As Gilgamesh's group traversed the cave, a chilling wind murmured around them, seeming to come from both directions. Feeling that chill, Marshall grew uneasy and subconsciously got closer to his sister, feeling an innate desire to protect her.
Sylvia gasped as she looked between the darkness ahead of them and the darkness behind them. "What was that?"
"Who knows," Gilgamesh dryly responded. "We're in the beast's territory now, so keep your guard up and expect anything."
Ishtar gave Sylvia shoulder a squeeze, and flashed her a smile. In a soft voice, she attempted to placate Sylvia, "Don't worry about it. Gilgamesh doesn't intend on letting anything happen to you guys. This is all so that you can gain worthwhile experience."
Sylvia nodded, but could not shake the feeling of fear.
"We're coming up on a series of channels," Crimson called out from the front.
Gilgamesh walked up to him while simultaneously consulting the map, before choosing one of four paths for them to continue walking down. At times, the channel would bend and wind, while at other points it either rose or fell sharply.
Soon enough, they got to another set of pathways, and Gilgamesh had to scrutinize the 3D image on his map before making a decision again. They continued on like this for a while, but the monotonous journey soon grew boring.
"Hey, Gold, how did it feel when Gilgamesh almost killed you," Silver asked, clearly bored out of her mind.
"Tch! That was merely a moment of oversight on my part. I didn't think the sword was so strange." Embarrassed, Gold tried to look away and hide his face, but they could still very much see the slight blush on it.
"What about you, Crimson?" Gold hurried to try to shift Silver's attention, "What did it feel like to get pummeled by Gilgamesh?"
Crimson chuckled and shook his head, "Definitely didn't feel as bad as what you had to go through, I know that."
The Wyrm Lords shared a laugh, meanwhile Gilgamesh, who was off to the side, suddenly chimed in.
"I don't know about you guys, but it felt great for me!"
This sparked another round of laughter, and even some of the soldiers who were close enough started chortling as well.
"What does it feel like to wield the kind of power required to destroy an entire universe...?"
All eyes were on Verdant after he asked that question. It was obvious who he was directing it to, and so they soon looked over to Gilgamesh, awaiting his answer.
Gilgamesh's smile slowly faded, and he took a breath.
"Honestly... it's intoxicating. I think a large part of what propelled my ego to such heights was that very feeling. Having this immense energy within your spirit that can, at a moment's notice, flare up and explode outward is just..."
"It's the most gratifying feeling you can imagine. Having total control over an almost infinite number of lives, destroying whatever you wish to destroy, no matter how grand-- all of it just creates a rush of self-inflating emotion. So much so that actually humbling yourself becomes almost impossible."
Gilgamesh sighed at this point, "And because you feel that way, it's even more devastating when you actually suffer a loss. After feeling invincible for so long, and experiencing just how stupidly powerful you are, being defeated destroys you from the inside out."
The Wyrm Lords, Marshall and Sylvia suddenly felt as though Gilgamesh was expressing some form of weakness that they had never seen from him before. It not only spooked them, but it also cemented the notion in their minds that they were not at all powerful- not like Gilgamesh had been.
There was an even grander scale to the greater world that they could not see, and perhaps never would see. They were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of it thanks to Gilgamesh, but perhaps that was all they would ever get.
Just a glimpse into the realm of true power.
Verdant thought on the words Gilgamesh had said, a dim shade of green glistening in his eyes for just a moment.
"Uh, is it just me or is the space getting wider?"
Violet's observation brought them out of their weird state and alerted them to the face that the cave was indeed widening. On top of that, it was also beginning to form a steady decline, as though they were walking down a hill that only got steeper and steeper as they went.
Once again, the bone-chilling wind nipped at their backs and their fronts, momentarily disorienting the soldiers.
"Did you hear that?" It was unknown which soldier said this, but they were quickly joined by another.
"What was that?"
"A voice! Did you hear a voice!?"
"Ahh! I heard something!"
More and more soldiers were hearing things in the wind, which was still coming at them from both directions.
Gilgamesh and those at the front hadn't heard anything though, and so they tried to calm the soldiers down, thus halting their movement forward.
Crimson joined his siblings in trying to assuage the fears of the soldiers, but he felt a jolt in his body soon after, and instinctively turned around to look at the lingering flame he left at the forefront of the group.
He saw a pale, wrinkled hand coming in from the darkness ahead, with nails that looked like claws. It was reaching for his flame, seemingly in an attempt to put it out.
"No you don't!"
Crimson instantly arrived at the flame, leaving a trail of embers in his wake. The instant he arrived, already prepared to shatter that hand, he realized that it had vanished.
He channeled more power into the flame, causing it to grow brighter and hotter, but there was nothing in the cave that he could see.
