After making their way down through the hole and passing through kilometers of empty stone passageways, the sun's glistening rays eventually reached the depths of the earth.
They unveiled a boundless sea of ancient structures. Asahi felt a cool, damp breeze brush against his skin, carrying the faint, earthy smell of moss and stone.
The subtle echo of dripping water resonated through the cavern, accentuating the vast emptiness that surrounded him.
Each step he took over the rough stone pathways made his footsteps echo, sending small tremors through his feet.
In the distant recesses of the cave, a chorus of indistinct whispers and rustling leaves added a haunting melody to the underground world.
The vast, long-forgotten forest of long-lost cities was filled with thousands of stone temples, towers, houses, tunnels, stairways, and statues.
It emerged from the sea of fog like a hand reaching up to the sun, revealing its existence to the very Ruler that once owned all of these.
"These are all old structures from the old world."
Asahi whispered to himself as he stood there, awestricken by the sight.
"Thousands of structures that once belonged to several kingdoms. Now... buried, forgotten by the world above. I… It's unfathomable how much is left here."
With the ancient cities weathered in stone, dust, and vegetation, there was an expanse of land both green and orange. It surrounded and paved the way through many of the walls and forgotten kingdoms of this forsaken place.
To Asahi, it seemed shocking to see that even in such depths, vegetation could still grow. But now that he thought of it, it was no surprise; magic was always chaotic in this world.
As Asahi's hands trembled at the thought of all of this being submerged underground, the masked man tapped him on the shoulder and asked.
"Would it be so bad if I were to reveal my name to you, Lord Asahi?"
"Not… at all," Asahi said as he tried to keep a tear from falling from his eye. "Just refrain from attacking me, if you may so please."
"Understood," the man replied, his tone measured.
As they walked together, exploring the cavern's outskirts and passing a lively village perched atop a lush area, the man began to speak.
"My name is Kirei. As you can see, I am a member of the Adtraic Cult," he said, straightening his posture. "My role is to prevent interference with the cities we claim. Some of our members are gathered at another city, further off by the waterfall of stone pillars."
Asahi had heard of the cult before. His knowledge stemmed from a past encounter with Telos, a key figure in the Adtraic Cult, during a tense moment in the underground catacombs beneath Linuxinia City.
This encounter revealed to him the cult's secretive, widespread nature.
Witnessing their rituals and understanding their influence made him realize how deeply they were entrenched in the world's underground societies. Despite these experiences, he had never known that the Adtraic Cult was this expansive.
"Wait a minute, do you... Remember me?" Asahi questioned, confused about whether this was a dream.
Kirei nodded, resisting the urge to pull off his mask. "Of course! Every member of The Adtraic Cult knows each member of the Adtraic family. It's a requirement. Honestly, Lord Asahi, what has gotten through your head?"
"Nothing."
Stopping near a broken, misplaced fountain at the center of five stone-and-wood houses, Kirei raised his hand, lifting a finger for each Adtraic name as he looked toward the statues behind the houses, beginning with the white-haired boy.
"From what I know, the Adtraic Family includes Asahi," he said, glancing at the five statues beyond the houses. "Then Aletha, Achlys, Acheros, and Aiyana."
Although Asahi knew the names of most of them very well, it seemed that he had forgotten about two.
"Achlys…" He recited as he struggled to remember their faces. "Acheros." He tried to look at the statues, but they were broken, torn, and in disrepair. He couldn't grasp the thought that he had forgotten who those two were.
There was significance within them.
But drowned with the thoughts of the present, it was almost impossible for him to recall. Torn with memory loss, Asahi questioned as he looked back toward Kirei.
" Who... who are they?"
Kirei backed up in shock, disbelieving of Asahi's reply.
"I suppose that those two are your parents, right? Your mother and father?"
The sound of water trickling into the ground echoed throughout the cave. Asahi stood still in silence.
A heavy, remorseful feeling weighed on his heart as he stared at the S mark inscribed on Kirei's mask—the only mark that symbolized and defined his family.
Despite having been with them for so long in the past, it seemed now that Asahi couldn't even remember his own parents anymore. Struck with frustration and despair, he clenched his fists and tried to scream.
Before he could scream, Asahi noticed other people wearing painted wooden masks staring at him with curiosity. Instead of making a scene, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
The only memories of his mother and father Asahi could summon were distorted, shuffled, blurry versions of their once-familiar faces. There was a desperate longing in his heart, a yearning to remember more than just fragments of them.
Despite his efforts, it seemed the essence of who they were slipped through his grasp, leaving only the memory of their eye color—a haunting detail engraved in his mind.
One had two different eyes—one magenta and the other gray—a striking, vivid contrast, while the other had both eyes dark gray, cold, and distant.
