I ran. We all ran.
The Creature's haunting resonance chased us through the cathedral ruins, each vibration making my Essentia flicker unstably beneath my skin. My cards burned hot in my pocket, the energy within them responding to the creature's harmonic disruption.
"This way!" Scarface shouted, veering left down a crystalline corridor that pulsed with an eerie blue light.
I hesitated, my instincts screaming that following him deeper into the gate was suicide. Eliza grabbed my arm.
"Don't stop moving," she hissed, yanking me forward.
We sprinted through the corridor, our footsteps echoing like gunshots against the crystal floor. Behind us, the Monster's threads slithered across stone with a sound like silk being torn.
"It's gaining!" Twitchy screamed.
I risked a glance back. The Monster moved like liquid poured uphill, its body compressing and stretching as it navigated the narrow passage. Crystalline threads shot ahead of its main mass, probing the air like hungry tentacles.
"Split up!" Scarface ordered as we reached a junction. "It can't chase all of us!"
"Terrible idea," I shouted, skidding to a halt. "We need to stick together or—"
But Scarface, Tank, and Twitchy were already veering right, while Beard hesitated at the crossroads, his eyes darting between the two paths.
"Fuck," I muttered, grabbing his sleeve and pulling him left after Eliza. "Come with us!"
The Monster paused at the junction, its faceless form swaying as it considered which prey to pursue. Then it made a sound—a perfect imitation of Scarface's voice:
"Just a peek. If it's guarding something valuable—"
My blood froze as I realized what it was doing. It was using our own words against us, our own memories. And it had chosen its target.
With horrifying speed, it surged down the right path after Scarface's group.
We kept running, the screams that erupted behind us spurring us faster. I didn't look back again. My lungs burned, my legs ached, but still I pushed forward, one hand clutching my deck of cards, the other still dragging Beard along.
Eliza stopped abruptly at another junction, raising her hand for us to halt.
"Listen," she whispered.
Through the crystalline walls came the sounds of combat—energy discharges, the crack of Tank's enhanced strikes, Twitchy's high-pitched screaming. Then a wet, tearing noise followed by silence.
"They're dead," Beard whispered.
"Not all of them," Eliza replied, her expression hardening. "Not yet."
I shook my head. "We can't go back for them. That's suicide."
"I'm not suggesting we do." She glanced down the passage to our left, which sloped downward into darkness. "But that thing will come for us next. We need to keep moving."
I nodded, fighting to control my breathing. My fingers trembled as I shuffled my cards. "Deeper in, then? Not exactly the exit strategy I was hoping for."
"You have a better idea?" she asked, one eyebrow arched.
I didn't. The gate entrance was now blocked by a creature I had no desire to face, and every instinct told me we needed to put as much distance between it and us as possible.
"Fine. But when we find another way out—and we will—I'm taking first dibs on those crystals Beard collected."
Beard clutched his extraction pack protectively. "These are FBH property. I can't just—"
"The FBH thinks we're extracting from a Tier 1 gate," I cut in, stepping closer to loom over him. Despite the fear coursing through me, I managed a dangerous smile. "Far as I'm concerned, their claim on those crystals died with our team leader's poor decision-making skills."
"Enough," Eliza snapped, her hands flickering with dark energy. "Move now, argue about crystals later."
A distant, echoing scream—Twitchy's voice—made the decision for us. We plunged down the sloping passage, the crimson light fading behind us as we descended into the depths of the cathedral.
The corridor eventually opened into a vast chamber unlike anything we'd seen before. While the upper cathedral was all jagged ruins and decay, this space was pristine—a perfect, undamaged hall with soaring ceilings and intricate crystal formations that seemed to sing with energy.
"What is this place?" Beard whispered, his voice carrying strangely in the thick air.
I stepped forward, drawn to a pool of liquid crystal at the center of the chamber. Its surface rippled without any wind to disturb it, reflecting our faces in distorted, shifting patterns.
"Don't touch anything," Eliza warned. "This isn't right. The architecture is too... perfect."
A sound like distant choral music drifted through the chamber, just at the edge of hearing. The hairs on my arms stood on end as I realized it wasn't coming from anywhere specific—it seemed to emanate from the crystal itself.
