Cold!
It's freezing cold!
I can't breathe!
Sinking into the deepest abyss of the sea, Ciel's body remained paralyzed as he descended further into the sunless depths. Above him, a faint, muffled scream barely penetrated the water's surface. Suddenly, a sharp, stinging pain jolted through him, stopping his descent.
His eyes slowly fluttered open, his ears ringing loudly, only to be met with the sharp end of a spear, its tip marred with a deep shade of red, directly pointed at his face.
It was blood.
His blood.
Instead of being fully embraced by the bone-chilling sensation of the suffocating depths, he was covered by cold sweat, gasping for air.
"Don't move." The hoarse voice of the man standing in front of him warned him, the grasp on his spear tightened.
Instantly tensing up, Ciel stopped moving.
As his eyesight began to clear up, he let them wander, looking for any information that would help him grasp his current situation.
His gaze shifted to the man in front of him, holding the tip of the iron spear towards his face. The man appeared to be middle-aged, wearing light short-sleeved leather armor with a chain main, half of his face obscured by an iron sallet.
He found the man's attire strange but that was the least of his concerns.
He couldn't read his eyes, but the slight quiver of his lower lip betrayed the emotions of the man threatening him—Fear.
Is he afraid? But afraid of what?
Calming his racing heart, Ciel's eyes darted around the confined, dusty room where the sole light source was an oil lamp, casting its dim light around the cabin's center. The wooden planks beneath his legs creaked from the slightest movement.
It's hard to breathe; the dust is overwhelming. I must be underground… That's problematic. Depending on what they want from me, I should try playing along till then. The reality of the situation dawned on him quickly, forcing him to attempt to adapt.
Swiftly judging the situation, Ciel knew that he couldn't act rashly. Even when his captor's face was obscured, he felt that the eyes behind their iron cover judged every move that he made, a simple mistake would cost his life.
"May I ask what is going on?" He received no answer. His captor seemed to stare at him without uttering a word, his spear still pointed right at Ciel.
He was just about to ask another question when his ears perked up on their own as he heard the wooden door of the small cabin creak open, another figure entering his vision.
Ciel couldn't discern his features under the glimmering light of the sole oil lantern. The figure was tall, standing firmly and vigilantly staring at him, similar to his armed captor.
He maintained his silence for a few seconds, which felt like minutes, before walking up to Ciel, the floor creaking under each of his steps.
As he stepped closer into the light, Ciel could make out his features—a man who appeared to be in his mid-twenties, with short, unusual green hair and matching green eyes. He wore light leather armor adorned with a white fur mantle around his neck.
Green? I've never seen anyone's hair like this. It looked natural which made it look stranger in his eyes.
Just as Ciel wanted to call out, a powerful kick connected to his stomach out of nowhere. Wha...! The kick sent him to the floor, he gasped for air while glaring at the newly appeared man with spite.
The man crouched down beside Ciel, grabbing him by the hair. A pained groan escaped his lips, but he glared silently, catching the flash of disgust in the man's eyes.
"How did you get into this Dreamscape? Where is the gateway? Who sent you here? Which organization do you belong to?"
His grasp tightened, yanking Ciel by the hair closer to him as his expression twisted even further.
Eh? What the hell is he talking about? Is this information I should know? Ciel didn't understand a single word, but he didn't utter one either. He appeared completely indifferent to the whole situation, hiding his confusion behind a face of indifference. What kind of an awful situation did he find himself in, surrounded by all these lunatics?
As the man studied his gaze for a few seconds, his expression crumbled as he let go of Ciel, the latter almost falling face-first to the cold stone floor.
Standing up, the man walked away from Ciel, heading straight out of the cabin, but as the door creaked open, he looked back, barely visible in the glimmering light of the lantern. He seemed to mutter something under his breath but Ciel couldn't hear it.
With that, he left the room, leaving Ciel alone with his previous captor, who was no longer pointing his spear at him.
Those eyes of his… He is completely unstable; I have to consider my actions around him, or he will snap, I can't trust this one either... He knew that look all too well, that suffocating look of madness that appeared right before the breaking point.
