Echoes of the Abyssal Blade: Path to Free Will-Chapter 91: Ready to Descend

Jonan’s face when he came to Raerin, the chief, was full of expectation, because apart from finding out the way back to his home, he would also have to prepare for that.

But now, upon learning about the under-realms, and the abyssal creatures that those of the human race had to face on a daily basis.

Forget going back home, he was wondering if it was even possible to survive here for long; his future, which he thought was certain, was now shrouded in the cloud of uncertainty.

In his mind, Jonan was now at the cliff’s edge. He thought to himself, if he would ever be able to go back to his home.

The chief noticed Jonan’s solemn expression, but he could not understand his worry.

He then thought of telling Jonan his next part, which he was eventually going to tell him, "By the way, prepare yourself, we will be going to the fifth layer."

Just after feeling a bit of despair, Jonan felt the next sentence told by the chief was like a bolt out of the blue, he thought, "Didn’t the chief say only the strongest could descend to the lower levels?"

Curbing his curiosity inside, he asked, "Sir, I don’t understand, how will we descend to the fifth layer, without having the corresponding strength."

To which the old man who was beside the chief himself, smiled and said, "While our colony might not look much stronger compared to others, we were once under The Warring Dragon Colony, we had to leave our home, because without our god, we could not survive there, and I am sure with our god now awakened, we could go back to our real homes."

There were still too many questions that lingered in Jonan’s mind, but he could not ask them for the time being; he could only understand as he witnesses more in the upcoming future.

Raerin, the chief, then coughed lightly and said, "Anyway, prepare yourself, we will be moving by dawn tomorrow, and descending down the layers, and let me iterate, it won’t be easy, so prepare yourself accordingly."

At the break of dawn, the colony stirred with a hushed urgency, the soft murmurs of preparation blending with the rustling winds of the under-realms.

Jonan stood amongst them, he was armored in borrowed gear, a silent resolve was cast over his still-young face.

Fires burned low in the center of the camp as packs were tightened and weapons were checked.

The chief, Raerin, stood atop a rocky ledge overlooking the valley path, eyes set toward the distant plume of smoke.

The route to the fifth layer had not been traveled in generations, yet every elder present knew it by heart.

Their ancestors’ descent had been etched into oral memory, and today, that ancient trail would awaken once more.

Their path wound through obsidian fields and skeletal trees, where the sun never reached and the ground seemed to hum.

The air was thick, not just with heat, but with the weight of the beast’s ominous aura present in the wild.

As they approached the foothills, the sky above them churned crimson with smoke, and a guttural tremor rippled underfoot.

Before them rose the fire-veiled colossus—Mount Velthrak, a volcano on the brink of eruption.

A murmur of dread passed through the group as they saw molten lines streaking down its side like bleeding veins.

Raerin lifted his staff and turned to the others, his voice firm despite the tension, "We go through the side cave, the passage that our ancestors used to come through."

All eyes followed his pointing hand to a narrow, shadowed slit near the volcano’s base, a cave carved by nature’s fury.

The heat scorched their faces, but they moved forward until the volcano roared its fury, with a sudden, deafening blast.

A shockwave hit them like thunder struck rocks, and it rained from the heavens, and the ground groaned under pressure.

The sky turned black with ash, and an avalanche of molten stone and shattered earth crashed down upon the cave.

The entrance was buried before their eyes, the only known route was now sealed by nature’s wrath.

Elders cursed beneath their breath, Raerin’s knuckles whitened around his staff, veins bulging with restrained fury.

They had planned for the eruption, but not for this timing, not for the worst-case outcome to strike so precisely.

With the beasts gone from the area, it should have been the perfect window, but now it was their cage, and they were trapped here.

"We cannot dig through this," murmured one elder, his face was pale. "Not without drawing predators from across the region to us."

"Every swing of a pick would be giving invitation to death," Kedes added gravely, scanning the jungle tree line nervously.

Raerin turned away, his voice a low growl, "Then we must find another way, or we risk stagnation and death."

It was in this silence that Jonan stepped forward beside Kedes, a quiet, bold idea shaping his tone.

