This time I didn't pass out, and when the darkness faded I found myself standing next to Dill who was on his back. He shot me a glare.
"You said on three."
"Yes, and I pushed you on three." I smiled, and held a hand out. "Come on."
I pulled him to his feet and dusted him off before examining where we were. "Well, this isn't creepy at all."
We were in what looked like a wide stone hallway with a dead end on one side. Cold mist covered the floor and just like the forest, the place had ambient light, though not the natural light of the sun. No, this light was bluish and dimmer. Shadows played on the wall and dark corners while more images of skulls and skeletons were carved into the walls, floor, and even the ceiling.
"What's that smell?"
I sniffed. There was a faint hint of something in the air, but I couldn't tell what. "I'm not sure, but we best get going. I'm hoping the compass is pointing that way."
If it was pointing at a wall then we were screwed.
"Yes, thankfully. I don't think it would ever point at a wall we couldn't get through, I think. I don't understand how the magic works."
"And you don't need to. Let's move."
We began down the hallway, and despite there being a dead end behind us, every once in a while I felt a tingling on the back of my neck and my senses cried out. But every time I looked back there was nothing but mist. I'd seen a horror movie about mist once, and I hadn't liked it since, though this mist was low and it didn't really obscure the ground all that much.
"It's cold." Dill shivered. "I wish my armor wasn't damaged."
"What difference would that make?" I asked.
"It's enchanted," he explained. "How about you, cold?"
I shook my head. "I don't really notice it. I'm more preoccupied with waiting for a skeleton to pop out."
"You think?"
"Look around us." I gestured using my blade. "This place screams undead skeletons, and I can't shake the feeling there's something behind us."
Dill turned to look, but I waved him to stop. "Don't bother, I've been glancing back since we started walking. There's nothing there, at least nothing I can see."
Dill's face paled slightly at that and I felt bad for him. He was young and clearly not used to this. The same could be said for me, but I had the system and had adapted to the dungeon fairly well, at least I thought so.
"Don't worry, remember, I've got your back."
That seemed to lessen some of his fear and he took a deep breath before increasing his pace. I might have suggested running, but I didn't think Dill would be able to keep up, certainly not if I used Quickstep. If I was a bastard or evil I would kill him, take the compass, and go alone, but I wasn't. I wasn't like my father.
We must have walked for at least a few hours before we finally came to the end of the hallway which opened up into a wide room with a gap at its center, splitting it apart into two sides. There was rubble in places and several bones, but no complete skeletons. I still kept an eye on them though. I'd played enough games to know that sometimes the bones would float up and attach before animating.
Blue light and mist poured from the gap. We walked in and slowly made our way towards it. To my surprise, there was a set of stars that began at the edge of the gap on both sides that looked to be built into the wall. Looking down, all I saw was mist.
"We can try the door?" Dill said, pointing to the other side.
"There's no bridge," I pointed out. "We'll have to jump. You think you can make it?"
"I can. I'm not that useless."
"You're not useless at all," I said. "You've helped me understand a great deal."
I had self-deprecated enough in New York and I didn't want to see it here.
I flung the backpack over, and then took a running start before jumping the gap. I made it clear easily and turned as Dill prepared.
"Don't jump too early or too late. One step from the edge if you're not confident. you should still make it."
He nodded, and I was reminded of the time my uncle had taken me to an obstacle course. That had been a day of whining and tears on my part, but my uncle hadn't grown angry and had slowly taught and helped me.
Dill ran and jumped.
"There we go." I grabbed the backpack and helped him up from his hand and feet before we began to the door.
"Compass is pointing back," Dill groaned.
"Then we'll have a look and take the stairs."
I walked over to the door which had no grooves or opening. It was a solid piece of black stone with lines of white running through it. The only reason I could tell it was a door of some kind was its color. Similar to the door that had got us here, it had an image, though this one seemed to be in a constant state of movement like shifting paint. I pressed a hand to the door but could feel nothing except cold smooth material.
"Wow, it's beautiful"
It really was. The way the lines of white branched out was sort of like roots, and the shifting mass was made up of many colors which changed every second.
"It says something." Dill pointed to the top
I followed his finger and found lines of system text.
"I was here before the trees, before the soil, upon which crunch dried leaves. I was here before the fire, before the flame and true light, when sparks filled my sight, so tiny and small, yet so bright. I was here before the tears, before the weeping, upon deaf ears. I was here before the mind, before space, before time. I was here when one was two and two was three and zero faded. To enter you must tell me, has freedom died?"
I whistled. "Well, that's not cryptic at all."
"What does it mean?"
I shrugged. "No clue. I mean I get some of it, I think. This 'I' being referred to is old, older than time which I don't really get. The rest is mumbo jumbo to me."
"Mumbo jumbo?"
"Earth saying. Has freedom died?" I tilted my head to the side. "Yes?"
Nothing happened. "No?"
Once again, nothing happened. Which made no sense. It was a yes or no question unless there was something I was missing. Freedom could be referring to something else rather than the basic definition but in that case, how was I meant to know what it was? Unless the start was meant to explain that. Who was 'I'?
What was before time and space? Was it even possible to exist before time and space?
"I don't think we're going to get it," I said. Even if we did, the compass was pointing to the gap so that was where we would go.
