What are those things? I wondered.

I had reached the bottom of the spire of sin and had exited it, finding myself on a platform that overlooked the endless ocean of black, but it wasn’t the millions, upon millions of dark beings waiting in the blackness that caught my attention.

No, it was the gigantic spikes that protruded from the black waters. They weren’t as tall as the spire itself, but they still made me tremble for some reason.

I shook my head in a desperate attempt to divert my thoughts from the spikes. I then noticed that several mutilated corpses littered the platform on which I stood.

I walked to the platform’s edge and saw thousands of dark beings violently clawing away at each other.

Their violent screams filled the air as the light from above the spire cast itself on their dark forms.

I let out a sigh but then realised that the screams were so loud I couldn’t even hear my voice.

I began missing the eerie quietness of the spire.

I walked around the platform and noticed some cracks here and there.

It seems as though a massive battle had recently taken place.

Excited by the thought, I ran along the platform, carefully looking over any corpses I came across.

As I ran, I noticed the piles of corpses grew bigger. This made me break into a full sprint.

I could clearly see that the dark beings had suffered many cut wounds that could only have been caused by the hilt that Eeol carried. The others had their skulls smashed in, indicating that Zoey had fought valiantly alongside the eminence.

I was ready to greet mankind’s two greatest warriors with open arms, but then I suddenly stopped once my gaze fell upon a tragic sight.

Surrounded by a mountain of corpses, I saw two people sitting side by side, hand in hand on the platform floor.

I slowly approached the two, who seemed to be in a deep sleep. Both of their clothes were torn beyond recognition and their bloody bodies were covered in numerous wounds.

I dropped my bag as tears ran down my face.

“E- Eminence!” I called out as I choked on my own fluster.

I didn’t know how long I’d been in the spire, but any moment I spent away from the eminence was too long and so I approached the two sleeping warriors.

That’s when I noticed something.

During my time in the spire, I had grown increasingly adept at identifying the life force of certain beings. Dark beings had a chaotic life force that I could easily track and so I assumed that beings of light would have pure and peaceful life forces.

Humans, on the other hand, were peculiar. Although I didn’t have any humans to test my ability with, I knew that if I found one, I’d know.

This, however, would only count if the human was still alive.

“Eeol… Zoey…” I called out and the two seemingly ignored me as they peacefully slept, their heads resting against the spires black wall.

I fell to my knees as I reached them and that’s when I realized the eminence and his beloved weren’t going to be waking up.

Their hands firmly clasped each other as they rested the night, or whatever Nar' Agrun experienced as nighttime.

Tears continued to fall as I placed my bag beside them.

I had done what I had set out to do, but part of me wished that I’d returned home with the others.

Then at least I’d live with the hope, with the false possibility that my eminence and his beloved were still…

I sighed.

Nothing was going to change what had already come to pass, but I didn’t mind.

I would carry his memory with me for as long as I lived.

After wiping my nose, I then pulled out an urn of Yolbrew and poured three cups for each of us.

I drank all three on behalf of those who couldn’t and stood up, leaving my bag behind.

I then noticed that Eeol’s sword’s hilt was sitting just beside him.

I picked it up and tried pouring a little of my magical energy into it.

The sword was of the highest possible make so I didn’t expect it to crack.

A moment passed and something was yet to happen.

I then poured as much energy as I could into the hilt and soon enough, white sparks started flying from its broken tip.

I poured more energy into it until the sparks were replaced by the smooth flow of light.

A blade of light eventually formed where the original piece once was, but I wasn’t going to be keeping the majestic sword.

No, I wanted to protect the beautiful scene before me at all cost. I wanted to make sure that no matter how much time passed and no matter who came, the scene would remain untouched.

I looked behind me and saw a mountain of corpses… a mountain of fuel.

I placed the sword down and I ate away at the corpses for what seemed like an eternity until I felt

I could eat no more.

I then retrieved the sword and poured everything I had into it.

A massive shockwave threatened to force me and the sword apart, but I held on strong as the magical energy continued to flow into the sword.

This continued for another eternity until I was satisfied with how much light was within the sword.

Upon looking at the sword, I saw the memories I once shared with Eeol. From when I was but a boy, living a simple life in the fields, to when Eeol taught me how to steal fosberries from the herald of light.

All of it was inside the sword, which I decide to name Eexel, after Eeol.

I then walked over to Eeol and Zoey, who still held each other lovingly as the chaos raged on below the platform.

I then plunged the Eexel into the ground and created a little force field around the two. I had left them anything they needed, should they ever wake up and the Eexel would guarantee that no one would ever disturb them.

