'...You're kidding.'
Michael wandered the empty streets and cramped alleys with utmost vigilance, as usual, and after probably an hour of that, he finally made his way towards the smooth, cobblestone platforms. He looked up at the towering gates of blackened iron and steel with a contemplative and furious scowl.
He couldn't open the gates.
The enormous gateway had no handles for him to grip, and even when he tiredly strained his body to push it open, it wouldn't budge at all.
'Did the damned ancient people lock it?'
Michael doubted it, as there was no locking mechanism or a keyhole in sight. He walked around and inspected the various materials scattered about, mostly chiseled stone and dark wood, but nothing alluded to how to open it.
'Is this just a dead end?'
He really hoped not, he didn't want to roam the streets and explore the cave anymore than he had to. But, just as he was reluctantly succumbing to more boring wandering, he remembered something... something so obvious in hindsight.
'Spell... how could I forget?'
Michael could just use his blood sense to look for any secret, perhaps the key to unlock it was hidden in plain sight.
He calmly walked toward the gate and unsummoned one of his stained gauntlets, slicing his palm's pale skin with a serrated dagger carved from bone. His hand pressed against the cold steel as his fingers glossed over the intricate engravings, his blood spreading and painting the gateway like a canvas.
Crimson gradually enveloped the steel like veins, though they barely reached the top or the sides. The sheer size of the gate was simply beyond his current capabilities. Following a couple seconds of intense concentration broken by pulsing pain and droughts of focus, Michael lightly frowned.
'There's nothing, there's nothing at all. It's just steel and more steel... damn it all-'
His thoughts were interrupted when suddenly, the doors budged ever so slightly. Michael backed away in caution until he discerned there was finally a gap in the middle.
'Did i unlock it? How?'
Michael placed both hands on the gateway and pushed, his feet slipping amongst the cobblestone. He violently coughed and sneezed from the ancient dust that was kicked up, straining his legs and lungs to force the gate open.
After several seconds, he gave up and discerned the gap was plenty wide enough for him to fit through. Beyond the aperture was complete, utter darkness with a bitter breeze blowing the dust away. There were no familiar sources of ethereal light.
Michael remained passive, the chilling gust had no effect on him and he knew darkness was nothing more than an inconvenience instead of certain death thanks to his blood sense. He had confidence in his mantle, but judging by previous encounters, it wouldn't be wise to completely rely on it. It was an excellent armor, but because it was tied to his dormant soul, the armor wouldn't prove too effective.
'...C'mon, lets go.'
Michael commanded his blood to scout the entryway, and after he detected no movement or anything anomalous, he squeezed through the breach and embraced the profound darkness, leaving the pale radiance and cursing the cave to be empty forevermore.
=====
The treacherous shadows were all-consuming, enveloping the surroundings in its entirety. Michael had been walking for a couple minutes, and the soothing embrace of darkness was messing with his head. He was just so tired.
The tunnel itself was quite large and tall, big enough that Michael couldn't even sense the walls or ceiling. The main pathway was also cramped with large stockpiles of materials, like towering piles of wood or chunky onyx stone. Countless pillars stretched on either side and curved into the darkness above like ribs.
His steps produced a metallic sound, resonating through the lifeless abyss.
'Fuck it's creepy in here...'
As if answering his flag, his blood sense located movement in front of him, a collection of shapes stacked on top of each other standing motionlessly... a humanoid figure.
'A statue in the middle of the walkway? Or...'
Michael was instantly alerted when he noticed several more similar shapes gradually appear, standing in his way like a wall. It was only when he took a single step closer, the shapes started to move.
'Abominations!'
He backed up as the humanoid figures approached him with slow, wobbling steps, that was until he sensed movement all around him, slowly closing in. Michael turned and ran towards a huge, crude block of stone and climbed up. Mere seconds later, a dozen humanoid creatures emerged from the darkness. Their loose skin was decomposed and rotted with fungi infesting their empty rib cages. Liquid oozed from their pores as their visible bones cracked from their joints bending, simply stopping before the rock as if they couldn't climb it. Some stared with eyes that housed no warmth, some with nothing but hollow skulls, while others lacked half of their face, their head cracked or horribly sliced in two.
The sight was sickening, and Michael could hear them speaking, or more like incoherently sobbing.
They looked no better than corpses, ones that have rotted for thousands of years. Michael was astounded and disgusted that they were somehow moving, even though half of their body was missing muscles. Was this magic?
None of it mattered as he discovered even more approaching in the distance.
'seven, fourteen, twenty... fuck there's so many...'
Michael panicked at the sight of people yearning for him with perverted fervor no different from mindless creatures. Seeing the familiar lifeless, hazy eyes and decomposing skin made him grimace, and he winced at the pungent, foul stench penetrating his nostrils.
"That's probably what I look like now, you know?"
He flinched at his mother's words and ran across the stone slab, jumping and landing on the pathway. Judging from his blood sense, there were far too many behind him, so his only option was to keep pushing forward and make it to the end.
Michael ran and ran as the monsters chased after him, somehow matching his speed with their frail legs, some of them simply moving on bones. He was good at running, but his exhausted mind still plagued his tired muscles and sore bones.
It didn't take long for them to close the gap.
An abomination lunged at him from the right with insatiable thirst, swinging with a mutilated arm at such a speed that Michael could barely react. He haphazardly caught it with his gauntlet, the steel groaning under the pressure, and he swung at the man's neck. Somehow, the seemingly defenseless creature resisted, forcing Michael to put more effort and strength into it. With that, the abomination's neck was cleanly sliced, its head falling to the ground and cracking open.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast: Rotted Corpse]
'Awakened!?'
But there were dozens, possibly more surrounding him! How could they all be Awakened!?
