Chapter 36- The World Inside (Part 1)
The moment the slash connected with the monster, it made a loud sound that shook the whole place. It was akin to some kind of fire burning through rough skin, tearing and shredding it apart mercilessly.
After hitting it strongly, the bloody slash vanished leaving behind an extremely deep and disgusting wound in the monster's back. Muscles, bones, and even some organs could be seen as clear as day from the inside.
Then, an ear-deafening shriek followed soon after. The huge monster's body wriggled violently as it went into a crazy rampage. Its tails swung left and right as it kept howling loudly.
"Get away, now!" Keth warned as he tanked a strong hit from the tail. However, because of the frantic state of the huge Lizard, the hit was way stronger and far more dangerous than any other one before that.
"Ugh!!"
Taking the hit head-on wasn't the best of choices Keth could've taken as his body was instantly blasted away like a rocket, smashing against the ground violently.
Toru, who was the farthest by that time, somehow avoided getting into the fray.
"Keth!" Seeing the buffed man's landing area, he ran there to check on him.
That only left Akio behind, as close to the monster as he could be. Not only was he basically facing death head-on, but he was also the reason for the nightmare creature's agony. So, it was normal that the monster will target him in its rampage.
'Shit!!' Cursing, he tried to run away as fast as he could.
But…
"Blurgh!"
Suddenly, out of nowhere, Akio puked out a big mouthful of blood, making him halt his run. The feeling of blood leaving his body was extremely unpleasant. It was as if someone had opened up his veins and emptied some of the blood circulating inside of them.
*Drop* *Drop*
Blood trickled down his face as his eyes widened significantly. He had realized it, the huge trouble he got himself into. He didn't even need to look behind to know where the monster is.
*BANG*
A second later, the monster's tail came down on him like a meteor, smashing the ground into pieces. A hit of that scale and strength could turn a normal human into a mush of flesh and bones.
Rocks, small and big, exploded everywhere as the whole underground cave shook violently.
"This is really bad! It's not falling down!" Toru yelled as he helped Keth up.
"Get your hands off! I will go fucking finish it off." Keth said.
"Finish it off my ass! Are you stupid?! Look at your fucking body! You have more broken bones than unscathed ones!" Toru said in an exaggerated, ridiculous manner.
"Shut up! I only need one bone to function! Now get your hands off me!"
Pushing him away, Keth stood up and started walking toward the monster. However, mid-way, he fell down to the ground with a frown on his face.
"See?! You can't even move properly!"
"U-Ugh!"
*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*
One hit after the other, the monster kept stomping, swinging, and blasting the place where Akio was supposedly located with hits. Even though by this time, it had already lost huge amounts of blood, the feeling of pain kept it alive for as long as possible.
But, eventually, this energy seeped out of the lizard's body as it fell down to the ground. Its limbs kept wriggling as it exhaled its last breaths before completely succumbing to death.
At that moment, quietness took over the place again.
"It's… over. Finally, fuuuh. Yes! I'm alive!" Toru murmured as he breathed out a sigh of relief.
"Shit! I could've killed it myself!!" Keth cursed as he punched the ground.
"That's your concern now?!" Sighing as he facepalmed, Toru then looked at the place where Akio was.
"Is he… dead?" He asked, hesitantly.
However, Keth didn't answer as he looked with squinted eyes.
Behind the mirror of smoke that was vanishing slowly, there wasn't much movement happening except for the occasional fall of the debris.
The two Crusaders waited silently as if they were anticipating something. Then, much to their shock, something did happen. However, the movement didn't happen where they were looking but instead came from a totally different area of the cave.
The silhouette of a person appeared walking right toward them. Because of the dark, neither of them could identify who this person was till they got close enough.
The person mentioned was a tall, skinny, and bearded man with an extremely pale face as if he had no color on his skin. His eyes were hollow, empty, and void of any power… He was blind. On his left hand was a cane that he used to walk and being carried on his other hand was none other than Akio.
'This man is dangerous…' Keth deducted quickly the moment he sensed the man's aura.
Throughout his 30 years of life, Keth had met and faced many tough Crusaders that had journeyed in the cursed lands of Holem and even killed many of its abominations so his understanding of strength, aura, demeanor, and all that comes with a powerful being was quite great.
Toru had also noticed the abnormality that is this grey man.
"Hm, two more?" He said as he eyed Keth and Toru.
Even though he can't see, somehow, the man was able to precisely pinpoint their locations and even look them straight in the eyes.
"You three sure have some balls to face one of the Mother Lizards of this place, eh." He added in a mysterious, husky voice as he kept rubbing his massive beard and long hair using the pointy part of his cane. Another detail to mention was his shredded clothes that were definitely sewn with some Lizard skin.
"Who are you?" Keth was the first one to ask.
"Norma… The name is Norma. What about you, folks? Are you the new batch of this week?" The man asked.
"Yes…" Toru was the one to reply as he warily stood in his place, making sure to not get close nor far away from the man.
"I see, I see… Well, mother goddess had blessed you with a new life. Not many can survive falling into one of these nests."
"Nests? There are more of these around here?"
"Many… I'd say around a hundred."
"A hundred?!!!" Almost choking on his own saliva, Toru repeated his words.
"Hehehehe! Don't worry. You won't fall into another one since I found you three. This young one was about to get killed if I didn't intervene and save him. Sigh, youngsters these days sure like to put their lives on the line." Norma said as he pointed at Akio.
"I'm fine, let me go." The latter wriggled after a while and then landed on his feet before retreating a little bit.
"Ohohoh! Don't worry, young one. I'm not here to harm you. In fact, in my 30 years here, I have never harmed a single prisoner that ended up in the Serenity Abyss."
The moment the man said the last sentence, silence took over the place.
'30… years? This man has been here for 30 years?' Akio almost thought he didn't hear him correctly.
"Load of shit!" Keth clicked his tongue.
'You dumb idiot! We are gonna get killed if you don't shut your mouth now!' Toru thought in his head as he tried to smile at the man.
"Excuse me… Can you repeat what you just said?"
"I have been here for 30 years. Look, I don't even have the shackles on me no more. I have never left this place."
(A//N: Thank you everyone for supporting the book with power stones, golden tickets, and comments. I'm deeply grateful. Let's all keep it up :) )