Back at the fourth village. The village retained little of its former shape. Fang and claw marks cut across many of the huts and deep crimson patches could be seen everywhere. Many white bones laid on the ground alone, doomed to never become complete again.

Many wolves were prowling around the village, sniffing the ground trying to find any leftover bodies. but this was fated to be a fruitless task as they had already gathered the remaining corpses in the village.

Beside the lake at the heart of the village, there was a large pile of remains composed of wolves and elves alike. Several wolves were sitting by the pile, occasionally biting off pieces of remains from the pile and chewing on it.

Somewhere along the path between the fourth village and the central village, there were three elves who were slowly progressing towards the main village.

These 3 elves were the Blain, Lein and Polon. There were several fresh wounds found on them and their faces were extremely grim as they cautiously moved on in the forest. Behind them, there laid trail of corpses of both wolves and elves.

There were signs of a great battle that had taken place here, a battle where the elves came out ahead, yet too much was lost for the side of the elves.

The leader of Alz and Polon’s squad, Firiz, Link and many other brave elven warriors lay motionless on the ground, their bodies filled with multiple claw and fang marks as the fought to the bitter end.

The had died honourably, deaths of true warriors as they stood till the end on a battlefield. Alas, their lives were still lost.

As the souls of these brave warriors departed the world, all that was left of the fourth village was a mere four elves, a sorrowful end to the village which had been so full of life just several hours ago.

In the underground cave.

“Am I dead?”, This was Alz’s first thought. However, as if in response to his inner thoughts, a stinging pain transmitted from all over his body. The pain transmitted from his right arm and legs in particular were extremely potent and washed away some of his drowsiness.

He immediately tried to open his eyes, but his eyelids were heavier than they had ever been, as though his body was rejecting the very notion of waking up. However, this resistance helped to clear his head more and more and his eyelids trembled more and more violently.

After what felt like an eternity to Alz, his eyelids gradually lifted, and images of the surroundings started to appear in his mind.

Weakness and pain. These were the first sentiments Alz had when he woke up. His mind begun to clear as he started recalling the events that had happened before.

"I’m alive?" He looked down at his tattered body and exclaimed in surprise.

There was a long deep gash on his right arms and many cuts on his leg but everything was intact and he was still alive.

Suddenly, his eyes begun to water and a tear streaked across his face, dripping on his shirt. Then, more and more tears started to appear as though a dam had been broken. He started wailing and screaming as his grief filled voice echoed repeatedly in this narrow underground area.

He was ultimately just a 12 year old boy. He had been forced to remain alert since the attack begun, forced to witness his parents sacrifice and had to escape from a group of bloodthirsty wolves alone.

Now that he was out of danger, he finally had a chance to release the suppressed feelings in his heart as he broke down and wholeheartedly begun to cry as a heart-wrenching pain assaulted his heart.

After crying for about half an hour, he finally stopped because the pain coming from his right arm was getting unbearable. He had also been feeling weaker and weaker as time passed since he woke up and he was starting to feel drowsy again.

He looked down at his body this time, this time with more focus than before and he soon arrived at the cause. Blood was slowly trickling down from his right arm and pooled on the floor.

Noticing this, he inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, he had woken up before the injury worsened and he died of blood loss. He immediately grabbed some herbs from his bag and pressed them on the wound. He then used his dagger to cut out a part of his shirt and used it to fasten the herbs to his wound.

This a basic first aid measure taught to every warrior hatchling before they were assigned to their squads for duties. Lein had also commonly tested them on this as he felt it was an essential skill for all warriors as they frequently found themselves in combat.

Alz nodded in satisfaction when he saw that blood was no longer spilling out from the wound. However, moments later, He suddenly revealed a smile in self derision as he looked down on the wound.

His gaze darkened, and he slowly approached the newly tied bandages with his left hand, but just as his left hand was almost on the bandages, reason returned to his eyes and he quickly pulled his hand away.

His eyes drooped down and his heart felt heavy, as reality of the situations begun to sink in, of the cruel reality of being left alone.

When he looked in front of him, he was shocked and instinctively jumped back while tensing his body’s muscles.

There was a wolf lying in front of him. A quick glance at the wolf’s body showed that it was fully intact with no signs of injury anywhere on its body, hence prompting Alz’s reaction.

However, as he thought about it, he realised that there was no way the wolf was conscious as otherwise, he would have never been able to wake up again.

He then turned to look at the wolf carefully and realised that it was just lying motionless on the floor with no signs of life. He relaxed his posture slightly and cautiously moved his head towards the wolf, inspecting it from a closer distance.

As he got closer to the body, he finally found the problem. There was a narrow hole on the forehead of the wolf which he could vaguely see through.

