Rise from the Depths: Shackles of Qahara

Chapter 4: Spies from the Capital

The red glow from the eastern horizon wasn’t just dawn light. It was the Blood Pulse, a pulse of dark magic splitting the polar sky with a haunting color, as if the very atmosphere of Qahara was bleeding.

"The seal's key...?" Lyra’s voice cracked amidst the howling wind growing wilder outside the hideout. "I thought Agrasuuman just wanted to wipe out the lower castes. Turns out his goal is way more insane."

"Karla’s blood is a rare commodity, Lyra. Extremely rare," Caver gripped his axe handle until his knuckles turned white. He glanced at Karla, who looked pale in the corner of the tree trunk. "I don't care about the king or Agrasuuman. I don't give a damn about the Elven. I won’t let a single hair on my wife’s head be touched by that garbage ritual."

Suddenly, the sound of unnatural wings flapping echoed from behind the thick layer of snow covering the entrance. It wasn't the sound of a biological bird. There was the sound of small gears grinding and the rhythmic clinking of metal. Tick... tick... tick... crekk!

A small mechanical bird made of dull brass pushed through the snow pile, perching right on the wooden frame above their heads. Its eyes were tiny blinking red gems, sending a visual signal to some distant place.

"Get down!" Caver pulled Karla into his embrace while his other hand readied his axe. "What now? A dark magic spy?"

"Relax, Caver. That doesn’t belong to Agrasuuman," a man’s voice called from behind the snowdrifts outside. Heavy, slightly hoarse, but filled with the weight of authority accustomed to giving orders.

The snow covering the doorway suddenly scattered. A tall man in a leather cloak lined with wolf fur stepped in calmly. His black hair was messy, and a slender sword typical of a royal knight hung at his waist.

"I’m Leo. I sent that little toy to find you," the man raised both his empty hands, signaling he hadn't come for a fight. "But you’d better stay put, because the Blood Pulse out there is searching for anyone with high Mana flow."

"I don't know who you are," Caver hissed, his body low, arm muscles tensed and ready to explode. "Those clothes... you’re from inside the walls, aren't you? Are you a high-caste lapdog?"

Leo gave a short laugh, the sound dry like falling leaves in winter. "Former lapdog, more accurately. I stopped eating from Agrasuuman’s hand the moment he decided to sacrifice my cavalry friends just for some ridiculous experiment."

"Then what are you doing here?" Lyra cut in, aiming her bow at Leo’s Adam’s apple. "If you’re looking for a pardon by bringing Karla back, you’re going home as nothing but a memory."

Leo looked at Lyra with a flat gaze. "I’m here because I know the way out. And I know that old bastard is in a total panic. Karla, you have no idea how valuable your blood is, do you?"

Karla could only shake her head slowly, her face still hidden behind Caver’s broad shoulders. "I... I just want to live in peace, sir."

"Pure Elven blood is a stabilizer," Leo explained, taking one step forward before stopping as Caver’s axe hissed through the air. "Qahara has ancient seals holding back thousands of monsters from the lower dimension. Agrasuuman needs those seals broken so he can harness pure power from the darkness. And your blood, Karla, is the 'grease' to unlock it. You may not a pure one. Somehow, the elder's blood running down your vein."

"You talk too much," Caver snapped. "Your info sounds like a trap. Why would you want to help a slave like me?"

"Because a slave who can slit an Ogre commander’s throat with a blunt mining axe is exactly the kind of variable I need to tear this system down, Caver," Leo smiled thinly. "But you are a bit thick-headed, aren't you?"

"Insult me again, and this axe is going to end up in your skull," Caver threatened.

The atmosphere turned cold instantly. Outside, the red pulse in the sky grew stronger, accompanied by the growls of magical creatures beginning to wake due to the ritual. Caver could feel his adrenaline peaking. His distrust of anyone well-dressed was deep-seated after years of being whipped in the mines.

"Get out of here, or I’ll consider you an enemy," Caver gave his final warning.

"Just try it" Leo challenged, pulling his sword halfway from its scabbard. "If you're really that good, prove it to me before those mages get here."

Caver didn't wait for further instructions. He charged forward like a mad bull. The icy surface of the cave floor made his movements unstable, but his wild fighting style made up for his lack of technique. His axe swung horizontally, searching for an opening in Leo's abdomen.

