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N/ B : Yoy!! Guys Don't forget to check my other works: [ Shadow Monarch/ Harry Potter.
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Third POV:
The iron bars behind Akai creaked one last time, a sound of finality and abandonment, a rusty, mournful groan that seemed to protest his departure before sealing back into the impenetrable darkness of the cell that had been his entire world, leaving him standing outside his cell for the very first time. The feeling was surreal, a disorienting shift in reality. The ground beneath his feet was the same cold stone, yet it felt profoundly different; it was no longer the defined limits of his cage but the beginning of an infinite, terrifying expanse.
And what he saw… made his breath stop in his chest, a physical punch to his diaphragm that left him gasping silently.
The vastness of Level 6 stretched out before him like a cathedral built for demons, a seemingly endless cavern of nightmare architecture. It was a realm of shadows and echoes, where the scale was so immense it defied logic, making him feel smaller than an insect. The air was thick, heavy, a soupy miasma that was difficult to draw into his lungs, suffused with the profound, layered stench of rot and rust, of old blood and older fear, of stagnant water and the slow decay of countless souls left to forget and be forgotten. The walls weren't just stone — they looked alive, pulsating with a malevolent history, scarred with deep, frantic claw marks that spoke of last, desperate struggles, bloodstains dried into eternal crimson patterns that told silent, horrific stories of pain and finality. Chains dangled from above, hundreds of them, maybe thousands, a metallic forest of imprisonment, clattering softly with a ghostly, percussive rhythm whenever a faint, impossible breeze slithered through the cavernous depth, a breath from some unseen leviathan. The ceiling was lost in shadow, a void so high it could've been the sky itself, a false firmament of pure blackness, yet no light, not a single photon, penetrated here. Only darkness. An absolute, consuming darkness that pressed against his eyeballs.
The silence was suffocating — a dense, weighted blanket of quiet that was far louder than any noise, except for the faint, almost-inaudible groans that seemed to come from the walls themselves, the distant rattles of chains that weren't moved by any breeze, and an occasional, jarring laugh that sounded less human and more beast, a raw, guttural sound of madness that echoed through the hallways and died just as quickly as it was born. Cells lined the abyssal walls, countless dark alcoves carved into the living rock, most sealed shut by doors of solid, pitted iron, but what lay inside was not life. No, it was death itself pretending to sleep, a presence of such profound malice and despair that it leaked from the bars like a toxic fog.
Akai stood frozen, his muscles locked, his eyes wide, trying to process the scale of the horror around him. "Holy… fucking… shit." His voice, a dry, cracked whisper, was immediately absorbed by the immense void, swallowed whole without even the courtesy of an echo. "I thought I'd seen dark places before. But this? This looks like hell decorated itself for Christmas." The joke fell flat, a pathetic defense mechanism against the overwhelming tide of primal fear rising in his throat.
He took a step forward, a hesitant, testing movement. The ground crunched under his boots — not stone, but bone fragments, a carpet of calcified remains that crackled and shifted with his weight. His hands twitched, instinctively brushing against his pockets, his fingers finding the solid, comforting shape of the rusty iron dagger and the smooth glass of the small health potion, as if he could dig out courage from their mundane presence.
Walking slowly, each step a deliberate act of will against the paralyzing atmosphere, his voice broke into a low, continuous mutter, a way to anchor himself in the suffocating silence. "So…plan, Akai, plan. Step one: figure out where the fuck you are." He glanced left and right, seeing only more darkness, more cells, more chains. "Step two: don't die." His grip tightened on the dagger in his pocket. "Step three: profit? No… freedom. But freedom sounds like profit right now." The words were stupid, but speaking them made the terror feel slightly more manageable.
Every shadow seemed to shift as he moved, elongating and contracting in the periphery of his vision, every corner whispered back his own paranoia, suggesting movement where there was only stagnant air. The cells he passed radiated a presence — not alive, not dead, but hungry, a deep, ancient hunger that felt him pass and stirred in its sleep. He avoided looking too closely, keeping his gaze fixed ahead, on the next patch of ground, the next few feet of corridor. Some things were better left unseen. Some horrors were best acknowledged only as a feeling, a chill down the spine, a tightening of the gut.
Then it happened. The shift was instantaneous and terrifying.
