There were several thoughts in Regius’s mind- ‘I don’t want to die,’ ‘Let me go,’ and ‘Please don’t kill me.’ He ended up whimpering something like “I don’t me go.”

  Laios seemed to understand, and gave Regius a kind smile. “I’m sorry, Regius. As long as you haven’t begun to burn, your time has not yet come. You can always return to your life and return here once you begin to burn, in time for the sacrifice.”

  Regius recalled his burning finger in the morning- he had forgotten to tell Laios about it. He lifted the hand and held it to Laios. “Uh, is this supposed to happen?”

  Logia stumbled forwards, eyes wide. “It’s almost time- you have a week at most before you entirely burn away. You must reach the sacrificial altar in time for the ritual, or you will die for nothing!”

  Laios looked conflicted, his grip on his walking stick loosening. “Regius, rest for the rest of the day. Make your choice tomorrow.”

  The brown-haired boy nodded, but he didn’t really see what there was to choose. Some flick of fate brought him to the lands of fire, and now he was going to die.

  He blinked back the tears he didn’t notice were starting to seep out, and put on a more confident expression. “Fine then, I’m going back to get some food.”

  The boy strode off towards the general direction of the village. Laios sighed, rubbing his forehead. “Thank you, Lady Logia.”

  The woman nodded sadly, her emerald eyes glistening with pity. She glanced at the direction Regius ran off to. “Of course, Laios. You should go see the boy. Heavy stuff, all of this.”

  Laios sighed again. “Deina, go lead Regius back to the village. I’ll be along soon.”

  “Y-yes, Elder.” Deina quickly ran off after Regius.

  When the girl was gone, Laios turned back to the young prophet. “It’s been a long time since the last sacrifice, right?”

  Logia nodded, sitting cross legged on the cavern floor. “Indeed. From what I’ve heard, first time it’s been a child too.”

  The elder sighed, his sad eyes turning towards the cavern ceiling. “Poor boy.”

  Deina didn’t really do serious stuff, so she didn’t know what to say in this situation. Plus, while Regius was still a brain-dead idiot excuse of her brother, she felt kind of bad for him. He accidentally fell into the dark cave world, and was suddenly told he was going to die.

  “You! Regius!” Deina called out, spotting the brown-haired boy who had slowed down to a walk. While he had remembered the way decently well, he had taken a wrong turn and was headed towards a wild cavern.

  “What?” he replied with a scowl. The expression was unusual on his face- Regius was almost always friendly, to everyone, and was rarely seen this upset.

  “You’re going the wrong way,” Deina declared bluntly, pointing a thumb towards the correct path. Regius stopped in his tracks, quickly turning around and walking back the way he came. Frowning in annoyance, Deina quickly hurried after him once more. “Just follow me, you’re going the wrong way again!”

  Finally, Regius gave in and followed the black-haired girl towards the correct way.

  “Why is it so dark here?” he suddenly questioned. They were underground, so it made sense, but the cavern they were in at the moment was almost pitch dark. The land of fire was usually pretty bright for a giant cave system.

  Deina tilted her head, before noticing the lack of light. She tensed, lifting her torch. “Get behind me.”

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  The girl shut her eyes and muttered a quick prayer, and a flame ignited on the torch. Like expected, the dark cloud surrounding them in the air condensed into an orb of darkness, roughly half the size of a human. It appeared to be thick shadows- seemingly untouchable, like a trick of the light.

  “Is this one of those Shadeling things you mentioned?” Regius asked, nervously taking a step back to hide behind Deina. The girl nodded, pointing her flaming torch towards the monster, which had begun to drift towards the two of them. “Don’t let it touch you. These things erode flesh and can kill easily.”

  “Wow, so scary,” the brown-haired boy muttered sarcastically. The shadow monster didn’t look very intimidating, but he didn’t want to die any earlier than he already would.

  The Shadeling circled the two of them. As soon as it stopped moving, before it could attack, Deina raised her torch and jabbed the fire into the dark creature. It made a hissing noise, before dissipating into the air, as if it had never existed. Perhaps this was the nature of a shadow monster- untouchable, but deadly if it does touch you. Deina sighed in relief, and the fire on her torch flickered out.

  “That didn’t seem too hard,” Regius commented, staring at the place where the Shadeling had disappeared. Deina glared at him, her orange-speckled eyes fierce. “You haven’t seen the people who have been hurt by these creatures. Think of flesh, or even entire limbs being directly destroyed. It’s a surprise anyone has ever survived a Shadeling attack.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Regius rolled his eyes slightly at how serious the younger girl was. Sure, Shadelings were dangerous, but there wasn’t really any point in scaring him out of his wits about something that died just from getting burned. “Can we go back to your village now?”

  The black-haired girl nodded, observing the cavern a bit before heading towards a large tunnel. A few minutes later, they emerged at the village- the familiar, decently sized cluster of wooden houses.

  “There you two are,” Laios called from beside his house- the largest in the village. “Did something happen? I sent Deina to make sure you didn’t get lost.”

  “We were attacked by a Shadeling, but I took care of it,” Deina explained, pointing towards the tunnel they came from as she made her way towards her grandfather. The old man frowned in concern. “That close to the village? Quite worrying, we need Lord Caleo to ret-”

  He quickly coughed, not wanting to mention the god in front of Regius. Said brown-haired boy sighed, rolling his eyes slightly. “Don’t worry about it. No point in trying to sugarcoat anything.”

  The old man coughed again, smiling awkwardly. “Yes, of course. You and Deina can go inside, breakfast should still be out. I need to discuss the Shadeling attack with some other villagers.”

  Deina nodded, beckoning to her older brother and heading towards the wooden door. “Come on, Regius.”

  “Have you made a choice?” Deina asked, sitting with her arms crossed on one of the chairs while Regius sat on the one across from her, inhaling several slices of bread. He glanced up, not stopping his chewing. “What is there to choose? I’m going to die anyway, not like he can change that.”

  “You’re right,” the black-haired girl nodded, not betraying any emotion on her face. “But don’t you want to go back and say goodbye to your friends and family from the upper world? Don’t you miss them?”

  Regius stopped eating, sighing. “Yeah, but... if I’m going to die, I might as well help half the human population while I’m at it. You’re probably not the only one- so many people are thrown into this place without anyone there for them, that’s already bad enough. I’m not going to let you all die.”

  Deina tilted her head slightly. She herself had never bothered much to help people she didn’t know too well. Maybe Regius was just a better person in general, willing to sacrifice his last week of life to help the people of the land of fire.

  “What, don’t you want me to help?” Regius asked, resuming his eating. Deina shook her head. “No, no, thank you. I’m glad you’re willing to help us. I’m just surprised you gave in so easily.”

  “Hello, Regius, Deina.” The door of the house swung open, revealing Laios. The old man took a seat at the third seat of the village. “Regius, boy, have you made a choice?”

  The boy sighed, slightly annoyed at being asked the same thing again. “There was never anything to choose in the first place. I’ll help you guys.”

  Laios smiled gratefully, leaning both his walking stick and the torch everyone down in the land of fire had against the table. “I formally thank you for agreeing to travel to the sacrificial altar to free Lord Caleo, Regius Adusta.”

  The brown-haired boy shook his head. “Don’t bother. I’m going to die anyway, what’s the point in being all dramatic?”

  “Very well,” Laios nodded, looking between Regius and Deina. “And Deina, would you care to travel with Regius to the altar for the sacrificial ceremony? Me and most of the others need to remain at the village to defend against the Shadelings.”

  The black-haired girl looked up, surprised. Still, her rule-following self simply couldn’t refuse.

  “Alright. I will go.”