Chapter 53

Gale felt a tingly sensation creeping across his skin. Something nipped at his skin in a pulsing pattern. His eyes opened, saw the darkness had covered him like a blanket. He tried shaking it off, but it clung to him, reaching out onto his body.

Despite the eerie sensation the veil gave him, a part of him felt an odd sense of comfort. It was heavy, and the coldness felt more soothing rather than just actual cold. It was like a cooling weighted blanket. Not too heavy. Not too light. Just enough weight to feel like he was being hugged.

He sat up. Blinked. Trying to orient himself in the space that was almost pitch-black. As his eyes adjusted, he realized the familiar hallway. The basement of the stone tower.

The last thing he remembered was falling asleep inside the stone tower. He remembered the darkness seeping in from the corner of his eyes. Didn’t think it was literal though.

Standing up, he turned to the familiar wall. It looked like any other normal weathered stone wall. If he stepped into it, the world would change and show him the staircase that leads upwards.

At least that’s what he thought. Gale tried stepping through it. His head bumped onto the stone wall instead. Something was off.

For a moment, he considered simply just giving up, staying put until the darkness probably swallows him whole. It would be easier than facing whatever laid ahead deeper into the labyrinth. That way, he wouldn’t have to suffer any longer.

He wasn’t any of those heroes he read about in the books. He just wanted to be normal. Eat delicious food. Play games. Go to college. Maybe even find a job after.

So much for building that cabin in the woods with a pool, huh.

However, the thought of the knight stabbing Rachel made his head spin. It was the first time he ever felt the desire for revenge.

Even after all the kids in the orphanage had beaten him up, he didn’t care about any of that. Kids were kids. They were weak. This one with the knight? It was personal.

Gale took a deep breath, then began his stride. His footsteps echoed loudly in the stone hallway. It sounded louder than before. Probably his imagination playing with him now that he was completely alone and had no way out.

Keeping one hand on the wall, he used it to guide himself forward. His legs were still weak, battered, and bruised. Arms also felt like noodles.

As he moved through the hallway, Gale second guessed himself. Maybe this was all just an illusion brought on by the toll of Breath of the Void. But how could it be? It felt too real. There was no one to tell him otherwise. No Dmitry or Anna to save from this… whatever this was.

He looked towards where Dmitry had gone. Walking over to the end of the hallway, he grabbed on to the doorknob.

The hallway was dimly lit, if it could even be called “lit.” Familiar chandeliers lined the ceilings at even intervals. There were new things he noticed that he didn’t before. Painting frames of various sizes. Small ones that looked like standard portraits.

The canvas was blank though.

There were also frames that looked larger than life, covering the whole wall. Again, the canvas was blank. A sharp pain behind his right eye started to ache as he stared at the blanks.

Gale quickly looked away. Better not to make his already fragile mind look at an object that might break it further.

Three distinct paths loomed in front of him just as he remembered it. Left, middle, right.

He stood at the junction. The middle one had enchanted him before.

Left it is then. Dmitry’s path. Go somewhere familiar first, then explore the rest. Maybe even find a weapon.

Walking through the left hallway, the air grew thicker, making it heavier to walk. It was like walking in water, but with air. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, feeling like someone or something was watching his every move.

Breath of the Void expanded his senses. The area became clear as day. But there was nothing. The whole place was empty except for him.

Reaching the end of the corridor, it was the door that had maddened Dmitry. Gale’s hand trembled as he reached for the handle. The whole situation reminded him of the time at the orphanage when a monster appeared in his bedroom before he could open the door.

Gulp.

Opening the door, he entered and immediately saw the darkness in the room was a level heavier than the last, physically. He looked around. Same room he rescued Dmitry from. Definitely. The same circular chamber with a high ceiling and stone walls. But in the darkness, he could barely make out the texture of the walls.

He outstretched his hands onto the wall, balancing himself and moving slowly along the wall. Nothing else was inside. Room empty. An eerie feeling that the room was void of anything. That very feeling of the room having nothing meant that there was something here.

Wait. Gale noticed. For some reason, Breath of the Void should have shown him the room. Rather, it felt like he couldn’t even see in front of him. He was sure that he had activated it earlier.

Again, focusing on releasing the skill, the tendrils met with some resistance. They tried to claw through the inky darkness around the room. Tried to resist the weight of it all pushing back the tendrils into him like being underwater where the pressure pushed against the lungs.