The air around him stiffened, growing thick and resistant, as if he were suddenly trying to walk through water. His skin prickled with a wave of intense, electric dread, the fine hairs on his arms and neck standing on end. His gut twisted, a visceral, animal warning that screamed of a predator. Something felt him. Something that wasn't supposed to. Something that had been waiting.
A dragging sound echoed from the dark ahead — heavy, deliberate steps that shook the bone-dust on the floor. Thick, heavy chains scraped the ground, a sound of immense weight being pulled without care.
Akai's blood ran cold. He clenched his fists, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird. "For the love of God, I just got outside. One fucking minute of freedom and already—" He turned sharply, his body falling into a tense crouch, his eyes straining to pierce the gloom from where the sound originated.
And there it was. A shape resolved itself from the darkness, a nightmare given form.
A hulking creature, its body a monstrous tapestry of knotted, twisted scars and grotesque, overdeveloped muscles, stepped into a faint, errant shaft of light from some unseen fissure high above. Its skin was a patchwork of pallid flesh and dark, leathery hide. Its jaw wasn't human — it was a horrifying contraption of rusted iron fused directly into the flesh of its face, a brutal trap of jagged, metal teeth that clicked together with a sound of grinding metal as it breathed. Its eyes glowed faintly yellow, like embers in a forge, possessing the cold, calculating stare of a predator that hadn't eaten in years and saw in him a long-awaited meal.
The thing grinned, the metal jaws parting to reveal a blackened tongue and a dark gullet. "Hello, little rat." The voice was a grating distortion, filtered through metal and malice.
Akai's heart skipped a beat, a cold sweat breaking out on his brow. His every instinct screamed at him to run, to flee back into the false safety of his cell, but before he could even process the command to move his legs, a sharp, familiar ding filled his ears, the system interface flashing before his eyes, an unwelcome interruption in the face of mortal danger.
[ New Quest Available: Eliminate the Enemy ] Objective:Survive and kill the target. Reward:+2 Strength | Random Loot | + EXP Failure:Death.
The stark, single word 'Death' hung in the air, more final than any threat. Akai groaned, a sound of pure exasperation mixed with raw fear. "Come on!! You didn't even give me time to breathe, or look around, or at least take a piss! And from where the hell did you crawl out, big head?" His bravado was a shield, thin and cracking, but he held it up nonetheless.
The creature snarled, the sound a metallic rasp, its glowing yellow eyes narrowing. The iron jaws clanged shut with a snap that echoed like a gunshot. "Watch your mouth, little rat. You are speaking to Iron Jaw."
Akai's eyebrows shot up in mock surprise. Then he smirked, a reckless, adrenaline-fueled expression. "Oh! Forgive me, your highness. Didn't recognize you. Thought you were here to start World War II. And by the way you look? My history teacher would totally fall in love with you." The words were insane, suicidal even, but they kept the paralyzing fear at bay.
He tilted his head slightly toward the glowing system screen hovering in his vision. "Oi, system. Do I have access to know who the hell my enemy is? Or do you just throw me to the wolves blindfolded?"
The screen flickered, the quest text dissolving to be replaced by a new, frustrating notification:
[ Information Access Restricted ] Current level too low to analyze enemy power,abilities, or weaknesses. Available Data:Name | Species | Threat Level (Basic).
Akai threw his hands up in a gesture of utter frustration, though he never took his eyes off the advancing monstrosity. "As expected! Of course. Nothing's ever easy with you. Fine then, give me what I can get on this… melon head."
The system obeyed, text scrolling quickly:
[ Enemy Identified: "Iron Jaw" – Gorran ]
Species: Unknown Mutated Human
Threat Level: Medium
Known Traits: Enhanced bite force capable of crushing steel. Unnatural resilience. Sadistic behavior.
Status: Imprisoned Level 6, Impel Down.
The information was scant, but 'Enhanced bite force' and 'Unnatural resilience' painted a very clear and terrifying picture. This wouldn't be a fight; it would be a survival event. Akai's lips curled into a sharp, feral grin, his eyes flickering with a strange fire that was equal parts terror and exhilaration. He pulled the rusty iron dagger from his pocket, the pitiful weapon feeling absurdly small in his hand. "Hehe… quite interesting. Alright, Gorran. Let's fuck this quest."
And with those words, the darkness between them thickened — the stage for blood was set, the audience a thousand unseen horrors in their cells, and the prize was nothing less than his continued existence.
[ End of Chapter. ]
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