Chase slowly took exhausted strides toward the severed head of the Naga, its gruesome eye attempting to roll behind its eyelids.
The topaz dagger sat embedded in the lifeless eye of the beast.
Each step sent vibrations through the unstable ground, the cracks beneath his feet growing wider. The walls around him groaned like dying giants, and Chase had the unsettling sense that the maze wanted to claim him even in its death throes.
He wrapped his fingers around the handle of the dagger and began to pull the blade. He looked away, ignoring the disgusting scene unfolding in front of him as he tore the blade free.
The ancient stone labyrinth seemed to be falling apart before his very eyes.
The maze crumbled, debris raining down from its towering walls.
Chase had a somber expression as he took a step closer to the dead serpent.
Its soulless eyes seemed to stare right into him, as if inviting him to come closer. He gripped his blood-stained dagger and readied himself.
He took slow and cautious strides toward the center of the Naga's head.
"Weird..."
Chase said as he slowly raised his off-hand to meet the forehead of the beast.
As his ragged hand met the warm scales of the Naga, something seemed to trigger inside of his very soul.
A slight burning sensation could be felt on his neck.
He clenched his teeth and began to pour whatever energy he had left into the serpent's severed head.
Chase could not see it, but he could feel something crawling onto the burning skin—slowly taking away the pain, as his energy core trembled from the dangerous use of his energy.
As his fingers brushed against the Naga's scaled forehead, a faint hum echoed in his ears—low, melodic, and hauntingly familiar. It was as if the beast still whispered secrets from beyond death.
The scales beneath his hand felt alive, pulsing faintly, as though some fragment of the Naga's spirit lingered, unwilling to leave. Chase shuddered, his instincts screaming that this was no ordinary kill.
He took his hand off of the Naga and gently brushed it against the spot on his neck. It was hot to the touch, causing him to quickly remove his hand.
For a moment, he was confused and did not have the slightest clue as to what had happened.
But a small mental image came to him, as if guiding him on what to do next.
He began to slowly concentrate the scarce amount of energy into the burning spot on his neck.
Pain began to radiate through his core as he clenched his fist.
However, he was not going to stop, as he had been prepared for the torturous pain of his core wavering with the little amount of energy.
Suddenly, everything went black...
At least he thought.
His heart rate spiked; however, before he could panic from the unexpected blindness, his vision lit up with a bright green hue.
As if he were seeing the world in a new light, he scanned his surroundings. He looked at the dead beast, which had already begun to implode on itself from its lack of energy.
Magical beasts tended to either rot away or, in most cases, their corpses would implode into a small pile of anything that could be collected or salvaged, which was used for trade and valuable forge resources.
There was something different about this beast, though. The strange feeling when he touched it and the connection with his energy core. It was all too strange.
Chase had a feeling he might have a clue as to what had happened.
He slowly set a hand on his face and was met with a dented metal-like material.
It was cold and seemed to fill him with terror from just the touch of it.
He slowly pulled the mask off...
He looked down at the object in his hand slowly.
The mask's face was deformed, a matte black surface shrouded in shifting shadows. Its crown bore twelve gnarled horns, and spikes of unnaturally bright green hair sprouted like a twisted crown. Chase couldn't tear his gaze away from the glowing, empty eye socket, the neon-green flame within flickering as though alive.
It seemed to be made of a mixture of the Naga's scales and a very durable carbonite-like metal.
Dents separated the facial features from each other as if they were all different segments of the mask.
Some sort of ancient tribal mask had been his reward for slaying the Naga; however, it was truly gruesome to look at.
The mask felt heavier than it should, as if burdened with the weight of countless lifetimes. The energy radiating from it was neither welcoming nor hostile—it was simply overwhelming, a force unto itself.
It did not make sense to Chase, however, since the mask seemed so light when it rested over his face.
But the true terror resided on the lowest segment of the mask—a terrible set of twenty or so fangs that were trapped within each other, like a row of impenetrable blades.
He clenched the mask tightly, his mind swirling with questions. What was this thing? A sickening dread coiled in his gut, but he couldn't bring himself to discard it.
He had no way to check, but he was sure that the mask was something that he had read only slightly about.
When he touched the cold surface of the mask, a sharp jolt ran through his fingers, like an icy claw gripping his soul. He nearly dropped it, but curiosity chained his hand in place.
The mask was indeed a Lumen.
Chase was positive of it, even though he never expected to find something like that in The Dark Forest.
'Maybe I'm just lucky.'
As he spoke the words in his head, the walls of the maze began to fully topple.
Loud crashes and the rumbling of the stone labyrinth reverberated through the forest.
Chase told himself to never think such a stupid sentence again as he scanned the now very visible horizon.
Past the flattened ruins of the maze lay a beautiful utopia far in the distance, sitting atop a towering mountain.
Bright ivory buildings lined the far treeline, nearly six hundred meters or so away.
He hid the mask inside his bag and began to slowly stumble toward the city of the sun, promising to study it when he was safely out of The Dark Forest.
His injuries seemed to catch up with him, as his desperate run quickly turned to a limp.
But he refused to give up. He was going to reach his destination. He was going to survive the forest.
Suddenly, in the distance, a small light illuminated the open night sky of the vast clearing in the forest.
Voices could be heard coming from the moving lights at the treeline.
Chase's heart skipped a beat as he realized that people had come to his rescue. Granted, they could be more savages about to quickly end him in his tired state.
The truth was, though, that he did not care.
If there was even the slightest hope of rescue and a return to civilization, he was going to make it there before he passed out from the soreness in his body.
"Hey! Guys, there's a kid back there!"
Chase's eyes sparkled as he neared the first civilization since his fallen village in the south.
The flicker of light in the distance was like a beacon in the darkness, its warmth cutting through the cold grip of exhaustion. For the first time in what felt like ages, Chase felt the stirrings of hope.