Level-Up Apocalypse: Surviving With The Assimilation System

Chapter 239 Imprisoned

The air was different when descending the slope that led beneath the mountain. While it was a rather suspicious path he was led down, anything seemed better than lingering on the surface.

"I'm sure you've noticed it by now, too," Jeong-Hui remarked while taking slow, silent steps into the downward, smooth path deeper from the surface.

"Hmm?" Finn glanced over.

"This world—it seems like every few minutes, there's some sort of phenomenon that occurs. Whether it's monsters dropping down from the rifts or some abnormal weather," Jeong-Hui explained.

It was as he thought, recalling the frost-plaguing rain and the abnormal creatures encountered before meeting the fellow assassin. Glancing back, he could see the peculiar sky at the other end of the slope as it seemed to start raining rainbow liquid.

"Everything about this world is just odd," he remarked.

"Odd is the normal nowadays, isn't it?" Jeong-Hui remarked.

"Yeah, can't say any of it really surprises me anymore," Finn agreed.

While he only sought to push on, he carried the curiosity of his lost friends with him.

["Once this is over, all of you are back…I'll have some stories to tell you. About the world at the bottom of the universe."]

It felt as though they'd already traveled a mile, traveling deeper down the slope. Looking back, the other side that led to the colorful forest was nothing more than a small painting in the far distance.

"Watch my back and I'll watch yours, alright?" Jeong-Hui offered while leading the way towards whatever awaited below the mountains.

"Yeah, of course," Finn agreed.

Finally, it stopped simply going deeper as the slope ended at the entrance into somewhere dark, beneath the surface. It hardly looked like a natural cave lingering so far down; the opening peered into a dreary place built of spiraled stone.

"Now what is all of this?" Jeong-Hui questioned out loud, walking into the obscure area as he examined the walls.

Finn did the same, finding the entrance into the odd place beneath the surface to induce feelings as if staring at lost, man made creations, though unlikely to be by human hands.

"This entire world is a dumping ground for existence, right? I'd say just about everything we'll find here is uncharted, but…Do you feel that?" Finn asked while staring at the carved stone.

Looking at the spirals etched into the walls, it felt like his consciousness itself was being warped with it. Nothing about it felt "right", though there was an inexplicable draw to the peculiar structure.

"You know…This place, it doesn't look like it was just "dumped" here from the rifts, does it?" Finn presumed, walking around the enigmatic domain.

Jeong-Hui peered at the spiraling walls, sharing the same sentiment, "No, it doesn't. All of it seems like it was built into this land. A structure made in this world."

"I assumed this world was just a junkyard for the universe, pretty much. That's what it's supposed to be, isn't it?" Finn asked.

"I thought the same. Whoever or whatever built this, maybe they're survivors that were stranded here like us? Away from their own planet," Jeong-Hui reasoned.

"Could be–" Finn said.

As he responded, he placed his hand against a part of the peculiar wall, finding that a piece of the stone pushed in with a "click."

They both stood there as the spiral-carved wall unraveled itself as if commanded by an unseen mechanism, yet none was seen. No words were exchanged, yet as he called his dagger into his hand, the red-haired assassin did the same, ready for just whatever may lurk within the architecture furthest beneath existence.

["---"]

–That static again, infiltrating his mind like barbed wire being dragged across the inside of his brain. It was worse than the last time; a more intense ringing through his head, feeling as though a metal rod was scraping the inside of his skull.

Though it was more severe than before, bringing them both to their knees as blackened blood slid down from his nostril over his lips, part of the ringing became more clear. Syllables, hesitations, frequencies–words.

It wasn't English or any human language for that matter, but he was sure he heard it in that distortion in his mind; speech, of some sort.

"Finn, you good?" Jeong-Hui asked with a hoarse voice.

"Yeah…I think," he responded, pushing his hands off the floor to stand.

As he rose with his one companion by his side, raising his head, he froze–there it was, awaiting the chamber hidden behind the wall.

"Alien"--that was the only word he could think of to describe it. The feeling of quandary that overwhelmed his mind when staring at it was unmistakable. It was like his brain simply couldn't comprehend what it perceived.

It was multiple times larger than the two young men, suspended by an intangible force akin to gravity. The creature of otherworldly origin possessed black, scaly skin with a skull that seemed to lack any sort of mouth or eyes, only holes in its head that could possibly be ears.

A sort of hair seemed to dangle from its head, though seeming to be a part of its skeletal structure, hanging like dreadlocks.

Though its torso was humanoid with arms that ended in snow-white fingers, it ended with a serpentine bottom half that stayed suspended by the unseen force.

"What the hell…is that?" Finn questioned.

None of it made sense, though looking at it, a hum filled his head; a continuous, crescendo that played. Smacking the side of his head, it didn't stop; another slap only seemed to make it worse.

'This thing–whatever it is…It's in my head–shit…!' He thought. Discover more stories at My Virtual Library Empire

Looking over, he found Jeong-Hui with a possessed look in his eyes. As if the man's legs were dragged by invisible strings, Jeong-Hui stumbled towards the suspended entity.

"Jeong-Hui…! Don't!" Finn shouted.

He attempted to intervene, reaching his hand out in front of him as he watched his companion walk forward. It was a fruitless effort, intercepted by another sharp sensation through his skull.

["—Wake me.—Free me."]

The distorted ringing through his head finally turned to discernable words of a deep, oaken voice. It was too intense; the ringing became loud enough that it felt his head might pop, bringing him to consider simply plunging his blade into his ear.

'My body is…moving–shit…I have to resist it,' he urged himself, finding his legs forcing him to stand, sliding one foot forward to approach the nebulous entity.

He didn't have any insight into just what kind of creature lay dormant in that chamber, yet every cell of his existence screamed at him not to allow it to awaken.

Whatever it was, it couldn't be freed—

He knew that.