Panega World, Southern Continent, South west island
5th month, Year 786, Solaris Calander
An Unknown Mine
Clang~~
Clang~
The sound of pickaxe hitting the stone was echoing in the narrow cave, the heavy pickaxe was different from ordinary pickaxe it was over a meter in length with dull edge on both side.
"Huhhuh... Huh"
"What did i do to fall so low?"
The clear child like voice murmured softly, it was a child with curly golden hair reaching his shoulders, wearing clothes no different than a beggar, ragged and torn providing little to no warmth.
His baggy red eyes darted toward the entrace as he was afraid of something.
Then he trembled and he slowly picked up the pickaxe on the ground with his tiny hand and started another round of digging.
...
Three hours later,
A guard came over pulling a chain draging more than dozen wearing same dirty clothes as a boy, he came to the center and said with commanding tone.
"Todays shift is over, go back to your respective cells."
He continued after giving deep look to all these prisoners and said threateningly.
"If i hear you lowlifes trying to escape, i will break your leg and feed you to the wild hounds in the woods."
As soon as his voice fell, the prisoners felt chill down their spine because they could tell this time the guard was serious after all he has tortured, and killed multiple inmates with rebellious intention.
"Now dismissed!"
The Guard left the cave after giving quick glance to the prisoner.
After seeing the guard has left, the child took a deep breath and sighed a breath of relief and mustered courage and took a step out of the cave.
...
Dawn, Outside the mine,
Rustle~Rustle~
Chill~~
The sun behind the luon Mountain had already started to set as the cold wind swept by the prison freezing unfortunate prisoners to death.
The door to the prison opened as more than 5 soilders guarding the gate went through each cell and counted the number of the prisoners.
A young guard went through the black gate named Floor 1 as he started to count prisoners and collecting the data about their state.
He stooped infront of the cell no 11, and he took a deep breath as he muttered with low tone"another one who died from corruption."
He took the another look at the blood pool at cell no 11 and move forward cell no 27,cell 88,cell 99...103 as he walked and collected the data he was horrified as he quickly walked through enitre first floor of the prison.
He felt dizzy from the looking at the corpses which all died in horrendously, there were multiple frozen corpses, some dead body muttering and laughing eerily, some died from blood exhaustion, some died through other various experiments.
He took a deep breath and steadied himself, he looked through record and thought in puzzlement.
'This place is really hell on earth, what on earth is happening for there to be so many death, i must report it to captain.'
Hurridly, he walked to the gate of floor 1 and passed by the guard and nodded at him to which guard nodded back
"You survived another day, congratulation."
"Same for you~snort"
"Is your work finished?"
"All done. Now, quickly open the gate i must report to the captain about the urgent issue."
the guard looked at him in puzzlement as he asked interested,
"What happened for it to be an issue?"
The young guard took a quick look at the floor 1 once more and said in deep voice with hint of fear.
"All Dead, almost all the prisoners are dead and the surviving ones are mad with no sanity."
The young guard slowly described the situation inside the prison, the headless bodies, mutated prisoners, frozen bodies and so on.
His word shocked the guard as the guard lazy eyes suddenly became alert as he said in angry tone.
"You are not kidding right?, i have been guarding this gate for 3 years i have never even heard of such case in even lower floors were truly dangerous prisoners resides."
"Quick follow me, i want to see what's the issue, down there."
The guard lashed at the young man and asked him to follow to which young man complied. After all, he has been doing this job for over three months now.
They slowly headed down the stairs and entered the dark, depressing prison. They slowly headed right and made their way to first prison. While they were walking the guard asked young man a question.
"What state do you think the no. 1 prisoner is in?."
"Naturally, frozen."
They strided towards to first cell and saw, a frozen corpse, the guard looked at him and chuckled "It seems, you were correct, now lets check second."
The young guard frowned as he felt insulted for his lack of intelligence as he was being talked down. He replied "there is no need to check i am sure about it."
Seeing the young man rebuking, the guard understood his thought and his gaze turned serious."i don't mean to look down on you, if the situation is serious as you mention we will need to take drastic measures for the analomy."
The young man nodded in agreement and reflected on his oversight.'maybe i was thinking too much if such think happened right under our supervision, i will have surely died without any knowledge.' the young pricked his brow, he felt something is omnious in this prison as his thought went silent by the guards called pulling him back to reality.
He shook his head as he prayed inwardly
'I hope i am thinking too much.'
He followed the guard to the no 11 cell and pointed. "Yes, this is the place i saw the blood pool."
The guard went to the cell and sighed, and he looked at young man infront of him worridly thinking.'another young man has gone mad. '
"Are you alright, richard?...are you sure there was anything here like you described?"
