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The pain surging through Hilda's arm did not stop, it only became worse. She could feel every vein burning, every muscle convulsing. It was like some vile venom, creeping it's way through her body, until it reached her heart. Her eyes shot open as her mouth opened wide as if to scream, but there was no air left in her lungs to do so. She gripped at her own chest with her unscathed hand, but there was nothing she could do to stop it.

Thea knelt down behind her, resting Hilda's head on her lap as she held her hand over her's. "Lord, please have mercy on her..." she whispered in a desperate attempt to save her life through sheer faith. Seeing her in this kind of agony only made her wish that she could take it away, and endure it for her. She watched the dwarf squirm and kick her legs, but eventually, she stopped. She stopped writhing, she stopped screaming, and her consciousness failed her. "Hilda?" the monk whispered to her, thinking for a moment she had died. Much to her relief, she noticed that Hilda was still breathing.

Robin walked over to Thea, looking down at them both with a grim expression on his face. "Is she going to be alright?"

"I don't know... Janus is dead, isn't he?" she asked before casting her gaze behind Robin, noticing the blaziken's blood soaked carcass nearby.

"We were too late, he already lost too much blood... He must've been terrified, surrounded by five creatures, outnumbered and overpowered..."

"He's safe now," Thea told him with a calming confident tone. In a strange way, she was glad Janus was dead. She could see that this place was really getting to him, and at least he escaped the same fate as those smeared all over the walls. At least he died with his mind intact, and his body untouched by the corruption of this place. "He's with Arceus."

He hoped she was right. "Do you really believe that?"

"Of course I do. With everything we have seen, is it so hard to believe in an afterlife?" she asked him as she stroked over the dwarf's red hair.

Robin guessed she had a point there, but still, neither of them had died before, so neither of them knew what was waiting for them. Maybe there was some kind of paradise after death, or perhaps this was it, and all was waiting for him was eternal slumber. "I wish I had your faith...but doesn't your religion forbid you from having those kinds of feelings for the same sex?" Neither of them told him something was going on between them, but it was quite obvious by the way they acted around each other.

"Yes, it does...but I believe she was sent here for a reason."

"That's my problem with your religion...everything is some part of some greater plan, or Arceus' will. Where did Janus fit into his plan? Or those poor bastards we had to kill? Maybe there is something after death, but it's hard to believe in a god that lets all this happen. I believe if he exists, then I should be dead for the crimes I've committed, and every evil creature in this place should be dead too."

His words didn't shake Thea's faith one bit. She had heard it all before. Robin had a right to believe in whatever he wanted to believe, but so did she. "Perhaps we were sent here to atone for our sins, and purge the evil from this place..."

"It looks like a lot of people who came before us already tried it, and they didn't do a very good job... We're not going anywhere fast with Hilda in this state. I'll carry her to a safe spot, you carry her armor."

Thea nodded, and got up to recover Hilda's breastplate. Once she picked it up, she turned around to see Robin picking up the dwarf. She didn't see how Hilda was injured, she was too busy fighting at the time. She did however notice a piece of her short sword nearby. It looked like it was the grip of her sword, the leather that was once wrapped around it was mostly burned away and blackened. She looked over to the dead raven, and realized just how lucky Hilda was to survive.

A few hours passed by, and Hilda's eyes began to flutter open. The first thing she felt was that awful pain, it was like a thousand fire ants swarming though her body. As intense as the pain felt, it was a mere fraction of the suffering she felt before she passed out. She looked down, seeing and feeling her arm spasming uncontrollably.

The monk was sitting down next to her with her legs crossed. "Does it still hurt?" Thea asked. There was no hiding her concern for Hilda, she had watched over her all this time as she slept, watching her arm, noticing how the muscles seemed to twitch. She was worried that Hilda might turn into one of them, after all, they still did not know how these creatures were made yet.

"Yes... It hurts a lot..." The pain couldn't be ignored, an expression of anguish and anger stayed plastered on her face as she spoke. She looked around the cavern, the makeshift lanterns were the only source of light. Robin was nearby, resting with his back against the cave wall. There was no sign of Janus, so she knew that he must be dead. "Were you hurt?"

Thea shook her head. "No. I know I am not the best fighter here, but that hammer puts down just about anything," she replied with a soft smile.