"Let us go," he said, eyes burning with purpose. "Just the two of us. We’ll search the outskirts for another path."

Kedes met his gaze, hesitated only a breath, and nodded. The two vanished into the shadowed green of the dark forest.

The trees grew denser with each step, vines like serpents and thorns like claws.

Jonan’s boots squelched through the moist soil, senses sharpened, every sound amplified by tension.

Hours ticked by, bizarre cries were heard in the canopies, and extraterrestrial insects fled at their coming.

It was when the forest abruptly went quiet that Jonan stood paralyzed, a visceral warning passed through his senses.

A muffled rumble shook the trees, and then he glimpsed it, a monstrous creature making its way through the thicket.

Its coat was ripped and scabbed, its tusks curved like scimitars, each as long as an adult man.

Its breath was in snorts, steam emanating from its nostrils, and under its tusks, lethal fangs jutted forth.

Even Kedes whispered, "That’s no ordinary creature... That’s the Dreadboar—one of the dark jungle kings."

Even veteran warriors would turn pale at its sight; it was a living siege engine bound up in muscle and bone.

But the Dreadboar was not alone—Jonan’s eyes caught an outline of another figure, motionless in the thicket.

A Ragingbison, it was huge and still, its eyes were fixed on the boar with a predator’s intent, muscles coiled like drawn bowstrings.

It didn’t shift a branch despite its enormity, shrouded in patience, and violence filled the edges of its eyes.

Jonan caught his breath. "It’s ambushing it," he spoke softly. "It is hiding itself, waiting for just the right moment."

Kedes nodded, edging away slowly, "They don’t normally fight each other. Something is amiss in this forest... making it unstable."

It was then that a thought flowered in Jonan’s mind like lightning out of darkness.

"Suppose we drive these monsters towards the wreckage?" he said, voice cutting with elation.

Kedes was bewildered. "You mean entice them into the rubble-blocked cave?"

Jonan nodded hastily. "Yes. Let them dig for us, compel a confrontation where the way is smothered."

A wild grin creased Kedes’s face. "Hmm, there’s some truth to it."

They made wary circles around the beasts, dropping scent trails and snapping branches to set trails of a rival’s pheromones.

The Dreadboar flinched, its nostrils dilating—it caught the bison’s musk scent and spun, confusion yielding to fury.

The bison, realizing its cover was blown, stamped out of concealment, charging toward the boar with elemental ferocity.

The earth trembled as they met like titans, tusks battered against horns, the forest shuddering beneath the impact.

Jonan and Kedes sprinted, leading the trail of savage battle of the beasts back towards the closed cave, hoping the beasts would be drawn after them.

Behind them, there came a drumming of combat through the trees, the trees splintered, and birds took flight in hysterical flocks.

When they arrived at the site of the avalanche, both beasts had been reduced to frenzies, battering everything in their way.

With one last blow, the Dreadboar crashed into the debris, rocks shattering, aged trees crumbling beneath the attack.

The bison struck as well, digging into the rocks with horns like ice picks, driven not by nature now, but rage.

It was having an effect—the cave entrance was re-emerging, stone by stone pushed away by the fury of the beasts.

Jonan and Kedes huddled behind a felled log, panting, as they watched raw power from nature redirect itself.

Just as the creatures could turn on one another once more, a tremor threw them both sideways—they disappeared into a newly formed chasm.

There was a silence, except for the rolling of loose stones... and the slow opening of a black, gaping tunnel.

The colony was attracted by the noises of the beasts and arrived just as the dust had settled.

Raerin gazed at the opened passage in wonder, awe dashing across his hardened face.

"You two... did this?" he asked, voice just above a whisper.

Jonan nodded, still agog. "We didn’t do it alone. The jungle itself cleared the way."

They were cheered, but subdued by the morbid reminder—the deeper layers waited.

Raerin held up his hand. "We should go now, before the beasts return."

With the first colonists moving down into the newly revealed path, a sense of purpose came back to their numbers.

They had overcome the first challenge—not by power, but by intelligence and the force of the wild.

Jonan was at the entrance to the tunnel, the blackness before him an ocean he was to swim across with the people of the Dragon Tooth’s settlement.