“Tak, tak, tak,” Alhen’s footsteps rhythmically echoed as he descended deep underground.

  With no source of light, darkness spread through the bottom, seemingly swallowing them.

  They descended the long stairs in silence until reaching an empty open area.

  As soon as they stepped foot inside, candles on the ground lit up in front of them, revealing a circle of blood with unknown symbols.

  The light coming from the candles was red, and inside this circle, twenty human bodies lay miserably.

  Some of them looked dead, others on the verge of dying.

  Together, their huddled bodies gave off a putrid smell of rot, piss, and shit.

  Alhen covered his nose with a grimace and held the urge to throw up.

  His look contrasted with Father Vincent, who didn’t seem bothered in the slightest by the situation, approaching the circle with calm steps.

  As the father walked towards them, Alhen took a moment to look around at his surroundings.

  The basement was rectangular with no decoration, and the floor was grey and had a rough texture that resembled that of pavement.

  The ceiling was high up, so high up in fact that he couldn’t even see the top.

  Thick pillars of cement extended from the ground up, disappearing in the darkness above.

  “Creak!” Alhent turned to look at where the sound came from.

  Eight men dressed in big, long yellow albs that trailed behind them, approached the circle with a closed book in one hand and a red candle in the other.

  They each had coned-shaped black hats that reached a foot in length.

  A yellow veil obscured their faces, not matching at all with their hats.

  They had come out of an unassuming grey door that blended in with the wall, causing it to be barely visible in plain sight.

  They took their positions surrounding the circle, and Father Vincent urged Alhen to go to the middle.

  He hesitated, wondering what they would do to him, but he had no other option but to obey.

  He was weak, way too weak, and with slow steps, Alhen made his way into the middle of the downed men.

  The smell of sweat, vomit, and feces became almost unbearable, making him gag multiple times.

  Father Vincent approached and told him to sit.

  Alhen sat uncomfortably in the stomach of what he assumed to be a dead man, feeling his body pressing down on it and sinking.

  “G-Gah!” He heard a strange sound.

  Looking down, he could see the man whom he had sat on staring at him with wide eyes; he was still alive.

  Alhen flinched, clearly not expecting it, and resisted the urge to leave immediately.

  “Listen to me,” Father Vincent began, distracting Alhen from his situation.

  “No matter what happens, what you feel, hear, or smell, do not open your eyes for anything in the world. Is that clear?”

  Alhen paid full attention, wanting to avoid thinking about the agonizing man underneath him and the current foul smell that invaded his nose.

  He slowly nodded, but the priest didn’t seem convinced.

  “I will tell you once more, do not open your eyes for anything in the world… Is that clear?” Father Vincent asked, this time with a drawn-out pause.

  “Yes, I understood,” Alhen responded, sounding irritated.

  Father Vincent didn’t seem to care about his attitude and responded with a simple “good.”

  He then grabbed Alhen’s shoulders and looked at him straight in the eyes.

  “You will be the chosen one, Alhen; remember that, you must survive no matter what. I can feel that you are the one, believe it,” Father Vincent said.

  The amount of sincerity that emanated from him almost made Alhen believe that he was being kind, but remembering the things he’d done, he scoffed.

  ‘He must have a hidden agenda,’ he thought.

  Alhen narrowed his eyes on Father Vincent, and he seemed to like that answer, giving him a light smile before standing up.

  Father Vincent stood outside the circle behind the robed men before signaling him to close his eyes.

  He did as asked, slowly doing so, leaving only the feeling of sitting on a breathing man.

  The sound of a strange incantation started echoing in the enclosed space.

  They were the priests who spoke loudly, with vigor.

  “Mirgut aughus islem kelinth ielfu furthu reahme sehtem tuhmot maouh Oros gaam!” The chant sounded like gibberish to him, but Alhen could feel his surroundings start to shift.

  He heard multiple sounds of something popping around him, and warm liquid started trailing down his cheeks.

  ‘Is this… blood?’ He could only guess what had happened.

  Before he could dwell deeper into his thoughts, the chant became… different.

  Now it sounded more like demons from the deepest pits of hell started singing out of tune right beside him, straight into his ear.

  It resembled whispering and shouting at the same time, messing with his concentration.

