We kept walking.
The purple glow followed us through all of the cavern’s twists and turns. And then, abruptly, it changed. A soft blue spread across the walls, washing everything in the same eerie calm as before.
I was willing to bet that we had made it back to safety, bathed in a light that wouldn’t let something like a shadowy hand appear.
Then, breaking the silence, Lyra laughed.
At first, it was just a breath. Then it grew, her head tilted so that she could see me. It was a sharp, shaking sound that didn’t fit on her face. I took a few steps toward her just as she came to a stop, her shoulders still trembling.
"You were actually going to do it," she said.
Her voice was quiet. Almost light. Almost like she wasn’t talking to me at all.
I didn’t answer.
“‘Find peace, Lyra,’ you said. Just like that.”
I just continued staring at her, never once looking away.
She sniffed, then rubbed at her face, smearing blood and dirt into her skin. “I don’t know why I’m surprised.” She gave a weak, trembling smirk. “You never turn back, huh? Not going to let this bitch stop you, right?”
My fingers twitched. My right arm still stung where she had bitten me. In the back of my mind, I was still ready for her to turn rabid again, with that feral look in her eyes.
“I was thinking…” she exhaled sharply, shaking her head. “At some point, you’d stop. That if things got bad enough, you’d say, ‘That’s it. We can’t keep going.’ That at some point, you’d stop dragging me forward. I mean… who could handle seeing a girl get ripped up the way I have been?”
She let out a breathless chuckle.
“But no. It’s never enough. It’s never too much for you. Doesn’t matter if I lose my arm, or my eye, or my whole fucking mind—you’ll just keep walking, and I’ll have to keep up. It’s either that, or you blast my head off with a dead man’s weapon.”
She wasn’t yelling.
She had stopped looking at me.
"Lyra, we are hours into this trek. There’s nothing back the way I came from. You can complain, but it won’t change that fact.
Lyra opened her mouth.
Then closed it.
Something flickered across her face—it could be nothing short of uncertainty.
Finally, she shook her head. "It doesn't matter. I’m just bitching and moaning.”
She turned away and snatched something out of the air. “It’s another note. I bet I know what it says.”
She crumpled it up, threw it over, and I caught it.
“Bet I know what you’re going to do,” she said, resuming her walk.
I opened up the note to read it–
“For the love of all that’s good, TURN BACK, FOOL! THERE IS NOTHING GOOD AHEAD!”
I swallowed my irritation and followed Lyra. “You’re going to thank me when I get us somewhere safe.”
“Doubt it,” she spat back. “We’re dead fools walking. I’ve realized that now.”
We walked in silence.
It wasn’t the kind of silence that felt natural, where two people could just exist alongside each other without speaking. No, this was the kind of silence that suffocated. The kind that made you think someone’s hands would end up around the throat of another.
Lyra hadn’t looked at me once since we’d started moving again. She kept her head forward, shoulders tight, her steps rigid and mechanical. I followed a few paces behind, careful not to get too close.
If something came for her, I would defend her. If she came for me because of some weird thing the Shadow Beasts did to her? Well, I would be the one whose hands wrapped around the other’s neck.
The blue light of the tunnels had returned, but it felt like it was dimming, like the batteries powering the gems were running dry. The deeper we went, the more it started to feel like we were trudging through dark tunnels.
It was interesting, in that sense, that Lyra hadn’t reacted. I could only assume that she was still in shock, or maybe just angry.
Then, the passage opened, and everything changed back into something familiar.
This new cavern stretched out before us, wide and circular, but it wasn’t the size that made my stomach twist. There was no blue glow here.
Only a single, pulsing vein of something energetic stretched across the far wall, like an exposed artery. It branched out like the roots of a tree, but the color—pale red with streaks of bruise-purple—made it look more like something ominous. It pulsed, sluggish and labored, like it was alive.
I stiffened, my jaw clenching. If this were a game, and I had just walked into this space, I would think that this place was an arena.
Lyra stopped beside me. "No," she muttered. "No, I don’t like this."
“I don’t either. We’re not going to move carelessly.”
Then, my eyes fell on the far end of the cavern.
It was there on the other side, set into the stone like an unnatural growth. Round and swollen, its surface was layered, thick, the texture uneven—almost folded. The color was off-white, streaked with deep purple veins, like the cap of some massive mushroom. Those purple veins threading through it pulsed beneath the skin, which only made the thing seem more alive.
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
It didn’t move, but I could already imagine how it would look if it opened.
I slowly nodded, understanding the next step. “We have to go through there, Lyra.”
She didn’t respond with a protest. No, she merely pointed off to the side.
Hanging from the cavern ceiling, nearly lost in the dim glow, was a thin, dark string. It stretched downward, swaying slightly, and at the end of it was another note.
It was suspended in the air, barely shifting, almost like it was waiting for me to read it.
“That’s probably the final note…”
Lyra inhaled sharply and took a step back. "No."
I raised a brow. “Lyra.”
She took another step away. "No, I’m not touching that. We shouldn’t be touching that."
I looked at her.
“Don’t give me that look. This chamber is weird! Set, let’s turn back. Let’s find another way, through a safer passage. Please.”
I broke eye contact. “Lyra, you already know what I’m going to say…”
Her gulp was audible.
“I’m going to read the note at least. Rest assured, I’m not thinking of proceeding without a care in the world.”
She shook her head and sighed. “Fine, Set. Fine. Go ahead.”
I stepped forward, my fingers twitching at my side. The cavern and its irritating pulse were oppressive; like the moment I made a move, the walls would close in.
