Horror deal, - Masterpiece In Shadow Slave

THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD.

Every person has a story to tell where they are the lead. Bear must have had one too.

The monster turned its hollow sockets toward them and let out a mocking laugh. The white dot of light inside its black-hole eyes stared right through them. Its long, gray fingers twitched and shifted on their own, eager to taste their flesh. Wherever the creature's fluid dropped, the stone floor began to hiss and melt much stronger and faster than before.

Crow, Cow, Deer, Owl, and Parrot. They must have had their own stories where they were the center of the world.

THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD.

They must have had their own journeys filled with thriller, horror, comedy, and love. But no one will ever read them. No one will cry when they die. They are nothing in this dark place. The one who leads this story is Kiyotaka. His presence alone is the curse that attracts the Horrors Beyond Comprehension.

THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD.

The monster's glowing white eyes began to scan the passage. They drifted from the left, past Owl, moving slowly across the others until they stopped directly in the middle. They locked onto Kiyotaka. The beast dragged its long tongue across its teeth, licking its own lips in anticipation.

But something was deeply wrong with Kiyotaka.

The person who was always in complete control of any situation, the one who could escape any nightmare with a perfectly straight face, was visibly terrified.

His eyes were glued to the ground, completely unable to look up at the beast. A wet stain began to spread down the lower section of his clothes, dripping onto the stone. He had peed himself. His hands shook violently, and his legs lost all strength. Desperate to stand, he reached backward, trying to lean his weight against the rock wall.

There was nothing behind him. His hand met empty air, and he lost his balance, falling to the rocks. Crawling backward on his hands and knees, he dragged himself away.

The others just looked down at him in total confusion. The calculated survivor they had seen minutes ago had changed too much.

Parrot bit her lip until it bled, looking from Kiyotaka to the rest of the group. If they escaped without this liability, the Spell would consider it a betrayal, and Hawk would die.

Suddenly, Parrot felt something kick her boot. She looked down. Kiyotaka was frantically trying to push her forward, trying to shove her toward the monster so he could buy himself time to survive. But her heavy armor was too solid, and she was far too strong to be moved by his trembling limbs.

THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD.

They still could not fight. Their muscles remained frozen, completely locked in place by the suffocating weight of the heartbeat.

The monster took one slow step forward. Then it took another, laughing until it finally loomed over Kiyotaka. Its gray tail slithered toward him, opening up at the end to reveal rows of countless hidden teeth.

But right then, the volume of the heartbeat exploded.

THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD.

The monster suddenly faltered. It stumbled backward, letting out a sound of pure agony. It begged and thrashed, but the unseen pressure gave no mercy. The beast fell to the ground, curling inward on itself as its stomach heaved violently.

Something began to pour out of its wide mouth.

It was a steaming puke of thick blood. The creature retched again and again, vomiting an atrocious amount of blood, broken bones, and chunks of melting fat.

This time, the sound came from inside the beast.

Crack. Gruk. Cruck.

Its newly grown bones began to snap and shorten. Its expanded skin collapsed inward, sticking to its frame.

During this horrific distraction, only one person could move. Kiyotaka.

Scrambling backward, Kiyotaka forced himself up and began to run blindly into the dark passage. Tears escaped his wide eyes. His foot caught on a rock, and he crashed hard onto the floor.

The monster's thick, powerful body quickly became malnourished and thin once more. It lost all its newfound strength and bulk, turning back into the normal, starved creature it was before. Only when the regression was finished did the overwhelming heartbeat finally calm down.

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

The beast stood up on its four legs and lunged forward, its long claws closing in directly on Hawk's face.

...

Thud.

Something heavy hit the ground.

It was the monster's head.

Beside the twitching body, Owl appeared, holding a sword that was already smoking and melting from the acidic fluids.

The creature's body fell lifelessly to the stone.

THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD.