  Alhen felt goosebumps and shook as he felt something climbing up his back until it reached his neck.

  It started coiling around him, and his heart quickened, thumping ferociously against his chest.

  He struggled to no end not to open his eyes.

  The reminder that it would be a big mistake and there could be grave consequences if he did so, however, kept him in check.

  The thing on his neck started tightening, and he started gasping, trying desperately to draw his breath in but being unable to do so.

  Maybe if he opened his eyes, it would all go away, but he refused.

  Alhen slowly started to become limp.

  The chanting, now closely resembling a song sung by the demon king himself, became louder and raspier.

  His body rapidly lost strength, and his neck strained until it all stopped.

  It was dead quiet.

  The smells, the chanting, the weird sensation in his neck, and the feeling of being sat atop a man were all gone.

  These sensations were instead replaced with a feeling of floating on a warm and somewhat dense liquid.

  ‘Am I somewhere else? Where am I?’ He thought.

  His feet touched the ground, which somehow felt wet and slimy.

  ‘Can I open my eyes now?’ he wondered.

  Alhen decided to wait; it was better not to take any unnecessary risks, especially now that he didn’t understand what was going on.

  It must have been twenty minutes or so until he decided that it was safe to open his eyes.

  With stiff movements, he slowly opened his left eye and saw nothing.

  ‘It’s dark,’ he thought.

  More than half of his body was submerged in some kind of liquid, although he couldn’t see what it was because of the darkness.

  Looking around, there didn’t seem to be anything worth noting except a vast space of nothing.

  A couple of seconds later, however, he noticed a speck of red in the distance growing larger.

  It didn’t take long at all for it to spread in a flash all around him, painting the scene dark crimson.

  He flinched and looked all around; bulges started coming out of the water, which he noticed wasn’t water at all, but blood.

  It suddenly started becoming viscous and oozed a metallic smell, which made him wrinkle his nose.

  It reminded him of Henry moments before he lost his life, and he hated it.

  Out of the bulges, small shapes started coming out of them.

  Before long, the huge heads of creatures could be seen towering several kilometers over him.

  Blood dropped from their bodies and fell on him, drenching him completely and causing chaos.

  He struggled to breathe now that big waves formed, which kept him submerged.

  He desperately tried swimming to the surface, but the shallow liquid had become deep, making his attempts useless.

  Something then attached to his leg and pulled downwards with such force that it almost tore his leg apart.

  Before that could happen, however, the blood underneath him shifted.

  It lifted him into the air at great speeds, causing his chest to compress and preventing him from breathing.

  This lasted only for a few seconds as he now lay in a red open area bigger than those creatures below him.

  The ground was solid and extended far into the distance, making it impossible to calculate how large it was.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Looking around, he noticed a red wall that reached unimaginable heights; it went on until disappearing from his vision.

  Alhen took a deep breath and noticed a strong sulfuric smell emanating from the ground.

  He pinched his nose and stood, wondering what to do.

  His knees buckled once again before he could even move, being lifted upwards at great speeds and causing a lot of strain on his body.

  His chest compressed and burned.

  Alhen could feel his skin struggling not to tear off his body, and this time, he went out cold.

  Everything went dark, but in a flash, he could see again.

  A dim white light surrounded by darkness shone in front of him; the wall was gone, being replaced by the sight in front of him.

  Alhen couldn’t help but feel something… strange.

  It was as if his body had laid its secrets bare, and something analyzed them with indifference, as if it were judging an ant.

  ‘Why do I feel this way? And why is it… so beautiful?’ he wondered.

  Alhen couldn’t shake his gaze off that light, being enthralled and slowly losing awareness of his surroundings.

  ‘I can’t blink in front of such beauty; if I did, would it disappear? That would be a shame, wouldn’t it?’ he thought.

  His surroundings were disappearing and leaving only the view in front of him.

  Something warm started trailing down his face, but he barely paid attention.

  Tears started flowing, his mouth opened slightly, and he felt free.

  He was free from any pain, any suffering, any guilt.

  He wished he could stay like this, forever, never taking away his gaze from such a beautiful sight.

  Without him realizing, a slight bump appeared under his shirt on his shoulders.

  It kept getting bigger, dragging the shirt along until, “creak!” the fabric tore, revealing some dark, small, skinny, and deformed arms with four long fingers.

