After the door opened, all I saw was darkness. The path down was dark, and I descended the stairs cautiously.
"Damn it, I can't see anything, Odin, just darkness. It'll be a big problem if we miss something behind us."
"Hmm, never mind. Going down the stairs in the dark is better than having a torch with us. If there are guards, they'll see us, and we can use the darkness for surprise attacks."
"I hope so."
I continued down the stairs. It was pitch black, and I descended carefully, hoping I wouldn't fall. I kept going for about three minutes, and then we started to feel that we were getting closer to somewhere.
Then I said, "Odin, do you feel that? There's a breeze coming from below. It seems there's a passage or something."
"Hmm, it must be a secret place, and most likely where the slaves and Cyrus are kept. If we find slaves, it won't just be selling them. It will be very cruel, bloody, and gruesome. You'll find severed limbs, and some might even beg you to kill them. Some will be tortured, so don't get carried away or do anything foolish while we're going down. Now, clear the way Prepare your mind and get yourself mentally and physically ready for what's to come."
After Odin's words, I swallowed hard, feeling a tremor, a bit of fear, and confusion. 'It's true I killed about three people today, and things were a little bloody, but I felt hesitant and disgusted every time. I was afraid, and ever since I killed the servant by the trees, I felt like I'd lost something, or something inside me had gone out. I was afraid of myself. Despite all my talk about the strong and the weak, it was just about understanding and knowing, not seeing it. And now I'm going to truly see the ugliness of the world and the ugliness of being weak. I must strengthen my mind.'
As he walked, with every step Cyrus took, his heart pounded harder and his anxiety grew. He knew he was about to witness horrific things, things that might permanently alter his mind and way of thinking. He knew that if he entered, he would emerge a different person.
He descended until he could see light. The passage was incredibly long, ancient, and rocky. The smell of blood reached Cyrus's nostrils even though he was still a little way up the stairs. The passage was utterly desolate and contained many rooms. It seemed endless. The pervasive stench of decay and blood was enough to make you suffocate.
When he finally reached the bottom of the stairs, Cyrus saw the passage with stark clarity. It was almost dark, but many details were unfolding. The passage was stained with thick blood, some of it dry, some fresh.
Odin, despite the scene before him, spoke in a cold and indifferent tone, as if what he saw was something normal, commonplace, and understandable. "Hmm, it's very gory. It seems they torture and kill them here. Prepare yourself, Cyrus, because what you are about to see may change you forever."
Cyrus He was breathing rapidly and his body was trembling, something from fear and confusion and something else that even he did not understand.
Cyrus spoke in a fearful and nervous tone, "Odin, do you think that Osman's private place where he keeps the secret things is here?"
He was waiting for Odin's answer and his heart was beating very hard. Odin said in a cold tone, "Hmm, I think it is probably his place where he keeps the documents and other secret things in some room at the end of this corridor."
I walked on, looking around. Along the way, there were dozens of rooms on both sides of the corridor. After walking a little further, I began to hear loud screams, filled with pain and brutality.
"Ahhh, please, have mercy, please!" The sound was terrifying to Cyrus; he felt as if his heart had dropped into his pants.
"Shut up, slave! I'm tired of waiting. I'll have fun torturing you until you die! Hahahaha!" The guard's voice was incredibly cruel and indifferent to what he was doing. This was the reality of the world: whatever the powerful did, it would be covered up and never mentioned. Power or money could buy the world's silence, but in this world, it was power, not money, that made the world accept the actions of the powerful, no matter what they were.
Odin said, completely unconcerned by what was happening, "Hmm, it seems the guard is having a good time now. Continue on your way before that slave dies. I hope he stays alive until we get out, at least."
I looked at Odin, wondering what he had done in his life when he was alive and what place he had lived in to become so brutal and cruel. "Odin, why are you so indifferent?" "Don't you feel this horrible feeling?"
Odin looked at me coldly. "Cyrus, that slave's only crime is his weakness, and that guard is weak too, but he compensates for his own inferiority complex by torturing that slave and feels powerful. The biggest proof that this is normal for the weak is that you and I are having a deep conversation in a blood-stained place while listening to the screams of a slave being tortured to death."
I looked at him, feeling stupid, but despite that, I still felt fear and confusion. Afterwards, I continued on my way in silence, and as I walked, I heard all kinds of sounds of torture, both men and women.
After about fifteen minutes of walking along the blood-stained, brutal path, I found a cell with its door open. It was a little way from me, and as I got closer, I could hear the voice more clearly.
It was obvious it was a man, but he seemed young. The closer I got, the harder my heart pounded, and my trembling intensified. Every step felt longer, and seconds turned into hours until I reached the cell.