Suddenly, the tendrils moved differently. Instead of outwards, they moved inwards to Gale. It was the same sensation he felt when he let the breath in while fighting the shadow, while fighting the knight. It enveloped his whole being, and instantly the pressure stopped.

Gale opened his eyes. The room looked different, and the lights at the chandelier now actually lit up the room with an ethereal glow. The breath showed him reality.

Objects littered the floor. His eyes collected the states of each item.

A necklace caught his attention. It laid half-buried in dust and rubble. Worn down and tarnished, some of its chains looked like they were about to snap with just a slight pressure.

Crouching down and digging it up from the rubble, upon examination, its appearance was oddly familiar. It had an eye, and that eye bore similarity to the eye amulet that Elliot used to enslave his thralls, Marcus and the shadow.

—the eye moved. Looked at him.

Gale jumped back, dropping the eye amulet. His heart pounded. The fuck was that. Even just a one garbage truck sized beast could bring him down in his condition. Definitely not touching that again.

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Standing up, his gaze fell on a chalice by the corner. It was silver, dulled by age. Deep dark red stains patched its surface. Most likely blood.

A glint of metal drew his attention next. A sword buried in rocks. Gale hurriedly approached it and crouched down. Shoving the large rocks away, the sword revealed itself. Broken in half.

So much for that.

Standing up once again, Gale saw the other materials scattered throughout the rubble. Bones. Dozens, perhaps hundreds of skeletons laid about in the chamber. Some were almost turning to dust. This place could’ve been a mass burial site or at least a battle happened here.

He turned back towards the doorway and walked. There were two other corridors to explore. But as he was moving, a pulse of energy came from the amulet he had dropped.

The scenery changed. Stars littered the ceiling. The world started spinning, stars moving like shooting stars, becoming a blur. It spun and spun and spun until it softly came to a sudden halt.

Gale looked in front of him. The dark knight, yet different. Smaller, rushing at him. Too fast.

SHIT.

He put his hands up, covering himself. However, nothing happened. The knight had simply passed through him.

Looking behind, he saw the castle beyond the horizon, the very same one he saw in the meadows. An army of thousands of knights clashed against an army of twisted monstrosities that looked to be a blend of human, monster, and something entirely inexplainable.

Stars moved forward. Spun again. The world changed with the stars as the blue moon took hold of its locked position that blocked out the sun of this world. Springs, summers, falls, and winters all passed in a flash. And now into the recent times where a mountain of thralls lay in the meadow.

The vision faded, and the darkness in the room pulsed softly as if breathing. An entity looked at him even closer, watching him more closely than ever before.

Gale’s legs shook, protesting to move forward.

He went back to the broken sword he found. Shattered, and little to no use. But it was something he could hold onto. All his spears were used up. Bone sabre completely broken. Better than nothing.

Picking it up, he felt the weight much heavier than he thought for a sword broken in half. After picking it up, the sword’s metal cracked even more and fell down, disintegrating into nothingness.

Nothing was going right. He sighed, shaking his head. No point in staying here then.

Gale traced his steps back to the junction where the three paths stood. Right one was definitely the call here. Centre one just gave him the heebie-jeebies that could probably wait until he was out of options.

Walking towards the right path, more of the frames covered the hallway. In the state where he had let the breath of the void in just a little, he could see outlines, though still illegible. He could let himself dive deeper.

No. He shouldn’t. Curiosity did kill the cat.

Finally, he reached the end of the right path. He entered the door with no hesitation. This room was different. In a bad way. There were more objects littered and scattered about, and not the useful kind.

Some were mundane like broken chairs, collapsed shelves, tattered books, and rusted tools that would probably break after one hit from that giant sword of the knight.

Gale quickly reached over to one of the bookshelves that was still in tact. Reaching up into a book, he flipped the pages. To his expectation, the letters and symbols were all nonsensical to him. Of course. This was an alien world, he chuckled a bit.

He stepped further into the room to examine, taking the book with him for protection or at least some comfort. It was the only thing familiar in this… place.

As he neared the centre of the room, he saw an item that stood on a pedestal alone. It was untouched by the chaos surrounding it. Atop it sat a small box. Its walls etched with symbols similar to the ones in the book.

The air around the box shimmered and distorted like a heat haze. It oddly reminded him of his Phase Touch ability whenever he put it on the whole object. It pulsed with a glow and smoke that overflowed from the box like a waterfall.