Hearing the suspision in the guards tone, the young guard-richards pupil dilated as he quickly ran toward the prison and looked at the place where the blood pool was supposed to be.
His hand shook as he trembled and fell on his back muttering "I-impossible...i am...i am sure there was blood pool... I am not lying, you got to believe me."
He looked at the guard who was looking at him with dissatisfied look and he slowly stood up taking a one last look toward the place where the blood was supposed to be and clenched his fist taking a long,deep breath calming his nerves and said confidently.
"I am sure about the report, please give me one more chance."richard proclaimed that he was not wrong.
The guard looked at him calmly as he have guessed whats going on with the young man mind.'sure, my prediction was correct'
"Alright, show me what have you seen."
"Follow me."
The guard said to young man who has obviously gone insane, shaking his head as he walked with the young man.
*30 minutes later
"Richard, the singer is here look."
"What did this guy bring today?... maybe a meal."
"..."
"Come here to this big sister, i will give you warmth"
"Brother, why didn't you save me?...am i not your fiancé."
As soon as richard and the guard headed to this section where the cell no 50 - 120 were located, the lively voice of prisoners along with laughter, conflicts and weeping.
"See, i told you you were imagining things, it seems work has put you under lot of pressure."The guard said with a relief and continued,"just take a vacation and it will refresh you."
"Impossible?...i don't beleive it."
the guards old voice sighed as he move forward examing prison with richard following hin.
Richard face quickly became paler as he went through each cell one more with old guard.
He was muttering 'it can't be, it is impossible, i saw it'
"Now, lets stop we have seen enough. You are in need of rest, we will continue next day." The guard said with worridly.
"No, i need to see to the end."The young richard started shouting hysterically as he put his hand on the guards broad shoulders, suddenly he started laughing.
"I see... I see. You have hypnotized me and you are fooling me in order to turn me mad." Richard clapped his hand in relish like he has figured out the truth.
"Good, you have almost fooled me.if not for my genius i would have fallen into your trap."Richard spat as he looked at the guard with hostillity and took three step back and reached for his back pocket.
~Sling~
Richard quickly pulled out a knife from his case and swinged it right to guards throat.
'What?'
Thud~
Richard looked at his hand with pained expression where the knife was supposed to be bleeding. He was bewildered as he couldn't understand what happened for a moment.
His knife was flung from the kick of the guard and the impact of the attack tore the flesh in his hand.
~gulp~
Richard swallowed as he realized what type of insane behaviour, he just conducted. He attacked the floor guard who is an awakened being possesing might beyond the reach of humans.
He screamed inwardly with terror,'i am dead.'
The once friendly guard looked imposing standing over 2 meter in height, weighing 300 pounds like a hunter gazing at this prey.
The guard looked at him with sharp gaze as he sprinted toward him like a bull charging at red flag, he clenched his fist as he punched at the young man stomach with enough force to knock a cow.
~~Ugh~~
"Aaaah..."
The young richard screamed like a slaughtered pig as he vomited blood, his face paled, blood started leaking from his nose, he convulsed and rolled his pupil white as he fainted.
....
"I knew it."the guard narrowed his eyes as he took a boxing stance as he gaze at the young man who fainted from his attack.
Braches started growing in the young richards body as 'his'bleeding stopped.
'Richard' looked at his body as he shook his head."indeed, a weak mortal body."
He slowly turned his head looked at the guard greedely.
"Gretesu, an easterner huh... I hate easterners, i will celebrate my escape by killing you."
Richard pointed his hand toward the guard-gretesu braches lashed at speed beyond human reaction.
The guard jumped back as he took out his fighting gloves from his small bag. It was thin black gloves with thornes on the kunckles. Richard hand now a branch threw dozens of sharp dart (10cm each )toward him as gretesu dogged using momentum from his previous back step.
The old guard swiftly wore the gloves and channaled qi and counterattached as he tore the bars holding the cell and threw at the branches.
The branches got stuck but few broken fragment tore the guards clothes and gave him few wounds. 'Richard' recognized the technique he was using and suddenly, he started laughing like mad.
"Martial artist, martial artsist, martial artist..."with voice filled with rage richard started crying and laughing making it feel extremly disturbing and eerie.
"What a lucky day, an easterner and martial artist on top, a great escape indeed"
As soon as 'richard' said that the old guard undrestood the identity of enemy. The blood wood flower parasite who has made pact with a former cardinal of dark church and a terrifying spirit beast equal to Masters.
"The parsaite,whose contractor was killed by flying grass swordmaster."the old guard mocked as he insulted the richara-blood wood flower spirit infront of him.
He spat adding salt in wound "the mere dark cult will surely be slaughtered by our human powerhouses, just like your former master"
"Huhuhuuhuhuahahahahhahaha"
The parasite laughed manically as its body inflated and burst the body of young richard signifying his demise.
