Chapter 1 : The Croesus

Genre : Horror (At least I tried to make it), Comedy (For some of you), Dark (Idk why)

Author : Corrupted_Entity

Chapter Art : https://www.deviantart.com/corrupted0entity/art/20221111-194836-936465990

It was a dark foggy day and the sounds of crickets were evident. I, professor Yulia, and our team of researchers were very close to finding the ancient city. This was our 93rd day of the expedition, wandering about, finding clues as to where this 'city' could be in such a dense forest. Legends, myths, as well as ancient texts alike, speak of an ancient city. A flourishing city that had everything you could ever imagine. Cures to all diseases answer to everything in the universe as well as unparalleled technology multiple millennia ahead of its time. The city was named "Mor Doylei" by previous travelers and explorers who only got a glimpse of this mysterious city.

"Ah!" professor Yulia exclaimed, looking at a dead bird near a tree. She became very gloomy after seeing that. She made sure to give it a proper burial.

"You're too kind" I proceeded to check the hole in the tree to check if the dead bird had any children.

"HAHAHAHAH! GUESS WHAT!" I shouted while laughing. I had found a stone tabloid with unknown markings on it. It is said that the guardian of the city changes the place the stone is hidden every 10 years. Cheers and laughter resounded the whole night. We celebrated and completely wasted ourselves in joy. Everyone got extremely drunk and dozed off.

The next morning and professor Yulia were trying desperately to decipher the text. We would have been able to do it without much effort due to constant studies and research of the ancient city for many years but as we were hungover, nothing we seemed to do worked. Our heads were splitting apart and everything seemed so bizarre. Suddenly we heard shouts from outside the tent.

"WHAT THE HELL?!?!"

"HEY! LOOK AT THIS"

We rushed out of the tent only to see every single bird, animal, and insect lying down on the forest floor. This scene continued for a mile before we saw any living things besides us.

"Could it be?"

"The legends and records did mention a guardian of the city"

Our team started murmuring while trying to comprehend what in actual hell we had witnessed. We gave each member of our team a gun for self-defense. This was a jungle after all. This jungle was much more dangerous than the amazon. We managed to decipher the text only to find out the coordinates on it. Aside from ancient texts, this was our first time witnessing how brilliantly advanced their technology was. It took no time at all to configure the coordinates. The city was supposedly located underground, which could be accessed by a cave leading there. It was night now so we decided to depart for our journey tomorrow as we had a long distance to travel.

As I was brushing in the morning, I once again met up with professor Yulia (who wakes up early and is very punctual)She donned a gloomy face. She was kind. Too kind for her own good. If she can feel sad about one bird dying, I can only imagine what witnessing this made her feel like.

While brushing I heard her say one person is missing. The other researchers assured us saying he has gone for a smoke and if he doesn't return, we should believe he has betrayed us and joined another explorer's team to reach the treasure first. Yes, just like us many people sought out the ancient city. We got ready to depart and as expected the other researcher did not return.

We could not delay anymore as we had many competitors trying to reach there before us. We had highly underestimated the time it will take us to reach there as were finally reached the cave at night. It was pitch dark and we could not see anything with the dense forest blocking even the moonlight. The only thing we could feel was the humid, sticky air around us. As we slowly reached what seemed to be the entrance, some water-like substance fell on my cheeks. I took out my torch thinking that it was water. We did not switch on any lights as we had intended to save up electricity for the time we are in the cave and switching on lights would only attract attention.

I froze after looking up. I was followed by professor Yulia. The liquid was from the blood of the missing researcher whose body or should I say corpse was impaled by metal rods above the cave entrance. We also found the corpses of our competitors along with him. Everyone started vomiting(me included) after watching the gory, violent sight in front of us.

"I-It's the Croesus! RUN!"

He ran faster than any of us. We took some time to understand everything. We looked in the forest only to see a full white figure, which was stained with crimson blood just standing there, quietly observing us from in between the trees. It had long slender limbs, with its arms reaching its legs. It has a mangled body with bones protruding out of it, piercing its flesh. It was 'somewhat humanoid' with a scarred face, so scarred that no one could find any of its facial features such as its eyes or nose, not even a mouth. We are simply frozen as if time had stopped. The only difference was that we are trembling in fear as it glanced at us. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that it tilted its head in our direction.

We all ran in different directions. I dragged professor Yulia(who was my best friend at this point) along with me. We ran with all our might The creature followed the other researchers. At this point, professor Yulia was feeling guilty that she was relieved that the creature followed the others. Out of nowhere, the creature jumped in between us separating me and Yulia.

"HOW?!?!" I was horrified by how fast it killed off the others and made its way to us.

I was scratched by it and blood started gushing out like a river. However, it decided to follow professor Yulia. I was running as fast as I could. At this point, I had spent all of my energy as I reached the edge of the forest. The only thing that kept me running was willpower or should I say the fear of being killed by that 'thing'.

"Hey, I'm here!"

I heard professor Yulia's voice coming from the bushes. I rush in joy towards the bushes only to see the horrifying sight behind them.

Professor Yulia was...'dead' that was what you could call her right now. She couldn't be called alive right now. Her hands were not attached to her body and her legs were utterly mangled. Her face was torn and damaged beyond recognition. The only way I could recognize her was by her voice and her silver hair. While thinking, I suddenly recalled something that made me despair.

"There are 12 more of them..."

I recalled what I had read while researching the ancient city. It stated that there are 13 guardians and the first one is only sent as a scout and once there are more invaders, all of them are released.

"Ha-ha-hahahahahah...ahhh"

My state had reduced to nothing more than a madman. I ran again, as fast as I could. I felt helpless, sad, and a bit mad, extremely tired as well.

"I am going to buy a bunker and become a shut-in for the rest of my life. I will lock myself in there forever and live happily ever after!" I shouted at the top of my lungs as I fainted.

"Hell is empty and all the devils are here" -William Shakespeare, The Tempest