KLANG!

Leo's slender sword parried the heavy axe with sickening accuracy. Leo didn't use brute force; he used Caver's own momentum to deflect the strike to the side, nearly sending Caver sprawling across the ice.

"Nothing but raw power? No wonder you were stuck in Moar for so long," Leo jeered, kicking Caver's knee from the side.

Caver growled, gritting his teeth against the pain in his leg, and spun his axe like a top. He used the sharp tip of the axe to strike the ice, sending crystal shards flying into Leo’s face as a distraction. As Leo looked away, Caver delivered a hard shoulder tackle square to Leo’s chest.

Both of them tumbled out of the cave, rolling over the frozen piles of snow.

"Stop, Caver! Don't be ridiculous!" Karla screamed from the mouth of the cave, but her voice was drowned out by the roar of the rising storm.

On the slick surface of the ice, Caver was the first to his feet. He lunged again with a vertical strike intended to split Leo in two. Leo rolled to the side, then thrust the tip of his sword toward a gap in Caver's clothes, nearly tearing into his ribs.

"This is it? This is the so-called legend of the Moar escape?" Leo steadied himself in a classic knight’s stance. "A royal sword isn't just for show, Caver. This is the result of years of training, not just some vanity project."

"Your training is useless once you’re dead at the hands of a slave!" Caver shouted, rage burning in his eyes. He raised his axe high, but this time he didn't just swing. He threw it.

Leo was caught off guard. He hadn't expected the main weapon to be tossed away so recklessly. He parried the flying axe with his sword, but that was exactly what Caver wanted. While Leo was focused on the airborne axe, Caver had already slid low across the ice and grabbed Leo’s legs.

The two of them grappled in a dirty fight in the snow. Raw punches landed on Leo's face, while Leo tried to drive his elbow into Caver's neck. Here, knightly techniques didn't apply. This was a brutal street brawl.

"I... I won't... let you... touch Karla!" Caver spat, his hands now clamped around Leo's throat.

"You idiot!" Leo hissed, struggling to break Caver's chokehold. "Look... look at my... left arm... you fool!"

Caver didn't care. He was about to jam his thumb into Leo's eye when a soft but firm hand grabbed his collar.

"STOP!" Karla screamed at the top of her lungs, standing between them in the middle of the blizzard.

"Get out of the way, Karla! He’s an intruder!" Caver shouted, panting heavily, his face bloodied from ice scratches.

"Look, Caver! Look at that mark!" Karla pointed to Leo's left arm, which was exposed because his sleeve had been torn during the struggle.

Caver stopped. His eyes narrowed, staring at a mark on Leo's skin that was a dark, blackish-red. It wasn't a tattoo. It was the Abomination's Brand, a cursed spell usually branded onto high-caste traitors before their execution. The flesh around the mark looked decayed and was bound by ancient symbols.

"He was cast out, Caver," Karla's voice softened, a deep sense of empathy in her eyes. "He’s no longer with the Kingdom. Anyone who bears that mark... they feel pain worse than the lashes of the mines every single second."

Leo gasped for air, lying flat on his back in the snow, his breath coming out like hot steam. He covered his wounded arm. "Believe me now... or do you want me to show you the other scars on my back?"

Caver released his grip, then sat slumped in the snow beside Leo. He looked at his axe lying a few meters away. Shame began to set in, though his wariness remained.

"Why did you get that mark?" Caver asked quietly.

Leo rose slowly, wiping the remaining snow from his battered face. "I refused to execute slave children in the Northern Sector two months ago. I smuggled them into the mountains, but in the end... they still caught them. I was cursed, and my friends were killed."

"So you want revenge?"

"It's not just about revenge," Leo looked deep into Caver's eyes. "I want this system destroyed. And Karla... Karla is the key. Not to break the seal, but to keep Agrasuuman held down. We need a way to make her blood untraceable."

Suddenly, a loud boom shook the ground beneath them. A red light exploded in the sky, sending a shockwave that made the surrounding trees vibrate violently. Leo's mechanical bird, still perched above the cave entrance, emitted a piercing alarm.

