The cold, damp air clawed at my throat as I gasped for breath, my fluttering heart beating loud and fast in my chest. I pressed my back hard against the wall behind me, the one marked with slashes and carved by human hands.
Muffled sobs echoed throughout the cavernous space. The torch in my trembling hand, now re-lit, revealed only fragments of the creature I knew was out there, waiting. I saw it in fragments: flashes of pointed, glistening teeth, a glimpse of razor-sharp claws scraping along the floor, and then the faces: hundreds upon hundreds of twisted faces emerged from the darkness, their limp, writhing hands thrust into the light. I pushed harder against the stone, hoping it would somehow cave in and swallow me whole. If only lordza were here, he could move the stone.
The torchlight flickered, and the faces contorted in agony. Soft, guttural moans leached out of their mouths, making my skin crawl. These weren’t ordinary cries of pain; they were the kind made of torture, made of something foreign to this mortal plane. In horror, I gaped at them. Their souls had been corrupted, resembling the corpses of lords after centuries of decay. These were not like the ghosts of the Graveyard Village, tending to their phantom fields in their spectral paradise. No. These were abominations.
As the collective slowly approached, I realized in horror that they were all connected. Four legs, each ending in terrifyingly sharp claws, supported the creature’s gruesome form. Human torsos shot out, mangled wrists and legs dangled from the side, and for a brief moment—just a flash—I saw it: the head. It was a nightmare sculpted in shadows and despair. Its colossal mouth stretched wide, housing rows of jagged teeth; their gums: dark and bloody, hinting at the creature’s insatiable hunger. Jet-black, pupil-less eyes stared back at me, devoid of any trace of humanity or warmth. Not a hint of emotion or mercy—only an unsettling emptiness that hinted at the abyss within. A chill ran down my spine.
I had to run. Now. I have to get the hell out of here.
And so I did.
The sheer reality of the scene shook me to my core. And not until I could make sense of it all they began to charge.
Shoving with all my strength, I pushed off the wall and dove, rolling forward and landing on my feet. Without wasting any time, I broke into a sprint, bursting down the winding halls that led past endless corridors and rooms. The beast bellowed a deep, earth-shattering roar, and the walls shook. Gravel and dust scattered across the floor, threatening to send me to the ground.
I screamed and summoned my glyph, launching bolt after bolt behind me without any sort of plan. They ricocheted off the stone, some bouncing back to slam into the ground at my feet or hitting the ceiling above my head. What the hell is that thing? Alexis said this place was dangerous. She didn’t tell me there was a freaking eldritch demon down here! How the hell am I supposed to fight this thing?
Heavy footsteps echoed toward me: slow, but rapidly approaching, and I had run out of options. The hallway abruptly ended. Panicked, I turned back in the direction I came, hesitating, one foot braced to run. Shit, shit, shit! Where do I go? I scanned the room, frantic, hot breaths beating out my mouth. My head was pounding. There! A door!
I pushed my way into the room and stopped short. The chamber was empty, save for a ginormous hole sunk deep into the ground. Shit! I braced myself on the doorway, and glanced over my shoulder. The beast had rounded the corner, all thousand of its human eyes blazed with a demonic fury. A glyph shone near the hand of one of the undead, and with a snap, the ground behind me was ablaze. There was no escape. In front of me, certain death, at my back, as the fire rose in steady tendrils. A sharp, searing pain singed my calves as the flames licked at my heels. I had just raised my hand to douse the flames when I realized the monster had arrived. Thrashing and writhing, it undulated back and forth, slamming its humongous head into the walls over and over.
It’s trying to break the wall down!
Tiny hands reached through the archway, latching onto my clothes and trying to drag me back. I slammed my palms down against each one, and took a step further into the room, stopping at the edge. I ripped a discarded sword from the fallen soldier to my right; his remains so rotten, they crumbled to dust at my touch. I turned back to face the hole.
Trianite, be with me.
With my feet pointed off the precipice, I took one final breath.
Then, I jumped down the hole.
With nothing but a broken blade to break my fall, I stabbed at the wall, hoping to find purchase. The sword caught, slowing my descent, but only for a moment, until it slid free, and I tumbled into the great abyss.
A moment later, I collapsed onto the hard-packed dirt. I’m alive? What was that thing? Pushing myself to my elbows, I looked around. Yep. This is definitely a hole. Nice going, Zul. Can that thing follow me down here? Dear Trianite. I wiped the sweat from my forehead, looking around. There has to be an exit somewhere… Right?
Up above, a loud slam pounded over and over as the creature continued to throw its body into the wall, desperate to get to its next meal. Then, the beast roared as if in agony, and as swiftly as it came, its thunderous footsteps stomped away. A muffled metallic clanking reached my ears, and the creature howled again, louder this time. Angrier.
I wrapped my arms around myself. The air suddenly felt extraordinarily chilled. My shoe bumped against something, and I looked down. It was my torch. During my flight, I’d clung to the damn thing for dear life, and somehow it’d made it all the way down here with me. When I bent down to pick it up, there was a faint click and a low rumble, followed by the mechanical grind of gears in motion. What’s going on? The walls are moving!
