!” Shouts of pain entered the building.

  Alhen quickly got alerted and rushed to the window, cleaning it just enough with his hand to look at the situation and keep himself hidden.

  Two men with their backs facing him gathered around a person who had his leg missing, the area bleeding heavily.

  A tall, burly man with a big, silver hammer on his back walked over to him slowly before taking something that seemed to be a golden cup with a ruby in its center.

  ‘Is that an artifact?’ Alhen wondered.

  “You will not get away with this! The blade family will find both of you, no matter where in the world you disgusting pieces of shit hide!” The injured man on the ground said.

  “Hahaha! That is the biggest joke I have heard in my life. The blade family? We simply do not care. Do you really think that the Church of Rugmat will cower before royalty?”

  “Our Supreme will eventually take over the world, and we will prosper along with him; compared to that, royalty is nothing!” The other man, who was lanky and tall, said as he approached his body.

  “Ptoo!” The man on the ground spat at him, his spit landing just before it could touch his shoes.

  “I see, both of you are part of that lunatic group. Damn cultists! Rugmat just wants to absorb this world, gain its power, and you are all being used as puppets in his game!” The man on the ground said before taking a second to breathe.

  “If he wins, there will be no salvation for everyone; there will be nothing.”

  He gritted his teeth and held the wound on his leg, wincing from pain.

  “I hate speaking with ignorant idiots like you,” the burly cultist scoffed.

  “Do you think that the Supreme Harged is truly worthy of being recognized as a Supreme? He has abandoned Lerethia, our world! He has not shown himself since the Nameless Lord took his place on the moon; what a damn coward!” he shook his head.

  “The Supreme Rugmat, on the other hand, has offered us salvation; he extended a rope of help to us when we needed it the most, h-,” the burly cultist was interrupted.

  “The Supreme Hargred will eventually awaken from his slumber, he will destroy Rugmat, and we will be saved from this torment.”

  “Ohhh, how I wish I could see your faces when it happens, and both of you realize the mistake of your actions,” the man smiled.

  “How I wish I could see you both on your knees, praying for a second chance. Hahaha!” he laughed with blood spilling down his mouth.

  The cultists didn’t look pleased at all, with both of them having a frown on their faces.

  “I will tolerate this disrespect no longer,” the lanky man said before taking out a musket from his back and aiming it at the fallen person, who had a smile on his face.

  He looked up at the sky and took a deep breath for the last time.

  “Bang! A shot rang out, and a bullet hole appeared on the person’s head.

  His eyes rolled back, and his body went limp, but the smile wasn’t erased from his face.

  The big man, seeing this, took out his hammer and slammed it with all his strength on his head.

  “Splurt!” Brain matter and blood flew in all directions, leaving a direct imprint on the pavement.

  Alhen narrowed his eyes on the scene, grimacing from all the blood.

  The cultists didn’t exchange words, only nodding at each other before searching his body.

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  They fumbled around in his pockets until they took a shiny golden necklace with a pure jade stone in its center.

  The cultists smiled at each other; the object clearly having value.

  The men slowly turned around, stopping halfway and staying deadly still.

  They didn’t do much more than twitch a muscle.

  ‘Did they notice me?’ Alhen wondered while holding his breath.

  Nothing seemed to be happening, and he began to relax.

  From his point of view, the men were looking far into the distance away from his location, and appeared distracted by something they saw far away.

  This quickly proved not to be the case, however, as their heads snapped in his direction.

  He made direct eye contact with the burly man, which caused him to duck his head quickly below the window.

  Alhen heard shouts outside, and that’s when he realized that he’d been spotted.

  With no other option, he bolted for the door he had seen just a few moments ago.

  Taking the handle with his hand, he tried turning it, but it didn’t budge.

  ‘Shit!’ He started slamming into the door with his shoulder, and, despite its condition, it held on.

  The shouts kept getting closer, and he could swear they were just about to come inside.

  That’s when he remembered his Luna Signum; he had forgotten to activate it.

  Without it, he only had the strength of a normal nine-year-old kid.

  His chest glowed white as he slammed the door one last time before it broke, slamming into the wall and coming off its hinges.

  His eyes lit up, he was staring at the outside, and he felt a heavy weight be removed from his body.

  He thanked the heavens as he ran outside the establishment to the right, heading as far as possible before the cultists could catch up.

  Looking back, Alhen widened his eyes.

  They were already close behind him and getting closer by the second.

  He saw how the chest of a hunter glowed a bright yellow, and the arm of the other did as well.

