Zax heated a premade lunch that consisted of rise with peas and carrots and roast chicken. He gobbled it up under ten minutes, washed the dishes and left to his big sister’s flat. The reason he ate at home and not at his big sister’s was because apart from a mattress, the flat was a completely empty, one room apartment in an old abandoned building at the outskirts of cave twenty five, near one of the border tunnels that separated Kingdom Earth from the beast’s territory.
It was a run of half an hour for Zax to get from his home to his big sister’s. The busses of cave twenty five did not go there because of the proximity to the border tunnel and the closest stop would only cover a third of the way. Therefore, Zax preferred to save money and run.
There was a mass of wild vegetation all over the place. From where Zax stood, in front of the building, he could see the immense, black and yellow, empty checkpoint of the border. The checkpoint was stationed back when the cave’s Management Office financed a project to build a new neighborhood and wanted to make sure that there will be no incidents with beasts that roamed not far from the border – not that there ever were. Eventually, due to internal disagreements the project was terminated and all that remained was an incomplete one-story building that Zax’s big sister bought for close to nothing.
The door to the apartment was unlocked for two reasons. One, everyone in cave twenty five knew that the place belonged to the renowned Miss Zetsa Zel. Second, it was common sense to stay away from abandoned construction sites.
In the past more than a few times beasts migrated from their territory to humanity’s. The cave’s Management Office had to request the help of the Removal Division that was stationed at cave thirty seven to drive back the beasts. It would take a day or two for the Removal Division to send two men unit of Mist Users at the Core Breaker level, and after they dealt with the situation, more often by scaring the beasts back, their report always was the same. The beasts, either at the Earth’s Core Holder level or core less, showed hostility at the beginning, but after being aware to the difference in power they cowered in fear as if they were in the presence of death. Their physique was damaged and spirit was broken. Estimated cause for crossing the border, inability to cope in the wild territory.
Zax stood at the room’s entrance for a while. Inside the room were four walls with no windows. From the open door a bit of light that passed through the floor corridor illuminated the double size white mattress. Zax hated this room. Stepping inside it was the same as entering the mouth of a Three Colors Lion, a beast that even as a coreless cub could match F level Mist Users, which are the weakest Earth’s Core Holders.
Zax released a bated breath, walked in and closed the door. Now there was only sheer darkness, like the belly of a Three Colors Lion. It wasn’t the darkness that Zax hated, but what comes after he sit on the mattress cross-legged and mumble the five words his big sister instructed him to say.