Grief shrouded Asahi as he realized how deeply he felt the absence of these recollections, the images now just shadowy remnants of a past mainly left undefined.
Just as he could grasp those memories, they swiftly faded away. His eyes started to cloud with sorrowful tears, his hands began to tremble, and he collapsed to his knees, begging to remember who his parents were.
But the image didn't steer clear; it remained a blur, vanishing into the darkness of his forgotten memories.
"Please, who are they? What happened to them?" He begged, pleading for any memory at all. " I don't understand... Why did the world need to be destroyed?"
His head fell back onto the cold stone floor, letting out an audible groan. The tears began flowing once more, soaking his clothing and running down his cheeks.
He didn't understand why this was happening. All he knew was that he was alone, with no friends or family except members of The Adtraic Cult. As he broke down in tears, Kirei leaned over to a girl with blonde hair and whispered to her.
"Our lord… is showing his tears. What should we do?"
"I don't know…" The girl said, leaning over and shrugging. "But…We have to help him! We can't leave our lord alone like this!"
After moments of longing for recollection, Asahi chose to give up on trying to remember who Acheros and Achlys were.
It seemed that not only had The Ruler of The Forgotten left a mark on everyone in this world, but also the family itself.
The only thing that could prove that they still exist was this massive expanse of ancient structures from The Second Incarnation, and yet, even that couldn't guarantee the fate of his parents.
Before he forgot, he sprinted to where he came from. A hole rained down with sunlight from above.
A circle of flowers surrounded it, outlining a circle of water at the center. It seemed to Asahi that without this water, he would have surely perished.
Then, as he looked down into his hands, with others of The Adtraic Cult staring at them obsessively, he looked back inside his mind to see what had happened beforehand.
He could recall seeing a girl with light powder-blue hair, screaming for help as she stood beneath a collapsing ground.
The memory of Kendra's panicked eyes and outstretched hands haunted him, leaving a heavy weight of dread deep within his chest.
If Asahi ended up in this long-forgotten place, what happened to Kendra? His mind raced with possibilities, each one more dire than the last. Had she managed to escape, or was she trapped somewhere in the ruins, waiting for help that might never come?
The fact that he had forgotten about Kendra annoyed Asahi. He knew well that he cared about others; it had been proven the moment he was with Narcissa. Yet the first thing that came to mind was Kendra's whereabouts.
When he approached the lake and tilted his head back, he saw an inverted hallway of stone corridors winding up and around several layers of rock.
(Who was to say that this was the only place submerged underground?) Asahi pondered as he noticed several rays of sunlight raining down on him in multiple paths.
"There could be several layers; it's really dependent on how deep I am underground."
As his gaze shifted to the buildings and the cultists around him, Asahi stepped forward beside Kirei and wiped away his tears, coming to terms with his memory loss.
"Kirei… correct?" Asahi asked as he approached the neatly carved stone walls. "Just how many people are here residing within this… expanse of forgotten structures?"
Kirei said, leaning his right arm against the wall. The bustling cityscape of this underground world stretched far beyond what the eye could see, with winding pathways connecting clusters of homes carved into the rocky landscape.
People went about their daily routines, tending to beasts of burden, trading goods at the bustling marketplaces, and gathering in communal dining squares to share stories and meals.
Despite the seemingly endless expanse of interconnected tunnels and chambers, the air was filled with the chatter of distant conversations and the rhythmic sounds of daily life.
When Kirei mentioned,
"Someone once said there were billions here, my lord,"
Asahi found it challenging to comprehend the sheer scale of this underground population.
"But as the years passed and famine and curses claimed many, I believe only one or two billion remain in this world."
Asahi tried to imagine the impact of such a diaspora, feeling the weight of lives lost against the vitality and resilience of those who persevered.
Knowing that only one or two billion people of his old world might be left alive among this underworld before him, with the others going to either rot, die, or vanish, sent shivers down Asahi's spine.
Shifting the conversation, Asahi began walking along the stone pathway embedded in the grassy foothills, sloping downward to a forest of tattered castles.
Each pebble and stone paved way through a cluster of villages, all of which had statues of the Adtraic Family placed on either side of the entrances.
And to make matters better for Asahi, cultists had also resided within these places, bowing down and greeting their Ruler with respect.
"We welcome your arrival… lord Asahi." Said hundreds of lips as he passed by.
The emotions that stirred in Asahi's heart as he saw various outfits walking through the cold, hollow, yet warm places were a mix of feelings. He knew that Kendra could be out there, and looking down on himself, there was no reason why he was getting stares.
"My lord. It would seem as if your upper attire is missing."
A man wearing a brown robe walked towards Asahi, carrying a large cloth wrapped around his waist. With a smile on his face, he presented Asahi with a relatively strange cloak covered in shades of brown and white.
