Even deep within the tunnel, the demonic roar of the Calamity echoed clearly, sending shivers down the spine of every member of the group. The beast had caught their scent—it was now on their tail.
"Boy, you lead. Do your thing. We die if you mess up." Toren said matter-of-factly without an expression, but instead of following, he turned his back to the group.
Oh, of course. No pressure at all.
"Now run!" Toren shouted, his blade drawn in his right hand. From his fingertips, a strange substance began to flow, forming into countless strings—almost five from each finger.
With a powerful yanking motion of his left hand, the strings all flew to the walls, he created and connected even more of them.
In a couple of seconds, countless strings became interconnected with each other, creating a wall of strings blocking the way of the beast chasing them.
So probably we all have something like that, my bluff is more believable… but what can the big guy do? Ciel's mind was racing, but he had to run away, leading the rest of the group as he followed the pulling feeling.
The rest of the group followed closely behind him, running while gasping for the rapidly depleting air.
Even simple movement was unfamiliar to Ciel, but as he was running towards safety, his muscles burned, an entirely new form of pain that he never felt before. But it was the least of his worries.
His breathing was erratic, the dust invaded his throat as he was gasping for air while breathing in almost none.
Right behind Ciel, the others were closely following Ciel, their condition worsening together with the youth. Just then, right behind them, Toren appeared with staggering speed after putting down his spider web-like strings.
This time, his face was noticeably paler, but that was only noticeable to Ciel who caught a glimpse of him while turning back, the roars getting closer but no clear form appeared in front of them.
From the dust, Ciel broke down into a coughing fit but he never stopped running, he couldn't stop running as not even the strings of Toren were able to stop the approaching Calamity.
The same feeling told him they weren't far from their destination, but the breathable air remained scarce, and their conditions were deteriorating. The harder they gasped, the faster the air was depleting.
Damian who was now carrying the box of explosives seemed paler than before, he had to lower his posture as the walls around them grew narrow.
Toren slowed down once again, his face drained of any color. The same substance appeared on his fingers once again with the only difference in the number of the strings, he couldn't create as many as the first round.
We are getting close, I feel it… but breathing isn't easier, aren't we getting closer to the outside? Was I wrong? But if I was, what the hell is this feeling? Even as doubt was creeping in in their darkest moment, Ciel gritted his teeth. I will survive, no matter what… no matter what.
Closer, I feel it closer! It was inexplicable, he felt closer to his destination than ever, but doubt crept in all the more. Can't… breathe…
His intuition told him that their way out was just around, they just had to persevere. They could still make it!
The strength gradually drained from his muscles, his throat tightened, and he crawled at his neck with bloodshot eyes.
He was no longer running Every step became an impossible task, one leg placed in front of another, barely managing to stop himself from falling to the ground. It's… close… now.
One after another, harder than before. All it took was just one right turn inside the maze of tunnels.
It was there, they finally reached it, they finally reached a… Wall… that's a wall?
A dead end.
There was no way out in front of them, nothing but a dead end. Leaving them without air and hope.
But before Ciel could fall into despair, the same senses that led him to this false escape screamed at him, making the hair stand up at the back of his neck.
His body reacted even before his mind did, breathlessly stumbling to the right, watching in terror as the chain made snake hit the wall in front of him.
"Tracker… my… Ass…" Toren stumbled towards him with his blade drawn, barely holding his conciseness.
Inside, Ciel screamed at his muscles, begging them to move as he had to evade three desperate strikes towards his way.
The others didn't do a thing. Their eyes were just as strange as Toren's—eyes that lost hope.
Then come and get me. He gritted his teeth, his vision trembling. Another frantic, uncoordinated attack came from his panicked assailant, but the lack of air was choking them both.
The edge of the blade narrowly missed his right eye, grazing his cheek and leaving a thin line of blood that dripped to the ground.
A swift kick struck his stomach, sending him crashing into the wall with a dull, unsettling thud.
Toren's eyes were the first to widen in realization, clarity returning to them, accompanied by something unexpected—hope.
Ciel glared with eyes full of hatred, his teeth clenched tightly, blood staining them red from the force of the kick. The cold blade of the dagger inched closer to him.
He ignored the fact that he attempted to kill Ciel and turned his attention to the wall.
"The… wall… hollow." Out of breath, his eyes were bloodshot while he pointed at the wall behind Ciel, they were hollow.
"Break…it!" He tried to scream but there was no air left in his lungs, he started to pummel the walls with the pommel of his sword, only his actions made the others follow suit.