Hilda was surprised to see Thea smiling, after all, their situation had gone from grim, to worse. She looked down to her arm, wondering if she'd survive whatever happened to her. She hated to think it, but she knew that there was a good chance they weren't going to get out of this place alive. Even if they did, they'd all have to face death sooner or later. "Thea... I have a question for you..."

"What is it?" she asked.

"If I died...do you think your god would accept me?"

Thea was taken aback by her question for a moment, she didn't even think Hilda would be interested in what her religion dictates. "If you accept him, then yes..."

"Heh, so your god will take in hired killers so long as they accept him... Grh! I've spent my entire life cursing every god under the sun for making me endure such shit... What makes you so sure your god even exists?" There was no guarantee that Hilda was even going to pull through this, so she figured now was the perfect time to talk about death.

"What makes me so sure? You can see me, right? You can hear me... Your memories will always live on, your feelings, your experience, it will all carry over into the next life. Don't think of death as an ending, but a beginning. What kind of god would make us feel only to take it all away from us? We do not die...our spirit lives on."

"I wish I could believe that..." Hilda replied as she scrunched up her face, trying to deal with the pain. "But I cannot believe any god would allow these fucking creatures to even exist!" Hilda laughed to herself. "I cannot believe any god would make us suffer... If he would, then I'd say he has a sick sense of humour."

"I don't believe this is god's work..." she responded. "This is the work of pure evil... In the end, good will always prevail over evil."

Hilda shook her head, and hissed a little as she tried to cope with both the emotional and physical pain. "I wish good always wins, but it doesn't! This whole entire world is run by evil, unfeeling cunts that don't give a shit about me or you! No holy being is going to stop them from trying to use, or kill people like us... They just see us as disposable, worthless masses... Evil rules this world, and the only way we can beat it, is by killing them all..."

The way Hilda talked, it was beginning to worry Thea, but she also knew that the dwarf held a lot of hate in her heart. "You don't fight evil with evil."

"Yes, you do! I should know! I have been doing it for years... When they killed my lover, I made them suffer! When I snuffed out their lives, and I enjoyed it because I knew they couldn't hurt anyone anymore. The problem with this world is that no one cares about the poor, the weak, the people with no power... Every second, we are dying, rotting away just like my mother did... I hate this world so much... I don't know how you can look on the bright side anymore..."

"I don't know how you can look on the dark side all the time," Thea said as she turned her gaze towards the ground. "I know this world is far from perfect...but if we didn't even try go make tomorrow a brighter day, then all we'd have is darkness... Hope and faith is what keeps me going. I hope that one day, I won't have to hide what I am. When that day comes, I'll know who to thank. Hilda, don't let yourself wallow in hate. I know you're a sweet and caring person who doesn't just take lives, but saves them." She pressed her hand against Hilda's cheek, wanting to feel her flesh against her fingers. The warmth of her skin calmed her.

"I pulled you out of the water, but maybe I should've let you drown. At least then you wouldn't have to suffer through this..." What Janus suffered through looked far worse than simply being drown, she didn't want to see Thea suffer a similar fate.

Thea could see past her harsh words, she knew that the dwarf was just having a difficult time dealing with all this. "You gave me a fighting chance, I know you only had good intentions when you pulled me out of the water."

Hilda closed her eyes and balled her hands up into fists as she felt another wave of discomfort washing over her, making her nerves ache and her guts feel uneasy. "That cock sucking bastard got me good! This pain...I feel like I'm going to throw up my own guts... Thea, I don't think I am going to survive this..."

Hearing her say that sent her into a worried state. "You will survive this! You must..." She brought her face closer to the dwarf's, and kissed the top of her head. In her mind, she was praying to Arceus to let her live.

For the dwarf, a kiss on the head was not enough to make her forget about her pain. She needed something a little stronger. She grabbed the back of Thea's head, and pressed her lips against her's. Her tongue wiggled itself into Thea's mouth, and found itself softly greeted by the alakazam's own wet muscle. Hilda could feel her freezing in place for now, allowing the dwarf to violate her warm maw. The pain began to recede, but only for a moment. She grunted into Thea's mouth, trying to cope with the sudden blanket of torment that engulfed her entire body. It was like she was receiving paper cuts to every single nerve in her body, not one part of her was spared from the other worldly affliction. She threw her head back, screaming and slamming her fists against the cave floor in a futile effort to deal with the pain. It was getting worse, and just as she thought it couldn't get any worse, it did. She ceased her useless pounding at the floor so she could cover her eyes with both hands. She cried. The tears continued to flow, especially when she could feel something behind her eyes, pushing, burning, gnawing at anything and everything that could feel.