He didn't have to sit idly around drowning in his own thoughts as the first guard made his move, making his way towards the cabin's exit, gesturing to Ciel to do the same.
"Move."
Simply nodding, Ciel got up from the ground. His movements were stiff, and his breathing soon became labored.
Approaching the door, he grasped the handle and pulled it open with a loud creak that made his head throb. Beyond the doorway lay a crossroads of paths—the one directly ahead remained level, the path to the right descended, and the one to the left ascended.
The green-haired man was right in front of him, he appeared to be waiting for him to come out.
Without saying a word, the man turned to the right and headed toward a dark entrance, where a set of mine cart rails ran down steep steps, disappearing into the shadows and leading even deeper underground.
Of course, it's even further down, as if this tomb wasn't deep enough. Ciel could only laugh bitterly at his own misfortune as he followed the green-haired man, with the spear-wilding man following right behind him.
Every breath became harder to draw, the dust irritating his already reddening eyes even further, yet he pushed the discomfort away, trying to maintain a clear head.
After around five minutes of constant descent in the dark, his condition worsened, but Ciel began to see a brighter light source that seemed to stem from multiple brightly burning oil lamps deep down the mines.
Under these light sources, Ciel spotted around four figures, sitting on the ground with mining equipment on the side, stored beside the lanterns.
The man in front of him tersely spoke up while gesturing at Ciel to a figure in the group down there. "Tell me… is he?"
"No, he's thankfully clear." answered a strained voice. The eldest among the group, a man with ashen white hair, struggled to his feet. He reached into the torn pocket of his pants, pulling out a folded map, which he handed to the green-haired man.
The two of them began to discuss something that Ciel could not quite make out through the constant buzzing of his ears.
The ashen-haired old man looked at Ciel from his map, noticing his injuries first, his eyes narrowing as he did, "That was a bit too mean, even for you, he is so young… The youngest of us, but there is something off about him." His expression was dark as it landed on Ciel, wobbling in a corner. "I can't read his Path."
The green-haired man was rubbing his temple in frustration as he took another look at Ciel. "So he's either dead weight or a threat."
"It's one or the other…" The old man nodded in agreement.
I can't faint now!
Pushing aside the wave of nausea, Ciel leaned against the wall of the mine. A jagged rock pierced his palm, but the pain was so insignificant compared to the overwhelming nausea that he hardly noticed it.
Trying to lessen his symptoms, he closed his eyes for a couple of seconds. Slowly, the buzzing in his ears began to fade, along with the nausea and the heavy sensation that had been dragging down his limbs.
That was sooner than I expected, but I'm not going to complain.
As his eyes fluttered open, they had to get used to the change in the lighting as they previously gotten used to the dark, now, they were filled with warm light as he was surrounded by the sea.
He was familiar with this place.
I knew it… just a bad dream. His expression beamed up as he looked around, the warm rays of the sun casting their glow on the surface of the clear blue water.
But his smile disappeared from his face in a moment's notice as he saw an item appear on the surface of the water.
His mind was blank as he hurried toward the item floating on the surface. No matter how hard he tried to move faster, the water clung to his legs, forcing him to stumble forward. His expression collapsed and crumbled the closer he got.
Reaching out, he quickly grabbed the item. It wasn't large at all, fitting comfortably in the palm of his hand.
A pair of glasses, its right lens fractured while the left one was missing entirely.
Out of instinct, he turned his head left, a part of the water that seemed endless, a deep where the sun couldn't reach, one which seemed impossible to find this close to the shore.
Wait, the shore?!
Looking around in panic, his eyes desperately searched for the shores, only to be met with the endless expanse of the sea.
The warm rays of the sun cast their light on the water's surface, which no longer seemed as transparent. The shimmering reflections weren't as beautiful as they once appeared; while bright, this place appeared no better than a decorated cage.
A memory struck him, and a chuckle escaped his lips, which quickly turned into a laugh. To his right, another item emerged from the endless depths toward the surface—the more he saw, the quicker the realization hit him.
A metal wheelchair floated upwards.
Right, we are dead, after all.