"Come on, let's go." I wanted to stay and see if we could figure it out, but I had a feeling it would take a while. "Be careful as we go down, there's no barrier to stop us from falling."
I went first so that if Dill did fall then I would be able to catch him. The stones weren't slippery, but the space the stairs were in wasn't wide. I could barely put my two feet together. Whoever had designed this clearly wanted people falling. The mist obscured everything and I kept my pace slow so that Dill was always directly behind me or above. The stairs went in zig-zags.
"Woah!"
The sound of Dill's voice was all the warning I got before he tripped and bowled me over. My backpack, bless and curse the damn thing, pushed me down. I fell into the gap but was able to turn just in time to catch the edge of a stair, though my shortsword went falling into the mist. I cursed and glanced down. So that's what that weight was. Dill was holding onto my right left for his dear life, his eyes wide and full of fear. If my stats hadn't been what they were, we both would have fallen. Even still, it was hard to keep a hold. The backpack was heavy.
"Kaiden, I'm sorry." His hands slipped slightly. "Kaiden!"
"Relax, I'm gonna swing my foot. I need you to try and get on those stairs." That was perhaps the only good thing about the zig-zags. The fact there were atop one another and so close meant if someone fell they had a higher chance of catching themselves and climbing to safety. "You ready?"
"Yes, hurry!"
I swung my leg back and forth to pick up speed before swinging with all my might towards the stairs. I waited with bated breath as the weight left my leg.
"Dill?"
"I made it!"
I let out a sigh and pulled myself back onto the stairs. I walked down until I was behind Dill who looked ashamed. "Kaiden I'm—"
I raised a hand and pointed to his sheathed blade. "Let me use the blade for now, and we can call it even."
He had no complaints and handed over the curved scimitar. It felt lighter than the shortsword and less unwieldy. I handed him the Glock which he took with a look of awe.
"It's not a toy, you've seen me use it. Point and shoot. You have this." I pointed to the safety. "flipped here when you're not using it."
I had Force Bullet, throwing knives, and my shotgun for range so I wasn't worried about handing it over. I needed a melee weapon, and the knives were too short nor did I feel like using my bare hands, though with my strength at the human threshold and Heavy Impact I could probably kill someone with a punch.
"Let's hope these stairs end soon."
An hour later we finally came to stop. We'd reached the end of the mist a few minutes ago, and had spotted the bottom which didn't look any better than what we'd seen so far. In fact, it looked worse. I jumped off the stairs and landed on soft dirt. Dill was behind me and I heard him gasp when he saw it.
Bones, bones everywhere, most in the earth, but plenty just laying about. A hand there, a finger bone here, and a skull with its mouth hanging open. Cracked, broken, pock-marked, blackened; bones of all sorts. If it was just that then maybe it wouldn't have been so bad. Who was I kidding?
"Oh no." Dill sounded like he'd walked into a nightmare. I couldn't blame him.
It wasn't just the ground that held bones. The walls and ceiling were just as full of them, even more so in some places. That feeling I'd had that we were being followed was greater than ever before, but once again, looking back up, I saw nothing but mist.
"Which way is it pointing?"
There were four paths to choose from, and I was glad we had the compass, or else we could very well get lost in what might be a maze. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew from one of the paths followed by what sounded like cracking.
Dill audibly gulped and pointed down the path the wind had come from. His hand shook.
"Of course it is." I sighed. "Come on."
The quicker we moved, the sooner we got out of here, or so I hoped. It was impossible to keep an eye out everywhere and what was more annoying was that sense of being followed and watched had grown unbearable. It felt like eyes were on me, a lot of eyes, and it was making me twitchy and nervous. An enemy I could see I could deal with; I couldn't see anything except bones.
As we moved down the path, the light grew bluer and mist began to creep through the walls moving to cover the floor, but not quick enough. Just before it covered the ground, I noticed a patch of earth moving and froze.
Dill kept on until he realized I had stopped. "Kaiden?"
"Just call me Kai," I said. "Kaiden's too long and besides, we're friends now.."
"Oh, yeah. Why did you stop?" He moved to take a step forwards but I raised a hand. "Don't."
Dill grew panicked. "W-what is it?"
His answer came in the form of a hand shooting from the patch of moving earth; a skeletal hand.
"I knew it," I said.
The skeleton tore its way from the ground, and turned to me, its eyes leaking mist. Of course, it was the mist. That's why I'd always been on alert, and why I had felt like we were being followed. We were.
I sent the skeleton crashing into the wall with a Force Push, but there was no fight to be had; not one we could win as more hands burst from the ground, walls, and even the ceiling. Not just whole skeletons, but moving single limbs and I even saw a skull trying to shake itself free of the wall.
"Run!"
There was no way we could fight this many, and that was just the start. We ran and as we passed more bone-covered walls, we saw more and more bones burst free from the earth. A hand grasped my foot as I passed I barely managed to catch and free myself.
Dill was sprinting as hard as he could, but I could see it was taking all he had and there was no way he would last long. If we didn't reach some sort of safety soon, then I might have to try and carry him, and if that wasn't feasible then I would have to ditch the backpack which held all of our food, water, and everything else.
I cursed the compass as we ran.