Oracle? Hey, are you there?
Nothing happened—no vibrant blue screen to answer his questions.
Belial had noticed one thing—he felt a cold breeze.
He was naked!
He looked at his visor interface and saw his chosen name and everything he saw before but he saw something peculiar
Actor's Restriction: You cannot reveal any spoilers.
Belial didn't know what it could mean by that,
I'll look into that later
Xin attempted to use his Hax, but nothing happened. It was as if the darkness itself had swallowed his power whole.
They couldn't use their ether here ether. No powers to make things easy for them.
Xin opened his VISOR interface:
Name: Xin
Rank: Balancer
Weapons: ---
Armor(1): Perpetual Blindness Cloak
Items: ---
The cloak was the only thing he had chosen to wear.
A cold dread coiled in his stomach.
Xin started to panic. Without his Hax, he was vulnerable—helpless. He clenched his fists, trying to steady his breathing, but every inhale brought the sting of methane deeper into his lungs. His heartbeat pounded against his ribcage, a frenzied drumbeat of fear. He reached out in the darkness, fingertips brushing against cold stone, slick with moisture.
"Nero! Xin!" Raven's voice cut through the silence, urgent and hushed.
They gathered as best they could, stumbling toward the sound. The voices they heard were strange, distorted. The echoes bounced through the tunnels, making it impossible to tell where they came from. It felt as if something—or someone—was whispering just out of reach, watching them from the suffocating blackness. A shiver ran down Xin's spine. The walls felt closer now, the ceiling lower.
Was it his imagination, or was the tunnel actually shrinking around them?
A storm of thoughts raged in Xin's mind. The layout of the catacomb was unfamiliar, but he could tell they had wandered into an intricate underground system of some sort. The air was thick, heavy, and light altogether . Every breath was a struggle, and the risk of igniting the gas was ever-present. The scent of decay mixed with the methane, making him nauseous.
"Do not cause any sparks," Xin warned, voice barely above a whisper. "One spark and we're dead."
The group moved cautiously, hand in hand, the only lifeline in the choking dark. Raven took the lead, his broad figure a silent sentinel against the unseen dangers ahead. Belial, at Xin's side, felt him trembling slightly.
A distant explosion suddenly rocked the tunnels. A sharp tremor ran through the ground beneath them, followed by a chorus of distant screams. It was impossible to tell whether the explosion had been accidental or something far worse. A cloud of dust and debris swept through the tunnel, coating them in grit. Xin coughed, his throat burning.
Belial's grip on Xin's hand tightened. The sound of shifting rubble, of something—no, someone—moving in the distance sent a fresh wave of fear through the group. Something was coming. The air seemed to pulse with a presence they couldn't see.
Belial forced himself to focus. His master had trained him to survive in complete darkness, without the crutch of Hax. Perhaps that brutal training was finally paying off.
They heard small, skittering footsteps—as if from an insect, but larger, heavier. Chitinous scraping against stone, moving with unnatural speed. The sound was getting closer.
Raven remained their shield, his massive armor a silent protector. It was the one thing he had insisted on bringing, a choice that now teetered between salvation and catastrophe. If anything scraped against it hard enough, even a single spark could ignite the air and turn them all to ash.
"Keep moving," Raven murmured. "Slow and steady."
They obeyed, step by agonizing step. The catacomb walls seemed to close in around them, the whispers growing louder. Shapes flickered at the edge of their vision—shadows that shouldn't be there. Was it a trick of the mind? The lack of oxygen? Or was something lurking just beyond their sight?
Then, a low, guttural sound echoed through the tunnels. It wasn't human.
Something was down here with them.
They froze, listening. The sound came again, closer this time, reverberating through the stone corridors. It was a deep, rasping inhale, followed by the clicking of mandibles. A scent of iron and rotting flesh curled through the air, overpowering even the methane.
Xin swallowed hard. Whatever was in these tunnels wasn't just watching them. It was hunting them.
The clicking grew faster, more erratic, accompanied by the scraping of claws on stone. They were running out of time. Belial turned toward Raven and whispered, "We need to move—now."
Raven didn't argue. He gestured forward, and they picked up their pace, careful not to make any noise. But as they hurried down the tunnel, a sudden sound from behind made their blood run cold.
A wet, slithering noise, followed by a chittering hiss.
Xin turned his head just in time to see something lurch from the shadows. A mass of segmented limbs and writhing, sinewy tendrils, its body pulsating with an eerie, bioluminescent glow. Its hollow, sunken eyes gleamed in the dark, locked onto them with predatory intent.
the creature was spreading its tentacles searching for them
A single spark was all it would take to send them all to their deaths.
The catacomb trembled as the creature let out an ear-splitting screech, echoing through the tunnels like a death knell.
They had to escape. Now.
The creature seemed to be blind, relying on touch to feel its way around. But then, why was it bioluminescent?
It didn't make any sense.
Belial had no choice but to hide. He pressed himself against what felt like a boulder, his breath shallow and controlled. The darkness was absolute, suffocating, making it impossible to see. The only thing breaking the void was the eerie glow of the creature's body. It pulsed with an unnatural light, casting warped shadows against the cavern walls. But if it couldn't see, why did it glow?
