When Yismin had bolted from the hall Henarie had sprinted after her, leaving the hall filled with a mass of confused females, Eimose decided that it was a good of a moment as any to get away from the immediate area. While everyone was left in the wake of what had occurred, Eimose quietly got to his feet and backed his way down the grand hall, stopping when his foot hit Terra’s robotic head.

Guilt pinched at his stomach and he picked it up, hoping that maybe if he carried it with him he could find a mechanic who could put her back together. With that cradled in the nook of his elbow, he looking around, hoping to find any other exit than the one where the majority of the people were still amassed. He spotted a rectangular groove near the back wall of the hall, either meaning the person designing the building had an odd sense of decorating, or that there was a panel that most likely revealed an exit.

Something glimmered in the corner of his eye as he moved towards the back right wall and he couldn’t help but stop. There, laying near the throne, was a small bit of black crystal. How did it get there, he wondered, as he bent down to pick it up.

“The man! Don’t let him get away!” The merchant cried out, bringing the others to their senses.

Eimose cursed his ability to get easily distracted and shoved the stone in his pocket, pumping his arms to get to the hidden door. He practically ran straight into the thing as he had no idea how to open the panel, fumbling around and pushing and prodding every stone near the outline until it finally gave way. Hearing the stampede of footsteps resonate against the walls fueled his run down the dark hallway the panel had revealed, not even bothering to look back to see if anyone was still chasing him. When his heavy steps and labored breathing were the only sound that filled the corridor did he finally slow down enough to catch his breath and gather his bearings.

Stretching out an arm, he tried to find a wall but stumbled as he reached for something non-existent. There were no gaps of light anywhere so the darkness remained unperturbed, leaving him to try his best and keep moving forward otherwise he could have easily turned himself around and began walking towards those chasing him down. He continued waving around his unencumbered arm in the hope of finding a solid structure so he could mentally create a map of the area but he had no such luck. Eimose felt his weight pitch forward and he tried to recover his footing, missing the invisible step below him, launching him down the flight of stairs veiled by darkness.

By the time he made it to the bottom Eimose couldn’t find any part of his body that wasn’t sore and tender. Only his disfigured arm was fine, though his torso spoke volumes of bruises from landing on that same arm. Taking a moment to make sure nothing was broken, Eimose was more careful walking forward, this time sweeping his leg out to test the level of the ground before taking a step. It was a long and tedious process but it beat the consequences of repeating another fall down a set of stairs.

It was eerily silent in the darkness. Except for the scuffling Eimose made, the entire space was vacant of activity.

“Hello?” Eimose called out in order to break the rushing the quiet brought to his ears.

He didn’t expect a reply back, nor did he receive one, but for a moment he felt a bit more secure by talking. Eimose began humming to himself, at first a light whisper under his breath, raising volume until he was practically belting out a hymn that had no rhythm. His journey into the darkness was beginning to feel like a mistake as there was no sight in end and he had yet to find any wall to rest his hand on to gain some sort of bearing.

When even his voice did nothing to quell the sense of unease the blackness created in him, Eimose debated turning around, though at this point he may have been walking in a circle and not even realized it. He felt tears of despair and fear roll down his face and he quickly wiped them away; he wasn’t going to break down now. He’d faced too much to panic and perish in a place like this. One day he hoped to look back on this moment and laugh at how ridiculous he was for shedding tears over nothing, yet a little voice in the back of his mind reminded him that something could be lurking right in front of him, enjoying watching him squirm before brutally tearing him to pieces, or perhaps Eimose had gone blind and he would be living the rest of his days like this.

Stolen novel; please report.

Breathing coming quick and rapid a wave of crippling hysteria brought Eimose to his knees. His hands were slick with sweat and the drop caused Terra’s head to tumble from his arm and into the thick black of his surroundings. On all fours, he crawled around and tried his best to feel for her head but it was no use; he’d lost her. Curling up into himself Eimose struggled to get his breathing under control, shutting his eyes as hard as he could so he could see colors flash behind his eyelids. Time slipped by and eventually, he had to open his eyes again, though in the darkness it made no difference if his eyes were open or closed.

