Time started to slow as Hope jumped.

Scri- scri scritch-

At first, he could barely hear it.

Scri- scri- scritch- scr-

Silence clamped over his ears. But at its center, the small sound of whispers faintly hissed in the back of his mind.

A forced memory pressed upon his vision—layers peeling around him into that forsaken home he left many years ago as if wanting to spark a somber desire in his chest. It was not by his own curse's accord but of the last desperate pitiful attempt from the shadowed behemoth.

Wooosh!

Air accompanied his feet as the unwanted nostalgia caressed his mind like a pervasive spirit.

Hope began to vaguely feel himself descending, a pull towards the unknown abyss that hid beneath the night's shroud fog.

It all happened in a split moment as the barely audible whispers started to break and pile into another horrible cry.

It swelled up louder and louder.

A sharp yell of discontent and anger and hollow laughter all mingled in one dreadful shriek.

It called to him.

A tone of warped savagery rising into a forced haunting melody.

Even logic began to twist itself for him to abnormally embrace the memory of his home as if reality didn't exist.

Although he was in mid-air—at the tips of death's grasp—a pressurized stirring urged him to reach back.

But a different dark hum shook in Hope's chest.

Not the hum of a desired longing or of any type of fear that was created by outer means, but his soul felt upset once again that such a false thing was offered to him.

That such a stupid lie was even crafted to sway him like one of its mindless beasts.

Escape.

Escape.

He had to escape.

Hope did not want to be dragged back behind those barred windows and infinite labyrinth. Not again in that consuming darkness till he became all but an empty shell to be played with or ripped apart at the pleasure of their cursed hands.

But despite all of that, despite his reluctance, he let his arm reach back.

Hope knew he had to.

Twisting himself around, a crack appeared across his false memory's visage as he saw the savage number of arms, the number of hands, and the number of fingers reaching out like those images of hellish figures clawing greedily for life.

Before Hope was completely out of their reach, their hands snatched his wrist into a vice grip.

!!!

Hope was then pulled back and started falling into a swing toward the building.

At the last moment, Hope braced his shield up and shifted his body once more before he slammed into the wall.

Wham!

"Huak!"

Adam yelped as he held tighter onto his back from the impact.

"A-ah Sir!?"

"Ugh...."

Hope groaned as numbness washed over him.

"Your arm! It's-"

Hope started to feel something else trickle down his arm and back like slithering rivulets.

He looked up, seeing a pile of compressed bodies in the window. A few of the several Profaned beasts had impaled torsos from the broken barred window as they bent over clinging onto him.

Eyes glazed in frenzy.

Blasphemed faces.

Their black fiendish claws dug into his wrist and forearm, sharply sinking beneath his skin.

The longer Hope looked at their grip, his mind gradually started to register the delayed pain.

It was like fiery waves at first.

Waves of intense pain that throbbed and rippled down his arm into a seething flame-

Krqch!

Hope thrust his shield into the building's crevice.

Pain.

Pain.

His body kept saying.

Too painful.

'Shut up...'

But Hope dismissed those thoughts.

There was no time to be absorbed in suffering.

Instead, Hope started to count the seconds.

One.

He could release his aspect power, but that was not what he needed to do to wrench free.

There was still something else that needed to happen.

Two.

Hope gritted his teeth as he felt his energy waning, his body still begging for him to stop and rest.

But why the hell should he?

He had a damn plan.

And he was going to see it through.

Three...

'Dammit-'

Hope was about to wrench his arm free. Even if it meant the possibility of leaving gruesome scratches and torn flesh, right now he didn't care.

But before he could, he felt Adam fumbling for something behind him.

"H-hold still!"

"...?"

The boy's breath breathed hotly on his neck as he then began to climb on Hope's shoulders-

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

Four...

Five...

And Hope saw not a sheen of metal, but a familiar black shard in the boy's hand as he reached up.

Hope blinked at the sight.

'Huh. Capable thief.'

Six...

It seemed the boy was possessed by his own fight or flight mode. The only thing reflecting in his eyes was the determination to move forward. Whether that was guided by forgettable knowledge or his desire to survive, he reached up just enough and swung the shard through the monsters' wrists.

Creeee!

The boy swung again and again, his weight shaking on Hope's shoulders, till finally, the wrists were weak enough for Hope to pull his arm free.

He wiggled their severed hands off, their grip releasing and disappearing into the gray fog.

A second later, Adam lost his balance and tipped over.

