Dawning Horror

Arsh opened his eyes slowly stretching out his arms. He looked around from the corner of his eyes for reassurance. After finding no one around him, he finally heaved a sigh of relief. 

Everything that happened to him was all too strange to comprehend. He for sure remembered falling down the deep valley before he was unconscious. 

"So…What happened after that?"

He shouldn't have been alive after that, the valley was too deep for that. But he somehow miraculously survived the fall.

As his eyes followed through the place to the walls of the place.  He found himself in a giant cave. Not like the last one which had shining ores as walls, instead, it was quite opposite of that. The walls were made up of black marble extending deep inside.

Lying down at the mouth of the cave his eyes trembled slightly, glancing inside the cave. His senses were direly warning him to not enter the cave, at any given cost.

But, before he could do anything. A sharp pain seared through his body, stirring him completely awake from his delirious feeling. 

Clutching his pained chest. Arsh looked at his body, which was covered by tattered clothes that were completely dyed blood red in color. 

'....That fucker tore my new t-shirt.'

Arsh sighed, removing the already ripped t-shirt from his body. His eyes darted through and forth across his body, as he found a new big scar on his chest. 

He ran his fingers through the hideous scar to feel how deep it goes. But, surprisingly it didn't hurt at all. It was already closed and healed somehow. 

There also were countless little wounds around every part of his body. But none of them were open or bleeding. Every single one of them had been taken care of with healing magic.

Arsh's first guess for the strange situation was the voice in his head. Even though the chances were pretty dim. It felt like the only reasonable explanation for now. After falling down a giant cliff and surviving with all of the body parts intact.

'....Though, this looks rather….ugly'

Arsh grimaced, looking at his own wounded body, countless scars shining over his pale white skin. He sighed putting his tattered shirt back on.

Standing up, Arsh cracked his neck and fingers. He still had something to confirm. 

He checked around for anyone one last time. Before jumping out and up at the entrance of the cave like a little excited kid. 

'....Believe me. It is great for stress relief.'

But the main purpose was something else entirely. He just wanted to check, if his every sense had returned to him or not, along with every body part. 

After spending god knows how many hours in that abyss, it felt incredible to feel the body back. Even though it was a little stupid way to check it.

"AAH! That was refreshing. I should learn to sing sometime soon, then it will be perfect."

Arsh laid his body on the ground, heaving heavy tired breaths. He had no idea how many days had passed since he was plunged into the abyss of darkness or how the hell he was still alive.

The voice never answered any of his questions. But, it still dropped a hint for him to base his deductions.

The strange connection between them. 

They were connected to each other somehow, and the voice had complete access to Arsh's thoughts and feelings while the converse wasn't possible. 

While the voice can easily be lying to him, Arsh somehow felt it wasn't the case. 

After pondering several things lying on the ground. He stood up, dusting his pants yet again, his eyes following the interiors of the whole cave. Arsh was still reluctant to explore it. 

Instead, he stepped out of the cave to get a better idea of the location of the cave. He needed to regroup with Alan as soon as possible, if they were alive that is.

The scenery outside of the cave was equally breathtaking and terrifying in itself. The valley was the only gap between the two longest mountains in the northern continent, expanding in the blue sky.

Arsh squinted his eyes looking at the disfigured corpse of the three-headed monster. Everything inside of its body had made its way to the outside, including its guts, stomach, intestine, and every part of the digestive system.

'....Yeah, that's how I was supposed to be right now.'

Arsh was saved from the fall somehow, but the monster wasn't that lucky. It had fallen down the deep valley, being crushed to death mercilessly.

Arsh inched closer to the corpse, covering his nose with his hands. He needed to retrieve something from the corpse. His daggers to be precise.

Arsh pulled both of his daggers out of the monster's eyes, trying his best to hold out to not vomit on the spot. The smell was too strong, especially near the monster's head. But, what intrigued him the most was one of the missing heads of the monster.

Even from the fall, the head can be crushed to the ground but it still can't disappear somewhere else. Which almost confirmed his suspicions of not being alone in the deep valley.

Arsh rotated in a full circle, trying to find out if he missed something. Spotting nothing, he moved away from the cave in search of any kind of passage out of the valley.

His echoing footfalls were the only thing audible inside the valley. With every step he took, the hope of leaving the valley faded away with it. 

As he was closing to the end of the valley. Arsh had already predicted the results right at the start but at the same time dreaded the most. Hoping for it not be true. 

But, it was all in vain. In front of him was a giant mountain, impossible for any human to scale through. Making it impossible to escape from the dark valley.

Perhaps, the journey still served at least some purpose. As he found a little stream exuding from the corner of the mountain.

Arsh was very hungry, so much so, he could claim that it was the first time he was starving to death. But, It still was nothing in comparison to how thirsty he was. Arsh jumped inside the stream without a moment of hesitation, chugging in the sweet, sweet water. 

Arsh rested in the water for some time, letting his body relax. Food was also one of the major problems. But, Arsh was hopeful as he still hadn't explored the other side of the valley.

He moved back, from the stream after drinking enough water to sustain him for a day at least.

'.....Ahh. My legs are killing me. I'll leave the exploring tomorrow. For now, I just want a good night's sleep.'

Incidentally, Arsh knew a perfect place to spend his night inside of the deep valley. The cave he woke up into.

Even though it felt very ominous from the inside. It was the perfect place for a good night's rest.

Upon reaching the cave, Arsh gulped down a mouthful of saliva looking inside the ominous cave. Subsequently standing at the entrance for some time, rethinking his decision twice, Arsh entered the cave. 

His senses had never betrayed him. Always informing him about the terrible situation he found himself in. But, this time the whole of his being was begging him to run away from the cave, as far away as possible, and never look back at it. 

Arsh took a deep breath entering the dark cave, ignoring all of the warnings. He was pretty sure if some terrible monster took residence inside, it should leave the cave at least one time in the whole day. He never spotted anything leaving the cave.

As Arsh started moving deeper and deeper into the cave the sense of dread loomed on his mind and body, sending a tremor throughout the whole of his being. 

Haphazardly, standing in the relentless darkness with nothing visible in sight. He cast a fire spell.

|Flames of hell|

A fire appeared in Arsh's hand burning with red flames. As the cave got illuminated by the fire. At the same moment, his every sense bombarded him, warning him t the nearing death.

THUMP THUMP THUMP

Arsh could feel his blood flowing faster along with the sound of footsteps closing on him. He started to tremble uncontrollably as the sound of the steps closed on him. 

Taking his daggers out, he tried to take a step back, to run away as far away as possible from the adversity closing on him.

But, his body didn't listen. It didn't move from its place, Arsh tried to force his steps back, but he failed to do so, falling to the ground on his butt as the fire on his hand flickered a few times and died down.

Arsh felt an immense aura of bloodlust around him. Making it clear that it would be futile to resist or fight. It was beyond his scope for him.

"....Oh, It was just you? I didn't know you were awake. I thought there was an intruder."

Arsh heard a calm voice coming out of the dark cave. But, this time around, the voice sounded more feminine. The aura of bloodlust around him receded little by little. As he felt his body relax again. 

Even though he was afraid of the unknown voice. He cast the fire spell again, to look for the source of the voice.

As the cave got illuminated again in front of him.  Arsh's mouth hung open, his eyes opened so wide as though it was about to fall off. His eyes followed through the being in front of him.

'The head of an eagle. Front pair of bird legs. The back body of a tiger along with the other two feet of lions….And the two wings glistening through the wither.'

As Arsh mused the being in front of him wide eyes from the description. His mouth slowly moved, his voice barely an audible whisper.

"...A Griffin"