  They grew in size as more time passed, and Alhen started thinning.

  His body looked as if it was deflating until the hands grew half his height and crept closer to his eyes.

  The pale hands danced with their fingers, touching Alhen’s face.

  They slowly poked his eyes from the side with their sharp fingernails until his eyes started coming loose, dripping blood to the floor.

  The arms took hold of them and ripped them out in a swift motion, revealing a gory mess underneath.

  Blood poured out endlessly, but somehow his vision remained.

  Despite the pain, Alhen couldn’t help but smile in elation; he couldn’t describe how happy he was.

  The arms then proceeded to insert themselves into the empty sockets.

  They detached from his shoulders and formed the fibers, nerves, and all the layers of the eye, diminishing in size until his brand-new eyes were left.

  The sclera were completely black, and the pupils glowed a bright white with multiple dark veins extending around his eye, reaching his cheeks and forehead.

  With the process done, he felt complete, and his frame started filling back up again.

  Alhen widened his eyes further as he returned to his senses.

  ‘Something is wrong,’ he thought before turning his head to look at his right arm.

  It took a few seconds to process what he saw; there was nothing, and that’s when the pain settled in.

  “Arghh!” he screamed as he fell to his knees.

  He held his left arm to his shoulder and tried to stop the bleeding with no results.

  The pain was unbearable, and he didn’t see or feel when it happened.

  For a second, he found himself lying on the ground screaming in agonizing pain, and the next, he found himself in the dark basement.

  He lay right over pieces of flesh and bone, which smelled of death.

  The corpses were gone, and this was what they had left.

  Father Vincent rushed to his side, holding him and checking for deadly injuries.

  “Nuns, treat Alhen right now!” He yelled.

  The nuns, who had appeared at one point in time, moved quickly.

  They approached in a hurry before cleaning and bandaging Alhen's arm.

  Throughout the process, he didn’t stop screaming, only doing so when he passed out.

  The nuns took Alhen on their arms and started carrying him to the entrance of the ground floor.

  Father Vincent watched as they took Alhen upstairs with an icy glare.

  “Could he have disobeyed me? No, that cannot be right,” He muttered.

  In the nursery room, Alhen woke up feeling disoriented.

  Remembering what had happened, he immediately checked his right arm, which was just as he remembered it, gone.

  His body felt numb; he could move his limbs, but he couldn't feel them.

  ‘I have no idea what they gave me, but it’s strong,’ he thought, moving his body in search of the tiniest feeling.

  This didn’t happen, however, and he heard a voice beside him.

  “I see that you are awake,” Alhen snapped his head in the direction of the voice, looking at a smiling Father Vincent.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked, and with the momentary surprise of the moment, he forgot to answer.

  Father Vincent didn’t seem bothered, placing his hand on Alhen’s shoulder and reminding him to breathe.

  “Now, tell me exactly what happened. I do not want you to omit any details.”

  Alhen tried to remember, but a strong pain assaulted his mind whenever he tried to think about what happened.

  “Ughh!” He held his left hand to his temple, feeling a throbbing headache that didn’t let him think.

  Father Vincent smiled once again and said, “You must be confused. You have received the blessing of Lord Oros, and it seems that it was not a low-tiered one, but of the highest grade. With this, you are ready to be branded with a ‘Luna Signum’ and begin your new life as a hunter for the Church of Orgurd; congratulations.”

  Despite this revelation, Alhen didn’t feel anything.

  “I see,” Alhen responded before taking a second to think.

  “I remember looking at a bright white light, but after that, my memories are gone,” Alhen said.

  Father Vincent widened his eyes, looking shocked at the revelation.

  ‘What he is saying should not be possible… unless…’ Father Vincent thought to himself.

  “Did you open your eyes by any chance?” he asked, but Alhen remained silent.

  “Answer me!” He yelled at him, shocking Alhen and causing him to respond.

  “Yes, I did; it had been over twenty minutes without anything occurring. Did I truly have to remain with my eyes closed the entire time?” He asked with a dumbfounded expression.

  Father Vincent simply stayed in place.

  His face hardened, his fists clenched with his full strength, and his eyes emitted a murderous intent towards Alhen.

  “I clearly told you not to open your eyes for any reason,” he firmly stated.