He began humming again, creating an actual melody this time. He hummed to ward off insanity, to apologize to Terra, to stop Greenhouse, to bring back everyone who died in Headquarter 3, and to create something that was his own in the hopes that maybe the walls of this dark place would remember him.

Unexpectedly, his crystalized arm began giving off a glow, nearly imperceivable, but in complete nothingness, it seemed like a beacon. Eimose observed in awe as a chain reaction arose around him, the ground slowly pulsing a dim glow, brighter and brighter until he could see everything.

The area he was in was immense; so much so that he could just barely make out the walls in the far distance despite the entire ground being illuminated, and the ceiling still wasn’t visible to his eyes. Spotting Terra’s head a few feet away from him, he scooped it up and tucked it back in the nook of his arm, the comfort of a soundless companion easing his tensions to non-existence. Looking around him, a slightly brighter glow indicated the destination he didn’t realize he’d had. Now that he could see ahead of him, he ran in the direction of the brighter light, picking up his pace as he went.

A crystal, larger than the temple itself, filled the area, and Eimose could see that it there were fissures on the ground near it, indicating that he was only observing the top portion of the massive rock. He gasped at the sheer immensity, jaw at a slack as he meandered around its perimeter.

The crystal itself was a milky color and it pulsated a blue-white light that seemed to fill Eimose with newfound hope. Even though he was still caught in the darkness, just being in proximity with the crystal quashed every fear and doubt from his system. Gazing at it, a silly idea burst into his mind.

“I shouldn’t,” Eimose tried to talk himself out of it as he stared at the pulsating light. “But it’s here, and I have nothing to lose. But it is a weird rock….Oh fuck it, what’s the worst that can happen?”

With his mind made up, he placed his crystalized palm on the crystal, watching intently as...nothing happened.

“See, it was totally okay.” He stated to himself as if to prove himself wrong. However, when he tried removing his arm from the crystal it was stuck. “Awww, and there you go again making bad choices. It’s a miracle you haven’t died yet.”

Struggle he might, there was no removing his arm from the crystal. He debated putting Terra’s head down so he could use the aid of his other arm to pull away, but he’d already almost lost her once and wasn’t going to chance it again. Glancing at his arm to see if he could somehow get something wedged in between his palm and the crystal to dislodge himself, he saw that his arm had completely welded itself to the crystal. No, it hadn’t welded itself to it, his arm was being consumed.

All of the fuzzy warm feelings in his stomach were gone and replaced by the need to get away, but unless he could cut his arm off with his willpower alone there was no way of getting away. Wait, Terra’s head! Turning her head around so the neck was facing his, he noticed that there were some sharp edges of metal exposed. Gripping the base of her head as best as he could, he brought the sharp ends down on his shoulder where the black crystal began.

He cried out in pain as the metal sank into the soft flesh of his shoulder. As if realizing the lengths Eimose was going to get away from the crystal, his arm sank into his wrist. Fighting back the urge to stop inflicting self-harm, he brought the head down on his shoulder again, and again, and again, each time digging deeper into his tissue. Tears of agony streamed down his face as he chipped away at the muscle, nearly blacking out when he finally reached the bone.

By now, his arm had sunk to the elbow; if he didn’t keep up the pace he was going to be eaten. A large part of him wanted to just laugh at the absurdity of the situation and just accept his fate; exactly how many times was he going to face his mortality and be expected to get up and walk away with a smile on his face?

He brought the head down again, tearing through ligament but not slicing all the way through. The pain was too much for him to handle and his knees collapsed, but because his arm was stuck in place it only tore at the already exposed muscle fibers. His vision blurred as he struggled to stay on his feet, his dark blood flowing onto the white crystal. This was enough. He was tired. In a flash of light, the crystal extended odd tendrils of glowing rock that wrapped around Eimose and brought him into its pulsating core.