Chapter One: Raider (2)

"Aaaaaah", he kept on screaming and screaming for an indefinite amount of time as he kept on falling and falling.

The abyss he had disappeared into seemed to be infinitely deep and was completely pitch black. So dark that he couldn't he see his own hands.

As Raider kept on falling, the kids above ground had gathered around the spot where they had last seen him. However, there was no hole.

"Where could he have gone?", asked one of them.

"Was this trash able to cultivate after all?", suggested one of them.

"Nonsense. Let's go back and tell my father.", said the one who had been floating on puddles. He seemed to be the leader of this group.

As the kids ran back to the settlement at their fastest speeds, much faster than they had chased Raider, the latter was still falling into this abyss.

'What the *** is going on?', he asked himself. 'Could it be that I died?’

His surroundings were pitch black and he had no way to tell up from down. If it wasn't for the wind resistance pushing up against him, he wouldn't even know he was falling.

                                                                   ---

A while later, the chasing children arrived at the settlement.

"Father! Father!", called out the leading boy, pushing through the crowds around the burning fire.

"Foolish child. Don't you know not to make a ruckus at such an important time?", Clan Chief Soho retorted. He seemed to be enraged by his younger son's interruption.

"Soho, Adam is an intelligent boy, he wouldn't disturb this occasion for no reason", voiced out the boy's mother, Serena, in his defence.

"Speak.", said Soho in a still angered yet slightly milder tone.

"Father, the slave is gone!", said Adam.

"Gone? What do you mean gone?", interrogated his father.

"We were playing outside the village and he suddenly disappeared.", explained the child.

"Disappeared? How did he disappear?", asked Soho.

"I don't know. We were playing tag and gave him a head start and all of a sudden he was gone. None of us saw what happened and there was nothing where we last saw him.”

"This... Show me where it happened.”

"Father, shouldn't we finish the ceremony first?", asked Alexander who was still standing in the flames.

"We can finish it later, let's go investigate first." refused Clan Chief Soho. After all, a greedy person was unable to tolerate losing any of their possessions, no matter how worthless they might be.

After saying these words, the Clan Chief waved his hands in a circular motion and the rain pouring down around him gathered into two huge pillars of water. These pillars coiled themselves up to form two platforms of water and swept up some of the adults standing around the fire as well as the kids that were chasing Raider and Alexander who had yet to step out of the flames.

As the water gathered into platforms, the people swept up by it found themselves standing on the bodies of water. On one were the kids, including Adam and Alexander, and the Clan Chief and on the other were the adults chosen by the Clan Chief to help them investigate.

Impressively, the fire in the middle of the village was not put out by the sweeping pillar of water.

Just like that, a dozen or so people flew into the air and, guided by Adam and the other kids, went towards the location of Raider's disappearance.

As all of this was happening, Raider was still falling and had no idea of what was going on in the settlement. He had calmed himself and stopped screaming as he waited to crash into the ground and surely die. His mindset at the moment could only be described as restless, bewildered and impatient.

Moments later, Soho, his two sons and the other clansmen arrived at the site of Raider's disappearance.

"This is where you last saw him?", asked the Clan Chief.

"Yes.", replied Adam while the other kids, who didn't dare to speak, nodded their heads submissively.

"And none of you saw anything?", questioned Soho, clearly puzzled.

"No.", replied Adam once again, as the other kids all shook their heads.

"Strange...", murmured Soho.

He jumped down from the water platform and landed firmly on the ground at the exact spot Raider disappeared from. He cast his gaze all around himself as he investigated.

"There are clear footsteps up to this point and judging by the size, they should definitely be that slave's... but they suddenly stop here.", he said to himself out loud. "These smaller ones should be the kids' when they came to have a look but there's truly nothing else…"

"What do you all think could've happened?", he asked the crowd who was still on the other platform.

At this moment, no one said anything. After all, when even their Clan Chief couldn't figure out what happened, how could they?

"Father, I just thought of something. May I speak?", called out Alexander out of the blue.

"Sure, what is it?", agreed his father.

"What if somebody took him away?", proposed Alexander.

"Why would anyone take that trash away?", voiced one of the adults standing on the other platform in an unpleasant tone. His name was Sander and he was one of the few Stream Realm cultivators of the Clan.

"Watch your tone when you speak to your future Clan Chief!", erupted Soho. Evidently he didn't like someone disagreeing with his son.

"My apologies Lord Clan Chief, my apologies Young Master Alexander.”

It could be seen from that Sander's reaction that he was quite afraid of this father-son duo.

"Merely, this lowly one doesn't understand why someone would take away some trash unable to cultivate and who would do such a thing.", Sander continued in a meek voice.

"Fool, we've kept him as a slave for so long, we've fed him just to toy with him. If we've done that, couldn't someone else also wish to do that?", rebuked the Clan Chief.

"Lord Clan Chief, wouldn't that mean that a cultivator has come to this place, that they've found our Clan?", voiced another Stream Realm cultivator by the name of Gregor.

"...", At this moment, Clan Chief Soho's face fell. He seemed to be in deep contemplation.

After a short moment of reflexion, his expression grew uglier and a worried frown covered his face.

"We must go back to the settlement. Prepare for the worst.", he called out as he jumped back onto the water platform his sons stood on.

Soho motioned with his hands and the two platforms were on their way, this time much faster than when they had come to investigate.

Shortly after they had returned and with urgent expressions the adults quickly gathered their wives and children in order to hide them in an underground location.

This place was only accessible through a special passage concealed within the property of the Clan Chief and was prepared especially for situations like these.

That said, no-one in the current generation of clansmen had ever had the need to hide themselves like this. Thus, it was an unprecedented and astonishing experience for all of them.

Only the Clan Chief and a select few individuals that had reached the Stream Realm remained above ground in order to stand guard.

The fire in the middle of the village could not be extinguished so it had to be covered up. Impressively, even the lack of oxygen wouldn't snuff it out. From this is could be seen that this fire was truly mystical.

As the Clan went on high alert, Raider was still falling in that endless abyss. It had been roughly an hour since he had disappeared from his pursuers' sight.

In that time, he had managed to adjust his frame of mind and was now patiently waiting to die. To him, death was better than enslavement so he wasn't particularly sad about the matter. His only regret would be that he didn't know who his parents were or where they were. Although the clansmen had told him that they had picked him up by chance when he was an infant, he had no idea if his parents were aware of that fact or even if they were dead or alive.

As he was caught up in contemplation, he didn't notice that his surroundings had slowly started brightening up. It was only when he noticed a faint light coming from below him that he was woken from his thoughts.

'Finally this is the end.' he told himself. 'I finally get to die.’

He closed his eyes and awaited to crash into the ground, only hoping that it would be painless.

Through his closed eyes he could feel his surroundings becoming brighter and brighter. He could even feel a faint heat coming from the bottom of the abyss. As the light and heat intensified he prepared himself for everything to go dark as that would mean his death.

However, that moment never arrived.

Raider opened his eyes but soon closed them again due to the sudden brightness. Once his eyes adjusted and he was able to open them again, he was surprised to discover that he hadn't crashed into the ground like he hoped he would.

Instead, he was floating a few centimetres above it.