With a smile that wasn't a smile, the freckle-faced, red-haired young man turned to face the crowd.
"Lovely to see you all gathered here. How are you all doing? Have a nice nap? Did you enjoy the fireworks?"
Nobody said a thing, just stared at him, and then at the remains of the electrocuted man.
"Wow. Rocky crowd. Seems that your sense of humor is quite tied down. Get it? Since you're all chained up?"
Silence.
The red-haired boy shook his head as if he couldn't believe it before pounding his spear on the ground once more, causing a spark of lightning to travel down the shaft.
"Well, I know we're all busy, so shall we get started? It's simple. You'll come up one at a time and stand before me. I'll instruct you on what to choose, then you'll touch this wall. You'll be sent to a place and make the choice that I told you. Once you make your choice, you'll be transported into the next area where my associates are waiting. They will verify your choice, so if you decide to choose something different, you'll be joining that guy in the underworld. The rest of this journey will proceed the same way. If you follow our instructions, you'll live. If you decide to do what you want, you'll die. Am I clear?"
The entire cavern was silent except for quiet sobs, but the red-haired boy took it as agreement.
"Good. You there, come forward." The robed man pointed at the young woman crying close by with his spear while pulling out a stack of papers from his pants.
The girl who was chosen had a stained dress that was splattered with blood; her arm seemed to have been hit by a bone fragment as it hung limply by her side, while pouring blood.
As she stared at the spear pointing at her, she quickly stood up, exposing the damp back of her dress, and golden liquid ran down her leg.
Taking slow steps because of the chains binding her legs together, she walked until she stood in front of the red-haired man, who glanced down at the papers in his hand, before whispering something in the woman's ear.
After a brief moment, she nodded before walking straight to the large white wall.
With shaky hands, she used her good hand to touch the wall, and after a moment, she disappeared in a flash of blue light just like the robed figures before her.
With cold eyes and a disturbing smile, the freckle-faced red-haired man pointed his spear at someone else.
"Next."
Slowly but surely, people got up, approached the red-haired man, received his whispered words, then touched the wall and disappeared.
Occasionally, the red-haired man would gesture at people to wait for several minutes, but the number of people quickly decreased until it was Adrian's turn.
As he stood up, the red-haired man pointed his spear at the girl in pink, who was from the Baron's family, sitting beside Adrian.
"Not you. You. Pink girl. Come up here first. Then you can come." The red-haired boy pointed at Adrian.
The girl dressed in pink hiccupped before moving forward slowly.
As she approached the front, she fell to her knees, and the red-haired man openly laughed at her.
"Not so rich now, are you?"
Seeing the girl glare, he waved his spear threateningly.
"Ah, ah, ah. Unless you want to become a kabob?"
As she bowed her head, the red-haired man nodded approvingly before whispering in her ear.
After receiving the whispered words, the girl stumbled toward the wall, touched it, and disappeared in the now familiar flash of light.
"Next."
As he shuffled forward, Adrian stumbled and fell while trying to avoid the bloodstains, disgusting liquids, and scraps of flesh on the ground.
Once he caught his balance, he locked eyes with the red-haired man with whom he was so familiar, considering that they had been friends for the majority of Adrian's life.
Kiel, his best friend.
Or rather, former best friend since the friendship ended several months ago when Kiel wanted to pursue a new opportunity, but Adrian refused due to having a bad feeling about it.
The two had a huge fight, and they never spoke again since Kiel had disappeared, leaving Adrian to deal with the fallout of his disappearance and having to do double the work.
Seemingly, this was the opportunity Kiel had spoken about.
Recognizing the familiar mocking smirk on Kiel's face, Adrian rolled his eyes before taking a peek at the paper held in Kiel's hand.
Unfortunately, it was facing the opposite way.
Tsk.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't little Adrian the smarty pants? I bet you regret not coming along with me, right? If you had, you wouldn't be chained up like this and could get cool magic tools like this one." Kiel lovingly patted the spear, which sparked with lightning.
"I don't regret anything. Especially, being a stupid grunt for stupid mages. Especially ones that will quickly get caught based on the number of people you kidnapped. Glad to see that you're still as dumb as ever and your jokes still don't land."
Adrian replied sarcastically, causing Kiel's face to flush red.
"If I'm so dumb. Why are you in chains and I'm not?"
"Give it time, I'm sure you'll be in chains soon enough. Baron Miyche will certainly see to that."
The other boy glared before pounding his spear on the ground.
"I'm done speaking to you. Like I said earlier, when you're asked to make a decision, make sure you choose a battle spoon and then wait in the next room."
"A what?" Adrian couldn't believe what he was hearing.
A spoon?
Regardless of 'battle' being put in front of it, wasn't it still a spoon?
He had heard the girl in front of him had been told to get a shovel, so why the hell would he choose a spoon?
"Yeah, that's right, a battle spoon. Understood? I chose it just for you. You'd better select it. Otherwise, you'll die. Just as gruesomely as that man." Kiel pointed to the blood splatter.
"Sure." Adrian agreed easily while observing Kiel.
Naturally, he had no intention of listening or choosing a battle spoon, fork, or whatever.
"I mean it, Adrian. If you dare to choose something else or try to play your little tricks, I'll make sure to personally kill you myself," Kiel warned him
"Okay. I'll do my best to avoid that since I don't particularly want to die. Speaking of which, where are we? Who are your associates? How did you capture all these people and me?" Adrian replied curiously.
"None of your fucking business! Just do what you're told and maybe you'll survive until the end. Maybe."
"I don't know what your issue is. Can't I ask a question? Or are you scared of me?"
"Who's scared of a wimp like you?"
As Adrian walked closer, Kiel used the but of his spear to sweep him off his feet.
As he struggled to stand up, Kiel repeatedly kicked him in the stomach, causing Adrien to get tangled up with Kiel's feet and his chains before rolling off to the side.
When he struggled to stand up, glaring at Kiel, the other boy shoved him toward the wall with an annoying smirk.
"Get moving, weakling."
Not saying anything, Adrian shot another dirty look at Kiel before slowly turning away.
His hands dusted off his patchy shirt before clenching into shaking fists that had Kiel laughing.
"Hurry up, wimp! Or should I kick you again?"
Taking one last look around, Adrian slowly shuffled to the eerie-looking wall that gave him a bad feeling.
His eyes flashed over it, noting the strange creatures carved into it along with letters he didn't understand.
He placed his palm over it, feeling the cool sensation.
Then-
There was a flash of light, and suddenly, he was in an all-white space.
There were no walls, no furniture, not even a source of light.
Just whiteness.