CHAPTER 21
[THE CREATURE OF NIGHTMARES THAT HAUNTS THE GREAT TOMBS]
Its very existence was an abnormality.
It possessed no true physical form; only a body shaped by ever-morphing deformities, constantly shifting as though reality itself rejected its presence.
Bone-chilling wails echoed through the Corridor of Offerings, a chorus of fragmented voices layered upon one another. Men, women, and children screamed in overlapping agony, their cries reverberating endlessly against the ancient stone walls.
One might have mistaken the creature for the guardian of the Great Tombs of Constelli.
But it was far from a guardian.
It was the nightmare that haunted the tombs.
A byproduct of the countless slaughters during the Era of the Dawn; a manifestation of hatred so eternal that it endured the weight of time itself. Born from the souls of those who perished in the war against the Six, it wandered the Great Tombs endlessly, unable to rest.
Agonizing.
Remembering.
Faithful only to vengeance.
It was not a single being, but a mass of unfortunate souls fused into one existence; an abomination that sought refuge within darkness itself.
Without rhythm or context, the voices spoke in broken repetition, all calling out a single name that burned itself into Orion's mind.
"Lord Pleiades!!!"
"Lord Pleiades!!!"
"Lord Pleiades!!!"
"You must atone for what you did…"
"Why… Lord Pleiades…?"
"You defile this place!"
"Death is too merciful for you!"
"Why has the heavens failed me…?"
"Lord Pleiades! Pleiades!!!"
"You must atone!"
"I'm scared… please save me…"
"Help us!"
"You defile this place!"
"Please… free us…"
"I don't want to die…"
"Lord Pleiades… what have you done?"
"Atone…"
"Atone…"
"It is the moment of retribution!"
"The heavens have forsaken us!"
"You killed us!"
"You must atone!"
"Atone!!!"
"Why did you do it?"
"Why do you run away!?"
"Lord Pleiades!!!"
"Please… don't kill me…"
"Atone!!!"
"Pleiades… Pleiades… Lord Pleiades…"
"What have you done!?"
"The calamity!!! The calamity!!!"
"Kill the calamity!"
"Kill the calamity!"
"Kill the calamity!!!"
The corridor trembled beneath the collective cries.
Some voices begged for salvation.
Others cursed the one called Pleiades.
Some pleaded to be freed from their existence, while others demanded atonement. Many cried out to the heavens that had abandoned them, their despair echoing endlessly through the tomb.
There were those who sought vengeance.
Those who questioned why such a fate had befallen them.
And others who directed their hatred toward the one fleeing before them.
Orion.
"Why do you run away!?" the voices demanded, their accusations chasing him as relentlessly as their monstrous form.
To them, Orion was no victim.
He was the calamity.
The one that must be erased.
Again and again, the voices roared in unified fury—
"Kill the calamity!!!"
Their screams followed him without mercy, driving the relentless pursuit forward as though fate itself demanded his judgment.
The creature's form could not be seen.
It hid within the fog of darkness, yet its wails and screams; its clamor for vengeance, its murderous intent, its grudge carried across generations; echoed violently throughout the corridor. Fragmented voices overlapped endlessly, countless souls speaking at once, their words scattered and unfocused, lacking any single direction or purpose.
Only rage remained.
Orion could not explain the feeling that gripped him whenever the name Lord Pleiades echoed through the darkness. There was something disturbingly familiar about it; like a memory awakening despite never having existed in the first place.
As he leapt from pillar to pillar, he noticed the voices growing increasingly aggressive. Soon, only a single phrase remained, repeated in terrifying unity from the advancing fog behind him.
"Kill the calamity."
The voices spoke in unison.
Louder.
Closer.
More violent with every passing second;
Until the darkness finally began to catch up to him.
There was no escaping this time.
Panic seized him. His eyes darted wildly as he searched for an exit; anywhere, anything that could lead him out of the endless corridor.
Then...
He saw it.
Far ahead stood a door.
An exit.
Relief flashed across his face. For a moment, genuine happiness appeared, breaking through his fear. He had begun to believe the Corridor of Offerings stretched on forever.
But that hope died almost instantly.
There was a problem.
The door.
A double door.
And it was colossal.
Standing beside it, Orion would look no larger than a grain of sand next to a mountain.
The massive doors were forged in deep, obsidian black, adorned with intricate golden patterns that shimmered faintly under the brightly lit torches. At their center rested a grand geometric emblem:
A hexagon.
Even from afar, the doors dwarfed everything around them. They did not appear made for humans.
They were built for giants.
No… perhaps titans.
"Wait… don't tell me… that's a door!?" Orion muttered, unsure whether to feel impressed or terrified.
"It's massive… Why does everything here have to be so big!?"
He continued leaping from pillar to pillar before glancing behind him.
"And what's the deal with this thing? It just won't stop chasing me. 'Kill the calamity!?' I mean—what's that even supposed to mean?"
The fog surged closer, the voices swelling louder, devouring the distance between them.
Orion quickened his pace.
Panic set in completely.
"C'mon, Orion, think… There has to be something I can do to get out of this… Think… anything!"
The darkness had nearly closed the gap.
Relentless.
Unstoppable.
Meanwhile, Orion rapidly approached the colossal doors. Only minutes remained before he reached them.
But then what?
The question clawed at his mind.
He glanced back again mid-leap, and his eyes widened.
"This thing's fast… and I'm already at my limit. I'm almost there, but… that's the problem. How am I supposed to open that door?"
"I don't even think a thousand people could move it. There's no time to stop and try… Maybe I can just run up the door and lose it somehow."
