"But-but you fell. There was so much wood and iron."
Vera looked over the edge, to where Naren was, where he still should've been. A large pile of debris, full of bodies, loose planks, metal sheets. However, there was a noticing hole, right through the center, like someone had clawed their way through.
Naren placed an arm on his neck, cracking his neck.
"Too much actually, I think I pulled a muscle."
His tone was indifferent, like he had just been buried by soft pillows and not what could've been hundreds of kilograms of weight.
Vera's eyes wandered to the corpse of the people that were alive just thirty minutes ago. The Sergeant, the soldier, and even Boris. They were all dead, somehow just like that.
She was shaken. Looking from the corpses to the gore of the beast surrounding them, then at Naren, before looking at Boris once more and falling to a seat:
"Sorry."
But she wasn't allowed to mope, or to cry. Her attention turned to the piece of gore on the ground as she tried to hold her insides in.
"I survived, a scourge...?"
Naren wrung his scarf dry from all the moisture it's accumulated.
"Scourge mourge. Alice musta lied, it wasn't that tough."
Vera tilted her head looking at Naren. Still whispering under her breath.
"How can you hear me?"
Naren placed his pinky in his ears, scratching it.
"I just can. That a problem?"
"N-no."
Naren laid down right next to Vera, sprawling out. Now that he had decided to do this, the easy part was over. Now he had to get to atlas and figure out exactly what he had to do there. But that could wait. He was already so tired.
As Naren's head hit the ground, his eyes shut immediately. Falling into a nice long nap. It should've been long.
"Uh, what're you doing?"
Vera's big amber eyes looked down on him from above.
The sides of Naren's lips curled upward, but he couldn't be bothered to form a response. Instead he just turned to his side.
Small, wet hands grabbed at his side, flipping him back upright.
"Hey. Didn't you say would take me to Atlas."
Naren's eyes opened slightly before closing again, this time he pulled his scarf over his eyes.
For a second it was fine, but then the smell from all the grime on the scarf hit his nose. He sprung up, sending Vera staggering back a bit. An annoyed expression on Naren's half covered face.
"Maybe I shoulda just let you get eaten!"
Vera walked back to Naren, before letting a smile creep up onto her face.
"But how will you get to Atlas?"
Naren put his hands over his face before slowly bringing them down. Stretching his face down in the process.
"Damn, shrimpy."
He straightened out his scarf.
"How do we get to Atlas then?"
Vera pursed her lips, as she crept back a little. Twiddling her thumbs, she looked at the ground, before looking back up at Naren.
"I'm not sure..."
Naren blinked, his golden eyes glimmering. Before he stood up and approached Vera, a slight smile on his face.
"Mm, I see, you don't know. Well that's alright I guess."
He grabbed Vera's ears pulling it, as she got up to her feet.
"Ow! Ow! Wait!"
Naren guided her to the edge of the cliff.
"Mmm. It's alright shrimpy. But I should get rid of a second stomach to feed. Y'know since its a pretty useless stomach"
The smile of his face grew darker. A tinge of annoyance behind it.
Vera looked down the edge of the cliff behind her.
"Wait! Stop! Naren! Please."
Naren tilted his head.
"Tell me something I wanna hear then."
"I-I know how to get there, j-just not when."
Naren let go, Vera staggering away from the edge, coming to a seat. Tears swelling up in her eyes.
"C'mon don't cry now."
"S-shut up...You're a evil monster!"
"Yeah yeah, just gimme the scoop."
Vera stared at Naren, a scowl on her face as she held back her tears.
"Atlas...Doesn't belong to this world."
Naren grabbed Vera's ear again.
"Wait! I'm telling the truth."
He let go. Vera stuck her tongue out at him, her eyes angry.
"You're a perverted evil monster. Go to hell."
"Hey, what're you like eight. You don't know what half those words mean."
"Nine. And I'm probably more grown up then you!"
Naren crouched down, his face dark, only the golden beads of his eyes visible.
"Hurry up and spill shrimpy. I'm getting bored."