  ‘How is this possible?.. he saw Lord Oros in person and…he is not dead? How?’ Father Vincent wondered.

  He was unable to believe the story he was presented with, but he knew there was no way that Alhen could be making all of this up.

  Alhen simply stayed quiet and lowered his gaze, knowing that what Father Vincent said was true.

  He recognized that he had acted hastily without truly thinking about the possible consequences of his actions.

  But what surprised him the most was the father’s reaction; he had never seen him this furious before.

  “What are you doing, Alhen?” Father Vincent asked, grabbing Alhen’s attention.

  His entire person now seemed completely calm and serene, a clear contrast to how he appeared just a few seconds ago.

  “I thought I told you to never look down; look at me,” he firmly commanded, to which Alhen hesitantly obeyed.

  “You disobeyed my orders, and could have foolishly lost your life because of it. It is a miracle that you are still alive after catching a glimpse of Lord Oros’ eyes,” Father Vincent harshly reprimanded Alhen.

  “Are you telling me that the light I saw was this Lord Oros?” Alhen asked incredulously, to which Father Vincent nodded.

  “If what you are saying is the truth, then that was indeed Lord Oros, but it was only his eye. Lord Oros is massive; if you were in front of him, you would not be able to see his full body,” the father said before pausing.

  “If someone ever did, I am afraid they would become insane and die the most miserable death. But you looked at him directly in the eyes, and you did not die. I knew it, you are special,” the father finished.

  Alhen fell silent, realizing how lucky he had been to survive that encounter.

  “Now that you have his blessing, let me see your eyes.” With Father Vincent having pointed it out, Alhen could feel some kind of ethereal energy floating around in his eyes.

  He focused on that energy, and his eyes turned black, veins adorning them just like Lord Oros.

  From his perspective, a dark fog filled the room, and Father Vincent looked to be made out of black smoke, resembling a ghost.

  Small lights shone on his body, illuminating his head, heart, neck, and other parts.

  “Tell me if you see it,” Father Vincent said.

  Alhen wondered what he meant by that, but the next second, he saw his head exploding into a cloud of smoke and his body falling strengthless on the ground.

  A strong sense of danger ran across his body, making the hairs on it stand on end.

  Sweat covered his back as he realized what had just happened; he had seen his death.

  He lost focus on his eyes, and they turned back to normal; the black fog was nowhere to be seen.

  His head stood untouched, and his heart pounded heavily against his chest.

  Before Alhen could freak out more, Father Vincent spoke.

  “It seems that I was right. You have received the ‘True Eyes’ of Lord Oros, allowing you to see five seconds into the future if you have them activated,” Father Vincent said with a smile.

  “Normally, you could only see the weak spots of any living organism, but your eyes can do much more than that. Lord Oros has truly blessed you; I was not wrong about you.”

  Father Vincent had spoken with a low voice, looking lost in thought.

  Alhen took this moment to stabilize his breathing; watching his own death wasn’t the most fun thing after all.

  “You will be branded next cycle when you feel better. Until then, I expect that you will make a swift recovery.” Father Vincent stood and started to leave.

  ‘You really are him, my greatest gift,’ he thought.

  His back turned away from Alhen while his lips curved up into a twisted smile.

  He exited the room the next second, leaving Alhen alone in the nursing room.

  Alhen quietly looked at the retreating man until he disappeared from his sight.

  After some wondering, he looked around the entire room until his gaze stopped at the place beside him, making him realize something.

  The bed right next to him, Henry should be there, but he was gone.

  His eyes unconsciously drifted to his missing right arm, the same arm that had taken his life.

  “Maybe this is my punishment… I will accept it,” he whispered.

  His mind started thinking about life a few cycles ago, but he shook his head with vigor.

  “I can’t beat myself over it. I should focus on making a plan so that I can kill Father Vincent,” he said out loud.

  Alhen closed his eyes and started imagining vivid scenarios of him taking the father’s life away, but his body was exhausted, and he soon fell asleep.

  ‘What is happening?’ When Alhen opened his eyes, he found himself in a wheelchair being moved by someone.

  His surroundings were blurry, and he was barely able to distinguish what was around him.

  ‘Was I drugged in my sleep?’ he thought, not being able to move at all.