Damian, the white-haired giant was the first to reach the wall. Weaponless, he began punching it repeatedly after tossing the box of explosives aside.
His knuckles darkened, their color shifting to gray, and their very composition transformed into iron.
With each powerful strike, the sound of iron pounding against stone echoed through the tunnel, though it was still drowned out by the maddening howls of the Calamity closing in behind them.
Ciel also got up from the ground slowly, his mouth filled with the iron-like taste of his own blood. He quickly spat it out before turning to the wall.
He had nothing to break it through with.
But it didn't matter, they already ran out of time.
A bone-chilling howl filled the cavern, turning all of their gazes back into the tunnel, A large silhouette slowly revealed itself in the middle of bloodthirsty mad howls.
Ciel's body shook as he couldn't believe his own eyes. What the hell is that thing?!
An amalgamation of arms constantly bleeding dark red miasma, held together by a broken body which was a collection of countless corpses grafted into one. The back of the creature was covered by pitch-black feathers, it didn't have legs only countless arms.
The nightmarish thing looked incomplete and wounded, blood flew out of it constantly together with the dark red miasma from its numerous pitch-black hands.
Toren's strings managed to wound the creature, its black blood dripping to the ground, but the damage was nowhere near enough to take it down. Its very presence was enough to paralyze them with fear.
It crawled closer, its many arms dragging it along the ground and even the walls, each hand leaving behind an imprint of dark red miasma.
Out of fear, Old Quin dropped his lantern to the ground, the flames flickering weakly one final time before extinguishing completely, suffocated by the lack of oxygen. They were now engulfed in total darkness.
The first to react in panic was the white-haired giant. "Buy... time!" he muttered, kicking the box of explosives open at his side. Inside, three bright red sticks of dynamite were revealed.
As he crouched down, groping blindly along the ground in a desperate search, he finally found the box and smashed it open. Struggling to speak, he kicked the dynamite far from himself and gasped, "Pick…"
No way… Ciel understood what he meant right away, quickly crouching down and struggling to find the two sticks of dynamite in the dark, staying in the back while together with the rest of the group running closer to the bloodthirsty creature, running away from Damian.
With his blade drawn and out of breath, Toren was the first to step up. His complexion was ashen white as his left hand produced the same strings out from the tips of his fingers, this time, barely one from each.
The tall man started to pummel the wall with his hand clad in iron while holding the stick of dynamite in his other hand.
He punched it time and time again while his head increasingly grew bluer from the lack of oxygen.
He clearly felt that the wall was hollow, but his strength wasn't enough to break through with the lack of oxygen and them all on the verge of dying, yet he continued to punch the wall time after time again until he lost count. His iron-clad fist slowly grew redder and redder under the flurry of punches.
Toren could barely move, but his left hand was still dancing, creating increasingly more of the barely visible strings connected to the walls.
In the pitch-black darkness, the only thing they could do was trust that Toren was able to manage himself in the dark with his strings.
Toren was face to face with the beast, which was inching closer to him. Its countless hands stood motionless together with its grafted body. The head of the face wasn't visible before, and it wasn't now either.
Toren stood still, the Calamity stood still. The only sounds were the desperate coughing and gasping for air, the relentless pounding of fists against the wall, and the erratic, bloodthirsty breathing of the Calamity—a creature whose very existence was a mockery of nature.
It wasn't advancing any further. It seemed aware that it no longer needed to fight for its meal.
But Damian still rapidly punched the wall, his iron-clad fist was now red and scorching hot, and his punches started to get slower.
Can that even work? Ciel thought to himself, stumbling further away from the tall man as his punches got even slower.
"Now!" The white-haired giant tried to scream at the top of his lungs, which were already out of air, resulting in a weak and desperate whimper.
He readied another one of his punches while his fist was scorching hot and swiftly tossed the stick of dynamite right between his fist and the wall.
The moment his fist connected with the dynamite, a blinding flash erupted, swallowing the tunnel in searing white light.
A deafening boom shattered the air, the shockwave threw Damian backward in a cloud of dust and debris. Shards of stone rained down paired with dust.
After the explosion echoed through the tunnels, cold air rushed in, and every member of the group began gasping desperately as it slowly filled their lungs, triggering fits of coughing. Along with the fresh air, light began to filter into the tunnel, illuminating their surroundings.
But while they tried to recover as soon as possible, the Calamity did nothing but stare at them from the darkest parts of the tunnel, a bone-chilling sound escaped it.
They all froze on the spot as they heard the sound of the Calamity.
It was giggling.