1 1. The Beginning of Change

A boy can be seen standing still in front of a chasm. By his nervous look it can be seen he is hesitant. This itself is not unique as these situations are common here. The chasm here is an anomaly present just a few miles outside the Loka town. The people who arrive here are those who have nothing to lose or have lost everything. This chasm is called as the Devouring chasm as most of the people who enters this place never came back. But those who came back has their fate changed drastically.

'I must enter, but my body is not moving at all. Dammit, move...move.'

This was the thought going inside Advay who was just a 15-year-old boy.

'No, I won't go back, not until I have tried my best', he refused to budge.

Though back in his mind he knew that if he enters, he may not come back. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes to calm down. In a few minutes, his heartbeat went back to normal and he stopped shivering from fear. As everything calmed down, he took a step towards the chasm without opening his eyes.

Advay suddenly felt as if he had lost the ground under his feet. To him it felt like he is falling but was not sure of it. He tried to open his eyes, only to found himself surrounded by darkness and it felt like as if this darkness was trying to devour him. It made him so fearful that he hastily closed his eyes.

'I have always thought why this land was called chasm and now I understand why is it so.' thought Advay while he was still surrounded by darkness. While looking from outside, the so-called chasm is surrounded by a layer of darkness through which nobody can see anything.

He was trying to think about something in this situation so that he can distract himself from the fact that he may be falling to his death. Suddenly, he felt a pull and after a few moments found himself landing rather harshly on his feet, only to lose balance and fell face to the ground.

He rolled on to his back and touched his face to found that he is bleeding from his nose. 'Looks like my nose is broken but at least, I am still alive.' It was not his first time bleeding thus didn't give it much of a thought.

He tried to get back to his feet only to feel a shooting pain from both of his legs which resulted him in unable to get up.

''Ahh....it hurts''

He doesn't know what to do, he knew that he is surrounded by danger but unable to move he can only lie there. The chasm has a peculiar environment, it has flora and fauna that is unique to themselves. There are also plants and animals which has mutated to survive in this environment. Most of the people who come here are from the nearby towns. They come here to try their luck with some exotic plants or body parts of animals. To them these things can change their whole life.

Only minority of them come here with a specific thing in mind. Advay had come here with the purpose of finding a unique mineral. According to what he knows, this mineral has godly properties. If this mineral is mixed with any other suitable mineral during a creation of weapon or anything similar, then its quality can be increased without limit, the only limit is that of the creators.

For example, if this mineral is used during the creation of weapons then the quality of it can be increased to the limit of what a blacksmith can make.

Advay belongs to a Blacksmith family who were famous for its creation of ancient weapons but with the advent of modern weapons his family lost its fame and prestige.

Even after this they were rich enough to live comfortably for few generations but refusing to give up like that, they tried their hands on the creation of new weapons, which resulted in them getting setbacks after setbacks and losing all their wealth. They went bankrupt and has to sell all their properties. Without enough wealth to live in the capital they migrated to the Loka town and settled here a few generations ago.

The Malhar family is still known by those who knows the history of the continent. The history has kept their family name alive.

Advay tried walking after every few minutes. He can feel that his bones are not broken but there is stinging pain in his calf whenever he put pressure in his legs. Unable to move he can only lie there. After some hours he tried again, to his surprise found that he is able to walk, though the pain is still there it was bearable. Advay then stood up and looked around.

'I was lucky that nobody passed through here when I was down', he thought.

He had a small pouch tucked in his pants; inside it contains a liquid which he applied all over his body. Before coming here, he had applied the liquid, that may be the reason that no animals had approached him and if his assumption is correct then this is the border of outer zone where rarely any animals walk. His surroundings were dark but not too dark to see nothing. There are faint lights spreading from what looks like cracks in the sky.

'According to the information I collected, few cracks in sky means it is the outer zone whereas the inner zone has a sky which is like a cracked glass', saying so he turned to look deeper where he saw the sky fully filled with lights.

'I don't have to go deeper as the previous person who found the mineral had found it in the outer zone. This information should be true after all it was verified by my teacher' he thought and started walking.

