CHAPTER 55: IT WAS...

"Hah... Hah..."

My breath came out in short, ragged gasps.

’Just look away, bastard! There’s nothing here... nothing here.’ I repeated in my mind until it was the only tether holding me to reality.

Clenching my trembling hands together, I bit on my lower lips, trying to suppress the dread rising within me.

However, nothing I did worked. If anything, the deafening echoes of my heartbeat only continued to intensify.

***

Chills-

I felt cold chills slithering down my spine. And to make matters worse, each second in the tense state felt like an eternity. Every single moment sent my heart racing against my chest.

Thump, Thump–!

I could feel it.

The nightmarish aberration’s gaze was locked onto the rock I hid behind. Crouching into such a natural feature sent a searing pain through my body, however, it wasn’t as if I was left with any other choice.

Stuck in such a precarious situation, I could do nothing but stay in this curled-up position until...

Ba- thump, Ba- thump–!

...Before long, I could feel the suffocating presence slowly receding into the vast horizon. But even after then, I dared not move.

The stifling quiet was broken by the thundering sounds emanating from me. As sweat drops trickled down the side of my forehead, I stayed in the curled position and... waited.

Eventually, after a few tense minute, I was finally able to free myself of fear and dread, along with the vivid hallucinations they brought with them.

Wiping the sweat beads on my forehead with trembling hands, I let out a deep exhalation.

"Hah..."

***

Crouching a little, I shifted my gaze towards the towering necropolis structure, its crimson spire grasping for the heavens, its crystal surface glistening like a source of bad omen in the endless darkness.

Although I couldn’t see the nightmarish scavenger, I could see the shadow it cast onto the surrounding space. If only barely.

"It still isn’t enough to vividly see it," I mused under my breath, a frown creeping up on my features.

My gaze shifted to the towering hill that laid in the distance. Right about then, my gaze shifted back and forth, from the towering hill to the bleeding necropolis.

"...."

I slowly pulled my gaze away. Exhaling sharply, I muttered under my breath, "Do I really have to do this?

I stared at the towering hill which the suffocating shadow of the nightmarish scavenger spread to and gritted my teeth.

Inhaling and exhaling, I turned back and saw the vast chasm I had already left behind.

It was then that realization, cold and brutal, sank in.

’I had already come too far to turn back.’

Clenching my hands to stop the sonorous tremors running through them, I exhaled and... dashed into the endless darkness, rapidly approaching the towering dark hill.

Surrounded by towering hills, crumbled structures, and abysmal terrains, I was able to make a quick run for it.

...Of course, it was nothing short of grueling, and... was every little bit tense.

At some point in time—they would be a vast chasm of land—one where there would be no natural terrain to run behind. Hence in those moments, I was forced to run like my life depended on it.

Tak, Tak–!

...Because it did.

Tak, Tak–!

I pushed myself beyond my limit.

Step—!

Each step felt heavier than the last.

Yet, I pushed on.

...I was almost there. I could see it now.

The hill.

Step, Step–!

Rapidly moving past numerous natural terrains, I soon made it to the base of the hill. I slid across the ground at the last moment, to avoid any unforeseen accident— such as being seen by the nightmarish scavenger.

"Huff... Huff..."

Panting heavily, I pressed my back against the hill’s surface.

I breathed in and out, trying to ebb away the flowing tide of adrenaline still coursing through me. Eventually, I succeeded in doing so. But the same couldn’t be said for the fear and dread tightening around my chest like an iron vice.

If anything, the latter only worsened.

With heavy difficulty in breathing, and pain that rippled through every fiber of my being, I started my arduous ascent up the hill.

I had no idea how long I had been walking for. It could have been minutes, hours, or even days. Yet I kept going.

Tak, Tak–!

My vision wavered and my body trembled, my weak body finally catching up to me.

However, I never stopped. Not even for a second.

Of course, on the bright side of things, I didn’t have to be scared of the nightmarish scavenger on the other side of the hill. But nevertheless, this wasn’t known as the nightmarish shattered dimension for nothing.

A grim expression crept up on my features. ’Abysmal creatures roam the very expanse of this landscape.’

Each terrain, each region, each piece of land was fraught with unimaginable horrors. And worse, even the natural terrains themselves could serve as a source of danger.

The dark mist was one such example. And perhaps there were even more that I had no knowledge of.

"Hah..." I exhaled.

I needn’t be told to know for a fact that no ignorant being would last long in this wretched and cursed land.

’...At least long enough to return back to their world.’

My thoughts dissolved into the rhythmic pounding of my feet. Before I knew it, amidst the pain to the agony that rippled through every fiber of my being, I finally made it to the top of the hill.

The sudden sight of the nightmarish scavenger sent a jolt of fear through me.

The unsteady rhythm of my heartbeat echoed through the stifling quiet. Almost immediately, I sprawled myself across the ground.

My hands and my body trembled continuously at the thought of being sighted, but I clutched at the ground beneath me, trying to suppress the panic swiftly rising within me.

Of course, like any other day, it didn’t work. But I wasn’t disheartened, I was already used to it.

Emotions.

As ironic as it sounded, was one of the few things holding me together.

Biting onto my lower lips until I tasted blood, I forced down the dread and fear rising within me.

’Down you go bastards!’ I pushed them into the deepest parts of my mind.

Into a place where they would haunt and gnaw at me no more.

...At least, until I was done here. With my familiarity and attunement with emotions, that I was somehow sure I could achieve.

Exhaling sharply, I gazed ahead, squinting my eyes to catch a glimpse of its grotesque body.

I slowly monitored its strange movements. First, it moved into a small house of sorts just within the necropolis.

Considering the fact that the nightmarish scavenger couldn’t possibly build one. At least not one this... grand and aesthetically pleasant.

I could only come to one certain conclusion.

The house was at some point in time built by humans. Perhaps those that lived here before their home turned into the nightmarish horror it now was.

The thought filled me with a strange emotion.

***

The nightmarish scavenger slowly walked towards a towering statue.

A scowl crept up on my features. ’There was something about the statue that just didn’t sit well with me.’

Tak, Tak–!

Arriving before it, the nightmarish aberration knelt before the statue.

"Huh." My brows arched upward at the sight.

However, even more bizarre was the fact that the nightmarish scavenger dropped the transcendent soul shard at the base of the towering statue.

And for a second there, I thought I saw tendril roots snaking their way through the land beneath. But the illusion disappeared just as it came.

"Weird." A deep frown marred my features.

I had been having this same sense of weird deja Vu of sorts ever since I sighted the necropolis. And it was only getting worse.

Nevertheless, I shoved it down. Now was not the right time to dwell on it.

Ba- thump, Ba- thump–!

Right about then, I took a second to glance at my surroundings.

’Who was to say some sneaky nightmarish creatures won’t sneak up on me?’

I mean, this was the wretched and cursed land. What couldn’t possibly happen?

The thought of being sneaked upon sent a lance of fear through me, but I simply gritted my teeth. Suppressing the fear swiftly rising within me, I shifted my gaze back to the nightmarish scavenger.

And...

I frowned.

It was doing something even more bizarre.

My frown deepened. ’It was...