Approaching it slowly, his body wanted to run away. Never touch or eat things you don’t know, Gale. They could be poisonous, Gale. Dad always nagged him about it.

His fingers trembled while reaching for the box. Last chance now, Gale. But it could be powerful. Could even level him up, whatever that meant.

The moment his fingers touched the box, his fingers passed through. Nothing happened. His hands quickly tried to swipe at it again. Nothing. It didn’t even feel like he touched anything.

This time, Gale put Phase Touch on his hand. Focusing slowly, allowing the skill to only cover his whole hand. His hand quickly swiped at the box again. However, before his hand reached it, the box disappeared.

“Fine,” he sighed. “Keep your secrets. I don’t care. Really. It’s not like I care, anyway. Stupid box.”

Gale made his way back to the entrance of the chamber. He retraced his steps back to the middle of the corridor, ignoring the illegible outlines on the framed paintings.

Standing at the fork once more, there was only one other way he could go. A shiver ran down his spine when he remembered the whispers that tried to seduce him. He took a step forward, bracing himself for the oncoming onslaught of the whispers.

At least that’s what he thought. There was nothing. No whispers. No female voice. Just his own internal voice that he couldn’t get rid of.

Rachel would probably say, Get back, Gale. Get to safety. It’s better to leave it alone. Safety comes before anything.

Wait, no. That doesn’t sound too much like her. She’d probably just tell him to be careful and she trusts him.

His heart ached at the thought of Rachel saying those soft, warm words. Who knows when would be the next time he saw her? Would she be happy to see him?

He’d want to tell her all about everything that happened to him after they were gone. Maybe she would even laugh at the stupid stories he would share.

Gale closed his eyes, trying not to let tears drop. They’ve been through so much together. All he wanted to do was go back and just talk to them again.

It was him who chose this path. It was him that threw Rachel into the portal. It was him who told Ollie to move the convoy. Everything was his choice. So this time, it was his choice to step forward once more, walking towards the end of the middle corridor.

This specific hallway felt longer, reminding him of the hallway of the orphanage. Rather, the hallway was short, yet it felt long and cramped. He didn’t want to be there. He didn’t want to be here right now.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he reached the door at the end of the corridor. This one was different from the others. Its surface was smooth and bore no etchings. No handle. No keyhole. Nothing to indicate how to open it. And as Gale approached it, it swung open immediately with heavy grating sounds of stone on stone.

Darkness spilled out like ink from the chamber. It was unlike anything he’d ever seen. The darkness was material, but also immaterial.

He cursed inwardly. This was the only other way he could go.

Gale’s eyes strained to make out the details of the pitch-black room. He moved forward only by relying on his passive ability, breath of the void. His foot struck something on the floor.

He looked down and saw the numerous objects littering the floor. Broken furniture, shattered glass, torn books. The same things that were in the second room he entered. None were usable as a weapon.

Then he looked around again, searching further into the chamber. There, he saw a pedestal hovering above the floor. On top of the pedestal lay an orb. It pulsed in a tinge of deep blues and dark greens. Much like the box, it pulsed as smoke flowed out of it like a waterfall of just inky darkness. The orb seemed to devour any source of light and then converted it out as inky darkness.

He went closer to the orb. His body once again told him to run away. The object was not natural. It was going to kill him. Curiosity won. It drew him forward.

Step by step, Gale approached the orb. Energy unlike anything he’d felt before radiated from the sphere. It could have killed him from this distance. But he’s still alive and walking. Maybe even a little too energetic.

Against his very own instincts and every hint that warned him to run away, Gale reached out his hand. His fingers trembled as they approached the orb. Fingertips touched the orb.

The world turned over.

Reality twisted itself, warped itself, expanded on itself around him. It stretched into a vast expanse before compressing again multiple times.

Nausea hit Gale like a garbage truck as he witnessed the events happening beyond his eyes. Breath of the void didn’t make things any better as it took it all in as a tsunami of information.

The world finally stablized. He stood in a throne room, torn banners hung at even paces on the walls. Colours that used to be vivid now faded. Broken floor candle holders lay scattered and broken in half, twisted and bent. A room ravaged by time and conflict.

His eyes swept across the throne room. Floor littered with what looked like thousands of sword marks. Marks of claws dug up at the stone. And surprisingly, bullet holes also appeared everywhere.

The throne drew his attention next. At the centre of it all sat the dark knight right on the throne.

“Child, you are a slow one,” the knight spoke in a low husky voice.

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