After nearly an hour of prying open chests, digging through rubble, and mapping this godforsaken chamber in my mind, I finally found it.
A sealed box.
It wasn't ordinary—of course it wasn't.
It pulsed faintly beneath the dust, as if it breathed.
A quiet, shallow kind of breath. Like something sleeping. Or waiting.
My fingers hovered near it. Not from hesitation, but memory.
It resembled the box I had found during my first encounter with that being. But that one was ordinary—until it wasn't. Until it screamed, split open, and reshaped the course of my soul.
Would this box too transform beneath a hidden condition?
Or worse—would it awaken something?
Was this another prison? And if so... was the being I met truly trapped, or merely pretending to be?
And if it really had been confined, then who—what—had the power to imprison such a thing?
I wanted to believe I was a seeker of truth. But the truth is this:
When you chase the unknown, you're not exploring the stars. You're offering your hand to the abyss.
And the abyss, it seems, remembers your touch.
I had so many questions. I had no answers. So, like a fool starving at a sealed gate, I thought of asking Him.
But that led me to another thought—one far closer, far colder.
Today is Sunday. I have to go… there. Again.
The realization crept up on me like a shadow I forgot I cast.
My blood chilled.
I was terrified.
Yet—hope. That dangerous ember.
It flickered inside me.
I thought I was ready.
But that's the cruelest part of reality—it lets you believe you've understood it. It hands you a puzzle piece and smiles, while hiding the truth that you're playing someone else's game.
It gives you a taste of victory… only to remind you you're chewing broken glass.
I paced near the twin chambers—left and right. Between them stood the middle path. A narrow passage swathed in silent menace.
I wanted to leave. I truly did. But fear has a gravity of its own.
The unknown wasn't a door. It was a wall of teeth.
And I had no armor left.
I mustered my courage. It wasn't much. I crept toward the middle path, but as always—I stopped short.
Pathetic? Maybe.
But I am human. And even the sharpest minds tremble when faced with the one thing they cannot calculate—the will of the unknown.
I barely managed to search this room. Even now, my heart thundered in my chest. A wild animal caged behind ribs.
I was stuck. Exhausted. On edge.
Maybe I'd ask the great existence for help. But ever since I did that, Kuro had died. And I had vanished.
It was nearly dawn now. The sun would rise soon. And when it did…
They'd realize I was gone.
They'd see Kuro missing.
They'd assume I vanished after the stunt I pulled.
But if I returned—how could I explain Kuro was the traitor?
How could I prove I wasn't?
My mind collided with itself, over and over.
I was drowning in futures that hadn't even arrived.
I just wanted to rest.
I laid myself beside a stone pillar, eyes half-lidded with exhaustion.
Then—barking.
My vision snapped into focus.
Wolves.
Their eyes glinted in the gloom—dozens of them, waking from stillness, forming a circle around me.
I ignored them.
They didn't ignore me.
Strange. They shouldn't be capable of harming me. The aura that once repelled them—was it gone?
No… that didn't make sense.
Then I saw their bodies more clearly. Unmutated.
Not corrupted creatures, but real wolves.
Flesh. Fang. Fury.
And I… was their prey.
I pulled my dagger instantly.
Some of them retreated.
Some didn't.
I had no choice. I killed one. Then another. Their howls sharpened, not in pain—but in call.
More came. And more.
They poured in like floodwaters through a broken gate.
I was outnumbered.
Tired.
Wounded in spirit.
I ran.
Where? The side chambers were swarmed.
Only one option left—the middle path.
Of course. The one place that being had always described in half-truths.
Why?
Was it bait?
Was it a test?
Every piece of knowledge that comes from a god is a blade missing half its handle. You either grip it wrong—or bleed trying to hold it right.
I didn't want to go.
But fear became a luxury I could no longer afford.
When death knocks, you don't grab your coat—you throw yourself out the window.
I dashed toward the middle path, still striking at the wolves that snapped from behind.
I stumbled.
Fell.
Clawed up again.
The wolves circled tighter—fangs bared, eyes wild.
I slashed, retreated, staggered. There was nowhere left to run.
Left. Right. All blocked.Was this it?
Is this where I die?
All my plans… my questions… the future I had tried to tame…
All of it meant nothing.
Because death doesn't ask questions.
It just arrives.
"So this is how it ends."
"Not with a choice, but with a corner."
Then—
Silence.
The wolves paused.
Their breath hitched.
And then… they knelt.
All of them. Bowed low to the ground. Ears flattened. Eyes wide.
But not at me.
At something behind me.
I felt it before I saw it.
No. I didn't see it at all.
I felt absence—not presence.
Like a candle snuffed out in a void.
Like the space behind your back stretching just a little too far.
My blood froze. The back of my neck screamed.
And that's when I knew:
"The unknown doesn't kill you. It kneels beside you... and waits."
I turned.
Or I think I did.
I'm not sure. Everything felt heavy. Thick.
There was nothing.
But then came the sound.
A wet sob. A gurgled laugh. A whisper echoing from inside my own bones.
Then—
A shape.
I blinked, and it was there.
Not in the way you see a person.
But in the way you know you're being watched in a nightmare you can't remember.
I think it had faces.
One… black, maybe?
No—more like absence. A hole where a face should've been.
Another… so smooth and stretched I thought it was skin without time.
Was there a mouth?
Maybe there were too many mouths.
I saw one smile sideways.
Another opened and screamed without sound.
The fourth—no, that wasn't a face.
That was a child's mask.
Or a corpse's grin.
Or something pretending to be both.
Thorns pierced through the edges.
Or were they roots? Horns? I don't know. I don't want to know.
My vision trembled.
My legs gave out.
I could hear the wolves whimpering.
And then—
It spoke.
Not with words.
Not with voice.
But in truth.
Like my soul had just remembered something it had been trying to forget since before I was born.
"You call, you crawl… and still you ask why I answer."
I think I screamed.
Or maybe I just stopped breathing.
Then darkness took me.