Chapter 2: A Dark Encounter

Fear. How much can fear influence any living creature's decisions in a life-or-death situation? There are huge variety of variables that can influence the answer to that question. Scenario one: If a creature were to be surrounded by its natural prey with no way out, it as 2 options. The first option is to just give up and die. The second option would be to fight till your last breath. And in most situations, this is the case. That is the natural order of the universe. However, there is an ancient evil who believes there is a third way. IT believed in a third option, and said, "In order to win, you must devour the souls of your enemies to strengthen your own soul, and then devour more souls." This accursed being is one very few know of and those words it spoke, were once said in the most conniving and nightmarish way possible.

A void. As Kai had lost all most of his senses, all he could see was an empty void. He could not move nor speak, but he heard soft whispers for nowhere and everywhere at the same time. It confused him. He had no power here in this dream world. One does dream of many things, but there is not a point, in which one doesn't wake up from the fear of never waking again. As the whispers continued on and on for what seemed like an eternity, they started getting clearer and clearer. Until he heard something speak these words. "In order to win, you must devour the souls of your enemies to strengthen your own soul, and then devour more souls." After hearing this, Kai began to awaken.

Kai woke up. The first thing he noticed was that he couldn't get up. Clearly still disoriented from whatever that was, it took him a few seconds to pull himself together and finally start to analyze his surrounding and current situation. Panic started to pour into his hear as he realized that he was floating. He didn't feel free, despite feeling weightless, his body felt constricted and his mind entrapped. As he scanned the area, he could see mysterious ancient pillars radiating an odd green color floating in every direction seemingly with no specific ordinance or pattern.

What felt like seconds felt like hours, Kai didn't know how long he had spent there just trying to find a way to move or find an exit until suddenly a soft whisper spoke "Kthro Kahamut".

"What!" He screamed in panic as he frantically looked everywhere for the source. But all he could see was a sea of mist floating like clouds in every given direction with no proper axis.

"KTHRO KAHAMUT" It spoke again more aggressively.

"Where are you!?" Kai screamed in question and fear as his reasoning that this was still a dream or rabid hallucination vanished in an instant. Silence. He waited for another sound. Something. Anything. But he didn't hear it again. As he looked around, he could see floating rocks and platforms everywhere. Before he could start making mental notes however, felt heavy and immediately started falling. All he could muster to voice was a small gasp before he fell into the dark abyss with no seeming end. As Kai was falling for what seemed to be a few minutes, a stone path had formed from thin air. Upon finally seeing Solid ground he felt joy rising for a split second before his eyes widened in realization and screamed. "SHIT I'M GONNA GET SPLATTERED!"

As he was closing in on the path, he tried to move his body away from its current death descent. But it was no use. He wasn't moving an inch away and was only getting closer and closer to getting splattered on a footpath like a bug. He closed his eyes as he was just about to hit ground. After a few seconds, he opens his eyes to see that he stopped a few inches off the ground. "What the?" Kai spoke surprised. However, before he could realize what happened, he felt heavy once again and fell onto the pathway as if gravity had just turned on.

In pain, he rolled on his back and sat upright. "OH, my chest." he grunt as he rubs his chest in pain. Relieved he was still alive; he didn't mind the pain that much and got up. He looked around and saw the same things he saw before however, after falling for a while he realized that the deeper, he fell, the more these rocks looked more like buildings. Shattered pieces of debris from buildings.

"What is this place? Hello? This path...forming from thin air...then gravity turning off and on like a switch? Nothing makes sense here. Whatever that thing that whispered to me was has to be at the end of this path." As He stared at the path with no visible end, the torches along the path all flare up in a bright dark green flame. "There isn't anywhere else I could possible go." He realizes. He looked over to the edges of the path to see that it just drops into the abyss and the path behind me only goes as far as a few feet. "Guess I have no choice but to go forward and find a way out." He concluded. Kai steeled himself and swallowed a breath he didn't realize he was holding while profusely whipping the sweat from his forehead and finally take the first step forward.

Kai walked for what seemed to be for hours, he made multiple observations which led him to believe that this place does not follow the natural order of time nor space and as for the reason, well, he listed the reason in his mind. "I've reached the conclusion that this place is not the universe I know due to the following reasons. The first reason is that my watch seems to be randomly moving in all directions at varying speeds, almost like a compass encased in an electric displacement field meaning time is being affected. Or my watch is just broken. My second reason is that as I keep moving along the path at certain points, the debris on the path or floating in the surrounding area as far as I can see seem to be dropping or hovering back to their "fixed spot". It's almost as if they are all affected by gravity independently on their own accord. " He reasons.

"Hmm" He hums in amusement as he thought of a rather interesting answer.

"Maybe a pocket dimension?" He concludes before he picks up the pace as he felt eyes staring at his back.

Eventually, he reaches an area where the path just ends and in front of him lies a debris of ruins. At the other side of the debris field, he notices a massive wall blocking the path as far as the eye could see when looking for how long it goes on. A giant stone door emitting a similar dark green color was seen in the center of the wall on the other side of this debris field.