Blood sprayed, all over the stained wall and red flowers and strange trees starting growing everywhere blood reached.
Its body now a giant flower towering 3 meters looked at gretesu with dozens of eyes as it extended branches and attacked.
5 giant branches attacked at him from multiple angle. He used the footstep taught to him in academy to barely dodge the attack and maintained a distance from the tree.
He gasped for air as looked at the pieces of flesh, organs and hairs on the ground. He felt pity and sorrow cause from the moment richard entered cell no 11 he became host for parasite without knowledge.
Gretesu looked at the parsaite with determined eye and swore to kill this beast to avenge richard and to prevent others death.
He channeled qi in his leg, he sprinted toward the beast using his movement technique. Multiple branches started throwing spikes toward him but he dodged everything, he attacked the braches with mutliple kicks piercing holes in it.
Suddenly,
~Bang!!~
He flung backwards at the wall. The reinforced wall cracked showcasing the intense battle happening inside the vibration of impact went to the upstairs-to the ground floor alerting the soldiers active.
Bloodied, gretesu jumped and started using wall as spring to increase momentum to reach the flower to quickly destroy its nucleus before it recovers more.
He jumped,dodged and attacked but no matter how many branches he broke, spikes he avoided. He can't avoid gradual exhaustion.
His eyes started blurry from bleeding as he started breathing heavily, he was considering escaping but he couldn't. Survival of first floor prisoners and soilders depended on him.
He thought 'if it tried to escape three days ago, it would have died instantly by the hand of Floor Supervisors.'
He looked forward at the dormant flower born from blood started blooming and the blood spirit parasites body rapidly expanded to nearly 4 meters.
His hand trembled for a moment, gretesu made a decision that might kill him.
His eyes shone like never before, he remebered his youth oath of becoming a protector, guardian and hero.
He took an running stance and thought,'30 second' and channaled all his qi throughout whole body.
"Ugh... ugh" Peircing pain swept through his body like he was being torn apart from inside out. Blood started dripping from his mouth.
~Sprint~
He shot forward at speed approaching 100m/s and appeared infront of blood flower and twisted his hips punching with full power.
The branches shattered at tough and flattened the flowers, the concret slabs started cracking on impact.
~Grab~
Suddenly, a vine grabbed his left leg as multiple spikes tore his flesh. He took a step back and channaled his qi once more to block the bleeding.
His left leg was beyond repair, bone shattered and veins tangled, blood dripping non-stop.
Gretesu's eyes shone even brighter like he has grasped something meaningful, he steeped back out of parasite reach.
"15 Seconds"
The flower started blooming, it was blood red like lilly emitting pleasent smell that seems to intoxicate anyone who smelled it.
Gretesu felt dizzy and his leg wobbled, he knew the exhaustion was starting to hit him. His bloodstained lips starting drooling from the smell of the flowers entering his nostrils.
He quickly channeled his qi but to his suprise it became even deeper, he knew if cannot stop the parsaite he will fall asleep and die.
He smiled grimly and took one final breath as he used the blood ignition technique.
Blood ignition technique-a technique taught to awakened prison guard for similar situation. It ignites one lifeforce and grants them stronger power.
~boom~
As the blood ignition technique was activated gretesus presence instantly became multiple times stronger after using this ability he is officially an advance rank awakened.
"10 seconds" he counted his remaining time before his demise. He shot forward.
~shwosh~
This time dozens of branches came toward him indicating the strength of parasite was recovering fast, baaam! This time he was overwhelmed it.
He destroyed the branches,and soon he stepped in core area where blood was splattered, vines tried to grab his leg but no vail it was torn like a paper.
"8 second" he tore apart the green root of the parasite. All the branches starting attacking him from multiple angles and viens started wrapping his body and spikes emerged from the spikes.
"7...6....5...4 Seconds" blood started flowing from his body like a fountain but it was quickly sucked by the parasite. His body was hung upside down from his leg.
Desperately he bit his lips, screamed in fear and roared like he was illuminating his light for the last time. He was a madman.
~plop ~plop ~
Suddenly, he blew his legs and fell directly on the parasite body.
"3...2 Second"he fell on its petal and used his hands to grab the nucleus but spikes suddenly grew on the petal and destroyed his hands.
"1 second"
He blew his hands then, he used the explosions momentum to leap forward and bit the nucleus and shattered it.
The parasite body started falling apart as green blood started to flood from its body and dozens of eyes looked at the gretesu with indignant, anger and unwillingness.
"Blood, Blood, Blo."
Finally, all of its eyes closed~parasite the former contractor of dark church cardinal and spirit rank beast died.
...