The cave grew quieter after Arnis spoke those words.
The flame above his palm burned steadily, casting long shadows across the ancient murals. Outside, the storm continued to rage, thunder rumbling through the mountains while rain struck the earth above them.
Inside the chamber, only Arnis's voice remained.
Reige still stared at the mural.
The battlefield painted on the wall felt closer now. Almost alive. Every detail the fallen creatures, the broken weapons, the red soil stirred fragments of memories he refused to reveal.
The strange feeling inside his chest returned again.
He did not understand it.
But he did not interrupt.
Arnis continued the story.
"When the kings declared their game," he said slowly, "many people thought it was a joke."
His eyes followed the painted armies across the mural.
"No one believed rulers would truly sacrifice entire nations for entertainment."
But they did.
Arnis lifted his hand slightly, the flame moving across the wall to illuminate more of the battlefield.
"The kings ordered every kingdom to participate."
"If a nation refused, it would be destroyed."
Reige frowned slightly.
That part he understood.
Power forcing obedience.
Arnis continued.
"Armies gathered from every corner of the continent. Humans, beast-folk, horned tribes, desert clans, mountain races… every civilization was forced to send warriors."
He paused briefly.
"Not only soldiers."
Reige turned his head slightly.
Arnis nodded.
"They took prisoners. Slaves. Farmers. Hunters."
"Anyone capable of holding a weapon."
The flame moved again across the mural, revealing thousands upon thousands of figures marching toward the battlefield.
"Entire villages were emptied."
"Children were taken and trained overnight."
"Some families sent fathers, mothers, and sons all together."
Reige's face stiffened slightly.
Another unfamiliar pressure formed in his chest.
Arnis continued calmly, though the weight of the story was unmistakable.
"Once they arrived at the battlefield… the rules were simple."
He pointed at the mural.
"Fight."
"No alliances."
"No retreat."
"No surrender."
"Only one person could leave alive."
Reige's eyes moved slowly across the painted land.
The scale of the battle in the mural was almost impossible to comprehend.
Arnis spoke again.
"At first, armies tried to organize themselves. Generals attempted strategies. Kingdoms tried protecting their own people."
"But that did not last long."
The flame flickered.
"When survival becomes the only rule… order disappears."
Arnis's voice grew colder.
"Friends killed friends."
"Soldiers abandoned their commanders."
"Entire groups turned on each other for food."
The mural showed scenes of chaos soldiers fighting their own allies, creatures devouring fallen bodies, dragons clashing in the sky.
Reige's eyes lingered on the dragons.
Arnis continued.
"Dragons were the worst part."
"They were not meant to be part of the game."
"But the kings wanted spectacle."
He paused briefly.
"So they captured them."
Reige looked at him.
"Captured?"
"Yes," Arnis replied.
"Ancient dragons from across the continent were chained and dragged into the battlefield."
The flame shifted again.
"When they were released… they destroyed everything."
The mural showed enormous dragons tearing through armies, crushing soldiers beneath their claws, burning entire regions of the battlefield.
"Millions died in moments."
Reige felt something strange again.
A faint tension in his muscles.
He remembered dragons.
Their scales.
Their flesh.
The taste.
But he said nothing.
Arnis kept speaking.
"The war continued for years."
"At first the kings watched from afar."
His eyes moved upward toward the sky portion of the mural the table where the nobles sat drinking.
"They celebrated it."
"They gambled on which armies would survive longer."
"They treated the deaths like entertainment."
Reige's face shifted slightly.
The emotion inside him grew heavier.
He still did not understand what it was.
But the feeling was there.
Arnis's voice softened slightly.
"But something unexpected happened."
Reige glanced toward him.
"The battlefield refused to end."
Years passed.
Then decades.
Yet the war did not finish.
New soldiers kept arriving as kingdoms continued sending more fighters into the slaughter.
Arnis continued.
"The kings began to realize something terrifying."
Reige waited.
Arnis pointed toward the mural again.
"The battlefield had become cursed."
"Too many deaths."
"Too much blood."
"Too much hatred."
Reige's body stiffened slightly.
Arnis lowered his voice.
"The land itself changed."
He pointed toward the red ground in the mural.
"The soil turned red permanently."
"Creatures stopped entering the area."
"Even the air became heavy."
Then Arnis said something quietly.
"People believed the battlefield itself had begun devouring life."
Reige looked back at the painting.
His memories stirred again.
Arnis continued.
"Eventually… even the kings became afraid."
The flame trembled slightly.
"They had created something they could not control."
"Something that continued killing long after their game had lost its meaning."
Reige finally spoke.
"Then… why didn't they stop it?"
Arnis looked at him.
"They tried."
His voice carried a hint of grim amusement.
"But the battlefield had already become something else."
He paused before finishing.
"So the kings made one final decision."
"The strongest among them gathered together."
"They used their bloodline power…"
Arnis's eyes briefly flickered with something unreadable.
"…and created a barrier."
Reige's breathing slowed.
Arnis pointed toward the edge of the mural where the battlefield seemed surrounded by faint glowing lines.
"A massive seal."
"A prison for the war."
"No one could enter."
"No one could leave."
The cave fell silent again.
Reige stared at the mural.
Arnis spoke the final words of the story.
"And for six hundred years… that battlefield remained sealed."
He looked directly at Reige.
"Until recently."
The flame flickered once more.
Because the barrier had been broken.