Keys
Michael is unconscious, floating in an open space resembling the cosmos.
Around him, shooting stars in varying shapes, sizes, and colors pass by.
Miraculously, none of which hit him as they passed by in the millions.
As time passed, a grey-glowing shooting star emerged, causing yellow and green glowing ripples in space around it.
As it approaches Michael, it accelerates, the ripples in space around it slowly vanishing.
The shooting star hits Michael, merging with him on impact, like a stone hitting the ocean surface, slowly vanishing.
Michael opens his eyes, floating above a murky water surface. As he stares at his reflection, he sees it slowly descending deeper into the seemingly endless waters. Micheal´s vision suddenly glitches, and he loses consciousness once more as he clutches his head.
-----
Adam stands before the newly opened high-danger grade dungeon in the middle of New London. His golden glowing eyes dimming, he sighs at the development in recent times, as he waits for the rest of his hunting group to arrive. Looking depressed the others slowly gather, some of them still strapping on armor or testing the sharpness of their weapons.
"So..., what´s the plan boss?" Brian Jones asks, staring into the glooming abyss-like hole beneath them. "Tell the scouts not to go in too deep this time around, we don´t have a clue what we are dealing with yet. I haven´t seen anything like this before!" Adam replies as he looks at the mana detector that is glowing and shaking uncontrollably.
As the scouts are being buffed, Adam is deep in thought as he tries to imagine what kind of creature would be waiting for them down there.
The scouts approach the hole and gain Adams approving nod as they activate the broadcasting spell that was inscribed on their armor. One after another they jump down the hole.
They land in a moist cave, the walls covered in dimly glowing moss. As they look around, they discover the cave has only two exits. The one they just came through and one leading deeper into the underground. Tony, the leader of the scouts, activates his all-seeing-eye-trait and looks around the cave. "Let´s proceed!" He shouts as he approaches the tunnel before them.
After exploring for a short while, they enter another cave. The cave is filled with a thin mist which progressively gets thicker the further they go in. "Weird, there hasn´t been any kind of monster so far." Tony mutters after walking for a few minutes. "Regroup! Let´s go back to the surface for now!" He shouts, but he doesn´t receive an answer. Slowly getting freaked out, he looks around, only to find that the entire scout team has vanished, leaving only the thick mist in his sight.
At the same time on the surface, the hunter team gets nervous as the broadcast only shows mist and starts to glitch until it cuts off promptly. Adam shouts commands as he jumps down the hole, instructing to call for backup. He lands, causing a small crater on impact, but immediately starts sprinting in the direction of the misty cave. His eyes start glowing golden as he releases a divine aura shining around him. He arrives in the mist-filled cave, but to his horror, the mist has formed a wall, impenetrable by the eyes. As he shouts for his teammates, the fog wall expands, swallowing him whole.
-----
Michael stands in front of a pond, skimming small stones as he waits. After some time a silhouette of light emerges from the white fog.
"We need to move faster. IT has been on the move for way too long now." The silhouette speaks.
Michael stares into the water indifferently. "You tend to state the obvious, but great things take great time." He responds.
The silhouette chuckles. "Quite the self-praiser aren´t we?"
"Anyhow you have been around longer than me. How many of the other keys did you manage to locate?" Michael asks finally looking up from the pond, directing his gaze at the glowing silhouette.
"Almost all of them but some still haven´t made an appearance yet. We believe IT has already caught some of them." Michael gets as a reply that makes him frown in disbelief.
"Yall are morons" He states. "But whatever, let´s get moving that thing isn´t going to die by itself." He continues.
-----
On the surface, the hunter group sighs in relief as Adam and the scouts emerge from the hole.
What they don´t notice, however, is an additional person climbing out alongside them.
Unnoticed by everyone, Michael leaves the group, walking away from the hole that suddenly vanishes like it had never been there in the first place alongside, anyone´s memories of it.
The hunters are in a daze, their eyes unfocused. After a while, the group disintegrates, leaving behind an empty street.