When the golden glow illuminated, Asahi could feel the chill of the underground slip away.
He felt a profound sense of liberation.
A feeling of freedom, not just for him and Kendra but for the people forced to dwell underground for thousands of years without seeing the surface.
The cataclysmic event known as the Last Calamity had driven them to seek refuge beneath the earth, as the surface had become uninhabitable and too perilous.
It was a time shrouded in chaos and fear, when the world as they knew it was forever altered, pushing humanity of The Second Incarnation to adapt or perish. Now, after generations of living without sunlight, this moment represented a new dawn for them all.
After they came from the bridge, Asahi and Kendra stumbled upon a group eagerly waiting for their turn to pass through the golden luminance. Some had radiant, shimmering blonde hair.
Others had clear, defined brown bristles, and a few had specks of gray hair protruding from them.
Much of the attire was shared, with similar items like brown robes, while only a handful wore thin shirts, and a few wore gowns. Despite their differences, they shared a commonality.
Their uncontrolled excitement.
"What's going on here?" Asahi asked curiously as he and Kendra rushed toward the crowd.
From what he saw, anything beyond the light seemed like a dead end. His surroundings were lined with solid stone walls, bathed in a deep golden luminance.
As shuffled, lively conversations bounced through with the crowd, Asahi noticed Flavia acting strangely than usual.
"Warmth…" She said as she fell to her knees, dropping her shield next to her. "I feel… warmth."
Asahi detected that her eyes were fixed on the brittle ground, her face resembling those around her. At first, he wanted to approach her and ask if everything was fine. But the more he saw her smile shine brightly against the leaking golden rays, Asahi decided it was best not to interrupt her moment.
(Everyone… looks so happy.) Asahi thought in his mind as he cruised around the group of people. (From corner to corner, they all have great smiles. Surprisingly, most of them had hardened frowns minutes ago.)
As he wandered around the excited group, Asahi observed that mothers and fathers had already started escorting their children through the hole. A couple lifted one child upward and slowly pushed their tiny legs through the hole, one at a time, waiting for them to proceed, while others conversed about their sheer excitement at seeing sunlight for the first time.
With a loud but friendly manner, the parents encouraged them to crawl through it toward the other side.
"You can do it, Moiqo! Just a few more steps away!"
A woman with a chiseled chin, rosy skin, and olive eyes hunched over and reached her hands through the hole, feeling the warmth of the luminance tickle her skin. Tears of anticipation covered her face as the little blonde boy persisted in slipping through the hole. She screamed at the child again, bouncing up and around with pure, tremulous eagerness.
"Come on! Almost there! Asahi hesitated before moving toward the group, drawn by curiosity but mindful not to disrupt their excitement.
Not long after, he parted secretively from Kendra, vanishing into the crowd. As he watched the golden rays dim from the child's body, Asahi took a moment to ponder.
(So, the group had already decided who would go first. The youngest are the ones who deserve to crawl first, since they are the smallest among us. In all honesty, I'm…)
He stopped, blinking as he noticed the followers gathering in a friendly manner. While navigating the crowd, Asahi smiled with hope and softly whispered to himself, proud of their unity.
"I'm so proud of my followers. No one had shown any hostility to each other yet."
The more he entered the crowd, the more his followers became aware of him.
Immediately, without even hearing Asahi ask, they stepped aside from his path and bowed to them with honor and respect. They closed their eyes and bent on one knee, chanting as Asahi carefully passed through.
"With all respect to our lord, we clear his path."
Yet, Asahi has to ask for this. All he had desired was to witness the child pass through, to confirm that there was another side. However, he remembered. Before the unknown destroyed his old world, the Rulers of Cleira, revered as benevolent protectors, always told the people to show profound honor and respect to all members of the Adtraic family.
Nonetheless, with a few more seconds to spare, Asahi approached the olive-eyed woman and turned to her, asking.
"Where is the child?"
Without hesitation, she bowed on her knees and pointed her finger to the hole bathed in glorious golden light.
"Down that hole, my lord."
Asahi nodded, and soon after, he bent his head down and cast his gaze forward at the hole. All his gray eyes could catch was the beaming sunlight shining down through the other side of the tunnel; not a sight of the child was seen. As the followers and Kendra watched, Asahi carefully observed the hole. Asahi mumbled.
"It seems to me that the child appeared to have already made it to the other side." He said as he stepped back. "Meaning that there IS another side."
Coincidentally, after he had uttered that, he saw a boy with shoulder-length gray hair and electric blue eyes happily waving to him on the other side of the hole.
"Hi!" He greeted with a smile as the golden luminance cast behind him. "Is my mommy there?"
Simultaneously, the olive-eyed mother sprinted to the hole and waved back at her child, screaming with a broad smile.
