Dungeon Raider System-Chapter 543: Father of horrors
"What is this place?" Uriel asked out loud once he realized that even though he wasn't moving anymore, multiple walls seemingly moved without so much as a sound. It was a dizzying sensation that unwittingly forced him to take a step forward.
It was a curious reaction to a moving environment caused by the brain overcorrecting a person's position relative to the movement, but for Uriel it meant that he needed to stop focusing on his mystical sense to prevent himself from feeling seasick.
As time passed, Uriel racked up his brain trying to think on what to do, but the only thing that crossed his mind was to lean on a wall and use it to orient himself. The texture of the rock was yet another thing that felt familiar and a nagging feeling pestered him until he finally remembered.
"This is just like the bottomless pit near Lake Travis!" He exclaimed, his voice rapidly fading into the jet stone. Along with this discovery came the realization that finding his way across the darkness would be difficult even with a light source and he decided to do the same thing he did the last time he found himself on a similar circumstance.
He took out the 'Red thread of fate and attempted to pierce through the stone to shove a stake and tie a rope to tether himself, but the rock was way harder than he expected.
Thankfully, the rock had the unexplainable ability to swallow any light and no sparks appeared which relieved Uriel who started sweating cold after the realization that he almost broke the rule set by the horror level skinwalker.
It wasn't the first time Uriel found himself walking blindly in the dark and thanks to that he pipcked up a few tricks. This time, Uriel simply dropped the entire coil of rope behind him and placed a dumbbell on top of it to keep it in its place, then started pulling the rope as he walked, slowly unraveling it.
It wasn't necessarily a bad idea, but soon Uriel realized that the length of the rope wasn't enough to help him cover the entire place and using more rope would mean he would need something even bigger to use as a weight to keep it in place. In other words, it wasn't worth the effort.
As a last resort, Uriel detached the pommel of the 'Red thread of fate' and dropped it on the ground. He didn't know how long the wire stored inside the dagger was, but since it was thinner than the rope it was bound to be a better choice.
It also came with the additional benefit of the pommel itself acting as a weight which meant it would most likely remain in place and after he would be able to store the dagger back inside his museum without much trouble.
As he walked across the jet black corridors, Uriel finally started making a mental picture of the place and with the help of the thin wire he realized it wasn't as big as he initially expected. This brought back memories of what happened back when he followed Rocky inside the bottomless pit and then it hit him.
"This isn't like the bottomless pit, this is the exact same place!" Uriel exclaimed as he darted in the direction where he expected to find the spinning room that confused him so much last time and just like he expected, it was there.
Careful not to utter a single word, Uriel entered the chamber of echoes and waited for the room to continue spinning and to reveal the same pathway where he found the Comanche headdress, only it didn't matter how long he waited, nothing of the sorts happened.
Each minute he spent inside that room felt like hours. The place was so silent he could hear the faint cracking nose his bones made whenever he moved, his breathing seemed so loud he could barely stand it and he could even listen to his blood pumping inside his ears.
As minutes passed Uriel felt his sanity being dragged away along with the silence and he became so conscious of his own breathing that he couldn't help but let out a gasp which turned out to be a mistake as it was enough to trigger the annoying and hurtful ability of the Chamber of echoes.
This time, though, his heavenly rank constitution allowed him to somewhat endure the initial pain that came with all the sounds that enshrouded him. He could hear the voices of hundreds if not thousands of people speaking at the same time and the more he focused, the more he felt he could single each one of them out.
Before that came to happen, though, the unintelligible voices died down and a single thunderous voice echoed at the same time the thought of a yellow pair of eyes appeared inside his mind. They were spiteful, venomous even and he felt his mind being invaded by the voice.
"So you came back. I see you don't have him inside you anymore, good. This is good. You may speak now." The voice bellowed.
"Who are you?"
"Don't you remember me?" The yellow eyes glared directly inside Uriel's mind, which made him feel even more violated.
"You... that time, you were inside that snake! You lured Rocky in here!" The volume of his inner voice intensified in anger, but then he reminded the rule that he needed to be respectful and composed himself.
"Yes, I am the shadow, I am the darkness, I am the father of horrors. I am what you call a titan, a primordial. I cannot be stopped, cannot be killed for I am not immortal, I am eternal."
"Eternal... Wait, this voice.... Are you the one who spoke to me that time?" Uriel asked once he realized he was in the presence of the same creature or entity that announced him he passed the trial the last time he was there.
"Yes, I am tasked to test warriors like other guardians. I lure humans here, but most fail the trial you passed. I see you expected the sacred path to be open, but that won't happen until the relic is returned and that is one of the reasons why I summoned you here.
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The other is because I have a gift for you." The ominous creature replied to Uriel's inner questions although he didn't give voice to any of them. it's uncanny ability to anticipate to his questions made Uriel think it was able to read his mind.
"What kind of gift?" Uriel asked, thinking on the rich treasures a creature like that could possess.
"I have a gift and a request. You may decline them if you so wish. Why do I want to give you a gift, you ask? That is obvious, it's because you spared my dear daughter's life, but a life cannot be bought with gold or material riches. Because of that, a life can only be repaid with a life."
Uriel tried many times to deviate his mind from thinking in an attempt to escape the grasp of the yellow eyes that pierced through his thoughts, but he could do nothing to impede the creature from communicating with him, just as it seemed impossible to keep his own thoughts to himself.
It was annoying, but it wasn't painful and he was able to hold the conversation without issues despite the insurmountable gap in power.
"This is what I request of you, to bring back the relic that belongs to me. It was a gift given to me by the Great spirit and It is very dear to me. I will be waiting."
"If it is so valuable to you, then why did you give it to me in the first place? Better yet, why would you treasure something given to you by the same person who trapped you here?"
"I did not gift it to you. All the things the Great spirit gifted me are my treasure and I would not part with them for long. I am aware that to you this may seem like a prison, but this is a home the Great spirit gifted me and I love it the same."
"You speak of love, but you're the father of horrors that do despicable things to humans. Aren't humans also a creation of the Great spirit?"
"Silly creature, my hatred for humans doesn't take from my love towards my creator. Doesn't the same apply to your kin? The same heart that allows you to feel love is also the one that causes you to feel hate. There is no darkness without light and I think my gift to you remind you of this for however long you get to keep it."
When the voice finally stopped speaking the link that allowed them to communicate was broken and Uriel was finally able to breathe again. Their entire interaction seemingly took place within Uriel's mind and now he found himself on the chamber of echoes, only now he could feel there was something lurking in the darkness.
The familiar feeling of incoming danger clung to the back of Uriel's neck and he braced for a fight, but instead of an attack he felt something soft pressing on his lips, covered in the wet and salty taste of tears followed closely by a voice Uriel considered annoying so many times, but now send warmth throughout his entire body.
"I'm back..." Nika muttered.
