Sorry for being super late. I was busy with real life matters, and I stumbled upon a writer's block so my first draft was a complete mess. I didn't want to upload a half-assed chapter so I decided to rewrite it. I don't know if this rewrite is better, but I feel more satisfied with it. I know it's not perfect, and there are definitely places that could go with more improvement, but hey, I am not a professional writer nor do I have unlimited time so here is what you get. Anyway, sorry for the super late chapter. Also, I kind of hate it when writers just drop stories without any warning so rest assured that if I do end up deciding to drop this thing, I will be sure to inform the readers and put this story up for adoption. Without further ado, enjoy!
Pure dead silence. That was what filled the final floor. While the third floor was filled with the sounds of clicking, and the DF was filled with the sounds of monsters and wind, the final floor had nothing other than Pyrrha's own breathing. It was suffocating in a way, and Pyrrha was grateful that the cavern did not echo the sounds for some odd reason. So far, the final floor was going smoothly except for one teensy weensy problem.
"Don't worry Pyrrha. The first floor is pretty easy Pyrrha. The first floor only has Grimm Pyrrha. This monster isn't a Grimm!" Pyrrha kicked a mutant bat-human monster away from her and cut off its head with her sword.
"And what is with this map? This isn't a map, but a bunch of directions! 'Go to the room with the Aztec-looking temple, and take the left passage. No need to climb up the damn thing.' I don't know what a Aztec-looking temple is!" Pyrrha hurled the notebook down and began furiously yanking her red hair. Nothing was going right. First, there was no map. Either Lich never gave it to her or he never made it. Second, the floor was constantly changing its structure. One moment a pathway disappeared for it to be replaced by a different path to a room jam-packed with Grimm and weird monsters that wanted to kill her. Lich said nothing about how the top floor could just change with no warning whatsoever. As a result, Pyrrha had a hard time locating supply holes for her to restock on her diminishing food stock. She managed to make do with the random underground streams, but even so, she had trouble finding any food like mushrooms. Not only that, Grimm weren't the only enemy like Lich said. It had a bunch of other weird monsters like the DF. The only different thing was that the monsters were more humanoid.
Pyrrha took a deep breath and calmed herself. Getting angry wasn't going to help out her situation, and Lich did warn her how the cave system was potentially alive. In addition, he told her that the random earthquake when Lich figured out that she was alive was too much of a coincidence so she should be prepared for any random changes. With another deep breath, she picked up the notebook, put it in a makeshift pouch that she made with her red sash, and began moving forward once more with Lich's box glowing faintly around her neck.
In addition to the problems of the inconsistency of the caves, Lich's box was starting to act funny. It seemed to grow heavier as time went on as well as turn into a magnet for all sorts of monsters. Sure enough, it seems that the monsters were far more attracted to the box than to her. However, leaving it was not an option for she promised Lich that she would watch over the box no matter what.
At a three-way intersection, she was about to turn left when a wall suddenly shot up from underneath her causing her to run face first into a newly formed wall. Growling, she kicked the wall before turning the far right direction. The hallway soon began to get uncomfortably hot, and the ceiling began to glow with an eerie red light. At the next curve of the pathway, she saw a tower of magma. Immediately going on guard, Pyrrha suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. The magma seemed to have a humanoid shape to it so she was positive it was some sort of monster. After thinking things through, she decided to avoid the fight. Holding her sword in front of her, she began edging backwards. She was about to escape, but a Beowolf decided to appear and pounced at her. She rolled to the side, and stabbed it in the underbelly. Cursing at the stupid Grimm, Pyrrha slowly looked up to see the magma monster smiling at her. It opened up its four arms as if it wanted to give her a hug. Pyrrha smiled back before she bolted away.
She looked back to see it bounding after her with its four arms waving in anger. It tore off pieces of the wall and tossed debris at her. A rock almost blew off her leg, prompting her to run faster. Suddenly, the thundering footsteps stopped only to be replaced by a massive wind. The monster decided that it was now sick of running and was now giving chase by transforming its legs into some sort of lava rocket and was blasting towards her. Realizing that she wasn't going to outrun it and with nowhere to dodge, she braced herself and lifted the sword in front of her.
