The cave's entrance was at least a dozen meters wide, large enough for a group of seven people to walk side by side. Grey felt a deep unease as he gazed into the dark abyss of its opening.
"Yeah, it's better not to go in there. I'm tired, but entering a strange and suspicious cave isn't my thing."
Grey turned away, but before he could continue on his path, he heard a faint howl coming from somewhere behind him.
Only the darkness within the cave remained behind him. A shiver ran down his spine as he began to walk faster toward another part of the eerie, dark forest.
The wind seemed to have disappeared, casting the forest into a deadly silence, broken only by the sound of Grey's footsteps crunching the leaves and twigs beneath him.
"Something's wrong."
Despite just barely recovering from the explosion and his injuries from the battle against the awakened beast, Grey began to run. His footsteps echoed, breaking the silence and creating a dark melody with each step.
Grey looked in every direction. Nothing seemed to be following him, but that sinister premonition, rising from the depths of his soul, warned him that something very wrong was happening in the darkness of the night.
The trees, once tall and lively, now seemed to stretch their branches to envelop and trap Grey. His breathing grew heavier as his body succumbed to exhaustion, threatening to collapse from the constant strain and agony he had endured.
The scent of damp earth, moss, and decaying leaves dominated the forest. However, beneath the pleasant aromas of a typical forest, there was also a faint, putrid, and sinister stench, as if the darkness of the forest itself had its own scent.
Grey was disoriented, not knowing where he was running or where he was looking; his senses were distorted by fatigue, and his mind sluggish as he tried with all his will not to collapse into the cold mud of the dark forest.
Suddenly, Grey's sharp ears abruptly brought him back to full awareness when he heard footsteps in the distance—something was running... and it was heading towards him.
Those heavy footsteps thundered through the silent forest as they rushed towards Grey's location at great speed. His heart began to pound harder as more adrenaline filled his body.
"This is bad, this is really, really bad."
Desperation began to seep into Grey's mind. The only thing he could do in that situation was run, run, and keep running.
His ragged breathing joined the dark melody of snapping branches and his racing heartbeat as he tried in vain to escape whatever was pursuing him.
Grey was on the verge of collapsing when he saw something that made him forget about the creature following him.
"What..." His voice was a whisper, drowned out by the thunderous beating of his heart, which quickened with each passing second.
His body came to a halt as his eyes widened in fear at the sight of the familiar cave before him.
The palpable darkness within it seemed to call out to Grey in an almost mystical way. His heart pounded so hard that its beating echoed in the forest's silence, and his breathing suddenly stopped, perhaps unconsciously, or because it didn't seem to matter anymore.
'Huh? Why am I... I'm...'
Grey's soft footsteps were barely audible as he began to walk involuntarily.
His steps, though slow, were enough for the cave to swallow his body while the heavy footsteps of the creature in the forest behind him seemed to cease all movement as Grey entered the cave.
It was as if his body and mind were in a trance as they ventured into the cave and its darkness, which prevented Grey from seeing anything but blackness, as if he had suddenly gone blind.
His eyes seemed useless inside the cave, yet despite everything, Grey didn't stumble or bump into anything.
The stench of putrid moisture and the cold rocks beneath his feet seemed muted by some strange power, making his steps completely silent.
After a few minutes of walking in the darkness, something gleamed in the midst of it all. It came from what appeared to be a dark iron rod embedded in the scaly stone of a wall.
Grey lifted his hands and grasped the iron.
It was cold to the touch, as if it could freeze everything it touched. A piece of cloth was wrapped around the rod's tip, hanging down toward the stone floor. The iron's surface seemed to be made of small pieces that made the grip firmer and less slippery.
A gentle tug was all it took to pull it from the stone wall.
When Grey placed both hands on it, something seemed to break in the darkness that enveloped the cave's world.
The darkness seemed to dim, and the cave's stench overwhelmed his senses with full force; the stone became colder, and the surroundings seemed more mundane.
"What...?"
A thunderous crash echoed through the cave, interrupting Grey's confused thoughts as a large piece of rock fell near him.
The cave was collapsing.
Grey looked at his hands as what he had held disappeared in a sea of white sparks.
Suddenly awake and aware of his situation, Grey looked back, his eyes now able to see through normal darkness.
The cave was filled with cracks everywhere as the deafening sound of falling rocks filled Grey's ears.
"Damn it!"
Grey began to run as giant pieces of rock fell behind him.
Running at full speed, Grey reached the faint light outside the forest in less than a minute.
He sped up until the darkness was behind him, and the cave was sealed by the mountain itself and its sudden collapse.
Grey cautiously surveyed his surroundings, fearing that the creature following him might be lurking in the darkness. Fortunately, nothing seemed poised to attack him in that brief moment.
"I have to get out of this forest... The city doesn't seem like such a bad idea now..."
Grey hurried along the path he had taken to reach the cave, paying attention to every sound and movement in the forest, unwilling to let that creature catch him off guard.
"What happened to me in there? I was in a trance... Was someone, or something, controlling me?"
*BOOM!*
Grey nearly fell to the ground as a tremendous tremor appeared out of nowhere. The destructive sound of what seemed like a mountain splitting in two and causing a small earthquake resonated throughout the forest.
Grey turned his head, his eyes wide, knowing that his assumption was probably correct.
In the distance, the enormous mountain where the cave had been had split in two. From its massive crack, an extremely gigantic monster began to emerge, its jaws wide enough to swallow several houses without even chewing.
Its body was colossal; two elongated limbs protruded from beneath its head, and a V-shaped torso gave rise to its two legs, which, though not as long as its upper limbs, were as thick as a large house.
As the creature emerged from the mountain's crevice, its grotesque head turned its attention in Grey's direction.
For a moment, Grey was overwhelmed by countless alarms from his deepest survival instincts, leaving him paralyzed.
But... the colossal creature wasn't looking at him; it was staring behind him, into the distance, where the city he was heading toward lay.
Grey watched in horror as the creature's head, where its eye sockets should have been, was nothing but infinite, corrupting darkness.
That creature had no eyes. Instead of eye sockets, a sea of putrid darkness flowed from the black void of its empty sockets.
A deafening roar erupted from its inconceivable jaws, echoing throughout the forest and making Grey's ears bleed. He collapsed to the ground in pain, clutching his ears in a desperate attempt to prevent his brain from exploding.
Moments later, the beast lifted one of its enormous front legs and began to move in Grey's direction.
"This isn't good, this is really, really bad. I have to run, that thing, that thing is going to kill us all."
Grey began to sprint desperately toward the city, hoping to find something that could help him escape that terrifying monster.