"We need to find another way out," I said, backing away from the pool. "This place is wrong."
Beard wasn't listening. He'd moved to one of the walls where a particularly dense cluster of crystals protruded. His extraction tools were already in his hands.
"Look at these formations," he breathed. "I've never seen anything like them. The purity levels must be off the charts."
"Hey, Gramps," I called, keeping my voice low. "Maybe prioritize not dying over getting rich?"
He ignored me, already cutting into the crystal. "This single cluster could fund my retirement. Ten minutes. That's all I need."
Eliza and I exchanged glances. The tension in her shoulders told me everything I needed to know—she felt it too, the wrongness of this place, the danger surrounding us.
"We can't stay here," she said. "That thing will follow us down."
As if summoned by her words, a distant resonance vibrated through the chamber. The choral music shifted, becoming discordant.
"Time to go," I said, grabbing Beard's shoulder. "Now."
He shrugged me off. "Almost done. Just one more—"
The crystal beneath his tools suddenly pulsed. Beard froze, his expression shifting from greed to confusion, then to horror as the crystal began to flow like liquid, engulfing his hands.
"Help me!" he screamed, dropping his tools and trying to pull free. The crystal crawled up his arms, hardening as it went. "Get it off!"
I lunged forward, grabbing his shoulders and pulling with all my strength. The crystal held fast, creeping higher, now past his elbows. Eliza appeared beside me, her hands wreathed in dark fire.
"Stand back," she ordered, aiming her hands at the junction where flesh met crystal.
"No!" Beard shrieked. "You'll burn my arms off!"
"Better than whatever that stuff is doing to you," I shot back.
She sent a beam of obsidian energy at the crystal, attempting to sever it from the wall. For a moment, it seemed to work—the crystal darkened, cracking slightly.
Then it pulsed again, absorbing her energy entirely. The crystal flowed faster, reaching Beard's shoulders in seconds.
"Please," he sobbed, his struggles weakening as the crystal encased more of him. "I have a family. I just wanted to provide for them."
"Keep pulling!" Eliza shouted, switching tactics and trying to physically break the crystal with her bare hands.
I grabbed Beard again, bracing my foot against the wall for leverage. We pulled together, straining until my muscles screamed in protest.
The crystal made a sound—a high, crystalline note that vibrated through my bones. And then, it surged forward, engulfing Beard's head and torso in one liquid motion before hardening completely.
We stumbled backward, watching in helpless horror as the last of him disappeared, leaving only a human-shaped crystal formation protruding from the wall.
"Fuck," I whispered, my hands shaking. "Oh fuck."
Eliza's face was pale. For a moment, we just stared at what remained of Beard, neither of us able to process what we'd just witnessed.
Then the chamber trembled, the choral music rising to a deafening pitch. Cracks appeared in the floor around the liquid crystal pool, spreading outward like a spiderweb.
"We need to go," Eliza said, grabbing my arm. "Now!"
We sprinted for the far side of the chamber, where another corridor beckoned. Behind us, the pool of liquid crystal began to rise, forming a column that reached toward the ceiling.
The corridor beyond was different from the others—the walls here were transparent crystal, revealing a vast, open space beyond. As we ran, I caught glimpses of what looked like an altar far in the distance, surrounded by tall, crystalline figures arranged in a circle.
"What the hell is that?" I gasped, not slowing my pace.
"Nothing we want to meet," Eliza replied grimly.
We reached another junction and paused, both of us breathing hard. The corridor split three ways, each path identical to the others.
"Which way?"
Before Eliza could answer, a scream echoed through the crystal—Scarface's voice, distorted and desperate. It came from the left passage.
"He's still alive," Eliza said.
I shook my head. "That's not him. It's that thing, using his voice to lure us."
"You don't know that."
"I know I'm not dying for that self-important asshole," I snapped. "He got us into this mess with his greed. He and Beard both. I've got someone who actually needs me alive."
Eliza's eyes flashed. "So do the rest of us. You think you're the only one with responsibilities?"
"I think I'm the only one thinking clearly right now." I gestured down the right passage. "That way looks like it slopes upward. Up means surface. Surface means escape."
The scream came again, more desperate this time, followed by what sounded like sobbing. Eliza's jaw tightened, her hands clenching at her sides.