I lifted my hand and snatched the note. Immediately, I noticed that it was warmer than the others. It felt like the temperature I’d expect a human hand to be at.
Curious, I unfolded it–
“You had your chance. You will go no further.”
The air crackled.
A spark of black lightning—thick as a finger, jagged as broken bone—lanced from the paper. It struck Lyra square in the chest.
She convulsed. A horrible, choked gasp tore from her throat as her body arched violently. Her good eye bulged wide in shock, her arms snapping stiff at her sides as the crackling black energy sank into her chest.
I shuddered, overwhelmed by hopelessness. Once more, that poor woman had been hit by something I didn’t understand. Was she born beneath some foul star?
I lunged for her–to catch her–but I froze just after my first step.
Lyra’s heels rose. Her jaw unhinged with a wet pop, stretching wider, wider—far beyond human limits. Her lips split at the corners, blood threading down her chin.
A low, breathy laugh disfigured her throat. It bubbled up from deep within her, and intensified within my mind.
Her head jerked backward, her throat bulging unnaturally as if a serpent was making its way up her esophagus.
And then, black, skeletal fingers poked out of her mouth, wriggling as they savored the stale air. They gripped the flesh around her mouth–her cheeks and chin–and tore whatever they could as squelching sounds began to escape her rumbling body.
“We shhhould have… turned bhhhack—”
Traces of Lyra’s voice were in there, but that wasn’t her.
The hands became annoyed. Palms against teeth, they wrenched her mouth even wider and pulled themselves up.
Her skin split down the middle, running from base of her neck, down to her torso, with even her outfit splitting as if it was one with the body. The tear gave the body room. The hands slowly peeled the Lyra’s head down, as if she was fabric and not human.
A black dome emerged from the mouth, as the hands kept pulling down the skin bag. Slowly, more of the black skeleton was revealed, its wiggling form more fluid and jelly-like than one could think imaginable.
At the end, Lyra’s “skin” fell around its feet like a sack that the creature could step out of. It did, this thing with a bulbous black skull and jagged teeth. Shadowy wisps then surrounded it, dressing its skeletal form in black, jagged, tight armor.
The whole transformation lasted a dozen seconds.
I wasn’t sure what to think. Some part of me was still trying to make sense of this.
Did she get cursed? Was she transformed into a Shadow Beast? Was she still there?
“Lyra?”
It replied with a breathy groan.
Alright then. That was enough. I called the God Arm into my grip and fired a bolt at this–what had to be a Shadow Beast.
“Sorry, Lyra,” I said, as the Shadow Beast took the hit and screeched.
I tried to grip my head, but couldn’t. The screech was intensifying. It was worse than the leeches. I couldn’t move. I was paralyzed–it was goddamn paralysis.
My eyes still functioned. I saw the serrated blade in its grip. It twirled the blade for a second, and in the next, it approached me with a step. It was clear. As its body kept emitting that screech, it would come and kill me.
I braced for impact. It was going to hurt, but I had my HP!
Then there was a shadow. It came running from the passage. The Shadow Beast realized it too late. It picked up the pace, but the shadow got to me first.
“Set!”
If I could speak, I would have called her name–I would have called the name of the woman who pushed me out of the way. I would have called—
“LYRA!” I yelled a moment after crashing onto the ground.
The Shadow Beast’s blade penetrated Lyra from behind, leaving the woman to gasp and shudder, with a black blade sticking out of her chest.
Her eyes met mine. “Set–I’m scared.”
The screeching had stopped. I could move. I got up and held Lyra with one hand, and placed the other hand on the chest of the beast behind her.
A water glaive flew and pinned the Shadow Beast to a wall, its serrated blade destabilizing as soon as it released its grip.
“Lyra,” I yelled, guiding her down onto my lap. “Hey, Lyra–Lyra, can you hear me?”
A chuckle escaped her and she opened her eyes. “You didn’t… You didn’t notice that they took me?”
My eyes searched her for answers. “What? They took you—when?”
Brain cells rubbed together. The Lyra that transformed was a fake–that’s what this meant?
“Lyra, I’m sorry–”
“Set, I didn’t–I neglected to tell you something.”
By the wall, my glaive dissipated leaving the Shadow Beast to crumple against the wall.
“Lyra, hey, hold on, I’ll get you out of here–wait, do you have any crystals?” I asked, already searching an empty pouch.
“I didn’t want to tell you… because I didn’t want to be that sort of person…”
“Lyra–hey, Lyra, stay strong, don’t close your eyes!
“One of the visitors–the Liazuls–he just started saying something weird the other day… He said, he had to extinguish the Shadow Flame…”
My eyes widened.
“I don’t,” Lyra rasped. “I don’t understand why this… happened.”
One final exhale left Lyra’s lips. I shook her.
“Lyra! Hey! Lyra!”
The Shadow Beast was standing up.
“Lyra!”I yelled, shaking her again. “Lyra, wake up!”
The Shadow Beast wielded its sword once more.
“Damn it!”
I summoned the God Arm and fired. The bolt flew, and the creature took the hit but it unleashed a prolonged screech right after.
Once more, I was paralyzed. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t turn away. I couldn’t even close my eyes.
It approached me faster than before, practically dashing up to me like we were stuck in a turn-based system.
I couldn’t make a sound. I could barely breathe.
It swung its sword at my head. On any other person, the attack would have popped off their head. Me? The blow rattled my brain. Blood flooded my vision, obscuring all but my HP.
The screech ended with the attack’s completion.
“It’s not zero!” I roared, pointing my finger at the Shadow Beast. “Banish!”
Should Set have turned back?
