Chương 706: The Soul Grew Darker

The water swallowed Luke whole. The current dragged him down into the abyss, spinning him through the dark until he couldn't tell up from down. He drove one kukri into the inner wall of the passage, but the blade only scraped across the surface before sliding free. A sharp turn hit right after, dry and brutal, slamming him into stone, or flesh, or whatever the hell lined that nightmare, before the current dragged him deeper. Every second dragged him deeper. T hen the fall ended.

Luke plunged into something like a lake. Water burst around him, cold and heavy and black. On instinct, he swam toward the shallows as the water around him began draining through unseen cracks. When he finally dragged himself out, coughing, he lay on his side for a few seconds.

"I'm still fucking alive!" The relief died fast. Luke lifted his head and understood where he was. It wasn't a cave. It wasn't some flooded ruin. He was inside the leviathan.

"Athena, Icarus, Helen... I'm sorry, guys..." Luke frowned as he forced himself up.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Oh, Luke," Artemis said.

"Those were my last words." He sat on the slick floor, taking the shallowest breaths he could. The place reeked, but the stink wasn't even the worst part. Something hung in the air, if it could even be called air. Something toxic, heavy, wrong. It didn't feel like there was any real oxygen in there. Holding his breath was the smarter call.

"We're not dead yet," he muttered. All around him, chunks of wood floated or sat trapped in wet piles. Shipwrecks. Probably the same ones that had fallen into the Abyssal Zone.

"I'm way too small for that thing to swallow on purpose. Was it that damned whale?" Just thinking about it sent a cold anger rising through Luke's chest. If that bastard was in here, Luke would kill it. Get out. I have to get out. He looked up. The hole he had fallen through had already sealed completely. Without hesitation, he drove his kukris into the wall and tried to tear it open.

"What are you doing?" Artemis asked.

"I'm opening a hole."

"You really think you can rip through the skin of a creature that's at least Rank B?"

"I'm going to try while I still can. I can't die here."

"Where's the robot?"

"Lost him in the fall. And worrying about Cadmus is the last thing I can afford right now." His mana was almost empty. He had burned through it minutes ago, and recovery was far too slow for this situation. Could the [Teleportation Pentagram] get me out? The answer came almost as quickly as the thought. He had to cast the pentagram on a solid surface, the ground. It wouldn't work on something alive, even if that something was a giant creature.

And as the leviathan kept sinking, Luke was sure that even if the spell activated, he would be way too far from the other pentagram in the city. Worse, he would still have to wait for his mana to come back.

"There has to be a way out," he said, tightening his grip on the kukri handles.

"There has to be. It's alive, right?"

"Like its ass?"

"Anywhere fucking counts." There was no sign of stomach acid yet, so that was something. Still, Luke had no idea if normal biology applied to a creature like this. Not here. I can't die here. He moved forward with the kukris in his hands. The path was an uneven corridor of dark flesh, broken stone, seaweed, and gray heaps of whatever those things had been before the leviathan swallowed them. Wreckage mixed with organic matter in a disgusting mass. That was when Luke decided to look at the system notification.

The one for reaching a thousand soul fragments was still pending. Every minute, it reopened, demanding his attention. Not expecting much, he accepted it. [All Soul Fragments have been successfully collected!] [The Darkness of your Soul grows stronger!] [Your Demonic side grows stronger!] [Awakening your Tree of Knowledge!] A new screen appeared in front of him. Luke stared at the message for a moment, then let out a bitter laugh.

"For one second, I thought it might be something that could save me. But no. Of course not." In here, it was useless. Another alert appeared. [Your Bloodline has grown stronger!] [A new Servant Slot has been unlocked.]"I'm basically dead. What the hell am I supposed to do with another servant?" He opened his system inventory and pulled out the pirate compass. The needle trembled in the heavy air. Luke started running, weaving around bodies fused into fleshy piles.

Standing still in that place sounded like a great way to become part of the decor. If I don't get out of here, I'm next.

"What are you doing?" Artemis asked.