Michael was already sprinting as fast as he could, he knew that if - no, when - more converged on him, he wouldn't be able to keep this up. Maintaining such a speed for however long this tunnel goes on for would've been tough, but defending himself from Awakened Beasts that can maintain and maybe transcend his speed without bothering about their stamina?
'I'm really gonna die, aren't I?'
"Maybe."
He ignored the phantom's words and focused on using blood sense. His only way to survive this would be by funneling his blood through their grotesque bodies and stunning them. Even then, many will still get past his defenses, simply because he was commanding so much blood at once at such an intricate level with his fatigued mind strained with exhaustion and pain.
Michael stunned several abominations crowded in his path and rammed through them, but more simply emerged from the sides or from behind.
Another abomination, a rather agile one, jumped on Michael's back and wrapped itself around him. The beast crawled at Michael's body and helmet with sharpened body fingers, viciously trying to tear him apart with avaricious hunger. Michael was greatly slowed down by the added weight and he could hear his armor screech as the steel slowly stripped away strand by strand from the claws.
Michael reached behind and grabbed the creature's skinless skull, crushing it beneath his own sharpened claws. The lifeless body relinquished its clutches and toppled to the ground, only to be trampled and turned into a pile of filth, forever cursed to be lost in the dark.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast: Rotted Corpse]
He swerved and dodged a lunge from the front, summoning and holding the dagger at just the right angle to completely slice the flying abomination in half, bathing those behind in him in vile flesh and ooze.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast: Rotted Corpse]
A beast cloaked in darkness before him swung with a large, blunt tool. Michael couldn't react in time and ran headfirst into it, landing on his back in a daze. He quickly regained clarity after witnessing the same weapon falling from the heavens, hastily rolling out of the way. He saw the ground crack under the impact as he stumbled onto his feet and continued running.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast: Rotted Corpse]
[You have slain an Awakened Beast: Rotted Corpse]
[You have slain an Awakened Beast: Rotted Corpse]
Michael had no idea how long he ran for. His head was so light and his scorched lungs burned with every breath. Creatures swung at him and stabbed him, some bouncing off while others impaled the armor, lodged in him like a memento. He killed dozens of them, but he never even left a dent in their numbers. For every one that was killed, seven would take their place.
He stumbled and fell several times, only to be punished for his mistakes with more suffering.
The agony was unbearable.
They stabbed him with their weapons, sliced him with their claws and minced him with their teethless maws. He had been running for so long.
'When will it end?'
His mother gently whispered into his ear.
"Whenever you want."
Michael couldn't respond even if he wanted to, he lost the ability to speak long ago. He couldn't scream, either. He needed the oxygen.
His legs felt numb and shoulders tired from swinging his arms. His back ached and chest swelled with countless scratches and punctures.
'Giving up would be so easy.'
All this pain would end if he just stopped running. Why should he care for a dream that required so much suffering and torment?
Was his dream really worth it? Getting his body mutilated and mind broken? Was this the price for happiness?
'No... I can't die... to these abominations...'
Michael's spite couldn't allow it. He didn't want to succumb to the Spell's sick humor.
'But... what if I... don't die to them?'
There was a much simpler solution to his problem, he held the key in his hand all along. He wasn't some hero or pillar of society that could push forward despite everything, purely because of a dream or selfless love. There was no such thing as someone like that. They're all dead.
There was nothing but hell waiting for Michael. Even if he escaped, he would only find himself in another one. His curse would only destroy everything... no, he would only destroy everything.
Why was he running again?
What was he doing again?
'I... forgot...'
What else has he forgot?
'My... my wife...'
Was finding his wife worth all of this? Was reuniting his family worth it?
'Y-yes...'
Why?
'I forgot...'
Why doesn't he just kill himself?
'I'm scared...'
Of what?
'Of... being alone...'
Then why does he keep running?
'I... don't want to be... alone.'
'I want to... overcome my curse.'
'I want to defy... the gods.'
'I want to be loved.'
Michael tripped and rolled forward, crashing into steel with a loud thud. He wobbled onto his feet and leaned his palm wet with blood on the wall, his fingers grazing over familiar engravings.
"It's funny how every time you experience a little hardship, you start questioning yourself over and over with the same questions. Just be quiet and man up."
With what little strength he had left, detecting that the abominations were close behind, he commanded his blood to crawl across the steel... but it wasn't quick enough.
A large bulky creature rammed into him, pinning him against the wall and locking Michael's arm between himself. The beast bit into his free shoulder, rendering Michael completely unable to defend himself. Blood splattered against the depictions of art as more and more fiends latched onto him and feasted, crushing him like a tidal wave.
He wanted to open his mouth to scream, he wanted to close his eyes to sleep, he wanted to shut himself off so everything could be quiet. The world seemed so dark.
And then Michael felt the wall behind him slowly open as the abominations advanced with uncontrollable hunger. His bloody face contorted into a wide smile.
'I... win.'
Michael bit into the colossal man's neck and consumed its blood as he fell back onto the ground. He gulped the rotten flesh and gooey liquid until a mocking voice resonated in his ears.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast: Rotted Corpse]
[Your blood grows thicker.]
He pushed the bulwark carcass off of him and stumbled onto his feet, blinded by the pain and adrenaline. Michael's footsteps echoed across cobblestone as he stepped back.
Before him was possibly hundreds of corpses staring at him with empty eyes, hiding their figures in the treacherous shadows. Michael kept backing up in caution until he looked at his gauntlet reflecting a pale, ethereal light.
'The light... they're afraid of the light.'
Michael stood in the radiance panting and groaning as they stood in the tunnel's darkness, motionless and silently weeping. They weren't going to be a problem anymore.
He let out a pained, relieved sigh and turned around.