The Path of Ruin

The man moved slowly in front of Kael. His sword in his hand, alert. The creature... just stood where it was, not moving. As if... it didn't want to be the first to attack.

"Hey, kid... you got a name?"

The man spoke in a whisper as if not wanting to attract the creature's attention.

"K- Kael, sir..."

"Kael, huh... That's a nice name. Now, listen to me carefully, Kael."

Kael paid special attention to what the man had to say. For some reason... he had a bad feeling inside him.

"You've been through a lot to get here, I can tell. You're doing your best to survive."

He saw the man gripping his sword even tighter, but he said nothing and continued to listen to him.

"I'm going to try to hold this friend while you run away. Try to get to the upper floors, hide, run. It doesn't matter how you do it, try to survive somehow... as you have done so far. If you meet other knights like me, tell them what you learned about that flower. Okay?"

Kael nodded his head up and down softly. There was nothing he could say.

"O- okay..."

"Good, now..."

He straightened, his eyes narrowed slightly. The creature's claws, which had remained where they were until now, seemed to sharpen with this movement.

"Go!"

The man lunged at the creature. At the same moment, the creature at the end of the corridor roared so loudly that it almost deafened Kael's ears. But he... just turned and ran away.

He could hear the sounds of the battle taking place behind him. No matter how far he ran, it echoed in his ears.

No creatures came his way. Nor did he meet anyone alive. After a short while... the sounds of fighting he could hear stopped. Still, he kept running. He saw several rooms, some with open doors, some with closed.

He could have gone inside one of them and waited, just like last time. But... that flower would come back. And when it came back, he didn't know if he could resist sleep this time, if he could fight the desire to do so.

He had to go upstairs. If most of the knights were really upstairs... then that's where he had to go.

Yes, the number of creatures would multiply... Yes, he would be the first one to be discarded or used as bait. Still, if he really wanted to live, he could at least take his chances there. He didn't want to turn into a creature in a quiet, dark room with no self-control.

If he was going to die, then at least he wouldn't be a creature.

So, after a short while, he found the stairs to the fourth floor. But... as soon as he found these stairs, something else caught his attention, voices. So many voices. The voices of people, the voices of creatures, the sounds of collisions... All coming from upstairs.

He swallowed. It wasn't hard for him to realize that something big was happening on the fourth floor. But... the king was supposed to be on the sixth floor. If such noises were coming from the fourth floor, what was happening on the fifth floor? And on the sixth floor?

He swallowed again.

'I must move forward.'

That was the only thought in his mind. There was no turning back now, he had to move forward. So... he started climbing the stairs one by one. When he could see what was happening in the corridors of the fourth floor, that's when his steps slowed down.

It was just as he had predicted. The fourth floor... was really like a battlefield. There were so many creatures and human corpses on the floor. But there were just as many living ones. The knights were killing one creature after another. And not only normal creatures, there were a lot of the furry ones too.

Kael clenched his fists. What was he going to do now? Wait for the knights to die or kill the creatures, or run for the upper floors? Whether he went to the right or to the left, he could randomly die between someone's blows.

He glanced quickly at the fighting soldiers, looking for a gap through which he could slip. It wasn't long before he paused for a moment. His eyes settled on one particular knight.

It was a knight with blondish curly hair. And... Kael knew this person. How could he forget the kind knight he had met only yesterday?

But... Manar didn't look like a kind man right now. There was a sharpness in his eyes that Kael had never seen before. He was covered in blood, claw, and tooth marks on his armor.

He was the opposite of 'kind' as he drew the sword and slashed mercilessly at the creature before him.

Kael realized he was just staring at the knight, mesmerized. A moment later... Manar looked in his direction and noticed him. He wasn't too sure, as it happened while he was fighting another creature, but he could have sworn the knight's eyes widened.

Manar mowed down another creature, then said something to the other knights fighting beside him and moved quickly in his direction.

"Hey, what are you doing here? You have to hide somewhere!"

But Kael quickly shook his head from side to side. When Manar was close enough for him to hear, he spoke quickly.

"I can't hide, no one can hide. Otherwise, everyone will turn into a monster, sir."

Manar raised his eyebrows in confusion. He turned around for a moment, looking quickly to see if anything was attacking them. But the knights were doing a good job of holding off the creatures.

"Forget sir, let's have a quick talk. Why?"

Kael felt uneasy as if one of the creatures was about to pounce on him. Still, he didn't delay Manar's answer and stopped being as formal as he wanted to be.

"There is a snow-white flower that appears to those who are asleep or falling asleep. It can play with people's ability to think, making them feel peaceful and drawn to it. But anyone who touches it turns into a creature."

Manar's expression suddenly fell.

"That's why their numbers never dwindle, then... All the civilians we sent into hiding must have turned into creatures."

He clicked his tongue, uttered a few curses in a low voice that Kael couldn't quite understand. Then he turned back to Kael once again.

"What are you trying to do, then? If you can't hide somewhere... why are you here?"

"I've been running from the creatures until now."

Manar looked at Kael's face in surprise.

"How many creatures have you escaped so far?"

"I'm not sure... but more than ten. I killed two. Though... maybe three?"

He didn't know what had happened to the creature he had thrown his bag at as he ran away almost madly. All the medicines and poisons he had been carrying with him spilled right on its face, maybe got into its nose and mouth. So... it was probably dead?

This time the curly-haired knight was truly surprised. The creatures were weak, at least the non-furred ones were... but they were still more than enough to kill a fifteen-year-old boy.

Manar sighed, gripping his sword tightly, preparing to speak again, but then paused. His eyes turned behind Kael, to the stairs leading down to the third floor, and then narrowed slightly. Kael turned too, looking down. A moment later... the sound of footsteps echoed up to the fourth floor.

Coming up the steps one by one... was one of the furry creatures. It had a large scar on its chest, and three fingers missing from its left claw.

Kael recognized the creature instantly. This... was the creature facing the knight who had told him to run.

And the fact that it was here... meant that the previous knight...

"Run away. I was going to suggest you stay on the stairs despite the flower you told me about, but... run. Keep surviving like you've been doing so far, kid. Go to the left, you can go up to the fifth floor from there, or... you can go into a room, even if it means turning into a creature."

Kael said nothing as he gritted his teeth.

This is what he didn't want. These men... why were they so nice to him? He would have preferred they ignore him, or even throw him to the creatures as bait. At least he wouldn't have to try so hard to survive anymore, he would have no excuse. But for some reason... both of the two knights he encountered saw him as a real human being, rather than a simple 'tool' like everyone else.

He turned to the left, clenching his fist as Manar dashed down the stairs in front of him, and started running again. He passed between two knights, heard them saying something about him, but ignored them.

Soon, he saw two of the creatures turning towards him. But those two knights, who were right behind him, appeared in front of him and mowed them both down before the creatures could move towards him. They blocked the corridor he had fled down before the other creatures could reach him.

Kael gritted his teeth even harder. Still, he entered the corpse-filled corridor and kept moving forward.

The fifth floor... he just needed to get there. He didn't care about the sixth floor, he was sure from the start that as a slave, he wouldn't be allowed near the king. But if he could find a hiding place on the fifth floor... if he could hide behind the knights there... then everything would be much easier.

With these thoughts, with this hope, he kept moving forward. And it wasn't long before he found the stairs to the fifth floor. He slowed down, stopped. He didn't move forward, he didn't walk any further. He just... stopped. Because there was a brand-new but classic problem in front of him.

There was a creature just in front of the stairs. Its red eyes were on him, getting ready to attack.

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