Everything was dark.
I was waiting for light to enter my eyes, for the teleporation portal to take us where it was gonna take us. But even after seconds had passed, nothing happend. The darkness remained.
Panic rose within my heart, as I began frantically looking around and calling out.
"Isabella!"
"Zeke! Where are you guys?"
"Nico?"
No response came. The surroundings was eerily quiet, even my own voice echoed throughout the walls in a strange, otherworldly manner.
Has the teleporation failed? Was it actually a trap by Lord Tanmi this whole time? Have I died?
All these thoughts rose in me, making my heart sink further into despair. Perhaps I was jumping to conclusions too early, but at the moment, I was running purely on emotions. the very thought of dying made fear grasp on to my heart with a tight grip.
Even though I already died twice by now. One from being strangled by a cop, the other being suicide to escape a pocket dimension. This one….could truly be the end of me. The end of my second chance, the end of me getting a second shot at life. It was too much for me to bear. I tried so hard….
Just as I slowly began to wallow in self-pity, I felt a sudden strange sensation. Something around me felt cold, I felt something moving. Opening my eyes wide— I tried focusing on the sensation. As there was hardly any light, I couldn't see anything. But my hands could still feel and touch.
It wasn't something tangible. That much I was sure of. It felt more like a gas, slowly swirling around me. A mist? A fog? I couldn't be sure. But right now, I needed something like this to distract me from falling deeper into depression. So, I kept on playing with it.
As I did, the gas swirling around me began to move, slowly emitting a dim light. So dim that I could hardly see, even with it nearby. The light, however, did reveal what the gas was. As expected, it was a gray mist, swirling around me.
Along with the light, the mist began morphing, taking on a strange shape. With my eyes wide in curiosity, I observed silently, as I couldn't put into words what was really happening in front of me. Too many questions arose and I couldn't find which one to ask.
So, silently, all I did was watch as the swirling mist slowly began to take on a form. The form was about the same height as me, had four limbs— two arms and two legs. One head and a lean body. It was a very humonoid figure, just only missing the physical touch, made mainly out of the gray mist.
The light inside the mist, slowly began moving upwards from the chest, until it stopped right above the 'nose' and 'mouth' of the foggy humonoid figure, forming two little eyes.
They were of turquoise colour, with a faint twinkle, if one looked close enough— they would see a beautiful six-pointed star as a pupil, right in the middle of each eye. It was beautiful, unique and alluring. I couldn't help but stare at the figure in astonishment for a few seconds.
"What….are you?"
I heard my voice croak out, full of disbelief and wonder. I had many more important questions at the moment, so many of them, that I couldn't put them into words. Instead, all that came out was the one thing I really wanted to ask. It just slipped out of my tongue before I could stop myself.
The mist forming the figure swirled, yet the humonoid figure didn't move. Instead, I felt their eyes looking me up and down, almost like they were studying me. For some reason, it brought me a sense of discomfort, that I was being scrutinized so intently.
Eventually, the figure moved one misty hand and held it out, opening the palm. Inside the palm, was an orb. A palm-sized orb shining a dim curious turquoise light, the orb itself didn't seem to have a structure, but rather seemed intangible, made purely out of photons.
Then, I heard a voice. A voice that sounded both feminine and masculine sounded from the depths of the darkness— or perhaps it sounded from what was in front of me, I couldn't tell.
"You'll need this in the future."
The voice sounded so gentle, so tempting and so….powerful, that it made my heart wish to comply, to obey everyone of their whims. I didn't know how to feel about it. Even with all the questions in my mind, my tongue refused to move, refuse to obey me.
Instead, I found my hand reaching out, holding out my palm, opening it, expecting the orb. The misty humonoid figure didn't delay, they flicked a wrist and the orb came slowly flying down to my palm, being absorbed by my skin, vanishing into it.
Just then, I heard a familier voice sound inside my head;
[You have received a new equipment]
It seemed like the voice wanted to announce and say more, but it just glitched out and dissipated, almost like it was being suppressed by something. Such a thought brought me chills for some reason, as I stared at the misty humonoid figure warily.
Before I could even open my mouth, the figure spoke. Their voice ambiguous, a gentle mixture of feminine and masculine, a thousand voices mixed within.
"You shall return now. I can't keep you here any longer, Morgan…."
At those words, the world around me suddenly began crumbling— no, it wasn't crumbling. Rather, I began hallucinating that it was. A sharp pain in my head, indicating that i was about to wake up. Was I asleep? Unconscious? What was this place? Who is this misty figure? What was the equipment they gave me? And what purpose will they serve in the future?
Millions upon millions of questions arose, yet before I woke up, I managed to ask just a single question;
"What's you're name?"
The humonoid figure stared at me for a moment. Then, I saw their misty lips moving. Yet, for some reason, my ears couldn't catch their name. I refused to, no matter how hard I tried.
And before I knew it, my eyes shot open, before I squinted them at a sharp light entering my eyes, instinctively my hands moved up to cover my eyes.
"Morgan? Are you okay? You're sweating."
I heard a familier voice beside me, from the corner of my eye, I saw Isabella regarding me with concern. Then, my eyes drifted to myself, that's when I noticed how drenched of sweat I was. Not to mention, I smelled pretty bad as well. I would definitely take a nice long shower in the lake if we managed to head back….
"I'm fine."
I heard Zeke in front of me laugh out loud, the familier obnoxious laughter never getting old.
