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It's been approximately 3 weeks since the team fell into the great rift, or "the abyss" they call it. Here, everything is desolate and scarse. Buildings are falling apart, rubble and dust scattered all around. The lakes and any source of water is murky, almost to the point of being a pitch black colour. All the animals inside this rift are out of the ordinary, abnormally large or rotting to its core. Almost every monster killed cannot become a source of food.
It seems nothing can be eaten in this place, save for the food they brought with them beforehand. Even then, whatever scraps of food they had has already gone. Not a single miniscule crumb left.
"Hunter Violet. There seems to be distress among the lower-rank hunters."
Charlotte lowered her voice, intending only Violet to hear. The white haired tilted her head slightly to Charlotte's direction. Then, her eyes briefly glanced to the rest of the team, finding most of the lower ranks start to panic. She looks back at Charlotte.
"…Tell them we're taking a brief rest here."
"Understood." Nodded Charlotte.
She turned her back and announced to the team with a shout,
"We are taking a break! Take it easy everyone, we…"
Charlotte glanced at Violet for a second before looking away once more.
"…We'll be getting out soon. Rest. Violet, Felicia, and I will keep watch. Norman, have you any bandages or medicine left? Mana?"
"…Yes. I should still have some bandages, and I have… some mana left."
"Good. Tend to the injured ones, if you please."
"I understand."
Charlotte turned her head at Violet, who responded with a simple nod as a gesture to come with her. With a hand motion for her to beckon closer, Charlotte also called Felicia over.
"Team leader. What do we do now?" Charlotte asked with a hardened voice.
muttering under her breath, Violet lamented,
"…At this rate, eveyone might slowly be out of their minds.."
She looks up to Felicia instead, and presents her with a question.
"Felicia. You went on patrol with Opaline and Felix, didn't you? Did you find anything?"
The brunette grinned as if she were a fool, but her smile did not reach her eyes. She replied in a playful manner,
"mmn, noo? If anything, we only found rubble after rubble and nothing else! really, truly, such a shame…"
She scrunched her eyebrows, putting an act and acting pitiful. She wiped a fake tear from her face with her pointer finger. With a chuckle, her smile vanished as if it were never there in the first place.
"…hahah. No, but.. that thing is getting closer bit by bit. Opal said it will probably reach us soon if we don't get a move on. Felix said that too, saying it will screw all of us over in just one and a half days."
"We need to move soon, then. What about food? Your mana?" asked Violet.
"I can only feed three mouthes with my jelly as of now. mn, not much mana left."
"…Save it for the high-ranks. We need it if we want to protect the lower-ranks."
"Got it, team leader Violet!~"
"..Team leader."
A faint voice can be heard approaching from behind. It was the team medic, huffing for breath as if he rushed over.
"Norman. What is it?"
"…The thing. It's here. It swallowed a team member."
[Everyone in that moment came to a realization. Nobody is coming to save them, nobody will hand them anything. In the pit of it all, they have nothing but each other. No one to rely on but one another.]
"Wake up! Everyone, wake up— We have to survive together, hello?! Is— Is anyone—!"
Something stares back at her. A being with a body made of black mass gluing together and oozing oil with every pore in its body— an uncountable amount of limbs, multiple pairs of antlers and tusks everywhere on its body, and six grotesque heads attached to its "neck."
Each one resembling what once were her teammates.
"….what.. what are.."
[…But what good is even that? When everyone is in needless peril and panic, where not a single soul is rational, what good is having each other?]
"Don't just stand there, move!" Felix shouted to the member helplessly on the ground.
He muttered curses under his breath, recalling each and every one of their names, their faces. Then, he turns to look at a shadow of a person, who was once his rival. It simply stands there with its bones melding together, limbs stretched and bent in an unnatural way. He looked to the glasses strewn on the ground, the lenses shattered into pieces.
"..ha, why'd you have to get eaten too, huh?"
'Charlotte' lunged full speed at Felix. The limbs moved in twists, legs and arms cracking with every move. The mouth opened, showing rows of canine teeth, eyeballs implanted in the gums of every row.
Felix dodged her attack, but the same could not be true for the team member previously on the ground.
'Charlotte' swallowed that person whole, making sounds akin to both a cry and a screech.
"No, No, No, No, No, No No No Don't I don't want to please don't let me do this to someone stop it stop it stop me stopme stopmestopme stopmestopmestop▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇me stopme stopmestopmestopmestopmest▇▇estopmestopm▇▇▇▇▇▇mestopmestopmestopmestopmestopmestop▇▇stopmestopmestopmestopme▇▇stopmeNo NoNo▇▇No No NoNoNoN▇▇▇▇NoNo NoNoNoNoNoN▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇NoNoNoNo▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇—"
"Shit, fuck.. Why do I have to deal with you still, even here..?"
