Aimless Ascension

"What's happening?" Cameron yelled as both of us scurried off in the other direction of the bombardment.

The ground and ceiling shook in remembrance of the bombardment as charred dust, and shards fell. Thankfully, only the initial tremor was a hard one, the rest were manageable.

Still, my heart was beating like a fish out of water. I took a moment to get a hold of myself as we secured ourselves a relatively safer place with a wider scope.

I found my insane neighbour there, shuddering with his head bowed between his legs in one corner. I wasn't sure if he noticed our presence, as he remained in his own world.

"This feels more like bombing than a natural disaster," I said, sniffing the charred, pungent air.

Thankfully, the quake didn't cover much further ground and declined in its intensity shortly, though the pungent air remained. Well, the air was pudgy and stuffy, to begin with, but it became hard to breathe after what transpired deeper into the fiery pits.

However, once the worry of losing our life got over, a new worry hit both of us together.

In our fright, we left our trolleys and sprinted to the top of our speed. Life was more important than meeting the quota for a day. That seemed like the hard truth. However, getting lashed over a hundred times would make you question if you're even right.

Sexual assault, robbing, and thievery were all too common in the mines. The guards kept the peace, but they didn't bother if the sleeves kept it to themselves and didn't hinder the collection.

We even got our hard-earned crystals robbed from us a couple of times already. Evidently, I wasn't dumb enough to stop them and got myself injured again.

Anyway, back to the problem at hand. It seemed we were worried about nothing. Thanked the gods of both worlds for that.

Thankfully, nobody had stolen our hard-earned crystals from our trolleys. The most probable reason for that was the bombardment. Nobody in their right mind would bother to steal crystals when their life was at stake.

I wasn't so sure about that if we're a few minutes late though.

We came back for our trolleys after a few minutes when the mine and atmosphere calmed down.

Cameron and I exchanged glances. Both of us had suspicious expressions on, contemplating what had transpired deeper into the pits.

"Something magical for sure," I stated, my voice sounding more hopeful than logical.

Well, I wasn't sure why I was hopeful about that. It was an explosion, it could simply be a bomb. or something similar.

"Gale," Cameron told me in earnest, "you seriously need to put a check on your obsession with magic."

I was about to retort with my acerbic wit, but something else caught my attention, which outweighed throwing a witty remark at my only friend in this realm.

A few guards shot out of the direction of the bombing. Their expression was one that of annoyance instead of fright. They found both of us there, but ignored us with practised efficiency.

They hurried out of the way, conversing between them about what transpired inside the pits, which left them all so annoyed. I wasn't nearly proficient in the common tongue to make anything.

Though I figured out, this kind of event wasn't unheard of and wasn't that rare either. Well, I was barely here for a month, and never noticed something like that. Then again, we never mined deeper like this before.

"Should we go deeper to check on this?" I suggested.

Cameron shot me a look which asked if I was in the right state of mind. I shrugged, unable to blame him. Even though we are adapting somehow, we were but infants in front of most native slaves.

Even though all of them lost their magic power, their bodies persisted on being sturdy and top-notch. Even the worst of them was better than most professional fighters.

They could easily show us our place if needed.

Anyway, after a little more deliberation, we dedicated it wasn't consequential to keep on working after this. We already met our quotas, no need to get into trouble just for some hand change, which wasn't even enough to buy a good cup of beer.

So we decided to leave with our trolleys. Life was as hard as it was being a slave. No need to borrow more.

However, it seemed trouble had found its way to us before we could leave. We didn't even cover half the distance as I sensed people moving from behind us.

Cameron had an expression which said he wanted to exit with haste. However, I was more curious than ever and decided to peek behind.

There were three people there, two carrying a wounded man as the guy squealed with nasty burns all over him. It was a near miracle that he was still alive with the much burns.

However, what tipped me off more were the other two people. I knew both of them.

"Gale," Cameron called, sensing him slowing down. "Don't. . ."

"It's Imani and Dele," I said as I hurried in their direction, leaving behind my trolley and Cameron.

The two veteran earthlings tensed, finding someone rushing at them, but noticing it was me, they relaxed a bit.

"What happened?" I asked the moment I got there, my eyes scanning the fellow on their back.

"The usual," Imani said, her voice hard. "Though most of the time, slaves don't survive."

I frowned. The burned man was still squealing, awake and in pain with red blood, skin, and muscle fibres melted all over. His hair was no more and his face was more disfigured than ever, too hard for me to recognise, even if I knew this person.

However, it was pretty easy to guess with his hard build that this person wasn't an earthling.

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Shameless Plug: New book.

Apotheosis Online: Dawn of the Virtuous Sinner

Author's Comment: A more serious book than Aimless Ascension, but still with the charm of AA. Writing quality will be top-notch, to the best (almost) of my abilities.

Read the short synopsis below.