Gates of Penance-Chapter 22: Red coin

Nacht knew that he was somewhere beneath the arena. He noted that it was pretty dark with a small amount of light coming from the small holes in the arena’s floor along with the fresh blood dripping from the fallen sinners.

Nacht began to sweat, not just because he was surrounded by a pool of blood, but also because the heat was starting to get to him. He didn’t have much time before he would have to make his way back to the arena. He could only hope that Alister took care of everything by the time he came back.

Alister had already proved that he was more than capable of handling himself. If he was up there with him then he would only hold him back.

In the meantime, he decided he would explore the underground arena in search of a way back since he would eventually need to return.

He moved through the shallow pool of blood, being careful not to trip or fall.

’I could really go for a bath... and some new clothes.’

Nacht was starting to get concerned for his hygiene.

His clothes were already in rough shape from before he entered penance. They had been mutilated by the wounds he sustained previously and were still stained with his blood. The last thing he needed was to further dirty his already torn and blood stained clothes by falling into another pool of blood.

The underground arena was ominous and eerie with the screams of battle from above still abundantly clear.

His steps were synonymous with the movement of blood washing over his ankles as he trudged through the blood lake. The blood level rose the deeper he ventured.

A couple of times he almost fell over what he presumed to be another dead body but tried to convince himself otherwise.

’Get me out of here dammit!’

Eventually he found a door made out of rusted metal at the edge of the underground chamber.

He gripped the door handle and pushed before letting out a sigh of relief as it opened.

’If it was locked, I don’t think I could have endured that gods awful smell any longer.’

However, he began to eat his words as the rotten blood flooded the next room and to Nacht’s sheer disappointment it wasn’t a set of stairs leading back to the arena.

’Just my luck.’

In the next room there was a long hallway that was submerged in darkness. There was no light coming from the arena but he could still see thanks to his trait so it didn’t matter.

At the end of the hallway was another door that he opened, submerging another room with blood in the process.

Nacht only took a couple of steps before he came to a stop.

’What happened here?’

The next room contained holding cells with rusty metal bars that lined each side of the room’s length.

All of the cells were empty except for one.

Nacht made his way over to the steel door and opened it, gazing down at the fallen enlightened before him. He didn’t know why, but he felt a strong sense of pity as he gazed upon one of humanity’s fallen soldiers.

The man or woman was now reduced to nothing but bones. Their skeleton was perfectly preserved and encased in steel armour that could barely pass as a mortal grade relic. In the corner of the cell, the sinner’s helm was shattered, gathering dust.

Nacht hesitated then carefully walked over to the broken relic and picked it up. He scanned its outer edges until he stopped as he noticed something was engraved on the inside of the helm.

[Failure]

Nacht tilted his head.

’Failure? Failure of what exactly?’

Initially he thought that the fallen enlightened had been branded as such for dying in the crucible. However, the dead body didn’t seem to have died from any fatal injury. The sinner’s armour was intact except for its helm, but Nacht was more inclined to believe that the helm had been shattered after the sinner’s death.

’The crucible has reached the end of its lifespan. Maybe this place was used for something other than a death game initially?’

Nacht had to remember that he was only experiencing this place at the very end of its journey. The initial purpose of this place was still unknown.

’I should probably get out of here soon.’

The heat was becoming unbearable! He needed to return to the arena as soon as possible.

Even though Nacht knew he had to leave, his greed still got the best of him.

Nacht reached towards the dead sinner and began rummaging across its body.

This wasn’t his first time looting a corpse and it probably wasn’t going to be his last, so he might as well get good at it.

If he was lucky, he may even find another relic! Even so, he was still having trouble finding anything of value.

’There has to be something!’

Somewhere along the line the room was no longer dark. Light began to shine into the room with a blazing intensity that made him curse underneath his breath.

’Found it!’

Nacht pulled out a red coin from the hand of the sinner’s corpse, then began to make a dash towards the exit. Nacht could now see the distant flicker of flames begin to manifest itself on top of the pool of blood devouring and incinerating it.

He reached the exit and was relieved to find stairs that spiraled up towards the arena.

He began to make his way up the stairs and almost stumbled in mild surprise. He felt something bind itself to his power core.

’I claimed the relic?’

Unlike last time where he had to forcibly bind the relic, the red coin simply bound itself to his core without any input from himself.

Although Nacht didn’t realize it at the time, when he touched the red coin it had imbued him with a negligible amount of orren.

’How do I do this?’

Nacht looked at the coin and concentrated before the coin dematerialized and dissipated into his arm beofre traveling to his power core. By the time he felt something new be engraved onto his core, he had already opened the doors to the arena.

Nacht shielded his eyes and stepped out into the blinding light and red atmosphere of the arena.

When his hand left his face, all he could do was stare in sheer shock at the scene in front of him.