Chapter 12: 12 – Gate

Ruith dragged Vaeri with him, both of them sprinting as fast as they could. Linne would only buy them a few moments, but that was all they needed. Even the monstrous wolf wouldn’t be able to find them in this kind of storm.

A high pitched scream resounded throughout the forest, and a deep yelp from the wolf. Then the scream was suddenly cut off. 

Ruith kept pulling Vaeri along, their breath becoming ragged. The tracks they left soon filled with snow, and the boy was making sure they didn’t go in a straight line. The two slowed down to a jog, the snow becoming deeper by the minute.

“Ruith I’m…really…tired…” Vaeri seemed half conscious, her pace slowing even more.

“Try to keep going…we have to find somewhere eventually.”

Vaeri was leaning on Ruith’s shoulder for support, her steps clumsy.

The snow whipped against her exposed forearms, and she started to shake.

‘Shit. She’ll get frostbite.’

Ruith looked around desperately for anything they could take shelter in, but all he saw was the tall, leafless trees. The moonlight reflected off the snow that covered everything.

His hands were going numb once again, the cold air making his jaw ache and pain spread throughout his lungs. But then he spotted something.

“There!”

He noticed the rocky entrance to a cave, dropping sharply down into the ground. Ruith pulled Vaeri harder, reaching the cave as fast as possible. He let go of her hand for a moment, jumping down first. The drop was about twenty feet, his knees creaking.

He looked up, signaling Vaeri to jump. Ruith caught her, and placed her down.

‘Was she always that heavy?’ He thought to himself, she had a skinny build and was short, but felt even heavier than him.

“Come on. We can almost rest.”

Ruith grabbed her hand again, descending deeper into the cave. There was not a single sound other than their footsteps against the stone. Finally, the cave stopped declining, opening into a little clearing. 

“Here. This is good.”

At Ruith’s words, Vaeri crumpled to the ground, passing out near instantly. Ruith took her pack off for her, and rolled her onto her back. He put his own backpack down, and searched through hers for something. He pulled out a pillow, though it was thin it was better than laying on the hard stone. He placed it under her head, and pulled out his own pillow and a blanket. He laid close to her and put the blanket over both of them, far too exhausted to make a fire for warmth.

Ruith passed out just as Vaeri had, sinking into a blissful sleep.

***

An unknown amount of time passed before Ruith finally moved, slowly opening his eyes. He sat up, looking down and seeing that Vaeri was still sleeping. He could barely see in this dark cave however, so he opened his pack. There was a bit of firewood and kindling stored inside with a flint.

He quietly lit the fire, making sure not to wake Vaeri up. The warmth permeated his entire body, and he closed his eyes in pleasure. He thought back to the events of the battle.

‘I guess they’re all dead. Well, I don’t know if Nalen actually died.’

Ruith remembered how he pushed Linne in front of the wolf to save himself.

‘It was all of our lives or hers, no need to dwell on it.’

Ruith inspected his mana core. It felt ready to burst, he could break through to the next stage whenever he chose.

‘I’ll wait for Vaeri to awake before I do. I don’t know how long the breakthrough will last.’

The boy sat by the fire for the next few hours, waiting. 

Eventually, the girl stirred and sat up. She rubbed her eyes and looked over at Ruith, confused for a second before everything came back to her.

“Are they all dead? Where are we?”

“Mm, they’re dead…We’re in a cave, I have no idea where.”

Vaeri moved closer to the fire, and checked her wounds. They had healed a bit more, but the muscles and skin were still damaged. She wouldn’t be able to fight for at least another day.

“You killed Linne.”

Ruith frowned but nodded. “It was her or us.”

“We could have-”

“No, Vaeri. We couldn’t have done anything. If I hadn’t done that we would all be in that fucking monster’s stomach.” Ruith sighed. “I don’t want to talk about it, everything is in the past now. We need to focus on surviving.”

Vaeri nodded, not pushing further on the topic. It was obviously Ruith’s first kill, though not directly, and she felt he was simply acting like it didn’t affect him.