  Their speed increased, and Alhen cursed in his mind.

  ‘Damn it! They are going to catch me if I don’t think of anything right now. Think!’

  Despite his sign being activated, the cultists were adults, and they seemed to hold more lunar energy than him.

  ‘This is not enough; I need something else!’ Alhen desperately thought, his pursuers right behind him.

  His eyes widened as he remembered his blessing.

  Concentrating on the energy around them, he activated it, and his worldview immediately changed.

  Everything turned dark, and he saw an ethereal hand reaching out to him and catching his shoulder from behind.

  He instinctively avoided it, and every attempt to take hold of him was negated by him.

  Alhen focused as hard as he could, not daring to close his eyes in case he would be caught. If that were to happen, it would be his end.

  He ran. Alhen could hear the men cursing behind him, but didn’t pay much attention to it, focusing on survival.

  From the corner of his eye, he noticed a structure with a small opening.

  In a split-second decision, he rushed towards it, and the hunters caught on to what he planned to do, rushing to avoid it.

  Their actions ended up in a futile attempt to grab him.

  Alhen moved like a slippery eel, slipping right past their hands and entering the small space in a swift motion.

  The space was small enough that the cultists couldn’t enter, but this didn’t stop them.

  The burly cultist took out the big hammer from his back, holding it up high in the air before slamming it full force on the opening.

  “Arghh!” He screamed before the debris and concrete flew away from a strong blow, giving them a clear passage to where Alhen had run off to.

  “Catch that brat!” Alhen heard as he rushed down some stairs.

  ‘Shit!’ he mentally cursed; all the paths were sealed besides this one.

  The walls, the rails, and the stairs were all white, and the pungent smell of decomposing corpses invaded his nose, making him wrinkle his face.

  Alhen could hear the cultists approaching from behind, always getting a little closer.

  If they got hold of him… he didn’t even want to think about it.

  After descending the stairs some more, the smell intensified until he found himself in what seemed to be an underground garage.

  It looked modern, yet old at the same time; dirt and dust had fused with this place just like everywhere on the outside.

  There were square pillars, made of marble, that could barely be seen beneath the light on his chest, which his jacket covered.

  There were no cars in sight, and he finally knew why it smelled as it did.

  As soon as he saw the show in front of him, he held his breath.

  Wihts, barely visible in the dim light emitted by his Luna Signum.

  They slept in unison over each other in a big space; their breaths were faint, but they could be heard as raspy guttural sounds.

  Their whole body weren’t visible, but he was sure that they were big and walked on four legs.

  He heard the footsteps approaching, being completely unaware of the situation below and making tons of noise.

  His heartbeat accelerated, and he could only pray that the wihts didn’t wake up because of the sounds.

  He walked as fast as possible while being careful not to wake the wihts and hid behind a nearby wall, waiting for the moment when they would enter the space.

  A second later, they entered the garage, and the sound of their footsteps ceased.

  Just as he expected, they probably saw the wihts, silence immediately became deafening.

  Alhen stood perfectly still, his ears working hard to pick even the tiniest noise apart from his erratic heartbeat.

  The seconds went by, and eventually, he heard faint footsteps approaching his location.

  The sound was barely noticeable, like a single drop of water falling into an ocean.

  If he did nothing, they would eventually catch him.

  ‘Shit, shit, shit, what are these people thinking? Even if they get me, I can scream and kill all of us. Why don’t they retreat?’ Alhen wondered in his mind, but he didn’t have the answer.

  ‘Maybe they are hoping to kill me before I even make a sound. It is possible that they would be capable of something like that, considering that they are cultists.’

  His mind was working at full throttle, not thinking of anything to do.

  He was about to resort to something drastic until his hand bumped on something solid; it was a rock.

  Alhen grabbed it, and after a brief moment of hesitation, threw it with all his strength towards one of the wihts further away from him and closest to the hunters.

  He threw the rock blindly, but he seemed to have hit the target.

  “Thwack!” The cultists widened their eyes as the sound resounded through the open space and echoed.

  Their bodies froze as they looked at the situation.

  First, it was one, then two, and then all of the wihts had stood.

  Without a moment of hesitation, they darted towards the exit.

  Alhen covered his mouth and made himself as small as possible to not be noticed by the wihts right beside him.

  All of them turned their attention to the fleeing cultists, who reached the door in a flash and began racing upstairs.

  Seeing this, the wihts screeched in unison. A devastating sound followed, which blasted his ears into oblivion.

  Blood came out of them, and his audition failed; constant ringing sounds were thumping in his head.