Her aura flared up and shattered from the impact, and her sword disappeared inside the magma body. Thankfully, the magma monster flew a bit too high so it was not a direct impact. As the monster zoomed down the hallway, Pyrrha picked herself up and began running the opposite direction of the monster.
Pyrrha continued running for quite a while since she was now completely weaponless for she lost her shield and shards to the final floor of the DF and her sword a couple moments ago to a magma walker. As a result, she was now carrying around Lich's arm as a weapon since his skeletal arm was surprisingly strong. She beat a zombie to re-death with it a couple moments ago. He would probably not mind. Would he? Pyrrha decided not to delve into this weird situation any further.
The silence was disrupted by a massive rumbling sound as the cavern expanded. Yes, it was not enough that the final floor could change structures and make or destroy walls with no warning. It had to be able to magically create bodies and other artificial structures. At first, Pyrrha thought she was going crazy, but a room filled with dead skeletons and a bunch of coffins appeared before her very eyes so she had no choice but to accept the weirdness of the cavern. Crunch.
"Sorry…" Pyrrha whispered to the skeleton that she stepped on. By now, Pyrrha was certain that this was no mere cavern that she was in right now. She was most likely in some sort of magical graveyard of some sort. However, that opened up a whole new can of questions. A graveyard of what? Was she in Remnant anymore? What really was magic? Could this all be some really advance technology of some ancient race of humans instead? Why was there an antique car in this room? Was this cave system once inhabited?
Pyrrha sighed as she pushed the questions to the back of her mind. Now was simply not the time to be wondering these things. Now was the time to keep her mind focused on staying alive considering that her only weapon was Lich's skeletal arm at the moment. In addition, she still had to find the 'Aztec-looking' temple, and her searches were coming up fruitless. She was pretty sure that the cavern was forcing her to go in circles at this point. She practically passed by this underground river uncountable times. Deciding to quench her thirst, she knelt at the river bank and when she brought the cool water to her lips, she realized something. Under the river, it looked like there was a passageway big enough for her to squeeze through that lead into the room right next to the current room. Any overland attempts to get into the next room were failures with how the cave system kept forming a wall. What about underwater?
Pyrrha decided to take the risk. If it came down to it, her aura could extend her time underwater anyway. Pyrrha jumped into the water and began swimming towards the hole. The cavern did not make any attempt to stop her as she crossed into the other room. When she finally surfaced, the contents of the next room made her breathe a sigh of relief. It was a massive room that reminded her of the size of the DF's rooms. However, there was a massive pyramid structure in the room with a staircase leading straight up. Pyrrha was sure about one thing. She didn't know what an Aztec looked like, but this building was most likely a temple. Once she dried herself using the thick moss around her, she began walking around to look for the passage way. There were none. Confused, Pyrrha reread the directions, but it clearly said that there should be another passageway. This entire room was boxed in except for the underwater passage. Shaking her head, she decided to climb the stairs to get a different point of view. Maybe she was looking at this the wrong way.
Once she reached the top, Pyrrha found a sacrificial table. Well, she guessed it was some sort of sacrificial table considering there was a bound skeleton on it. As she looked around for any other clues, she noticed that the table had some sort of message. "The waters of life will show the way."
"Waters of life?" Pyrrha mumbled to herself as she tried to decipher what this meant. Well, it most likely meant blood considering that this resembled a sacrificial chamber. She noticed a bowl next to the table. She tried to pick it up, but it was stuck to the floor. Deciding that the bowl was the place to put in the blood, she bit her thumb and drew a drop of blood which fell into the bowl. Suddenly, the entire room shown with a bright light, and Pyrrha felt the world heave around her. When Pyrrha could see again, she was no longer on top of the temple, but in some type of hallway. She took a step back, and almost fell off a steep edge. Quickly shuffling forward, she looked back to see the temple she was just on behind her. It seemed that the passageway wasn't on the ground level, but was high in the wall. Shaking her head at the sudden teleportation, Pyrrha decided not to question what just happened and kept moving forward.
The hallways were now no longer empty, but statues and beautiful pictures began to fill up the walls of the cavern. Occasionally, Pyrrha could see Lich's handiwork as well. She snickered at the picture of a dick that was carved on the forehead of a statue. Yes, it just had to be him.
