A Message

Arthur's breathing began to become labored, the creature was simply monstrous. Its shadow began to snake across the ground and the sound of its movements increased the tension.

It was a huge snake, whose length could not be measured because its body was submerged in water... but from what could be seen it was more than ten meters tall.

Its enormous and hard scales shone in the sunlight, showing a beautiful but dangerous blue.

Safwane clicked his tongue angrily.

'How can I fight protecting Arthur?' he thought as he looked around trying to find shelter.

But the colossal creature did not wait and launched itself towards them, extending its mouth, which showed its sharp fangs.

Safwane grabbed Arthur's shirt and threw him to one side, making him have to protect himself from the bite by grabbing one of the fangs.

The snake tried to close its mouth, so Safwane simply had to move away, but he felt a chill run down his spine.

At high speed he used his katana to block an attack from a nightmare that was coming from behind him, which caused the powerful bite of the snake to rip his forearm.

Safwane gave a strong kick to the nightmare to get it away, while the snake launched another attack.

The snake was heading towards him at ground level, so Safwane tried to stop it with his foot, but it was impossible.

The young man was being pushed back, where the other nightmare was. He forcefully stuck his katana into the snake's mouth, causing it to become agitated.

The huge creature hit him hard with its head.

The blow dragged Safwane across the ground. And despite the pain he had received, he had managed to avoid being attacked from two directions.

The young man began to stand up as he thought of a way to win.

The snake attacked him again, this time with its mouth extended. As it approached, Safwane began to observe what he could do.

When the creature was close enough, the young man again stabbed his katana in the same place he had done before.

The snake bit hard, but Safwane placed the sheath as well, causing it to pierce the creature's mouth as well.

The young man, with all his strength, punched downwards, making the wound deeper.

Safwane did not stop, he grabbed the scales tightly and climbed through them to reach its eyes.

Because the creature was moving desperately because of the pain, it took a while to arrive, but when he managed to reach one of them, he dug his fingers hard into it.

The creature began to get upset and moan in pain.

Safwane, trying to give the final attack, forcefully tore off the scale that was in the center of the creature's head and using it as a weapon began to stab it constantly.

'It's a monster...' Arthur thought in fear.

The huge snake slowly began to stop moving, the young man covered in blood rose. Between the blood and his intense and dead red eyes, terror was generated not only in Arthur but also in the creatures.

Safwane got off the snake's head and opened his mouth to pick up his katana. Arthur, who was hiding behind a rock the whole time, walked towards him with distrustful movements.

"And now how do we get out?" asked Safwane.

Arthur trembled.

The young man walked towards the snake's head and placed his hand. After placing it, strange golden runes began to appear.

"Appear." said Arthur.

The runes began to gather in one place, generating an intense glow. When the glow disappeared, a key appeared and fell into Arthur's hand.

The young man made a gesture as if he were opening a door and discharges began to appear.

After the discharges, a whitish portal appeared in front of them.

"Please come in..." Arthur said with a trembling voice.

Safwane passed through the portal, arriving at the same place as before.

The two walked towards the altar, where the runes shone brighter than before.

When they arrived, Arthur placed his hand in the center of it, causing dozens of stones to begin to emerge.

"What is this?" Safwane asked confused.

"The reason we have come, the soul stones." Arthur answered, placing the soul stones in a small backpack.

The soul stones had a shiny appearance and their shape was similar to that of a seed.

"Why are some of them different colors?" he asked again.

"Because depending on how much stronger they are, soul stones store more impure energy." Arthur explained.

When he finished collecting them, they both walked towards the huge door.

"The stones are separated by five colors, white, yellow, orange, red and black. The darker the color, the more powerful the creature is and therefore more valuable it is." he continued.

"And what color was the snake?"

"Deep yellow, you could say it was about to turn orange."

Finally, they left the place and the coldness of the anteroom began to be contrasted with the warm air of the destroyed city.

When they left, the door closed behind them abruptly.

Both walked through the desolate streets of Busan, people began to look at them hidden in the destroyed buildings with contempt.

"Is there food in this place?" asked Safwane without taking his gaze from the front.

"Yes... It's in the mansion of my former group."

'So they gave themselves luxuries while they looked down on others.' thought the young man.

"Take all the citizens to the mansion, make them eat and take what they need." he ordered.

"Why should I do that?"

"What?" said Safwane giving him a look full of murderous intent.

"Okay, okay... But there is not much food to give them, at most it will feed us today." answered Arthur with a nervous voice.

"There is so little?"

"Yes, I've already told you that it is one of the worst citadels. And the collection of soul stones does not take place for a few days." Arthur explained.

"Well, make it last as long as necessary to get through those days, if that's what we'll do," said Safwane as he walked on.

'You do your own thing! Because I always have to deal with these people...' thought Arthur as he let out a few tears.

While Arthur called the people to take them to the mansion, the young emperor entered a destroyed building and began to observe it.

'The structures are quite different from where he lived...' thought Safwane.

He was in the waiting room of what looked like a company, although it could barely be distinguished due to how destroyed it was.

He began to climb the stairs, which were partially broken, to end up arriving at a huge office. Walking slowly, he tried to carefully observe every part of the place.

'What is this?' he asked himself as he looked at a computer.

The screen was broken but it was showing a grainy grey that generated an annoying noise.

Safwane, in complete ignorance, began to gently clap it.

After clapping a few times and seeing that nothing happened, Safwane seemed to give up, giving one last clap, this time harder.

Surprisingly, this did have an effect, the screen began to show a person, who could barely be distinguished due to the instability of the screen.

The person slowly went from an expressionless face to a macabre smile.

"The primordial beast is about to arrive, the end of this world will finally come..." the person began to say accompanied by a long laugh.

"...Finally those damn slayers won't be able to show off to normal people..."

After those last, choppy words, the screen ended up turning off, this time showing no signs of being able to turn back on.

Safwane concentrated as much as possible to be able to understand the situation...

'I haven't understood anything...' Safwane thought accompanied by a sigh. "For once he must be here." he muttered.

Safwane frowned.

A presence which seemed masked was shown on the black screen. It was behind the young man.

Safwane turned quickly directing an elbow. Which was stopped, but with his leg he dragged the masked man's causing him to fall to the ground.

The young man directed a punch towards his face, but with an acrobatic movement the masked man moved away.

But after stopping his neck was squeezed.

"Are you stupid? Who does flips in a fight?" Safwane said angrily.

However, he received no response.

'How problematic it is not to speak the same language.'

The masked man began to laugh madly.

"Do you think..."

The young man squeezed his neck tightly.

"No... He was just going to say something." said Safwane frustrated.

Safwane let go of the man's broken neck causing him to fall to the ground. The young man, not interested in anything else, began to walk away but...

The man's body began to turn to dust.

As he watched the body slowly fade away, he could notice a kind of note sticking out among the clothing.

Safwane picked it up hoping it was some kind of clue, however now he could read the content of it.

Although he preferred that this was not the case.

"I hope you are doing well, my dear emperor."