"This is the attire that you and the rest of your family wore before all the lesser Rulers of the Kingdom of Cleira, my lord. To conceal your true beauty for the sake of others' confidence."
The man said as he knelt.
"We have deeply awaited your return, and in favor, we would like to give you what we owe for your generosity to us, Rulers."
Asahi nodded and took the clothes from the man, wrapping himself in them as the man began to walk back to the others. After looking back and seeing the others surrounding Asahi, he smiled and thanked them.
"I'm honored by your kind gesture. Thank you very much. But that isn't my true clothing."
Visions of a black cat with a white dot pattern scattered around its fur flashed in his mind. There was a bold significance.
"Ames," Asahi said with a half-breathless murmur. "Without him, my entire existence is futile."
With a pale face, Asahi turned back to Kirei, who had been staring at an inscription embedded into a wall plastered in a radiating white glow.
Although his concerns about the disappearance of his attire and Kendra may have consumed him, the white ancient language set on the cold stone walls near him couldn't help but pique his curiosity.
"Kirei, what is this?" Asahi said with a raised eyebrow.
"That, my lord, is one of the MANY prophecies written by our savior, Alaunus."
"Alaunus?" Asahi mumbled with suspicions dawning on him. "Who is Alaunus?"
As people gathered around behind Asahi, staring at him with focused eyes, Kirei answered with an inevitable implication of confidence written in his face.
"Alaunus was a mighty and wise creature of applicable skill, my lord. Not because of its wisdom and sheer power, but of its motivations and drive."
Before Kirei could resume his description of the legendary creature, an old woman cloaked in a brown dress stepped forward and interrupted.
"It is said that Alaunus was once esteemed as the healer of the World of Gincad. Where it sustains and keeps the Soil of this world rich and fertile like the heavens by soaring out in the cosmos and intervening with worlds beyond this one."
Kirei barged in and pointed to the sky.
"But one day, when a colossal veil of light descended from the stars, Alaunus and the rest of us were immediately trapped in perpetual night. Several nations, including ours, were left in darkness, leaving us and the remaining Rulers to create our own light.
If it weren't for Alaunus, we wouldn't have survived."
The more Asahi heard the people's reaction, the more he realized that this discussion wasn't just about Alaunus now, but about the origins of his old world.
For five thousand years, billions of individuals were trapped underground, believing that this was their world; in reality, above them were places beyond their comprehension.
Asahi knew very well that ruins lay hidden across the world. But stumbling in a place where all the remnants of his past world coexist with one another, with an entire society dwelling among its places, made him absolutely angry at his own ignorance.
"So, are you informing me that all of which you see is believed to be your world?" Asahi asked.
"Why, yes, my lord."
Another individual replied with hoisted arms.
"This place is nothing but just a small sector in comparison to the vast, nearly endless expanse of this place.
Kingdoms are still residing here, monsters as well. But with you here, it confirms that yes, our appraised rulers of Gincad still exist."
"And I suppose you will tell me that this place is known as the old world?" Asahi continued.
"Yes, but it goes by a different name, my lord."
"How many other civilizations have existed within these walls?"
"Many, my lord." A young girl, clad in a white robe, bowed her head respectfully.
"Are you saying that there are other nations from the continents of Gwenneg, Azazael, and another here?"
"That's correct."
Although they could continue this conversation all day, especially given the way the boy they worshiped, Asahi, turned and pointed to the glowing inscription on the stone wall, and asked.
"Would it be so hard for you to decipher this text for me, my followers?"
Without hesitation, all jumped up and raised their hands eagerly. They couldn't wait any longer to answer their lord. But although many people raised their hands among the sea of individuals, Asahi picked only one. And that was…
"Kirei," He said as he clutched the man's hand, "please… decipher this text for me. What does it say?"
After several minutes of silence, with the crowd waiting in anticipation for their lord's reaction, Kirei finally came out and revealed.
"As said by our savior, Alaunus…
[In a time that elapses ten thousand years, when all had been thought to be fallen and forgotten, our beloved, respected, divine rulers of our world will make their long-awaited return. Thou shalt not mention their names, nor shall they rush them. But for they shall wait…"
When the words of the prophecy had been deciphered from Kirei, the air around them shifted.
Asahi felt the weight of those words settle heavily in his chest, each one echoing the lost time and the promise of a forgotten legacy. The cultists murmured among themselves, a mixture of awe and apprehension clear on their faces.
It was as if the prophecy held their very destinies—the hope of renewal whispered down through the generations.
Asahi couldn't help but step back and stumble in shock,
"Ten… thousand years…?" He mumbled under his breath.
"That is… c… considerably longer than when we arrived. Did we return early?"
As he pondered over the prophecy's implications, the cultists exchanged anxious glances, realizing that their purpose might be fulfilled sooner than expected. At that moment, the crowd shook in shock.