The deeper in we went, the more flora there was, to the point one would think that we were in some ruins of sort. As eerie as this place may be, the flowers blooming was quite beautiful, there were many I hadn’t even seen yet, and only read in books as a child.

At the end of the hallway, was a large, circular room, with a fairly large tree with beautiful verdant leaves right in the middle. There were bloodstains in the shape of hands all over the bark of the tree, and we went closer to investigate. “What is this?” Reanne would slowly approach the tree, curious as to why there was so much blood on such a beautiful tree and noted something on the ground. We all came together and examined it, and it read ‘Sora’Toruun, khun akh wren’thia khar khun des’khenta khil corta so’inn’

“Do you know what it says, Reanne?” Damian would ask her, puzzled about what the words painted with blood on the ground said.

“Y-Yes, roughly.” She’d point at each individual word, “It reads, Sovereign of Nature, your great revenge and your descent will come nigh.”

“Toruun?” It was a name I had recognized from back in the academy, it was the name of one of the Gods that had revolted against Skiiva, the Queen of the Gods. “What does she have to do with all of… this.”

“Descent…” Damian would mutter to himself, “Are they trying to summon a fucking God?!” He’d exclaim as he came to that realization.

“But… As a Goddess of Nature, it wouldn’t make sense for her to accept such blasphemous offerings like blood and corpses… Would it?” Reanne would say, noting the dozens of corpses stuffed in crates we had walked past and the numerous bloodstains.

“Let’s look around some more, maybe there’s something in here that might give us a clue as to why they’re presenting such things.” We’d all search in different areas of the circular room, and as I looked around I noticed a shadow run past in one of the hallways across from me.

“Did you guys… See that?” I’d point at the dim empty hallway.

“See what?” They’d both look at where I was pointing and be puzzled, “There’s nothing there,” Reanne said.

“I-It’s nothing, I think I’m just seeing things.” We all continued searching for clues, to see if there were even any.

Me and Damian had no luck in finding anything, however Reanne found a suspicious notebook just laying around on the grass a bit away from where the tree was. As she read through it she called us to gather around and examine it. The contents of the notebook weren’t that noteworthy aside from the fact that it was just a list of all of the inmates who had died and were being stockpiled in this place.

On the most recent page of the notebook, it noted the number of sacrifices left that were needed to complete the descent, which noted that it was approximately thirty-thousand. Coincidentally, it was also the rough estimate of the total population of everyone in Trazia; of everyone back home.

“We need to go back.” Damian would exclaim, “We have to warn the others.”

“And how do you suppose we do that?! We can’t even get these shackles off of us, how do you expect to get the fuck out of here?!” I’d tell him the harsh truth, that we couldn’t get out of here. Not unless we were rescued. He couldn’t say anything back as he avoided eye contact with me and slowly backed away, turned, and headed to the tree.

He’d punch the tree three times, causing it to shake and make the leaves fall down, we both knew he was frustrated, but so were we. We all have families we’re dying to go back home to, but now was not the time to be filled with anger. Suddenly, I’d notice a large, shadowy figure in the corner of my eye, “Reanne! Get back!” I’d pull her away and into my arms as the creature leapt toward us.

Click… Click… Click! The creature was making horrifying noises, it was the monster that was described to us by the man. It had no eyes which rendered it completely blind, but possessed the ears of a bat, and had a dark humanoid appearance. It’s arms had flaps attached to it similar to the webbings of the wings of a bat, along with talons on its feet and two claws on its hands. It was a monstrosity; of all the things it could’ve been, it was a fucking Deimos.

I signaled to them to keep their mouths shut and to walk as slowly as possible, it couldn’t detect us as long as we didn’t make any large movements or noises. I’m glad that this Deimos took the form of a bat, otherwise we’d be dead meat the moment it spotted us.

“W-W-What the fuck is that, Talis?!” Reanne would softly whisper to my ear as she was directly beside me.

“It’s a Deimos, as long as we’re careful, we can live.” I’d whisper back to her. It wasn’t uncommon that you’d find a Deimos in Eden, but to find one here of all places? How is that even possible?

Damian would slowly tip-toe his way to us, “The soul of one of the deceased must’ve had a deep hatred or fear towards bats,” He’d whisper to us as he got closer, “I mean, why else would it be in the form of a bat?”

“Let’s get a move on, quickly!” I’d whisper back at him, as we sneaked our way past the creature. We slowly moved towards the hallway, and it was going smoothly so f- Snap! Creak! Fuck.

Reanne had accidentally stepped on a twig as we were walking, and the Deimos quickly homed in on us and started charging towards us, and we had no choice but to run. It was a good thing we were a bit farther away from it as we ran towards the exit, it was recklessly lunging at us, clumsily bashing, and charging at the walls and leaving large claw marks on it.

It kept running into the walls from side to side every time it lunged at us, causing the ceiling to slowly crack. Huff… Huff… We were halfway there, and we were all getting tired, this isn’t good. While we were running, Reanne suddenly tripped on one of the vines and fell face first onto the ground, she didn’t have time to collect herself, so I decided to grab her and carry her on my back as we hurried back to the exit.

Boom! Suddenly, the ceiling would collapse right in front of us, and we were trapped. We had no hope of winning against a Deimos, not with these shackles and weaponless. Boom! The ceiling was quickly falling apart, and we had no way to blast our way through the piles of rubble ahead of us.

The Deimos menacingly crawled its way towards us, as it didn’t hear any more sounds from us, nor did it feel any vibrations. Screeeeech! Screech! It would burst into a roar and a frenzy, it was as if an animal was calling more of its kind in the wild, this was going to turn into a disaster if even more Deimos came here.

The ground would shake, and the ceiling, even more unstable than it already is, collapsed on top of the Deimos, burying it alive. We were safe, for now. “Damian!” I’d call him, “Start bashing the shackles on your hand on the rubble!” This was our best bet of survival, if we could get rid of these, we would have a chance of successfully getting out of here alive. The three of us would start aggressively bashing the shackles on the rubble, slowly making dents on it, and eventually causing it to break. I could feel my Numen surging, I’ve never felt so free in my life.

I’d conjure small blades of wind to slice across the shackles we had on our feet and collar, and just like that, we were free. “Stand back!” Damian would yell, conjuring a flaming fist to blast the pile of rubble blocking our way to the exit, me and Reanne would encase ourselves in wind Numen to shield ourselves from the sharp fragments of rocks that would fly past us and into the barrier. “Let’s go!” Damian would say, leading the way as we followed suit.

We’d run as our lives quite literally depended on it, making our way through the endless hallway of crates and blood, and back to the other three anxiously waiting for us at the exit. “We need to get out of here! The whole prison’s on lockdown!” Glenn would shout at us from a distance.

“Go! Make sure the outside of the exit’s secure!” I’d yell back as we ran faster than we did earlier. I’d take a quick glance back and notice the ceiling collapsing right behind us, and we barely made it out alive. We climbed up the two flights of stairs and exited the cellar, only to see the three of them staring at the chaos that was ensuing.

There were five Deimos, three of them were humanoid, while the other two were in the shape of an owlbear and a serpent-human hybrid respectively. The guards were desperately trying to fight off the infestation, while the other inmates were helplessly getting slaughtered. It was only a matter of time before we became a part of the slaughtered as well.

“Over there!” Viella would exclaim, pointing at a hole in the wall across the courtyard, “This is our chance! Let’s go!” Damian and I would carry the two boys as we made a run for it towards the destroyed wall, this was the opportunity we’d been waiting for.