Free Web NovelChapter 63: Rats?
Eyes snapped open before a familiar-looking boy sat up with his entire body jerking in tandem.
He turned side to side. Eyes red from blood rush and breath ragged from fast, raspy breathing.
When his thoughts finally aligned with reality... nothing made sense.
"How?!"
He steadied his breathing. He paced around the once familiar walls of where he first arrived within the Abyss.
Indeed, the golden-haired boy was alive and well... perhaps kicking much better than he would like.
"My head was squashed!
I should be dead!"
Perhaps because the rationality of the whole thing was impaired, but Luca did not stop once to thank the gods that he was alive.
No, being alive meant that he was meant to die.
But what power, what witchcraft could handle bringing the life back from the dead?
He suddenly stopped by the wall and rested on it.
The image replayed vividly– the wet crack that ensued before everything went dark.
’I felt it... I felt it so terribly.’
He shook his head. Wrapped his palm over his skull and breathed evenly now.
Instead of the earlier panic, he began to let his rationality take over the situation.
’The Abyss is strange. It was never meant to be understood.’
He looked up at the familiar ceiling and the once inconspicuous-looking green moss was beginning to seem... mocking.
’Perhaps there was some kind of... kind of?’
He held his head.
"How the fuck do I even..."
A heavy sigh escaped his lips as he pushed off the wall.
’Firstly...’
He held his right hand out and pinched it– hard.
A subtle yelp escaped his lips but when he noticed the pain spreading.
’It’s... It’s not a dream.’
They say pinching oneself or depicting harm so that pain spreads would be enough to awaken one from an illusion.
It was all theory, but Luca... needed something to make sense.
"It’s not a dream? To be fair, the pain from getting killed by your head exploding into bits should have been enough."
He tilted his head and began a thorough inspection of his body.
’There should be something. Anything.’
There was in fact... nothing.
His body was as clean as the day began.
In fact, the stain and blood from killing the Dawnmoss Mares were whipped clean.
’Whatever this resurrection is... it works clean.’
Just then, before he could drop his arms, the tattoos came shimmering before his eyes.
Then he saw it.
One of the tattoos was gone.
’They were five lines... why is one gone?’
His brows furrowed and his head clicked almost immediately.
’Perhaps...’
But even his conclusion was a mere theory.
He would need to test it out to make sure.
’Though, the methods of testing it out...’
He didn’t want to think about it.
After what felt like a long time, Luca sighed and turned towards the narrow passage.
’One of the other five must be the real thing.’
He had chosen the path on the far left.
’Should we try the middle?’
He held up his chin.
’Is there something I’m missing about these pathways... these mosses?’
Luca walked down the passageway once again and ended up at the junction with the different channels.
From here on out, the boy steadied his nerves.
’Perhaps there’s something that stands out from one more than the others?’
But when he looked far and beyond... he saw nothing.
’Forget it! Let’s try and make do with what we already have... and avoid dying once more.’
The prospect of dying had never crossed his mind... but now that it had happened, he swore not to fall for any more traps.
’But... what if these five paths all lead to a Null Born?’
Then his plans would need to shift... drastically.
’They’re stronger than I presumed. And it was even able to locate and subdue me in an instant.
This isn’t Null Buds or Null Spawns... in fact, I doubt I’ll ever hear of Null Spawns unless we’re venturing into a Tier 1 Elderion Beam.’
After settling his thoughts, the boy seemed to have come to terms with it.
His death. Plans. Theories.
He would put them aside for now.
Only one thing mattered in the end– getting out of this labyrinth.
Luca stumped his feet on the ground and ran.
Ego rolled off his skin in a misty aura as he covered the distance in a flash.
This time he went through the centre, and just like before, it took a while before he encountered his first Null Bud.
[DUSKMOSS RODENT– MODERATE RANK]
His first encounters were much smaller than the first Null Buds he faced.
They were about three feet tall with pale, brown skin and long, sharp limbs with claws.
Their tails extended like living coils from their rear, dangling over their heads in a comedic arc.
They appeared in groups which increased the deeper he went into the labyrinth.