"Is the ever so fearless Morgz getting nervous?"
I rolled my eyes, retorting back humorously.
"When was I ever fearless? I'm pretty cowardly, if you ask me."
Still, after that experience, I began looking around my surroundings. Behind me, was a similar obsidian portal to what was below the floating island, with the obsidian structure and the gas-like red smoke acting as the entrance to the portal.
The surroundings, however, was what really surprised me. We were inside what seemed to be….a large hallway. There were no doors lined up on the sides, nor was it narrow. It was much better than those tunnels claustrophobic people would most likely die of fear in. The walls were a navy-blue, torchs lined up like it was leading us to some Dark Souls boss fight.
The vibe was there.
There was a crimson carpet on the floor, plus some pillars that seemed to hold up the ceiling. After some examining my surroundings, I quickly came to the realization that we were inside the spire we saw from below. This meant, we were successfully on the floating island!
At the same time, I heard Nico speak, as he was looking forward towards the end of the hall with anticipation.
"Can't you sense it? The pulsing, the weird throbbing sounds…."
We all turned towards him in confusion. Then, we slowly closed our eyes and began focusing on the sensation. When I did, I felt it. Right at the end of the hallway, was a large door. A large crimson door, with intricate patterns on its surface. But behind it….
I felt like something was alive behind it. The throbbing and pulsing sound….it was unmistakable. The Abyssal Heart. It was here. Even though I have never seen one ever in my life, for some reason, at that moment, I knew it was there.
Is this a feeling all players of The Mulligan has? I do vaguely remember Nico mentioning something about this.
"The Abyssal Heart!"
Zeke exclaimed, barely able to hide his anticipation and excitement at the very thought. Yet, he still remained wary and vigilant. Even though our goal was close, what stood behind the door was also dangerous. Lord Tanmi was there, along with number three, number one and number five.
"What are we waiting for? Let's go breach it!"
I was a bit surprised by the reckless decision by Nico. He seemed even more giddy than Zeke was. Which was suspicious. Even now, I still haven't dicerned the true intentions of Nico. Being wary of him is definitely the correct way to go.
'Ah right, I forgot!'
Took caught up in the situation, I had forgotten to even check the new tool I received. As Everyone began moving, I followed behind them, but my eyes were fixed on the screen.
The holographic game-like interface appeared before me, looking the same as always, illuminating my face in a blue light. I didn't bother checking unnecessary stuff, as I quickly moved to and opended the equipments log.
Equipment: [Fool's Rapier] [REDACTED]
'Huh? Redacted?'
This was very strange.
Without any hesitation, I clicked the equipment I received from the mysterious humonoid misty figure.
[REDACTED] Description: [REDACTED]
Skills: [???] [???] [???]
'What the hell?'
This was genuinely starting to creep me out. Why was the name, the description and even the skills of this equipment replaced with Question marks? It's almost like the overseer of The Mulligan doesn't want me finding out what they are.
But why? Are they so powerful, that it's better if I don't find out?
Nonetheless, I could always summon it and give it a try by applying innate spirit. If they are not passive skills, that would result in something happening. I was sure of that. However, if they are passive skills, no matter how much innate spirit i apply, I would never find out what it does.
With a dejected sigh, I reluctantly dismissed the screen. Right now isn't the time to be playing with the new toy. The mysterious humonoid misty figure shall also remain at the back of my head. For now, atleast. At the moment, I should be mainly focusing on fighting Lord Tanmi and what remains of his servants, before destroying the Abyssal Heart.
Oh, and I have to do all this while keeping an eye in Nico and waiting for some sort of river to appear, so that I could try finding the key and freeing Movarathos for his spirit bind.
Yes, even after everything he has said to me, I still haven't given up on making him my spirit bind. Something about the way he acted that day was off and gave me a weird feeling, that he was forcefully perhaps putting up an act.
Or maybe, this was just my wishful thinking.
While lost in my thoughts, before I knew it, the four of us was now standing right before the massive red wooden door, with intricate patterns on its surface.
All of us exchanged silent, meaningful looks. Before Zeke reached forward, placed both his palms at the surface of the grand door, then pushed with all his might
The door creaked, slowly but surely, opening up and revealing a large hall within it. When the door had fully opended and Zeke retreated back, dusting his hands and breathless, a powerful voice boomed from inside.
"Surface-dwellers…..you have finally arrived. Now, don't waste my time. Which one of you knows the location of where Movarathos is hiding?"
At the same time, the all so familier voice echoed inside our heads;
[Boss fight initiated!]
Simultaneously, all our screens lit up before us, turned to the mission log.
Mission in progress:—
Mission Name: [Dreadful Tunnels]
Mission Class: C-Class → B-Class.
B-Class Tier: Low–Tier.
Mission Goal: Find the Abyssal Heart and Destroy it to escape the Tunnels within the set Time limit.
Timelimit: 17:58:30 → 30:00
Rewards: [275 Abyssal Fragments] [50% chance of recieving a rare equipment]
Punishment: Death.
Another log appeared right after it.
Boss Fight:—
Boss Name: [Lord Tanmi]
Boss Class: B-Class.
Boss Tier: Low-Tier.
Goal: Kill Lord Tanmi.
Rewards: [50 Abyssal Fragments]
Punishment: None.
All of us stood there, stunned and frozen into place. We had just watched the mission increase in difficulty, the time being reduced by a large margin.
"…Well, shit."
I heard Zeke say. And I sure as hell felt the same way.