Tomb Of The Forgotten

Dell's muscles were very, very fatigued. It felt like he was having to pull his body like a puppet to get it to move. But he couldn't stop, behind was the darkness itself chasing him, with deafening screeches. Enduring the sprint would've been easier if he had not been tortured constantly by the cuts and slashes from the ants, each of them causing irritating pain. Dell couldn't check behind him, as he had to keep paying attention to the floor to not trip up on the winding roots of the forest, but also, he needed to spot a route of escape.

' This forest... it feels infinite... I can't go for much longer..! ' 

Suddenly, the jungle became denser, with more plants blocking his vision and several more tree roots stabbing through the floor. This area slowed Dell down, the plants were too large for him to slip by, forcing him to manually push them out of the way - but for the ants who simply hopped from tree to tree with their incredible jump power, it didn't affect them much. They were closer than ever now.. and for some reason, they weren't giving up their pursuit. 

' Find some other prey. dirty ants! Argh! ' 

As he stepped forward, his body toppled to the ground, due to a small hole being camouflaged in the ground. Cursing the dense jungle, he managed to pull himself back up, but not before a dark creature lunged its scythe at his neck. Reacting in the last moment. Dell crouched as the ant flew over his head, landing on a tree in front of him. 

' Damn it! I'll be surrounded at this rate. ' 

Rising up, hatred burning in his eyes, he raised his oar and dashed forward, swinging it at the ant. 

" Out of the way! " 

But of course, it simply moved out of the way and lunged forth. A tear appeared in Dell's cloak, as blood rushed out from the wound. This one was bad. He felt pain coursing through his body. The ant let out a shriek as Dell held his shoulder, and the swarm of screeches became louder. 

' Sh*t! Not good... What do I even do!? ' 

From now on, Dell was stripped of any essence of being calm. When someone knew their death would come soon, they would become incredibly desperate. And desperate he became. 

Dell unleashed a scream of a beast as he ran forward. Instead of swinging the oar at the ant... he simply ran past it. His act surprised the ant, but it wasn't staggered for too long. But Dell didn't care, he had no plan this time. He just wanted to run, desperately sprinting far away from the swarm. Adrenaline channelled through him constantly, drowning out a lot of pain he felt - his world became a lot simpler. He ignored all other thoughts and surroundings and focused his efforts on sprinting ahead, in a distressed search for somewhere to rest. 

The jungle once again grew thicker the deeper he went, the ants becoming faster and Dell becoming slower. He felt something gash into his back, but the adrenaline forced him to ignore it. For the first time in Dell's life... he felt true fear and true desperation. But he kept running. 

And soon, his sprint came to an end. 

As a few ants had caught up to Dell, a blazing light came from ahead, Dell felt slightly invigorated at its appearance. The presence of the ants was not even occupying a single area of his mind - this was the light at the end of his dark tunnel. 

Leaping forth, Dell rolled across the ground, entering a large clearing in the jungle. Shortly after he did though, all the ants that had chased him emerged too. Dell felt a choking sensation as he stared at the ant colony emerge, slowly approaching him on the floor. He shuffled and tried to pull himself up...

" S-STAY AWAY DAMN IT! " 

As he exclaimed in fear, the ants stopped their approach. 

' W-what? ' 

Suddenly, they all stepped back... and merged again with the jungle, disappearing from his sight. Dell's face contorted in confusion, pushing himself off the ground as he took swift breaths for a while, staring blankly at the jungle entrance. 

' What.. did they just run? ' 

But his fatigue finally caught up to him, and he fell back down to the ground staring at the endless grey sky. His nerves were slowly calming down, and soon, the adrenaline surge he felt was wearing off. Which revealed just how badly he had been injured. All over his body, there were cuts and slashes, there were only 2 deep cuts before he began his sprint. But now, six devastating wounds were plaguing his body. Finally, though, there was calmness again.

