The creature's claws were inches from my throat, its yellow
eyes burning with hunger. Just as its talons brushed my skin, a sudden force
slammed into it, sending the creature hurtling backwards. Evelyn stood beside
me, her hand still outstretched, her face a mask of concentration.
"What did you do?" I gasped, barely able to comprehend what
had just happened.
"I—I don't know," she stammered, her eyes wide with shock.
"I just felt something inside me, something from that rock… and I pushed."
The other creatures hesitated for a moment, their glowing
eyes flickering as they reassessed us. But the reprieve was short-lived. With a
guttural snarl, they began to advance again, slower this time, as if testing
our defenses.
"We can't stay here," Evelyn said, grabbing my arm. "There's
too many of them."
"But where do we go?" I asked, looking around at the endless
expanse of sand and rock. There was nowhere to run, no shelter in sight.
Before she could answer, the ground beneath us began to
tremble again, the sand shifting and swirling as if something massive was
moving beneath it. The creatures paused, their attention diverted to the
shifting sand. Then, without warning, the ground erupted, and a massive, black
tendril burst forth, wrapping around one of the creatures and pulling it into
the depths below.
"What the hell is that?" I shouted, stumbling backward as
more tendrils emerged, writhing and thrashing like the limbs of some
nightmarish beast.
"I don't know," Evelyn replied, her voice trembling. "But we
need to move—now!"
We sprinted across the sand, the tendrils lashing out at the
creatures, pulling them down one by one. The air was filled with the sound of
their guttural screams as they were dragged into the abyss, their yellow eyes
flickering out like dying flames. The ground continued to shift beneath our
feet, making it difficult to keep our balance as we ran.
Every few steps, I glanced back, half-expecting one of the
tendrils to come after us next. But they seemed focused on the creatures,
ignoring us entirely. As terrifying as the sight was, it also provided the
distraction we needed to escape.
We reached the base of another jagged peak, the rock looming
over us like a monolith. This one was different, though—its surface was covered
in the same glowing red runes as the door from the previous chamber. The sight
of them sent a shiver down my spine, but there was something else too—a faint
glimmer of hope.
"Do you think it's another door?" Evelyn asked, her eyes
scanning the runes.
"Maybe," I replied, catching my breath. "But if it is, I
don't know how to open it."
She reached out, her fingers brushing against the runes. As
she did, the ground beneath us trembled again, but this time, it wasn't from
the tendrils. The runes began to glow brighter, and the rock shifted, revealing
a narrow passageway carved into the mountain.
"This way!" Evelyn called, already moving toward the
opening.
We squeezed through the narrow passage, the walls pressing
in on us as we went deeper into the mountain. The air was cold, and the only
light came from the runes, casting an eerie red glow on the stone around us.
The further we went, the more the whispers in my mind returned, growing louder
with each step.
"It's like the door," Evelyn murmured, her voice barely
audible. "The runes… they're guiding us."
"Guiding us where?" I asked, my voice echoing off the walls.
"To the heart of it all," she replied, her tone grim. "The
source of the curse."
The passage eventually opened into a vast, cavernous
chamber, the walls lined with more of the glowing runes. In the center of the
chamber was a massive stone altar, similar to the one where we had tried to
destroy the book. But this one was different—larger, more ornate, and pulsing
with a dark energy that made my skin crawl.
Evelyn approached the altar cautiously, her eyes wide with a
mixture of fear and determination. "This is it," she whispered. "This is where
it all began."
"What do you mean?" I asked, moving to stand beside her.
"The book… the curse… everything. It started here," she
said, placing her hand on the altar. "This is the heart of the darkness."
As soon as she touched the altar, the chamber began to
tremble, the runes flaring to life with a blinding red light. The whispers in
my mind became a deafening roar, drowning out all other sound. The ground
beneath the altar cracked open, and from the fissure, a dark, shadowy figure
began to emerge.
It was massive, its form shifting and writhing like smoke,
but its presence was overwhelming. The very air seemed to bend around it,
distorting reality as it took shape. Its eyes were the same sickly yellow as
the creatures outside, and its voice—when it spoke—was a chorus of a thousand
whispers.
"You have come far," the figure said, its voice echoing
through the chamber. "But you are not the first, and you will not be the last."
Evelyn stepped back, her face pale but resolute. "What are
you?"
"I am the darkness," it replied, its form shifting as it
moved closer. "I am the void, the end of all things. And now, you shall join
me."
The figure lunged at
us, its shadowy form expanding to envelop the entire chamber. There was nowhere
to run, no escape from the darkness that surrounded us. As the shadows closed
in, I felt the air being sucked from my lungs, my vision narrowing to a
pinprick of light. Evelyn screamed, and then—nothing. The darkness swallowed us
whole, and the world went silent.