Follow the Signs

Atlas was unaware of what was happening outside. In his eyes, the previously created gap was still there.

The outside was still visible, and the sunlight was indisputable proof of that.

The temptation was so great that the young man began to enter the cave. The path was lit by torches with a glowing blue crystal placed at the top of them.

A common item in this world and a viable alternative to the classic wooden torch.

"Hmm... 'Follow the signs.'... Well, the first part was easy. As for the signs... Maybe I need to follow the torches... Surely, they will lead somewhere..."

Clearly, the young man was asking himself many questions, but he continued on without fear and went deeper and deeper.

The torchs almost every ten feet showed the way to the young man until, after a few hours, a large boulder appeared in front, blocking his path.

Its shape was like an immense sphere with a rough surface. The size was exaggerated but not enough to block the entire path. In fact, the top edges were free and allowed light to pass through, showing what was hidden beyond.

"Another obstacle..." Atlas firmly gripped the handle of his faithful companion and hurled it at the damn stone.

"Astra...looks like today, you'll have to work very hard... AH!"

The young man once again found himself shattering some rock, but on this particular day, he did not hate his useless profession and was thankful for it because he knew exactly which was the weakest point to hit.

The sharp point repeatedly struck the same spot, generating more prominent and extensive fractures.

"We're almost there..."

With one last blow, the boulder finally shattered, splitting into four giant pieces and creating an opening wide enough to allow passage.

First, Atlas threw his heavy backpack through and only then passed through with his body.

Nothing strange happened at first, but as his feet passed through the cleft, a peculiar screeching sound resounded throughout the cave.

Alarmed by the strange sound, Atlas gripped his pickaxe and scanned the area, but all he could see was a long line of bright dots that continued uninterrupted toward nowhere.

"Damn... maybe it was a sign from that being... I have to keep calm..."

It was useless for the young man to remain still, so the fearless adventurer set out again.

Atlas did not know how deep he had gone, but he was sure that he had walked for a long time.

More boulders followed in his path, but never had they been able to stop him.

Atlas and Astra advanced undisturbed like a portentous wave, demolishing every obstacle.

The only thing that was beginning to worry him were those repeated noises. It was like the haunting sounds of a ghostly whisper in the darkness.

The strange thing was that those noises broke the eerie silence of the cave every time his body passed through one of those gaps.

More than once, they had shaken his reckless heart, but they had never precluded his trip.

"Man... Will this damn cave ever end?" Atlas sighed, touching the icy walls with the tenacious tip of his pickaxe.

"Maybe... I should stop for a while and rest..."

Upon reflection, the young man realized that it had been a couple of hours, and his body was slightly fatigued by dint of breaking stones.

Unfortunately, just as the young man was about to stop, the strange noise haunting him for the past few hours began to reverberate through the cave insistently.

"Mhm?!..."

And it was becoming more and more disturbing...

What worried Atlas most was that the noise was getting closer and closer and was coming from the path he had left behind...

"What the fuck!" Atlas looked behind him and finally noticed something even more disturbing.

The torchs...

The torchs were going out one after another at an excessive speed.

"Hell... I don't want to be locked up in this shadow-shrouded hell."

The mere thought shuddered him so much that Atlas started running down the corridor at top speed.

"Ahh!!! Faster...faster...faster! Damn body..."

The absence of the Chaotical Core made itself known. Indeed, it reiterated to the young man how useless his miserable body was at this moment.

If only he could accede to that power, it would have been much easier to help the bones and muscles quivering with fatigue in his body.

Gripped with desperation, Atlas dropped his backpack and sprinted forward without looking back...

Unfortunately, the noise grew closer and closer.

"AHHH!!!!... Faster..."

Atlas ran nonstop for fifteen minutes, and then his biggest nightmare appeared.

Another one of those damn boulders was right there waiting for him.

Panicked, Atlas kept running, and a few steps from the rock, he hurled the tempered tip of Astra at the rock.

But one blow, even if given with all his might, was not enough, so another one... and another one... followed.

What was worse was that the eerie noise did not stop for even a second and instead kept getting closer...

"Damn it!"

"You bastard...shatter, please!"

His arms repeatedly pushed his companion against the rock, drawing more and more on what little strength he had.

"AH!!!"

