Chapter 100: Anomaly

FWISH.

The moment I crossed into the tunnel, I felt something change.

Like I had suddenly crossed a boundary between worlds.

The strange pulse that had guided me here vanished.

The sinking feeling beneath my legs disappeared.

The stale air that once accompanied me ceased to exist.

And even the odd feeling of disgusting comfort vanquished.

The world beyond the 'dead' tunnel was strange.

Deeply strange...

It was dark and yet it wasn't.

Still and yet not.

Silent and yet so loud.

It wasn't wide yet infinite.

It was simply...

Alien.

So, alien...that even my supposedly crazed mind couldn't wrap itself around it.

UGH.

A powerful sense of vertigo suddenly slammed into me causing me to drop to my knees.

URP...

A nausea more dreadful than even the blowback of Phantom Blink twisted my stomach into knots.

I clenched my jaw, forcing my body to still, forcing my mind to stay anchored. My fingers twitched as they instinctively grasped the ground for stability.

And then...

Huh?

The nausea disappeared. The vertigo vanished, but not because the world had somehow corrected itself...

No, it was because I had finally noticed what I was kneeling on.

Skulls.

Millions upon millions of skulls.

Not just human ones, beasts...monsters, fantasy creatures and even ones beyond even my worst imaginations–all arranged in a perfect, grotesque mosaic, stretching endlessly across the land.

Oh God...

My breath hitched. My body jerked back violently, scrambling away from the realization, yet no matter where I turned, no matter where I placed my hands or feet...

They were everywhere.

HA... HA...

My breath came out ragged, frantic. My eyes darted wildly, searching for something—anything—that made sense in this nightmarish abyss. My fingers twitched beneath my gloves, my limbs shivering as cold sweat trickled down my spine.

I was scared.

Deeply scared.

I raised my hands to my face, staring at them. They were trembling terribly.

I... I can still feel fear?

I thought I had grown numb to it.

"H-hehe... hehe...", a shaky laugh escaped my lips before I placed a hand back on the ground.

SHIFF.

My grip was weak, my balance unstable. I stumbled and crashed back down onto the sea of skulls.

Fuck.

I tried to rise up again, desperately trying to move my shivering body when suddenly...

I heard a voice.

"Lost, are you?"

I froze, my eyes widening as I slowly turned to the source.

Before me, several meters...no... a few meters away was the edge of the tunnel. A point where the walls turned into a cavernous maw, ending with jagged shards of skulls.

The space beyond it was imperceptible.

It wasn't veiled in darkness or blinded with light...it was simply warped, like I was unallowed to gaze on whatever was within it.

And yet despite how enthralling it was...it wasn't what grasped my eyes.

Or what spoke...

Instead, it was who...or what stood before it.

SHIFF.

A figure lay ahead.

Draped in robes that had long since been worn to threads and wielding a cane whose wood seemed vastly ancient.

Unnaturally long, darkened fingers curled over the wood, nails cracked, skin marred by something vile...

Something...that I couldn't explain...

The figure's posture was hunched, like that of an old man. A long, unkempt beard streamed down the figure's face; its strands thick and coarse like tree roots.

The 'old man' had their back against me – their head tilted upwards, as if, gazing into the void beyond the tunnel's cavernous maw.

SHIFF.

I shifted uncomfortably, still on the ground, but my eyes were fixated solely on the figure.

I opened my mouth, wanting to ask,

'Who are you?'

But instead, I asked,

"What are you?"

The 'old man' didn't move, simply staring at the void before saying,

"I am what remains..."

The words did not echo.

They did not carry through the tunnel, did not bounce from wall to wall as sound should. They simply arrived – delivered straight to my mind, bypassing my ears entirely.

And the figure's voice...

It was just like what an old man's voice would sound like.

At the words, my face turned to one of bewilderment.

What...?

I stared at the 'old man', wanting to ask a question.