The heartbeat instantly gained volume again. Without its head, the monster slowly pushed itself up from the floor. It walked over to its severed head, picked it up, and pressed it back onto its neck.

Owl disappeared again, turning into a blur of motion.

The monster screamed in pain as pieces of it flew apart. Its right arm fell, then its left arm, followed by its right leg, its left leg, and finally, its head rolled across the floor once more. The malnourished monster lay on the ground, completely stripped of its limbs.

THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD.

But its severed legs began to vibrate. They began to crawl across the stone, sliding back toward the torso. The pale hands and the head did the same, reattaching themselves like magnets.

Owl drove his melting sword into the ground, leaning heavily on the hilt just to stay upright. Parrot forced her legs to move, stepping forward to draw her weapon and fight the monster so the others could escape.

If this story belonged to Parrot, she would have found a way to save her teacher. But it did not. She was entirely powerless.

"The Horror has grown bored of the silence, and now it finds amusement in our despair. Do not raise your weapon, child, because there is no victory here. I will offer myself to its malice so that the rest of you might crawl out of this labyrinth."

Parrot stopped walking. She looked down at the rock floor. A small sound came from behind her mask, but Owl did not allow her to break.

"What was my very first lesson to you?"

No answer came from Parrot. She refused to take a step back, her fingers tightly gripping her sword.

"Parrot."

Amidst all this, Kiyotaka had crawled a few meters away into the dark. If he were himself, perhaps his mind could have found a way to save everyone. There was always a pattern, and he was the only one smart enough to figure it out. But he had completely lost himself.

If it were just the five of them, they could have easily run. But they were shackled to a shivering liability, and if they left him behind to die, Hawk would die too. They could not leave this living curse behind.

A wet sound echoed inside Parrot's armor as a few droplets drifted down from the bottom of her helmet. The words she spoke were filled with sorrow, anger, and absolute disappointment in herself for letting such a Vow exist.

"Lesson number one, never get attached to your guide. In these trapped lands, death is the only constant, and you must protect your own breath, even if it means leaving your teacher to rot in the dark."

Parrot took a slow step forward.

"But your own writings state that a master must sacrifice the student if it ensures his own survival, so please, leave me and run."

Kiyotaka had assumed they would betray each other to survive, but his calculations were wrong. In the world of the trapped lands, going through multiple near-death scenarios creates a bond that logic cannot break.

"If I leave, you will all perish within moments. These five need a protector, not a broken old man who can't stay awake for long. This is my final command to you. Take them away, and find the sky."

Parrot clenched her fists so hard her gauntlets creaked. She wanted to argue, to talk him out of it, but she knew his words carried an authority she could never match. She looked down at her shaking hands, cursing her own weakness.

Without saying another word, she turned and gestured for Hawk, Crow, Deer, and Cow to follow her. They began to flee down the dark tunnels.

They ran, leaving Owl behind. They abandoned their teacher to the dark because they were simply too weak to save him.

When they reached Kiyotaka, they roughly grabbed him and dragged him along, their hearts heavy with disgust and disappointment that they had to keep him alive. If he were dead, Owl wouldn't have to sacrifice himself.

This was the tragedy of it all. No one will ever cry for Owl; he was not important enough in this story. No one will ever cry for Parrot; she was just another face in the dark. They must have had their own pasts, but no one will ever read those chapters.

So they ran, dragging the liability with them, moving toward their final destination.

THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD.

***

THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD.

Alone in this dark passage, where the only light was the flickering of a dying torch, Owl stood on top of the ruined monster. He watched, waiting for the split meat to regenerate.

The torch went out. Total darkness swallowed the tunnel.

His hands reached to his head, but his fingers met metal, reminding him he was in armor. He turned off the memory showing how he looked to the world, letting reality settle in the dark.

Underneath the illusion, he was just an old man with a crooked back, loose skin, and white hair covering his face. He had gone completely bald from age, and his entire body was covered in deep wrinkles.

Owl looked up at the ceiling, seeing just fine without the torch. His green eyes shined in the dark.