Thea tried to hold down the squirming dwarf because she was thrashing around so violently, she was a danger to herself. She was scared that whatever was affecting her was driving her to self harm. "Robin! Help!" She wrapped her arms around Hilda's legs, stopping her from kicking. She could see Robin, trying to hold her arms above her head.

Robin held her by the wrists, but he had a surprisingly hard time keeping them pressed to the ground. He tried to hold her down, but it quickly became clear that his strength and weight was not enough to hold her down. She pulled her hands free of his grasp so she could she grab at her own flesh, pressing her hands against the places that hurt the most. "I can't hold her hands down!"

Thea felt Hilda's foot against her chest, violently pushing her away. She landed on her back, but she quickly got back up to her feet. She didn't know what to do, she wanted to help Hilda through this, but there was very little she could do for her.

Hilda tried to get up to her feet, but she fell forwards on her hands and knees. Unseen hands were raking at her guts, and squeezing her heart. She gagged, but there was nothing left in her to throw up. Her arms shook, and her eyes stared straight down to the stone floor beneath her. She felt something warm and wet running from her nostrils. It all flowed to the point of her nose before dripping to the floor, staining it red. She was shivering, her body reacting to the immense stress it was being put through. She felt as if she was on the brink of death, but she refused to give in. Even with all the punishment she was being put through, she refused to die. Although she was screaming so hard, whenever she could, she tried to take deep breaths. Just trying to keep enough air in her lungs to stay conscious had become a difficult task to accomplish. She cursed the creature that had inflicted this terrible fate upon her. If there was some holy being out there, she cursed it too for making her go through this crippling agony.

Unbeknownst to all of them, Hilda's screams had attracted the attention of something sinister. It stayed out of sight, examining the scene ahead of it, watching from behind the stalagmites. The creature was formless, an amorphous shifting mass of flesh and jagged bone. It was a hideous collection of eyes and mouths, and it stayed out of sight, deep in the darkness was where it observed everything that unfolded. Much like the raven, there was intelligence behind its dark eyes.

Thea stayed with Hilda, trying to comfort her through the pain. Minutes turned into hours, and the suffering continued. She sat down, resting her back against the cave wall as she held Hilda in her arms. Her screams had died down, but it was clear that Hilda was still in grave pain. Thea hoped that this wasn't permanent.

The dwarf kept her back against the alakazam's chest, her warm embrace was the only comfort she could get in this hell. She closed her eyes in an attempt to just ignore what was happening to her, but she couldn't escape that burning sensation throughout her entire body. "I should've pissed on that raven's corpse! That bastard, that feathery fuck! Grh! You should just leave me, try and find a way out..."

"I am not leaving you behind," Thea firmly told her.

Robin was sitting nearby with his legs crossed, watching Hilda writhing in Thea's arms. Although she was in great pain, he couldn't help but think of food, and water. He hadn't had anything to eat in a while now, there was a good chance there may be water down here, but food seemed scarce. The only meat he had seen in this place was all corrupted, and rotten. At this point, he'd gladly eat even a rat. He stood up, looking over to them both. "I'm going to try and see if I can find us something to eat and drink. Will you be alright watching over Hilda?"

The monk nodded. "Yes, I'll be fine." The war hammer was nearby, she'd be ready to use it if anything corrupt approached them.

The gallade walked away, not knowing he was making his way straight towards the strange horror that had been watching them for the past couple of minutes. It pressed itself into a nearby crevice that was too thin for the gallade to get in. It's flesh acted like jelly being pushed through a key hole. It shed the fat it no longer needed in order to hide itself from view. Within a few seconds, Robin passed by the crevice without so much as a second thought. He did cast the odd look behind himself though, not wanting to be caught off guard like Robin was.