As he kept walking, he also looked around to memorize the place where he fell down. It is believed that the easy way to get out of this chasm is to walk backwards from where you entered which will bring you back to same position before you entered the chasm.

He kept walking for some more minutes before he saw a tree some distance away from him, it would have been a normal tree if not for the fact that its trunk and branches are all twisted around itself and every single branch only has a single leaf.

To me it looks like as if the tree is strangulating itself. I was deeply awed by this tree as these types of wonder are unable to be found on the surface. Though awed I didn't go close to it and just took note of the tree as it can be used as an indicator to find my landing area and then went around it while keeping a safe distance.

I don't know where I will find the mineral so I kept on walking, it must have been an hour since I had been walking, but there was no sight of any minerals nor any hint to it.

I didn't find any other flora except for the weeds growing all around the area which looks pungent yellow in colour. It feels as if this weed is dead. I have also not found any animal till now. By the time, I had reached the top of the plain and after crossing it I may reach what looks like a forest far away.

I didn't know much about the mineral except the fact that it only grows where there is a huge amount of vitality. Seeing the forest gave me hope that I may find the mineral there hence increased my speed. I equipped the dagger which I have bought with me for my protection and neared the forest which was dead silent. I gulped as I felt the eerie silence and took a step forward.

All hell broke loose as the forest lit up with numerous red dots. As if the forest had filled with fireflies. The whole forest had come alive and to me the red dot looked like an eye of an animal. My heart nearly stopped, even though I expected to meet an animal, I never thought that I would meet this one, a twin tail monkey accompanied by a horde.

The twin tail monkey is a common magical animal found in the chasm. As the name suggests it has two tails but the most distinctive feature is that it has a single red eye. This monkey has only two limbs hence they survive mostly on trees.

I expected to find them in the forest but never in my dreams I thought I would find a horde. Unlike other monkeys they are very prideful and hence likes to live alone. It was really unexpected and unusual to find a horde.

Seeing them my first reaction was to run which happened even before the action registered in my mind. To run back to where I came from is foolish, so to enter the forest.

Therefore, I ran along the border of the forest as I knew that if I run back, they will definitely catch me as it is an upward slope and my pace will be slower than them. I cannot enter the forest as that is their playground. Hence, my only option was to run along the forest with the monkeys chasing behind me.

Suddenly something whipped me on my back which to me, must be the tail of the monkey. As their attacks consists of whipping with their tail.

The attack made me stagger but regained my balance and kept running. My eyes became filled with tears due to the pain felt on my back. The injury itself is not serious as my body had donned a basic armor before arriving at this chasm. But this situation cannot persist for long.

The monkey had returned back to the forest after the attack to keep chasing me, as these species are faster that way. My only option was to kept on running, to stop means beaten to death. My other option was to outrun them which is not possible with my current speed.

As their attacks are not powerful there is a higher chance of survival against them. It's more than fifteen minutes I have been running and my robe on my back is ripped and my armor, nearly tattered.

Some of the attacks have been evaded by me but not all as they are more agile than me. I was in constant pain but never stopped and felt surprised that I am still able to run. After some more minutes the strain of pushing my body to limit was getting to me, when I saw a cliff covering the whole length of forest and on that cliff, a cave can be seen.

With renewed energy he began running towards the cave, the monkeys seeing his direction started attacking him more intensely. He kept getting whipped every few seconds such that his armor totally broke and the attack started landing directly on his back. He cried out in pain but never stopped running. By the time he reached the cave his back was ripped and bloodied.

After reaching the cave I fell down. My leg hurts like anything and my chest felt as if it was on fire. But I have no intention to stop as I don't know whether the monkeys will follow me or not. So, I kept crawling to get some distance from the entrance. The twin tail monkeys didn't follow me but their screeching can be heard at the entrance.

I kept advancing and only stopped when I reached a point where the cave suddenly started going downwards as who knows what's there at the end of cave and the other reason for me to stop was a crack just above the point where the cave goes downwards in a slope.

At the moment when Advay was looking at the crack, it widened and from it fell a human figure. The figure crashed directly onto him, knocking him unconscious and plunging him directly down the cave.