The Earth After Rebirth

They both jerked up and looked at him, they slowly made their way towards him and sat closer to him. They looked at him expectedly. He didn't say anything. He didn't really want to let them know he was a slave, that was a topic he hated to be reminded of.

"Come on Nikolai, this could be crucial information to save Hiro's dad and find out what happened to my papi." Kiro said with a pleading voice.

Nikolai looked up and closed his eyes, he took a deep breath and started, "when I was a kid, something happened at the Black Estate. Mum woke me in the middle of the night, telling me my life was in danger." He paused remembering the kind eyes and smile his mother showed him that night.

He told them almost everything. He purposely left out some parts. Those were his secrets to keep, he didn't intend to divulge them to anyone, not even Felix. Every man had their own after all.

"So my guess? Slavery exists in our society, it's so well hidden that the general population doesn't get suspicious. I reckon everyone who disappears gets enslaved and especially in the lower district, nobody would bat an eye if anyone there went missing."

They couldn't process the information fast enough. Slavery? Most of all, Nikolai was a slave? There was silence for a while. Kiro had nothing to say.

"I'm sorry man." Kiro tried to say, he was simply shocked.

"I'm not. This experience opened my eyes to a lot about our country. To top it all of, the person who bought me, always talked about a secret society that he was a part of, I reckon they're the rich. Puppeteers of everything bad happening. What did he call it again? Century?"

"Sanctum." Kiro's mouth moved on its own.

If a rich kid could be sold to slavery, then who were they, was what was on their minds. As heavy as this was, it was something.

For the first time in his life, Kiro felt a sense of immense responsibility to find out the truth about his grandfather and this at least pointed them at a certain direction.

"Were you also enslaved Felix?" Hiro asked looking at his bandaged arms.

Felix simply shook his head. Nikolai looked at him, Felix nodded.

"Felix, well, he was introduced as my aid when we were both 7. But we became the greatest of friends. So when I disappeared he felt responsible.

"For 5 years, to punish himself, he made cuts on his arms. He definitely became a masochist after that but at least he stopped self inflicting."

All of this information made the two's heads spin. The illusion they had about this society had just been toppled after all, they didn't in their wildest think rich people could, suffer like this.

Ontop of that, their society allowed slavery, albeit in the shadows. This made Kiro more motivated to destroy it.

"How do you two have a sadder life story than these kids from the slums?" Kiro said jokingly, attempting to diffuse the tension.

Even Felix laughed at this. His heart flattered with happiness. He was glad they didn't look at him as if he was a creep, he truly felt accepted. It was only then that he felt comfortable around the two.

"I'm gonna destroy this society." Kiro mumbled. As much as he mumbled, they heard him.

Nikolai smiled, "same." He said simply.

Hiro nodded. Felix did the same. They definitely felt closer than they did at the start of their dungeon journey. Especially now that they had the same goals.

"First order of business, let's try to find out how they operate, how they transport victims and where." Kiro said, taking charge once again, voting himself as the leader.

They all didn't care much. They shrugged and nodded.

"And please, if we ever want to talk about this business, we do it here. It's safer than out there. It has to be." His trust for the outside world only widened, he didn't think anywhere was safe out there. Especially if their goal was this.

They all definitely agreed on that. They then changed the topic entirely and talked about other things, normal things teenage boys talk about. It was a wonder that Ishaan slept through all that.

All of a sudden, Kel growled at the night. Those blue eyes glinted dangerously, as if he was warning something to stay away. It must not have taken his warning seriously, because it showed itself.

It looked like a ghost, translucent but at the same time it resembled smoke. Dark thick translucent smoke, that made it look like it was just a cloak wearing itself.

"Dungeon of the undead." Kiro said through gritted teeth. "Kel, if you can defeat this thing, you would've proven your worth to me."

That single line winded his ego, he pounced hungrily at the ghost faster than it could react. With his indestructible beak, he pierced the thing only to go through it like the smoke it was.

That didn't deter him, thinking quick on his feet he used his claws to attempt slicing it but alas it wasn't flesh.

"Okay, I may have been too hard on you, clearly this is a very bad match for you little one." Kiro attempted to console him.

It looked like it was sucking their magic as it stood in the air motionless not even attacking them physically.

Then a whistling sounded in the dead of the night. Nikolai was using his skill, knowing that physical attacks were useless. The ghost slowly dissipated until there was nothing but air.

"Sh*t Nikolai stop that, are you trying to kill us?"

When he looked back, his friends were on the floor writhing in pain. He quickly stopped and smiled boyishly.

"Haha, I didn't think it'd affect you guys, sorry sorry. I don't have control over it yet."

Ding!

[Congratulations for killing your first Wraith. They're vengeful spirits that have plagued this entire town. EXP received 100 000. Coins 3 000.]

The game was obviously now stingy with coins. The EXP was split 6 ways by the system automatically. It counted Kel as part of After Dark.

"That was a cool skill though, what is it?" Kiro was curious.

"Deadly ballad, it's called. A simple whistle could be my greatest weapon if I can master it."

Kiro thought about it, and decided he would attempt to get Nikolai over to Paradise, that way he can learn without hurting anyone. But that was for when they've left this place.

Kiro walked over to Kel, and started scratching his chin, which quickly melted his anger away. "Don't be so down, you tried your best." He made a purring sound to show his happiness.

After that incident none of them could sleep. Clearly the shadows they'd seen were Wraiths havoring around the ruins.

Ishaan was still asleep. They all gave him strange looks at how he slept through all that noise.

"What a crazy guy!"

"Tell me about it."