He had to run.
He did not even know how long he had been running, only that he could not afford to stop. Chest heaving, his heart pumping, and making his breathing tight.
He never once rested, he just kept on running. Despite the ache in his legs and his feet, which he knew were now full of wounds. He did not bother to check. He only had one thing on his mind: to run. So he dragged his body to run.
To where? Far away from those pursuing him. If not... That was the end of him.
As he was burning every ounce of motivation to keep on running, to stop his body from collapsing and succumbing to his fate, his mind wandered to what brought him to this situation.
It had been a seemingly simple day; at least, it was not too awful like the past week. His life had always been shitty, and so a simple and uneventful day was already a good thing for him.
Waking up, he should have known. There was no way his life would have a simple day.
"Can we talk for a moment?"
"Your name is Eiden, right?"
"We only want to ask you something."
"We won't harm you."
Yeah, right. Everything said that before they did.
The moment that those people arrived, Eiden was already waiting for an opportunity to bolt out from there. He did not care if they were telling the truth, but as long as they knew his real name, that was already reason to leave.
"Fuck, chase him!"
"That brat! I'll cut his legs so he won't be able to run anymore!"
Sure enough, they did not have any good intentions.
Thugs were not uncommon in the place he was in, but Eiden had a good sense for differentiating common rural thugs from those with strong auras, powerful enough to overturn the small slum twice.
And both, he could not afford to offend. Especially the latter, one he was running from for years.
Eyes almost shrouded by his own sweat and tears, and stamina that adrenaline alone would not be able to support him from collapsing on its own. His chest burned, air refusing to come.
He was doomed. Eiden bit his lips, suppressing the hopeless sob that was threatening to escape.
He was tired... physically, and even more so, mentally.
Why? Why, it has to be him? Eiden had never thought of him as a good person, but he never once did anything morally bad, either. He was only trying so hard to live.
Without anyone's support, Eiden had been trying so hard to survive each day. Why was it so difficult?
Could it be... From the start, Eiden did not deserve to live? That someone like him, a dreg of society, did not have a place in this world?
Was that it?
Eiden looked up and watched the sky filled with shining stars. Despite the bright light they brought, he felt like they seemed far more distant and unreachable from where he was than usual.
So was the light they emitted; it never reached the darkness surrounding him.
Eiden... was tired.
He was a fool. He should have known... He had no future.
The voices behind him seemed to be catching up, mocking all the efforts Eiden had made and endured in the past few years. All of it was in vain.
And so, it had finally come. His body, despite his mind wanting to continue, caves in to the exhaustion. His body fell forward, his feet tripped, and he knew it was all over.
Eiden finally let out the hopeless tears in his eyes as he sobbed. He hated that he even tried. He should have... died long ago.
He did not know where he was as his body continued to fall. In fact, Eiden welcomed it. It was better to die and not be tortured.
A sigh came out of his lips; whether it came from relief or regret, Eiden just closed his eyes.
Unbeknownst to Eiden, as soon as his body tumbled forward, a crack in the ground seemed to have opened up before it closed after it swallowed him.
Eiden, who thought he was dead, slowly opened his eyes after a few hours or a few days had passed.
He blinked as he sat up, dazed. Eiden had not said a word, like a corpse wandering why he was still in the world.
A few moments later, his body curled up as he sobbed, letting out every grievance and relief he was feeling. In that silent environment, Eiden's cries were the only sound that could be heard.
He soon calmed down. Eiden, while he did not know whether it was a good trait, had managed to endure his awful life thanks to his adaptability.
"Cave?" His voice rang out and echoed in the closed space as he looked up. It was dark, but for some reason, he could still see his surroundings, albeit barely.
From the look of it, he was indeed inside a cave.
Eiden stood up and hissed, looking down at his feet.
"It's dark so, I can't fully see it, but for sure, my feet are bleeding." It was aching a bit, but Eiden was still able to endure it. At least his legs were still there.
A sigh yet again escaped. He was reminded again of his reality. Despite him being alive, he was still in a precarious situation. Outside, someone was still chasing him.
"Why am I still alive?" Eiden wondered. He was sure that he was dead or at least had been captured already.
Why was it so hard to live and now to die too? Eiden could not help but grumble.
Supporting himself with the walls of the cave, he decided to explore first. At least look for water; his throat was already parched, and from the amount of sweat and tears his body produced, he was probably dehydrated already.
Hopefully, there was some kind of source of water in this cave.
Thinking of that, Eiden stopped. He suddenly thought of a big issue. His body froze, and he looked up, brows knitting into a frown.
He fell. He was sure of it. So, if he did, there should have been a hole in the ceiling, right? Yet, Aiden had not seen anything like that. Unless this was not the original place he fell to.
However, that was not it either. He could not possibly crawl from there, and no one was here to carry him. At least, he did not sense someone was there as well.
Eiden only thought of that for a few moments before a thought, an almost impossible thought, suddenly came to his mind.
Could it be... He stumbled upon one of the legendary ancient ruins? No, it did not need to be an ancient ruin... Just even a normal ruin would do!
This time, Eiden not only felt his body stop, but even his heart seemed to do so at the ridiculous thought.
But... What if?
He began to recount his experience again, and the more he did so, the faster Eiden's heartbeats increased in pace.
Eiden looked ahead, at the darkness, which was now shrouded with mysterious light in his eyes. It was like... All the little hope he still had was now converging into one as he stared at the dark passage.
Slowly, Eiden's trembling hands clenched into fists, and his hopeless eyes began to shake with obvious resolve.
No matter the danger up ahead, he would just challenge it. After all, he was dead either way.
With this thought, Eiden began to take a gamble, betting his seemingly useless life.
And it seemed, it had paid off.
"G-Grimoire?" Eiden's voice shook, both from surprise and fear.
Who would have thought a legendary grimoire was hidden under this slum?
And as though answering him, the suspected Grimoire shimmered; the ominous cover with incomprehensible patterns seemed to become alive as mist gradually surrounded it as it hung in the air.
A dangerous aura shrouded him. Eiden felt that all of the hairs in his body stood on end. His instincts were telling him to run, but he could not move at all.
He was just frozen in his place, staring in horror at the Grimoire.
Like a pulse or a heartbeat, maybe it was his own; it was all he could hear.
Slowly, the Grimoire opened as though... It has finally woken up from its long slumber.