Dahlia arrived at the realm where all the missing children were
Her eyes widened at the sight of this new realm she is witnessing
The whole sky was strangely the color of dark purple
Red moon rising, dimly
Small blue flames, lighting up only a portion of the path
And... on the sky she noticed many small grounds were floating along with...
What she guessed are crystals, which were pitch black. And also seemed to be floating in the big sky
The earth structure here is rough and broken, making many small pools of lava. Which were also blue to splutter out
Many Ghouls were present along with the place filled with cries of the missing children, some were being tortured... both physically and mentally
The Ghouls were feeding from their fears and pain
Dahlia felt sick to her stomach when she saw the sight
But that is not all... she noticed three castles which she is able to make out, from far off
But the middle one stood out the most
"Move little mortal" A Ghoul pushed Dahlia
She stumbled, as she fell on the ground
"Just because your new here, doesn't means you will have it easy~" The Ghoul snickered. "Newbies suffer more than the ones that stayed long enough"
Dahlia was ticked off, she wanted to talk back but knew it will blow her cover so she stayed silent and got up. "I have to endure this..." She thought internally. She kept a blank face, as if she is still hypnotized
"Go along now, inside the prison" The Ghoul ordered Dahlia and kept pushing her off
"Hey now, go easy on her. I mean her face might get damaged, she can be a good toy~" Another Ghoul came, it feigned concern for her well being
Dahlia tensed up as at what that other Ghoul said but tried remaining unfazed, as she bit her inner cheek to do so
"There you go again, she is not so fun. I mean I can't even feed off, from her fears. She's a tough nut" The one who just pushed Dahlia before, remarked
"Ohh~ Feisty... I like it" The other Ghoul bit it's lower lip as it snickered darkly
"OI! WHAT ARE YOU TWO CHIT CHATTING ABOUT!!!" Another Ghoul came, which Dahlia guessed was the superior of those two
"Nothing Y2, just Lusterian is again being dirty minded" The Ghoul said as it pointed to the other Ghoul, who is named after Lusterian
Dahlia was confused, "Wait... Y2? Is it a name? But... that is one weird name..." she thought internally
"Shut up, Gusterian! You brothers always eat up my mind! If P10 sees this, then we'll all be dead! Just put this damn mortal in the prison and don't slack off!" The superior Ghoul said as she walked off
Lusterian snickered, "Way to go brother~" He said in a sing song tone
Gusterian groaned internally as he soon grabbed Dahlia by her collar and walked towards the prison, where all the children were kept
"Get in and do anything weird, you will pay the price for it" He warned Dahlia, pushing her inside roughly and closed the prison door
Gusterian left the prison followed by Lusterian, who was annoying him, "C'mon~ Why ignore me~" he said
"Shut up and get back to work" Gusterian grumbled
Dahlia watched as the two left the prison
She looked back at the children and noticed that they're eyes aren't black anymore. So she knew that they weren't hypnotized
Suddenly, someone grabbed her both shoulders and shook her
Dahlia gasped, clearly caught of guard
"Hey! Lady Dahlia! Snap out of it!" A boy spoke to her, his tone sounded familiar to her. She looked down and saw Xinhua. Who had tear stained face and looked thinner, she guessed that he'd been starved for days
He was also covered in mud, his skin half burned and his face scarred
The sight broke her heart to many pieces in seeing her friend at this state
She quickly wrapped her arms around him, "Xinhua!!!" she called his name as tears trickled down her eyes
Xinhua froze but soon reciprocated the hug as he cried in her shoulder
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After a few moments of the two crying, they calmed down
Dahlia wiped her tears as she took off the black color from her eyes
"So... you pretended to be hypnotized all this time? Why?" Xinhua asked shocked
"To save you and all the children..." Dahlia replied, her tone held with determination
"What?! Are you crazy!? Do you know how dangerous they are!? We can't never escape from them!" He said as more children perked up hearing their conversation
"Then what do you think we do? Just stay still and let them do whatever they want?" She asked sarcastically
Xinhua paused as he signed shakily having a conflicted look
"Look... I tried escaping it but... nothing worked... We can never escape... it is... it is out of our imagination..." He replied to her
"Yeah... and not just him... we all suffered..." A little girl spoke up with a tired tone
"Yes... they can easily overpower us... we are nothing" Another chimmed in
Dahlia froze, hearing their replies
She looked at Xinhua but he turned away
He was looking down, gripping the edge of his shirt
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Dahlia clenched and unclenched her hands into fists
"Right... they are torturing us... great... let them torture us..." Dahlia began saying
"They torture us because they WANT us be in total fear.. To make sure we never even try to escape!!! We. Can. Never. Know. Unless. We. Try. TO. ESCAPE!!!" Dahlia completed as she tried cheering them up. Trying to toughen them up
"You say as if it's easy" Someone commented
Dahlia froze up as she looked around to see who spoke
The children all gave way to the one that suddenly commented
"They are dangerous... we can never win. One mistake can lead us to a dangerous path, where we can lose our lives..." That someone commented again, it was a boy with dark hair and blue eyes. But he was in a more worse state than everyone in the prison was
"And who are you?" Dahlia looked over, as she asked
"My name is Hunji, I have been here for a whole year now... if my calculations are correct" He replied
"A whole year... so you probably know a lot about this world here?" She asked
"Only a little but, let me tell you something. There is no way in escaping here..." Hunji repeated
"And how are you so sure?" Dahlia asked, clearly wary
Hunji scoffed as he scoot closer to Dahlia, he towers over her
"I guess you can say... I tried to escape but it didn't end well..." He said