This hole was clearly the culprit behind the wolf’s death but Alz felt more puzzled than before as he was unaware of anything capable of creating such a wound. He suddenly felt chills go up his spine as the thought that something capable of causing that wound had been close to him ran through his mind.

He hurriedly turned his eyes away from the wolf, unwilling to look at it anymore.

“I can see?” Suddenly, a question popped up in his head as he belatedly realised that he could see. He was surprised by this as his last memory was going underground, which meant that he was supposed to be underground now yet there was light.

Furthermore, the light that filled this area was extremely bright, as though multiple lamps from the library were lit at once within a small area. He started to turn his attention to his surrounds and saw that he was in a narrow passageway.

Two long white walls made of an unknown material stretch out both sides in a circular fashion, winding inwards towards somewhere.

Above him, there were several squarish objects emitting a bright radiant light which filled the area. While the ground below him felt harder than anything that he had ever walked on in the forest.

Alz lightly knocked on the wall with his left hand and noticed that it was harder than he had expected, as it felt harder than even the stones they used as weapon tips back in the village.

“I wonder if this is harder than the elven council building?”

He lightly muttered as he turned to observe the bright squarish objects overhead. He stared at it until his eyes begun to water and a stinging pain assaulted his eyes, distorting his vision and forcing him to rest his eyes.

He was extremely intrigued by the lights as he saw no signs of fire and felt no heat from it yet it was giving off more light than the lamps in the library, something which exceeded his understanding.

He then turned his focus to the depths of the corridor. After everything he had observed from the surroundings, he was now extremely curious towards what was hidden beyond this winding corridor.

He tried to stand up, but it felt like there were ants crawling all over his legs, biting on every inch of them when he tried to move, causing him to stumble and fall back onto the ground.

He smiled bitterly as he looked down at the state of his body. He then crawled over to the nearby wall and used it to prop himself up, finally managing to stand while resting most of his weight on the wall.

He took each step slowly, being careful not to put too much weight on his unsteady legs as he walked deeper into the winding corridor, supporting his body against the wall.

After walking through the winding corridor which seemed to go on forever, his eyes finally lit up as he saw something appear on the wall.

It was a distance which he would have normally been able to cover in under a minute, but he took several minutes to cover it this time, making the walk through this passageway much more painful than it needed to be.

The door was a typical vault door one would find in the past. It was round and had a clear blue colour, much like the shade of the skies of the past.

However, some parts of the paint had fallen off, revealing the metallic sheen hidden beneath the layer of paint. The wheel attached to the door in front which was painted in a similar shade of blue.

Alz placed his palm on the door and felt a cool sensation transmit from his fingertips. He then tried to pull the door open but he immediately felt something holding the door back, preventing it from opening.

“Maybe it’s this?”. He inwardly thought as he looked at the wheel in front of the door. He then gripped onto the wheel tightly with his left arm.

He rotated the wheel slowly and heard something moving from within the door. He could also feel the vibrations through the wall which convinced him that something happening.

He started turning the wheel faster by pressing his weight on the wheel, until the wheel would no longer turn. He then tried to pull the door open again. This time, the door was moving but the sheer mass of the door prevented him from immediately opening the door.

Suddenly, a loud metallic creak rang through the air and the heavy door started to slowly swung outwards.

Alz quickly let go of the wheel and leaned on the wall beside the door. An unknown smell flowed into Alz’s nose as he peered curiously inside. However, the lights in the corridor were unable to light up the interior of the structure, and even with his eyesight, he could not clearly make out what was inside.

He hesitated for a moment but soon, his hesitation was replaced with a self-depreciating expression as he went through the entrance.

*Click*

A clicking sound was heard and the interior lit up. The smell of old books wafted through the area and dust particles gleamed like tiny gems under the light. There were many rows of filled wooden bookshelves placed in ordered rows across the area, covered by a layer of unknown transparent material.

There was a large space in the center where several tables and chairs stood. The chairs and tables looked to be made entirely out of wood and were all uniform in shape and size, unlike the tables and chairs back in the village.

Books of all shapes and sizes were found on the shelves, most in a surprisingly good condition. However, there were three shelves where the transparent material had been removed from the shelves and the books on that shelf had mostly yellow pages, their bindings falling apart.

There were also inscriptions seen on each of the bookshelves, probably depicting the content of the books in the bookshelf. However, Alz did not recognise the script used as it was probably a script used by the people who made this place.

An air of antiquity surrounded this place, giving off the impression that it had been here for a long time.

Alz stood in silence, overwhelmed by the grand sight before his eyes as his mind started to overflow with questions out of curiosity. However, his attention soon focused on an object that was right beside him.

The object was a dull grey hemispherical device with a small green bulb on it. A green light was being emitted at regular intervals from the bulb and the device was beeping each time it lit up ever since the area lit up, causing Alz to focus his sights on it.