There it was again.
The ugly, grinning face - just inches from his own.
Kassian had grown so used to it that, despite the terror etched into every feature of the beast, he no longer flinched as violently. The fleeting episodes that once brought him near collapse had lost their edge. He had adapted to their rhythm, to the sudden snap of darkness and the grinning maw greeting him. But this time, something was different.
This time, he wasn't waking up.
A cold, unnatural air pressed against his body, slowly devouring the warmth clinging to his skin. The realization struck him like a falling stone: he was still here. He was staying.
His body shivered. Involuntarily. Not from cold, but dread.
The stench came next - sour, foul, putrid. Like rotting meat left to bake under a sunless sky. It crawled up his nostrils, turned his stomach, made his knees wobble.
With his senses heightened by fear, Kassian could finally take in the monstrous form before him in excruciating detail.
Vile strands of saliva oozed between the creature's jagged, serrated teeth, flowing from its maw in thick, steady ropes. They dripped with weight, splattering against the stone with sickening wet slaps. Was he food? Was this some cruel prelude to being devoured alive? If so, what was it waiting for?
The monster's form was almost - insultingly - human. Its torso bore a grotesque resemblance to a man's but bloated and twisted out of proportion. It hunched over on long, reverse-jointed legs that bent too far in the wrong direction. Its serpentine neck, a thick and muscular column of dark sinew, craned low so its eyeless face hovered level with his own.
Short arms, disproportionately thick, folded across its chest in an unnatural posture. Each of the four fingers ended in crimson claws that pulsed faintly, as if still slick with fresh blood. Its entire body was streaked with blood-red lines that split its dark green flesh like cracks in shattered glass. And that grin - that grin - widened, impossibly, until it split halfway across its face.
'Why isn't it attacking?' Kassian wondered, heart pounding in his ears.
He wasn't stupid enough to think it was harmless. Everything about it screamed predator. Every inch of his body told him this was death waiting to happen. His instincts told him to run -
but he didn't.
Running would be the worst possible choice.
His childhood fascination with the old Earth's wilderness had taught him something: the moment you ran from a predator, you became prey.
Still, this wasn't some beast from an archive documentary. This was a nightmare given form, a creature pulled from the deepest corners of fear itself. How was he supposed to survive something like this?
Paralyzed, Kassian stood frozen in a stand-off. Neither moved. Neither blinked. But his mind raced.
Was it sleeping? Was it bound somehow? Or worse - was it aware of him, and simply… waiting?
He needed a sign.
As if in answer, a pebble -
barely larger than a coin - crumbled from the ceiling and bounced off the creature's head.
Kassian's lungs seized. His eyes widened. This was it. He was going to be killed.
But the monster remained still.
No snarl. No sudden lunge. No reaction.
A glimmer of hope pierced through the cloud of dread, and his survival instinct kicked in.
Quietly, slowly, he lifted his foot and set it back behind him. His boot pressed into the damp stone with a soundless step. He paused, his body taut as a drawn wire, eyes fixed on the monster for any sign of awareness.
Still nothing. The grin held its terrible shape. The claws remained folded. The chest rose and fell slowly, rhythmically.
He moved again.
Step by careful step, Kassian crept backward, away from the beast. Each footfall deliberate, every breath strained.
By the third step, something strange happened - his hands, stiff with cold, began to tremble uncontrollably. His fingers twitched with a violent energy, as if only now realizing how close they were to death. That aura the creature exuded - Kassian could feel it thinning, like a pressure being released.
It was sinister, oppressive… and palpable.
Only when he'd finally put significant distance between them did his mind begin to clear. His vision, no longer tunneled, expanded to the hall around him.
It had once been a grand place. He could see it now - the towering columns that stretched up into a ceiling too dark to perceive, the intricate carvings running along the archways and walls, etched with a grace that no machine could replicate. The stonework glimmered faintly, not with light, but with memory, like echoes of something once divine.
A temple, perhaps? Or a palace?
Yet the architecture was alien. It didn't belong to any civilization he'd read about, and Kassian had consumed entire libraries of human history. These carvings curved and spiraled in ways that defied geometry. They pulsed subtly, as if alive.
And the light - where was it coming from? There were no torches. No lamps. No skylights. The entire space should've been swallowed in pitch black.
Yet somehow, he could see. Every contour, every groove, every speck of dust glimmered faintly in an invisible glow.
He furrowed his brows, questions spiraling.
When he returned his attention to the monster, it hadn't moved. It still bowed before something at the center of the hall - something shrouded in the gloom, some kind of mechanism.
He didn't dare find out what it was.
Kassian turned.
The only exit he saw was behind him - a narrow corridor extending into more darkness.
He took a step, fighting the pull of the creature's aura. But just as he turned, his heart lurched.
A second figure stood just inches from him.
Another one.
Smaller - barely taller than him - but shaped almost identically to the monstrosity behind him. It was streaked with the same bloody red veins, its skin the same dark green. Its mouth hung open in a frozen grin, dripping thick, ropey saliva.
And like the other, it was bowing.
Kassian nearly yelped, but caught himself. He hadn't taken a step backward - thank the stars. Had he bumped into it, he might've woken whatever slumber it was in.
'Damn,' he thought, slowly sidestepping the creature. 'Why do I always almost kiss these things?'
He moved around it with quiet precision.
The corridor ahead yawned open like the throat of some ancient beast, but he had no choice. His instincts screamed at him to leave this place, to follow the path forward.
And so he did.
The corridor was long, lined with statuesque creatures just like the last - smaller, hunched, and locked in a forever grin. All of them frozen mid-bow, as if time itself had stopped.
Kassian wove through them, careful not to brush against a single one. Every heartbeat echoed like thunder in his ears.
He didn't know how long he walked.