Even though I had never created a force field before, I knew that it was going to stand the test of time and keep them safe.

I turned around to leave.

Part of me wanted to sit alongside Eeol and Zoey until the world ended, but I knew that Eeol would probably want me to go back home and live a peaceful life or something.

I then walked back to the gargantuan doorway that was the spires entrance.

I climbed up the seemingly endless amount of stairs until I reached the midpoint, where I’d fought the Pulae and for some unknown reason, I missed the ugly things.

I jumped up to the door that was unreasonably high above the ground and began his ascent to the room where this all began.

I surveyed the room and found no traces of Zorvan or anyone else. The only things I could see were the corpses of my fallen comrades and the blood the stained the floor.

I looked around the intricately decorated room and found the top half of Eeol’s sword, but I decided to leave it there, just in case-

I sighed as I paced across the chamber. I still couldn’t read what any of the symbols meant, but I wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon, so I decided to study them a bit.

.

..

Hours turned into days and days into what seemed like months as I waited.

What was I waiting for?

I don’t know.

The order had sent us to Nar' Agrun because they’d found out that they could. Not much was said about what we would do afterwards.

They gave the knights simple orders, go in there, come back and tell us what you saw.

I figured that they would try sending another batch of knights down here again, especially after finding out that only a handful managed to make it back.

So I waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

The only thing that kept me company was my memory of Eeol. I spent many hours imagining how happy he’d be knowing that I could use magic, as this would mean that I’d be able to serve by his side.

.

..

More time passed and I eventually realised that I didn’t need to eat because several weeks had gone by and I wasn’t dead yet. Something had happened to our bodies once we entered Nar’ Agrun. During my descent, I found myself growing far stronger than I’d ever imagined and even though I’d lost Eeol, I’d gained just a little more time to keep him in my memories, unless if one of my new powers was the ability to resurrect the dead…

This ludicrous idea almost made me go back to the bottom of the spire and try it out, but I held myself.

.

..

One day I was awoken by the sounds of metal boots hitting the ground and the banter of men and women alike.

I opened my eyes and saw a group of young men and women, all clad in armour that was decorated with a rather familiar crest.

The knights seemingly didn’t notice me in the darkest parts of the chamber as they wondered about, so I got up and walked towards them, only to be greeted by the tips of their swords.

“Halt! We are here in the name of emperor Pleetus Yel Run the second. Our duty is to chart this profaned ground and claim it in the name of the emperor. Should you impede us, just know that certain death awaits you.” The knight who looked like he was in charge said.

His glorious looking armour and strikingly blond hair made him stand out amidst the sea of brunettes.

“Uh- I-“ Words struggled to escape my mouth as I hadn’t had a drop of water for who knows how long. That and my throat was lumpy as I hadn’t spoken to another person in far too long.

“Is it deaf?” A knight asked.

“Mmm… looks human to me.” Another said.

“Didn’t master Zorvan say that some of them would have a humanlike appearance?” Another knight asked, causing all the knights to look at me intently.

I cleared my throat as best as I could and waved my hands.

“My… name is… Romulus Xormae.” I said, even as my throat cried out in pain.

“Ha! It can talk and it has a name.” One of the knights said, causing me to painfully roll my eyes as I walked towards them.

“Wait! How do we know it's not a saepenar?” One of the knights asked.

“Who me? I’m not a saepenar, I’m a squire. I was part of the first descent.” I said while frantically waving my hands, I then noticed that I was a few heads taller than the knights in front of me. Either that or this group of knights was made up of rather short people.

“What? A squire? That’s impossible, you’d have been the first one to die off.” One of the knights said.

“Yes, master Zorvan said that saepenar could easily kill a high ranking knight. For a squire to have survived after all this time… that would be impossible, right?” Another knight asked.

I pressed my fingers against the bridge of my nose in annoyance.

These knights were clearly young and It would seem Zorvan had taught them what he could about the spire.

But why didn’t he tell anyone about me!?

“Silence!” The leader said, but the other knights bickered on anyway, ignoring their leader completely.

He may have been handsome and everything, but his men didn’t fear or respect him as I did Eeol. I checked and his magical reserves were… minuscule.

I laughed out loud as I thought about what would happen if he were to run into a Pulae, let alone a saepenar.

“What’s so funny?” The leader asked.

“No, it’s nothing really. I’m just so happy I finally have someone to talk to.” I said while wiping away a tear from my left eye.

“Anyway, you’re coming with us. We’ll let Master Zorvan decide your f-“ The leader knight was interrupted by the sound of clacking.

All of the knights instantly forgot about me and turned towards the chamber's entrance.

I shook my head in disappointment. What if I really was a saepenar. I had a clear shot of each of their necks.

