Gigolo Diaries

The sound of cracking rock could be heard at every corner of the now completely dark cave. Lines of fissures ran down the walls slowly extending into branches as the fragile structure slowly gave in to pressure. The lines grew with time, stone and sand breaking off from the walls and ceiling.

Dust from the top of the cave dropped, falling directly on Elaine’s face. Her eyelids fluttered slightly at the disturbance.

The dust kept on dropping and soon enough she could no longer remain unconscious. Her eyes slowly opened as she absentmindedly rubbed the dust off her face.

It took her a while to fully regain consciousness. And immediately she did, waves of memories detailing Lain’s experiences in the last few hours flowed into her consciousness.

It wasn’t anything special at first. But her eyes widened when she saw Lain enter the cave. The entire sequence seemed like a fever dream.

From the entrance, to the weird shadowy creatures that poured out in flocks. It all happened so fast that she hardly had a moment to register it all.

The memories kept on moving, like a projector whose slide would not stop.

Elaine was finally able to understand why their body felt so spent and exhausted. Thankfully, even though they were essentially the same person, she and Lain had different Nexus reserves so she wasn’t stranded.

Under normal circumstances, Lain shouldn’t have been put in such a precarious situation, but apart from the fact that she had been fighting for quite some time, the ambient nexus in this area was contaminated, to put it lightly. Because of that she had been unable to recover her lost energy.

Entering the circle had been the last straw that finally broke her.

Elaine, however, wasn’t worried about Lain as she was of Eros. After all, Lain had essentially left him to challenge the entire shadow creatures.

And from the looks of it—her head flickered about observing the chaos that had befallen the once orderly hall—he might have actually won.

She wasn’t risking it though, if something were to happen to Eros during the brief time he was under her watch, she wouldn’t be able to forgive herself.

She raised her hand and an ice-cold flame-like construct erupted from it, completely illuminating the area.

What first got her attention was the black mud scattered all over the floor. It was a viscous liquid that slowly seemed to be dissolving into shadows.

She glanced at it but turned her gaze away the next second.

Her eyes inadvertently turned to the centre of it all, the orb that had been the heart of this place. There was a sword plunged within it and the liquid darkness that had once inhabited the orb was nowhere to be found.

The sword, however, glowed a sublime purple that had no illuminating power whatsoever. If anything it only made the world appear darker.

Just as she was about to celebrate the fact that Eros had won, something caught her eye.

Beside the pillar atop which the orb rested, was a blood red patch covered in the black mud that was ever so present in this place.

Her heart stopped for a second; she and Eros were the only two people here and since the blood didn’t come from her. It definitely came from...

Elaine bit her lips as she ran towards the patch. Slowly the outline of a man became evident. However, this man was covered in so many wounds. Her heart fluttered, and something within her whispered that he was dead.

She shook her head violently, desperately trying to get the thought out of her mind.

Her eyes had gotten clouded, and the more she looked at the mangled state he was in, the more the dam behind her eyes threatened to burst.

She got to Eros quickly, kneeling beside him.

"No..." Her whisper was silent, but the emotions behind it weren’t.

She dug him out of the black mud that dispersed upon her touch.

Soon enough, Eros’s body was in her hands. She bit her lips harder. She could feel his pulse, and it was barely even there. His heart beat with an inconsistency, as if it were about to extinguish. But, the mere fact that he was still alive gave Elaine the respite that she needed. She hugged him tightly, asking him in silent whispers not to leave her, as the others did.

However, Eros couldn’t hear her and his body couldn’t understand. His condition steadily deteriorated.

Elaine could feel the crests of his heart beat grow further apart, and his life was slowly slipping into oblivion. However, Elaine didn’t plan on letting him go, not on her watch.

Her hands grew colder; she hesitated for a second. But looking at Eros who seemed like he wasn’t going to wake up, she had to steel her resolve.

Ice poured out of her hand, entrapping Eros who shivered slightly under the cold.

Elaine didn’t stop, no matter what she had to stop his condition from growing worse. Freezing him was perhaps the only way to go as that would put him in a state of temporary hibernation.

The process in itself was a time-consuming one as she had to take extra care with high-priority organs, lest her goodwill would only serve to hasten his demise.

The world around her didn’t plan to give her the time she needed. Pieces of the area fell as the creaking grew larger.

The entire cave was going to collapse and they at the epicentre of it all would bear it’s brunt. If that happened then Elaine couldn’t guarantee her own survival, much less Eros’.

She wasn’t taking any chances. Placing her hand on the floor, ice poured out of it. Soon enough the entire area was brought into an ice age as ice filled all the cracks covering every single corner, from the walls to the ceilings.

Ice pillars suddenly erupted from the ground, holding up the structure.

Even then, this wasn’t enough to stop a mountain about to collapse. All it did was buy her the little time she needed.

But it was unknown if the time bought would amount to anything as the pressure on the newly formed structure grew by the second.

By the time she was halfway into freezing Eros cracks began to appear on the pillars.

She fortified them, this time making them stronger and bigger. But the pressure kept growing.

With little time on hand, she was forced to speed up the process of freezing, and soon enough an ice cocoon formed around Eros, entrapping him within.

With that done, she couldn’t afford to waste time. She picked him up and ran towards the exit, however what she was met with made her heart drop.

The exit was no longer there. It was... gone. The entire path that should’ve led out had caved in, completely trapping them in the mountain.