Chapter 14.1: The Chains and the Choice

Kaiser looked around, panic building.

“Is this a dream?”

Then, in perfect unison—

“What the hell—?!”
“Where are we?!”

The cold stabbed into his bones like needles. He gasped, sweat running down his face—yet the air around him was like ice. No walls. No bed. No ceiling he recognized.

Just a massive, silent cavern. Black. Empty.

Kai floated beside him, wide-eyed. For once, the smug ghost had nothing sarcastic to say.

Kaiser’s chest heaved as he sat up. “W–Where the hell are we?”

Kai didn’t answer immediately. His eyes scanned the space, jaw clenched. “…I don’t know.”

Then—softly, above them—a faint purple light began to glow.
It shimmered across the cavern ceiling like veins of ghost fire, spreading slowly.

Kaiser looked down.

His breath caught.

Fragments of strange statues and shattered relics lay across the cavern floor, as if a long-forgotten war had taken place here

Kaiser scrambled back on all fours, bare skin scraping on cold rock. He was still in shorts. No shirt. No shoes. Just him, Kai, and a pit of strange remnants of a war.

He spun around— Behind them stood a massive stone door, carved in runes, half-swallowed in fog. Etched into its surface was a mural depicting a war unlike any from Earth. Beasts. Giants. Knights with unnatural limbs.

Kaiser’s breathing hitched. Panic poured out of him.
“I’m gonna die—I’m gonna die—I don’t even know what this is—I didn’t sign up for this—”

“HEY!” Kai flew in and gripped both sides of his face. “Look at me.”

Kaiser’s glassy eyes met his.

“Breathe,” Kai said, voice steady like a soldier calming a rookie. “I don’t know what this is either—but we’re still breathing. That means we’ve got a shot. Just don’t touch anything unless I say so.”

Kaiser swallowed hard. “O-Okay…”

They stood slowly. The only illumination came from that eerie violet glow. They took a few steps forward.

He clutched his chest, breath fogging. “Will we even get out of here?”

“We’ll figure it out,” Kai said. “I don’t know how, but we will.”

He turned to the massive door. “Maybe if we can push that—”

Something stopped him mid-sentence.

A chill ran down his spine.

“…What the- ?!” Kaiser looked back, eyes wide in horror