"GRH! Why won't this pain go away?!" Hilda was hell-bent on pulling through this. As great and indescribable as the pain was, she had suffered through far worse mental anguish. She had to remind herself of that pain, of what it did to her. She gazed towards Thea, but all she could see was that lopunny in her mind. She remembered seeing her, dead in the dirt. She could so easily imagine the alakazam in the same situation as her previous lover, but she wasn't going to let that happen. When Hilda lost her lover, she felt as if she had lost everything. There were moments when she wished she died right alongside her, and moments where she felt like turning her own blade on herself. She did not go through with it though, she kept breathing, and she held on to all the memories she had of her. Her lover was dead, but her memory lived on, inside Hilda. She wanted to live so she could look back on all those moments. Life was especially cruel to Hilda, but despite the brutal nature of her past, there was still beauty to be found behind the grief. She didn't know if Chloe was now in some kind of after life paradise, but no matter where she is or isn't, she'd always be remembered and loved so long as Hilda's heart kept beating. It was then that she forced herself to stand up, despite what her body was going through.

The monk was shocked to see her up on her feet, especially when the pain had drove her to tears and caused her to momentarily lose consciousness. "What are you doing?! You have to rest!"

The dwarf looked down to her scarred arm, balling her hand up into a fist as her body shook, shivering in response to the burning of her nerves. "I can rest...when I'm dead! I won't sit here any longer! I won't be another fucking victim! I won't wither away here in this shit hole, and I won't let you throw your life away for me! This place isn't going to kill me, I won't let it.."

For a moment, Thea could've sworn she saw a glint of red light in Hilda's eyes. Despite this, she could tell that she wasn't possessed or anything. The way Hilda spoke, with such pain, anger, and frustration, no demon could replicate that. "Is the pain fading?"

Hilda gave a pained laugh as she dropped to one knee, and grabbed a fist sized rock. "No... It's getting worse, but it won't stop me from bashing every bastard's skull open with a big fucking rock. We should go after Robin, before the idiot gets himself killed." She knew that there was safety in numbers.

Thea sighed a little, wishing that Hilda would just rest a bit longer. She was going through a lot, but he admired just how strong she was. It inspired her to try and be stronger, for all their sakes. "If you want, we can try and catch up with him now. But first, let's get that armor back on you." She picked up Hilda's breast plate, and tried to put it onto the dwarf.

Hilda laughed at her clumsy attempts to put it on her, but her laughter was merely covering up how much she wanted to scream. The pain was not going away anytime soon. "You've never put on any armor, have you?"

Thea shook her head before apologizing. "I'm sorry, I know I am bad at this..." She fiddled with the straps that held the armor together.

Hilda squeezed the rock in an attempt to deal with her affliction without screaming. It worked for a while, until the heavy rock began to crumble due to her unnatural grasp. She saw the fragments of rock escape between her fingers. She opened her hand, surprised to see there wasn't a single scratch on her palm. She wasn't sure if this was a good or a bad sign. Her body was clearly changing, but she didn't know what she was changing into. Whatever was happening to her, she couldn't stop it. She couldn't help but think that her time was running out, and that something horrible was going to happen to her within the next day. Maybe her heart would stop beating, and that would be that. She tried not to think about it, and instead focused on getting through this one step at a time.

"What's on your mind?" Thea inquired. Hilda had gotten awfully quiet, but perhaps that was a good thing. She hadn't noticed how Hilda turned the rock into dust.

"Time..." Hilda whispered back to her. "I am not sure how much I have left in me...but I am going to make every second count."

Thea said as she patted Hilda's breastplate, making sure it was on securely. Her attention was drawn from the dwarf's armor, and back into her eyes. She couldn't restrain herself from planting a kiss on the dwarf's lips. "You're not going to die any time soon, I won't let you." If it wasn't for Hilda, she wouldn't even be breathing. She owed every second that passed to her. Although she was not afraid of death, she didn't want to die in this place. She didn't want her body to be desecrated after her eventual death. She felt a hint of guilt after kissing Hilda, she knew that she would have to pray for forgiveness if she escaped this place alive.

