A fire illuminated the dark tunnel, four shadows danced on the stone, bumpy walls, and dripping water consistently tapped on the solid ground. The eyes of the four people were dull and tired.
"How long has it been?" A girl with pink hair said, her voice shaky and exhausted.
"Almost four days, we're close to the extraction point." A short, brown haired boy said. A gaunt and lean black-haired man sat close to him and looked at him with a worried look.
"The echoes have gotten louder... should we move?" The man said, a flash of worry crossed his face.
A roar echoed through the stone tunnel, and a methodical squelching sound slowly approached them from a distance. The brown-haired boy quickly snuffed out the fire and whispered, "follow."
The group complied and they jogged forward. In the past four days, the group had traveled over 120 km (74.5 miles), and they continued forward. Heavy breathing filled the dark tunnel, and the strange gooey sound slowly receded as they jogged farther and farther. Another person, this guy with blond hair, slowed down to a stop and started panting, his hands on his knees.
"Go on... without me... I can't do this... anymore..." He said in between breathes, his voice full of despair and surrender.
The brown hair boy stared at him for a second, wiped his brow, cursed under his breath, and walked up to him. "Hop on." He took a position of a piggy-back ride.
The blond man looked at him. He didn't stop, and stared, and stared. His eyes were wide, and you could see his mouth quiver. "I'm so sorry." He crawled onto his back and the group continued forward.
Even with the added weight, the brown-haired boy continued without complaint, showing more resolve than anyone.
As time passed, their muscles burned, and their sides began to cramp. The pinch in their ribs became stronger and stronger, before the girl stopped for a moment. "Now... hold on..."
"Come on, we're almost there." The boy responded.
She bit her lip, coughed, and started back up. Their march continued, their feet patters getting more desperate and uncoordinated.
"Stop!" The boy yelled, holding out both his hands, a wide smile was plastered on his exhausted face. "We're here!"
A massive hole that led to the surface, but also to the depths of... somewhere was their escape. A path that was carved into the side of the hole was their escape route that led to the surface.
They just had to make it.
"I can do the rest!" Blond guy said with determination, crawling back off of his back. "Thank you so much."
"It's not over yet." The lean, black haired man said. "Listen..."
Behind them, in the tunnel that was emerged in darkness, a more rapid sound of squelching approached them, it became louder, and louder, more desperate for its prey.
"R-Run!" The girl said, stumbling over a rock before making her way up the path edged in the side of the hole.
The boy looked down. He knew at the pace the thing was approaching them, they would die. It had been toying with them the first few days, but now it wanted them. What was he supposed to do! He was just a ordinary human!
He sighed, and turned toward the lean man and whispered. "That thing is going to catch up to us, and one of us has to stay behind. You either give me your weapon, or you stay behind and prevent it from catching up."
A horrified look was now on his face, his heart beat sped up and a lump in his throat formed. His eyes burned as he looked at the boy, tears streaming down his face. "I-I'm so sorry!" He dropped the sword and fled with the rest of the group, leaving the young boy to stop the monster.
He let out a sigh, and glanced towards the sword.
'That thing is probably a nightmare, even if I was extremely skilled, it'd be hard for me to face it as an ordinary human, much less one that has never held a weapon.'
He slashed it around a few times, trying to get used to it. His sword blocked the exit to the tunnel for a moment, and when the sword flashed past it, a small, five year-old boy stood their. His charcoal-black hair and oily eyes glared at him, his black shoes in a puddle of black ooze.
Squelch, Squelch.
It took two steps toward him.
He drew in a shaky breath.
Squelch.
Another step. His heartbeat sped up, and the flow of time seemed to slow down.
There was no more squelch. A tsunami of black liquid rushed at him, solid black tendrils mixed in with the horrifying goo. He didn't know what to do in this situation. How was a sword supposed to go against this?
Nevertheless, he had to try his best to stop it from getting his... acquaintances.
The blade flashed and flew toward a tendril, biting into its black flesh. A loud screech resounded in the hallway as two more tendrils wrapped around his arm and leg.
With his sword, he plunged into its twisted black limb and sent it reeling, while slashing up on the one on his arm, cutting it off completely.
He thought he was doing good... he might actually kill it!
The black wave of ooze crashed into his legs, sweeping him off the ground and throwing him into the endless hole behind him.
'Ah'
His life flashed before his eyes. It wasn't much, running away from abominations, learning in school, becoming a leader of a scavenging unit. He thought it wasn't a bad life. As he plummeted towards the bottom of the never-ending hole, he smiled. It felt good. The wind blew past him and tickled his ears, and the sweat that had covered him was now cool.
This was not a bad way to die.
...
But man this sure was taking a long time. He looked around, only to see pitch black. Then, rein veins stretched forward, crawling towards the surface. It was illuminated by red-bioluminescent flowers that covered its surface. Slowly, the abyss of the hole started to become a labyrinth of red vines crimson ichor that flowed through the extending roots, seeing it being pumped through its veins.
"...Woah."
It opened up even further, almost another world under the surface, painted in red. Large waterfalls of blood flowed down from the ceiling, and bloody trees covered the ground. He saw a giant spider in the distance, each of its eyes the size of lakes, its legs as long as a branch of the World Tree, and its maw... it was so big. And that wasn't the scariest thing.
The creature had spotted him.
It started to skitter towards him, luckily, he fell into another opening in the ground, leaving the titan behind.
After another great fall, he had reached an orange biome that also stretched as far as the eye could see... and it felt much more dangerous than the red biome. It's terrain was covered in water like an ocean, islands scattered around the watery biome. A distant sun shone over the great body of water, but before he fell into the next hole, he swore... he saw the sun blink.
Next, a faint yellow glow emanated from the deeper parts of the hole. This, however, was when he had an overwhelming sense to close his eyes. And keep them shut. Whatever he saw, would likely make him go crazy.
And he didn't want the things to be staring back at him.
He passed through multiple biomes in order from red, to orange, to yellow, to green, then cyan. His consciousness went blurry when the blue radiated past his eyelids, and he passed out when a wave of violet washed over him.
After some time, he awoke with a startle and quickly studied his surroundings. It was white. White and hazy, like it was a dream. He wasn't supposed to be there. Like an error in the universe.
He tried to speak, but no words came out. Terror washed over him and he turned around. A massive white knight stared at him. His reflective white armor was almost blinding against the ghastly pale background, and he wielded an auburn pole in his hand. The boy couldn't describe what he was feeling in that moment. He didn't know how he was existing right now, much less conscious and staring at this... deity?
The knight stared at him, and tilted his head. "Ah, I see now." His voice echoed throughout the world, it reverberated through his very bones. How had he not exploded just now?
His gauntlets clanked together as he impaled the boy through the chest with the pole. It didn't hurt, but everything turned black.