"That is a lot of salt, how is there still so much in there? They've been exploiting these mines for years already" Griar looked up at the high ceiling, talking to distract himself from the fear that everything would come crashing down on him and crush him into liquid.
None of his three compatriots shared in his fear however, their teacher had taken multiple measures to ensure that whoever, or whatever was responsible for the collapses could just drop the ceiling on her student's heads.
"We are deep now, there is still much ressources to be collected higher up, so they probably haven't yet considered harvesting the salt that is in more dangerous ideas" Antieeld responded, sending a bright orb of mana into a tight passage, finding only a dead end.
"Anything on your end?" she directed a question at Milo and Helena, the first lifting small pebbles, the second trying to find remnants of mana signatures.
"No residues to be found" she spoke first, her mana perception being the highest of the group, the job of checking for such things naturally fell on her, but mana from people and such dispersed rather quickly, especially in an environment rich of wild mana such as this one, there was nothing suspicious for her to find.
"Oh, that's… This is, hum, something" Milo was thrilled finding something of odd nature, but was honestly unable to identify what he found, safely secured into place beneath a small rock, weight down on this soft matter, which was mostly of a pale white colour, but with small bits of it appearing like it had been burned.
The group of four gathered around the finding, tilting their heads, at the strange mass, no larger than a thumb, just laying there, moving a bit as it slowly recovered its original shape from before being splattered by the rock.
"This looks like a piece of burnt flesh to me" Griar spoke up, the others agreeing with a nod, hastily turning toward a still unexplored path, as the sound of rock dragging on the ground rang out, a slight bit of dust flying into view from behind the corner it had all come from.
Instead of something rushing out of the veil of dark, the cave moved, immense masses of solid stone grinding against one another as everything shook, a strident noise assaulting their ears, the room they were in splitting apart into two, forcing the group to spit into a one to three ratio.
The walls were overflowing with a sudden burst of mana, preventing them from even leaving a crack into the rock.
Cursing under his breath, Milo felt himself falling as everything turned, throwing him into another area entirely, rolling against the rough and jagged ground, he held his breath to avoid inhaling the old dust accumulated in these caverns, hastily casting a luminous orb to shine upon his surroundings.
But he did not even require a light to catch sight of the man in here with him, his eyes and skull molten by an orange flame, smouldering intensely as the one with a fire so close to his brain raise his arms in a slow manner, slowly forming a Y shape, stretching his entire body upward to make himself appear taller, standing on toes as he hummed a poor melody, staring up at the ceiling before bringing it down to stare at Milo.
"My child, you are set on a very, very, very, very, very bad path, yes indeed, the path is awful, very bad…" he opened his mouth making a noise that could only be described as that of a rooster simultaneously chanting and drowning.
"Oooh, don't you want to go onto the right path? To do good? To not follow laws? To not have to hide your stealing and murdering from anybody, to be truly free, just as the gods did not intend? Mmh?"
Milo dusted his shoulders, scratching the back of his head.
"Sure, that- I mean, that sounds great, freedom sounds good" he looked around the room, it was nothing more than another pocket of empty space below ground, a naturally formed cave from the looks of it, the only exit situated right behind the burning man.
The stranger sighed, shaking his head in the most exaggerated manner possible.
"Ah, how harmful it is, to hear such graceful words uttered in a vile lie! Don't you want to do what you desire, without fearing repercussions or the judgement of your peers, are you not tired of asking for, urgh, consent?"
"What the hell is wrong with you?"
"Oh! The pot calling the kettle black, perhaps you ought to invest into a mirror, you might learn a few things by knowing how to recognise a filthy bastard, I did it myself, so I can tell that you are a little orphan" the man smiled, biting the inside of his cheek, drawing blood.
"We are the scions of The Defiler, great man of great stature and great lack of care for what others consider bad, or immoral, or maybe psychotic" he spat a mouthful of blood, clicking in tongue, ushering in two dogs whose heads were burning with the same fire as him.
"I was once a filthy follower of a righteous god, I was stupid, why be righteous, why be malevolent when you can be both, none, or switch depending on your mood? Why lock ourselves into tight containers, when he are free to wander the meadow that is life as we please?" he flapped his arms, imitating the sounds of a bird, it was a pretty good impression.
"Well then, so you have nothing to say if what I want is to beat the crap out of you, right?"
"Oh oh! You are making progress, but freedom is riddled with challenges boy, you have to earn that right yourself, come! Come and rub that rugged fist into my delicate face, hihi, you crave it don't you? My exquisite pain!"
With a shout, the madman sent his attack dogs after Milo, grabbing ignited eyes, the fire grew darker, the farm boy did not back down and ran forward as well, sending a pulse of mana at one of the hounds, stopping it in its track whilst allowing the first one to lunge at him, grabbing the abhorrent beast by the throat, chucking it straight at the lunatic, who did not pay any heed to his pet, shooting out a condensed bullet of heretical flame through the mutt, splitting it in two, the projectiles making odd movements and twirls, highly imprecise, but also completely unpredictable.
"Accept his fire inside you, you'll love the warmth it procures"