The guard had a knife and was holding the man's skin, peeling it off. The man was crying, wailing, and begging. The room was small and literally covered in blood; you couldn't see the walls because of the gore. The man's fingers and toes were scattered around the room،. I was terrified. My heart was pounding. Every sense was screaming and begging me to run, to run away from here. I felt like my legs couldn't support me. What was I seeing? What was its value to the world?، What had brought the world, what had brought humanity to this point, where you would cut a person's skin just for pleasure, cut off their feet and fingers just to feel ecstatic and compensate for your own inadequacy?،
The guard was smiling. His pain was intense, as if he were cutting open an animal's flesh to eat it. His smile was the most horrifying thing.
I approached with trembling steps the guard, who, so focused and relishing the torture, didn't notice me. The slave looked at me with icy cold eyes, as if I were gazing into an abyss with no end. I felt as if I were looking into hell, into the bottomless depths of darkness. His gaze was indescribable. He was looking at me, but he truly didn't care. He just stared desperately at his skin peeling off for pleasure, and at the blood that had already reached my feet.
Odin looked into the man's eyes, bewildered, as if lost in his memories. For the first time, Odin's face betrayed a hint of sadness, but it wasn't for the man, only for something he knew.
My hand tightened on the dagger, and with a powerful swing, I severed the guard's head. Blood splattered everywhere, but I didn't care. I looked into the man's eyes, and he looked back at me. As I gazed into his, I felt as if I were falling into the abyss. Suddenly, the words
'If you look into the abyss, the abyss will look back at you' echoed in my mind. After those words, my body stopped trembling, my heart returned to normal, and I calmed down. I looked into the man's eyes, and he looked back at me. I understood from his gaze that he wanted me to kill him.
Then I sat down until I was at his level. I reached out and closed his eyes, tightening my grip on the knife handle. 'Thank you. I have understood my path and myself thanks to you. Now rest in peace and be strong in your next life, you scum.'
With that, I severed his head, and blood gushed forth like The fountain stained my body even more, and everything became red and blurry to me—my body, my clothes, even my hair—a bright red. It was fresh blood; I could still feel its heat. I felt like a blade that had been sharpened, becoming sharper, harder, and more resilient. I understood Odin's words: the more you face death, the stronger and more resilient you become.
The trembling boy, unable to bear the sight of blood, emerged from the cell, covered in it. His eyes had gained depth, his mind sharpened, and he had become colder and more murderous. His gaze was utterly icy.
Odin looked at the awe-inspiring sight and thought, 'Hmm, what a look on his face. Hmm, he was born of blood.'
I left the room with composure. My body, my mind, even my heart, calmed and became even colder. I felt that feeling again, but not as if it had been extinguished. Rather, it was as if I no longer understood it, didn't believe in it, wasn't affected by it. But whatever the case, I had a task ahead of me that I had to focus on.
Cyrus began running down the long corridor that seemed endless until he found a room at the end.
"Good, now I have to go in and search it quickly, or the party will be over, if it hasn't already."
He kicked the door and entered. The room, unlike the previous one, was simple and a little small, not as luxurious as the last.
Then he began searching quickly among the belongings. It was large, and after a quarter of an hour of searching, I found a wooden box the size of a palm.It was simple and contrary to what I expected.
"Hmm, is this box really that valuable?"
"Don't judge things by their appearance, Cyrus, for everything has depth."
"Ugh, damn it! I'm in a hurry for your talk and your judgments. I must escape now!"
Then I took the same route out, grabbed the clothes of the guard whose head I had cut off at the door, and hurried out.I slipped down the stairs unnoticed.
I looked around, but no one seemed to notice anything.I continued until I was outside. The nobles were happy, laughing, and continuing their hypocrisy and flattery.
I thought to myself, 'Good thing they're still like this and the party isn't over.'
Then I looked and saw Ghassan preparing to leave, humming. I looked at him but didn't speak to him, and he didn't recognize me.
I whispered to Odin, " lf Ghassan sees me, he'll tell Asarus that he saw me. I'll wait until he drives the carriage and sneak in wearing these guard clothes. I can't go out like this while the party's still going on. I have to sneak out."
And indeed, the foolish Ghassan was driving his carriage, singing, while I took off the guard clothes and slipped in, hiding inside the carriage without him knowing.
After half an hour,
we reached the checkpoint and got out. Peacefully, and after Ghassan had moved a little way away, I got out of the car and went up onto one of the rooftops.
I looked at the moon. It was illuminating the night. I was looking at it, and my whole body was covered in blood, and my face was red. The moon was illuminating the blood. I looked at it.
Cyrus looked at the moon coldly. He felt that the moon was illuminating evil and darkness, as if it was showing the evils of humans that occur at night, and I was the biggest example. The moon was illuminating the blood that covered me, as if it was showing me my true self.
"Hmmmm, the moon is very beautiful today."