Fifth Entry

  I had promised myself that I would stop keeping this diary. However, it's one of the few things that keep me sane in the face of this war. I don't remember a time when we weren't battling; that's the hardest part.

  My mother and father went to the front when I was still a child, almost a baby. I was basically raised by those who lived on my street. But I promised myself that this would never happen to my children.

  I will be better. I won't go to war.

  Severy

  She accepted. She accepted!

  The most beautiful girl in my town, the most lovely and intelligent, agreed to marry me.

  I've never been so happy. They all tell me that marrying is foolish, especially while we're at war. That I should only worry about serving on the front line and stop dreaming of a tranquil life.

  Niry

  We've set the wedding date. I still don't know how it will be, but at least it will be quick. After that, we'll move; I've prepared a more remote house where we'll be able to farm.

  I never imagined I'd be a farmer, but the more I thought about it, the better the idea became.

  Elevery

  She's pregnant—with twins. I don't know if I'm prepared for this responsibility. When she came to talk to me, I ale with fear.

  Unfortunately, we only have each other.

  Twelfth Entry

  They were borhy; now, I'm the father of a girl and a boy.

  They say it's the perfebination, but I don't really care that much.

  The farm is going well; they've finally uood that they need food being po serve others instead t me into the war.

  Sixteery

  The children are doing well. My daughter is so smart; she's the best among the children in the region. My son is tall and strong—I never imagined having a son like that.

  I'm afraid of what they're teag him. I don't want him to desire to go to war; I've mao protect them until now—they don't o participate in this.

  However, every time I expin to him why we don't get involved, they call us cowards. I'd like to know how they'd live if I didn't pnt what they eat.

  Twenty-First Entry

  My love departed today. She was iy when we were attacked. A falling building struck her.

  If it weren't for my children...

  Twenty-Sed Entry

  I'm sorry. It took me a long time to have the ce to write again. I know it's best for me, but it's still hard.

  My children and I are fine. We've survived my wife's passing. I'm better; the children still suffer from her absence, but we'll overe.

  Twenty-Third Entry

  It's tough to care firl without her mother. My neighbors have helped a lot, but I still feel like I'm improvising most of the time. I just hope she doesn't hate me when she's older.

  My son is doing well; he's intelligent and strong. But he tinues with foolish ideas in his head. Yesterday, he said he would join the army when he grows up.

  Thirty-First Entry

  My daughter is going to get married. She fell in love st spring. But it was with a damn soldier—I don't know his rank, but he only wears the best clothes and promises her the world.

  She's going to move with him to some p closer to the battlefront.

  At least I still have my son.

  Thirty-Third Entry

  He heard. HE HAD TO HEAR?!

  Someoold him they were doing another round of enlistment.

  SONS OF A BITCH!

  He's decided he wants to go; there's nothing I do.

  I don't know what else to do.

  Thirty-Severy

  This will be the st time I write something in this diary.

  My sourned.

  After two long years, he returned.

  In a coffin.

  Fuck aliens.

  Fuck army.

  They had to take him from me.

  Forty-First Entry

  I've learned what I o do to find peace.

  I o repay these aliens for what they've doo my family.

  --

  --

  He closed the diary, pg one of his hands on the leather cover. He tried to remember how many years he'd been in this profession.

  ‘I don't even remember anymore,’ the man thought.

  It was his st passion. His son and daughter were no longer with him, and his great love had already departed.

  ‘I will take every st drop of their blood before I leave this pce,’ the man said to himself.

  It was his sed time that day desding those dungeons. The staircases he was traversing were in shadows, hiding the passage of several others who worked in the dungeon prison.

  The enviro was overwhelmed by dark stones worn by time. Some light beams reached that depth, symbolizing a st hope for those in the ruins.

  On the ruin's floor were dozens of enormous s, which had restrained all types of enemies in the past. Once used against political oppos or even those of a different religion, they were now used to guard beings of other races.

  ‘Exeg them is too easy; they o be tortured. Broken. Each day, I want them to be closer to begging for their owh,’ the man thought as he desded the stairs.

  Each step was more irregur tha. So many had used them that they had worn them dowhe turies.

  At the end of the stairs was a long corridor with hundreds of metal gates, all stained by time. The doors and their locks were overly rusty.

  ‘They took all my prisoners; only a few remain,’ the man sighed as he ehe st cell.

  He approached the alien who was hanging, delivering a punch to his ribs.

  ‘This one is in bad shape; he'll die if he tinues like this. It's time to wake up,’ he thought before finally speaking to the hanging monsters.

  HUARK

  --

  --

  - Oliver -

  "Go fuck yourself, you piece of shit. I already told you I don't uand pig nguage," Oliver shouted at the monster before him, spitting the rest of his saliva in his face.

  For the sed time that day, the Ork emerged from the shadows of the dungeon. His skin was yellowish; the boy didn't know if it was natural for an Ork or simply a halluation.

  ‘I've been having many of those tely,’ the boy thought. Even now, he still felt as if he had his right arm, but whenever he turned his head to the side, he could see where it had been severed.

  Besides that, occasionally, the boy could hear the sound of notifications and evehe s of his Status Page.

  However, he no longer wore his gau.

  ‘I'm going crazy. I don't even know how many days it's been since we got here,’ the boy tried to t.

  In the first days, he tried ting the number of times the su, but he soon gave up.

  ‘But what if on this p a day isn't twenty-four hours? Do I still t it as a day?’ he wondered.

  The Ork opened a wide smile, stretg his thick, cracked lips, and his fierce eyes shone in the dungeon's darkness. That expression seemed to be a mask for all the cruelty and torture he had made the three of them endure.

  The creature's body was enormous; he carried two heavy metal shackles. Anyone looking at him might think he risoner and not the dungeon's torturer. Around his broad waist was a belt that held up his pants, also worn and stained with blood—the witnesses of his other brutal acts.

  HU

  The torturer made mestures and sounds to the boy, turning him around in his s so he was fag away. The creature pulled out a massive whip with several tails and began to sh Oliver's back.

  Only when rivers of blood were running down his back did he stop. The Ork didn't want to kill him—just break his sanity.

  ‘He didn't need much more to achieve that,’ the boy thought mencholically.

  His only remaining strength while hanging in that dungeon was his panions. To his left was Katherio his right was Isabe.

  Both were unscious; they had been the victims of the first torture session. It was always like that—they were first, and he was sed.

  Oliver couldn't uand why, but it didn't matter much. What he was worried about was the girls' appearance.

  Katherine, who once had a rosy fad long golden hair, now looked sunken. Her hair resembled straw. She could barely stay awake most of the day.

  Isabe wasn't much better. Although she tried to put on a hopeful fa?ade, she was rapidly wasting away.

  All three spent their days naked, hanging from s—something that strangely made them lose their sense of shame, discarded as soon as they began to endure huhirst, and especially pain.

  Ding

  "Ah! I 't stand hearing that anymore. I don't have the damn system here; I lost the damn gau. What the hell is this notification?!"

  GCLopes