"Damn it, we’re too late!" Leo turned toward the east. "The ritual has already entered its second phase. The Red Sentinels will be here in less than ten minutes. If they pick up Karla’s aura, we’re finished."

"So what do we do?" Lyra, who had been readying her bow, began to look anxious. "We can't hide in these trees anymore."

"The coast," Leo answered quickly. "We have to get to the Frozen Shore. There’s an Ogre cargo ship docked there for hauling mine yields. If we can get a ride—by any means necessary—we can get out of this tracking ritual’s range via the water."

"A cargo ship? That’s the most heavily guarded area," Caver stood up, retrieving his axe. "Are you asking us to commit suicide?"

"There’s a man named Jack," Leo interrupted while straightening his torn cloak. "A pirate, smuggler, or whatever people call him. He’s there. He’s an old friend of mine. He’s the only madman who would be willing to take us if we give him the right incentive."

"What’s the incentive?" Caver asked.

"We'll see," Leo smiled grimly. "For now, you'd better run as fast as you can before those red mages suck the life out of you right here."

Before Caver could answer, a red shadow flickered between the trees. It wasn't a human shadow, but a magical manifestation shaped like a flaming hound. Their howls echoed, tearing through the silence of the Polar Forest.

"Blood Hounds..." Lyra took a sharp breath. "They're already here!"

"Run!" Leo shouted, drawing his sword.

They began leaping down the snowy hill, running away from the direction of the "red" sun. Caver carried the small child Karla had been holding—the figure fast asleep from the sleeping spell cast earlier—while pulling his wife’s hand.

The run felt like pure chaos. They pushed through frozen branches and crossed narrow, slick ravines, with the howling of the Blood Hounds drawing closer behind them. Caver could feel the heat from the magical dogs starting to lick at his heels.

"There! Keep moving!" Leo commanded, acting as the rearguard while Lyra fired warning arrows into the darkness.

When they reached the top of a cliff overlooking the sea, the sight below made Caver’s heart skip a beat. At the nearly frozen wooden pier stood a massive black ship flying a tattered Qahara royal flag. Beside it, a smaller, more agile vessel—presumably Jack’s 'The Iron Crab'—was preparing to depart.

But there was one major problem.

Between them and the shore stood a checkpoint now blocked by two dozen iron knights, escorted by an Ogre guard twice the size of the one Caver had fought before.

"Is there a shortcut?" Caver asked, breathless, his eyes searching for an opening.

Leo stared down at the steep cliff beneath them, twenty meters high, falling straight onto piles of hay and wooden crates at the lower dock.

"There is one way," Leo said, looking at Caver with a cold smirk. "The kind of way you're gonna love. Just pray your shins don't snap when you hit the bottom."

In the distance, a Blood Hound leaped onto a tree branch right above them. Its jaws hung wide, dripping molten red fire, ready to devour anyone in its path.

"Caver, now!" Karla cried out in a panic.

Caver looked at Karla, then at the cliff ahead of them. He pulled his wife and child into a tight embrace, tightened the axe-strap at his waist, and turned to face Leo.

"If we end up dead, I'm gonna strangle you in the afterlife!" Caver yelled.

And with one reckless move, they plunged into the darkness of the abyss, just as a magic hound lunged toward where they had been standing. The polar wind lashed at their faces, but that was nothing compared to what they saw at the lower dock.

A man in a scruffy black suit and a tilted hat stood on the ship's deck, clutching a bottle of rum and shouting at the Ogre guards at the gate.

"HEY! IF YOU WANT TO DIE, DON'T DO IT HERE, I'VE GOT A SCHEDULE TO KEEP!"

That man was Jack. And their meeting was anything but pleasant. As Caver and the others slammed into the cargo piles with a loud crash, the royal knights at the gate whipped around, realizing their fugitives had just dropped from the sky.

"We're in trouble," Caver whispered from amidst the wreckage of shattered wooden boxes.

From behind the smoke of the swirling snow, the muzzles of the Ogre guards' steam rifles were already leveled at their faces. And in the distance, the Blood Pulse ritual began to thicken, forming a giant silhouette in the sky that slowly opened its red eyes toward the docks.

"Welcome to hell's harbor," Jack muttered as he flicked a lighter, his face showing total indifference toward the rifle muzzles heating up around him.