However, it was the pictures on the walls that really drew Pyrrha's attention. It was frightfully similar to the creation myth of the two gods. Of how one brother kept creating life, and how another kept trying to destroy it. How one brother created the Grimm, and how humanity was born with the four relics. It went further than the myths though.
"Monty damn it Lich." If only she could see it since Lich practically defaced the entire next segment of the story with pictures of hangman, male and female body parts, and other stupid pictures. What little Pyrrha could make out was that it was a very violent time period. At the very end of the cave drawings, a blood red message was left. "In retaliation to his brother's plans to gift humans the power to bend the elements to their will, he planned on cursing the humans with the powers of the dead. This was a step too far for both of them, and a devastating war rocked the whole planet. Here lies the remnants of the two gods. From their deaths, the Graveyard of the Gods was born."
"Well… I guess Lich was right. This is the 'Graveyard of the Gods' apparently. But I wonder who made this place?" Pyrrha scratched under her chin as she pondered what to make of the new information. She decided to continue onwards, hoping that there would be more clues.
Eventually, she came upon a mural that showed people using magic awfully similar to Lich's magic. Too similar now that she thought about it. She scrutinized the mural even further to gain any insight into Lich's magic; however, the mural refused to tell anything more.
She continued onward and came upon another mural. This one was filled with pictures of death. People dying left and right only to be… reborn? Huh? No. That wasn't the right answer. Something didn't feel right. She ran back to the previous mural and compared it with a mental image of the mural of death. The people were the exact same. Down to the exact line. And yet. The mural of death had the people looking more dead? Pyrrha scratched her head as she tried to wrap her head around what she was looking at.
After a bit more running around and comparing, she came to the conclusion that these were the people who were gifted the powers of magic judging by the upright corner with some type of room granting magic powers. However, it seems that it had a price of the curse as stated by the message some time ago. Looking closer at the room that granted the powers, it was quite interesting with 4 statues representing the four maidens, and it was modeled like a gateway of some sort.
Pyrrha's observations were cut short by a massive hair-raising screech that echoed throughout the hallway. She whipped her head around to see a massive blood-red sentence on the opposite wall. I'm coming for you. It was coupled with fading stick figures of a humanoid things ripping apart what looked to be stick figures of girls. Pyrrha blanched and decided to keep moving forward. She wanted to spend more time observing the two murals but now was not the time. It seems there was now something hunting her.
Lich's direction stated that she was supposed to follow an underground river downstream. It said to use the landmark HMS Victory as the starting point. Again, Pyrrha sighed in frustration at the terms Lich used. She didn't know what that was. Eventually, she came upon a grounded wooden sail ship. It had holes carved into the sides for what appeared to be rusted iron tubes. Iron…
Pyrrha decided to risk scavenging the ship for any scrap metal or weapons she could use. Using the rope that was dangling from the side, she managed to get on the deck with little problem. Scattered all over the deck were skeletons and rusted swords. Pyrrha began picking through the garbage to see if she could find any useable weapons that were not Lich's arm. She eventually found a couple of daggers that were functional, but not much else since a "Getting closer… " message popped up on the deck. On the bright side, she managed to find the river Lich was talking about except she still didn't know what the HMS Victory landmark was.
Eventually, the river lead to a door. Past the door was a long hallway with brick walls. Pyrrha double checked Lich's instructions. Go down the hallway with brick walls and follow the marking I've made. Don't stray from the path. With a deep sigh, she dove in to the mushroom illuminated hallways. Sure enough, Lich did make these markings making it quite easy for her to stay on the path. A massive arrow was really hard to miss after all.
If anything, the whole maze showed extensive use by Lich. There was discarded crafting materials all over the floors, and some parts of the walls was filled top to bottom with writing from Lich. Every single room had a stone table with an occasional anvil and shelf of random figurines. Some rooms had shattered plates as well, failures with trying to eat apparently. In addition, it turned out that Lich wasn't good at drawing at first. Pyrrha snickered at Lich's failed attempts at drawing a dog, but as time went on, it became frightfully good.
