The violet mist betrayed me.

I used the barren remains of my torn shirt as a makeshift sling to cradle my mangled arm, and I hobbled on my twisted foot to move between the boulders and twisted trees around me. I had to stay hidden so I didn’t meet with any of the vile creatures again: The Horned Bramble Dogs.

I had grown confident in my few battles against the bramble demons. But these horned variety of bramble dogs were unnaturally powerful compared to their lesser brethren. Their speed would put athletes to shame, and their claws' cutting power was enough to rip through the twisted trees in a few swipes.

I wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for the fact that the ones I encountered fought each other instead of me.

“Dumb violet mist. Taking me deeper into The Pit just for me to die.” I muttered to myself as I swiped at the ambient violet mist. It swayed past me as if in retaliation, healing me to the brink of starvation again.

Gurgle!

I removed my spare Qi-filled plant from my only remaining pocket and munched it with gnashing teeth. With heavy steps, I landed behind a rock, hiding me from plain view as I tried to acclimatize to the denser violet mist.

There was something else, too, about the direction I was headed in. As I travelled deeper, a mounting pressure battled against me and felt more stifling the closer I got to wherever the violet mist was leading me, like gravity was increasing with each step.

I shook aside the crazy thought on impulse, but when I reminded myself of the kind of world I was in now, I had to consider the idea.

Could you artificially increase gravity in this world?

I didn’t have an immediate answer, so I did what kept my mind sane and set the idea aside until it became relevant.

A problem is only a problem if it becomes life-threatening!

I slowly got up and moved forward into increasing pressure levels once my foot was back in walking condition. Oddly enough, the violet dirt mound inside me condensed faster as the pressure on my body increased.

“I wonder if—”

“AGH!” The echoes of a scream made my body immediately crouch down. My eyes blinked as I tried to place the scream.

It sounded human.

I shook my head away and reasoned with myself. In horror films, curiosity was what always killed the cat. If I followed the scream, I would be dying. That’s just how it was.

“HEEELP!” Another screaming echo passed into my ears, distinctly sounding like a woman.

My brows distorted as I held my head in my hands.

There was no way I could help; I wasn’t a superhero. I was trying to survive. I needed to survive so that I could…

“So I can save them.” My teeth grit together as I realized the conflict. How could I save people if I was letting others die? Wasn’t that selfish of me?

“Be selfish, Louie. Don’t try and save everyone. You can only save those close to you.” I told myself. I even repeated it to myself.

Yet, there I was, walking with my barely recovered foot toward the classic call for help. I stopped and climbed onto a sheer boulder that angled enough to hide me from beyond but could give me a view into the distance.

When I peeked over the boulder, I saw a mysterious sight.

The land was steeply sloped inwards like another pit was inside The Pit. Usually, this would mean I would look down into the pit, but the cobblestone dome almost seemed level to where I was viewing from due to grand arches that raised the platform up. Basically, the earth was sunken around the dome and the walkway extending to a smaller altar further from the dome.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“AGGHH!” A feminine scream shouted out from inside the dome. I felt like I could place the voice too, which was a disturbing thought. Wasn’t that the voice of the school nurse, Megan?

Suddenly, the scream stopped.

My eyes tracked a figure as they left from within the cobblestone dome. Blood covered the dagger in his hands and was sprayed along his crimson-thorned robes. They respectfully bowed and spoke in the most respectful tone I had ever heard from them.

“I cherish your wisdom, Matron. I will return the next full moon with many, many more.” Gou Hui spoke.

Wait, what did he say?

I watched Gou Hui lick the blood from the knife and sheath it in his robes. With an expression of lingering ecstasy, he bowed to the cobblestone dome again and walked toward the end of the walkway, stepping onto the altar at the very end.

Hum.

The cobblestone lit with an ominous red glow between the cracks, and a presence unlike anything I had ever felt, shrouded the area.

Stomp!