Hilda rested her forehead against the alakazam's, taking a moment to embrace the beautiful devoted pokemon. It reminded her of what she once had, and what she may have in the future. Part of her just wanted to shred every scrap of clothing the alakazam wore and have her way with her. The thought brought a smile to her face for a split second, but it quickly faded. She wanted one more happy memory, but that'd began dropping her guard and leaving them both vulnerable. "Let's go, before I fuck you right here and now." Hilda led the way. She was walking a little slower than usual, but at least she was up and moving.

Whilst the dwarf and alakazam were walking, Robin was scouting out the area ahead. Without his makeshift lantern filled with red goo, the area would've been completely pitch black. Janus might have been losing it a little, but at least there would've been no shortage of light with him around. Robin gazed down to a nearby brownish pile of sludge. For a moment, he thought it was excrement from some kind of creature. On closer inspection, he noticed a few metal items and bones amongst the sludge, all with scorch marks scarring them. He guessed that these bodies were burned, possibly by their friends or comrades. He couldn't imagine any creature in this place wasting flesh by burning it to a crisp. Thinking about what these creatures ate made him wonder what he would end up eating down here. They had been down here a while, and fear could only keep the mind off hunger for so long. Robin hastily turned around, thinking he heard something scuttling across the ground behind him.

"Who's there?" he asked, whilst he raised his javelin in the direction of the noise he heard. If there was something in the vicinity, he wanted to get its attention and draw it into a fight whilst his guard was up. After a few seconds of waiting, he heard nothing in response. He guessed it was either his mind playing tricks on him, or an unseen creature that was not yet interested in fighting him. He wasn't sure which was worse. He could feel his sanity slowly eroding from the mounting stress that had been piling on ever since they entered this place. He never thought he would miss being in the midst of a brutal and bloody conflict, at least he could look up and see the sky if fate were to deal him a fatal blow.

_"I see you," _a sinister voice whispered to Robin. The voice was unlike anything he had ever heard, a mixture of a hundred male and female voices, reverberating inside his skull. Behind those voices, there was something else, an unnerving ethereal sound that was impossible to describe. It was like the creature was speaking to him in a different language, and yet he could understand it. Each word that the unseen creature spoke felt as if it was rattling Robin's brain.

"Where are you?" he immediately asked as he looked towards the darkest spots of the cavern, wondering what could be lurking outside the glow of his lantern.

"Not far from you. Keep going, crawl deeper into my home. Let me look into your soul."

That last sentence sent a chill down the gallade's spine. He didn't like the sound of anyone taking a look into his soul, he knew there wasn't much good in there. "Are you the one that's doing all this? That made all these creatures?" he immediately asked, wanting to know precisely what he was talking to. He was beginning to think it was some powerful mage, perhaps something like the raven that had killed Janus and permanently scarred Hilda. The creature did not respond to his question. Part of him wondered if there was anything even talking to him, or if it was all in his head. "Fuck this place..."

It didn't take long for Hilda and Thea to catch up with him. Thea heard him mumbling to himself. She would've asked him if he was alright, but the answer to that was fairly obvious. "Did you find anything?"

"Nothing that can help us." Robin kept quiet about the fact he was hearing voices. He was starting to become worried that even if he escaped this place, his mind might be utterly destroyed. He was no use to his family if he was unable to protect them. He had already caused so much pain to his sister, he wasn't going to let himself be a burden or possibly even a threat to her. He then noticed the dwarf, standing there besides Thea. "How are you feeling?"

"Like vomiting blood. I just want to keep on moving, and find a way out." Hilda was trying to hold herself together, despite what she was currently going through. She knew something was happening inside her, she just didn't know what. She decided to carry on moving, walking past Robin.

"You shouldn't be the one leading the way," Robin told the dwarf. "You don't even have a weapon, do you?"

She knelt down, grabbing a large rock with one hand. "You'll be disgusted at what I can do with just a rock. Let's keep moving!"

Robin was surprised by how fired up she was. He guessed the pain was motivating her to press on, and he wasn't about to complain. He followed her down the dark, twisting caverns, knowing that every step they took could lead them straight into their grave.

