"A-are you sure we can go there?" Silas asked, unable to meet the beautiful woman's eyes.
"Of course," Lily said. "If we're going to kiss for the first time, it has to be in the academy dungeon. Remember, intimate relations are prohibited."
When Silas heard the word "kiss," his face flushed and his heart hammered. He could hardly process what was happening.
Silas and Lily had been friends since childhood, and now they both attended the same magic academy.
But where Lily had decent talent, Silas had none. He worked harder than anyone, yet he was still on the verge of expulsion.
That's why he'd hesitated about the dungeon—a prohibited place. Other students used it as a secret spot for couples all the time and were never expelled.
But Silas was already on the blacklist. The academy was just looking for an excuse to get rid of the resource-draining failure they saw him as.
His feelings for Lily made him ignore the risk. So that night, they slipped out of the dorm and down into the dungeon.
No one saw them, but a knot of unease tightened in Silas's gut. Maybe it was his imagination, or the strange, forced way Lily was acting. She'd never talked about anything romantic before. It was odd, but the thought of kissing her drowned out all his doubts. He was thinking with the wrong head.
When they reached a heavy stone door in a section most students avoided, Lily tried to open it.
"Are you sure we should be here? This seems… too far," Silas said, frowning.
Lily gave him a charming smile. "I just want to make sure we're alone. What if someone sees us and tells a teacher?"
She had a point. Silas stepped forward and put his shoulder into the heavy door. As he strained, he noticed Lily had stopped helping and taken a few steps back.
"Typical," he thought, "let the guy do the hard work."
He wanted to be a gentleman, so he didn't complain.
After a minute of struggling, the door groaned open. "I got it, Lily," he sighed.
No one answered. Before he could turn, two hands shoved him hard in the back, sending him stumbling through the doorway.
He hit the ground and spun around. Two guys stood beside Lily now—spoiled nobles who made a hobby of bullying him.
"We'll let you spend the night in the dungeon," one said with a sneer. "Enjoy yourself."
They laughed as they swung the massive door shut. Lily wouldn't even look at him, her gaze fixed on the floor.
"Wait!" Silas yelled, scrambling to his feet.
He wasn't fast enough. The door sealed with a final, echoing thud, plunging him into absolute darkness. He was trapped.
The hurt of Lily's betrayal burned in his chest. He slammed his fists against the unyielding stone.
"I'm really trapped here… Fuck!"
Silas trusted her. She was the only one in the village who enjoyed spending time with him. The other kids kept their distance.
It was simple. Silas had been found as a baby, abandoned in the forest. A retired soldier, living alone, took him in and did his best to give Silas a better life.
Most villagers disliked the soldier, and Silas faced the same hatred. But Lily was different. She was the one who helped Silas through hard times, especially after his father died when he was fifteen.
Seeing her act that way toward him broke his heart. He felt both angry and sad.
When Silas realized he would not be leaving the dungeon soon, he turned and looked into the darkness ahead, slowly stepping forward into the unknown.
*
"Why are you doing this to me?" Malachar yelled as he stared at a group of 7 people, "I became a god with the same method as all of you! I have followers who believe in me!"
When he was alive, Malachar was a powerful mage. He created spells for necromancy, blood magic, and death magic. People who practiced the dark arts saw him as a legend.
Years after his death, some groups began to worship him. As his followers grew, their faith became strong enough to bring Malachar back from the dead.
He did not just return from the dead; he also rose to godhood and became one of the eight main gods.
There were thousands of minor gods in the divine realm, but Malachar was among the most important.
Even though he became a god like the others, they did not accept him. They saw him as a threat.
"Your magic is not natural," a red-haired youth shouted, "your Rituals are vile, evil, horrendous."
A beautiful woman stepped forward. She wore white robes and had a strange symbol on her forehead that looked like an eye.
"Any last words?" she said.
Malachar was as powerful as any of the other gods, but they had joined forces to kill him. Seven against one. He had no chance to win or escape.
He knew this. Still, Malachar was not afraid. He had expected this moment and had a plan in place.
"I'll return," he said, "it might take a long time, but I'll come back."
They all laughed at his final words. Then, a wave of attacks struck him. Malachar used his last spell to send parts of his soul back to the mortal world. The gods did not notice what he had done.
The main part of his soul went to something that had belonged to Malachar's family when he was human—a necklace kept in his family tomb. His soul entered the necklace and remained there.
Two thousand years have passed since then.
*
Silas walked for a while before seeing something which gave him hope. It was a torch on the dungeon's stone wall.
The flame burned with an unusual color.
"A magic torch," Silas murmured, "I thought this place was abandoned."
He had asked the teachers about it a few times, just like any curious student, and they all said there was nothing in the dungeon.
Of course, that only made the students even more curious to go there and check it out.
The stone door Silas opened was usually inaccessible. It was locked with a spell, so no matter how hard one tried to open it, it would never open.
However, the spell locking the door was deactivated the night Silas and Lily went there.
Silas was the first student in many years to reach that part of the dungeon. He was surprised to see that the place had some light.
He walked a bit further and saw something even stranger: a room with no door. Inside, there was some furniture and many scattered papers.
"This looks like a research room," Silas murmured.
How could a room like that exist in this place? Everyone said the dungeon was abandoned and empty, yet it looked like someone had been living there, or at least spending a lot of time there for research.
Curious, Silas walked toward the table, his magical torch in hand, making sure the place was bright enough for him.
He picked up a few notes to read. Luckily, they were written in a language he knew.
"At least this isn't in some code…"
The papers discussed the dungeon, describing it as a family grave that was impossible to enter. Many powerful mages tried to enter, yet no one succeeded.
With no way out, Silas decided to sit and read the research notes. Nothing he read was helpful.
The person doing the research didn't write about everything, since most of what they observed was already known to anyone who studied the family tomb.
It didn't make sense to repeat what everyone else had written. The researcher aimed to discover new insights that could lead to a breakthrough.
Now curious about the family tomb, Silas left the room and followed the main tunnel. After three minutes, he reached another huge door.
The door had strange symbols and writing in a language Silas didn't know.
"Is this the door to the tomb? The one no one can open?" Silas wondered.
He tried to open it. Anyone in his place would have done the same, since his curiosity was too strong.
Silas touched the door, and the symbols and writings on the door started to shine.
The door opened.