Ch 44 - Acting Strange

*KABOOM*

*CRACKLE*

*SLASH*

Those are the sounds of the most recent traps I've had to navigate through in order to move forward down here in this hellhole. I've had to go through everything from hallucinogens to poison gas to death spikes, it feels like I'm in a real Indiana Jones adventure here.

But what's really strange is that unlike in Indiana Jones where suddenly a wall crumbles and reveals a hidden passage, nothing crumbles in this one. Every single deadly attack seems incapable of damaging the surroundings, the material the tunnel is made out of seem to be invulnerable, not even receiving a mark as the powerful traps fire off.

I examined the material a while back to confirm it isn't sea stone, but no, it seems like regular stone, obviously it isn't, but meh, can't really do much about it anyways; I even tried firing off a meteor shot at the wall earlier, but nothing, not even a scratch, truly peculiar.

However, this isn't the only peculiar thing down here, another strange thing is that the traps I mentioned aren't your everyday traps, no, they are actually something I recognize and something that should not be down here.

They are sky island Dials.

That's right, the traps in this underground passage in a random island in West Blue are none other than Dials found on islands floating in the sky…

Yeah, I don't get it either.

Anyways, back to the point, the traps that went off not long ago appear to be some sort of explosion dial, kind of like the impact dial, but stronger, as well as a thunder dial and lastly an overpowered version of the axe dial.

And these are just the most recent traps that I've tripped, I've had to go through hundreds of these things.

Thankfully I learned my lesson the first time and began paying close attention and using Ice shields when I do inevitably trip on one, I aint no expert in trapmaking.

I am using a lot of stamina and energy having to remake them for every trap, but that's a price I need to pay and one that's lowering each time I improve it; also taking small breaks in what I believe to be safe points of the tunnel.

And that's what I'm currently doing, recharging my energy as I sit down to inspect another set of symbols on the walls.

I've been trying to decipher what it means, but I couldn't really get too much of anything, other than a few images depicting sky islands as well as sea kings and the calm belt; also, snakes, a lot of snakes.

Overall, this means nothing to me, and the few writings I have seen I can no longer understand the words of, seeming that whatever let me understand the warning no longer applies to the inner sections.

"Cade! Can you hear me? I've been calling you for a while now!" comes Carinas annoyed voice through the flower in my pocket.

"Sorry sorry, just walked through another trap, so what's up?" I ask her.

"Yeah, well I need to warn you that I'm seeing strange signs from the snakes in the jungle, they all seemed to become much more vicious and bold out of the blue." She replies back.

Hearing this I frown slightly, "Hmm… it might be something related to me and this passage or it can simply be something natural for this island, after all not much is known about the island and its nighttime right about now, the best time for snakes to hunt." I respond back.

"Right…the thing that worries me the most is that actually the blood snakes seem to be migrating on mass in your direction, as in…they will very quickly catch up to you…" Carina hesitantly states.

"WHAT! WHAT THE HECK! This is definitely not natural! Fuck okay! I think I'm gonna discover a new room down here any second now, I'm hearing loud echoes not far away from me, so that should provide me with a place to hide and see what the heck is happening." I hastily reply.

With this I decide to use Limitless and begin speed running my way to wherever the source of the echoes is, and after a few minutes, and traps, later I'm greeted by an amazing sight, a humongous cavern that seems to be the size and height of multiple football fields combined covers the area for miles on end.

And within this cavern the floors seem to be made of beautifully spiraling obsidian flooring and the walls seemed to be covered in strange protrusion, that with a closer look I quickly identify as millions of dials, I sigh seeing this, something strange is definitely going on down here.

Anyways I once again try my luck and pull on some of the closest dials, but no luck, they all seem to be glued to the hard wall, not even moving in the slightest with my hardest tugs, no easy dials for me, I guess…

Anyways, I don't have time to marvel at the sight, I quickly begin to run around the humongous, empty room, trying to find a ledge or something that I can hide in, and just as I was second guessing my choice, I get a lucky break and find what seems to be a long crusty rope hanging down from the high ceiling.

Seeing this I quickly run up to it and begin to climb up it with all the speed I could muster; and not a few seconds after I leave the ground, I begin to hear the overbearing sound of hissing and what seems to be extremely powerful cannon shots, or more accurately what I know to be, a bunch of gunshot sounds firing off together. And this racket is coming from where I came from, meaning that the tiny snakes that move at the speed of sound have just about caught up with me.

Thankfully by that point I've reached what seems to be a hollowed out giant stalactite that resides high up on the ceiling.

Providing me with a room sized space inside of the large natural formation, and more importantly, a viewing platform on where I can spectate what the heck is happening with all these Blood Snakes.

I closely pay attention as thousands and then millions of tiny Blood Snakes flood into the room through the entrance, like a red tsunami.

I blanch at this; I would not want to be stuck down there with all those snakes.

However, my attention is immediately caught as the millions of blood snakes proceed to do something very strange, they proceed to climb the walls and congregate wherever the dials are, covering each one with a few hundred snakes each at least.

Seeing this I scrunch up my nose and become even further intrigued, 'What the heck are they doing? Covering the dials? What for?'

And as if they world had heard me, suddenly the entirety of the cavern seems to begin shaking in what seems to be the world's worst earthquake, stopping only after a few minutes.

And when I finally think that it was over, something even stranger happens.

The black crystal-like floor, that spans the entirety of the massive cavern, begins to twist and convulse all of the sudden, rising falling as if the ocean invaded the place, followed by inflating up at a heart-rending pace.

Forming what seems to be torrents of black liquid goo, and then compressing to form a hard cylindrical shape.

And after a whole minute of this happening, finally something comes out of this strange happening.

And that is a…. snake! A humongous black snake with horns covering its head like a crown!

'Holy shit! Was the floor a fucking snake all along? What the fuck! Is this a Sea king or something!?Fuck! what is that bitch redhead up to! Why the fuck is she here with this giant ass snake!' I think to myself while holding my breath, not wanting to make a sound in the presence of this god like beast.

It spans the length of miles and seems to cover the entirety of the ginormous cavern with its body…and that's curled up!

Its large body is even rubbing off on and shaking the large stalactite, making the large structure now seem very unstable, and due to its closeness, it allows me to closely inspect its black obsidian like scales that are each the size of an apartment complex.

Thankfully however its ginormous body doesn't cover up the entirety of the opening, allowing me to peek at what is happening outside, and what I see as I peek outside is something out of my worst nightmares, something that I wouldn't have ever wanted to see.

A humongous black serpentine head, covered in sharp thorns the size of a ship, and with pitch black eyes that resemble the dark abyss, motionlessly staring right at me.