Hilda stopped in her tracks as they came to a fork in their path. There were two ways to go, but she wasn't stopping because she was deciding which way to go, she stopped because she heard something quickly approaching them. From the darkness, several mutilated human's came running right towards her, brandishing blades, clubs and cleavers. They screamed and wailed at her, and she did the exact same thing. She emptied her lungs to let out a big rage fuelled scream as one human tried to split her head in two with a cleaver. With an amazing display of precision, she struck the cleaver out of the human's hand with her rock. She then made a big swipe for the human's jaw, ripping it clean off. Blinded by pure bloodlust, she made another swipe for the human's skull. This time, the rock connected with the temporal bone, caving in the entire left side of the human's head. The body quickly dropped to the ground, but two more creatures were fast approaching, flailing their weapons wildly before they even reached her. She tossed her rock towards the closet one to her. The rock struck the creature in its face, causing it to stumble. Robin ran towards it, lunging with his javelin to skewer its neck, pinning it down to the cold hard cave wall.

Thea charged forwards too, letting out a brief scream as she swung with all her might with her war hammer. She intended to hit the undead man in the head, but this one was quicker than the others. He ducked under her swing and lunged at her, tackling her to the ground. His eyes were leaking with black gunk, as was his wide open mouth. Once the creature had her pinned, he raised his hand. Thea could see a long dagger in the man's hand, about twelve inches in length, more than enough to end her life. Before she could even scream for help, Hilda grabbed the human's wrist and rammed her knee into his elbow. With a loud crack, the arm bent in the complete opposite direction it was suppose to. Broken limbs were not enough to dissuade the undead killer. It lost the use of its arm, but it still used the other hand to choke Thea.

"Get the fuck off!" Hilda grabbed what remained of the creature's hair with both hands before brutally bringing her knee into the creature's face. The speed and force that was put behind her knee was greater than almost any normal blunt weapon, causing flesh to rip, and bone to falter.

Gore spilled forth from its obliterated face, covering Thea in foul smelling flesh and cranial liquids. She closed her eyes and mouth, trying to keep the corrupt fluids out of her system. She felt the body being dragged off her, and the blood being wiped away from her lips. When she opened her eyes, she saw the dwarf kneeling besides her. For a brief moment, she could see that glint of red in Hilda's eyes again. She took a quick glance towards the undead creature that tried to end her life. Its face was was so pulverized, she couldn't tell what she was even really looking at. "Your knee did that?"

"Yeah..." Hilda realized that it wasn't normal to be able to turn a human skull into a complete mess so easily without any kind of weapon. "Their bones must be a lot more brittle than I thought."

Robin stomped on the creature's skull that he had finished off. "This one isn't so brittle."

Thea stayed quiet for a moment, thinking to herself. Had this place corrupted Hilda, or had she acquired some divine power? Either way, it didn't matter so long as Hilda still had the will to fight whatever dwells in this infernal place. Hilda helped pull Thea up to her feet. Thea hoped they could find water in this place real soon, she wanted to wash this horrible stuff off her robes and skin. "Thank you, Hilda... Looks like I owe you my life all over again."

"You can repay me when we get out of here. Let's keep moving, there's got to be an exit s-" Hilda's sentence was cut short by a horrendous shriek. It sounded like an entire choir was being gutted all at once. It came from the path ahead, but it was hard to tell with the way the sound bounced around in this place. A stern expression soon crossed the dwarf's face as she armed herself with the dagger and cleaver the creatures tried to use against her.

"What the hell was that?" Robin whispered to himself.

"Whatever it is, I'm going to cut its fucking head off..." Hilda was beginning to feel a real bloodlust taking control of her. She had felt this feeling before, she felt it when she saw her lover's killers. She marched on, not caring if she ran into a whole army of these creatures. She felt like she had enough of these creatures, just their smell was really beginning to infuriate her. She continued to lead the way, not even pausing for a short break. It seemed like every day was a life or death risk, so pushing on didn't bother her as much as it did Thea, or even Robin. She was beginning to look forwards to ending more of these vile things anyway. Eventually, the path ended in a sheer drop. This dead end was not like the others though, because it led into the biggest cave chamber she had ever seen. It was so gigantic, several whole castles could easily fit in with plenty of space left for small villages. If Hilda were to jump, she'd be facing a hundred foot travel before she hit the unbelievably massive lake of red goo below. It was the same stuff that was in the glowing bugs, and even some of the bodies that were fused to the walls and floors of this place. Along the walls, she could see streams of that bright red liquid seeping through small circular holes, like some kind of bizarre sewage system of death.

