Ethan's heart beat in his chest as he squinted into the obscurity, his beat uproarious in his ears. The quiet was choking, broken as it were by the black out, musical sound of dribbling water reverberating afar off. He had no sense of time or place, as it were the cold, onerous weight of the obscure squeezing in on him. Where was Lena? Fear undermined to surpass him, but he constrained it down, centering on his breathing. *In… out…*The darkness was absolute, but as Ethan strained his faculties, he started to notice faint signs of light, gloomy, blue-green shines that appeared to beat in and out of focus, like far off stars. As his eyes balanced, he saw that the light was coming from slim, luminescent fungi developing along the dividers of what showed up to be a cave. Ethan stood slowly, his muscles stiff and aching from the fall. He reached out to touch the wall beside him, the stone cold and slick under his fingers. It was wet, likely from the same source as the dripping sound. He
Ethan’s world was a void of coldWhat he recalled lastly was the voice, chilling and hint, whispering that it wasn't over. As awareness gradually returned, he felt a sharp torment emitting from his bear and an overwhelming weight over his chest. His eyes vacillated open to a dim, glinting light.The cavern was still, trembling with the rough constrain that had nearly buried him alive had subsided. The air was thick with dust and the fragrance of damp soil. Ethan lay in the midst of a heap of rubble, half-buried but supernaturally alive. Over him, the ceiling had undoubtedly collapsed, but a little take had saved him from being pulverized.Groaning, he shifted to free himself, wincing as his shoulder screamed in protest. A quick assessment told him that it wasn’t dislocated, just bruised. As he pushed the rocks off his chest, he realized with growing alarm that the root that had blocked his escape was gone. Not just the root, there was a clear path leading out of the cavern. It was as
Ethan's heart beat as he stood within the bizarre, nightmarish landscape. The ruddy sky lingered over him, casting an eerie gleam over the twisted structures on the horizon. The ground, throbbing underneath his feet, like a tremendous life form breathing underneath him. He wasn't just in another section of the cave; he was in another world, a world that resisted everything he knew.For a minute, he became afraid. He was alone, distant from anybody who could have helped, in a place that wasn't supposed to exist. But he constrained himself to breathe, to focus. He thought of a way back as he adjusted his shirt.He started to walk cautiously, his eyes checking the fog for any signs of movement. The figures he had seen a while ago were gone, but their presence lingered, a danger hanging within the air. Each sound, each move within the fog, made his beat enliven.As he moved forward, the landscape appeared to alter, the structures within expanded, in spite of it all he wasn't certain if he
Ethan stood within the spooky quietness, gazing at the spot where Miriam had been as it were minutes ago. His heart beat in his chest, his breath worn out as the reality of his circumstance sunk within. The shining crystal was smashed, the tower around him decreased to rubble, but the nightmarish landscape remained. The fog still twirled around him, thick and choking, and the sky over still shined with an unnatural ruddy tint.“Miriam,” he whispered, the sound of her name misplaced within the harsh stillness.But there was no reaction. She was gone, and Ethan was all alone in this turned dimension, with no plan on how to escape from it. He took a profound breath, driving himself to the center. He stood still trying to focus. He had to discover a way out, for both their sakes. As he began to move, the ground beneath him trembled, a faint echo of the earlier destruction. Ethan froze, listening intently. The tremors developed more grounded, the ground throbbing as though something gigan
Ethan's heart hustled as he confronted the tremendous serpent and the turned figures developing from the fog. His intellect shouted at him to run, but there was no place to go. The cavern had collapsed behind him, and the serpent blocked the way ahead. The bad dream he had thought he'd gotten away was currently closing in on him from all sides.The serpent's yellow eyes bolted onto Ethan, its forked tongue flicking out as though tasting the fear within the air. The turned shapes, once human but now twisted, shadowy forms of their previous selves, moved with spooky quietness, their deformed appendages and empty eyes sending a chill down Ethan's spine.Ethan took a step back, his intellect hustling for a way out. He couldn't battle all of them, not in his current state. But he couldn't just relent, either. Miriam's destiny, whatever it was, served as a horrid reminder that this place had a power above his comprehension, a constraint that might bend reality and break indeed the most grou
Ethan's faculties battled to alter as the light blurred, leaving him within the heart of the turned dimension. The ground underneath him stabilized, but the breaks that had opened prior remained, shining with an foreboding ruddy light that appeared to beat with a life of its own. He could still hear Miriam's voice, faint but frantic, resounding from the profundity of the world around him.He had no choice, he had to press forward, more profoundly into this nightmarish domain, with hope of sparing her. The landscape around him was a spiked field of smashed soil and bent arrangements, as though the very texture of reality had been torn, separated and sewed back together by a crazy person. The air was thick with tension, and each step felt like it could trigger another collapse, sending him falling into the chasm underneath.Ethan constrained himself to center, pushing past the overpowering fear and instability. Directed by the faint sound of Miriam's voice, drawing him more profoundly i
Miriam's face was pale with strain as she held the gleaming artifact on high, her hands trembling with the exertion. The light it radiated was more or less a beacon, pushing back the onerous obscurity that encompassed them. Ethan felt its warmth, a stark difference to the cold, pernicious energy of the chasm. But indeed as he recaptured his strength, he saw that the artifact's light was blurring, the brilliance that had driven back the shadowy figure starting to dim.Ethan battled to his feet, his body still hurting from the surge of dull energy that had almost overpowered him. He drew closer to Miriam, his voice pressing. “We have to move, now and fast! This place is waking up, and we can't be here when it does.”Miriam gestured, her breath coming in brief pants. “The light won't go on much longer,” she said, her voice tinged with fear. “We have to discover the source of the obscurity and crush it before it destroys us.”Ethan looked around the chamber, the old carvings on the divide
Ethan's shout resounded through the collapsing chamber, resonating off the dividers as the heart of the abyss beat with renewed, noxious energy. The ground trembled brutally underneath him, and he could feel the chamber tearing apart. Miriam was gone, devoured by the darkness, her sacrifice in vain.But he couldn't bear to succumb to lost hope. He had to escape, one way or another, or the chasm would devour him as well. The heart of the chasm lingered before him, its dim rings coming like claws, hungry for his soul. The air crackled with dull energy, thick and choking.In that minute of dread, Ethan felt a move, a little swell within the darkness, nearly subtle. The heart of the chasm had taken Miriam, but in doing so, it had used an incredible amount of its energy. For a brief minute, its hold on this reality faltered.Summoning each ounce of strength he had, Ethan reached out with his intellect, looking for the faint connection to the world above the abyss. He had once traveled betw