The Lord of Rot

He left the underground arena in haste. Something urging him to run away. The underground arena was barren and empty, destroyed by he himself. But even if there was nothing dangerous left - the dangerous thing itself was the one leaving - he still felt a need to escape from it. 

It wasn't odd. A certain amount of guilt should have come over him by now. But his constrained face slowly fading into indifference had shown otherwise. For the man was unfortunate, but he knew he had been chosen for something greater. He had known this for the last few years.

With a newfound confidence he ran up the stairs, he felt a sensation he had not done in a long time... sunlight. This sunlight was different than the one he remembered, the sun didn't seem as violent or harsh as it had been before. 

The rays of the sun must have dulled after being underground for such a long period of time. But that didn't seem possible. He scoffed in confidence and said, "Has my skin really gotten that stronger?" But he was disappointed to realise that barely any of his skin was showing. The man sported leather gloves and a jacket made out of similar material. It didn't look fancy, but it was reminiscent of upperclass folk. 

The thick material must have shielded him from the sun. But it wasn't a lie that he had gotten stronger, the skin on his arms had gotten as hard as steel. He didn't know why it had gotten this way, but he could feel it when he put on the gloves earlier. The rubbery texture of his skin becoming as hard as steel on impact. 

However, this didn't remove his ability to move. He ran out into the streets upon reaching the surface. He took a deep breath of fresh air, and let out a sigh... "Finally... We got out after all..." 

'We...? I mean, "I got out after all..."' 

The street was made out of bricks. Cubical stone shapes, each a little bit uneven. The place he left was an entrance with wooden doors slanted against the wall around the city. It looked like a cellar, but it was too large for that. 

He realised the wall, and could confidently state that he was inside the city. He had been inside the city all along. 

'People... people' He looked around trying to see if someone was there, but there were none.

"Must have killed them all." Slipped out of him.

A nauseating feeling followed. 

The buildings looked strange. He was used to the limestone walls of the cages. But before that, he was used to the uniform architecture of the facilities. But these buildings looked less modern, they were made out of brick and other miscellaneous materials. 

He could only feel fascinated by the scale of the city. He could only pale in comparison to the behemoths of walls that surrounded the place. They must have been at least sixty meters in the air. Memories of him approaching the city walls not long ago flooded his mind, 'It didn't look so tall then...' But the city was everything he didn't expect. 

It was far larger.

And a bit desolate. 

'Where's the people...' 

The man must have been in the only secluded and solitary part of the town. He figured it was so because the underground activities were either frowned upon, or were kept hidden from the public. But seeing the edges of the town, seeing the buildings and the way the people must have lived, he couldn't imagine that they'd be civilised people who frowned upon simple events as underground fighting.

They all had to get money somehow. By now the man had gotten used to being underground. The sun strained his eyes quickly. By now his morals had also been twisted, he could no longer imagine the underground arenas as something immoral. He despised Aaphaim for bringing him here, and he despised the people who cheered. He wasn't sure if they deserved death though. 

He followed the edges of the wall. 

The same kinds of buildings surrounded most of what he saw. There was a space that separated the wall from the town. He didn't know if it meant anything, but there was a space of around ten meters. It seemed unnecessary at first sight, but he couldn't complain. 

The buildings were tall, so tall that some of them were built to lean. Their leaning sides were supported with metallic pillars perched into the walls themselves. It didn't seem to be made by professionals, both the work and the materials seemed cheap and shoddy. 

After walking for at least ten minutes, he reached an intersection. It was a place where the constant side to side buildings ceased. Now finally there was an opening. He had debated turning around, walking the other way, but luckily... 

He became surprised as soon as he saw the place...

It stretched a streets-length width, each of the sides of the alley-like walkway leaned slightly inwards, smoke and fire could be seen from the rooftops working its way into the skies. It went on, and on, and on. The road must have stretched for miles upon miles, he could not see the other side of it. 

He stood with his mouth agape. He saw a stranger, then he saw another stranger. Then suddenly, he could see them all. He must have seen hundreds, thousands of people walking around in that city. 

On the sides of the streets sat people selling various items and foodstuffs, they'd smile and politely shake hands with their costumers. They would look poor, but they would also look to have smiles unlike that he had seen before. 

There was a building in the middle of the dome-like city, a city no one had heard of, a city the Doctrine never mentioned existing, a contradiction of all his beliefs, The Forgotten City, the building stretched towards the heavens, it looked metallic, like a fusion of several Facilities. 

He had not remembered the way electricity had looked. But the onyx-like metal that ran along the skywards building was separated by powerful and vibrant lights on all sides. 

The smoke covered the skies. The buildings produced the smoke. 

... 

A lady accidentally walked into him. 

"Oh, no... I'm terribly sorry..."

Her eyes looked terrified. He had barely seen women before. Her terrified appearance made him nervous.

"You... oh thank god, I see." she said, looking at his clothes. "You aren't one of those people. I'm always grateful to see a man of the lord." 

Then he became confused, "One of those? One of the lord...?"

"Oh," she laughed, "I see you like to joke! but you don't have to test my faith dear lord's man. I'm as loyal as they get! And I see from your symbol (she points towards his jacket.) that you aren't... (she whispers) one of the rotted..."

He was utterly confused. 

But he played along. He didn't have anything else to do. 

"Ha-ha-ha! I almost had you, didn't I? Yes, I was testing your faith, and as you can see, I am not one of the rotted..." 

"Ha... see, I've got this down now, you know. I'll have to refer to you later, who are you?"

"Who am I?" 

...

"Yes...?" 

'Who am I...?

Baffled, the man could not answer.