The Runes

The dirt worm began madly devouring the soul as it let out multiple inhuman shrieks during the process. Achilles could feel himself slowly becoming much stronger and that he was about to exit from the Mindscape.

'Finally...' He breathed out a sigh filled with contentment and relief.

After a moment, the worm finished devouring the soul and it appeared at a part of Achilles' right side again.

He slowly let his mind shut down, waiting to be returned back to the material world.

...However, nothing happened.

'Huh?' Achilles used his worms' senses to scan the surrounding in confusion.

Wasn't he supposed to be back by now?

Suddenly, he felt the surrounding space collapse itself entirely, the feeling was akin to a cave crumbling down.

'What's going o-' Achilles was feeling apprehensive by the sudden turn of events when a different kind of pain assaulted him, making him grunted a little.

[Gargh!!]

He felt a series of images pouring into his mind, forming what seemed to be like a movie...no,...a memory?

Before he was able to understand what was going on, he experienced a blackout without being aware of anything.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[...Where am I?] Achilles opened his eyes and looked around frantically.

He was in some sort of building, there were candles placed around the wide hall, illuminating the stone ground.

The air around him had a weird dust-like stench which made it quite uncomfortable to breathe.

While Achilles was trying to figure out where he was, he noticed multiple figures wearing black robes prostrating themselves in front of something.

He looked up to find out what they were submitting at and to his surprise...

It was a mural.

The mural described multiple humanoid shadows, animals, and plants seemingly prostrating themselves at a symbol.

The symbol depicted a single eye that had thousands of different pupils inside it, deep within the pupils were dozens of different mouths that were...grinning?

The mysterious and terrifying symbol seemed ever-changing and displayed millions of different colors, some of which Achilles didn't even know existed.

'What is this?' Achilles was puzzled by the scene and decided to approach one of the individuals prostrating at the mural.

[Hey!]

"..." There was no response.

[Hey! Where is this place?]

"..." There was still no response.

Irritated, Achilles walked to the figure in a black robe. He put his hand on the figure and was about to ask again:

[Where a-] His hand went straight through the robed figure.

[...What the?] Achilles tried to touch the figure again but the same thing happened. It was almost like he was an evil spirit again.

But he knew what it felt like to be an evil spirit, and this feeling did not resemble it in any way.

It was like he was not actually there but just an invisible hologram, could not interact with anyone or anything at all.

While he was feeling puzzled by this mysterious event, one of the figures stood at the front spoke out loud, his voice sounded deep and jarring:

"Dear The ?#^;&#, we have gathered here today in your command. In order to @&*#? !"

[I can't hear anything...] Achilles muttered while listening to the man talked.

Every important piece of information that would prove to be valuable got censored by some sort of language.

Achilles knew about many languages throughout the four main races but had never heard anything similar to this before.

...No, he had once...But where?

The tongue was fouled and full of a dark, insidious feeling to it. Whatever it was, Achilles was absolutely sure that it was not a tongue meant to be spoken by mortals.

"Our race has %^%*#?, and we are ready for the great %^$%#^$? you will &#$%;#;? us!" The figure spoke with a hint of admiration and longing in his voice.

Achilles was not sure what was about to happen, but it seemed that these cultists were very excited about it.

They started to stand holding each other hands to create a small circle. The leader of the group took out a knife and cut his wrist with it. He then used his own blood to start drawing the eye symbol, the other cultists also followed him soon after and did the same thing.

After the symbol was done, they continued using their blood to write something down. It was a series of runes that were much more complex and mysterious than any other languages were born and ever would be born.

[Aren't those runes?] Achilles silently muttered to himself.

The runes were something that researchers discovered around a decade ago, they were believed to be the language of higher life forms that transcended mortals' understanding.

To this date, no one had ever been able to peer through its hidden meaning. It was also said that those who can decipher it would know the secrets to everything in the universe.

Achilles personally thought that these things were just bullcrap that would make a great writing material. But now seeing them being used with mastery in front of him, he had doubted his understanding regarding runes a little.

[What's the true nature of these things then?] Achilles pondered to himself with his red eyes glowing a little.