An Indestructible Gem

I got up slowly, a strange mist clouding my mind... I looked around me, I was in a cave, several crystals illuminated my surroundings, and what seemed to be the ruins of an altar surrounded me, however something was not right.

"My body, where is my body?"

"... Here... "

A sinister and deep voice seemed to come out of a particularly bright red gem, that is my own voice answering myself.

I raised my hand and took that gem, that ruby, a black mist enveloped the gem as a feeling of warmth flooded my being.

This feels like my body.

I put the ruby back on the pedestal it was on and I looked at my reflection in the gem, a smoky black cloud with red eyes, it seems safe to say this thing is me... Have I always looked like this? Was I always this kind of being? Something inside me tells me no.

It seems that in this cave of crystals, my body is resting calmly on a pedestal.

Then I heard something, the sound of a pick hitting a rock filled me with expectations.

I moved in the direction of the sound and after a while of slow moving, not only did I hear the sound of spikes, now I could also hear the faint murmur of voices.

They spoke crude language and short words, the voices were those of three people, all three sounded like men.

I'm a little disappointed that I can't understand them, that have to be expected, I mean, why should I understand them? haha, that's impossible, haha, ha ... Damn, this is a bit troublesome.

Anyway, it's time to have my first meeting in the afterlife, because... this is the afterlife, right? Or is it just a cave in my ordinary world? But I'm a ghost! just look at my body, it is a black smoke that seems ethereal, I am aware that all bodies are good bodies but even so this is something difficult to accept.

Well, it's time to say hello.

I followed the sound and found that I had entered a mine, the ceiling was supported by wooden pillars, and in the middle of the cave, rails with a trolley resting quietly, the latter was filled with precious stones and sparkling minerals, a small great fortune in my opinion, I reached out and took one of the gems in my hand, looked at the miners and tried to sneak the stone into my pocket without them noticing before remembering that I had no pockets.

The miners, these people had long and braided beards, however they did not reach the height of a child, their faces were rough and somewhat plump, their arms were strong and their clothes, despite being stained with dirt and dust, looked elaborate and cared for.

They obviously weren't human... right? I mean, if I assume they're dwarves and it turns out they're human, won't they be incredibly offended?

"Uhhh hello?"

One of them raised his head for a second, before continuing his talk, it seems that they haven't heard me.

Hmm , what should I do now? I will try to get your attention in another way, for example by physical contact... a bit difficult without a body, can I touch you with my smoke?

I touched one of them on the shoulder, feeling like my hand makes superficial contact.

I think it caught his attention, he has stopped moving, but he hasn't turned around either, I try to pat his shoulder again but I feel a little resistance this time, something a little curious, because it is not the resistance of a physical Object, it is more similar to when touching a jelly or rather a flan.

I grope a bit and look at the strange texture, I move my hands little by little and they sink a little into the dwarf, I sink my hands slightly into his back, the resistance grows greater and out of pure and simple curiosity...

I completely sink...

" Gate are you alright? Why did you stop?"

Point in favor, now I understand the language of these people, point against, the dwarf I'm in is suffering too much.

_________________

My name is Asrrael and I am a dwarf.

I am 58 years old, father of three little ones, and I live with them in the depths of the great mountain of Azaroth, this place, once the lair of a great demon, is full of high quality magical minerals, such as orichalcum and adamantite, but there is also a great diversity of magical gems and crystals.

Our society is in the prime of dwarf history, we are constantly growing and have achieved a full industrial revolution with help after we improved the simple steam engines the empire traded with us. For us dwarves who can rarely take advantage of all the magical sweets, this revolution has been perfect to project us back into the power scheme of the continent, thanks to the thermal energy of these mountains as well as a mineral called fire stone we have grown without cease during the last century, we have grown so much that our population finally recovered from what happened in the age of chaos, it has been 300 years since the great age of chaos when about 80% of all living things on the planet died because of this era correctly called chaotic.

In the mine I earn my daily bread together with my dear colleagues who always give their best, we pride ourselves on being the best workforce in the entire continent of chaos, before this continent had another name but its name is lost along with so many things to the blissful era of chaos.

Our work forces us to work in the depths of the mountain, entering this magical place to obtain minerals that the rest of the nations will gladly buy from us to make their magical sweets. Today my colleagues and I are at the limit of the known mine, recently the mine was connected with a natural cave, an exploration team reported a beta of high-quality firestone in the new area, we took care of collecting and expanding the transportation routes, today we advanced 15 meters before we could start digging.

The day was the most normal in the world, I was talking with my colleagues while we chopped the precious material, but a strange sound disconcerted us all.

It was similar to a pitiful whisper coming from the unexplored part of the cave, everyone was silent for a moment.

"Did you hear that?" asked Gate the comedian of the group.

"Surely it was the wind." Musshaft gave the explanation that we all wanted to believe even knowing that there was no current wind flow through the cave, on this mountain that was used as a demon king fortress in the past, for such a noise to be just produced by the wind was little more than a passing fantasy.

We decided to keep working anyway, picking up the pace to finish as quickly as possible, but something happened sooner than expected.

Gate had stopped, his face had lost all color and his expression was one of pure terror, in moments his expression twisted into one of pain.

" Gate , are you okay? Why are you stopping?" Musshaft asked when he noticed that the gate had stopped, but noticing the expression on Gate's face that became in question. He put his beak aside and tried to bring him back to his senses not knowing why his friend was suffering.

And without notice...

Gate collapse...

An agonized scream filled the cave, Gate 's scream seemed to tear the souls of all who heard it, his eyes were wide, cold sweat poured down his face as he, hands on his head, fell to his knees, trembling like a chicken about to cook.

After minutes that seemed like hours, in the midst of all his suffering, Gate spoke.

" Ruuuuu - byyyy ... "

At this point, Musshaft had run to ask for help and in a few moments he would be back, but every moment Gate 's behavior became more strange, one of his hands began to move strangely as if it had a consciousness of its own.

Gate gritted his teeth and used his left hand to restrain his right, he seemed to have recovered a bit, the slight relief he glimpsed for a second in his gaze immediately vanished.

Both hands were raised in the air, pointing to the ceiling, her mouth gaped to the point of almost unhinging her jaw almost as if she wanted to force a smile onto her face, tears of pain falling from her eyes.

A series of broken words tried to escape from her throat.

" My - name - is - Ruby "

At first we didn't know it but this was the first of the incidents of what we would later call the incidents of the possessed gem...