Chapter 2: Humanity

A pounding headache rapidly approaching, Sol is covered in the harsh cold and beneath him lies rough, chipped concrete. Slowly opening his eyes, the first thing that greeted his sight was 8 slightly rusted iron bars, and a not so spacious room. But beneath him wasn't empty, instead red paint was arranged with a circular design with bunch of lines in the middle, almost like a ritual, a satanic one at that. Panicking, Sol was about to scream, thinking he was about to be sacrificed, but soon spotted a familiar young woman sitting on a wooden chair, drinking from a cup, presumably tea.

"What are you doing! What is this design? Are you guys actually guards or a cult?"

Startled, the young lady immediately put her hands on her side, presumably where her weapon is. Seeing that it was just Sol, she heaved a sigh, with an arm on her chest, before shortly smiling sincerely at Sol. Before she could say something, footsteps echoed in the corridor along with a clack entering their ears. 

"Captain, you came just in time, he seems relatively fine."

"It's possible he's fine, but it's also possible its delayed, we don't know for certain yet," Adam said while looking at Sol with a hint of unease. 

"You still haven't answered my question-"

Before Sol could finish his sentence, extreme agony overwhelmed his entire body, causing him to plummet onto the cold hard ground, with his hands on his heads, screaming in atrocious pain. While he kept screeching, the red paint on the floor quickly started moving in clockwise pattern, and soon entered the man's body, causing the screeching to slowly slow down, before completely stopping.

Gasping for air, the pain finally stopped, seemingly like an eternity but he was stupefied. Truly dumbstruck at what just happened. He felt the most excruciating pain of his life and it just stopped, like it never even happened. Wondering what the hell was happening to him, Sol turned to Adam, using his eyes to urge Adam to quickly give answers, only to see Adam breathe a huge sigh of relief with a gentle smile on his face. 

"I'm glad you are alive Sol."

!!!

"What do you mean? Is it because I dealt with that pain that I'm still alive?"

"Kind of, if you didn't manage to succeed, you would have lost your humanity. You may not understand what that means, but just know that you survived, that's all that matters, for this year at least."

"This year? You're telling me that I have to experience this next year? Will I have to experience this every year? I don't want that! No way in hell I want to experience this again! Wait, where is the paint... it was right here but now its gone, what in the hell is happening!"

Adam, looking at Sol wore a complexed look, as if he was contemplating whether he should say something or disregard it. Not before long, violent coughing was heard and while looking over, hints of blood was covered in Adam's hands.

"Captain!"

"I'm fine."

Confused what was going on, Sol wanted to say something but thought it was better for him to shut up, after all he needed answers, especially after everything that he is currently going through. After wiping the blood off of his hands, Adam's eyes sparkled with determination, most likely making his mind up about something, walked up to the cell and carefully scrutinized Sol before quickly unlocking it and releasing Sol from his shackles on his body.

Finally regaining his freedom, before Sol thanked Adam for his help or even before Adam could say a word, he sprinted towards the direction where Adam first arrived at, hoping for a door to finally free himself from this mental place.

"..."

"... Captain, should... I grab him? This is the first time something like this has ever happened."

"No, just let him be, he's one odd boy for sure."

***

Haha, these cults really can't fool me, these idiots think I will actually fall for their plan. What idiots!

Finding the exit, Sol was really surprised to see that there were couple of people located here, where they seemed to be busy with Mother knows what. Though these people were all employees, he also spotted Amon sitting at the corner looking seriously at a piece of paper. Thinking that it was their next victim that they were busy working on, Sol used his clothes to try to cover his face before quickly finding the door leading to the exit. 

Finally free at last, he was looking at the surroundings and noticed that the street looked extremely familiar, but he couldn't recall where it was. But before he could try to answer his question, he noticed a building, and forgetting his previous question, a huge grin appeared on his face when an idea popped in his mind.

Heh, you will regret messing with me you damn cultists!

Entering the building, Sol spotted a man with a formal attire sitting at a desk. Walking up to him, he couldn't stop his grin.

"Hello officer, I would like to report a group of evil cultists that recently appeared..."

***

After making his report, he quickly left and followed his question on why everything looked so familiar, but he couldn't recall anything. In his view, there are tall buildings made of stone with wooden steep roof. While most of them were one story, some looked like they had two, and rarely three, with wooden beams support them. But looking in the far distance, some of these buildings had four or five huge chimneys on the side of the building, where tons of black smoke was radiating out of. 

Turning left, then turning right, few buildings looked out of place to Sol, but some looked very familiar, such as the one where he is currently standing under, with a sign on top labeled "Leia's laundry". Thinking nothing about it, Sol pushed the wooden door and a delicate bell chime was heard, along with a well kept room made of red bricks, and with a hard wood floor greeted him. Though, before Sol could react, a "welcome" from a very soft but delicate voice was heard from a far corner. 

Running into Sol's view was a short girl, with brown hair tied in a white linen coif, with a white apron, though looking a little ragged, but still pleasant nonetheless. After seeing who the visitor is, the girls eye's suddenly shined and she quickly sprinted to Sol, enveloping him in an gigantic embrace.

"Brother! You're here!"

"... Brother? Who are you?"