Robin walked up to the edge, and gazed down into that bright red lake. "Holy fucking shit... How many people died to make that much shit?"

Thea could hardly believe such a thing existed in this world. "Too many, far too many! We must truely be in hell, or something is trying to bring hell into this world."

Hilda stayed quiet as she gazed down into that bright lake that lit up the whole cavern as red as lava. To her horror, she could see a dark shadow moving around in the lake. It looked as if it was some sort of huge squid. Whatever it was, it had at least six large tentacles that appeared to join up to one huge body. Whatever it was, one thing was clear, they couldn't kill this thing. She looked down to the stone ground at her feet, seeing dried blood. She guessed they must feed the massive creature from this spot. She couldn't imagine how much flesh the creature must get through in a single day. Just being in its presence was enough to make her feel sick, and for her head to fill with unpleasant thoughts.

Witnessing the beast below the red lake seriously shook Thea, knowing that such a creature existed made her head spin. Her legs felt weak before she fell to her knees, wondering if this could be the beginning of the end. She had heard tales from hundreds of years ago of terrible gods walking the earth, devouring everything and everyone. She always thought it was just a tale, but now, she was not so sure. If this was truly a god, then she knew there was no hope for any of them. She was left with her morale completely devastated. She began questioning not only herself, but her very existence.

Robin could hear something, he could hear it, speaking into his mind. It whispered promises of a quick death if he jumped, and whispered of no mercy if he turned his back on the creature. A thousand words were being spoken to him in a thousand voices, and he couldn't ignore them. He pressed his hands against his ears, trying to stop the chatter inside his head. His heart began to race, pounding away in his chest as he tried to think, but to no avail.

Hilda averted her gaze from the creature, and back towards her comrades. She had seen the look on people's faces when they knew they were about to die, and it was not unlike the ones they had on their faces. Just moments ago, they were ready to press on, but now, they looked as if they were about to give up. She herself was beginning to feel that urge to just stop, to turn the blade on herself and quietly die right there and then. Those thoughts were out of character for her, and she knew it. She felt as if some unseen force was manipulating her, driving her to think things she wouldn't normally think. One thing was clear, she had to get the two of them away from this creature, before it was too late. She grabbed Thea's hand and Robin's arm, dragging them away from the creature. "Don't look at it! Don't even think about it!" As she pulled them away, many voices spoke to her.

"Hilda, why fight when you can sleep forever with your beloved Chloe?"

"Don't speak her name! Don't you fucking dare!" Hilda screamed to herself as she felt a stabbing pain in her heart. Tears quickly came to her eyes, but her words got her comrades attention.

"You hear it too?!" Robin exclaimed. "I thought it was just me..."

Thea was broken out of her trance for a moment, briefly listening to the two of them. "It is speaking to the both of you?! What does it say?"

"It's talking shit! Trying to get me to kill myself... Probably because it's too fucking weak to kill us on it's own!" Hilda sharply replied, which only caused the voices in her head to grow more violent.

"You can be with Chloe in death, or you can be fused to the walls with Thea! Your flesh will be twisted with her's, your souls devoured! Your agony will make you curse every second you are alive! I'll feed off your fear, and devour the fluids your new body secretes."

Hilda let the voices scream in her head, but every word truly angered her, making her wish she could bathe the creature in acid. She looked back to Thea, deciding that she needed a morale boost. "It's afraid of us! It cannot harm us, all it can do is talk. It must need a lot of food, which means there must be a lot of paths to the surface! Come on! Let's keep on moving!" Her words seemed to anger the voice inside her head, causing it to threaten her in vulgar and terrifying ways, but she didn't let it show. Knowing the creature was pissed off brought a smile to her face, but she also couldn't help but think that there may actually be nothing talking to her at all. Perhaps she was just going mad, but either way, it doesn't change her end goal of escaping this place alive. As they all turned back and went down a different path, the voice left one final message.

"You couldn't save her, and you cannot save them."

A** uthor's notes: How can things possibly get worse for them? Things can always get worse. Thank you all for reading this far, there are still more creatures to come, but the end its getting closer. This could go either way for them, we'll just have to see. Oh, and thank you once again to BigBossSonic for editing this for me once again!**