"Before I released Cadmus, I set the compass to track him." The corridor ended in a wide opening. Ahead was a huge lake of dark green water. Luke didn't know if it was the monster's stomach, but it sure acted like one. The surface bubbled slowly, releasing a thin, corrosive vapor. A few rocks jutted out of the liquid, forming an unstable path to the other side. He leapt to the first. Then the second. Then a roar echoed through the place.

"A Sea Guardian," Artemis said. The creature rose from the water, its face warped and half-melted, and charged anyway. Luke kept jumping from rock to rock, feeling acidic heat climb up his legs. When the monster got close, he spun one kukri and cut off one of its legs. The Guardian screamed. Luke used its body as a foothold, skidding over slick flesh to build momentum and reach the opposite bank. When he landed, he twisted his torso and threw another strike.

The kukri hit the creature's face, opening a cut deep enough to drive it back into the lake. Luke activated the kukris' magnetism, pulled the weapon back, and kept moving through the tunnel. For a while, there was only the maze. Flesh corridors. Stone passages. Pools of black water. At intervals, huge volumes of water poured from somewhere above, and Luke had to drive his kukris into the walls to keep from being swept away. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author.

Report any sightings. After a long silence, he said, "I can't die, Artemis."

"I hope you don't, Luke. Whatever happens, I'm here until the end." Every step deeper into that place made the sentence feel more real. The monster was still sinking into the ocean. Luke could feel it in his ears, in the pressure against his body, in the darkness that seemed to thicken around him.

"How old are you?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Your age. How long you've been alive." Luke drew a deep breath.

"I'm just some random mortal to you. We've been friends for almost two years. But you're over a billion years old, right?"

"Easily..."

"Have there been a lot of Lukes?"

"That depends on what you mean by the question."

"Mortals you actually called friends." Artemis went silent for a moment.

"It's rare for a god to call someone a friend. We don't feel time the way you do." Before Luke could answer, a massive wave rushed down the corridor. He turned at the last second and drove his kukris into the wall. The water slammed into him, trying to rip him loose. The pressure was absurd. Around him, cracks opened in the flesh and stone, draining part of the flow in different directions. One of those walls split open along the path Luke wanted.

The moment he saw an opening, he let go, dove into the current, and used his scarf to steer himself. He was hurled through the opening and thrown out the other side. He braced for a long fall, but landed almost immediately. Water rushed beneath him, disappearing into small holes. Luke stood in a dark chamber full of stone debris.

"I think this thing spreads digestion through different places," he said, looking around.

"Some stuff it digests fast, some stuff it stores... I don't know. I'm guessing." He sat for a few minutes and looked at the compass.

"I don't even know what the hell I'm doing anymore." Still, he closed his eyes and activated [Deep Meditation], forcing his mana and stamina to recover as fast as they could. After a while, he spoke.

"If I die, can you deliver a message for me?"

"Are you really giving up, Luke?"

"Giving up? Never."

"Then why do you want me to deliver a message to someone?"

"You don't know me after all this time?" He opened one eye, wearing a tired smile.

"I need plans for different scenarios. Dying happens to be one of them."

"And what message do you want me to deliver? And to whom?"

"To Charlie and Angie. They can give it to the Baummans." Luke gave her the message. When he finished, he stayed silent for a few more seconds, then stood.

"Now that you know my final wishes, and since I'm probably going to die anyway, why don't you tell me some of your secrets? I promise I won't tell anyone in here."

"What do you want to know?"

"You told me once you were like a VIP hostage, or something. Remember?"

"I remember. I told you that sometimes tyrants take members of the families that serve them as hostages and raise them under their wing. That way, the family stays loyal."

"And what kind of family did you come from? How did you end up a hostage?"

"I had no family, Luke. I was alone when they found me."

"Then why did you become a VIP hostage?"

"Because I know Azazel's true name." Luke froze for half a second.

"True name? What the hell does that even mean?" Before Artemis could answer, a purple glow appeared around the bend. Luke followed it into a larger space. Purple crystals were scattered among the stone rubble. All of them were active, repeating messages nonstop, their broken voices overlapping.

"The king... he's obsessed," one crystal repeated. Luke walked through the wreckage, searching.

"The Light in the Sky... I saw her in a dream," another whispered.

