Chapter 28

Dismissing that idea outright, I looked to see what they wanted my attention for.

Looking around the open space that we entered a little while ago, it was a massive open space that had a height that was over a hundred meters. 

The entire place looked completely unnatural, it was obvious that the dragon had made it artificially, either controlling his flames to melt the stone then formed it into what he desired, used some kind of magic, or had an item that had the ability to move enormous amounts of earth.

At the far end of the cavern was a veritable sea of gold. There were coins, jewelry, artifacts, and many other items of various value. The expanse covered at least a third of the total space on the ground, and approaching the treasure, we could also see that it towered over us by a decent bit.

"Gods, I heard that dragons loved to hoard treasure, but this is on a whole 'nother level. This is more capital than I've seen in my entire life combined." Wrai voiced his amazement, something I wasn't quite feeling.

Though that wasn't quite fair, since I've seen, probably, the greatest vault of wealth ever assembled in the world. And just a few of the items in my Bag of Holding, would most likely be worth more than all of this combined.

Verica also didn't seem as impressed, though I could see that greed was shining in her eyes, her desire for material wealth that she had inherited from her previous lifestyle, was the greatest amongst the four of us.

Bastien just didn't seem to really care, not really being one to care about such things, though he doesn't speak much about his past, he doesn't seem to come from an opulent background.

Instead, he was staring straight at something off to the side of the brilliant ocean of treasure, and his face hardened, as if he had seen something repugnant. I moved my gaze, to see what had captured his attention, and disgusted him so.

And what graced my vision, was something I had only ever expected to see in my nightmares, the kind of horror I had ever so desperately trained to fight against.

A caricature of evil, a vision of something that would have been the very representation of wickedness, a distorted insight into the sin in the hearts of all life.

That, perhaps, Death really is -

Mercy.

"Verica. Wrai. You should see this." Beckoned our ranger, as he grit his teeth in the most amount of fury I have seen him demonstrate.

The two whose names he had called walked over, and their eyes landed upon this mockery of life, as if proven it was never a gift to begin with. Maybe it was a curse.

The moment that happened, they both reacted vastly differently, showing that, despite how similar they could act, they were tremendously dissimilar, both in mindset and in character.

While Wrai's eyes flew wide open in hellish rage, his anger radiating from every pore, the clenching of his teeth and fist, the way his arms twitched, as if wanting to lash out at whatever that could cool his wrath. 

I could practically feel his outburst of emotion within my soul.

Contrasting him was our spellcaster, while he was the embodiment of fury, she was quite the opposite. 

Nothing could be gleaned from her. She was completely blank, from her face, to the stillness of her body. 

Her eyes, that seconds ago were full of human desire, were empty. As if the ocean had gone quiet, its torrential expressions were reduced to complete void.

What was reflected in her twin pools of still water, was something I would call a vision of artistic cruelty.

Human bodies were twisted in a macabre spiral, broken down and made into building blocks for a shrine dedicated to death. Bones were the frame, torn skin draped over them, making for vile curtains that couldn't even block our sight.

Attached to the bones were their guts, wrapped around the neck of various humans -

no, upon closer inspection, you could see that no being was intact, they were stuffed flesh suits grotesquely made in the image of what was once people.

The ones nearer to us were more crudely made, the stitched skin barely holding together, the crushed ensemble of organs spilling out from the gaps, limbs having different lengths, you could almost mistake them for giant stuffed toys.

That is if those toys were made out of red flesh crafted together in horrid fascination.

The further on looked, the more fine their construction seemed, yet not one sane person could ever confuse them for the real thing, their mouths stretched wide with the very hair that belonged on their head.

But instead, it was used to stitch these human dolls together. Some were hanging from the guts around their throat, while others were held up in different positions by the sharpened bone that penetrated their limbs.

It was as if their creator wanted to make them dance. 

Every single material that laid before our eyes, were procured from humans, it looked like a true vision of what I'd imagine to be Hell.

Their hollow haunted holes, where I'd imagine eyes were supposed to be, conveyed a level of dread that I had only ever experienced in the embrace of Morpheus. When all of my fears were realized, but was no nightmare, this was reality.

I could feel my chest tightening.

Why?

Didn't I do enough? 

Wasn't I made so something like this wouldn't ever happen?

I was supposed to prevent things like this. What happened in my dreams was meant to stay there.

Life was cruel.

So if things like this happened anyways, what was my role in this world? 

Am I eve-

Before I could finish my thought, a sharp breath pierced through the veil.

I moved.

Covered in the wretched red tissue that once were a part of living breathing beings. 

 Before me, in this pit of evil, was a child.