Just when I thought I was in the clear, panic set in as the walls around me began to shift. The machinery within coughed and sputtered as each end slowly inched closer and closer. I’m going to die. I’m going to die. I scuttled around the circular room, running my hands across the lining for any cracks. I’m gonna get crushed in this insufferable hole. And for what? Because of Alexis’s stupid ‘simple’ task? All so I could stop Valdrec and defeat Dante? As if!
Desperate, I wedged the sword into a crack in the wall, hoping I could use it as leverage to pull myself up. But with only one, it was an impossible feat. I looked up again. No… That’s too far…
I’m dead.
I struggled to summon my glyph, hoping I could flood the space and swim to the top, but I felt weak, tapped out. It was like a stopper had been placed on my magic. Great!
I screamed, firing a brazen bolt of water into the air. “No!” I cried, slamming my fists into the wall. “Please! I can’t die here. Please!”
I slumped to my knees, sobbing. Slowly, like clockwork, the encroaching walls stood poised to crush me.
“Alexis said I need to weaponize my magic…” I peered down at my palms, my glyph flickering into place between them. “But how?” Wiping at my face, I stood up again and fired bolt after bolt at the walls, barely making a dent. I huffed, frustrated, and felt something graze my elbow. I barely had a few feet left to move around in, and the constant drag of metal on stone rang in my ears.
“All of my training for a few droplets of water?” I threw my hands up, trying again to summon a wave when it came to me. A memory, waves parted, and a horrific squid monster lurching toward me. Eryx.
“That’s right!” I slapped my forehead with my palm. “The water orb Eryx gave me!”
Reaching into my pocket, I yanked it out, cradling it in both hands. My glyph shone faintly, then stronger, as the orb dissolved at the touch of the Water symbol. The lines met in the middle, converging and emitting a bright, defined symbol that illuminated the space around me. Power rushed through me like waves on a beach. I felt it. My magic, activating, surging within me.
Alright, Zul. Let’s see what you can do. I imagined my water like a thin rope coiling around me, thick and strong. Alexis made it look so effortless—she made it look easy. I have to feel it. Be comfortable with my element. When I opened my eyes, a thin stream of water spun around me like a singular tornado. I smiled. Swirling my hand around, and the water moved with me, like it knew exactly where I wanted it to go. It was easy. Like breathing. The water was an extension of myself.
I was pushed forward. The walls were so close now I could barely stand sideways. But I felt calm. Safe and protected as my water flowed along with me. I wasn’t summoning a lifeless, ordinary bolt anymore. This was different. My magic was part of me. An echo of me. I was breathing life into it. Crafting something.
“This is it!” Palms out, I channeled all my energy into one last spell. A surge of bright blue light flashed as sapphire rays formed together, filled the space in mist. And a bolt shot out like an arrow, the streak of lazuli blasting forward into the wall before me over and over again, boring into it. Slowly, it dug a hole. I crept toward it, shoving my way along the wall as the space pushed in. I could barely move, but I pushed. With one final stroke, the bolt punched through the wall and shoved myself forward, lurching through the hole it had formed.
I fell face-first onto the ground, sliding across dirt and tumbling over several times. My bone felt flimsy, squished, and fragile. I was coated in blood, dirt, and some mysterious black gunk. But I was alive. I made it. The walls behind me slammed shut, grinding bones and weapons to dust. But I was safe.
“Yes!” I threw a celebratory fist into the air, then rolled over onto my back, panting. All around me was pure, undiluted silence. I rested for a minute, catching my breath. When I sat up, I realized I’d lost the torch and had no way to see. The dim glyph on my palm wasn’t enough to go by. Then I remembered the flash of light before I broke free.
“Weaponize my magic, huh?” I got to my feet, dusting my hands off, then summoned the whip of water around me again. The more I concentrated on it, the more connected I felt to it. As it circled around me, my glyph shone brighter. I summoned another. One for each hand and held them out before me. I watched the wisp dance in the air, thoughtful.
“Strange… I wouldn’t call this weaponizing. It’s more like… manifesting…” I could feel the water move as though I myself were moving. It flowed along my palm, up my arms, enveloping my biceps. Like whips, I snapped one string forward, smacking hard into the wall. Again, I spun, slamming both arms down toward the ground, landing with a thunderous slap that dented the ground below me. I laughed, overjoyed. “Maybe it is weaponizing.”
The pitter-patter of tiny feet scurried off into the distance, reminding me of where I was, and I straightened. I have to get out of here. So much for the key to defeating Dante. But I can’t stop Valdrec if I die down here, and two near-death encounters in ten minutes is more than enough for one day.
I moved down the corridor, and as I walked, it opened up bit by bit.
Winding hallways branched outward like fingers of phantoms hiding under the mask of darkness. What lay ahead of me were lines of shadows that stretched infinitely into the abyss.