It was as though the hand never existed.
"What was that, Crimson? I thought you saw something." Gilgamesh spoke from beside Crimson; Samael was already in his hand.
"I thought so too," Crimson said, sounding out of breath. In reality, he was just struggling to understand what just happened.
All the while, the eerie wind kept blowing on both fronts, bringing with it that odd, chilling sensation.
Azure suddenly felt every hair on her neck stand up, and she became panicked, looking around before spotting a strange creature standing behind Black.
It's features were hard to discern in the dim light, but she could see its gaping mouth wide open as several needle-like teeth prepared to bite into Black's neck.
"Black, behind you!" Azure conjured a tendril of water that solidified into an ice sword, already making to cut the creature down. Black turned around and saw Azure swinging her sword at her, but had no time to dodge.
Luckily, when Azure got close enough she saw the beast disappear, and she halted her attack in time.
"What the fuck was that, Azure!?"
"I... I-I don't know. I saw something about to attack you but..." Azure was at a loss and unsure of how to explain, but Gold called over to them and informed them that the same thing had just happened to him.
Marshall pulled Sylvia away from the group and made sure they were standing by themselves, while Ishtar stuck with them. She saw nothing out of the ordinary, but her gut told her that there was something at work here that she could not see.
"Ishtar... look at me... heh heh..."
Ishtar froze. No one here knew her by that name but Gilgamesh, and that was enough to cause a fright in her. She looked at where she thought the voice was coming from, but saw nothing.
Just as she was beginning to try to calm herself down, she heard the voice again, clearer this time. "Ishtar, look what I can do... wee!"
It sounded like a child's voice, but with a tinge of iciness beneath its playful tone. Ishtar looked again at where her senses told her the voice was coming from, and this time she saw something stepping into the dim light.
A child, wearing a pure white dress, was bypassing the soldiers and walking directly toward her. With each step the child took, her white dress would acquire a new splash on blood on it.
When there was no more room for blood, the child took a step and lost an arm. Then she lost a leg. As the child limped on one leg, her head suddenly separated from her neck and fell off. The child picked it up, and limped over to Ishtar with it's head in hand.
Ishtar had tried to use her spirit to determine what this child was, but as far as her senses told her, the child was as real as she was. If this was an illusion, then it was an illusion that had no flaws whatsoever.
When the child eventually stood just a few feet away from Ishtar, it vanished. Ishtar let out a breath as she relaxed, and she soon felt a hand on the small of her back.
She tensed at the person's touch, but when she saw that it was Gilgamesh she relaxed again.
"Did you see something too?"
"I did," she answered.
All around them, people were either seeing things or hearing things at regular intervals. The ones with stronger wills were able to resist the urge to freak out over what they were seeing or hearing, but the majority of the soldiers were panicking, shouting and screaming as they flailed about.
"Crimson, we need more light!"
Gilgamesh called over to Crimson, and he immediately reacted by pouring even more power into the flame. It grew into a miniature sun, and Crimson maneuvered it to the roof of the cave.
Once it was there, everyone was able to stand within an illuminated space and no one was left in the dark. In that moment, the wind ceased and some semblance of calm returned to the atmosphere.
"What the hell was that?" Gold approached the front, extremely disheveled and shaken up.
The others came after him, and were all similarly confused and worried.
Verdant, however, was silently pondering something.
"Clearly the beast is toying with you all. It must be trying to unnerve you by showing you how easily it can affect your minds." Gilgamesh's explanation made more sense than any explanation they could give themselves, and so they went with it.
Gilgamesh looked around at the soldiers and could feel their spirits waning. Standing before them, he cleared his throat and said, "What you just experienced was likely a casual attempt on the beast's part. It's shown you that it can take charge of your minds and drive you into a panic."
"If any of you do not wish to continue, turn back now. If you go on from here, there is a very strong chance that you will die."
Though his words were akin to the most scathing remarks, the soldiers and the Wyrm Lords knew they were true. Their resolves had already been broken by the attack on their minds, and so the majority of them expressed the desire to turn back.
Gilgamesh then looked to the Wyrm Lords and said, "You guys should go back with them. I'll take care of the beast and then come meet you."
It was clear to them that they were not at all resistant to whatever charm the beast had used on them. Gilgamesh seemed to be the only one unaffected by it, and it once again showed them their place in all this.
They were aggrieved at the thought of being nothing but fodder, but it seemed to be their reality.
Suddenly, Verdant stepped out from the group of his siblings and walked toward the front, staring off into the dark depths ahead as though he could see what lay in wait at the bottom. "I know what I need to do. My sight is true now."
He turned around and smiled at his siblings, then looked to Gilgamesh and nodded, "I'm going with you. I have to."