Finally, the rock shattered, and Atlas leaped into the gap without looking back, overcoming the boulder in an instant.

"Man... I did it..." Atlas tried to calm his heart, which was now beating wildly.

Unfortunately, the nightmare was not yet over because the eerie chanting began resonating again from behind the boulder, but this time with greater insistence.

"Seriously?!" Atlas was overwhelmed by the sense of fatigue that assailed him, but he resumed the frantic run immediately, frightened by what the unknown concealed.

Three more boulders followed, but that damn noise had not only not disappeared, but it had become so loud that it seemed to be only a few steps away from him.

"It can't all end here..." Atlas shouted at the top of his lungs, seized with remorse, but he could not stop and honestly did not dare to turn his gaze back.

The last few hours had become a nightmare, but he never gave up and kept moving forward because he knew the full moon was almost high in the sky. He was convinced about it.

If something was going to happen, it was almost time, so he pushed his trembling body forward.

But ... after a few minutes, another obsidian-black boulder stood in front.

"NOOO!!!" Atlas cried out in despair yet did not stop and gripped the pickaxe's handle firmly.

The boulder was only ten paces away...

"AH!" Atlas raised his arms high in the air.

Eight steps...

"AHH!"

The tip of the pick mowed the air by placing itself above his head.

Only six steps...

The breath became labored.

Four steps...

"AHHH!" Atlas bent his knees and jumped with all the energy in his body.

Three steps...

"You damn bastard..."

Two steps...

"Damned luck..."

One step...

"Help me!... AHHHH!!!!"

Still suspended in the air, Atlas hurled Astra at the boulder, and... the tip of the pickaxe went deep into the rock, striking something hard, so hard it seemed indestructible.

The noise that had haunted him for the past few hours suddenly ceased, replaced by an even more annoying sound.

A very intense glow came out of the fractures formed in the rock, blinding the young man's body.

Suddenly, the sound transformed and became strikingly similar to that of a pickaxe smashing into rigid metal.

Time stopped for the young man.

His body remained motionless, suspended in the air, with his arms stretched forward and his hands firmly attached to the handle of his faithful companion.

The sound of the pickaxe became so sharp that his ears began to bleed.

With his hands bound to the handle, Atlas could not even cover his ears and began to scream desperately.

"AH!!! Damn you, luck!! Why did you abandon me!!!"

The glow grew even more, and suddenly, the rock disintegrated, reducing into tiny shards of brilliant dust.

A terrible blaze assaulted his body, vaporizing his clothes.

The only thing still intact was the pickaxe and the magic lace with the canteen and space bag hanging from it.

For some reason, those items had survived that disruptive conflagration. Even the handle was intact, albeit composed of simple wood.

When Atlas felt his skin burning, he tried to hold on with all his heart because something in his mind told him not to give up.

He knew that the moment to change his fate or the moment of his death had come.

But he was not afraid, for he had already prepared his soul and body for this day.

Immersed in that world of noise and heat, Atlas waited for the right moment to strike the decisive blow.

At some point, an unknown force pushed the pickaxe, and Atlas seized the opportunity to strike what stood before him.

Finally, the tip of the pickaxe entered even deeper into that impenetrable wall, permanently changing the surrounding world and plaguing the young man's soul and body.

The intense blinding glow and destructive heat suddenly vanished, allowing Atlas to open his eyes and admire the object pierced by his companion.

When the young man's eyes rested on it, his mind exploded as if struck by a profound revelation.

His destiny was in there, enclosed within the diamond walls of that crystal.

"AH! You bastard!"

Atlas tried to move his body forward, but something held him back.

The body could not move, but Astra was unstoppable.

Driven again by a strange power, the pickaxe gradually drew its sharp point out of the crystal, even moving the young man's hands and arms bound in the void, and returned to its starting position, ready to hurl itself at the target again.

Atlas knew well that he wasn't the one who had moved his faithful companion. Still, when he suddenly found himself in that position, he imagined pushing him forward and, with a thunderous shout, accompanied the pickaxe's movements one last time: "Astra... Shatter all!"

The space between them exploded, and the air was mowed down by the pickaxe.

The crystal exploded, and simultaneously, out of that subterranean nightmare, the bright moon in the sky began to stain scarlet red, chilling the world as never before.