They were silent for a while longer. Ruith was thinking.

‘I had no choice. I can’t afford to die yet…but maybe there was another way?’

The thoughts of what he did to Linne plagued his mind, but he couldn’t think of another way to get out of that situation. It was simply the only option Ruith had at the time.

“I’m going to go check the entrance. Stay here.”

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He decided to clear his mind, they couldn’t stay in the cave forever anyway. Ruith walked for a minute before he reached the entrance. There was a few feet of snow that had fallen into the cave. He looked up. It was too high, and there weren't any good handholds on the wall.

“Shit.”

It seemed to be the afternoon of the next day, but the snow was still falling, although a lot lighter. He headed back to Vaeri to tell her the news. He explained the entrance to her.

“We’ll have to go deeper into the cave, find a different exit or get something we can stand on to get out.” Ruith explained his plan.

Vaeri stood up, having recovered enough to descend deeper into the cave. She took a torch from her pack and lit it on the fire before following Ruith.

They walked for what felt like forever, the only noises were their footsteps and the dripping of water.

“Vaeri, I think I can break through to the red core stage, what happens when I do?”

“It’s about the same as when you first awaken your ability. You already know about the improvements, and it shouldn’t take more than ten minutes.”

They went silent once again.

‘I’ll break through once we rest.’ 

They continued walking for another thirty minutes before the tunnel they were in started to widen. They came to the end, and it opened into a massive cavern.

“The hell is this…” Ruith muttered.

They were about a hundred feet above the floor of the cavern, but still another 300 feet from the ceiling. But what truly shocked the both of them, was the fact that the cavern was overgrown with plant life. Thick vines covered the walls, and bright green grass covered the floor. There were multiple ponds of completely clear water scattered around. On the ceiling, there was what seemed to be glowing moss providing light for the entire cavern.

And in the center of the cavern, there was a small stone platform. Atop this platform was the frame of a gate. But it didn’t lead to anything, it was literally a random gate placed in the middle of the place.

Ruith and Vaeri frowned at each other, looking for a way to get down. There was a thin stone path leading down to the bottom. The two walked single file down.

“It would be funny if we just fell to our deaths after everything…” Ruith said.

“Pfft.” Vaeri lightly giggled, it would be funny…kind of.

They reached the ground, beelining for the water. They barely had any left in their canteens.

Vaeri leaned down and sniffed it.

“Probably safe.”

They cupped their hands, and drank. The cool water flowed down their throats, and they even washed their faces. 

Feeling refreshed for the first time in days, they stood and went to inspect the strange gate. There had to be a purpose to it. They got close, and nothing stood out about it. There were a few lines carved into it, but nothing of importance. The stone platform was covered in dust, as if it had not been touched for countless years.

Ruith reached out a hand, placing it onto the cold stone of the gate.

All the mana contained within his body vanished.

He jerked away from it, a bewildered expression on his face.

“What the hell!?”

“Huh? What is it?” 

“That thing just absorbed all of my mana or something…”

Ruith slowly regained his mana while beginning to inspect the strange structure. He didn’t see anything at first, but then noticed it. The shallow lines carved into the gate now had an almost imperceptible green glow. 

“Vaeri, touch put your hand on the stone. I want to see something.”

She complied, and all of her mana also vanished. The green glow grew a bit stronger.

“I think it’s powering itself with our mana!” Ruith exclaimed, intrigued by this. Vaeri also inspected the structure, noticing the green glow too. They both marveled at it for a moment before the boy spoke again.

“Let’s look around, see if there’s an exit here.”

They split up, each covering half of the cavern, meeting back at the gate a bit later.

“Nothing on my side.” Ruith said.

“Same. But I found some strange fruit trees, with these on them.” Vaeri held out a small, oval shaped green fruit. 

“Hmm. We’ll only eat them if we run out of food from our packs before escaping this place.”

“Alright. Anyway, I think we should see what happens if we completely ‘power’ this gate, or whatever it’s doing with our mana.”

Ruith agreed. They had nothing else to do, so they might as well.

“Oh, first I’m going to break through.”

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