But they were smaller, less fast, and weaker than the Dawnmoss Mares.
His sword trailed through the air.
Arcs of golden crescent and dark energy erupting as black blood plastered over the moss-ridden walls.
This continued until he got to another empty passage.
Larger than the others, but instead of a cave system with a Null Born seated as its king, Luca found something else.
’Darkness.’
He came to a stop. Panting lightning as he dropped his sword low and walked forward.
The middle pathway had served to be in different angles and directions unlike the first he took, but it held the same element.
There was only one direction.
’It’s not so much a labyrinth, as a puzzle... though, both are the same in a way.’
He frowned on getting to the entrance.
’Still, it doesn’t change the fact that a single direction means what lingers behind is strong enough to protect their chambers.’
He had decided to name these open caves chambers.
They were the stumbling block to his success.
When he looked around the dark chamber, he soon found a door– What could only be the exit. frёeωebɳovel.com
It was the only green glowing substance in the area.
’Moss.’
He had begun to question the concept of the Labyrinth puzzle.
Its structure was clearly built out of growing fungus.
At first, he had taken it as the natural architecture, but since his death, he had begun to question a few things.
Luca walked back to the walls of the moss and began to peel it off.
’Walking in blindly would be dumb.’
After a while, he was able to produce a glowing ball of fungi which he propped as a light source.
Then he steadied his nerves and took a step into the dark chamber.
His goal... waiting at the end.
’At least I’m not dealing with another Null Born.
I can handle anything but that.’
His steps echoed against the cool floor.
Its texture was familiar, being the same as the rest of the Labyrinth, but it had something that screamed different.
After reaching halfway through, his leg made an impact with something hard. Brittle. ƒгeewebnovёl.com
It rattled along the floor before slamming against something larger.
It was like a rain of hollow, hard structures.
Luca’s confusion was evident.
He stretched the ball of moss around, straining his eyes to peer through the darkness.
What he saw– or could see, made his heart sink.
’Bones? How?’
His curiosity wanted him to step forward and inspect.
If these were Null Buds bones, then it would be a simple conclusion.
But if they were humans...
’Never mind, let’s try another pathway.’
He didn’t want to find the cause of those piles and instead turned immediately, but just as he did, something stirred in the darkness.
A pair of green eyes shimmered to life.
Luca gasped. His breath hitched as his grip on his sword held firmly.
’It’s one thing! It’s small! I can handle it.’
Then another pair of eyes awakened.
’Shit.’
His steps hastened as he attempted to reach for the exit, then he broke into a sprint.
Before he could even reach it, something clasped around his leg.
He fell with a heavy thud, groaned and looked back. His eyes widened.
Hundreds? No, thousands of green pairs of eyes stared at him from the darkness.
They breathed life into the enclosed space.
Taking up the air as if they had always been there.
But Luca had inspected, and he had even tried to identify.
There was nothing... nothing that should have warned him of this.
’Is this a joke?!’
He swept his sword across the air. Sending a pulse of Ego in a curved arc.
The limb which held his leg tore off from the impact, but many more encroached from the darkness as he rose to his feet.
’I should increase my Synchrony back to a hundred! Maybe it’s because of...’
His words were cut short as a heavy weight fell over his body.
He collapsed once more.
Arm stretched forward in the distance yet to be covered.
Escape was so near.
He crawled or at least attempted to.
Then the sounds ensued.
They were chirps. Tiny, audible squeaks that joined in a cacophony of impending doom.
’Rats?!’
He felt them.
They crawled over his body. Large rodents that seemed to be assessing the situation.
One strode over his back to his face, staring into the captive’s eye.
Luca struggled. He pushed back.
His muscles coiled and his ego burst out of his body in torrents.
It was a rush of adrenaline.
A familiar sensation from the sudden spike in his synchrony.
’You– You can’t kill me now!’
He thought as he glared at the rodent.
But the creature didn’t seem to care.
Others began to join it.
Surrounding Luca under the damp smell of mucous and something more. Vicious. Ancient.
The pressing shadow was suffocating.
The end, inevitable.
