Chapter 27: 27 – Swarm

The dungeon trembled, deafening rumbles echoed through the halls, the floor undulated beneath their feet and walls jutted out from every solid surface around them. A transformation was underway.

“Oink!”

“Hold on!”

“Stay together!”

“Daaamn! Yeres, hold tiiight!”

“Help us!”

“Ferraine, grab the baits!”

“Almost there.... shit!”

Slllamaga and X stumbled while the walls shifted and tossed them around. The pedestal with the orb of light had vanished and a chasm took its place.

“Hold on!”

“Run!”

“Ahh!”

Trampling over one another with each quake, the baits had no chance to escape the hole that sucked them whole. They fell for quite a while, deeper into the depths of the dungeon. The slope gradually gentled, bringing them to another level. A heavy cloak of darkness blanketed their surroundings.

“Holy shit! Where are we?! Heiran! Ferraine!”

Slllamaga’s nervousness shot through the roof in the absence of any light.

“Cooldown your tits... or whatever you have.”

“You! It was you!”

“Maybe...”

She searched for him in the profound darkness, but the elf evaded her. Since landing, he had noticed a faint glimmer at the sides of the new hallway, vanishing and reappearing doodles emitted a soft light, gradually illuminating his surroundings.

Slllamaga let out a loud yell of exhaustion and frustration, gasping for breath.

“Fuck, fuck! We are going to die here! Fuck!”

“Calm down, will you?”

“I can’t... breathe... I...”

 "I know you can't see it, but there's a line of light around us and it keeps going deep down this hallway. So, let's catch our breath and find a way out of this craphole. We good? You crazy creature.”

After a while, she brought her nerves back under control.

"At least it's not fish or mollusk or any other damn thing."

"Great priorities you beasts have.”

“You had to be an elf. Always thinking yourselves so superior, hiding behind a disgusting mask of compassion. Fuck you all.”

"You're barking up the wrong tree, creature."

“See, even when I can’t see your face, I can feel you disdain in your every word.”

“You’re not wrong. And keep feeling yourself inferior all you want, as long as you keep it to yourself.”

“You son of a bitch, if it wasn’t for these chains and darkness, I’d beat some sense into you.”

“Are you on your period? Wait, do you freaks have pussies? You are a female, right?”

“Seriously? That’s your question?” Slllamaga frowned at his query. “I am a female, and by mermyd standards, I’m a real treat, a beauty!”

“I think someone lied to you along the way.”

“Fuck you!”

An awkward silence filled the air.

“And yes, we do have...”

“What?”

"Pussies! You freak!"

"Whoa!" That truth really shocked him. “What a convenient fact.”

“Why wouldn’t we?” She sighted. 

After a while longer, X stood up.

“Enough rest, come on.”

He pulled the chains binding them together while she followed close behind. They advanced slower in this hallway than they had with the shadows. Maybe it was the silence, or the darkness, but anxiety spread, filling bones with dread and thoughts with nightmares. But they could do no more than keep walking down the path and hope for either salvation or a quick death. 

Slllamaga grabbed onto the elf’s left arm.

"Hey you-"

Her body trembled.

"Whatever..."

The two lost souls trudged through the suffocating darkness. Although for X it was quite different, he followed the intermittently glowing foreign pictographic language, which he thought of as childish doodles.

[How the mighty have fallen.]

He didn’t answer the apparition, shrouded in an eternal penumbra.

[You weren’t that mighty anyway, but at least you were something... even if your soul was rotten.]

“You finished?”

Slllamaga released his arm.

“Finally...”

“It, it was-”

“We are here!”

Darkness surrounded them.

“Here where?”

“There’s a huge light-egg in front of us... on that wall ahead.”

“Eh? Where?! What?”

X saw it, crystal clear. They had reached the end of the hallway, a massive wall stood before them, and a radiant orb shined fixed to it. They approached.

“A wall! Are we trapped here forever?”

The elf no longer listened to her nagging. He got closer to the orb, an egg-like object, and put his hands over it, tracing its surface, going around, down, and up again. A warm, tingling sensation flowed from his fingertips, down his arms, and throughout his body. He smiled.

“Elf? What's happening?”

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A deafening noise rang in their ears while the ground shook beneath their feet. The writing on the wall glowed brightly then vanished.

“Shit! Not again! What did you do?!”

“Magik!”

The wall before them split in two, with brilliant light shining through the crack as it opened.

“Ah!”

A frenzied chorus of chirring filled the room as they stepped inside, growing louder and more intense as their eyes adjusted to the flood of light. The ground beneath their feet steadied, and the noises subsided.

Before any of them could question the sounds, their eyes widened at the scene awaiting them. A circular chamber revealed itself, with no ceiling in sight. A massive circular table, lined with chairs, stood at the center. At the opposite side, a glittering throne, its golden surface studded with precious stones and intricate engravings, crowned the room. Mountains of shining gold pieces blanketed the throne room, covering every inch of the stone furnishings.

“Yes! Fucking yes!”

