... What is that noise?

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Andrew wearily opened his eyes. His head was heavy. He couldn't move. He couldn't even see clearly.

Andrew was lying motionless on a grassy platform. He tried to get up, but he couldn't focus on moving his legs when that noise - whatever it was - kept banging in his ears.

Andrew heavily turned his body around, trying to look for wherever the noise came from when he suddenly saw something that froze him.

He saw a trace of blood and a spiky object on the ground. Terrified of whatever it was, Andrew started backing up against the wall when he finally saw where he was.

He was in what seemed to be a cave surrounded by what he believed to be two large hills and a large stone wall, creating a triangle, trapping him inside it. Despite it being a closed space, he was still able to see a speck of light coming from a gap on top of the hill. The banging noise seemed to come from outside, and whenever whatever it was that was outside banged onto the so-called cave that he was in, Andrew could feel small pieces of dirt falling onto him.

He started walking towards the noise. He didn't know what exactly the spiky object was, but he recognized it. He saw it somewhere before. He moved closer to the noise and picked up the object.

... Why do I feel endangered holding this thing... Whatever it is?

And that was when he finally recognized the object.

It was the Grass Juggernaut's horn.

Upon realizing the terrifying truth, Andrew made a run for it. He tried to stay away from the noise as far as possible because he was certain that if the Grass Juggernaut got into the cave he was staying in, Andrew would be as good as dead.

Andrew continued looking around when he realized that the stone wall in front of him had somewhat of a... strange aura to it. Despite being a simple stone wall, it was irregularly smooth and had weird inscriptions that glowed a faint blue light on it. Andrew wearily walked over to the stone wall and placed his hand on it, resonating with its magical glowing light.

At first, when Andrew closed his eyes and started resonating with the stone wall, he felt like he could feel the mana flow of the wall. However, as he continued resonating with it, Andrew felt like it became more and more difficult to feel the magic inside it. Not long after that, Andrew finally lost touch with the magical flow of the glowing light. He felt as if the magic was still there, but it was blocked by a gigantic wall preventing him from going any further.

Suddenly, he heard something rumbling loudly. He looked over his shoulder, and he saw the Grass Juggernaut punching through a hole in the cave as it slowly started making its way in. Andrew was terrified. He knew that at the current stage in his magical power, there was no chance in hell that he could evenly fight the Juggernaut.

The hole in the cave started getting bigger as the Juggernaut continued making its way into the cave. Andrew swallowed. He had nowhere to escape.

Then, he remembered something.

The grimoire inside him.

Andrew closed his eyes.

The power of the dark grimoire started growing inside him. It started taking over his body in an uncontrollable way. And as the Juggernaut finally bashed into the cave, roaring at Andrew and preparing for battle, Andrew turned around.

His body swiftly leapt into the air, lunging at the Juggernaut, right before he dashed at it with blinding speed and prowess in mid-air that it produced a thunderous roar as a black-purple tinted lightning bolt formed in his hands.

The Juggernaut's arm reached out to Andrew, trying to catch him mid-air, but his speed simply surpassed the Juggernaut's on a completely different level. It roared at him in desperation as Andrew sped at it, the lightning bolt growing larger and more furious in his hands.

The two figures collided.

And the next thing Andrew knew, he was laying on the ground weakly as he witnessed the gigantic Juggernaut tiredly getting on its knees and falling to the ground.

Andrew killed the Juggernaut.

He wanted to cheer for himself. He wanted to crawl out of the cave and try to find his family. But he couldn't. His mouth was dry, his throat was sore, and his limbs were frail and tired. He killed the Juggernaut, but what was any of it for if he was going to die anyway?

Andrew was desperate. He could feel it - the life force inside him slowly backing away. He squeezed the grass in his palms, wanting to scream in hopelessness. It was when he felt it again. The mystical blue force. He flipped his body and stared at the stone wall. Andrew didn't know why he felt what he felt, but he felt like it could save his life. Destiny had thrown him a lifeline, and Andrew was going to hold onto it as tightly as he could.

He started crawling towards the stone wall. Bit by bit, he started getting closer and closer. He wasn't sure what to do with the stone wall - but he was determined to try something. Anything. As he finally got next to it, Andrew tiringly sat up and took a deep breath. He touched the stone wall just as he closed his eyes and started trying to resonate with it. At first, he couldn't get through the large mental wall that was blocking him. There was just no way. Andrew kept transferring mana into the wall, trying to get it to open up to him. But he couldn't.

After what felt like an eternity to Andrew, he was resonating with the large stone wall with the last of his mana. If he couldn't get it to work before he completely ran out of mana, he knew for a fact that he would die. He just needed the wall to budge. Just a little bit... closer.

Then all of a sudden, Andrew heard something.

A rumbling sound.

He opened his eyes as he witnessed the stone wall splitting into halves.