"Hi, baby boy! Mommy is coming soon, don't you worry! Can you wait for me?"
As a man with dark hair and gray eyes slowly approached the woman from behind, a clear echo of a young boy's voice returned to her.
"Yes, mommy!"
With that simple reply, Asahi respectfully backed away and watched the father holler back to their child with a smile rather than a worried frown.
"Your mother and I will be there shortly! You'll have to wait for others your age to pass through the hole just like you did, and then we'll go. Okay?"
"Okay, Dad!" The child screamed back as he turned his head away.
The group fell silent as they witnessed this moment unfold. Knowing their lord was right there, the people never dared to utter a word to mute the boy's voice with chatter. Asahi turned around and saw Kendra walking by. She appeared like an ant to him in broad comparison to the immense crowd. Unlike Asahi, Kendra wasn't given the same behavior from the followers. Instead, they bunched around aimlessly, awaiting their turn to enter the hole.
To ensure he wasn't hallucinating, Asahi turned back to the hole.
At first, he had doubted that not a single soul would be able to pass through such a claustrophobic space. Looking closer, he was surprised to find the hole far larger than he thought.
After he stepped back into the crowd, Asahi's gaze cruised over to the several parents standing near their children. He took a moment to clear his throat and cough before stepping forward, as memories of his adventure here came flooding back. As all continued to gaze at their lord's presence, Asahi snapped his fingers and demanded the parents.
"Then… it is decided. The youngest will go first." Asahi ordered as he lifted his finger into the air sternly. All the bright eyes of the group of parents, both round and small, carefully cast their gazes at their lord. They couldn't help but stare at Asahi in awe, unable to believe this was happening.
While he had paused, Asahi's mind flooded with blurry recollections of his mother. A smile that was too pure to be ignored flashed through him, followed by her beautiful black halo. He wanted to see more, but the vision had faded. His gray eyes trembled as he automatically steered over to the sight of the optimistic mothers; this quickly influenced the next step in his escort process.
"After all the children have passed through the hole, the mothers and all other females will follow."
And then, he dragged his gaze over to the fathers standing next to their children. Although he couldn't have shared the memory, Asahi's mind couldn't help but fabricate blurry images of the father figure Kendra had mentioned. He was still in disbelief that a man of that power would decide to raise a child of their own will. The story itself had uplifted his hopes, motivating him to move onward.
Yet, there could be so much more in the story he still had yet to understand.
As his thoughts returned to him, Asahi rubbed his hands together and lifted his chin. He raised his voice and explained his next step to the men using simple hand gestures, such as pointing.
Keeping his strong posture, Asahi hurriedly threw his hands in the air and ordered the fathers, making simple hand gestures to explain himself.
"... and lastly, the fathers and men will also crawl through the hole. Do I make myself clear?"
In addition to his demands, all the group's men answered him with silent nods. Asahi's attitude was piqued, not by how his followers were capitulated by his inadvertence, but by his ill-dissimulated fits of ambition. It almost seemed to him that the golden light had increased in brightness when he had said that.
Kendra arrived, visibly impatient but with traces of excitement. The crowd's size made her appear small, and because of her stature, she was able to weave through more easily than others.
As the escort process was set in motion, Asahi and Kendra gathered at the back of the group, watching as the men and women helped the children pass through the tunnel.
. . .
Upon their escort, Asahi watched as the children stood in a neat formation, lined up to pass through the hole. One by one, children with all different hair colors crawled through, leaving only the parents. From then on, the last people left were Asahi and Kendra. As his gray eyes caught on to the last man left of the group, having gray hair and crimson eyes, he turned over to Kendra and snapped his fingers.
"Alright, that's the last of them." He said as he felt the warmth of the golden rays touch his face. "Now all that is left is for us two to pass through the hole."
Kendra took another look at the hole before questioning Asahi once more.
"Are you sure I would be able to fit in?"
Asahi raised his eyebrow, answering sarcastically as he slowly pushed Kendra toward the tunnel.
"Of course. I mean, look at all the thousands of people who have passed. Do you really think that you will be no less than an exception?"
Now, having thought of it, Kendra was left in embarrassment. She knew that was a silly question, and yet she still asked. Despite Asahi's relatively rude tone, she admired him, not out of love or anything, but out of honor. Seeing such a young man guide thousands without effort made her feel as if she was missing something.
Nonetheless, before she could think, Kendra started to slip her body through the noticeably expanding tunnel. The warmth of the golden rays peeked through the distant silhouettes standing at the other side. She heard the voices of conversations echoing back to her as she continued to crawl through the hollow stone tunnel.