"W-wah-!"

Seven-

CRASH!

Hope quickly grabbed onto the boy as a crash exploded above.

Wisps of rubble and the Profaned fell behind them, the sound of giggling and hissing blowing past from the scratches left on the stones.

Screeeeeee!

Hope gritted his teeth, holding the boy close with one arm as he looked up and stared at the ugly behemoth.

'There you are, you bastard.'

ScrreeeeEE! Scre- scre- scre-

The behemoth had broken through the wall.

Half of its piled self hung over the edge. Its hands gripped around to prevent itself from falling any further as its multiple silver coined eyes flitted down towards them, brimming to life like a predator sighting its prey.

But their curved slits for smiles held a hint of strained frustration as they released a hollow teemed laughter, an invading sound crawling and shaking in the corridors of their minds.

"...ha..haha..."

Hope flinched as he looked down as a dazed laugh breath out of the boy.

"I don't...." The boy's eyes trembled. "...what's...hap..i..ng"

Hope could see the boy's face relaxing.

No. No. No. No.

The boy's mind was being carried away into the behemoth's whispering sea of conjured memories.

Hope tried to shake the boy. "Hey. Wake-"

Screeeee!

Boom- Booom- BOOM-

The building shook, shivering even, as the multiple horrid arms and legs started to skitter down and stretch their twisted self toward them.

'For fuck's sake-'

With the boy already fainted, Hope hoisted him over his shoulder.

Whatever spell had attacked the boy's rush of fight or flight, the moment he started to relax, his body started to give in to that relaxation and shut down at the opportune moment.

Krqch!

Hope thrust his shield again in a crevice as he scaled down, leaving bloody streaks and blotches of red above from his wounded hand.

Not only was it clawed from the monster's grip, but he still had the gash on his hand he made earlier to wake himself up from the monster's spell.

But Hope abandoned the luxury of pain with each climb.

His body and mind merged like a synchronized machine as he stemmed down the wall.

Krqch!

Hope couldn't blame the boy for fainting.

Many of those wasteless hours weighed on them—moreso on the boy—which Hope could not properly detect behind his eyelids.

But now, Hope was carrying the boy like baggage.

How unfortunate.

Krqch-

ScreeeeE!

Hope stole a glance above and caught a glimpse of the shadowed behemoth untwisting itself...

As if realizing that it couldn't carry its whole weight down, the mold contorted bodies began to separate. The complexity and disturbing sight revealed its foul pile untangling each black limb and torso as it dipped further over the edge. Bodies slithered past each other, hundreds of arms crawling on and pulling over one another as they all competitively reached out to him.

Krqch-

Breathe.

Krqch-

Focus. Hold. Climb.

Krqch-

Hope continued scaling down the cracked crevices, his shield acting as an anchor at every other grip.

But he knew he couldn't keep this up for long.

At the corners of his vision, Hope could see trailed-up vines growing thicker with each descent.

After passing what was to be four stories, he could see one of the thick vines beginning to curl away from the wall and disappear into the night's fog.

Hope quickly wrapped his arm securely around it and leaned back as if he were standing horizontally on the side of the building.

Screeeeeee!

Did he have to kill it?

Not necessarily.

But Hope wanted to hurt it.

Tk.

Hope angled his rifle up.

If he could, he would want to return the pain whether twofold or threefold.

But even if it were less than that, no powerful being would be satisfied that something lesser than itself had left a mark.

For how much of their pride breaks or is chipped away when a prey successfully snaps back?

As Hope beheld the monstrous sight, those hundreds of scratched smiles on their faces seemed to float and dance across his vision like a mirage.

Like those in the hall, it stretched and bled and screamed and pulled in impossible directions.

ScreEEAEUeeEE!

Somehow even the behemoth shook those danced lines as if strangling them.

But hidden between those folds of flesh, at the center of the pile underneath the limbs and torsos, were bigger sized eyes that were wide open.

One hideous look from them and the lines began to sinisterly laugh at him.

'How the hell...'

Their hands were still a distance away, and yet the scratches had already reached him. Spiraling, in and out his ear, clawing out of spite—

Round and round and round those lines went—

Strangled lines and bulbous eyes impossibly shrieking—!

Bang!

A thunderous sound clapped the air.

Bang!

Then another.

BANG!

And another.

ScreeeeEUUGH!?

The behemoth let out a blood-curdling scream.

It stopped crawling down and started to shrink away.