When the figure suddenly tapped its cane, it's manner was thoughtful and measured.

The 'old man' tilted its head slightly, still staring at the void and spoke,

"You see...I was once like you. A seeker. A fool. One that chased knowledge and understanding without stopping..."

"I wanted to know all, grasp all and see everything."

The 'old man' paused before saying, "But I failed to realize...that there were things mortals weren't supposed to know, voices not meant to be heard and things rather left unseen."

I stared at it with bathed breath, listening both with fear and curiosity.

The words it spoke reminded me of the cursed pages in the Quill Book.

I had not read them.

Only ever stopping at where Galter scribbled 'Turn Back' before throwing it away.

Despite the fact that I was now Level 11, I still dared not turn those pages.

After all, they had ravaged even the mind of the Level 12 Lone Fomorian.

It had shown me time and time again.

The horror of knowledge.

J-just what is the Abyss Below?

I opened my mouth, managing to croak,

"I... didn't come here to learn anything... I just want to escape...I just want to leave this place...I don't want to learn anything."

My voice was weak, my heart and mind gripped by fear.

The 'old man' didn't respond.

A long silence stretched across the tunnel before the old man spoke again,

"And you… you wish to descend..."

I swallowed hard, "I-it was just a vision...I just had a vision of the Abyss Below and believed...that i-it was my only way out..."

The 'old man' was silent for a moment before chuckling, it was dry and brittle, like wind blowing through an abandoned temple.

"Ignorance...I see..."

Slowly, the figure raised its hand from its cane, pointing it to the side.

ZWOON.

Suddenly, a white thread leaked out from the figure's inky black finger, spinning into a circle.

From the circle, two lines sprouted forth and bisected each other, forming an 'X'. The 'X' then formed a rhombus and out of thin air, four more circles formed at its edges.

Hexagons, Quadrilaterals and several other shapes began to form on the circle, connecting to each other seamlessly.

The circle slowly grew in intricacy, becoming more and more complex until it reached a state of total incomprehension.

The 'old man' slowly brought down its hand, signaling the circle's completion.

SWOOSH!!

A wave of energy was suddenly released, causing the sea of skulls to shudder. The magic circle gave out a brilliant sheen before vanishing, leaving behind a white portal.

The 'old man' pointed to the portal and said, "Step inside. Once you cross it, you'll appear at the point you started before your descent."

My eyes shone at the sight of the white halo, unmoving.

Before my descent...

That was at the front of the dark cavern.

I stared forward.

Before me stood the end of my suffering, the end of my long harrowing journey.

A way out.

What I had so desperately fought for.

And yet, I didn't move.

My gaze was dark, my head low.

"Child? Did you not hear what I said?", the 'old man' spoke, its voice slightly perplexed.

I didn't respond.

There was only one thing on my mind now.

Ignorance...

A single word weighed on my mind.

Ignorance.

I clenched my fists, staring at the portal. Its white glow was warm and inviting, offering me the way out of this nightmare.

But...

I gritted my teeth, clenching my fist even harder.

Here lies a way out...a path to freedom...this portal is the way out I wanted...it's the reason I had risked my life so many times...but...

But...

"You hesitate?"

The 'old man' spoke, its tone unreadable.

I swallowed; my throat dry, "I..."

I should be relieved.

The horror, the suffering, the endless descent—it could all end here. The white portal glowing before me was an exit. It was everything I had wanted, everything I had begged for when I first stepped into that dark cavern.

And yet, I hesitated.

Another chuckle escaped the throat of the 'old man'. It sounded like wind passing through hollow bones.

"Ignorance...", it murmured, voice soft, almost reverent, "It is a mercy, child. A kindness the world rarely offers. It is the warmth of the sun, the bliss of unknowing."

"It is peace."

The figure went silent for a moment before saying, "Or do you not seek peace...?"

I didn't respond, my gaze still lowered.

