From what I could figure out during the brief time I had studied the map, it appeared we were deep inside an underground cave system.
Inside this underground cave, which was illuminated by fire torches, there were six similar bamboo cells lining the cave walls on either side of our own. Three were on the left and three on the right, and a single winding long path ran down the center, leading far up and out of this underground prison.
Right now, I could clearly hear the voices of the goat-headed ghouls as they descended the long path leading directly toward us.
The closer they got, the more the other cadets in the cells began to whimper, shift back, or huddle together in terror.
Now that I finally took a proper look at the prison, I could see that all the cells, save for the one directly opposite ours, were empty, containing only scattered bones and dried blood.
The cell opposite ours held five people: Two girls huddled together in a corner, while three boys gripped the bamboo walls with their panicked gazes fixed on the direction the ghouls were coming from.
I couldn't recognize the two girls or two of the boys as they seemed to be from a different bastion. However, I instantly recognized the last boy. He was skinny, with brown hair and glasses, and what made me remember him was the fact that, not too long ago, he had bullied me alongside Damon.
'Gareth?'
Indeed, it was Gareth.
What were the odds that I would come across someone like him not too long after crossing the veil?
I squinted my eyes and upon closer look, I saw that he seemed to be in a truly horrific condition. One of his legs was gone, chopped off cleanly from the knee down. A large cut wound ran across his chest, and dried, crusted blood covered most of his face.
'…And I thought I had it worse.'
I swallowed, suddenly feeling a little bit of pity for the guy.
Just then, shadows finally fell over the cells, and the ghouls finally arrived. When I snapped my gaze up from Gareth to them, I could see three of the goat-headed monsters standing over us.
One of them looked significantly larger than the other two. Its head was covered by a bone helmet, and its body was clad in armor fashioned from bones and thick vines.
The other two were skinnier and less equipped. One held a bone spear, while the other had a bone sword nestled in its loincloth made of large green leaves, which it used to cover its privates.
Looking at them from this close, I was overcome with such primal fear that it felt suffocating. Because not only were these hideous monsters menacing and covered in matted fur, but they all stank of rotting corpses.
Then, the biggest of the three Ghouls began to speak in their foreign language with its gaze fixed directly on our cell.
Though I couldn't understand what it was saying, the guttural, harsh sound of the words only added to my rising terror.
It was still speaking when a notification suddenly popped up for me, causing me to flinch.
[Activating Gamer Privileges…]
'Huh?'
[Gamer Privileges has activated subtitles.]
Instantly, a screen appeared, translating what the Ghoul was saying:
[...since we now have fresh meat, the sacrifice to Aziz shall take place in the morning. As usual, at early dawn, we shall hang them on the stake and burn them alive in front of all our kin.]
Hearing that, I shuddered and instantly leaned back away from the bamboo wall in dread.
The creature then looked away from my cell to the cell opposite us, where Gareth and the other cadets were housed, and spoke again.
[…In the meantime, our children are tired of eating our own kin and require a proper feed. These ones here will have to do for now. Kill them all, and feed the children.]
Immediately, the other two ghouls stepped forward. Then one of them drew its massive, curved bone knife and savagely sliced through the thick vine bindings securing the cell door.
The door swung open, and the two Ghouls stepped inside. The cadets in the cell opposite ours erupted into frantic screams and scrambled backward.
Gareth tried desperately to crawl away, but before he could even move, one of the Ghouls raised a bone spear and slammed it down, impaling his head to the ground.
I immediately turned away from the grotesque sight as I simply could not stomach the scene.
I heard the sounds of bone slicing against flesh and the agonized, muffled shouts of the remaining cadets in that cell, but in less than a few seconds, there was silence.
The only noises left in the entire underground prison were the shuddering whimpers of the two girls confined in my own cell.
The dark-haired girl covered her mouth with her palm, her eyes squeezed shut, while Celeste bent over and vomited onto the floor. It turned out she, too, couldn't stomach the horrible sight.
I forced my gaze back to the opposite cell, and saw that all four cadets that were in it had all been brutally slaughtered.
Then, the largest Ghoul turned to leave. The other two followed close behind: one Ghoul dragged two dead cadets, while the other struggled to pull the remaining three by the leg. Their limp bodies scraped across the ground, leaving a thick, glistening trail of blood behind them.
'I need to get out of here,' the thought pounded through my mind as I watched the ghouls disappear down the path with the bodies.
'And I need to get out of here tonight.'
Because what the hell did the Ghoul mean by us being 'hanged and burned alive'?
'No, no, I need a plan… I need a plan to get out of here. I can't stay here.'
My thoughts became frantic as my gaze swept around the cell.
If we didn't leave now, things would be utterly hopeless by morning.
Of course, I would come back with Chrysalis no matter the death, but relying on Chrysalis while in this territory was not an option.
Because…
I hadn't been able to think about it before, but dying here would mean that when I'm resurrected, I would still be in this bloody territory. And so, I would just be wasting a life as I would be immediately killed again.
My thoughts continued to race.
'What do I do? How do I get out of here?'
I was still in the middle of thinking up a plan when the other boy sharing the cell with me, who had been unconscious, suddenly jolted awake.
He groaned, instantly sat upright, and began to slowly scan his surroundings.
Looking at him, I thought that he'd probably ask something like 'where am I?' or 'what happened?'
But the boy didn't.
Instead, he immediately tapped his pockets as if searching for something, then began muttering frantically. "No, no, no, no, no. My bottle of wine. Where is it?"
'What?' I frowned in confusion. 'Has he gone mad?'
Why would anyone suddenly be looking for wine in this situation?
While I was still trying to make sense of the absurd scenario, the boy did something even weirder.
Even with his hands bound by vines, he began to frantically pull at his hair, and his muttering escalated:
"Shit! I'm sober. God, no, this can't be happening. I can't be sober!"
An expression of raw, consuming fear crossed his face. "I can't be sober! Not here!"