The creature continued to mock them, its rough, painful, and almost sandpaper-like laughter echoing inside the tunnels while slowly backing away from Ciel and company.
I'm not about to waste that. Ciel ignored the mocking laughter of the terrifying creature, making use of it backing away, rushing to the side of Damian.
Rushing to his side, Ciel's stomach churned from the smell of charred flesh and the sight of a mutilated right hand, bones poking out of his arm, and a pool of blood gradually gathering underneath him.
Damn it, it's worse than I thought. As he looked at Damian's body, the extent of the damage was shocking, it was far more than any ordinary person could have survived.
Damian a man who could be called a giant and had the power to augment his own body with iron was now laying here, ravaged by the explosion.
The more Ciel looked, the more disturbed he became—he could no longer even recognize the man's features beneath the horrific wounds caused by the blast.
What the hell?! But the real shock came to him once he checked his pulse, he still had one. Even after suffering damage to this extent, he wasn't dead yet.
Toren appeared beside him out of nowhere, giving him quite a scare, but he said nothing but grab the giant by the legs. "Come on, grab him by the hands, we need to get him out of the tunnels."
"Right…" Nodding in acknowledgment, Ciel grabbed the giant by the hands, his muscles instantly tensing under the strain paired up with his exhaustion. I knew that he was going to be heavy, but what the hell was this? How is he this heavy?!
Toren didn't seem to struggle much with the weight of the giant as he and Ciel slowly dragged him out of the tunnel. The rest of the group had already retreated, keeping a wary eye on the Calamity.
That thing had more than one chance to kill all of us without any trouble, what does it want? Right after they dragged the unconscious body of the half-giant into what could only be described as a large burial site, but it was larger than any simple cemetery, even its location was placed in the depth of a mine—An unknown mausoleum.
This place… A feeling of curiosity almost overtook him. He wanted nothing more than to look around the site, but that's what worried him the most. This feeling of curiosity is not mine. It felt artificial, like the wave of emotions after he left his inner reflection.
The middle of the room was perfectly illuminated, bright light from the inside shining down on a large elevated stone coffin. On the walls were countless murals leading into a deeper part of the mine with even more murals on the wall.
The two of them carried the wounded giant to a corner. Toren tore a strip of cloth from the giant's shirt, the only suitable material at hand to use as a bandage. He then tightly wrapped it around the upper part of the giant's bleeding arm, cutting off blood flow in a desperate attempt to prevent him from bleeding out.
Meanwhile, Ciel desperately tried to appear calm and collected, putting on an emotionless, detached expression.
The air was cool, with a certain chill to it, and the dust was no longer that overwhelming. Inside the strange mausoleum, everyone was breathing in the air as it would slip away from them.
While Toren stood guard by the side of the exploded wall, Ciel and Quin did everything they could to stop the bleeding. Tearing half of Damian's shirt to pieces to use it as a bandage.
After an unknown period, the bleeding seemed to have stopped, but the breathing of the man who broke through the wall was dangerously low.
It's a miracle if he survives, so sorry big guy. Living in a hospital for half his life, he knew all too well when was it impossible to save someone.
"There is nothing left for us to do but to wait for Damian to pull through on his own…" Old Quin said with a heavy sigh, talking to Toren and Ciel but ultimately ignoring both of them as he walked to a corner and sat down under one of the murals without even looking at it.
He leaned against the priceless piece of history, put down his head, and closed his eyes.
Okay, I need to know what was that strange ability, and I need to figure that out fast. I can't bluff forever. Ciel was in a hurry to access his inner reflection and figure out the source of the initiation which led him to the burial site.
With this thought, he followed the example of old Quin and walked up to another corner of the site, right behind the cover of the large stone coffin, and sat down under a mural, whatever he was about to do, Quin and Toren couldn't see him.
But he didn't hurry to access his inner reflection, he took his time and listened to the rest of the group.
Thankfully, they ignored him Old Quin trying to rest while Toren was watching out for the Calamity and slowly set up a set of spider web-like strings.
He is placing down another set of strings, and the old man had those chains, but he didn't use them against that… thing? Why? He could attack me but the monster on our trail is out of the equation? Also, why was he so flustered when the chain snake coiled up my arms?
Also, couldn't that chain snake do the same as Damian did? He would still be… alive if he didn't have to do that. Even with a pulse remaining, Ciel couldn't help but look at him as a dead man and curse the old man for not acting sooner and also dropping the lantern. He was kind too…
Ciel took a deep breath as he looked around, Should I even attempt to access that inner reflection thing? If I pass out here until I'm there, can I trust the other two? As he was contemplating the pros and cons of an attempt, he came to one conclusion.
They can't be trusted.
They wouldn't kill me just for breathing the same air as them at least, but I still can't trust anyone here. If that thing… that Calamity comes again, who can say for sure that they don't throw me in front of it just to buy some time for themselves?
Well then, how can I access that place on my own? It's called an inner reflection and mine is the sea in which I drowned in, I remember Cale's glasses being sucked into it as well. If it's a reflection of me…
He knew that he had to hurry so he closed his eyes and thought about the seascape he previously was stuck in, he had to rush back and study that place, but no matter how he tried to envision that place around him, he was still in the mines.
A reflection of me… how I died? Does imply that I need to simulate the state that created it—Drowning… damn it. He couldn't help but curse his circumstances, just after breathing fresh air again, he had to rob himself of it.
Just try to replicate it. This is just a replication. Just a replication. Repeating these words to himself, he stopped breathing, closed his mouth, and imagined himself submerging in water.
But as he spoke, a chill ran down his spine. An overwhelming fear gripped him, making his mind spin and his stomach sink. His throat constricted, his face turned pale, and for a moment, he felt like he might vomit.
Too… much. Doubt crept in, maybe he was wrong about the way of accessing his inner reflection.
He took away his hand from his nose, fresh air rushing into his nostrils and he instantly broke down into a coughing fit.
But as his eyes fluttered open, his vision was overtaken by the endless sea in the night.
No one heard him cough, he was all alone in the prison of water.
Do I have to go through this shit every time? Why do I always need to suffocate? He cursed his luck before taking a deep breath in and looking around his inner reflection.
It was still the same boundless seascape but except for night instead of day, there were no longer stars in the sky, no sun casting its warm light on the surface.
The sun was replaced by a gloomy moon that shone with a glim light high in the vastly empty sky.
Ciel scanned his surroundings, searching desperately for any landmark, any subtle difference in his inner reflection, the endless expanse of water.
After an unknown period, Ciel couldn't quite measure, but after a while, he found two items floating on the surface.
There it is. He wanted to smile but couldn't quite force it on himself, quickly stumbling towards the two objects, a small pair of broken glasses and his metal wheelchair.
At least I have these, but now what? Ciel looked around but there was nothing other than the two same objects he was already painfully familiar with.
I came here to study this place, but there is barely anything worth studying. Instead of getting flustered, he thought back to his first arrival into his inner reflection.
The abyss taking form, he clearly remembered that. But what was that exactly and how he summoned it?
It happened when I reached out for my wheelchair, but it was in the depths, I can't see them now. The water only reaches my knees, so what now?
Before he could even think of something else, he felt the same sensation which guided him to the burial site.
Without hesitation, he smiled and followed his intuition. Grabbing his brother's glasses, he placed them over his eyes. The moment he did, his vision shifted—even with one of the lenses missing, Ciel's eyes widened.
This time, he saw it.
He saw the abyss.