Alma 97 Heart of Darkness

Even though Reed had closed his eyes, it'd not stopped the persistent, pervasive feeling of dread he felt in his bones. Her suggestion had not helped in the slightest, so he opened his eyes.

There was no running from what had happened here. The atrocities that'd occurred here — the pain, terror, and suffering — had permeated into the fabric of reality itself.

It was the Anima; It spoke to Reed, showing him what it'd witnessed in the distant past.

It was hard to move because of the blood. The entire corridor they'd been walking down had suddenly transformed into a scene of carnage.

Reed and Lu'um trudged the waist-high torrent of thick, warm blood that'd suddenly poured down from the ceiling. It had completely drenched them from head to toe in an unbearable stench of iron that made Reed gag in revulsion.

"U-Ugh! There's so much of it! It's like waddling through mud!" said Reed as he pushed himself through the blood with difficulty.

"It's not real, Ka'an! Don't let the cursed aura of this place get to you!" said Lu'um. She quickly put her hand in front of Reed's face and then snapped her fingers.

A burst of light assaulted Reed and blinded him. He reflexively shut his eyes in pain and said, "My eyes! You didn't have to make the flash that goddamned bright!"

Lu'um dragged him along and said, "That's what you get for not listening to me. I told you not to open your eyes, Ka'an. This place is burdened with a curse that's out of your current league."

Reed sighed deeply, rubbed his eyes in resignation and said, "Fine, I get it."

I didn't think the effects would be that bad! This place is BEYOND fucked! The mental corruption here is so terrifying that I can't even open my goddamned eyes in here!

No wonder the Mulians sealed this place down and erased everyone associated with it — this section of Xibalba has essentially become an eternal testament of their crimes.

Not even the exterminator squads, who were renowned for their fearlessness, had dared to remain here for long after they'd finished purging everything in the restricted section.

Even though they'd been unable to exterminate the Infested pupa, they'd still sealed it after a difficult fight. They'd lost too many troops and were out of time, so they had opted to seal it instead.

It'd been flash-frozen in a last-ditch attempt to cut the abomination's connection to the Outsiders that supplied it its power. Although it had not been the best solution at the time, it was all that they'd been able to come up with at the time.

Thus, the Infested Pupa had been frozen in a glacier of eternal ice made of Anima for millennia in the bottommost level of Xibalba...

The deeper they descended into the restricted section, the more that Reed felt that something was wrong. Terribly wrong.

It was a hunch, a premonition that had emerged from the core of his soul. His instincts were screaming at him to run as fast as he could.

"Hey, you feel that too, right? Something… isn't right down there. I don't know what you're expecting down there, but I don't think it's going to be good," said Reed.

"…Yes, I do. It seems that we are both of the same opinion, then. Whatever is at the central core is likely the source of these disturbing Anima fluctuations," said Lu'um in a grave voice.

She suddenly grabbed Reed and picked him up, carrying him in her arms. It would have been quite the humorous sight, Reed being carried like a princess, were it not for the severity of the situation.

"W-What are you doing, sweetcheeks?! What's going on?!"

Lu'um leaped forth into a furious sprint and said, "We're out of time! We need to get to the core NOW! Keep your eyes closed and until I tell you its safe to open them, okay?!"

In a split second, she accelerated into a blur and disappeared as she raced down an innumerable amount of corridors, hallways, and flights of stairs into the core of Xibalba like she had a death wish.

The sudden application of force on Reed startled the hell out him and he screamed in terror as he felt raging wind and pressure assault him out of nowhere.

Oh shit!! Shit, shit, shit, shit…!

There was something naturally terrifying about hurtling at a hundred and forty kilometers per hour in an instant… whilst one's eyes are closed. It did not bode well for the mind or body, suffice to say.

Reed had nearly blacked out by the time Lu'um had stopped sprinting because of the immense g-forces that'd been applied to him. He weakly patted Lu'um's face and hoarsely said, "Y-You're a real piece of work, you know that?"

"Forgive me, Ka'an, but time was of the essence. You can open your eyes now, by the way. The effects of the curse here are weak enough for you to resist it."

Reed slowly opened his eyes and saw that they'd arrived in front of a massive, towering gate.

"This is it," said Lu'um. "The deepest layer in Xibalba — the central core where the Infested pupa was kept."

They'd finally arrived at the Xibalba's heart.

"Let me guess… You want to go inside, don't you? Lu'um, you do understand that this a bad idea, right? There's nothing for us here."

"Astrid and Sebastian aren't here. Neither Ashborn nor the Dragoncrest families have shown up. The Holy Church isn't here, either. We've been played."

"I know, Ka'an, but we might as well get rid of the abomination while we're here. As long as it exists, even its sealed state, it'll continue to pose a grave threat to the safety of this continent. Better for us to take care of it now than leave it alone and hope that no one will ever stumble upon Xibalba again…"

Her words made perfect sense, as much as Reed hated it.

Heaven forbid anyone ever finds this accursed hell-hole again. Were someone ever to find this place again, venture all the way down here and accidentally unseal the Infested pupa…

Reed shivered.

It'd probably mean the end of the East at the bare minimum. Perhaps Gramps might be able to slay it with the help of some old-timers, but I don't know if they'd be able to kill it before it'd destroy the East.

FUCK.

"Fine… We take care of this bastard and then we leave, okay? You can come back and reseal this place some other time, right? We're running on a tight clock. We don't have time to lock up this place," said Reed.

Lu'um nodded and said, "Thank you, Ka'an. After we take care of it, we'll immediately resume rescuing your friends, I promise."

Reed grunted in agreement and said, "By the way, can you let me go now? I'm not going to be able to help you in this position…"

They stared at the enormous gate for a moment as they prepared themselves. A flood of Anima gathered and swirled around them like a raging tempest.

Reed sighed.

Back to work, I suppose. And here I thought I'd get a small break away from these damned monstrosities…

"Well, go ahead, then. Let's get this over with…" said Reed in a gloomy voice.

Lu'um stepped forward and then made a pulling gesture as she drew on her Anima to empower herself. The massive gate suddenly started to groan in protest as it was slowly forced open against its will. Two gigantic slabs of pure metal eventually submitted to the overwhelming force that'd been applied to it.

With a resounding boom, the gate had been forcibly opened. Two several-hundred-ton doors had been pushed open against their will, revealing what they had kept sealed for millennia.

That was when they both saw what laid inside of Xibalba's heart.

"OH GOD, WHAT THE FUCK...!"

"!!!!!!!"

It wasn't there.

The Infested pupa was not in the central core.

What they had found instead was a literal mountain of flesh, bone, and blood at least a hundred meters tall. Hundreds of thousands of corpses piled on top of each other so high, they'd reached the top of the Infested pupa's containment cell.

And the atop of the mountain of gore were two people.

The Holy Pope and… Sebastian.

Reed stared at the macabre sight and wondered what kind of mess he'd gotten himself into. He'd already seen some terrible stuff since he'd arrived in this world, but this was unbelievable.

The Pope grinned when he saw Reed and Lu'um and said, "Greetings, Holy Ones! I welcome you to my humble abode… please, make yourselves at home!"

He grabbed the skull of one of his former elder priests and used it to scoop up some fresh blood from his feet.

"…Would you like a drink? I can assure you that it's fresh…"

Chapter end