The Apathetic Mage Loves Cats

Chapter 28: The Journey

"Who knew the underworld would smell so bad?" Caiden commented, his nose scrunching up as he stepped over a crumbled piece of rock, the blanket around his shoulder slightly dragging across the rubble. He squinted his eyes, glancing up at the moons dancing around the sun, probably not able to believe what was happening. I just chose to ignore it, knowing that the world was made of some type of magic meant that Zing could do whatever he wanted, which included having two moons dancing around a sun. I wasn't sure if he was doing it for fun or if there was a real reason to have them.

"Well, I guess it's what you get with a world created out of magic," I muttered back as if he were asking for an answer. However, I too was curious about what was happening. Since I started to learn magic, I was taught that even people who studied it for hundreds of years couldn't do some of the things that I or Romand would deem as simple. To create an entire world out of nothing as Zing did seems so impossible that it felt fake. If Akan and Iban had led me straight here instead of beating around the bush with the stupid notes, they wouldn't have had such a difficult time trying to get me to come to the Underworld. I would've simply come just to try and understand how someone could be powerful enough to create an entire world out of thin air and yet still choose to die.

Out of the corner of my eye, I was taking note of Caiden's behavior, watching him try to take in the world around him. Then, I reached forward quickly, watching Caiden as he was glancing up at the sky, the tip of his left foot skidding across the asphalt causing him to stutter a step. My hand found its way across his back and gripped onto his right hip. He turned to me, giving me a smile as thanks, before standing up straight and shaking his shoulders, his eyes now watching his steps as he skidded around the broken rubble scattered across the ground. The blanket that was once wrapped around his shoulder fell to the ground in a heap, and we left it behind, opting to discard it in the slightly warm Underworld air.

"What happened here?" I asked, turning to glance at Iban who was trotting beside me. I bent down to offer to pick him up in case he was struggling, and he happily took it, crawling into my arms. I rubbed off the grey concrete stuck to his fur as he nestled into my inner elbow.

"It relates to what I was telling you before we entered here," Iban muttered, then he took a deep breath. "Once Zing died, the demons barely managed to hold themselves together. Luckily, they had a common enemy, and they were working towards making the place safer and better for the demons. But it was still difficult for them to continue forward without a solid person instructing them." Iban let out a slight grunt as I had to make my way around a large piece of rubble, his body clinging to my arms as I jostled him around. "Then, when Melan came around, they started to look up to him. Of course, Melan wasn't that great a leader. He was doing the best he could given that he didn't want that role, but..." Iban glanced over at Akan, who didn't seem phased at the conversation. In actuality, he looked happy to just be here, his eyes glittering as he looked up at the two moons. "Anyway, after that, there was a fight to figure out what was right and what was wrong in the demon society. This idea of right and wrong started with Zing, who wanted everyone to just work together to rebuild and continue to live here, without exacting revenge on the humans. There, of course, were some that wanted to go against him, and some who believed in him and his idea of being united. That only deepened once Melan rose to power. Some wanted Melan to be a leader because he didn't hover over them and allowed them to be more flexible compared to Zing. On the other hand, some wanted a more structured King, this led to not only his death but the start of fighting amongst the demons as they wanted some to gain more governmental power while others did not. This was part of the reason that led to the wasteland that you see today."

I glanced around us, stepping over more cracks erupting from the ground. We were walking along a long gravel road, surrounded by trees. It looked like the highways you would see back on Earth, but if only it was a one-lane road and no guardrails for cars. It was simply a long wide road with trees lining the side. I couldn't imagine what it would be used for but considering the portal that Akan and Iban lead us through was at the "beginning" or "end" of the road, it was probably only used for one thing: to travel back and forth from the Underworld to Ekalen.