"I know you are bored, Horror. This old man promises to entertain you until his heart explodes from exhaustion, but in return, I beg you to let those six children live."

THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD.

The blood, shattered bones, and fat the monster had puked out began to glide through the air, pulling back into the mass. The meat fused together, regaining its former glory and standing back up on two legs.

Owl just looked at it with eyes that could barely open because of his age.

"You think you are a nightmare, but you are wrong. You are not even scary to look at, you are just an animal. I have trapped real gods of horror during my glory days. They would eat you alive, animal."

The monster began to laugh, throwing forward its own fluids towards Owl.

Owl was already behind the monster.

The monster spun its hand around in a wild strike.

Owl was already in front of the monster.

The back of Owl began to move. Blood came rushing backward from his spine until it stopped in the middle, and new skin began to form. Two extra hands ripped through his flesh and bones from behind his back.

Those two hands moved with perfect precision, taking the bow and arrows from his back.

The monster moved to grab Owl by his hands, and it succeeded.

But the monster's hands let out a crushing sound and began to twist. Owl had grabbed its hands first. The bones broke off. Owl used his other hand to cut the limb away completely, then kicked the monster hard on the stomach to push it away.

The hands behind his back used the bow and took aim.

Owl disappeared, appearing right beside the falling hand.

The hands behind his back shot. The arrow pierced straight through the falling hand, pinning it hard to the rocks.

All this happened even before the monster's body could hit the ground.

Owl, with his aged legs, jumped as his medieval style armor came back into his hand. He expanded the heavy metal helmet and forced it down on the monster's head, beginning to twist it.

The monster tried to hit Owl with its other hand. But blood sprayed out from Owl's shoulder, and another hand came out, holding a sword, cutting down the second hand before it could land.

The hand behind Owl's back took aim again, pinning the second fallen hand to the rocks above.

Owl twisted the helmet again.

The hand on his shoulder disappeared. Suddenly, blood began spraying from his legs as two more hands appeared down below, cutting off both of the monster's legs and pinning them to the stone too.

Owl twisted his hands one final time, and the head finally came off, trapped entirely inside the medieval helmet.

Owl disappeared from the top of the monster, returning back to where he originally started.

Finally, the monster's body realized what had just happened. It began to bleed its fluids, spraying everywhere. The execution had happened so fast that the flesh couldn't even bleed until it was over.

"I have seen true terror in my life, Horror. I will be a far more enjoyable toy for you to break than those children. I will let you play with me like a puppet, just let them reach the surface safely."

Each corner of this passage now had the legs and arms of the monster pinned by arrows, and its head was locked inside Owl's medieval helmet.

THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD.

All the limbs and the head went flying back to the center of the passage, fusing back to the monster as it was revived all over again.

Cough. Cough.

Owl coughed heavy blood into his hand.

"I have grown so weak."

The heartbeat of the Horror calmed down a little, acknowledging the offering.

Hearing this, a small smile came on Owl's face.

"I am grateful to you for showing mercy."

He moved towards the walls, cutting his own finger deep. A lot of blood came out, and he began to leave a final message on the stone wall.

Once the message was done, he turned his back to the wall, looking straight at the fully restored beast.

"I have two hours of life left inside me. I will butcher you for every single second of it, animal."

After saying that, Owl began to run the other way, down the path opposite of where those six went, and the monster followed him into the dark.

No one knows what happened then. In this story, there's no need to show a proper ending, nor a beginning.

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

***

They kept running down the tunnels while dragging Kiyotaka.

It was a pathetic sight in a pathetic place.

Kiyotaka was trying to hold his ground, screaming as he was dragged by Parrot. They didn't know what would be considered a betrayal, so they couldn't risk trying to render him unconscious.

Kiyotaka was terrified. He was completely paralyzed with fear, thinking that Owl had died because of him and that they would kill him too just to get revenge. He was terrified of everything.

