Chaos and terror spread through the village near the Baranis mine. Tavin was still unconscious in his hut, while the chief of the miners tried to calm the people — but fear had already taken hold of them.Whispers moved among the villagers: what had caused the collapse of the mine? And were there truly monsters in the depths?
Silence fell among the men after the cave-in; no one dared to look toward the dark opening that had swallowed their comrades. Dust filled the air, and the burning scent of Baranis suffocated their breaths.
One of the elder miners said in a hoarse voice:"We've lost one of our most valuable mines... and we might lose more in the days to come."
Another replied, his eyes trembling as he stared into the pit:"If what the boy said is true, I doubt any of us have the courage to go back down there. Those things... if they're real, they could come out at any moment and wipe us all out."
The chief remained silent for a moment, then raised his gaze to the smoke rising from the depths of the earth and said slowly:"We'll send a messenger to the village of Diranis. They must know what happened here. Perhaps they'll send help... before the ground swallows us the same way it swallowed the mine."
While the dust still rose from the mine's direction, one of the leaders remembered a small nearby village — one that housed an ancient temple. It was said that the people there worshipped a woman described with the same monstrous traits that Tavin had spoken of before losing consciousness.
The leader spoke in a low voice, as if his words came out between fear and suspicion:"I can't believe you remembered that place... Maybe what's happening now is connected to it."
Then he turned toward one of his men, and the decision in his eyes was clear:"I'm leaving you in charge of protecting the village. Keep guards on the walls and don't let anyone near the mine. As for me... I'll go there myself."
No one argued. He put on his armor made of Baranis, ordered three soldiers to accompany him, and at once departed from the village — leaving behind faces heavy with fear, eyes following him until darkness swallowed their silhouettes.
......
Tavin awoke from a dreadful nightmare, his body trembling, his eyes wide open as if he were still trapped between the walls of his haunting dream. Beside him sat his sister, Evelia, wiping the sweat from his forehead with warm hands, her calm voice trying to soothe his frantic heart.
He lifted his head and looked at her — his voice weak, yet filled with gratitude:"Thank you... Without you, I wouldn't have been able to breathe again."
She smiled softly."Don't thank me. I just wanted to see you safe — that's all I ever wanted."
He fell silent for a moment, his eyes drifting toward the dim, gray ceiling of the hut. Then he spoke, his tone heavy with sadness:"I'm starting to feel trapped... We have to escape this prison, this buried land."
She didn't answer, so he continued, raising his voice slightly as if speaking to himself:"Do you think freedom will truly exist once we escape this dark world? I was a slave in the kingdom, years ago. When they set me free, I thought I'd finally found freedom... but I soon realized I was still a prisoner. This buried land — it's just another kind of cage."
Evelia interrupted him gently, her voice firm but full of warmth:"Stop thinking about such things, Tavin. Freedom... might not even exist. We'll keep chasing it until our souls are freed from our bodies."
Tavin sat in silence for a while, his eyes heavy with thought, before whispering — softly yet with conviction:"Even so... I want to see the sky. Just once. I want to know if the world above us holds anything better than the darkness we've lived in."
Evelia stayed quiet, knowing that this desire in his heart would never die — no matter how long they waited.
As they sat in silence, a sudden eruption of screams broke from outside, shattering the stillness of the night. Their breaths caught, fear running like ice through their veins.
Tavin raised his head slowly, eyes scanning the darkness beyond the wooden windows. His voice was low but tense:"What... what is that sound?"
Evelia moved closer, resting her hand on his shoulder to calm him."I don't know... but it sounds... terrible. We should be careful — it could be something outside."
Tavin stood, his hand gripping the edge of the chair tightly as his heart pounded faster."If there's danger, we can't stay here... we need to find out what's happening."
The screams grew louder, closer — invading the walls of the small hut, as if the world outside wanted to force its way in. Evelia took a deep breath and said with a trembling voice:"We have to see what it is... but carefully. Nothing should be able to surprise us like this."
Tavin nodded, his eyes scanning every shadow, ready to move, as a heavy sense of danger filled his chest — a mix of fear and alertness.
The moment was brief, yet the silence that followed felt louder than the screams themselves — a silence soaked in terror, anger, and the desperate instinct to survive.
.......
In a large hut that looked more like a temple, the high priest sat before a woman chained to the ground. She writhed and screamed — her voice echoing like that of a beast. Her movements and cries filled the space with dread, yet the high priest remained still, speaking in a calm but commanding voice:"While others ignored you and turned away, we were the ones who cared for you. While they called you a monster, we called you blessed. Your will surpassed that of Paradise itself — and we stand by you."
Behind him, the other priests and worshippers stood silently, their murmured prayers mingling with the woman's shrieks, creating an atmosphere both sacred and terrifying.
Outside, the miners' chief arrived at the temple, his heavy footsteps echoing across the stone floor. Two guards blocked his path."Where do you think you're going, miner?" one asked.The other added mockingly, "He's not just a miner — he's the miners' chief."They both laughed, but the chief didn't flinch. He drew his sword and said sternly:"I may be the miners' chief, but before that — I was a soldier. I didn't survive the war by luck... but by skill."
The fear in the guards' eyes was clear; they stepped aside, letting him pass. His footsteps inside the temple carried a heavy sense of anticipation. The chained woman's screams grew wilder, as if she sensed his arrival. The high priest stayed calm, his gaze steady — as though this moment, the chief's arrival, was destined to change everything.
The worshippers began to leave, one after another, as though the ritual had reached something beyond human endurance. The priests stood in the back, their white robes whispering softly amid the woman's broken cries. The high priest alone remained at the front, his eyes lost in a void only he could see.
He began to speak strange words, as if reciting them from an ancient dream:"In my dreams... I heard the screams of beasts dancing in my ears. In my dreams... I saw him coming from a distant place... seeking the lost mother... meeting his kin, taking their strength."
His voice faltered, then rose again — echoing like a prophecy drawn from the stones themselves:"Thandil was only the barrier... the one thing keeping the disaster at bay. But the barrier has decayed... and death is creeping in."
The miners' chief stepped forward steadily, his boots striking the stone floor. He drew his sword — the metal cold beneath the torchlight — and every gaze turned to him, as though the world itself awaited his decision.
He raised the sword slowly, his voice carrying firm resolve:"The calamity... will cast us all into either death... or freedom."
He brought the blade down, severing the chained woman's head. His voice thundered:"The goddess is dead!"
The high priest's eyes gleamed with unsettling calm as he replied:"She was never a goddess... Now, show me how you'll survive this war... this time."
Suddenly, the walls of the buried land began to shake. The ground split open as if the earth itself were breathing in rage. The dead rose from the stone — hollow-eyed, mutilated, their flesh torn — devouring everything in their path. Screams and chaos flooded the village in an instant; fire consumed the huts, blood stained the ground and sky, and panic filled every corner.
The chief rushed outside with his two soldiers, trying to survive, but death was everywhere. From the cracked walls emerged skeletal figures armed with bows and flaming arrows, taking lives without mercy. Each shot struck true; each strike erased another soul.
The battle claimed his soldiers one by one before his eyes, yet he refused to surrender. Raising his sword, he ran through fire and ruin, every step a fight against fate itself. In that hellish storm, escape was no longer a choice — it was the only path to survival.
The village turned to ash. The temple became a stage of horror. The dead hunted the living.But the chief kept running — his heart pounding with resolve, his spirit burning brighter than the flames around him. In a world where everything had turned against him, his will to live was the last light that refused to die.