The longer Pyrrha spent in the maze, the more she felt how long Lich had been in this cavern. She solemnly walked by a broken noose that hung from the ceiling and the guillotine. He wasn't exaggerating when he stated that he gave up with suicide simply because it no longer worked.
When Pyrrha leaned in closer to check if she could make a makeshift axe with the guillotine blade, the cavern shook, and Pyrrha was almost decapitated by the falling blade. After calming her nerves, Pyrrha turned around to see another message. 'Almost there…' After that, Pyrrha kept walking at a brisk pace until she was able to calm down a bit. Once she reached a small well that Lich probably made, she stopped for a quick water break and tried to take a small nap with one eye open. The problem with the last floor so far wasn't the enemies, but the tension. The feeling that something bad was going to happen.
As Pyrrha was rummaging around the armory trying to find any weapon that was possibly useful and not completely covered in rust, a rustling sound echoed from the hallway, and something was coming her way. The air began to vibrate with power, and the entire room groaned from the pressure that was emitted. Pyrrha quickly looked around for any place to hide, and she flipped over a stone weapon box and hid under it.
A sickening slop-slop sound began to echo throughout the room as a rotting foot showed itself in front of Pyrrha's hiding spot. It may be too much to call it a foot considering the sheer amount of fleshy string and shadows that danced around the foot. In fact, it was getting hard to even look at the foot due to how it was changing shape. One moment it was a normal rotting foot, next, a crab leg, next, a tentacle.
Judging from how it could change shapes, Pyrrha assumed that the monster hunting her was a shape shifter of some sort similar to the slimes from the DF. The only problem is that this monster seemed far more detailed with its shapes and far more deadly. Even just looking at its foot, the monster just oozed death from its body. Every hair on Pyrrha's body rose, and Pyrrha had to cover her mouth and nose in an attempt to stop herself from hyperventilating. Eventually, it slithered away into the depths of the maze.
"What in Monty's name was that?" Pyrrha took out Lich's notes for any hints about that monster. Nothing. There was absolutely nothing. The only thing that Lich put to watch out for the was weird hydra/dog monster that Pyrrha has yet to meet. Pyrrha decided that movement was the best way to counter that monster. Fighting it would be an absolute last resort.
Of course, it just had to be her luck that when she was walking down a certain hallway, a screech echoed from behind quickly followed by the rapid pattering of footsteps. Pyrrha didn't even bother looking behind her as she took off sprinting in an attempt to avoid being caught. The entire time she was running she glanced down corridors and formed plans in how to slow down the monster or hiding spots for her to fool it.
Pyrrha jumped over a table and smashed some sort of structure behind her to create rubble that would hopefully slow the shapeshifter down. Judging by the rapid footsteps, it failed. If anything, the monster used it as a jumping board to close the distance even more. Pyrrha cursed, and she was quickly considering using her semblance to collapse a section of the room when the monster croaked out a sentence that broke her train of thought, "Give me the soul."
It didn't take a genius to figure out what the monster wanted. It wanted the box. Lich's box that he entrusted to Pyrrha, and there was absolutely no way that she could give it to this monster. To do so would be the greatest betrayal in Pyrrha's mind, and something very unheroic. However, she knew that she would not be able to outrun or hide from this monster forever. Deep down, she knew that it was only a matter of time before it caught up to her.
This left her with little choice but to resort to hiding the box, and she knew the perfect hiding spot for it. She remembered the armory and sheer amount of stuff that was in there. If you wished to hide a tree, hide it in a forest. Thankfully, the entire place was interconnected so it should be easy to double back. Now the only problem was buying some time…
Pyrrha took off her backpack of sharp metal objects and began flinging them up into the air. She then captured them with her semblance so they began orbiting around her. Once they were all slowly circling around her, she scattered them behind her so that they began ricocheting off the walls and creating a storm of sharp metal objects. The monster's screams of pain rewarded her ears as she sped up determined to gain as much time as possible.
A right, a left, then another right turn lead her right to the hallway that leads to the armory. She quickly slid in, put Lich's box into a stone box, and hurled the entire thing into the pile that occupied the room. The box landed with a crash as a landslide of rusting blades, stone tablets, and scrap metal buried the box.
