Maximus sat on the shore, perched on a rough, cold rock, as his eyes scanned the dark lake stretching out before him. He knew, with a heavy certainty like a stone, that for now, he was trapped there in that submerged cavern, with no clear idea of how to escape. He had explored every corner his clumsy feet and hands allowed, but everything seemed to lead to the same emptiness: impenetrable rock walls, dark, corpse-like water, and a surface that, though reached, offered no promise of escape.
"Why am I here?" he thought, squinting as he stared at the water reflecting the darkness around him. "Who created this place? What is its purpose?" His gaze wandered toward the pedestal he had seen in the center of the lake, with that murky black liquid he couldn't understand. "There must be a reason... none of this makes sense without one." But the more he thought about it, the more questions he found, without any answers.
Time in the cavern blurred, as if days and nights were a homogeneous mass with no beginning or end. He didn't know how long he had been there, but the only thing that seemed to indicate the passage of time was the flash of light that, from time to time, illuminated the top of the cavern. Just at that moment, the ceiling of the cave began to faintly light up. Maximus raised his head and, with his blurry vision, distinguished a small hole at the very top, through which the silvery glow of what must be the moonlight slipped in.
"It must be the full moon," he thought, recalling the long nights at home, when the moonlight filtered through the blinds of his window. "Maybe it's a cycle… only visible every full moon. And if that's the case..." It occurred to him that perhaps, somehow, he could reach that hole. Maybe, if he could ascend high enough, he could escape. But as he looked again at the solid rock walls and the vast lake, he realized how impossible that idea seemed.
Frustrated, Maximus stood up and began walking toward the lake again. His gaze stopped on the inert bodies of the Inferi, submerged in the water. "Maybe I can do something with them…" he murmured to himself. He crouched down and, carefully, tugged on the arm of one of the corpses. Immediately, the body moved frantically, thrashing violently before returning to its original position, as if bound to its place in the lake by some invisible force.
He tried another. The same result. The Inferi didn't respond to his control; they only stirred for a moment and then returned to their initial positions, like immovable pieces of a puzzle. "It's useless…" he said, feeling the frustration grow inside him. He withdrew to a nearby rock, not far from where he had found the boat in the previous chapter, and sat down again. The silence in the cave was absolute, broken only by the faint lapping of the water and his own thoughts.
Minutes passed, or maybe hours. Maximus stayed there, motionless, immersed in his dark thoughts. He tried to remember more about his previous life, his existence as a human, but every time he tried to focus, the memories seemed to fade away, like mist dissipating in the sun. "None of this makes sense," he thought. "If I'm a corpse, why can I think? Why do I still exist? What is my purpose here?"
Suddenly, a loud noise broke the silence of the cave. The sound echoed from afar, as if large rocks were shifting, scraping, and falling. Maximus shot up, his senses on high alert. "What's that?" he thought, his eyes darting frantically around the cave, searching for the source of the noise. And then, he heard them. Voices. Human voices, faintly filtering in from some distant point. The sound was muffled, as if the voices were coming from behind a great barrier.
He froze, trying to catch every word, but only fragments reached his ears. He couldn't see anything or make out what they were saying. but one thing was clear: someone was entering the cavern.