Chương 22: What Came Out of the Darkness

What emerged from the darkness was clearly not human. At first, Lloyd noticed movement. Not the creature itself—just a faint disturbance in the darkness ahead, as if the shadows themselves had shifted for a brief moment. There was so little light in this place that the boundaries between objects had long since dissolved into the endless blackness of the tunnel. Everything around him had become a collection of vague silhouettes and shadows, among which anything could be hiding. Then he heard a sound. Quiet. Wet.

As if someone were dragging chunks of raw meat across stone. Splatter. Pause. Splatter. Pause. Every step was accompanied by an unpleasant crunch, as though bones were breaking and knitting themselves back together inside the creature's body. A chill ran down Lloyd's spine. Slowly, he raised his gaze and finally saw the source of the sound. The creature moved in jerks, uncertainly, as if existence itself caused it pain. Every movement looked wrong.

Its legs bent at impossible angles, its knees twisted sideways, and its joints folded in ways no living thing's ever should. It looked as though someone had taken a human body, broken every bone in it, and then forced it to keep moving. But the worst part wasn't its twisted shape. The worst part was the green growth. The same disgusting mass that covered the walls, ceiling, and floor of the tunnel. Only here, it looked different. It wasn't clinging to the creature from the outside. It was part of the creature.

Thick layers of green flesh bulged beneath torn skin. In some places, it burst outward in massive growths. In others, it hung down in long strands of slime. Certain sections pulsed slowly, as if blood flowed through them. Others twitched faintly on their own. Lloyd felt his stomach tighten. It looked as though rot itself had come alive. As though a disease had grown tired of feeding on dead flesh and decided to create a life-form of its own. A smell emanated from the creature. Heavy. Suffocating.

A mixture of dampness, mold, rotting meat, and something else. Something so revolting that his mind refused to find a comparison. The stench felt thick enough to touch. Lloyd instinctively held his breath. Then the creature raised its head. And he saw its eyes. Or rather, what had replaced them. Two glowing green spots. No whites. No pupils. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. No signs of life whatsoever. Just two sources of cold emerald light.

They expressed nothing. No rage. No pain. No hunger. Nothing. And that was exactly what made them so horrifying. The creature's silhouette still resembled a human. Two arms, two legs, a head, a torso. Yet that resemblance only made it worse. It was as though someone had tried to recreate a human from memory and gotten hundreds of details wrong. Arms that were too long. A neck that was too thin. Movements that were too unnatural. Too many things that simply didn't belong in a human body.

Lloyd remembered the undead he had encountered earlier. But this was something entirely different. That one had looked like an ordinary rotting corpse. This thing looked as though rot itself had given birth to a new form of life. The creature stopped. Silence followed. A silence so deep that Lloyd could hear his own heartbeat. Thump. Thump. Thump. Every beat echoed through his ears like a war drum. The creature slowly turned its head. Then again. It seemed to be searching for something. Or someone.

Its green eyes wandered through the tunnel without focusing on any particular spot. Lloyd froze. He barely dared to breathe. His back pressed against the slimy wall. Cold mucus seeped through his clothes, but he didn't move. If the creature didn't notice him... If it simply passed by... If— The creature suddenly froze. Completely. As though time itself had stopped. Lloyd felt something inside him drop. Even the most inexperienced person would have understood what had happened. It had found him.

The creature slowly inhaled. Then again. Its ribcage expanded unnaturally, and a wave of tremors rippled through the green growths covering its body. Then it growled. Low. Deep. Animalistic. The sound slammed into the tunnel walls and echoed in every direction. For a moment, it felt as though dozens of creatures were growling at once. Lloyd's teeth began to chatter from the vibration. At the same moment, the monster's eyes flared brighter. Then the patches of green flesh across its body began to glow as well.

One after another. As though some diseased source of energy was awakening inside it. And then Lloyd noticed something else. The crystal above. The same green crystal hanging from the ceiling. Its light flickered. Only slightly. But enough. Lloyd was certain he had seen it. As though there was some connection between the creature and this place. As though the dungeon itself was responding to its presence. Goosebumps spread across his skin. Then the monster dropped onto all fours. Abruptly. Instantly.

Like a predator preparing to pounce. Only somehow worse. Its limbs twisted at impossible angles. Its spine cracked. Its neck stretched forward. And before Lloyd could fully process what was happening, the creature launched itself. Straight at him. Too fast. Impossible fast. Green slime sprayed in every direction, claws scraped against stone, and the tunnel filled with the maddening sound of cracking bones. Lloyd's face twisted. His mind desperately searched for an answer. Run. Hide. Dodge. Anything.

But there was no time left. The creature was too close. And so he did the only thing that came to mind. He fought. The monster leaped. Lloyd saw its gaping jaws, rows of crooked teeth, and droplets of green slime flying through the air. And at that exact moment, he struck. The knife plunged straight into the creature's face up to the hilt. A wet crack echoed through the tunnel. But it barely helped. The monster slammed into him with its full weight. The world flipped upside down. They crashed into the sludge.

Lloyd felt the impact, the cold, and the unbearable stench. The disgusting green mass surrounded him from every side. Then the creature screamed. And somehow, that scream was worse than the growl. There was something human in it. Something deeply wrong. As though someone else had awakened inside the monster for a brief moment. Someone who had once been human. But Lloyd didn't allow himself time to think. His fear finally transformed into rage. He ripped the knife free and struck. Once. Again. And again.

The blade plunged into the monster's head over and over. Chunks of rotten flesh sprayed everywhere. Lloyd screamed. Louder than the creature. He screamed from terror, anger, and desperation. He kept striking until the monster's face ceased to exist. Until nothing remained but an unrecognizable mass of flesh and rot. Yet even then, he continued. As though he wasn't trying to destroy only the creature. But the entire cursed tunnel. The green growth. This entire nightmare.

Only when his arms finally refused to move did he stop. The knife slipped from his fingers. Lloyd slowly got to his feet, staggered backward, and collapsed to the ground. His lungs burned. His heart pounded wildly. Every breath was a struggle. He greedily gulped down air. Even this foul, rotten air felt heavenly now. The creature lay motionless before him. Lloyd never took his eyes off it. Waiting. Watching. Afraid it might rise again. Afraid it might all start over. But the seconds passed. Nothing happened.

The monster didn't move. Didn't breathe. Didn't growl. Didn't twitch. It was dead. At least, Lloyd desperately wanted to believe it was. Because right now, he needed to believe that he had finally won.