  Alhen sat in his spot for who knows how long with his ears ringing. He emptied his stomach on the floor and held his head until he felt better.

  Looking around, the darkness didn’t let him see a thing. Neither the hunters nor the wihts were longer there.

  He couldn’t think properly. He stood, wobbling as he walked at a snail’s pace, and he lost his sense of direction; the darkness blinded him.

  Next time, he would have to carry something to light up his surroundings in case this situation repeated itself.

  He didn’t know when it happened, but looking in front of him, he saw a mural filled with drawings.

  A faint light coming from something on the ground illuminated the wall, showing a simple depiction of what seemed to be history.

  There were drawings showing tall human figures discovering land and settling on it.

  A creature resembling a dog with the head of a human came up from the ground and talked with them.

  As Alhen looked at the peculiarity of these drawings, he wondered if he was hallucinating.

  His vision was still blurred, but he could see how the creatures in the drawing went inside the humans’ bodies, tearing them apart, and sealing themselves inside.

  More drawings could be seen, but they had already faded with time, making them indiscernible.

  All the way in the end, he saw the infested humans living along with the healthy ones, making Alhen’s hair stand on end.

  Despite the simplicity of the drawings, the eyes of those creatures pierced into his soul.

  Alhen noticed the similarity of the city with the one on the wall, having towering buildings and many riches.

  ‘What truly happened here?’ He wondered just before noticing a bag with dried blood lying nearby and something poking out of it.

  He approached with shaky steps and noticed that there were two swords.

  Jade stones adorned one of them and emitted a faint green light, and the other had dark jewels in its handle, emitting a dark glow.

  ‘Artifacts,’ he recognized.

  ‘Someone probably found these somewhere but was caught by the wihts, I wonder how the bag ended here, however,’ he thought.

  Alhen felt some kind of energy emanating from these blades.

  If he brought them to the Crying Halberd, he guessed they would make him a hunter on the spot.

  With careful movements, he picked up the bag and carried it on his back, feeling the strain on his small body before heading to the stairs.

  He wondered whether he should activate his sign, but decided against it since it would run out of energy.

  It would take away his chance to escape if he were ever found out before he returned to the surface.

  As he ascended the stairs covered in dirt and unknown black fluids, his ears stopped ringing, but his lack of hearing remained.

  Alhen had to hold his breath not to smell the nauseating stench that seemed like that of shit and hard sweat combined.

  ‘I want to kill myself,’ Alhen thought as he ascended step by step.

  In no time, he left the building, looking at the hole the burly cultist had left, and took in his surroundings.

  Nearby buildings that were fine before were now destroyed.

  The surrounding area didn’t look to be in better shape, and he noticed multiple wihts roaming the streets.

  He took no time to hide behind some rubble and peek out to look at the situation more clearly.

  In the distance, Alhen saw the lanky cultist that followed after him being eaten by one of the wihts.

  This time, he could see the creature clearly, its head shaped like an ant but oddly deformed, its crooked mandibles tearing a hole in the hunter’s body.

  A sharp and bladelike exoskeleton covered the body, and curved legs that looked harder than steel poked at the body’s chest.

  Blood dripped continuously from its mouth; it had pulled the eye of the cultist out and eaten it slowly.

  Not wasting any more time, Alhen tried to find the exit of the city while avoiding the wihts.

  They were everywhere; no matter where he looked, he didn’t see a spot where he could sneak out of there without being seen.

  Alhen knew where the exit was.

  It hadn’t taken long for him to find it after roaming around when he began his exploration, as he had landed near the outskirts of the city.

  The wihts began walking away, leaving an open area for him to go through.

  ‘This is my chance,’ he thought with cold blood. He navigated the streets until an area of dirt leading up to what seemed to be the surface entered his vision.

  He breathed a sigh of relief and took a step towards it before stopping.

  Alhen didn’t know why, but he felt something bad was about to happen.

  Activating his blessing, he saw the separation of his lower body from his upper body.

  His eyes widened before ducking as fast as he could.

  The sharp claws of a wiht barely missed his head, cutting off a few strands of hair instead.

  He immediately threw himself to the ground and rolled forward before turning to look behind him.

  The movement was instinctual, and he hadn’t needed to think about it at all.

  Nausea washed over him. Multiple wihts locked their eyes on him, and they seemed ready to tear him apart.

  He calculated how many there were, and the result made him sweat.

  About eight of them looked at him with a predatory gaze; even one of them would be enough to end him.

  ‘Crap! Now that it has come to this, I’m left with no choice; I have to flee.’