Obscene quantities of every kind of valuable gems, magik scrolls and items, and other treasures littered the room, amidst stacks of gold and silver coins. Slllamaga regained her lost spirit and grinned wildly while yanking the elf towards the glittering piles. Climbing to the top of the nearest pile, she threw handfuls of coins into the air, then let out a triumphant shout, “We are fucking rich! Look at this... wealth.” And jumped ass-first into the rivers of treasure below, pulling the elf along. 

"Hey you, wait!" 

But nothing could reach her as she swam in the golden seas. X stood speechless, unable to believe the amount of gold before him. He took a coin and bit it.

“This is authentic gold. Holy...” 

“Ah! Finally, my days of sucking and fucking humans without end are over!” Slllamaga fell into a trance, realizing her wildest dreams had just come true.

On top of a golden pile, it spoke.

 [Aren’t you going to celebrate like her?] 

“Yeah well, I'd rather be basking in the sun's warmth than wandering aimlessly in an underground maze. Although, if I make it out alive, yeah sure, I’ll celebrate for a week straight.”

[What a killjoy. But an unsurprisingly sober assessment.] 

"Nothing comes for free.”

[You are the one to talk, breathing, eating, shitting, and walking once more.] 

“Those merciful demon-gods... I appreciate you remembering me, I’ve got to thank them, personally.”

"Psshht."

 "Mhmm?" X thought he heard something.

 "Psshht!" 

The noise repeated, like someone calling for his attention. It hadn’t been Slllamaga, she sat over hard metal counting how many gold coins she needed to buy a castle in fuck-knows-where. The elf turned his sights towards a barred window, darkness at the other side. Suddenly, a figured appeared behind the bars, shrouded in shadows.

“Run!”

“What the-!” 

The elf stumbled backwards, eyes darting to the barred window. But whatever had been there was gone.

“Did anyone else see it?” He spun around to Slllamaga, who was making gold rain over her. "Hey, Slllamaga!"

Her laughter echoed in the throne chamber. She lived in her own world.

"Human's whore, mollusk, you fucking fish!" He gritted his teeth through the pain, but it worked. His sharps word sliced through her fantasies.

"What the fuck did you say?"

He struggled to catch his breath, grasping a nearby chair for support. 

"All this gold is great and all... but we do need to find an exit."

“Uh...” Slllamaga glanced around. He had a point. While they surveyed their surroundings, a growing buzzing sound caught X’s attention.

"You hear that?"

"What-? Wait, yes..." Slllamaga confirmed, tilting her head towards the sound. The buzz grew louder, more intense, until it was a cacophony of tiny sounds, rising fast. 

Unexpectedly, a black, deformed cricket with six eyes, serrated teeth, four legs, and a head larger than its body emerged from a pile of gold. Its front legs were similarly disproportionate. Slllamaga stood up and both stepped backwards as the alien insect jumped in their direction.

“The fuck!”

“What is that?”

“I don’t know... A creature from the dungeon?”

And then another one appeared, followed by another and another. The insect-like beasts poured in from the ceiling, walls, and every hole in sight, forming a black mass that grew at an exponential rate, obscuring half the throne room with no end in sight. The swarm of insects jumped closer and closer to Slllamaga and X, who were now at the entrance of the throne room. They backed away as the black mass approached, darkness at their backs and another growing before them.

One of the insects landed near them, opening its mouth impossibly wide and taking chunks out of Slllamaga's robe. 

"Shit!"

"Run!" X shouted, leading the way as they bolted from the throne room.

Both baits ran as fast as they could. X strained himself to his limit to keep up with Slllamaga, who pulled his chain, making his run harder.

“Faster! You fuck!”

“I’m freaking trying my best!”

Each time they glanced back, hundreds of violet eyes stared back, closer each time, their bodies lost to the darkness.

“Fuck fuck!”

“Ah... ah.” 

The elf’s tired self had barely any energy left to keep running when Slllamga stopped. They had reached the steep and slippery slope they had slid down earlier. She attempted to climb up, but it proved an impossible task. X spun around and faced the approaching swarm.

“We are done for!” 

“Most likely...”

“Fuck! Why me!? No, no! Please!” 

"This is it."

X positioned himself in front of Slllamaga, arms outstretched, and gazed at the incoming creatures. She viewed his silhouette, standing tall against a violet sea.

“Goodbye, elf...” With tears flowing down her face, she clung to his clothes. 

At the last moment, a second before impact, X made a diving leap to the right. The swarm crashed into a fear stricken and surprised Slllamaga.

“Ah! Ahrggg!”

Countless critters swarmed Slllamaga's flesh. The crunching sounds and her screams, which quickly turned into gurgles, gave X a vivid imagination of her fate. He pressed himself against the wall, knowing his turn would come soon enough. No more screams. He tugged the chains, and they came loose. Whatever those creatures were, they hungered. Soon, their violet eyes fixed on him.

[Redemption]

“Fuck your-! Ah!” Pain distorted the elf’s face, but he no longer cared. He braced for the end that he had tried to stretch thin. 

Suddenly, the violet eyes before him froze. He sensed a presence behind him.

“Ois’ilea verak’tum bara no’s!”

He heard an unfamiliar language and turned his head to see a figure emerge from a hole in the wall. The figure pulled X to safety and the hole promptly closed, the violet eyes disappearing along with it.

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