"Hmm, maybe I should go back and find a way around. I could have missed something." He Believes.

As he was thinking of an alternative route, suddenly, he hears a sound from far behind. He turns around and looks around to see nothing but a thick mist covering the path where he had come from. He stares for a few minutes and eventually let's go of a breath he didn't know he was holding.

The mist suddenly cleared and a dark silhouette with light green eyes was standing there, Kai froze with fear. " The height and posture, it's not human. It's getting harder to breath, is it because of its presence or my heightened blood pressure!?" Kai whispered.

The beast opened its mouth in a way that looks like it dislocated it and bares its pure obsidian teeth tearing out an ear-piercing scream and starts charging at him on all fours. Kai turns and begins sprinting towards the floating debris and makes a leap.

Now soaring in the air, Kai makes an impossible jump and misses the first 2 platforms and ends up hitting a slanted floating pillar, holding on for dear life he grips around the rough edges of the pillar and tries to climb up. "What the... The gravity here is weaker than on Earth? But I couldn't tell! This place is impairing my thought of logic by the minute, I need to escape from that thing first!" Kai thinks after climbing on top of the pillar and looked back to see the beast charging and making a leap higher and more precise than what he did. Thinking fast he notices a piece of debris that's moving towards the gate and jumps on it right as the beast lands on the pillar where Kai just was, smashing it to more fragments in the process.

The Debris was moving fast and was about to smash onto the side of the wall. He jumps off and lands on the other side roughly, making multiple rolls on the ground in the process as the piece of ancient debris smashes against the wall and shatters. "Somehow made it, but that thing is still after me." Kai argues as he runs to the door and tries to open it with all his might but to no avail. "It's shut tight! Wait, These symbols on the door. A puzzle!? Not now damn it!" He looks around to find any object he could possibly use as a weapon to make a last stand. Upon realizing there was nothing but massive chunks of rocks on the floor, he looks up and notices the two giant statues beside the door, holding massive axe type weapons.

The statue on the right had a badly damaged left hand which was holding the weapon. He looks back to see the creature aggressively jumping over the debris in ease and getting closer by the minute. "What do I do!? Shit!? CLIMB!" Kai thinks. With no other choice he starts climbing up the statue from the front right as the beast lands on the ground.

As he makes his way up the statues leg, the creature roars in rage and follows. As Kai makes it around the torso of the statue, the creature grabs his leg, digging its sharp claws into his calves. "AAAAAGH, YOU BASTARD!" Kai screams in pain as he kicks it on the face with his other leg.

The creature let's go and tries to grab onto something but fails to do so, hitting the ground hard as a result. As it slams on the ground leaving a crater and dust flying in the air, it screams in anger and climbs the wall directly behind the statue. Kai reaches the top and realizes what the creature is doing.

"It's smart as well, damn it. I'm losing blood, need to use my shirt for now." Kai tears his shirt and was going to wrap it around his leg until, in the far end of his vision, he saw the weapon on the damaged arm of the statue and an idea struck.

The creature climbed the wall until it reached the same level as Kai and faced him. With a black substance dripping as it opens its mouth and its eyes focusing in on its prey, it gets ready to make a leap. Kai on the other side, kneels down and holds the shirt sleeves in his hands waiting for it to make the first move. The creature Leaps into the air with its claws out and jaw wide open, ready to grab kai by the chest and rip his body to shreds.

Kai on the other hand, was not going to die today, for it was not his fate to die this way. As the creature made its leap, Kai jumped as well, but rather than away from it or dodging it attack, he jumped towards the creature. Catching the creature by surprise, Kai spins mid-air showing his back to it but in a higher position above it. He throws his shirt as the creature went under him wrapping the shirt around its throat making it lose it speed and slam against the head of the statue as a result.

The creature had more momentum than kai therefore he also got pushed back with the creature and were about to fall off the statue, however, before they were completely off the statue's head, Kai managed to grab hold of the statue and kick the creature as it fell beside him in a rough approximated angle. Kai hanged off the statue head and looked down to see the creature fall on the axe head, impaling it on the chest and through it's back in the process.

The creature screams in pain as it bleeds out and tries scratching its way out, ripping it's claws in the process until the statue's arm breaks from the sudden force and weight. As the arm fell, Kai climbed back up and turned around to see the axe fully slice the creature in half and it eyes turn black as it finally dies.

"That, shouldn't have worked." Kai sighs in relief and slowly climbs down as he was still injured and bleeding. As he made his way to the creature, he noticed that it started to steam a dark mist as if its body was body was heating up. Before Kai could do anything, He suddenly froze, and his eyes shinned a bright green like earlier at the campus. A strange white sphere emerged from the body of the creature and went into Kai's body.

When Kai seemingly unfroze, he didn't even notice what happened. He approached the creature's body and, in a few seconds, the creature's skin and muscles were all gone and all that's left were bones.

"Accelerated decaying? Does that apply to only this thing or any organic life that dies here?" Kai wondered. "But what was more concerning was that the skeletal remains of this creature resembled that of a human to an extent." He thinks.