With a single heel to the ground, the altar surface lifted from the rest of the cobblestones, carrying Gou Hui into the violet mist and out of my sight. Soon, the ominous red glow slowly faded, and silence returned to the area.

I felt the sweat drip down my back, and my mouth failed to form words. I had never felt this way before. I had never felt such a fear shrouding my entire being from being near something - from being near a monster.

I ran.

I ran harder than when the first bramble dog chased me, and I didn’t stop running until the violet mist grew sparse. I didn’t even stop to look for food. I wasn’t in a state to worry about food right now.

My mind was consumed with fear.

After countless steps, I made a tragic heroine trip for the second time in this world. My body went to get up, only to realize that I had pushed myself too far. My muscles ached with a weak feeling, especially the previously injured ones. When I looked around, I noticed the sparse violet mist in the area, which did everything it could to sustain me.

I thudded back to the ground.

I could feel it now that I was a cultivator. The intrinsic fear that told my senses that I was too weak. Whenever I fought against it, my instincts reminded me of the image of the cobblestone dome and whatever monstrosity lay inside. It had activated the cobblestone platform with a bit of its power, and even just the reverberations of that were enough to chill my blood.

Ironically, my blood was growing cold.

I could feel the weakness taking over my body as my remaining strength from the wild plants and my own sustaining Qi was used up. If there was more violet mist in the area, I could survive, but not with this small amount here. Left alone on the ground, I was forced to think.

I ran again.

Maybe that’s what I was best at: running away. I had left home to live with Grandma Sylvie in her dying months. I had run from bramble demons many times as I wandered this place, only fighting them when I had to survive.

I was a coward, running away from danger.

Ironically, running led me to my imminent death, a realization that had come too late. My eyes drifted shut.

I was too weak.

I couldn’t save myself, let alone anyone else.

I was going to die.

In that short moment in facing death, a calmness stilled my mind. My senses expanded, and even the little changes in my body were noticed.

Munch…

Suddenly, my drifting eyes stopped closing.

There was a feeling. A sensation along the edge of my skin as it tingled across my arm.

My eyes opened a little further, and I watched a little bramble ant take a bite of my skin and carry it in its mandibles like a trophy.

There were even demon insects, it seems.

I watched with dull eyes as the demon ant walked along the ground, headed toward its demon ant colony with precious food. From there, the ant would gift the queen its trophy and the colony would grow stronger…

The dull look in my eyes shined with interest.

The ants were like little crimson soldiers.

The queen ant resembled the way a matron commanded the armies she led.

The food was sacrificed to keep the colony strong.

My tired eyes gaped open as my pupils dilated, and realization dawned upon my tired mind.

The Bloodthorn Sect wasn’t collecting people to bolster the numbers of their sect; they were collecting them as sacrifices to their leader.

The Matron. That was the leader that Gou Hui mentioned before tossing me into The Pit. It had to be that monster inside the cobblestone dome. It was the only thing that asshole Gou Hui would ever feel respect for, and it was doing something inside that cobblestone dome I didn’t dare imagine.

“No,” I muttered into the ground.

My fingers that I thought were powerless before squeezed with a weak strength.

“You aren’t going to do it.”

My arms which were telling me to stop, started to move. I was going to be selfish. I knew I likely couldn’t save them all, but there were a few that I couldn’t turn my back on.

“You won’t take them from me.”

My neck creaked as the muscles lifted my head. It was painful, but the result was that my eyes focused on a source of grotesque hope.

It was a bramble dog’s corpse, and growing from the savage claw marks were little bulbs of crimson-tinted mushrooms unlike anything I had ever personally experienced.

"Corpse mushrooms?" My hoarse voice questioned.

If they were corpse mushrooms, they'd be a parasite that grew off the materials of dead creatures. I hoped they were similar to the edible ones from Earth, and I wasn’t about to get some strange cultivation mushroom growing out of my ears because I was sure of one thing right now.

I wasn’t going to be a picky eater.

It was time to eat the damned, red-tinted mushrooms.