Even the smell of flesh wouldn't let him breathe.

With every passing second, his body was bashed against the rocks, and even the echo of his own screams was enough to frighten him.

But then, everything went silent. He fully regained consciousness, suddenly understanding exactly what had just taken place.

They had reached the very bottom of the labyrinth.

***

I had purposely tried not to get close to anyone once I opened my eyes in this trapped land because of my Flaw, fearing that if it activated at the wrong time, I would be dead.

I had even braced myself for Kath's death, but maybe there was a part of me that wanted to see her succeed and go beyond my calculations... Maybe after seeing everything she pulled off, I secretly believed that she might.

That single thing is what caused this: hope. I had hoped for her to pull it off, and that is what made me weak.

I tried to somehow, someway become human in a world where humanity gets you killed...

So, is it time to change and accept myself as a monster?

...

No.

If this is what it takes for me to look at myself and see a human, then that's what it takes. I knew the path forward was going to be filled with suffering once I decided I wanted to be one. Very rarely do monsters wear human skin just to live among them, after all.

If I were to become a monster now, it would make everyone who has died because of me meaningless. Even if it throws me into danger more times, I will continue to strive to become human.

Humanity... is not a weakness after all. I want to believe what Jet said was right.

I remembered an answer that Kath once gave me.

Tell me, target, have you ever performed a lie so perfectly that you deceived your own reflection? Because I do it every second. In reality, my chest is just an empty cavity. You see me acting bubbly? Fake. Disgusted? Fake. I even do this in my own mind, playing the comedian and giving myself fake hopes of a last mission just to mimic a human being, because the truth is, I exist without emotions.

That's what I have been doing ever since I first opened my eyes, and even now: giving myself false hope.

Hope... what a dangerous tool.

If my memory served me right, we were at the very bottom of the labyrinth in other words, closest to the Horror Beyond Comprehension. Why did they run so close to it?

I opened my eyes; we were indeed at the very bottom. There was no uneven floor here, just smooth stone that ran straight for meters without a single bump, and the light was as bright as the surface... There was no darkness.

I moved my head around to see that Hawk was trying to comfort Crow, Cow, and Deer, and in front of me stood Parrot... I couldn't see her face beyond the helmet, but her posture made it obvious.

She stared directly at me, threw the bracelet, and then finally opened her mouth. She was surprisingly calm.

"Don't worry, I am not gonna blame you. The oversight was mine, considering a piece of coal to be a diamond. Put on the bracelet."

I had no reason not to. Because of me, Owl had died. If she were to beat me for hours instead, I wouldn't even hold a grudge.

I put on the bracelet.

She removed her helmet and sat on the stone too. I could see how red her eyes had gotten.

"Or, in reality, were we just outmatched... Tell me, did you use us in case your Flaw got activated?"

...

When I made that Binding Vow with Kath, I knew the risks. If she were to die while I was in a bad situation, things would get problematic for me. So, my plan was simple: I would either hide somewhere safe until [Divine Ledger] came back to me, or find others and force them to protect me.

I was so [Embraced by Fate] that they asked me to make the Binding Vow themselves; otherwise, I would have had no choice but to psychologically corner them into making it with me...

Logically speaking, they were actually lucky to suggest the Binding Vow themselves... The alternative methods I had prepared were not so friendly.

"Yes."

I saw her close her eyes tightly in pain, putting her hand over them. I could see her hands clenching into hard fists.

"I won't kill you. Owl always taught me that we shouldn't seek revenge just because one of us died. We have killed hundreds; if everyone starts going eye for an eye, the world will go blind."

She was... terrifying. Being able to look past the death of your mentor and keep your emotions in check was an awe-inspiring level of mental control.

It makes me wonder just how brutal the Trapped Land really is.

"I won't ask you what your Flaw is, but tell me, until we reach the sky, what are the chances of it activating again?"

The chances of my Flaw activating again... The biggest threat had passed, and I had made sure not to get close to any of these five, so even if they died, my Flaw wouldn't trigger.

