Chapter 31: Elias's Past
The ground trembled.
It wasn't a simple movement, but the groan of the structure reshaping itself, as if it were suffering every second. The walls contracted and began to corrode, peeling off strips of paint that rotted before they touched the ground. The air grew heavy, thick with a nauseating stench, as if filled with decomposing bodies.
Elias stepped back, but the image of his sister wouldn't let him go. The little girl was still there, hand extended toward him, untouched in the middle of the corruption devouring everything. Her eyes looked at him with an impossible sweetness, with the same purity that reminded him of his childhood.
"Eli…" she said in a crystalline voice.
Elias felt his chest split in two. He clenched his teeth, his hands trembling like never before. The memory of the accident came back mercilessly: the muffled scream, the body of his best friend collapsing to the ground, the blood he could never scrub from his hands. That day had changed him forever. That day, his sister had cut all family ties with him.
Since then, all that remained between them was a complicated relationship that time could not erase.
He couldn't look her in the eyes without feeling she reminded him of what he had done.
She never said it out loud, but he knew.
Every look she gave him, every uncomfortable silence, every returned gift. All of it was a sentence that they could never return to those happy times.
And yet, now he saw her there, calling him as if nothing had ever happened.
"No…" he whispered, bringing a hand to his face. His skin burned, his throat closed up. "You're not her… you're not…"
He could still remember the last time he had tried to speak with her. That last memory where he had heard her voice before it all fell into silence. Elias, in his military uniform, held a phone in his hands. His fingers were stiff, his heart pounding a thousand beats per minute. He had dialed her private number when the whole disaster began, his gut filled with a visceral fear, not expecting an answer.
And then, he had heard her.
"Elias…?"
Her voice. So clear, but at the same time so cold and distant, on the other side of the line.
He had wanted to speak, to apologize, to beg her for a second chance. But there was no time. The thunder of gunfire resounded through the receiver. Then, static. And after that—nothing.
That was their last moment together.
That was the last time he ever heard from her.
Elias felt his legs give out. The illusion knew him too well. It knew exactly where to strike.
The little girl tilted her head, and with an unnatural sweetness, spoke the words he never thought he would hear his little sister say again.
"Come with me, Eli. Don't leave me alone again."
The pressure in his chest became unbearable. And in the middle of the tremor, a word slipped from his lips. A name he hadn't dared to speak in years, a name that had become taboo in his vocabulary.
"Isolda…"
The world shattered.
The room shook violently, as if that name had unleashed something far worse. The walls tore open, revealing a black void behind them. The floor cracked beneath his feet, veins of crimson light spreading like the roots of a tree.
The little girl blinked, and her face distorted. The sweetness twisted into something grotesque, her features stretching into impossible angles. The rag doll in her hands split open, releasing a swarm of insects that crawled over her body.
But the worst was the voice.
It was no longer that of a child. Not even his sister's. It was a deep murmur, as though a thousand throats spoke at once from an unfathomable abyss.
"That name… you have no right to utter it, Elias."
He staggered back, his heart beating like a war drum. The ground split open and from the cracks oozed a dark vapor that clung to his skin like burning oil.
Elias clenched his fists. He no longer felt fear, only the guilt that had tormented him his entire life. Whatever this entity was, it knew how to use his sister's image to destroy him. It was wielding his memories as a weapon he couldn't neutralize.
But something inside him refused to surrender.
He couldn't.
If he did, it would all end here.
He lifted his gaze, tears still clouding his sight, and shouted with a voice that nearly broke apart:
"You're not her!"
The figure convulsed. It clutched its face as if merely wearing the mask of Elias's sister burned its false skin… everything clashed in a noisy collision against the illusion. The air vibrated, distorting the reality of the place.
For an instant, the orphanage room vanished completely.
Only an endless void remained, a dark abyss where the laughter of every child that had once been like a brother or sister to Elias echoed.
Elias collapsed to his knees, gasping, cold sweat running down his back. He had poured every ounce of strength into resisting the uproar caused by that ghost daring to wear his sister's face to torture him.
The lights flickered again. The void began to reassemble, and with a dry crack, another door appeared before him. It was iron, rusted, with chains hanging from it, and in its center glowed a symbol he didn't recognize.
Elias swallowed hard. He didn't know what awaited him beyond, but it was the only path forward—unless he wished to remain in this dark, lifeless place.
If she was still somewhere in this hell… then he had to find her.
Elias clenched his jaw, forcing himself to take a step toward the rusted door. The metallic creak rang out as the hinges groaned, and the air that escaped through the opening struck him with a dry chill, reeking of rot. On the other side, there wasn't a hallway… but a vast room, sunk in shadows.
The hall resembled a ruined theater. Rows of broken seats stretched out into the distance, while the stage, illuminated by a flickering spotlight, revealed a single object at its center: a black coffin, sealed, covered in chains that seemed to be holding something terribly important inside.
Elias's heart stopped as he recognized the silhouette beneath the chains. Even if he couldn't see her clearly, even if the distance and darkness deceived him… he knew who was inside.
"Isolda…" he murmured, his voice on the verge of breaking from pain.
A loud crash behind him made him turn. The door through which he had entered had vanished, swallowed by the darkness. But he wasn't alone. From the dusty balconies and the rotting wooden gaps of the stage, something was moving. Multiple arms, thin as branches, slowly emerged, climbing and writhing until fusing into a single entity.
The creature seemed to be undergoing a birth, crawling out from the stage itself, though to Elias's eyes it looked more like it was being vomited out, as if it were something vile. It was a mass of blackened flesh, disordered eyes blinking in places they should not exist, and an open torso from which spilled the mixed sound of children's laughter and inhuman whispers.
Elias couldn't escape, though his survival instincts screamed at him to run. He couldn't forgive himself if he left his sister behind—even if the chances of her survival were almost nonexistent.
* * * *
At that very moment, in another part of the labyrinth, Richard, John, and Damián advanced through a suffocating corridor, dimly lit by yellowish lamps. The silence had long since become unbearable, broken only by the echo of their footsteps.
The sound of an explosion made the passageway tremble.
"What the hell was that?" John tightened his grip on his weapon.
Richard didn't answer right away. His ear had caught the direction of the sound, the sound waves traveling as if bouncing between the walls from a single source.
"Follow me. I found where Elias is…"
A new tremor shook the floor, and at the end of the corridor, the darkness opened into a massive arch. Without realizing it, they had reached the same hall where Elias was.
The whole place looked like a disaster, neglected by the passage of time. Everything was smeared with dark blood, and amputated arms lay scattered across the ground.
Elias stood there, gasping, his face contorted. His skin was as pale as a corpse's, the anemic level caused by the blood loss making it impossible for him to move quickly.
"Elías!" Richard shouted, slashing one of the arms that lunged toward the wounded young man.
Elias barely turned, his expression a mixture of relief and exhaustion.
"No… don't come closer. That thing is only attacking me. You should look for a way out while I distract it."
As if it had understood his words, the creature straightened, its countless eyes fixing on the newcomers.
[The final trial begins now. The punishment is to endure the Guardian of Memory. Only the worthy will be able to approach the coffin, and the cowards will leave as soulless corpses.]