A sharp chill fell down Vera's spine as she shuddered. Her eyes were fixed on Naren's scarf, a rough and ominous feeling consuming her. She averted her eyes as she spoke.
"It shows up randomly...A giant hole in the ground. One that leads all the way through the world, into the bottomless sky below."
Naren laid off, falling to a seat from his crouch. When Vera's eyes wandered onto him again, his eyes glistened in curiosity. Like a little kid being hearing about Red Riding Hood for the first time.
"What's next."
Naren couldn't help but but smile slightly, even through his sleepy eyes.
Vera straightened up, acting like she was the adult in the room, reading the story.
"Atlas is all the way in the bottom. Completely sunken from the rest of the world, that's why people call it hell. So if we find the hole, we find Atlas."
Naren fell back, swinging in his seat. Enthusiasm in his voice.
"That's nuts."
Then he swung back up.
"So how do we get to the hole."
Vera's voice grew quieter as she averted her eyes. She grimaced.
"Uh...that part's a bit combinated."
When she looked up, Naren had his lips pursed, trying to hold back a laugh.
"W-what?"
As soon as he saw Vera's face he lost it and began laughing. Gasping for air.
"Combinated! Hahaha!"
Vera began punching and kicking at him to stop. She didn't know why he was laughing, but the fact that it was at her was making her angry.
"What is it!"
Naren finally straightened out, wiping tears from his eyes.
"Oh man. You're funny shrimpy."
She was pouting while looking away.
"So you have no clue where it is, you're saying?"
Vera got a creepy shudder again. She held herself tight slowly turning back to look at him. Half expecting him to throw her off the mountain of debris completely this time. But to her surprise, Naren looked...satisfied.
He was rolling his neck in a circle, muttering to himself about how stiff it was, while yawning.
"Ok shrimpy."
He yawned.
"Let's get out of here."
Vera looked at him, with hope in her eyes.
"You know a way out?"
"Duh."
Naren pointed to the edge of the stomach where it grew narrow into a smaller tunnel of flesh. A sudden gross realization coming into Vera's mind.
"The same way everything else get's out."
Vera's face grew dark, as she crept back, shaking her head.
"No no no. I don't wanna go there."
"C'mon, it's the only-"
A sudden impact, made the beast they were inside go sideways. Everything inside it flying. Naren tried holding onto a piece of the ship, but that too was swept away just as easily.
The creature tumbled, everything inside spinning. Naren looked for anything glistening, any reflection, but the creature's insides grew dimmer.
In the process, the acidic liquids splashed everywhere, a bit burning Naren's skin. In the process, Vera grabbed onto Naren's legs, holding tightly.
Naren caught a reflection, vanishing, leaving Vera suspended midair. But just as easily as he moved, he came back. The insides of the creature were erratic, somehow even after using a reflection to escape, he ended up right where he was before. This time Vera's grip grew tighter.
Her eyes were shut tight as she was muttering to herself. Trying her best not to cry.
Then, the movement stopped. For just a second, everything stood still. But the very next second it all flew up, like they were flying from an incredible height.
In the next moment, a sliver of light crawled through the roof of the creature. A sliver that arced it's way through the entire beast's abdomen, coming full circle.
On either side of him, the two halves of the island-sized abomination slowly separated, as if cleanly sliced through.
As both sides, peeled away and fell, small bits of rain fell on him, before turning into a torrential downpour. His golden eyes glimmered as he looked around.
Nothing.
There was nothing as far as the eye could see, nothing but sky.
His face fell immediately, as the rush of wind blew it back.
"VERA! DO SOMETHING!"
The little kid had refused to open her eyes, her grip growing tighter instead.
"DAMN SHRIMPY! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE A WITCH!"
Then something in the peripheral caught his attention. Averting his gaze, his heart almost stopped. In fact, for the first time, all noise stopped for Naren. There, in the distance shrouded by fog above him. Nestled deep inside the thick atmosphere was a small dinghy.