It was never a wall. It was a doorway the entire time. And behind that door was a black sky with what seemed to be cosmical objects floating in the pitch-black space. Andrew didn't know what to do next, but what choice did he have? Andrew reached his hand out as it touched the black space, and he felt himself being pulled into it.

Andrew was there again. He didn't know how, he didn't know why, but all of a sudden he reappeared in the darkness. But this time, the darkness wasn't consuming him. It was welcoming him. Somehow, he felt as if he was one with the darkness.

"A risky game you play, brother," Andrew suddenly heard that familiar voice.

"You," he said calmly.

"Me," the voice replied.

"Who are you?" Andrew asked, "What do you want from me?"

"Who am I?" the voice said, "As I said, you are my brother. And about that second question, let's just say... I owe you something."

"What do you mean?"

"Keep calm, brother," said the voice in a strangely soothing manner, "Your questions will be answered when the time is right. As of right now, the time isn't right. Not yet."

"When will it be right?" asked Andrew.

"I'm not the one to decide that," the voice said calmly, "But knowing him, I reckon it will be soon. In the meantime, just remember not to use your powers recklessly like that. You can die, you know. And then, his plans will be messed up."

"Who's is him?" Andrew asked.

"As I said, Samael. Your questions will be answered once the time is right. Now, I have to bid you goodbye, brother."

"Wait!" Andrew yelled out to the voice, "Who's Samael?"

The voice chuckled, "When the time comes, brother. When the time comes."

Andrew woke up screaming. The voice reappeared in his dream - or was it a vision? He tried to remember what he was doing. He looked around where he was. It was a dark and humid cave, with the only source of light being various berries growing from the wall. There were small pools of water everywhere, surrounded by what seemed to be moss and huge spikes of dripstone. Andrew tried walking around. The water was crystal clear, and there weren't any traces of anything living there. He didn't know what to do, so he just carefully climbed onto a large spike of dripstone and tried to take one of the glowing berries for food. When he finally grabbed an armful, he sat down at a corner of the cave and ravaged every last berry he had.

"You seem to be quite hungry for such a small human," he suddenly heard a voice.

Andrew turned around in the direction of the voice as he saw a woman with blue hair, yellow eyes and what seemed to be small horns growing out of her head.

"Uh... who are you?" he asked.

The woman laughed, "You intruded my cave. I should've been the one to ask you that question."

"I'm... sorry?" Andrew said nervously.

"No need for formalities," the woman chuckled, "You can call me Tameka. Nice to meet, you, uh, what's your name again?"

"Andrew," he replied, "Nice to meet you too, Tameka. Can I ask you something?"

"Anything," Tameka replied with a friendly smile, "The truth is people don't come in here that often, so I don't really get a chance to talk with anybody. You're the first one to be here in what seemed like an eternity, Andrew."

"Well, then... Where are we?" Andrew asked.

"I don't know either, little Andrew," Tameka grinned, "It's funny, I have been here so long yet I can't remember where I am. But how did you get in here anyway?"

"I, uh, saw a stone wall," Andrew replied.

Tameka's face changed colour as a pale look took over her face, "A... stone wall?"

"Yes," Andrew nodded, "And I was on the brink of life and death, I think. So I tried resonating with it."

"A bad idea," Tameka whispered under her breath.

"And I was about to die, so I just used all of my mana to get here," Andrew continued, "And here I am."

Tameka looked at Andrew curiously, as if she was worried he was hiding something. Then, she sighed and sat down next to Andrew and patted his head.

"Would you like to hear a story, Andrew?" Tameka asked.

"Uh, sure, I guess," Andrew said, weirded out.

"See, Andrew, what you thought to be a stone wall was actually what my kind called a monolith," Tameka started, "It was an ancient relic that existed long before my time, and it was something, uh, bad people would use for their own gain. It had the ability to absorb mana like no other artefact, and its power was also unmatched. But from what you said, I'm really not sure how you survived that. Mages can't survive if their mana pool is completely empty, so if you used all of your mana, I don't think you should even be alive right now."

"That is... slightly concerning," Andrew said.

"Anyway, monoliths have many different uses," Tameka continued, "You can use it to conjure spells beyond your wildest dreams, and I think the monolith you encountered brought you here. But what I still don't understand is how can a monolith appear? I'm sure we destroyed all the monoliths that existed."

"Who is 'we'?" Andrew asked curiously.

Tameka sighed, "Little Andrew, there are things that are far beyond your imagination. In my time, there were forces that I can't understand even now. Sometimes, you just have to live a bittersweet lie, Andrew," she said as Andrew noticed a tear rolling down her cheek.

Andrew sighed and stood up, feeling sorry for whatever Tameka had been through as he gave her his hand:

"I'm not sure what happened, but at least now you're not alone anymore, right?" he reassured her.

"I guess," Tameka smiled, "At least, this way, they can't find me."

As Andrew and Tameka continued to know each other even better, one question kept coming back to Andrew's mind.

... Who's 'they'?