The thought unsettled him.
Several agonizing moments passed before the light receded, its strange radiance fading down the tunnel. The air still felt thick with its presence. The distant clicking of its limbs scraping against the stone echoed through the catacombs, reminding them that it was still close—still hunting.
Xin exhaled a slow, silent breath, though his trembling hands betrayed his fear. This place was eerie. More than that, it was horrifying. Even for Belial, who had lived among demons his entire life, the presence of these creatures made his skin crawl. He was a demon himself, but that didn't seem to mean anything here. The demons he knew—his comrades, his people—were strange in their own ways, but they had faces, personalities, souls.
These things… did not.
Their presence felt wrong, unnatural, devoid of the usual strangeness and mindlessness that most of the monsters carried. And yet, something about them still projected an overwhelming pressure, something that pressed against his chest and made it difficult to breathe. It wasn't ether, yet it felt just as oppressive, if not worse.
Another thing gnawed at his mind—Raven. He was calm. Too calm. While Xin trembled and Belial's instincts screamed danger, Raven moved with an eerie certainty, his breathing steady, his movements precise. It was unsettling, yet oddly reassuring at the same time. What did he know that they didn't?
When the creature finally moved on, they resumed walking, every step slow and cautious. The oppressive silence made every minor noise feel deafening. Belial nearly lost his footing once, slipping on loose gravel, but Xin grabbed his arm just in time, keeping him steady. He nodded in thanks, but neither of them spoke.
Then, Belial accidentally kicked a rock. He tensed, expecting an immediate echo, but the sound took its time, stretching through the cavern for what felt like forever. Then—
An explosion.
A deep, resounding blast shook the tunnel below them. Belial instinctively looked down—and what he saw made his blood run cold.
There were things down there.
Dozens of them—thousands probably millions, writhing, shifting, moving unnaturally. Their glowing bodies flickered in and out of view like unnatural specters. Some were climbing the rock walls, others skittering along the floor, their bodies twisting in grotesque, bone-cracking motions. It was like looking into a pit of horrors, things that shouldn't exist.
Raven had reached a stopping point ahead. He climbed up a rough wall, his hands seeking holds in the jagged stone, moving with practiced ease. Belial hesitated. The wall was steep, and in this suffocating darkness, climbing blind was a risk.
But there was no other choice.
Raven reached the top first, his gloved hands brushing against the ceiling. He tested the surface, pressing against what felt like a ledge. There was ground above them. With careful precision, he reached down, gripping Belial's forearm and hoisting him up. Belial scrambled over the ledge, feeling out the surface. It was solid—safe enough to walk on.
Then, Raven turned to Xin.
Xin was a Balancer, yes, but he relied heavily on ether. Now, stripped of it, he was merely a well-conditioned superhuman like being. His durability was still there, but his strength was subpar, and the wall's jagged edges were sharp enough to slice into a Balancer's skin like knives. Climbing unaided was out of the question.
Raven crouched, gripping Xin firmly before hoisting him onto his back. Xin wrapped his arms around Raven's neck, holding tight. Then, without a word, Raven climbed, his footing careful but unwavering. The sharp edges tore into his gloves, but he didn't falter.
Then—
A sound.
A deep, echoing click, followed by the unmistakable scrape of limbs against stone. Heavy, deliberate footsteps reverberated through the tunnel below them. The sound bounced against the cavern walls, warping into something inhuman. A shadow moved in the tunnel beneath them, its glow faint but unmistakable.
Then, two massive, red-tinted eyes blinked open in the darkness.
They weren't alone.
The creature didn't hesitate. With an unnatural shriek, it lunged toward the rock wall, its massive body slamming into the surface. Dust and debris rained down as its claws dug into the stone, pulling itself upward. The jagged edges didn't seem to hinder it in the slightest.
Belial felt his breath hitch. They weren't going to outrun this thing.
"Go!" Raven hissed, pushing forward.
Xin clung tighter, and Belial scrambled forward, forcing his body to move faster than his fear would allow. The ledge was narrow, forcing them to press their backs against the wall to keep balance.
The creature climbed with terrifying speed. Its mandibles snapped together in a sickening rhythm, a grotesque clicking that echoed through the cavern. The red glow of its eyes burned through the darkness, locking onto them with an intelligence far worse than simple hunger.
Belial's heart pounded. There had to be a way out.
Then—
Up ahead, a narrow crevice in the rock face. It was tight, barely wide enough for a human body, especially raven but it might be their only chance. Belial didn't wait.
He lunged for it, squeezing himself inside just as the creature reached the ledge. It let out a furious, ear-piercing screech, its clawed limb swiping just inches from his face. He could feel the heat of its breath, the overwhelming stench of rot.
Raven followed, shoving Xin in first before squeezing in himself. The creature roared, its massive body too large to fit inside, but it thrashed violently, trying to force its way in.
Belial didn't wait to see if it would succeed.