"That's weird. It's almost as if it went through a forced mutation of sorts to adapt to this environment or rather..." Kai pauses for a second before finishing. "It adapted to KILL." he quietly whispers.

Before he could ponder more, the stone gate behind him makes a strange sound and the symbols ingrained on its surface pulse as the door opens.

"Guess the puzzle was to kill that damn monster and not die." He spoke in sarcasm as he went through the doors and was instantly warped someplace else.

From a top-down view, a Giant Dome like structure is seen these 6 pathways all spread outwards from the dome and are supposed to form a massive star with 6 rays of light shining from it, but alas, that is not possible as this masterpiece of architecture is now in ruins and covered in eternal darkness. Five out of the Seven pathways are still standing, while the other 3 pathways have been destroyed and in ruins with no normal way for a human to use.

In the centre of the ancient ruin, a massive corrosive mist of green hovers a few feet of the ground on top of what appears to be a sacrificial chamber. pulsing and reverberating like a heart, the mist gives off a omnipotent feel but if one were to give a closer inspection, they would see a faint white light barely flickering. Right in front of this weird phenomenon, the same stone door from earlier appears from thin air and opens. Kai walks out of it with a hand covering his eyes as he felt disoriented from the sudden teleportation.

"Ugh, what the hell man." Kai grunts as he falls on his knees as he loses his balance. A few moments later, he uncovers his eyes and gets up.

As he stares at the strange mist in front of him, he hears a sound he wished to not hear again. "Kthro kahamut." A sound comes from the mist, the same on from before. "So it was you..." Kai spoke in shock.

"What are you?" Kai asks breathlessly.

"Ka-Eora Setoka" The mist glows and expands as it speaks.

"I don't ... understand you" Kai spoke with a hint of caution.

A long pause ensues, Kai stands there in fear. The palm of his hand gets sweaty, his heart start's beating more rapidly and his body feels like he's in a giant oven. He maintains eye contact, not taking the chance by focusing elsewhere but at this strange phenomenon occurring in front of him, or rather, the possible source to all this madness. "It's almost like it's alive. Not a machine, nor an illusion. It's pulsing almost as if its breathing. No. IT IS BREATHING." Kai makes his analysis notes mentally.

Realizing that this isn't going anywhere, he was about to speak but suddenly, the mist shoots out the same dark tentacles which had brought Kai to this place in the first place. "Let go!" Kai screams in panic before his eyes widen from the realization. "It was you!" He screams in rage while profusely trying to pry the tentacles off his arm.

Suddenly, more tentacles shoot out and wrap around Kai's other limbs and restrained him. As he desperately tries to break free from the tentacle's clutches, the mist began to glow brighter and expand. On seeing this, Kai stopped his struggle and could only hopelessly stare as the mist started to form the shape of a creature. A very tall and demonic creature.

"Oh shit. IT'S FUCKING HUGE!" Kai screams in disbelief.

As the creature stepped out from the misty portal or rather the mist started to dissipate, kai himself wasn't sure what this thing was. The entity was still covered in darkness, almost like it absorbs or simply eliminates all light from coming into contact with it. Suddenly, it's eyes focus on Kai and started to flicker. Kai's eyes start glowing the same green color during his fight earlier with the jocks but in a more violent state. He instantly passes out.

After some time, Kai awakens with a terrible headache and an ear-piercing ring in his ears. "My head, it hurts but it doesn't as well!? WHY!" Kai clutches his head as he cries in pain as he can't tell what's happening to him. What the entity was doing, was merely giving Kai the ability to understand what it was saying.

Of course, a mere human is not capable of staying sane with any type of contact with whatever the hell this thing was. Most would already die from coming into contact with anything even remotely connected to such a being. The entity's eyes stop flickering and for the first time, when the entity spoke, Kai understood what it said.

The entity spoke in a masculine and feminine voice mixed with one another, but in a thunderous and eerie manner. "The vessel is not yet complete."

Too shocked about what just happened, before he could even comment on what he just heard, his eyes and ears instantly started bleeding as a side effect due to hearing the entity speak and could do nothing but scream as pain shot through his whole body.

The entity raises its hands, ignoring the screams of pain from the weak human in front of it as it casts green flames from its hands. It start's chanting as Kai Kept on screaming in pain while the tentacles spread his limbs in an X position and pulled on them to their absolute limit.

The entity begins to grow even larger than before, to the point it was as bigger than most mountains on earth and towers over the pathetic insect in front of it. An odd sound starts reverberating from this dimension as the entity soon stops growing and proceeds lift Kai with its tentacles until it's dark green eyes with orange pupils met Kai's faded brown damaged eyes and stated with authority. "YOU'RE SOUL. IS. MINE!"

Kai could only scream as the tentacles that wrapped around him grew spikes, piercing him in all places while simultaneously combusting into flames. After what seemed to be only a few minutes, from Sheer exhaustion and agony, Kai slowly closed his eyes, and the darkness consumed him.