Satisfied with how it has blended in with the mess, Pyrrha doubled back around and went directly into the next room just in time to see the shapeshifter burst into view with a couple of shards sticking out of its… body? It hurt Pyrrha's eyes to stare at the monster for too long for it kept changing forms. Once it was shaped like a gorilla Grimm, the next a cartoonish monster that scared Pyrrha as a child, and another form as a worm. It eventually settled on a form that had no eyes, no nose, no ears, and only mouths with carnivorous teeth. All 20 mouths that Pyrrha could see licked in anticipation as it pounced at Pyrrha.
Prepared for the pounce, Pyrrha rolled to the side as the monster almost passed by her harmlessly. Almost. The monster reached out his hand which had another mouth in its palm and chomped onto her shoulder while she was rolling. It then smashed its feet into the ground and hurled the redheaded girl onto the wall. Before Pyrrha could even slump down from the pain, the shapeshifter grabbed Pyrrha by her neck and smashed her onto the wall once more. As a last-ditch effort, Pyrrha tried to summon her remaining shards to pierce the monster, but the mouth in the shapeshifter's palm clenched down on her throat.
"You should be more aware of your situation. You taste delicious after all." The abomination used the palm's mouth to lick Pyrrha's throat while Pyrrha winced at the disgusting feeling.
"What d-do you w-want?" Pyrrha could barely speak due to the pressure that the monster was giving out. It was like being in the presence of a Grimm without any weapons, but ten times worse. It was the feeling of a deer in the headlights.
"His soul. Give it to me." It clenched down even harder on her throat as it threatened her.
"I don't have it." Tears began to pool up at the corner of Pyrrha's eyes. The lack of oxygen was beginning to make her feel woozy.
"Don't lie to me. It's hanging on around your neck right now." Pyrrha's eyes widened at the declaration and looked down. Sure enough, Lich's box was right there even though a couple minutes ago she hid it in the armory. Pyrrha then remembered what Lich said about the box, its abilities, and its fickleness in changing abilities, and she felt like screaming in frustration at how inconvenient this box was making things for her.
"So close. Yet I cannot touch it for souls must be given never taken." It began purring as it tried to rub the box, but a forcefield prevented it from actually touching it.
"Why do you even want it?" Pyrrha's eyes hardened as she realized that the monster couldn't take it from her without her consent.
"This soul is like.. what do you humans call it. Yes. Aged wine. Yes…" Drool began to drip from each of the monster's mouths. Pyrrha tried to force down her fears as she slowly realized that this thing could actually provide some answer.
"What are you? What is this place?" The monster wiped and shook off its drool as it began scrutinizing her with the mouths that existed where the eyes should be.
"Why should I tell you?" Pyrrha smiled as best she could before answering, "Well, I am the only one who has possession of this amazing delicious soul. If you want any chance of getting it, you may want to humor me."
The monster paused for a moment before it smashed Pyrrha onto the wall once more and began slowly strangling her. "Do not get smart with me. What's stopping me from just killing you and taking it for myself?"
"I… don't… know… What is… stopping you?" Pyrrha managed to croak this out before the shapeshifter screeched in anger and loosened its hold only for it to slap Pyrrha in the face and throwing her to the opposite wall. When she collapsed onto the floor, the monster stomped on her stomach. Then, it began laughing.
"You are an interesting human. Of all the people I have met, you are the only one to have talked back to me like that. As thanks for the amusement after millennia, I will humor you. However, my patience is limited. Should you delay giving me the box for too long, I will resort to… torture to get what I want." At those words, the thing latched on to Pyrrha's foot with one of its hands, and flayed her foot. Pyrrha began screaming and crying from the pain until the monster slapped her once more.
"Your time is ticking girl." Lich's box glowed softly as it began healing Pyrrha's wound allowing her to form coherent thoughts once more.
"Who… are you? What… is… this place?" Pyrrha sobbed out two questions as she tried to think of any way out of the mess she was in.
"I was created by the gods themselves. A loyal servant. I was also the template for what you humans call the Grimm. They were based off me especially regarding their ability to detect negative emotions." Without even breaking the flow of the story, the ancient being slowly pushed down on Pyrrha's chest when it felt her trying to push off the foot.