"I can confidently say that unless a one-in-a-million event happens, my Flaw won't be activated."

After saying that, I took the bracelet off, threw it back towards her, and questioned her.

"Once we reach the surface, will you kill me?"

Everything she had said until now could just be a facade to use me.

"I won't kill you unless you do something that harms us."

The bracelet lit up green.

I got up and walked toward the edge of the smooth surface, wiping my eyes. They were wet from all the crying that had just happened.

I reached the edge and looked ahead.

It was just a void. Not even darkness, but a pure void.

I picked up a stone and threw it. It stopped midair and just hung there. Horrors Beyond Comprehension don't follow the rules of time.

I wished to see the horrors that cannot be comprehended. For someone who was curious about many things, of course I wanted to see something completely beyond understanding...

But perhaps I am too weak for it right now... I will come back for you, Horror Beyond Comprehension.

I walked back and looked up at the tunnel we came from. In reality, there were over a thousand tunnels ending here. Every single tunnel probably led to this exact spot.

I went back to Parrot.

"Are you sure that Owl figured out a way for us to get up?"

She jumped up into the tunnel and extended her hand to me.

"He never complimented me, but when I recruited you, it was the first time within the Trapped Land that he complimented someone. He said, 'Good job.' Perhaps he saw something in you. Let's get back to where we left him."

Is that so... He saw something in me. I wonder if he saw a monster or a human.

If I want to act like a human, I should really be embarrassed about the clothes I peed in.

But if the others aren't embarrassed about it, why should I be?

I took her hand.

We began climbing up the tunnels, walking for a few minutes. No matter how much she tried to hide it, I could see it: she was shaking...

If they had tried to kill me, I would have had no choice but to reply in kind, but they hadn't... It just told me that Hawk was someone very important to them.

She said, laughing a little bitterly.

"Hey, tell me... how do you do it? Not holding any grudges and being able to treat everything logically no matter how unfair it is... I really want to kill you right now."

I had no idea either.

"I don't want to be this way either. I want to hold regrets over others and get angry when they annoy me, but I am just not able to. That's just how life is; you always want what others have."

She looked at me once and threw the bracelet again... I wore it.

"Tell me, if Owl failed and the monster attacks us, do you have any idea how we are going to survive?"

Actually... I did. I had finally understood everything this monster had to offer.

"When I first woke up here, I was surrounded by the dead bodies of other humans in the dark. After finding my way out, as I told you, I found the monster eating another human, but it puked them out."

She might hold a grudge against me for a long time, but the only way to present myself as an important key to their survival was to reveal the secrets.

"When you sent me to lure the monster, I went back to where I led it to the seven humans, and I found out that it had not actually eaten any of them it had just taken a piece of their flesh... That got me thinking."

After saying that, I went silent for a while as we kept walking.

"Why was the monster killing others in the first place? There are literally dead bodies everywhere. That's when I understood it. When the monster finally ate Bear and stepped toward me, the Horror got angry and commanded it to spill him back out."

After hearing what I said, she stopped, walked toward some nearby corpses, and began taking chunks of flesh from them.

"Owl's words align with this too. He said that the Horror has become bored and is just looking for entertainment. To top it all off, look at how malnourished and skinny the monster is, with a practically non-existent stomach. It can't eat or drink anything, and if it does, the Horror will get angry and make it puke it out."

This was the true mystery of this labyrinth.

"We are just toys that are kept alive because the Horror feels like it. Owl perhaps succeeded in making a deal, or maybe he didn't. Everything depends on how the Horror feels."

After that, we walked in silence until we were near where we had left Owl, before she finally spoke again.

"Tell me, if your Flaw hadn't activated, would you have helped us by telling us how to defeat it?"

...

"Yes, I would have. I needed all of you more than you needed me."

