When morals are nothing but a fantasy

"You are free to choose, but you are not free from the consequence of your choice."

In an unknown time and location:

"What will you do, when everything you know changes and is no longer what you once knew? What oh what shall you do? Hehe... this will be an interesting scene to witness! Will you fall and abandon everything you once knew or will you stay true to who you are and what you believe in?" croaked an old and eerie voice as it slowly faded away.

Location: River of Greed, Faction Harbour

Time: Year 11 of the Era of Change Era: Era of Change

After a few days, Steven and everyone else who was on the ship finally arrived at their destination. But there were no cheers of joy or sighs of relief coming from the ship.

Instead, a feeling of desperation and fear could be felt. Even the crew members who seemed to have been the vilest and most barbaric to have existed, were so quiet that they seemed to be entirely different people.

"Damn it! I really hate this place! I hope we can leave soon again!" mumbled one of the crew members with a grim expression.

"Agreed," answered another crew member while nodding and shaking in fear.

As the crew members were discussing this with each other in hushed voices, the captain suddenly spoke:

"Alright men, you know the drill. As long as we can quickly and efficiently bring the slaves to the overseers, we can leave this hellish place!" exclaimed the captain with a solemn voice.

Hearing this the crew members quickly reacted as they prepared the ship to dock at the harbour.

"Have we arrived?" thought Steven as he felt like something had happened.

"Well, I'll find out sooner or later... wait, what... what's happening?!" asked Steven as he suddenly felt like he was slowly falling asleep.

"Sniff... Sniff... What... what's that smell? Wait... are they..." as Steven realised something had happened to his air, he was breathing, he suddenly became unconscious and fell down onto his cabin floor.

"Hehe... stupid slaves... they are always the same..." jeered a tall, bulky looking sailor as he opened Steven's cabin door.

"Now... it's time to get this slave to the same location as the other slaves," heaved the man as he picked Steven up with his one arm and headed to the main deck of the ship. After a few minutes, hundreds upon hundreds of unconscious people were put next to each other on a marble floor.

These people came from all over the place. Most of the people had the physical appearance of a human, but some people even had some animalistic traits that could be seen.

"Hmph... so few slaves... Captain... Do you think I would be pleased with such a small amount of slaves?!" gurgled a grotesque fat-looking man, whose appearance could be described to that of a troll.

"Inspector! We had no choice! The River of Greed, all of a sudden acted up and had started emitting a dangerous amount of waves," gasped the captain with a sigh, hoping this would appease the Inspector. Because the River of Greed was known as a very dangerous place, no person dared to traverse through it, without special means.

The only reason why the captain could even sail through the River of Greed, was because he used a faction ship that was made, through special means, that people like him would never get to know about.

As the inspector heard this he squinted his fat eyelids and become entirely silent, contemplating the situation for a moment.

"Fine! You better hope the overseers don't complain to me about this matter, otherwise... hehe, you wouldn't mind being a slave once more would you captain?" hissed the troll-looking inspector with a malicious smile while chuckling.

"Of course not...!" squeaked the captain while trembling. The captain couldn't help but hope that nothing would happen, as he absolutely did not want to become a slave again. Especially in this dreadful place.

"Then leave! I'll place the slaves at the lowest mine levels. After all, they need new fodder to replace all the previous ones... ha," quipped the troll-looking inspector as he slowly walked away.

"Steven..." said Colin as he stared at Steven's while walking away.

"I'm sorry! I pray you die! Because if you don't, only horrendous pain will await you," sniffed Colin with a downcast as he was clearly feeling guilty.

"Colin, there was nothing you could do! I know you don't like doing this, but for people like us at the bottom, we have no other choice!" consoled the captain with a sigh, as he patted Colin's shoulder.

"I understand captain." murmured Colin deciding not to look back, to where Steven was. But as Colin was walking, he suddenly, for some reason looked back at where Steven was and made promises.

"Steven, if for some reason you can get out of that hell hole... I promise I will help you become free!" promised Colin with a determined expression.

Somehow, Colin felt like there was more to Steven than anyone could see. As if he was entirely different than everyone else. This difference gave him unbelievable confidence, that Steven might just make it out of that hell hole.

Location: Underground Mining Area 50-G

Time: Year 11 of the Era of Change Era: Era of Change

"Ugh! Where am I?" asked Steven while slowly waking up. As Steven finally woke up he saw something unexplainable. He saw a person being eaten a few meters away from him, by a grotesque looking spider. This spider was so huge and deformed, that Steven wanted to throw up.

"Uhhhh!!" as Steven saw that grotesque sight, he couldn't help himself and started to gag loudly.

"Hey, you! Be quiet..." whispered a voice coming from behind Steven.

"Whoa... What?" moaned Steven with a confused expression as he wiped away his puke and turned around.

"Yeah, you! Don't attract that Hopper! Slowly! Follow my voice! There are still a few unconscious people in front of you that can distract that beast," retorted the voice in a hurried tone.

As Steven heard this, he turned around again. What he saw were five people lying a few meters in front of him.

"Wait! If we leave them, won't they be left for dead?" worried Steven while furrowing his eyebrows, as he clearly did not like the sound of doing such a thing.

"Who cares! It's the survival of the fittest!" hissed the voice with an irritated tone.

"Are you coming or not?"

"I... I..." as Steven was thinking of what to do, the beast suddenly jerked up its head. It looked to its left, where there was a tunnel. Something there had attracted its attention. It quickly charged into the tunnel while shrieking in an unbearable tone. It was as if it had seen something it absolutely hated.

"Now is your chance... Hurry!" urged the voice once more.

As Steven was about to run for it, he suddenly remembered his friends. He had got his answer as why he was so hesitant escape! Steven took a sigh and said:

"I'd rather die knowing I did the right thing, than live with the knowledge I could have saved someone's life but didn't." Steven quickly stood up and headed in the direction of the other people lying next to him.

"What? You idiot!" shouted the voice as it couldn't believe what Steven had just said.

"I'd rather be an idiot, than a man that only cares about himself," retorted Steven not looking back. As he said this, Steven didn't realise that his words would be heard by many people in the future and would stir something inside of them.

Something they all thought they had lost; morals, empathy, trust, faith and many other characteristics that they once had had as humans. Something they now thought were only fantasies and a waste of time.

But this would only occur much, much later.