"My favorite place is..." The messages continued, broken, insistent, trapped in an endless loop. Luke touched the wall and realized the flesh wasn't opaque anymore. It was transparent. So was the floor. He could see the ocean outside. The darkness was almost absolute, but far below, plants with blue branches glowed like luminous veins at the bottom of the world while the leviathan kept sinking. Outside! Luke attacked immediately, trying to pry it open, tear it apart, anything.

The kukris struck the surface and scratched the transparent flesh, but they didn't pierce through. Even the shallow marks he managed to make closed within seconds. He clicked his tongue and kept following the compass. Then the needle went crazy, spinning wildly. Luke dropped to his knees among the wreckage and shoved aside stones, chunks of metal, and broken crystals until he found a metal sphere.

"Cadmus, you in there?" The robot didn't answer. Luke focused the power of his eye and analyzed the structure. The conclusion came fast. You pull mana from the atmosphere. He placed his hand on the sphere and poured the little mana he had recovered into it.

"Initializing..."

"Come on. Wake up." The sphere vibrated.

"Luke Moon? You are still alive?"

"I am. But not for long, tin can." The sphere rotated, taking in the area around them.

"I understand. I am sorry. You... do not have much time left in this place."

"If you know where we are, then you have to help me."

"I cannot help you."

"Bullshit." Luke's voice hardened.

"You can. You were a damn king in this world. If you don't want to talk about your past, fine. But help me find a place with an opening to the outside. I don't care if it's this monster's asshole. I need to get out of here."

"A glutton-type leviathan stores its prey in gel sacs throughout its body," Cadmus replied.

"It digests them slowly. Every exit stays sealed. Once a decade, it expels whatever is left as liquid sludge. There is no way out. These creatures feed on large beings that make it past the crater's edge and head toward the planet's cold region." Luke clenched his teeth.

"Then guide me to the heart, or any vital part. I need to get out of here even if I have to kill this thing."

"There is no way for you to kill something like this."

"I have to try. If you really are the king of that kingdom, you must know something. Any hint."

"I was," Cadmus said.

"Not anymore. Now I am only a ghost that refuses to stop existing." A crash thundered down the corridor. An absurd amount of water came rushing in. Luke grabbed Cadmus and ran, cutting through tunnels as the flood tore apart and dragged everything behind him. Pieces of the palace were scattered everywhere, trapped in the leviathan's inner walls.

"I do not know what fate could be worse, Luke Moon," Cadmus said, his voice faltering.

"Being devoured by a leviathan, or worse, surviving inside it." The robot started shutting down. Luke poured more mana into him.

"Hello again, Luke Moon." Luke stopped running for an instant and stared at the sphere.

"What the hell is the Light in the Sky?"

"I am sorry. I cannot tell you." His display flickered.

"Hello again, Luke Moon."

"Are you broken or something?"

"No. I am operating at full capacity."

"Yeah, I can tell." The path ahead was flooded. The water bubbled, boiling hot.

"I detect sarcasm," Cadmus said.

"That is correct. I am functioning perfectly. We are, at this exact moment, inside a glutton leviathan. They remain near the edge of the volcanic crater and wait for something large to fall in."

"I know. You already explained that shit."

"They store what they swallow and digest it over decades, but not before melting everything down and turning it into a gray mass of flesh. An inefficient way to die. Haha."

"Don't laugh."

"Hello again, Luke Moon." Cadmus kept repeating variations of the same explanation while Luke pressed on, dodging boiling pools and unstable wreckage.

"I am operating at full capacity," the robot said.

"Oh. I see you found your beacon's location by solving the city's riddle. Congratulations. I can now track it and guide you along the best route to it. It is at the waterfall. What a complicated place to reach." Luke narrowed his eyes.

"You're broken, robot. You run on some kind of signal, don't you? You're too far from the damn surface, and the signal's making you glitch?"

"What a shame. Your beacon was swallowed by the glutton leviathan." Luke froze.

"Wait. Wait. What did you say?"

"Hello again, Luke Moon."

"No, you stupid robot. About my beacon."

"Your beacon? Oh, yes. Now that you have found it, I can prepare the best route to it."

"My beacon is here? Inside this leviathan?"

"Yes, it is." Luke stared at the metal sphere.

"Can you lead me to it?"