The portal behind Saryn dimmed down, and fast, way quicker than it had in any of the previous rooms.
The ambient echoes were dense and abundant here, his breaths and heartbeat feeling light all of a sudden.
Murk lightened in his hand, relaxing in response to the environment.
'Feels great… but what hellhole have I found myself in now?.' Saryn examined the surroundings.
He was in a tiny room, each wall crafted of the same abyssal stone he'd gotten used to, and in the middle of the room was a pedestal with a mirror propped against it.
Behind the pedestal, on the opposite side of the now deactivated amethyst gateway, was a large rounded gate, built of steel fencing, Saryn could see what awaited him behind it and further beyond the current room.
'Interesting… I'm guessing Marduk is going to appear in this mirror any moment now…' He thought, as he walked toward the tall iron gate opposite from him.
His eyes scanned the archway, spotting a dark-steel lock, preventing him from opening the gate.
Saryn's gaze drifted upward, past the iron bars.
Beyond the gate were simply more rooms and corridors, consisting of mossy stone, identical to the walls around his own chamber, connected with similar gates.
'A maze?' A frown appeared on his expression, deepening the more he looked.
Saryn shook his head, returning to the mirror.
"Hello?!" He knocked on the mirror, hoping it would catch Marduk's attention.
He knocked once.
Then twice.
Then three ti-
A deafening noise resounded throughout the labyrinth's walls, sounding like the combination of a snake's hiss and a lion's roar, except extremely deep, as if emitted by some sort of dragon.
'I don't like the sound of that…' Saryn stopped knocking, believing he made too much of a ruckus.
"Hey…! Marduk…!" He whispered into the mirror in a last-ditch effort to summon Marduk.
But his attempts were to no avail.
The mirror didn't respond, and instead, something else did.
The dragging of chains and steel reverberated throughout the maze, and with every second, Saryn swore he could hear it get louder and louder.
He wasn't wrong.
'Whatever that thing is, it's getting closer.' Saryn ducked underneath the pedestal, peeking out toward the iron gate.
The sound halted for a short moment.
…
But just as Saryn was about to heave a sigh of relief.
It began again, not from a specific direction.
Not from the right.
Not from the left.
But from… everywhere.
As if the ear-piercing noise was strangling the room with its monstrosity.
Saryn froze.
His heartbeat, which felt so weak and vulnerable until now, suddenly felt way too loud.
As if something was listening.
Drawing out the very essence of his being, eating away at its fibers to pinpoint his exact location.
He tightened his grip around Murk out of instinct.
The feeling constricted Saryn's chest, pulling the air out of his lungs.
Murk stilled in his hands, as if Saryn's fear spread onto the blade through his fingers.
…
Then the feeling stopped.
Like the thing decided to stop trying.
Or it might've already achieved its goal.
And instead, another noise began resounding through the walls.
'It's on my right…' Saryn held his breath as he shifted slightly to the left of the pedestal, praying he wasn't spotted.
The noise resembled the work of a dull saw, grinding slowly against the floor.
'No… it's slithering!' Saryn realised, as the tip of a pointed sleek head began emerging from the right corridor past the iron gate.
A serpent slithered past, the dragging of metal upon metal so loud it nearly burst Saryn's eardrums.
'That thing… is huge!'
The snake was as tall as Saryn in width alone, and its scaly moss-green body struggled to squeeze through the other iron gates, slipping past as if coated in oil.
Its scales had a black shine to them, accentuating its sheer monstrosity.
The head of the serpent was sleek, ending in a curved point, almost like the beak of a hawk, except it wasn't one.
In place of its eyes, were two seemingly engraved black lines, which ran across its head and sharply ended at its neck.
'Is it… blind?' Saryn held back his laughter, worried it'd vanquish him immediately if he were spot-... I mean discovered, anyways the poor thing can't see-
Saryn's thoughts were cut off.
The serpent's head snapped toward the gate.
Not slowly.
Not lazily.
Not blindly.
Instantly.
As if the creature had heard the shape of his amusement.
Saryn's lungs locked.
The serpent's tongue flicked out - long, thin, and forked - tasting the air with a wet, clicking hiss. The engraved black lines where its eyes should've been twitched, tightening like muscles beneath stone.
It wasn't necessarily sightless.
For its hearing was so powerful it could practically see.
Listening so hard, Saryn could feel the air thin out around him.
He shivered slightly, terror catching up to him the longer he spent watching the beast before him.
'The s-stalker looked like a plastic toy in comparison to th-this dem-'
His fearful stutters were cut off by a sharp shriek, originating from in front of the serpent, catching its attention.
A matte-black spider presented itself to the serpent, screaming as it scuttled away toward the opposite direction and into several other sets of rooms, hidden away from Saryn's vision.
The spider looked featureless, and quite abnormally large, standing at about knee height, but in front of the ancient serpent, it looked like a midnight snack.
The serpent cocked its head toward the arachnid, immediately bursting out with an immense speed, navigating the labyrinth like the back of its ha-
'It doesn't have hands…'
Sorry.
The rest of its gargantuan body slid past the space outside the iron gate with the speed a bullet train, leaving a trail of slime and pebbles in its wake.
Saryn eased himself, as the final segments of the snake vanished from his view.
'Only gone for now though, if not for Marduk and his laziness, maybe I'd have known my objective by now.' Saryn cursed inwardly.
'Not that I'm even confident in surviving this place with that glorified worm crawling about.'
Murk pulsed in his hand slowly, as if agreeing with his logic.
…
Minutes passed, and without any sign of the serpent, Saryn stood up, supporting himself with Murk like an old man carrying a cane.
He groaned slightly, his back cracking and popping as he stretched.
'Well… room seven is a fresh slice of nightmare fuel, isn't it?'
Murk absorbed the ambient echoes hurriedly, as if gasping for air.
Meanwhile, Saryn's gaze was on the mirror, its surface rippling gently like the tides of the sea.
'Look who's finally here.'