Chapter 9: Mystery Dungeon

I grasp the hatch’s emergency latch and tear it back until it cracks open. Having unlocked the door, I push my arms against it. All the pressure of the shimmer pressing back means it doesn’t budge.

I bend my knees and shove with my entire body. Purple starts seeping around the edge exit as the clanking grows louder, warped by all the shimmer between us.

I swear and yell to redouble my efforts. The door pushes back against the ocean millimeter by millimeter. More liquid pours through the narrow gap, pooling up to my feet.

“Aaaaa!” A surge of strength washes over me as I give everything into a heave. The gap creaks open wider and shimmer sprays through. I hold this position in agony, my body trembling as the shimmer rises to my knees. The aura’s stronger too, like I’m trapped in a cadaverous whirlpool.

Pain shoots through my arms and legs but slowly the sea drains up to my chest. Immense bubbles gush out while the pressure equalizes. and the resistance of the hatch eases enough for me to swing the rest of the way. The rest of the air pours out as I’m submerged entirely in shimmer.

I jump out and land on mucky ground on all fours. The clanging is loud enough to reverberate around unseen surfaces. I scramble upright and run in the opposite direction of it, hoping it hasn’t seen me yet.

The thick sea slows me down. I need to dig through it to propel myself and I can see very little into the shifting pink-and-purple pool past my visor. A rocky grey wall springs into view after a few long steps, causing me to wince. I follow it to the entrance of a corridor which I waddle into. I pray to Arceus I’ll outpace what’s behind me, for the booming clangs are getting louder.

Stones jutting from the narrow sides scrape my shoulders. It’s much darker too, the liquid turning a dim, chilly purple. I can hardly see my glove feeling down the wall past it.

It opens up to another room after a few more steps. It’s terrifying to step back into unknown emptiness with how little I can see but I trudge on until I can no longer see the walls, ceilings, or the ground below me. Just the visor in front of my face. 

I accidentally kick something. There’s… Something at my feet. I can barely make out its shape. It has a bulky, rubble-like base with a smooth dome growing from it. A small branch grows out between the rocks and the dome. It ends with three finger-like twigs, swaying around as if it hopes to grasp something. It twists towards me.

An unholy sound of groaning metal crossed with a low guttural howl booms behind me, dampened and warped by all the shimmer. It snaps me out of my trance and makes me wade forward once more.

I dread that there may be no end to the liquid, that I’ve walked out of the dungeon into a true ocean.  But before the fear can sink in, a wall comes into view out of nowhere. I grab and sidle down it, finding the next corridor immediately.

The pull of the aura and the ferocity of the clangs have weakened, meaning distance is getting created between us. I let out a big breath and calm washes over me as my mind realizes it’s not in immediate danger. I can finally process my senses. I smell my sweat, feel the stuffiness of my suit, and see more clearly the details of the walls and floors. They’re flat surfaces with round, oval stones jutting out. They’re muted grey with a texture of plastic and have many shallow dips, like it’s made from a model moon. 

My ears and aura sense even notice something I haven’t before. There’s a soft choir of crying voices belonging to a growing, gusting aura behind the pursuer, much like the one from our encounter on the moon’s surface. I growl under my breath, thankful I’m at least moving away from both.

A wall slams into my visor. I wince and step back, patting my helmet. I scan the surface of my visor for any cracks – none thankfully – before I feel around to study the wall that hit me. I have reached a corner, and the only way forward is right. I take it and hope this damn shimmer disappears next floor.

The next floor. How am I going to find the stairs like this?

Even if the rooms are brighter than the hallways, I can barely see the ground around my feet. I’d be spending hours on this floor, tormented by those booming strikes and the light, pained crying in my ear.

I take deep breaths. Keep calm, one at a time. As long I’m outpacing-

I catch myself before I hit another wall, but I still flinch and fumble from the surprise. I’m at another corner. I take another deep breath, steady myself, and reach out to see which path I must take now.

It leads right. 

Two rights in a row, 180 degrees. I’ll be heading toward the second aura.