A worn rowboat. Ten feet long at most. The wood was splintered, the hull cracked and splitting. Even the oars looked ready to fall apart. But it kept moving. In the endless emptiness, Naren could only watch as a figure rowed — slowly, methodically — upward. Rowing the boat into the sky as if the air itself were water.
A slight smile grew on his mouth.
"This is fucking insane."
As the words left Naren's mouth, his eyelids grew tired which was odd. Usually, despite his heavy sleeping tendencies, when he was up, he found it a lot harder to go to sleep. Especially in a noisy atmosphere like this.
But somehow, Naren's eyelids fell. Slowly dozing into a deep slumber.
Around him, an empty expanse of open air rustled constantly. Debris, bodies, various liquids, all flying through.
Somehow, a loose piece of paper blew through the air through strong currents.
——————————
Somewhere on the black sea, sailed a massive military ship. Armed and reinforced for war it seemed. On it, a hulking women with eyebags as deep as bruises was sitting on a lawn chair while it stormed. her eyes fully shut, but somehow it felt to all the passengers like she could still see all of them.
The woman had long coarse wavy brown hair in braids. She wore a sleeping mask raised above her forehead and a long sleeved nightgown—evidently white in the past, now grey—with lace at the collar and cuffs. On top of it was a fur coat.
As comfortable as she was seated, a heavy storm was undergoing the ship. Tilting and splashing, as the passenger on board flew from side to side.
Then a stray piece of paper landed on the woman, somehow dry despite the rain. She picked it up, finally opening her eyes, to read it. Her green eyes, surveying each of the crudely written letters:
Name: Naren
Rank: Private
Enlistment Date: May 12, 1300 A.G.
Fable: Reflections
Spite: Always Forgotten
The woman was stuck on that last line she read. Always forgotten. Then at the fable atop of it: Reflection. The combination was what struck her.
"So the witch has a curse. How terrifying."
The woman stuffed it into her pocket, before getting up. Muttering to herself: "Hope I never meet that bastard."
A soldier waddled up the woman, saluting with two fingers.
"Captain! What do we do!"
"Just go an bunker down. Who told you all to run around out here like cattle?"
The soldier looked a bit embarrassed before running off, trying to hold his ground through the storm as he ran for the lower deck.
The woman however, edged closer to the railing, looking off into the sea. There stood a giant hole of no bottom as far as the horizon stretched. Muttering to herself.
"The most talented Aspirant in our generation, sentenced to hell."
Just then, an island-sized fish shot right through the waters, flying deep into the middle of the hole. A slight flash passed through the water following it, leaving behind a shockwave blowing the ship back a bit. Crewmates scattering, a couple screaming.
The woman raised her eyebrows.
"And for some reason, the devils here too. Alice, what're you up to?"
She took a deep breath and cheered up.
"You ready princess? I won't be able to come you know."
Beside her, a couple meters away, a girl was tending to soldier who had a mop handle jutting out of his hand from the recent shockwave.
She had dark-blue almost black hair with a purple flower in her hair. Her features were soft, complementing her pale skin. She wore a peawhite coat, with a sky-blue dress underneath.
As she looked up, her pitch-black eyes reflected nothing. She had a supple smile on her face.
"Don't worry Elara."
—————————————
Suspended in midair, a woman with golden hair and a black ribbon, fell with a beaming smile. A battle axe in her hand.
Then, something erupted from below her.
A creature of segmented chitin and dozens of asymmetric wings caught her, absorbing her weight without slowing. It's body was coiled, like a centipede mid-flight, translucent air sacs covering the underside, keeping it afloat.
Alice steadied herself on the ridges, peering down at the giant island-sized beast getting smaller and smaller.
"Good luck, brat."
—————————————
On May 12th, 1300 years after Grimm, almost a thousand men and women vanished from the face of the world, all in the same place. No wreckage. No bodies. Instead, they all fell through the world, all the way to where hell should've been.
History had a name for this.
A freak phenomena that would happen ritualistically each year without fail.
The Tomb of Atlas.