Chapter 4: Whispers in the Dark

As Louis and Niko stepped cautiously through the tunnel, the air grew colder with each passing moment. The smell of damp stone mixed with something else—something ancient, almost metallic, like blood long dried and forgotten. Niko’s breath came out in soft puffs of condensation, barely visible in the dim green light emitted from the hieroglyphs.

“Woah,” Louis breathed, his voice barely above a whisper, filled with awe. His wide eyes reflected the flickering green glow as he stared at the tunnel walls, which stretched ahead like the insides of a creature long dead. The symbols on the walls, faint at first, cast an eerie, ghostly hue over his face, making him look pale, almost sickly.

Niko’s boots scuffed the uneven stone floor, his every step slow and deliberate as he surveyed their surroundings. The symbols, once merely faint lines etched into the stone, now glowed brighter, as if they were waking up after millennia of silence. Their light cast strange, dancing shadows that crawled across the rough walls, moving like restless spirits waiting to be set free.

“What… is this place?” Niko muttered under his breath, his eyes narrowing as he studied the symbols more closely. He could feel the weight of time pressing down on him, the kind of ancient history that made every breath feel heavy and burdened. The hieroglyphs weren’t just carvings—they felt alive, pulsating with a rhythm that matched the quickening of his heartbeat.

The tunnel seemed endless, stretching deeper into darkness, and with each step, the oppressive weight in the air grew thicker. The symbols began to shift, twisting and contorting like something alive, as if the walls themselves were trying to communicate.

Niko felt his stomach knot as the crude shapes slowly transformed into discernible images. It wasn’t random after all—it was a story.

Louis, who had been silent for a while, whispered, “Look… those figures.”

The glowing symbols now depicted grotesque creatures, half-human, half-goat, their muscular bodies hunched and monstrous. Their eyes were black voids, soulless and terrifying, weapons clutched tightly in their clawed hands. The creatures marched in a sinister procession, their spears and blades gleaming with a malevolent light.

The further they went, the more detailed the depictions became, growing almost lifelike. The figures were no longer just symbols, they were warriors, ferocious and brutal. Every inch of the walls told of battles fought long ago, of bloodshed and terror.

Niko swallowed hard as his gaze traveled to a lone figure standing among a sea of bodies, towering over mounds of corpses stacked grotesquely high. The man, robed in black, stood at the center of the carnage, his expression cold and emotionless.

Louis, still staring, spoke in a shaky voice, “He’s fighting them… alone?”

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Niko’s pulse quickened. The robed man, calm and unyielding, seemed like an unstoppable force amidst the chaos. Around him, the thousands of bodies began to tremble as if a force unseen was commanding them to rise. The stones beneath Niko’s boots seemed to vibrate, though he knew it was only the overwhelming scene before him making him feel so unsettled.

“They’re spirits…” Niko muttered as wisps of white mist began to swirl from the fallen bodies, taking form as ghostly apparitions.

The mist thickened, twisting and curling until the specters stood tall—replicas of the monsters that had fallen. But these were more terrifying. Their translucent forms radiated a cold, deadly energy that made Niko’s skin prickle with unease.

Louis, captivated and terrified, whispered, “This guy… he’s not just fighting. He’s summoning them, raising an army of spirits.” His voice trembled, awe mixing with a tinge of fear. “He has to be some kind of necromancer.”

Niko didn’t respond, his eyes glued to the unfolding scene. The ghostly army surged forward like an unstoppable tide of death, crashing into the goat-men with such force that the air itself seemed to tremble. The goat-men were no match, their grotesque bodies torn apart as the spirits ravaged them without mercy.

A towering figure, the largest of the goat-men, with curling horns and a face contorted in fury, tried to rally the remnants of his army. But he, too, was quickly overwhelmed, his body ripped apart in a silent scream as the spirits consumed him. The violent scene played out with brutal clarity, though not a single sound escaped from the images on the walls.

And then, as quickly as it had begun, the glowing hieroglyphs flickered and dimmed. The story, the battle, the carnage—it all faded into nothing but faint lines once more, leading deeper into the tunnel.

Niko exhaled slowly, his breath shaky as the last remnants of the ghostly battle dissipated. The sudden silence pressed in on them like a weight, thick and suffocating. The tunnel beyond was dark, the flickering green light now a distant memory.

He exchanged a glance with Louis. The unease on Louis’s face mirrored his own.

“Should we go in?” Louis whispered, his voice barely audible. He stood at the threshold of what appeared to be a larger chamber, the darkness inside thick and impenetrable except for the faint green glow outlining the edges of the room.

Niko hesitated. Something felt wrong, terribly wrong. The air was too still, too quiet, as if the very room was holding its breath. “Let’s enter, but keep your eyes open. I don’t trust this,” Niko said cautiously.

Louis nodded, already stepping forward. As soon as his foot crossed the threshold, the room seemed to breathe—alive with some unseen force. Niko followed, but the moment he stepped toward the doorway, a shimmering, transparent green barrier materialized in front of him.

“What the—?” Niko reached out instinctively, his fingers brushing against the solid, impenetrable wall of light. Panic surged in his chest as he turned toward Louis, who was now trapped on the other side, staring at him with wide eyes.

“Niko… what’s going on?” Louis’ voice was strained with fear.

Before Niko could answer, the ground beneath him trembled violently. The walls shook, dust and debris falling from the ceiling like rain. The tunnel groaned as if the earth itself was about to collapse.

“Rumble!”

Niko’s heart raced. “Louis! Something’s happening!” His voice was barely audible over the deep, ominous sound reverberating through the stone.

The ground beneath Niko’s feet shifted, cracked, and then gave way entirely.

“NO!” Louis screamed, rushing toward the barrier.

Niko felt the sudden, gut-wrenching drop beneath him. For a moment, he was weightless, suspended in the air as the floor disappeared into the abyss below. The cold, crushing darkness swallowed him whole, his scream lost in the endless void as he plummeted downwards into the unknown.