It had been almost three weeks since Arthur took his very first step into the Divine Realm. During which, Arthur faced many threats. Some of them were simply dangerous, while some were terrifying and dangerous. He even met extremely strong people who could easily erase him from existence if they wished for.
However, none of that could compare to the feeling he had at that moment. A feeling so immensely strong, he had to actually take a moment to catch his breath. After all, the thing that just moved right beneath his feet was a complete and utter nightmare. The shadow that swept right under his legs was unimaginably huge, completely dwarfing Arthur in comparison.
Arthur’s body froze as if it was shelled in ice and his blood almost stopped moving in his veins.
‘What… What was that? Something… Something moved beneath me!’ He thought to himself as he blinked and then quickly looked up. All the spirits around him had lost all will to fight him and they simply turned around and started walking away in unison.
“H-Hey…” Arthur tried to speak, but was there really a point in talking to these things?
Then, as if he garnered the wrong attention, the looming shadow moved under his feet again, vanishing into the reflection of the ice. That was when Arthur’s heart sunk in and he felt all his senses going off, telling him one single thing… Run!
Without wasting a single moment to even think or contemplate, Arthur dashed forward at top speed. He used every single ounce of energy left in his body to accelerate as fast as he could. Cutting through the waves of spirits that continued walking slowly like dolls. They didn’t seem aware or afraid of whatever was moving beneath them.
‘I need to run! I need to get out of here now or I’m dead!’ His mind told him again and again like a resonating warning. At the same time, not that far away from Arthur, the shadow suddenly shifted direction on its own before it started rushing toward Arthur.
The boy couldn’t see where it was but his overwhelming fear had already taken over and he could only think of running like a maniac. Luckily, no monster stopped him the entire time so he could move as freely as he could.
‘I can make it! it! The shores are not far away! I just need to get out of these swarms of spirits and I will be fine!’ He thought to himself as he moved left and right, dodging the spirits to the best of his ability. That naturally slowed him down considerably.
*CRACK*
Then, he heard a crack right behind him. Looking over his shoulder, and much to his horror, Arthur saw that shadow not that far away, and right above it, a crack manifested on the ice. It was small at first but then quickly expanded everywhere in a chain of reactions, each one creating a bigger crack and then spreading like a complex web of destruction.
*BADUMP*
*BADUMP*
*BADUMP*
Along with it, the thumping noises continued growing stronger and stronger, matching Arthur’s heartbeat at some point. Along with it, the cracks grew deeper, more damaging to the thick sheet of ice. It didn’t take long for the first parts of the ice to break apart and for the water beneath to emerge slowly. Its dark color was eerie, almost as if that water had been trapped beneath the surface for so long, that it lost most of its characteristics.
The cracks quickly expanded everywhere, easily matching and outruning Arthur.
‘Screw it all!! Screw it all!!’ He yelled in his head as he closed his eyes and simply focused on running. However, deep down, he knew that outrunning this abomination was a pipe dream. The cracks were simply too fast.
Meanwhile, all the Lake Spirits were caught in the destruction as the lake started swallowing them one by one like flies. The bigger cracks made them slip before dragging them down to the abyss beneath. Arthur watched that scene and he could only imagine himself being the next one in line.
‘Where is the shore?! Where is the shore?’ He opened his map and tried to pinpoint his current location. But, unfortunately, he was still at least a few minutes away from the shore.
‘There is no time left for a few minutes!!’
A second later, the cracks finally reached Arthur as he almost slipped into an open crack. However, he quickly regained his composure and started hopping from one individual piece of ice to another.
He jumped left and right, trying to control his stability and momentum. However, it quickly turned out to be something extremely hard. Not only because the cracks were happening randomly and the pieces that snapped were also random and unpredictable, but also because liquid water had now reached the surface which meant… The ice was slippery.
It only took a few moments before Arthur’s foot slipped on the surface and he found himself falling back. His eyes widened as he tried to regain his balance. But, it was far too late.
‘No!’ He screamed in his head as he slammed into the ground and then tried to quickly stand up and continue running. However, as if it exactly predicted that, the shadow suddenly swept right beneath him. Its speed was so fast, that it created a wave of water that pushed the ice up and made it spread wider and wider.
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Arthur was swept along with the wave, his body completely soaked in icy cold water. However, he didn’t care as he stood up and tried to jump to the safest area around. Then, the second wave arrived and it made Arthur fall again, this time right between two cracks.
Quickly, his hand grabbed into the edge, trying to hold on. The slippery nature of the ice didn’t help much and the constantly moving parts around him, smashed into his body from all angles, threatening to crush his body with their immense weight.
‘What should I do? Think, think… Th-‘ Even though Arthur would usually be able to come up with some kind of idea, this time… His wits didn’t help him.
As he struggled to keep himself afloat as the water rose. The boy’s eyes coincidentally looked down at the black water and that was when everything halted. All the noise, the struggles, even the heartbeats and the thumps.
Once he saw that huge eye, shining right under the surface of the darkness, everything was completely wiped clean from his head. There was no fear anymore… Only an eerie coldness filled his body.
Arthur stared at that eye for a second, then two seconds… He couldn’t look away and it didn’t seem like it intended to look away. As if his mind was carried away, Arthur didn’t even realize that his hands were slipping.
Then, he lost his grip and his body started falling down, immediately getting swallowed by the dark water. All that was visible was that eye and even it slowly closed and vanished, getting covered by the moving sheets of ice.
A//N: Thank you all for the gifts, golden tickets and ps. Let’s keep it up!