-

He hadn't paid attention to the sky before, since he couldn't see it well in the jungle and ocean, and there was too much chaos in between. Searching around, he saw the giant moon, or sun, in the sky much more clearly. Now, he could see a red symbol in the centre - a red cross with a bending line curving under it. But more oddly than the symbol, were the cracks surrounding the sky. Around the celestial body, there were shatters in the sky emerging from the body like tree roots. It was as if the moon broke through the sky like it was some barrier. That may explain why it was glowing yellow, and yet all but his own eyes were monotone, lifeless colours.

With a sigh, he dismissed the thoughts and sat up, wondering about where the ants were now, and most importantly..

' Why did they run? I was easily killable in that moment, so why? ' 

Even the little bastard in his head was silent. Dell felt an overbearing sensation to check behind him, turning his body to check. 

' Is this what made them run? ' 

Behind him what was something like a grand temple, carved from an incredibly dark, smooth material. Along the edges of the temple were strange purple flames bursting from black skulls, making Dell shiver.

' It's colour...! ' 

Surrounding it were several colossal obsidian pillars holding up the ceiling, which was very high. There was a wide flight of stairs, leading up to the entrance of the temple. Dell rested for a bit, before building the courage to climb the stairs. Reaching the top, a grand door stared at Dell - at the peak of the tomb, there was a giant skull with horns looking up at the sky, its maw wide open containing the doors. 

Dell felt an eery feeling cultivate within him as he approached the door. 

' The ants feared this structure, maybe they too felt the same sensation I feel when I look at it - but what do they know about it that I don't? And why is this masterfully crafted temple here on this random island, when there were no signs of anything this advanced being on the island? '

Dell's thoughts drifted to the body he found before the ambush. 

' I doubt that even a tribe of people could craft something like this. Was it here before them? Confusing... ' 

Brushing the thought aside, he took a deep breath and pushed the doors open, which were much more burdensome than he thought they would be, straining his muscles. Thankfully, his strange body quickly regained its stamina much faster than a normal human would, maybe even faster than someone with a Drive. But his wounds still ached, sending shudders through his body occasionally.

As the door swung open, purple flames alit spreading a purple glow throughout the darkness. It revealed different things sculpted into the walls and floor, and some sort of elevated level with a great black gong hanging above. A strange mist from the floor also drifted outside - it was very cold inside. 

' Purple flames again... '

Dell thought about the fact that these were the only 2 colours he had seen in this place. Did they have some meaning?

' Of all things to have colour, it's the odd-temple's flames, which share the same colour of my eyes, and the moon shattering the sky. Is there some sort of link? ' 

He began to think that maybe there was some sort of curse on this world that drained the colour of everything, but certain things overpowered the curse. But why was it that his eyes broke through this curse if his theory was correct? Who was he in this trial? Maybe there is more to this than it just being a false dream made by the Drive. 

Shrugging, he walked into the temple. And just as he did, the mist swarmed the door, slamming it shut. 

" It shut? There's no handle either... how am I supposed to leave!? "

Dell's body slightly trembled at the sight of the closed door. The beat of his heart echoed throughout the cold and silent hall. Looking around the small hall, he noticed the doors at the end slightly open... and a strange sound came from the door, like a corrupted howl of a demon. His heartbeat was drowned by the long wait. 

Putting his back against the wall, his body sweated, and he shivered. A long, black skull emerged from the door, with 1 large eye socket, and four spiralling horns, winding up and down. It looked around the hall, before staring at Dell. The skull then came closer into the purple flames, held up by a lengthy neck composed of dark bones. Slowly, it came closer and closer, until the head reached the centre of the room. From the door, a large, fortified ribcage stumbled out on 4 thick legs of bone. Guarding the rib cage were a pair of colossal skeletal arms, with claws on each of its 3 fingers. The long and winding neck connected itself to the centre of the ribcage, which was filled with a strange purple glow.

' Is... this why they ran...? '

It was quiet. Deathly silent. But suddenly, the maw of the undead creature expanded and an ear butchering sound echoed, making the entire room shake violently. 

" A n-nightmare... This is a nightmare, not a trial! "