20 Get Out!

Boulders rumbled behind him when he awoke.

'RUN!'

"Huh? ..." He rubbed his eyes and turned behind him. "WHAT THE H-"

'JUST RUN!'

He scrambled to his feet and started frantically running away from the boulders crashing down around him. "WHAT'S GOING ON?!" He turned around and screamed when a large boulder was right above him.

It violently smashed into the ground, sending debris in every direction. Unfortunately, pieces of the debris hit into Kuoka's back; sending him to the ground instantly.

'Get up!' Shizuku's yell somehow managed to sound even louder inside his head. "Ugh... when is it going to stop..." he laid down on his back, with the rocks digging deeper into his back. '24 hours finished, effects disappearing'

"What? ... AHHHH?!" His entire body started hurting all at once. "AHHHHH," he kept screaming as a bright light slowly lowered from above him. When it touched his face, the pain as well as his injuries disappeared. "Huh?" He tried to touch the light, but it instantly disappeared when his hand approached it. "Regalia, what was that?"

'It's nothing, just go towards the weird thing to your left.' The ravine was already closed off because of the boulders. "Why were there boulders?"

'The wolves started pushing them into the ravine.'

"Those wolves can't let me take a break, even for a second can they..." he sighed and started tiredly walking towards what appeared to be a podium made out of stone. "What is this?"

'Looks like there's a button in it. Want to press it?'

"It's a button?" He stared down at the podium, "what's this doing here anyway? Aren't podiums supposed to be in churches?"

'What if this place is a church?'

"There's no way that this ravine has a church in i- whaaaa." He slowly looked up at the wall infront of him. "A... church."

'Want to go inside?'

"What?! Of course not!"

'But there's no other way out, we have no choice.'

"Fine... you have a point." Kuoka gathered his courage and stepped into the church...

"Nothing's happening? Strange, I thought that spears would've been thrown at me as soon as I entered his place."

The entire inside of the church was only filled with chairs that were in rows. Pillars that stood up to the ceiling, and a large stage at the back. "It's all made of stone... who created this? And why?" He looked around the inside. "This just looks like a normal church, just made out of rocks."

He placed a hand onto the wall and felt a slight difference in shape. "A window? Made of rocks?"

'It's a button.'

"Oh." He pressed it, and a loud scraping came from behind him. He prepared for the worst, but all that came from the door that had opened, was light. "Does this lead outside?" He quickly ran to the door and there was a long staircase with light rays shining down.

He ran up the stairs as fast as he could, "it actually leads outside... who would've thought."

Kuoka stumbled out from the staircase into another room. "Crystals, so many." There were crystals hanging from the ceiling, the light that emanated from them made it appear to be the sky. "Grass?" He felt a soft breeze float past him, he looked forward and saw something strange.

He couldn't make out it's shape because it wobbled in place. "A wall... how?" He reached a hand towards the strange shape, but an invisible wall blocked his hand.

He stared at the shape, "no point in staring at it, I should look for a way out." He sighed and proceeded to examine the entire room. "It's in the shape of a dome made of stone, there's somehow grass in here, the crystals make the ceiling look like the sky, there's also wind... because of this thing?"

He poked the invisible wall, "it's still here..."

'Try pressing something? There could be another button somewhere.'

"You're right..."

"There aren't any buttons!" He scratched his head frantically. "What do I do?! This weird thing is the only clue I have! But I can't even touch it! Ugh..."

'That rock over there; there's something weird on it.'

"Huh?" Kuoka knelt over a rock with red dots on it. "A pin?"

'Looks like a pin.'

"It's not even real, it's just a drawing of a pin. A drawing?" He picked up the rock. *Click* "What was that?" A large egg shaped boulder came up from the ground under him. It started shaving off pieces of itself until it was in a humanoid shape.

"What is this... thing?" Kuoka slowly walked towards it, then it's eyes moved. "Eh-?" It started moving in weird places, it's arms spun in circles, it's legs stomped everywhere in it's vicinity; and it's eyes were making a clicking noise.

It suddenly stopped moving, and started shaving pieces off again. Soon, it was the exact same size as Kuoka, the same shape. "What th-" It started quickly walking towards him.

"EHHH?!" Kuoka quickly backed up, until his back touched the side. "This is bad..." the rock creature stopped in front of him. It raised it's hands as if it wanted a hug. "A hug? Sure..." Kuoka raised his arms and went in for a hug.

As soon as Kuoka was about to hug the rock. It violently slammed it's arms into the wall behind him. 'I just barely dodged that?!'

'Tch, I expected it to do that, but it's so fast! Isn't this thing a rock?!'

It's eyes didn't have color nor life. It seemed like a doll. 'That's creepy...' the creature stared at Kuoka. And it started running towards him; cracking the ground with every step.

It slammed into the wall again, sending a small puff of dust into Kuoka's eyes. 'I can't see!' The creature swiftly followed up it's attack by grabbing Kuoka's left arm and attempting to tear it off. "I'm not letting you do that!" Kuoka followed it's motion of pulling on his left arm in order to shake it's hold on him.

'It's grip is strong!' The creature still had an extremely tight hold on his arm, just nearly enough to crush his arm. 'M-my arm!' He could feel his bones beginning to crack. 'I need to do something!' He grabbed the creatures head with his right arm. 'I don't know if this'll do anything, but it's worth a try!' He pressed his fingers into it's eyes.

"SCRAAAA." It screamed in agony, 'That worked!' Kuoka panted as he held onto his left arm. 'I can't move my arm...'

The creatures eyes became angered, it charged at him even faster than before. 'I can't dodge this!' He prepared himself for a direct impact with the creature, but it still wasn't enough to prevent what happened.

His entire body was violently thrown into the stone wall behind him, leaving a mark in it. Blood spurted out from his mouth, and as he held onto his stomach; he fell to the ground. His breath was beaten out of him at the moment the creature slammed into him.

"Haa... haa... haa..." he panted while trying to maintain focus on the creature in order to dodge it's next attack, but it disappeared. "What... where is it..."

He looked around slowly, he could barely move his body from the shock. He heard something step onto the grass beside him. He turned his head upwards and the creature stared at him. His face was filled with terror at the change.

The creature's dead stone eyes were now real eyes; made of water, jelly, and protein. It's eyes were bloodshot in anger, stone veins were bulging on the side of it's face. It started breathing.

'It's t-turning into a human?' Kuoka stared at it in shock. "Ack!" The creature kicked Kuoka in the stomach with it's foot; made of flesh.

"Haa... haa... you've made yourself vulnerable... how kind of you." Kuoka gathered his remaining strength and stood. His body was aching and his breathing was out of control. The creature fully turned into a human.

"I guess you're a real human now..." Kuoka picked up another rock from beneath him; he tucked it under his sleeve. The creature had short black hair, it's eyebrows were facing down towards the top of it's nose in anger. Dark eyes, a large mouth for a human. It had all the traits and aspects of a human.

"Can't you talk? So you're still just a rock, even though you look like a human."

The creature was provoked further by Kuoka's words. It charge at him at lightning speeds again. 'Naive.' He dodged the creature, and slammed the rock into the back of it's head with all his strength. "There's no blood? It only looked like a human..."

There was no blood inside the creature, it was still made of rocks on the inside. *Stchk*

"Huh?" Kuoka quickly turned around and the wobbly wall was gone, "a shrine?"