He shook his head immediately.
"No… that won't work. This thing moves differently—it's swallowing everything."
His thoughts spiraled.
"So what do I do? C'mon… think…"
And then reality struck him.
Hard.
His movements faltered for a brief moment.
"So… there really isn't anything I can do then…"
A cold realization settled into his chest.
"Am I… going to die… in a place like this?"
Orion searched desperately for a plan, thinking through every possible option. But no matter how long he considered it, he reached the same conclusion.
None of them would work.
Every path ended the same way.
A dead end.
Under normal circumstances, if an ordinary person found themselves in Orion's situation; forced to flee from the Creature of Nightmares; they would have been swallowed long before ever laying eyes on the colossal doors.
But Orion was not ordinary.
The training that forged the Six Vessels had granted them abilities far beyond human limits. His primordial instincts moved his body before conscious thought could catch up, guided by reflexes born from something ancient...
Memories that were never truly his.
He vaulted from pillar to pillar at speeds no normal human body could endure without tearing itself apart.
Yet the creature still kept pace.
The fog of darkness surged forward ahead of it, relentlessly closing the distance between hunter and prey.
"…Nah. I can't die here," Orion muttered, forcing confidence into his voice.
"Sorry...not in a place like this. And I don't care how massive that door is… I'm kicking it down with everything I've got."
A spark of reckless optimism lit his eyes.
"I'm almost there… If I time this perfectly, I might just—"
He stopped mid-sentence.
His heart lurched.
The fog of darkness had already begun swallowing parts of his body.
Panic exploded through him.
He pushed beyond his limits, wrenching himself free from its shadowy grasp; if only for a moment. He hurled himself forward, driving off one pillar after another as though his life depended on it.
Because it did.
Every ounce of strength he possessed surged through his movements. Every acrobatic technique drilled into him during training resurfaced instinctively. In the desperation of the moment, he even invented new movements on the fly, all to gain a single sliver of distance from the advancing darkness.
Then...
The pillars began to run out.
Only four remained.
Beyond them stood the colossal doors, barely ten meters past the final pillar.
The moment of truth.
If he failed the final leap, it was over.
But another problem loomed.
How was he supposed to open the door?
He was already running on fumes, his stamina nearly depleted. Judging by the sheer thickness of the structure, even a full-powered kick from someone like him might not leave a scratch.
His earlier bravado about kicking the door open suddenly didn't sound so convincing anymore.
Up close, the doors felt impossibly immense.
Still, the darkness had caught up to him. He had no choice but to follow through with his own words.
Even if hope had already begun to fade.
To deliver the final kick with everything he had left, he needed to push off the last pillar with enormous force; enough propulsion to carry him forward.
He still had just enough strength.
What he didn't have… was time.
The most critical element.
The darkness had already reached him once. If he hesitated even slightly to prepare his leap, it would claim him instantly.
Death was certain.
Orion calculated his chances in a single heartbeat.
Slim.
Almost nonexistent.
But there was no alternative.
His plan was simple: sacrifice one second; just one; before the darkness fully consumed him. In that instant, he would generate enough force to propel himself forward and deliver a decisive kick.
The margin for error…
Was death.
And even before the attempt began, the plan was already failing.
There was no second to spare.
The moment he reached the final pillar, he executed the leap anyway, forcing his exhausted body to obey.
He gathered every remaining ounce of strength.
And pushed.
But the darkness was faster.
It swallowed half his body instantly.
For a fleeting moment, he felt himself being erased.
Yet the force had already been generated.
His body launched forward, soaring more than ten meters through the air, carrying enough momentum to deliver a kick powerful enough to shatter stone itself.
Victory seemed within reach.
Then came the realization.
A fatal miscalculation.
The fog of darkness… was never the true threat.
It was the creature hidden within it.
Orion believed he could outrun the darkness once he sacrificed that single second to generate the force he needed.
He was wrong.
The darkness never waited.
The moment he committed to the plan, it surged forward ahead of him.
As soon as he finished gathering momentum, Orion pushed off the final pillar—
but something seized his leg.
A sudden tug.
His footing slipped.
Balance shattered.
Instead of launching with both legs, he was forced to push off with only one. The propulsive force he had carefully calculated was cut in half instantly.
His plan collapsed mid-execution.
The darkness shot past him.
At that moment, kicking open the colossal door no longer mattered. All he wanted now was to reach it before the darkness did.
But it was already too late.
The darkness was seconds away from the door.
Orion stretched one arm forward, fingers spread wide, reaching desperately through the air; as if sheer will alone could pull him closer.
Everything slowed.
The darkness raced toward the door.
Just behind it; his fingertips, inches away.
And behind him...
the Creature of Nightmares.
Its fragmented voices rose together, merging into a single, deafening chant.
"Kill the calamity."
Over and over.
Louder.
Closer.
Unavoidable.
Something coiled around Orion's leg mid-leap.
Cold.
Heavy.
Hungry.
The darkness had begun consuming him.
In that suspended instant, time seemed to arrange itself in cruel order:
First: the darkness, moments from the colossal door.
Second: Orion's outstretched fingers, moments from the darkness.
Last: the creature behind him, tightening its grip as it slowly dragged him into oblivion.
All of it happening within a single leap.
Panic flooded him as the creeping cold climbed higher up his leg. He was so close.
If only...
If only he could reach the door.
"I'm not gonna make it…"
His voice trembled.
"I'm not… gonna make it…"
The words broke apart with his breath.
"I'm… not… gonna… make it…"
Then...
the darkness touched the door.
And Orion understood.
It was all over.