Gate of Death!

Chapter 21: Gate of Death!

The earlier conflict between Melissa and Sabrina created an obvious drift between the group.

Now, Zen, Dali, Alex, Max, Yu, Satoru, Pablo, Sabrina, and Lisa were one group, and the others were another, although Changus was mostly part of none, and if he had to choose, it would be the first.

"What are we going to do now?" Sabrina asked, addressing Zen.

"We first have to see what's waiting for us behind that door, then we will decide what to do." Zen replied.

"Mhm." Getting her answer, Sabrina had nothing else to ask as she remained silent.

The group remained like that for quite a while; they ate, drank water, and slept for a bit. Zen, however, had no intention of sleeping as he stayed awake, looking at the ceiling.

"Huff Huff Huff!" Suddenly, Zen looked to his left to see Dali, who was sleeping, wake up abruptly, sweat on his face and his eyes wide open.

"What happened, Dali." Alex, who was scared awake by Dali, asked, looking around to see if some enemy had come to attack them.

"I- I had a nightmare... It was- It was Changus' group that I accidentally killed when I stepped on the trap." He replied, still breathing heavily. Only those close to Alex heard him, as Changus himself, who was on the far right, closer to the gate, heard nothing, but Zen, Sabrina, Alex, and Max heard him.

However, they said nothing. Sabrina already had an idea that he was the one behind it, but never said a word. Zen comforted him many times, but even Alex and Max, who didn't know about this story, didn't react as much as a normal person would.

"You cannot do anything, Dali. Just stay calm, what has happened is already gone. You cannot change it, just accept it. What you need right now is to be in the right state of mind." Alex once again did his job of calming down the young ones. He could remember having a similar experience when he was young and had just killed his first victims, a family of 4.

Hearing Alex's words, Dali just tried to calm himself down.

Soon, the entire group started waking up one by one and they were ready to continue their path forward.

"Hey, Changus, open the gate." Seeing as it was another massive gate, Melissa ordered Changus to open it. Changus, who was dead on the inside, progressively feeling worse and worse, didn't care about her tone, as he just got up and did as told, with Alexander following right behind him.

*Hup*

With a slight effort, Changus opened the gates all the way, as a massive hall was in front of them.

On the far side, a statue of sorts had its back on the group as it emitted an eerie aura that sent shivers down everybody's spine.

"What... What is that?" Lisa, who was hiding behind Sabrina, spoke what was on everyone's minds.

Alexander, who acted unphased, took a step forward, and Changus, following him, stepped inside the room without any instructions.

"G- G- G..." Suddenly, a voice echoed out all around the room. Everybody felt chills at the cranky voice they heard. Up until now, they never met a case like this where something emitted a voice, and somewhere that was introduced as hell... This spelled bad news.

"Green Light!"

"Changus, Alexander, GET BACK!" Zen's timely warning once again rang out, trying to save the duo from their impending doom.

Changus, hearing Zen's warning, was the first to subconsciously run back, leaving Alexander, who was slower, behind.

Unfortunately, it was far... far too late.

"Red Light!" As swiftly as it spoke its first words, the statue sent out its seconds as its female stone head turned around to gaze at the intruders, and this time, her words were nothing short of a death sentence.

"K- KYAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

"CHANGUS!" Zen ran as fast as he could towards the door, Changus' upper body falling right on the floor, as for his lower one...

"Fuck! FUCK!" Alex screamed as high as he could, hitting the wall next to him in anger and sadness.

Alexander was no more. In his place, there was nothing but splatters of blood, not even a trace of his existence remaining. Changus, who was faster to react, managed to save his upper body, but, similar to Alexander, his lower body was disintegrated out of existence.

*Ugh* *Bwogh*

Pablo fell on his knees, emptying out everything his stomach managed to consume in the last 12 hours.

Dali's eyes turned hollow, Sabrina closed hers, and Lisa put her hands on her mouth, her eyes showing how hard it was for her to control her cries.

Melissa was shocked; she remained in place as Speed, who was next to her, closed his eyes in silence, not saying a word.

"Zen, we have to move. We have to get out of here as fast as we can." Sabrina opened her eyes as she called to Zen, who was holding onto Changus' remains, the big guy's eyes already soulless.

"Fuck." Zen closed his eyes in anguish, putting down Changus' body and leaving the place, not once looking back.

The group followed behind him, their hearts tearing from sadness.

Gone was the haughty and arrogant kid who held no one in his eyes, saying everything that was in his mind as if he owned everybody.

Gone was the kind soul, the child in a man's body who had lost himself after committing an action far bigger than his weak mind could handle.

Gone... Was the hope everybody had in leaving this place intact.

How? Just how do you expect them to survive a trial that snuffed out the lives of everybody the second it had a chance?

They were lucky they had Zen, who had a trap detection trait; otherwise, they would have long been gone; they would have long been counted as nothing but part of the countless dead souls.

-----End-----