Minutes? Hours?
Eventually, a faint glow shimmered at the end of the corridor. A room. A way out!
The closer he got, the lighter his steps became.
The corridor opened up into a chamber unlike any he had seen.
Sunlight—real sunlight—poured through a massive hole in the far wall, casting golden rays across the debris-littered floor. The air here felt different. Lighter. Less hostile.
But the room was wrecked. Chunks of stone were scattered, entire slabs missing from the walls. It looked as if something with an unnatural strength had thrown a tantrum here.
To his left, he noticed something - an altar. It stood crooked among the debris, surrounded by overturned candlesticks and shattered offerings. Yet it glowed faintly, silvery, like moonlight made solid.
He hesitated, glancing behind him. No movement. Nothing followed.
Something called him forward. He obeyed.
The altar was crafted from some silvery metal, too smooth to be stone. Embedded into it was a golden hand, clenched in an eternal fist. Within that fist, something pulsed - a light, faint but strange, as if it was watching him.
Kassian's gaze dropped.
Carved into the floor before the altar were symbols, delicate and ancient. Beneath them, a wooden dagger lay untouched.
It was inscribed with the same strange script.
He dropped to a knee.
"What is this?" he whispered.
He touched the dagger. The moment his fingers wrapped around the hilt, something awakened inside him.
Power - raw and ancient - coursed through his veins like lightning. His mind expanded, eyes glowing with sudden clarity.
He could read the symbols.
'You belong to the land.'
He blinked.
'Huh?'
He turned his attention to the floor carvings. The words became clearer now.
'I commit this in an act of love and defiance.'
"What…?" Kassian muttered. "Was someone trying to impress a goddess or curse their ex?"
He snorted quietly. Humor. A weak shield against fear.
Then, he rose to his feet, the wooden dagger firm in his grip.
Only then did he notice something in his other hand.
His fingers were clenched tightly, as if guarding something without realizing it. He opened them slowly.
A flint lighter.
His brows furrowed. Where--? Then it came back to him in fragments. The man in the brown jacket - his voice, urgent, words lost to the pain. Had he given this to him? There had been more, maybe... but if so, they were likely left behind in the grand hall, dropped without notice.
He slipped the lighter into his pocket.
Then his eyes turned back to the altar.
Something was calling him - pulling him toward the end of whatever strange ritual had been started. He needed to finish this. He needed to leave before the silence broke and those creatures stirred again.
He stepped forward and reached out.
One hand raised, index finger extended, Kassian reached for the faint light nestled inside the golden fist.
The glow flickered softly from within the clenched palm, waiting.
His finger brushed the cold metal.
Instantly, the light sparked to life - wild, bright, alive. It leapt into his finger like lightning, threading through nerves and sinew until it reached his wrist. The glow pulsed beneath his skin, a radiant flame struggling to stay caged.
At first, it tickled - a tingling current humming inside his veins.
Then it turned.
The sensation sharpened, shifting from warmth to fire.
Pain.
Searing, raw, unnatural.
His entire arm lit up with agony as the light surged deeper, burning like it was never meant to enter flesh. Kassian staggered back, lips parting, breath hitching.
He wanted to scream.
But he didn't.
He couldn't.
Some primal instinct took over, buried deeper than pain - an instinct that knew silence was survival. No roar of agony. No cry for help. Only movement.
His legs moved on their own.
He turned and sprinted for the jagged hole in the wall, the one where light poured in like a promise. The moment he reached it, he jumped.
His silhouette was cast in gold, framed by the dying light, as he soared through the breach - out of the broken room, and into whatever lay beyond.
And then - gravity.
Kassian wasn't ready for what came next.
He hadn't checked what lay beyond the hole in the wall. He hadn't thought. All he knew was that he was ten feet in the air - and falling fast.
Below, broken walls jutted out of the ground like ancient bones, no taller than his knees. White stone debris littered the ground in chaotic heaps.
There was no grace in his landing.
His body hit the earth with a heavy thud, and a flash of sharp, blinding pain shot through him. His ankle twisted violently beneath his weight, bending in a way no joint ever should.
The burning in his hand flared with fresh fury, and now the agony was doubled - bone and soul, flesh and light.
Kassian nearly cried out.
But he didn't.
He bit it down, gritting his teeth so hard his jaw ached. Gasping, shivering, he began to crawl - dragging himself across the jagged ruins, ankle throbbing with every movement.
Time passed like fog.
Eventually, trembling and breathless, Kassian managed to pull himself upright. His steps were limp, faltering, every movement a test of endurance. Still, he pressed forward.
Then - he saw it.
A structure up ahead. Strange in shape, unfamiliar in purpose.
The sight broke something in him.
He dropped the wooden dagger. It clattered against the stone and slid out of reach.
Both hands clutched his right arm - the one that still pulsed with unbearable light. His knees hit the ground.
And then he screamed.
Not just from the pain - but from everything he'd held back. The sound was raw, inhuman - torn from somewhere deep and wordless.
The light surged wildly within him, blazing against his will. It thrashed inside his veins like a storm trying to tear its way out. His skin felt stretched, ready to split.
It was going to burst.
But then - something stirred.
Not the light.
Something else.
Something deeper. Something that had always been there, coiled in the dark.
From within his chest, it rose - slow and silent. Cold.
It flowed up his throat, through his shoulder, and down his arm like a river of ice. A numbing coolness flooded the fire, met it, surrounded it--
--and neutralized it. Like a servant to a master.
The strange light writhed for a moment. But against the cold, it was powerless.
The pain vanished.
The burning stopped.
And slowly, the light began to retreat - traveling back from his arm, into his chest.
It settled there, quiet at last.
And Kassian knew, in a way words couldn't explain:
It was part of him now.