Felix holds his katana tighter in his grip.
'Charlotte''s voicebox creaked,
"….Why didn't you stop me? Wh▇▇▇t you stop me? Whydidn'ty▇ stopme? Whydidn'tyoustopme?Whydidn'tyoustopme?Wh▇▇▇pme? Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Wh▇▇▇hy?Wh▇▇▇Why?Why?Why?Wh▇?W▇▇▇y?Wh▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇"
[Even those who started gentle will turn into something freakishly violent in response to the treatment it recieves. What once was a person will eventually become a beast deserving of a cage.]
"…I can't see anything."
He gripped the only medkit he had left. Norman slowly reahed out to the dagger in his pocket.
"..haah.. it's cold."
Maybe he should've brought warmer clothes. A match, a torch, anything warm. He should be used to the cold by now, but he guesses he's been far from his homeland for way too long. He's too used to the warmth of the summers here by now.
Then, footsteps could be heard from his right. He turned in that direction and decided to use the last bit of his mana to make an orb of light. It was Opaline, hand in hand with Salim.
Norman completely ignored the presence of Salim, whose eyes are boring into his very being.
"…Opaline. Why are you—"
"Norman Luikkonen."
Opaline cut Norman off with his own name. She never cut people off in the midst of talking unless in situations of emergency. As a reflex, he replied with a sense of urgency,
"What is it, Opaline?"
"…Norman Luikonn▇n."
The presence he was ignoring, Salim, suddenly spoke. His eyes are still strictly on Norman's face, almost as if studying him. Belatedly, He realized the voice that called out to him broke at the end of the sentence.
Meaning, the Opaline and Salim he was seeing was not the usual ones he'd seen thus far. They have been swallowed by the ink.
Norman illuminated the hands that looked like they were intwined n a hold, only to find they weren't holding hands at all. The limbs were attached as if they were one arm, sticking together and cannot let go.
Both voices echoed in a cheer— a song— through the darkness sorounding them.
"Let's be together, forever. Hold hands everyone, for ▇▇▇▇▇▇ has come! Be with us, forever, in life or in death, and even after death. come together, come on! Let's be toget▇r, forever. Hold hands everyone, for ▇▇▇▇▇▇ has c▇me! Be with us, forev▇r, in lif▇ or d▇▇th, and ▇ven aft▇r dea▇h, come tog▇▇her, come ▇n! L▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇er, forever. H▇▇d han▇▇▇▇veryone, for ▇▇▇▇▇▇ has come! ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇h us, forever, in l▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇th, and eve▇▇▇▇▇▇r d▇ath. come t▇▇▇▇her, c▇▇▇on!"
'Opaline' and 'Salim' Reached out to Norman, arms spread wide as if embracing.
"…No, shit, not—"
Norman ran in a cold sweat, sprinting in any direction possible, as long as it's away from those two. No, that thing. He gasped for breath each frantic step— calling out for anyone he knew. Felix, Violet, Felicia, Charlotte— anyone at all.
In that moment,
"C a u g h t Y o u u ▇ u ▇ u u ▇ u ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇"
[…If you put multiple beasts in one cage, do not hope there won't be bloodshed. They will tear apart every limb and flesh they see thinking it is food— No less, they think their own flesh as a pretty feast as well. They'll come to scratch, to claw, to gnaw in search of proper nourishment.]
The sound of flesh tearing apart bit by bit, the endless screaming of what was once human, what was once seperate beings, the sound of bones cracking and teeth gnashing—
[In the abyss, there won't be anything left save for your own blood, flesh, and bones. Your teammates will turn against you, the ones you think are your best mates— all of them. ]
The shrill sounds of laughing and giggling from borrowed voiceboxes, the shrieks and endless streams of curses and no, no, no, nono no nonon▇▇▇n▇nonon▇▇▇▇▇—-
[In the midsts of terror, floundering, and shared hardships, when all you have is the flesh you carry, you are nothing but potential. You are nothing but a being to kill and consume upon death.]
…
…
[Ultimately, no one will come to find you.]
"—It is reported that most top hunters that went missing in a raid about a few weeks ago is believed to be considered dead, decaying, or lost withour return. Today, we shall commemorate this day as a day to remember our fallen heroes, namely the guild masters of SDW, STM, and Asphodel, along with it's vice leaders and the members that went on that raid—"