Nightmare Mythos

Chapter 48: Findings

Whoosh—!

Slightly losing sense of what a solid floor feels like, Cesar continuously descends to the endless hallway of the Mansion.

For the last couple of hours, all Cesar did was enjoy the breeze passing by him as he continued dropping down that it even started to bore him.

Thoughts started to enter his mind such as being in an endless loop that came from a powerful being, but he ceased that idea when he spotted something down below the bottom of the hallway.

There, he saw a wooden ancient door, exactly similar to the one he entered a few hours ago before his descent. His eyes glistened with happiness once he saw the door, a yearning he was least expecting to see but wasn't hopeful to think so enough.

Because he had no idea how the hallways worked in the first place.

But now that he spotted another type of ancient wooden door, Cesar was able to conclude the knowledge he had on his hands.

First, the vast hallways have an end to it. One can know that they are on the end if they spot the same a wooden ancient door. It doesn't matter how far it is. There will be a point of start and finish.

Second, these ancient doors seemed to be the only thing that one could hope for in escaping through these hallways. Unless someone had the same capability as the Void which can destroy the stalwart walls of the hallway, only for them to be devoured by the purplish emptiness instead, they could only hope to find the door at the very end of their paths.

Lastly, the hallway seemed to follow the same boring path. They either went forward or backward but Cesar preferred to move forward since there was nothing else left through the preceding pathway.

All that aside…

"A door!"

Cesar already came up with a plan once he spotted a door in the bottom of the hallway. One thing he just needed was the curtain from the windows.

Whoosh—!

Slightly hovering to the side near the curtains that remained unmoving even though there was a shift of the center of balance from the hallway, Cesar picked up one dagger from his pocket.

Looking down once more only to see that the bottom was closing in, Cesar swiftly stabbed his dagger at one of the incoming curtains.

Already tested how durable the curtains were, Cesar bet his life that it was enough support to withhold his weight and enough to put a stop to his ever-pacing speed.

Rip—!

However, due to how momentous his fall is, the curtain was ripped apart by his dagger. He was slightly inaccurate because it only decreased his fall and did not completely halt its movement.

Though he wasn't disappointed. All he ever did was go for another curtain and do the same process.

Rip—!

A few curtains were already ripped apart in the process but eventually, Cesar managed to hold himself together and made a complete stop.

Thud—!

Consequently, the corpse of the five-legged corrupted human landed near the door and turned into a mush of blood pasted on the solid ground.

That would've him as well if he wasn't prepared.

"…"

Looking around the ancient door to observe if any corrupted human was waiting for him down there with the dead corpse acting as a perfect bait, Cesar patiently stood by. Hanging himself in a curtain with the use of a dagger, he silently views the situation below.

Nothing.

It was dead silent under.

Loading his revolver with a delirium shell since he was out of piercing shell, Cesar put it back in his holster before picking up another dagger.

With an indifferent face, Cesar removed the dagger that got stuck in the curtain and went down.

Thud—!

Cesar swiftly took a fighting position, ready to take action once he landed on the solid floor after doing so very exponentially.

But there was indeed nothing.

Just because he lost an eye didn't mean he lost sight of his surroundings. Now, he was sure that there was no threat involved in the area he was in.

"All that left is…"

Cesar started closing in towards the door which was just a meter away from his position. Vigilant as ever, still expecting that a certain danger would come lunging at him last second, he was finally in front of the door.

"Here goes nothing…"

Slightly bending his knee, Cesar held the knob with a slight fear. Wishing that he'd not met the Void waiting outside instead of another type of hallway, he bravely opened it later.

Inside the door was the same hallway. One of the things that changed, however, is the fact there was a tilt of newly center of balance which forced Cesar to tighten his grip on the ancient door's knob.

"Crap!"

Right now, instead of falling through the door, the shift of the center of gravity made it look like the opposite. Now, he was falling to the other side, where Cesar went to travel a few hours ago, the door that Cesar escaped narrowingly from the Void.

He just saw a few remains of the five-legged human go back into that other place as it started dropping down once more.

On the other hand, Cesar had no plans of following it again.

He had enough of falling.

"Okay…"

Heaving a large amount of air through his chest, Cesar started swinging his body forward and backward making the door creak in response.

Creak—!

Having enough momentum for his plan to work, Cesar detached his hands from the knob before reaching the edge of the door to bring himself up towards the entrance of the other hallway.

"Argh!"

Pushing his way through the door with his tattered body that still didn't get enough rest, Cesar managed to clinch his way up.

Crawling and feeling miserable, Cesar only then managed to stand up and fully view the situation inside his hallway.

"You got to be shitting me…"

Already been through a hallway that could only move forward and backward, a falling hallway, this time, Cesar found himself in a hallway that only went upwards.

There's an addition, however.

There was a flight of squared-shaped stairs he could use to climb upwards, placed on the side of the wall, coiling up towards who knows where.