CHAPTER 46: Sinking

With a deafening bang, the tear settled into the form of a massive and heavy looking oak door.

When Alex had first encountered the door over one month ago, it had been a distance away from him, which resulted in him not being able to see it very well. However, this time was different, the door loomed close so he could now see some details he hadn't noticed before.

There were rusty metal bars which spanned from one end of the door to the other that periodically appeared at various intervals. Additionally, there was a circular collar that was attached three-quarter ways up the door. Like the bars, the collar was most certainly made of metal, but what was different was the jaded looking spikes that encircled it.

The general look of the bars and collar added to the aged and creepy quality of the oak door, intensifying the perilous threat of the door by a significant amount.

The door loomed tens of meters away and stood several meters high. However, despite the distance Alex was from the towering door, he could still feel the heavy pressure emitted by it.

The sensation could be likened to the feeling of being doused in ice cold water, then immediately being thrust out into the middle of a raging blizzard.

*CHATTER*

A peculiar sound reached Alex's ears, and almost instantly, he recognized it as the clattering of his teeth meeting each other.

Alex then glanced down and saw his bony arm trembling uncontrollably. Despite his efforts to still it, his body seemed to have already decided it was time to leave, a realization that dawned on him with frantic intensity.

With that thought echoing in his head, Alex once again turned around and began sprinting toward the skeletal corpse as fast as his frail body would allow him.

"Win...leave."

Suddenly, from out of the blue, Alex heard a dreadfully familiar grating voice ring out from behind him. A fearful shiver ran up his spine as the words washed over him.

'I was right. It is the door.'

Even though it had been a month, Alex still felt like it was just yesterday that he had last heard it, that's how much of an impression it had made on his psyche.

'I need to get out of here.' Alex thought as he shuffled away through the inky blood. 'Now that it's back, who knows if it will create another copy of that beast.'

Alex looked forward and saw he was now only a few steps away from reaching the corpse's skull. However, Alex didn't feel comforted by that, in fact it made him all the more worried.

Alex once again looked over his shoulder, after which his expression changed to one of confusion. 'Why is it not doing anything?'

*RUMBLE*

Sadly, he thought too soon, as consequently, seconds later, underneath the pool of inky blood, Alex felt that the ground had begun to shake.

Alex spread out his legs in an effort to prevent himself from falling down. However, all that did was to delay the inevitable, which happened seconds later.

*SHWISH*

*SPLASH*

Moments later Alex found himself landing in the pool with a huge splash, which caused droplets of blood to spray out in all directions, leaving Alex looking like a drenched dog.

*COUGH, COUGH*

Some of the blood entered Alex's mouth which caused him to start coughing and hacking.

*GASP*

Alex took a deep breath and tried to balance himself, before he then struggled to his feet despite the quivering ground.

'What's happening here? Why is the ground shaking?'

Alex stepped forward while trying, but without much luck, to prevent himself from falling back down.

'I don't understand what's going on, but...'

*STEP*

'The corpse's bones still look as sturdy as when I fought it, so I can take shelter under it and maybe try and figure out a plan.'

*STEP*

'There is not much else I can do other than that, except maybe crossing all of the sand in this place, which will leave me wide open for the door's attacks. Then if I somehow miraculously make it, walk right back into the lightless void which almost killed me the last time I was here.'

*STEP*

Alex briefly glanced at the bones that were all that were left of his arm, which reminded him of another one of his problems.

But he had other problems right now, so he pushed the sad and depressed thoughts having to do with the loss of his arm out of his mind and tried, with some success, to focus.

'And even if I wanted to battle that door, even leaving aside my arm, with the way my body is right now there is no way that will end in anything but my death...damn it.'

*SHWISH*

Those thoughts of his distracted Alex for a moment which caused him to slip on a particularly muddy section of sand. However, this time he was able to catch himself, and as soon as he looked up he realized that he was within leaping distance from the corpse.

'The shaking is getting worse, and I need to get over there now.' Alex thought as he slightly lowered his hips. 'I don't need any more surprises.'

Therefore, after gathering all the strength he could muster and exhaling loudly, Alex jumped toward the beast's remains with his arms outstretched.

'Almost...there.' Alex's fingers were inches away from touching the bones, and a sense of relief washed over him.

Then suddenly, right in front of Alex's eyes, the skeletal body of the beast faded away, abruptly turning into black smoke and wafting away into the air.

'Huh?' Alex grasped at the drifting smoke with a shocked look on his face. 'Huh?'

With an aghast and dumbfounded expression, Alex flew through the cloud of smoke, plunging face first into the pungent blood that covered the sand.

*SPLASH*

'What just happened?' Alex slowly raised his face before he quickly turned around and looked behind himself. 'Where is the corpse?'

But no matter where Alex's gaze turned to he couldn't catch sight of it anywhere.

'What's going on?' Alex thought dazedly as he stood up

Nevertheless, before Alex could fully stand, he felt something tugging at his leg. And before he could make sense of what was going on...

*YANK*

*SPLASH*

...he found that both his legs were knee deep in the inky black blood.

Alex looked down in confusion and pulled at his leg. 'Did something tug at me, or was it my imagination?

Alex shook his head and once again jerked his leg upward. 'More importantly, when did the pool get so deep? Wasn't it only up to my midcalves a moment ago?'

*GRUGLE*

Suddenly as Alex was trying to pull his leg out of the now swamp like blood, a strange sound came from down below.

*GRUGLE*

Alex's mouth became desert dry and a lone trail of glistening sweat ran down the side of his face.

Dreading what he would see, Alex slowly looked down.

*YANK*

'Is my leg sinking?' Alex felt his heart rate increase as he stared down with growing horror. 

This realization caused Alex a great panic and he immediately grabbed his leg and began pulling with all his might.

'Come on..' Alex thought with growing frustration as he stained his scrawny arms yanking at his leg. 'Get out.'

However, the more Alex pulled the faster he seemed to sink, which alternatively caused him to pull even faster.

Soon the panic Alex felt blossomed into a case of full blown hysteria as Alex began struggling and fighting like a man crazed.

'What's happened...?' Alex frantically thought. He then hurriedly glanced up and stared across the crater at the ominously looming door. 'It has to be that thing's doing. This only started when it showed up.'

Nevertheless, knowing that the strange going ons were of the door's doing was one thing, but doing something with that information was a whole other matter. Maybe if Alex was in peak condition he would be able to forcefully remove his leg from the swampy pool, sadly though he wasn't, so that left him trying to pull his leg out with as much strength as his frail body could muster. However he soon couldn't even do that, as he had sunk in the blood all the way up to his chin.

'What should I do?' This thought played on repeat in Alex's frenzied mind. 'Do I use Hani shift Stance? No, I don't have time to activate the Dalic Stance first.'

The blood reached his nose and it was at that moment that Alex knew that he was about to die.

'What about fire? I could use it to burn the blood.' Alex thought desperately. 'It should free me right?'

Alex knew he didn't have much time before he drowned in the inky-black blood, therefore underneath the blood he gritted his teeth and prepared for his last ditch effort.

'Arm.'

However, just before he activated his fire an image flashed in his mind.

'Arm.'

The thought of what had happened the last time he used his fire caused him to hesitate and rethink his decision for a moment.

Sadly, that brief split second of indecisiveness was all it took for the swamp of blood to cover his face and completely swallow him whole.