  The person left him in a room; a large piece of distorted glass on the ceiling reflected the moonlight and illuminated the space.

  In the center of the empty room, a single ray of concentrated moonlight shone down to the ground.

  The moon could be seen, but it was heavily blurred, allowing for safe gazing.

  ‘It’s my first time seeing the moon,’ Alhen thought.

  The person behind him showed herself: a woman with a yellow blindfold who left him basking in the moonlight.

  As she exited the room, two men swiftly entered after her departure.

  Alhen looked at both of them as they approached, noticing something strange about the way they walked.

  ‘Why do they look so hostile?’ Alhen thought, only to get his answer a second later.

  One man pounced on Alhen, throwing him off the wheelchair and pinning him to the ground while the other grabbed a searing hot metal rod.

  ‘Wait, no!’ Alhen thought while gritting his teeth.

  The men started incanting something undiscernible, and Alhen opened his eyes widely before shouting, “Stop!”

  The men were surprised seeing him move, and he struggled against the grip of the person behind him with no result; he was stronger than him.

  The man swiftly ripped Alhen’s shirt, throwing it to the ground, and turned him to face him.

  Alhen kicked, punched, and bit, but it was all useless.

  Being only nine years of age, he couldn’t compete against a full-grown man.

  The man with the rod brought it down closer to Alhens’s chest until it started burning his flesh.

  “Aghhh!” he screamed.

  It burned, his body contracting as he heard the rod sizzling strongly on his chest.

  After a few seconds of sickening pain, the man stopped, returning the metal rod and throwing it away on the floor.

  Afterwards, they both tied all his limbs tightly with ropes that the other man had brought to prevent him from changing positions and obstruct the moonlight absorption.

  After being done, they left him on the ground with the moonlight entering the wound perfectly before exiting the room and leaving him alone.

  The charred flesh, shaped like an eye, situated just below his collarbone, gave off a putrid smell of burnt meat.

  Alhen couldn’t speak, and his body struggled to move because of the restraints and the pain.

  Unable to do anything, he simply stayed completely still and closed his eyes.

  He realized that there was no way for him to move away from the moonlight and stop the pain.

  Alhen attempted to sleep, but the constant light in his vision, even with his eyes closed, prevented him from doing so.

  After a couple of minutes of basking in the moonlight, he noticed a partial interruption of the process when his vision was obscured for the most part.

  Confused about the sudden darkness, Alhen opened his eyes.

  Almost immediately after, an incredulous expression made its way to his face.

  ‘What’s that?!’ he wondered as he saw a silhouette on the other side of the crystal; it seemed to have wings along with human features.

  “Crack!” Alhen then heard a sharp sound and observed as the crystal cracked a little.

  He widened his eyes as he realized his situation.

  ‘I have to get out of here!’ He struggled desperately against the ropes that tied him and kept him still.

  “Crack!” Another sound entered his ears.

  He could see how the glass cracked little by little.

  ‘Damn it! Stop!’ he shouted in his mind as his attempts to free himself became frantic.

  ‘No, no, no. This can’t be happening, break god damnit BREAK!’ Alhen tensed all his muscles, and he felt a burn on his chest.

  The feeling was warm, and after experiencing it, “Snap!”

  The ropes snapped with ease, causing him to freeze in disbelief.

  ‘What happened? Did I do that?’ He wondered, incredulous at the situation, but he had no time to continue wondering at all.

  “Crack!” The sound entered his ears once more.

  He snapped back to his senses and got up from the ground as fast as he could.

  Holding a grunt of pain from the wound on his chest, he began running towards the exit, but he didn’t make it in time.

  The glass completely shattered, and down came a creature… a wiht.

  The sudden brightness that filled the room caused Alhen to momentarily have the urge to look higher above into the sky.

  He had never seen it before; however, Henry’s words quickly appeared in his mind.

  ‘Well, since I can remember, I have always been told that looking at the moon will turn you into a ‘Wiht’, some kind of monster.’

  Alhen’s heart skipped a beat, his eyes bulged, and he barely avoided looking at the moon.

  He decided to focus on the wiht that was now some distance away in front of him.

  The wiht shifted its gaze from the ground straight towards Alhen, who stayed still, wondering what was going on and calculating the best way to escape the situation.