My body was shivering, my mind screamed, every cell and every essence of mine told me to leave. To leave this place and never turn back.

But...my self...

My self didn't want to...

How could I claw my way through darkness, through hunger and emptiness, through an entire war to stand here and be offered ignorance as a gift?

Ignorance?

Of all the bloody things...

Untethered...you gave me ignorance?

My jaw clenched, and my fingers twitched. The light of darkness ignited in the depth of mI felt a heat surge in my chest, as I forced my shivering body to my feet.

My posture shook from fear, my body was brutally oppressed by the vastness of this alien realm but my self...remained stal-no.

My self was afraid too.

It was afraid of walking through that white portal...

Of leaving this place without knowing what laid beyond the void...

Of what laid in the Abyss Below.

The figure's fingers curled over the cane, gripping it like a lifeline. It's body, twisted and marred by vileness, had not fully succumbed to it. And yet, it was clear that the 'old man' was no longer human.

I stared at the two paths before me.

The white portal, glowing with quiet simplicity.

The void, vast, unknowable, stretching beyond reason itself.

My lips cracked open, and my voice rung out,

"Tell me something."

The old man waited.

"If you could turn back time...", I asked, "...if you could undo it all and choose ignorance... would you?"

There was a long silence.

The figure's grip on the cane tightened, and for the first time, I saw something in it that was not otherworldly.

It was...regret.

The old man spoke in a solemn, almost mournful tone, "Yes..."

At its words I...

Smiled.

It was a strange smile, not the mad grin or wry smile.

It was one of acknowledgement, like the smile one made when they realized their true goal.

The 'old man' sensed the shift and spoke in a wistful tone,

"So... you have chosen your answer."

"Yes."

The answer was already before me from the very start.

Quite literally.

I couldn't choose ignorance.

Not because I was brave. Not because I was strong.

But because I was afraid.

Afraid of not knowing.

Afraid of walking away and forever wondering what lay beyond that veil. Afraid that if I took that exit, I would wake up every day with a hollow space in my mind, an itch that could never be scratched.

If I turned back now, I would never be free.

SHIFF!

I took a step forward.

Besides...I had always had a strange craving towards things that were forbidden, that tethered on the edge of normalcy...

I was insane, after all.

The 'old man' exhaled slowly, like it already knew my decision before I made it. Its voice was softer now, almost woeful.

"Then go...", it said, "But do not forget, that you had a choice."

CLINK. CLUNK.

I strode forward, stepping on the vast mosaic of skulls, like I were demeaning their deaths.

As I approached, I asked the 'old man', "These skulls...what happened to them? Did...you kill them...?"

The 'old man' let out another chuckle before saying in a chilling tone,

"Who knows?"

I shivered before turning away, facing the void and walking past the white portal.

As I neared the void, I began to feel its immense pull, its wrongness.

Open.

A swirl of a million shards illuminated my hand and brought forth Silver Lining.

[Equipped Item: Silver Lining.]

The moment the blade appeared, the weight on my body vanished and the flame in my soul roared.

The 'old man' seemed surprised but didn't speak.

I stood before the void and stared at it; my head slowly turned to the 'old man' who watched me with its hidden gaze.

"Before your descent...what was your name?"

The figure was silent for a moment before saying,

"I was called Methuselah, the man that lived too long."

Hmm...how intriguing...

With one last smile, I said, "Methuselah... I'll make sure the world learns of your story."

Then I stepped into the void.

...

"..."

Methuselah stared at the void before tilting its head.

"Strange...the last one who came here said the exact same thing...and that was over a century ago..."

Methuselah tapped its cane as it fell into deep thought.

"What was that lunatic's name again? G-ga-?"

"Oh, I remember...it was Galter Droet."

Methuselah turned back to the void and spoke,

"Alex, you impetuous child..."

It sighed, snapping its fingers, causing the white portal to crumble.

"May the Abyss show you mercy."

Methuselah prayed, despite its lack of faith.