"I haven't seen such a light in years. It's as if… this is all an illusion." A deep voice said, "A suited man."
"Mommy, how did we get here?"
"It's all because of our lord. Thank him when we get the chance."
Asahi couldn't help but break up a smile at their words. Though the thought of being trapped underground for thousands of years may be depressing, he wasn't caught in this situation. Asahi decided it was best for them to find sunlight. However, when he had slowly crawled through the tunnel, keeping his body straight, Asahi still had one thought latched onto his mind.
(Why has Telos been so silent? Usually, he would be spurring up a conversation on these types of topics. But… I haven't heard his voice for hours. It's… strange.)
Following his thoughts was the scream of relief from Kendra, who had her hand poked out from the other side. Even at a distance, Asahi could see that the alternate side of the tunnel was far larger, resembling an open cavern that let sunlight shine through.
This situation seemed all too convenient for Asahi. As the events unfolded with such perfect timing, a sense of unease began to claw at his mind. His instincts, honed over years of hardship, told him that this smooth transition to the surface was improbable. Deep down, Asahi wondered if they were being led into a trap. What if this was all a trick? His heart raced with fear at the thought of endangering the lives of those who entrusted him with their escape.
And that's when things took a turn for the worse.
Kendra could practically feel the open air and warmth of the light shower that fell on her. She saw thousands of followers gathered around the rocky room, gazing at the beautiful crystals embedded in its walls.
It was almost as if the underground's darkness had taken on a rather beautiful hue. She mumbled as she felt the grasp of a woman touch her.
"Whoa. It really is warmer here. I can see the light."
Asahi coughed up dust particles that had involuntarily entered his mouth. He could practically feel the differentiating textures of both the coldness of the darkness-shrouded underground tomb and the hopeful-filled warmth of the other side.
"Kendra is just at the tip," Asahi mumbled as he stopped to take a breather. "One more step and we will be out of here in no time."
As they stared at the hopeful, golden sunbeam in front with wide eyes and a smile, a loud clap of thunder reverberated through the cavern.
From behind, the noise grew louder, echoing throughout the cavern and shrinking the luminance.
This noise attracted Asahi, forcing him to turn around in distraction. He gasped deeply when he noticed that the cyan light he had seen earlier returned, in an even more aggressive approach than last time.
The large, expanding cyan anomaly burst suddenly into a frenzied convulsion.
With heaving, boiling, hissing, and gyrating innumerable vortices, it expanded into a threatening size. The stone pillars that stretched from the ceiling to the darkest abyss were covered and warded with a rapidity as several straps of vapor and debris emerged.
Glowing sashes moved back and forth aggressively, slowly creeping closer to the golden ribbon of light shining at the opposite end of the bridge.
Asahi and Kendra tried their best to look away, to progress and enter the light with the others.
But with every thunder that echoed across the cavern, they had no choice but to keep their eyes anchored on the approaching threat.
"What is that?" Kendra cried.
Just as they thought things couldn't get worse, a silhouette emerged from the anomaly; one with two arms, two legs, and a body parallel to that of a human.
The figure was an imposing presence, fully clad in alien steel armor of cyan and black, resembling a medieval knight.
As it stepped forward, the metallic clink of its armor was accompanied by a low, ominous hum that seemed to vibrate through the stone walls and resonate deep within the souls of all present.
A faint electric aura surrounded the knight, crackling with energy, and its eyes glowed a piercing blue, illuminating the path ahead as if challenging all who dared approach.
Each sound of its reverberating, cyan steel boots echoed across the bleak landscape of the stone walls, trembling the very core of everyone who heard it.
"Is that?" Asahi paused. For a moment, he froze, squinting at the approaching figure with careful curiosity. But all he could see was the armor it had worn. Scratching his chin, Asahi whispered to Kendra in a quiet voice. "...a knight?"
Before she could respond, they felt a heavy weight pull their legs. Kendra's eyes shrank in fear as she felt her entire body get senselessly dragged back from the sheer strength of the pull.
Her body, along with Asahi's, immediately parted from the golden luminance, quickly returning to the chilling tomb of the underground.
As they hastily flew back from the hole, Asahi noticed that the mysterious knight had held their arm up. He abruptly realized that this was the power from the knight, not some other natural force.
Feeling the chilling, empty wind return to them, Asahi and Kendra were discharged out of the hole like an erupting volcano. Their bodies flew toward the knight like ragdolls, eventually returning to where they had come from. Crashing face-first on the ground, Asahi and Kendra found themselves on the stone bridge that had led toward the golden light.
"What's going on?" Kendra asked with panting breaths, her face covered in bruises. "What is that thing?"
Lifting himself, Asahi scratched his head, speaking with absolute truthfulness.
"I have no idea."