"Fine," she said after a moment. "Right it is."
We moved quickly, the upward slope of the passage giving me hope despite everything. My Essentia reserves were dangerously low, each card I charged now taking more effort than the last. If we encountered another threat, I wasn't sure how much fight I had left in me.
The passage widened, opening into another chamber. This one was smaller than the last, with a high domed ceiling covered in hanging crystal formations that resembled stalactites. At the center stood what looked like a small altar, surrounded by a ring of fluorescent blue crystal.
"Don't touch anything," Eliza warned, eyeing the altar warily.
"Wasn't planning on it," I replied, keeping close to the wall as we circled the room. "After what happened to Beard, I'm not touching a single crystal in this place."
We were halfway around the chamber when a sound stopped us cold—the unmistakable slithering of crystal threads across stone.
"It found us," Eliza whispered.
I pulled my cards from my pocket, charging three of them with what little Essentia I had left. My fingers trembled, not from fear but from exhaustion.
"Any bright ideas?" I asked, trying to sound braver than I felt.
Eliza's eyes darted around the chamber, assessing. "We can't outrun it. We have to fight."
"Great. Two exhausted hunters against a monster. I like those odds."
"Got a better idea, card shark?"
"Not at the moment, goth princess."
The slithering grew louder. From the passage we'd just traversed, a mass of crystal threads began to emerge, probing the air. The Lament Monster's body followed, unfolding into the chamber like a nightmare given form.
It was even more terrifying up close—a towering, skeletal figure composed entirely of writhing crystal filaments. Where its face should have been was just a blank space, yet somehow I felt it studying us, measuring us.
Then it spoke, using Scarface's voice: "Almost done. One more section and—"
It shifted, the voice changing to Beard's desperate plea: "I have a family. I just wanted to provide for them."
Eliza stepped forward, her hands raised. "Get ready."
The Monster moved with sudden, liquid grace, crystal threads shooting toward us like spears. Eliza unleashed a wave of obsidian fire that caught the threads mid-air, burning them to ash.
I flicked my charged cards, one after another, aiming for what might have been the creature's core. They exploded on impact, sending shards of crystal flying in all directions.
The Monster recoiled, its body contracting before surging forward again with renewed fury. More threads lashed out, too many for Eliza to intercept. One caught her across the shoulder, slicing through her jacket and drawing blood.
"Eliza!" I shouted, charging another card despite the pain it caused me.
She staggered but didn't fall, sending another blast of dark energy at the creature. This one struck true, burning a hole through its center mass.
The Monster made a sound like shattering glass, its threads contracting around the wound. For a moment, I thought we'd hurt it.
Then it straightened, the hole closing as new threads formed to replace the damaged ones. It raised what passed for arms, and suddenly the air was filled with flying crystal filaments, a deadly web closing in from all sides.
"The altar!" Eliza shouted, pointing to the center of the room. "Get inside the ring!"
I didn't question her, just sprinted for the blue crystal circle, my feet slipping on the smooth floor.
We jumped inside the circle just as the Monster's threads converged on our position. There was a flash of blue light, a sound like a thousand wind chimes, and then—nothing.
The threads struck an invisible barrier at the edge of the circle, unable to penetrate. The Monster recoiled, its body undulating in what might have been confusion or rage.
"Holy shit," I breathed, staring at the barrier. "What is this?"
"I don't know," Eliza admitted, clutching her wounded shoulder. "But I'm guessing it's not meant to protect us."
She was right. The barrier wasn't there to keep things out—it was there to keep something in. And we'd just trapped ourselves inside with it.
The altar at the center began to glow, pulsing with a rhythm that matched the distant choral music. The Monster circled our position, testing the barrier occasionally but making no real attempt to break through.
It was waiting.
"It knows something we don't," I said, eyeing the altar. "Whatever this is, it's not good."
Eliza nodded, her face grim. "We need to find a way out. Fast."
I stared at the pulsing altar, then at the Monster circling our position, and finally at the wounded hunter beside me. My mother's face flashed in my mind—pale and fragile in her hospital bed, waiting for treatments I might never be able to provide if I died here.
"Well," I said, forcing a smile, "at least things can't get any worse."
The altar pulsed once more, brighter than before, and began to rise from the floor.