Three of those wide eyes at the center of its pile bled a string of thick blood like tar.

Scrreeeeee!

The behemoth reeled back, its multiple hands instinctively flying back to cradle the gaped wounds.

However, as if the searing pain lanced through its brain or its hidden raw spot beneath its flesh, the behemoth's hands began to claw at the many faces it carried in a crazed frenzy.

Fingers dug into its black burnt skin, leaving deep gouges and smears of blood as if trying to ease the agony exploding within itself.

The rest of its arms reached around helplessly as it reared further back into the building, the limbs helplessly groping around, clawing the air and the wall.

The wall...

'Shit shit shit shit-'

Hope gripped tighter onto the vine as he saw the behemoth drag and tear against the stone and ascending vines when finally-

Snap!

The vine Hope held onto was severed.

At least, from the wall it did. But on the other side...

At that moment, his weight pulled down.

Hope's stomach dropped into an unsettling fluttering feeling as the fall pulled him in its embrace.

The draft of cold wind and fog hugged around him as he saw the last glimpse of the monster pull away and disappear into its labyrinth den; even after it was gone, the afterimages of its bright silver eyes clung in the air.

Tug!

As the vine was still wrapped around his arm, he felt it tug and pull on his shoulder to the other side of the fog.

Hope's body started to swing deeper into the unknown.

Wssssshhh!

The night's mist breathed across his skin and whistled in his ears.

Any traces of pervasive sounds from the behemoth were now fading away completely, his mind feeling unburdened as its congestion pulled away with each distance.

But where was he going now?

In the blinding fog, Hope could see a darker wall growing in size as if to swallow him whole. The sound of rushing water could also be heard.

Hope raised his shield and braced for impact.

But surprisingly, he continued into the darkness.

'Wait what-'

Snap!

'Shit!'

Hope instinctively covered the boy's head with his shield as they flew toward the unknown.

A wall- No. The ground?

Splash!

Cold water slapped against him.

It soaked him through his clothes chilling him to the bone.

Instead of hitting hard pavement or earthen soil, his body sank into several-inch-deep water and a ribbed planked floor, rolling as the pitch-black darkness enveloped him.

Hope finally stopped and lifted his head.

"Cough! Cough!"

His muscles spasmed as he pulled himself up and gasped for air.

'Where-'

Hope spun his head around in every direction.

'Where am-'

Hope held the boy close to his chest as he leaned on the floor for support.

A ribbed floor could be felt underneath his hand.

Almost reminding him of when he awoke in the bloody carcass.

'Where the hell am I?!'

Hope grimaced as he repositioned himself on his knees.

As his hands continued to grope beneath the waters, he felt his fingers trace a long thick metal limb. He reached behind and another limb also lay behind him.

Through the throbbing pain, Hope tried to reimagine the structure in his head.

Two parallel metal limbs.

Ribs connecting its center.

'Wait...these are called...tracks...?'

An image flashed in his mind of the closest resemblance to what he could feel now.

Hope had only ever seen these railroad tracks above ground—albeit destroyed either by warfare or the Spell—but he had never imagined them being built underground.

Hope picked the boy up as he weakly stood on his feet, his legs wobbling from the action, and pushed against the water to what he assumed was the direction of a wall.

And his foot hit stone.

Blindly he reached forward and felt a stone block reaching to a height up to his chest.

Hope grunted as he achingly picked up the boy and raised him over the wall.

He climbed after, but once he realized he was back on solid ground, his body collapsed.

"Urg!"

Hope fell face first.

The soreness weighed on him as if his soaked clothes plus all the items he carried weren't enough of a burden.

Please. His body seemed to say.

Rest. We need rest.

"Urg..."

Hope grunted as he swung off his rifle and backpack—already long dismissing his shield before—and cast them to the side.

Hope then sagged to the ground.

The pain was rising in him now. Hope could feel his arm being drenched in a different wetness, the smell of exposed flesh touching his nostrils.

Water dripped down his hair and face, the taste of metal and foul blood touching Hope's tongue as he licked his lips.

"...sigh...."

This journey was supposed to be a much shorter one...

Who knew he would be trapped in a damn building for so long?

Rest.

Rest.

Even if his body didn't speak at all like the cramped voices in his head, Hope could feel it plead in his bones.

'Yeah yeah I got it...'

He swallowed back a painful grunt as he rested his forehead against the cold concrete.

This wasn't what he meant when he said he wanted to take a bath either.