"Alas. I was destroyed by someone." Pyrrha in an attempt to buy more time asked, "Then, how are you even here?"
"Gods don't just die. When gods die, they leave behind a tear in the reality of space/time creating a whole new… realm you could say. Hence, the Graveyard of the Gods is born. Here, all of the gods' achievement and deeds when they existed come back to life and are exhibited in this realm. Their creations can walk this realm and their deeds like the numerous apocalypses are showcased here. Only catch is that no souls are born here. It would explain all the Grimm walking around but no humans, wouldn't it? It is also the reason why I am walking around once more as well. I was one of the gods' greatest achievements. The reason why the realm simulates an underground area…. Well… there is a reason why you humans bury your dead."
"Then, how did I even get here?" Pyrrha's attempt to flare up the last dredges of her aura failed. This monster could actually suppress aura.
"Well, the place isn't that stable. There are methods and events that can bust holes between reality and the Graveyard. That witch should definitely know of one. I don't know how you came here, and I don't care about how you came here." The pressure on Pyrrha's chest increased when she tried to squirm her way out.
"How did Lich get here then?"
"Who? Oh, the other human. Hehe. Well… not much of a human anymore, is he? Not with that curse of his. I know how he came here though. One of the gods' achievements was space manipulation and gateways. They weren't exactly stable though. He probably got caught up in one of those… accidents and ended up here…. Right next to the altars where the gods granted the gifts of magic and the attempted corruption of man."
"What do you mean by the altars? Is it the reason why Lich can use magic? Is it the reason why he is in that state?" Pyrrha was now interested in what the monster had to say. It may provide some insight to Lich's condition so that she might be able to help him out in some way.
"I think I humored you for long enough. Give me his soul."
"Why do you even want his soul?" The monster's eye mouths narrowed as it chomped down on Pyrrha's shoulder, eliciting a scream from her. "Give it to me!"
"Why do you even want it! What could you possibly do with it!" Pyrrha continued to resist and tried to endure the pain. She couldn't hand the soul over to this thing for that would be betraying Lich. He trusted her when he gave her this box. She wouldn't break it no matter what.
"It is an abomination to this place. It must be destroyed. How dare he try and cheat the curse? How dare he desecrate one of the gods' achievements? He should have simply accepted his fate and become a walking corpse. To even have the nerve to protect the last remnants of his humanity when the curse took all physical aspects of it away."
"I won't let you take it! I won't let you destroy it!"
"Perhaps this would change your mind." The monster hoisted her up onto the wall with a hand on her throat. Then, it used its other hand to clamp down on the upper right thigh. Slowly, it began peeling off Pyrrha's skin from her leg. Her screams grew by an octave, and she began to mumble out a bunch of gibberish as it began slowly peeling all the way down to her ankles. The box immediately began trying to fix the damage done to Pyrrha's body.
"I can do keep doing this for eternity. Your screams are music to my ears. Give me the soul, and I'll even take you to the exit of this place. You have a soul after all, and you are a creation of one of the gods. You can leave this place. Just give me the soul."
With tears flowing down her eyes, Pyrrha squinted at the hideous creature. Every fiber of her body wanted to give in to its demands. She slowly opened her mouth and spat into the monster's face. "Never."
Rage began pouring out from the creature as it punched her in the face again and again. Once it was finished, it hurled her across the room, and a loud snap rang out when Pyrrha impacted the other wall. While Pyrrha was trying to get up with an arm that was pointed the wrong way, the ancient servant of the gods marched over and picked her up the throat.
"This is your last chance to give it to me. I know this place quite intimately as well as all the places that can break your mind. I do not wish to harm one of his creations, and I will even help you escape from this place if you give me his soul. Now give me that THING around your neck, or I will MAKE you give it to me."
"Lich would say this to you if he was in my position. Fuck you."
The monster raised his hand to strike again, but the box glowed with an extremely strong black aura, and a skeletal hand grabbed monster's hand before it could go through with the strike. A skull appeared from behind with a shadow covering its eye sockets, and the mandibles and maxilla were clenched so tightly that a grinding sound could be heard. The head leaned in and whispered, "Surprise mothafucka. I hear that you want my soul?"