I freeze up and my breath becomes uneven. I grasp my rising chest, holding it down as I swallow down panic. “I’m not trapped yet, I’m not trapped yet, I’m not trapped yet,” I tell myself between heavy breaths. The focused noises of the metal beast suggest it’s turned the first corner and the other aura is far away. I take in as much air as I can through my nostrils and release it with a sigh. I get my legs to move again.

I focus hard, tracking the two aura’s locations in my head while my arm reaches out to feel any walls before they collide with me. All the concentration makes me understand what being in darkness really means. I’m realizing there could be something in front of me and I wouldn’t even know it until too late. All I can do is hope that I only run into walls and the next path is a left turn.

The gale entity’s screams have become as loud and vicious as the clanks. I sweep my arm through the water after each step, hoping to catch something. It finds another end.

“Please.” I reach to the left. There’s a surface of smooth, rocky outcrops.

My arms shake. “No. Please, no.”

I duck to check for a possible crawlspace only to discover denser outcrops. I check the other direction – empty shimmer. I’m not stuck in a dead end, but I’d be walking towards the other entity. 

The first beast is about to turn the last corner I passed. Its consuming aura pulls with just as much ferocity as the wind aura’s tempest-like force, pulling my sense in different directions.  Sweating pouring off my brow, I trudge towards the oncoming storm. I swear it hollers pleasured pains of vindication. Does it know where I am?

My heart batters my chest and my legs move harder, but no amount of effort makes the thick shimmer easier to move through. Every step feels like forever. Hell, is the corridor getting longer?

But I break into brighter waters eventually. Too bright: the pink has become a shade hotter. The distance between me and my pursuers has closed quickly. The screaming pierces my eardrums like needles.

Something dark manifests before me. I yelp and clutch my chest. It’s the same object I kicked, now hovering in the middle of the sea. It’s all blackened with its twig-arm frozen and its “fingers” twisted and spread out wide.

I tread around it. The gale entity’s going to enter this room at any moment. I stretch my arm out hoping to find another escape. My outreached arms brushes against the far wall a few moments later. I follow it as the sweeping storm seeps into the room. “Please!” I pat down it and gasp as my paw slips through shimmer. A fourth exit.

I barrel down it as fast my legs will allow. Tears form in my eyes. The aura behind me feels like it’ll rip my soul out like in a hurricane. But I’ll get away. I’m going to live.

I crash into an end. I stumble back and flail my arms while a horrid mix of terror and confusion dizzies my head. Before me is an eerily pristine surface with bulbous edges where it meets the other walls. There’s not a gap anywhere. There’s no escape.

My stomach’s in knots. The aura’s only meters behind me and its chanting beats away at my eardrums while the thundering of pounding iron joins it and shakes the ground. I bang my fist against the wall to no avail. Tears roll down my cheeks like the blood now trickling from my ears. 

I collapse onto my knees.

I’m sorry Kommo-o. I failed.

The darkness constricts me. I close my eyes and embrace my end, finally understanding the joy in the tormented voices. Relief is coming. I’ll become one of them, safe and protected in some place I will belong. I chant along with elation, ready for my soul to be plucked like a kite in a hurricane. I’m crying tears of euphoria.

The crashing of the metallic beast will be the last thing I hear. Its aura is an all-devouring black hole this closeup, trying to pry my soul out of my body. It explodes wider in an instant as a flurry of heavy clangs shakes the moon.

It has rushed towards us.

A harsh groan of buckling metal wails out.

The voices shriek their highest pitch yet.

Bodies stretch and pop underneath a mechanical maelstrom of creaking and tearing and metal screeching against metal.

I dig my gloves into the wall. I’m shuddering and hyperventilating.

Bones snap. Guts burst. The wind aura’s screams yell out, pant for air, and die out one by one. The aura dwindles away with every blow, tear, and crush, being consumed by the void until nothing remains but pounding iron and squelching pulp.

A low droning roar joins a cacophony of bending metal and shakes me to my core. I cling onto my soul against the leviathan black-hole aura.

I need Kommo-o.