(listen to 'one punch man but it's actually sad and depressive' by PianoDeuss on YouTube throughout this chp on repeat. enjoy!)
in a pitch black cave, a few hundred kilometers away from the nearest civilized camping, a humanoid figure could be seen leaning on the damp stone wall. the figure that is a little over 180m tall was mumbling to himself incoherently.
if one looked closely, underneath the dirt, pus, blood and shit there were remnants of a young man.
" ..so that's 6 years?? no wait there was a time when i stopped counting the days, so it should be more than that.."
" uhh so that's 2482 days.." the man kept rambling while scratching his thick beard. a few flakes of dried blood fell on the floor but the man was too busy to notice. he kept counting the markings on the large 30m long wall when suddenly his nose twitched. he immediately stopped and jerked his head around while sniffing the air. knees bent, legs spread apart and arms dangling the man looked like a savage animal ready to pounce at its prey
he jerked his head around sniffing like a feral beast and stopped when he finally pinpointed the source of the barely noticable smell
his bloodshot eyes widened and he grinned madly flashing two sharp canines
"hehe, it seems like you guys are getting new friends" he said and pounced forward
if one would look at this scene they would see a monster dressed in human skin jumping down from a mountain of hundreds of beast corpses dashing towards an endless path of darkness
...
the man ran as his fingertips pressed on the wall to direct him towards the right path. the cave was just a huge maze with thousand of passages and intersections. the man had to memorize its layout from the day he got stuck here so he wouldn't get lost and find himself in unknown territory run by beasts he couldn't handle.
he would walk ahead deeper into the cave, kill the beasts that roamed there, then drag them back to his lair.
he would dump most of the corpses aside, and eat the meat of the least damaged ones.
he would also drink their blood, that he found nutritious enough, due to lack of a water source
sleeping was hard the first few months, he was constantly scared and anxious. he used to cry daily cursing his luck and the gods for dumping him in this hell after just escaping another one.
but a year later he realized that his curses or even prayers were never heard, as if the gods themselves avoided this cave
after adapting to his new lifestyle, he stopped fighting for his survival and started killing in order to advance more into the cave, in hopes of finding a way out
Thus now he would venture into beasts' territories, massacre them and mark them as his.
he would build a 50cm tall stone tower in the entrances of each territory he gained, predators around the cave have long since learned not to cross any territory with these stone towers. for each time a mindless creature ignored the sign of the man's property and ventured within, its bloodline and sometimes its whole pack would be erased from existence
the more paths he found inside this maze like cave the more the number of beasts increased
but he never stopped advancing forward, because he knew the only way out was forward. at least, that was the voice of the cave said
the reason he was stuck here, the reason for his misery and endless scars was the voice. it never told him the reason he was here, why it chose to torment him, nor answered any of his questions.
one day, while he was vomitting the raw meat of a dead 3 winged eel beast, he heard a voice calling his name
FLASHBACK
a 14 year old kid covered in bruises and scratches was hurling inside a dark cave. a sword could be seen pierced inside a 3 winged eel beast. the kid, who was starving, tried to eat the raw meat since he could never find the resources to light up a fire
the kid's eyes were tearing up as his stomach was on fire. he knew that his digestive system couldn't eat this foul meat but he had no other source of food.
it had been a week inside this cave and the young child was terrified to say the least. he had been cooped up in the same place he had been the past week.
he still remembered how a cave appeared out of nowhere in the forest of the beyond whilst he was hiding there. he was familiar with the forest since he went there frequently with the hunter of the town
but this time instead of the wide plain in the heart of the forest, there was a dome like cave.
its walls were made of smooth stone, too smooth to think it was a natural cave. it had a wide entrance, almost welcoming, and even though the sun was in the middle of the sky the teen could not see but darkness beyond the entrance as if light could never escape from inside of it. the air around the cave was silent, too silent for the forest of the beyond.
no animals could be heard or seen for miles, there was no wind even though it was windy just moments ago, and everything looked untouched... the grass was well kept, no marks on the tree trunks, no nests of any sorts, dirt or any sign of life whatsoever.
it looked too nice to be part of a forest, as if it doesn't belong here
the teen's hands shook as a morbid feeling crept on him and clouded his mind
" it's as if time stopped here.. shit, i keep ending up in the worse places at the worse times. fuck you lady luck, why don't you ever bless me?" he mumbeled as he looked around the liveless area
but as strong as his fear for the unknown, he knew that if he stayed outside during the night he would definitely die.
the night in the forest of the beyond was unforgiving for the weak, and he knew he could not protect himself when the predators of the nights awoke.
so with a heavy heart, a prayer in mind and his sword at his waist he entered the cave.
but little did he know that he was nailing himself to a coffin
the deeper he went the more ghastly the air felt, he wanted to drench himself in water and rub every part of his exposed skin with soap. he stopped once he thought that no creature would disturb him and fell asleep immediately due to fatigue.
the next day he woke up and never found the entrance again..
..