I sighed as they approached the saepenar.

“Umm… those look more like the saepenar master described.” One of the knights said.

“Maybe that old man back there was speaking the truth.” Another said.

Hey! Who are you calling old man? I yelled at them internally before realizing that I indeed had a face covered in a greying beard.

I sighed as the head knight approached the saepenar.

“Halt! We are here in the name of emperor Pleetus Yel Run the second. Our duty is to chart this profaned ground and claim it in the name of the emperor. Should you impede us, just know that certain death awaits you.” He said and I wondered if the order taught that line to every knight.

Wait a minute! I realized that the leader guy had said “Pleetus Yel Run the second” which meant that the king's son had ascended the throne.

I wondered just how long I was down in Nar' Agrun and how much had changed in the world above.

“Aaahhhh!” I heard one of the knights scream.

I looked and saw that one of the knights had been decapitated.

I’d never faced a saepenar before and this particular batch of knights looked rather weak so I decided to land a hand.

I forged my fosblade and ran over to the leader knight's side as he too prepared for battle.

“Everyone get back. Head knight, who’s your best soldier?” I asked as his eyes trembled.

Our enemies were saepenar after all so I didn’t expect any other reaction.

The saepenar had an eerie humanoid appearance with pale grey skin that was covered in a black exoskeleton, anyone who didn’t cower in fear would have to be mad.

“Ok, never mind that, we’ll take them down together,” I said, but then the knight fell backwards and dropped his sword.

My jaw dropped as the other knights backed away.

What, in the actual world, is going on? I wondered.

For knights to be this cowardly…

I shook my perplexity aside and focused my attention back on the two saepenar.

I wasn’t sure what gender they were or if they had a gender to begin with, but they were rather beautiful up close.

They had small lips and their fluffy antennae were begging to be ruffled.

I shook those distracting thoughts away and began pacing around the creatures.

They did the same.

This went on for a moment before one of them dashed towards me, its razor-sharp claws headed straight for my neck, but I wasn’t the same squire from before.

I grabbed the saepenar’s pretty little hand and pulled it towards me.

In that moment, I felt its terror as it tried jerking its free from my grasp.

I didn’t let go.

Instead, I did what I had been obsessively thinking about for the past five or so minutes and touched its antennae.

The saepenar’s legs began to spasm tremendously as its black eyes violently shook.

I let go and watch it fall to the ground as what looked like drool fell from its mouth.

I then turned my gaze to the other saepenar.

I could tell that I was surprised by what had just happened, so I took the opportunity and dashed towards it as well.

It tried running away, but I was slightly faster than it was, so I tripped it and mounted it, before grabbing both its hands.

This left its adorable antennae open for an attack, so I stuck out my rather dry tongue and ran it along one of them.

This made the saepenar violently shake, before doing what looked like passing out.

I got up and placed my hand on my waist as I stepped away from the convulsing saepenar.

“What the-"

“How-"

“Who is exactly is that man?”

The knights gasped as I looked around the chamber.

“Do any of you have rope and when is the order opening the portal home?” I asked.

“Well, the portal is set to open in a few days.” One of the knights said as they handed me some rope which I used to skilfully tie up the saepenar.

I then walked up to one of the squires who stood behind the knights and extended my right hand.

“Do you have some food? I haven’t had a good meal in… a really long time.” I asked.

The quivering squire looked at the head knight in search of answers but I could already tell that he wasn’t going to be doing much for a while.

“Come on, help out a starving squire,” I said as I rubbed my belly.

The others knights nodded in unison and the squire handed me some of their rations.

I ate away at the delicious bread and drank away at the water they gave me. I then looked around in wonder.

“Don’t you have any Yolbrew?” I asked.

“No. Master Zorvan said that it was far too expensive for us to take.” One of the knights said as I sat down against a nearby wall.

When did Yolbrew get so expensive? I wondered.

The knights surrounded me and sat in a semi circle. Their eyes burning with curiosity and dread.

“What?” I asked as I picked my teeth.

“You said you were part of the first descent… but that was over fourteen years ago.” One of the knights said.

I stopped picking my teeth and let out a weak sigh.

“I see. Then it would seem that time works differently down here.” I muttered.

“That’s what master Zorvan said. He said that after the first knights were slaughtered by the saepenar, it was decided that the best course of action would be to retreat, but the eminences pride caused him to descend further into the spire. Is this true?” One of the knights asked.

I let out a Sly chuckle before crossing my arms.

“Listen here, eminence Eeol was the only reason any of us survived,” I said.

I then spend the next few hours recalling all of the events of the past fourteen years.