We finally stepped inside the passage and were welcomed by the sound of melting and sizzling... The entire passage was covered in cyan fluid, lighting everything faintly. The fluid flowed in the completely opposite direction from where we had come. It was everywhere except for one place: on one of the walls, something was written in blood. I began to walk toward it to read what it said.

...

I heard Parrot running away, following the cyan fluid. I didn't stop her; she was hoping that Owl had somehow survived.

I inspected the passage for a while before deciding to leave. What an interesting message it was.

I went back to the tunnels we used to get here but stopped midway. Someone was fallen on their knees in front of me, just staring down... It was Parrot.

But hadn't she gone the opposite way?

In that moment, a barrage of questions entered my mind.

What if she isn't real?

"Wait here."

After saying that to her, I turned around and began running toward the cyan fluid. It wound from tunnel to tunnel, splattered on every single rock.

I took a left turn, more cyan fluid. Right turn, same answer. No matter where I went, it was just the same scenario: a slaughter of the monster... yet there was nothing else. Following the cyan trail, it suddenly stopped, leaving just one tunnel in the path.

I followed the tunnel, and after one last turn.

I saw it.

I ended up right behind Parrot.

I didn't say anything and just sat down too, my back against the rocks... I heard her muttering.

"We are just puppets for the Horror Beyond Comprehension. They can make us go anywhere according to their will."

In this labyrinth, the horror was never the monster. It had always been the entity we couldn't comprehend... just playing with us to relieve its boredom.

I promised myself that I would figure out the pattern of this Horror Beyond Comprehension.

We sat there for a while until we got up and headed back down. In accordance with the message left behind by Owl, I asked Hawk to show me what surrounded this place up on the surface.

He complied, looking a little confused, and showed it to me.

It immediately caught my attention... It was pinkish-gray on the outside and pale pink on the inside... It was over a hundred kilometers tall and shaped like a caterpillar, starting from the lower right, going straight up the right side, turning to go from right to left across the top, then going straight down the left side, and finally curving into the bottom center to exit.

My breath caught for a moment, and I remember grabbing Hawk's shoulder, telling him to show me more, but he hadn't gone beyond this.

Then, my Flaw... it activated once more.

I lost myself once again, and this time, I made a promise I would have never normally made.

It was:

The gray color of the monster makes sense now, as does everything that has been happening until now.

I remember laughing then. I laughed, and it echoed through the cave; I laughed for minutes.

So I am nothing but bacteria? A germ? A disease? Is that what you are saying?

I laughed for half an hour.

Trapped Land. Hah. Trapped Land, is it?

I laughed for the horror to laugh back at.

IS THIS WHAT IT MEANS TO BE [TRAPPED] IF IT IS I PROMISE YOU I WILL CHANGE WHAT IT MEANS TO BE [TRAPPED]

I laughed for myself.

I WILL REMOVE THE TRAPPED LAND ITSELF IF THAT'S WHAT IT TAKES IF THE ONLY WAY FORWARD IS THROUGH DESTRUCTION THEN I WILL SHOW YOU JUST THAT

I laughed for the others.

NO ONE HAS BEEN ABLE TO CHANGE WHAT IT MEANS RIGHT NOT EVEN THE RULERS ATTEMPT IT ANYMORE I WILL START MY JOURNEY TO CHANGE WHAT IT MEANS TO BE [TRAPPED] BY KILLING THOSE VERY SAME RULERS WHO ARE TOO COWARDLY TO TRY

Ilaughed for destruction.

I lost myself, and that brought me happiness.

I wanted to feel impressed without having that feeling stripped away from me.

I wanted to smile at the Trapped Land's mystery while remaining true to myself.

I laughed, but I wasn't myself then. Is it really laughing if you aren't you, or are you just another [trapped] soul?

I wonder.

One thing was for sure.

In the next three hours, I am escaping this labyrinth.

***

How was this chapter?

RIP to Owl, who was introduced only to get killed.

I don't really have anything else to say.

Peace.

Chapter 42 - Horror deal,