Chapter 63: The Cave Of Wonders (4)
After entering through the path beneath the mountain, Hinata and Tamara wandered around the cave until they found an area that didn’t smell so much.
However, even though Tamara had paused several times to vomit or try to expel the bad smell from her nostrils, Hinata didn’t show a care in the world.
At this point, Tamara was over seventy-five percent sure that the person standing next to her wasn’t Hinata.
She didn’t know how he had been possessed or what the creature even was, but it was in her best interest to make sure she wasn’t found out yet.
Hinata, or at least whatever that thing was, quickly left the area Tamara had chosen for their camp and began walking around like he was searching for something.
"Hina," Tamara called out the moment he began moving around. "Aren’t you going to do that?"
Hinata tilted his head back with an unnatural snap. "What?"
Tamara shook her head, struggling to hold in both her emotions and her expression, which was growing paler by the moment. "Nothing."
Hinata turned back to his front and began moving further into the cave.
Tamara couldn’t help but sigh as she tried to put the pieces of what had been happening together.
Did the monster come from the core Hinata absorbed?
’No...’ she thought, quickly shaking her head.
Although she had little information, she was absolutely sure that the creature had been confused when it entered Hinata’s body.
"If it wasn’t from the core, then how?"
The only other thing that came to mind was an exchange of wills.
Yet the question remained: where exactly had Hinata stumbled upon another person’s will?
Suddenly she rose to her feet and began scanning the cave.
Oddly enough, the cave seemed familiar to her even though she had never been inside it.
At a distance she saw a boulder that blocked light from piercing through a specific segment, one with an even better smell than the spot she had chosen before.
Beside it was a crack in the mountain wall that let enough light spill through.
Somehow she felt like she had been here before.
But how?
Her feet slowly came to a halt, toes curling upward as a horrific possibility came to mind.
When she was still a kid and had learnt about wills from her mother, she had learnt that some powerful beings could put their will into a specific area and bend the laws around it.
Life, death, time, space, whatever they wanted they could control.
Then did they...
She shook her head. ’That isn’t possible.’
If someone with that will did exist here in the wastelands, they wouldn’t need to start acting like Hinata since they could just kill both of them easily.
Though there was still the possibility that he needed either her or Hinata to unlock their powers.
Tamara couldn’t help but sigh, hands resting beneath her chin.
After thinking for a long moment she deemed it best to investigate the cave further.
With slow, deliberate steps she began moving forward.
It didn’t take long for her to reach the area that had a large crack in the wall, like a cave within a cave.
Beside the entrance were warnings written in the Vanir clan tongue.
Tamara swallowed hard on instinct. Immediately the sound of footsteps echoed all around her and she pressed herself into the shadows.
From the direction the steps were coming, the figure of Hinata stepped out wearing an ugly expression.
His eyes were pure spiralling black and his hair had begun to bleed faint white at the roots.
Hinata scratched his head violently, then a loud screech tore through his lips.
His gaze flew from left to right as if searching for something that wasn’t there.
Tamara watched in horror as the form of Hinata went still, then a loud laugh that sounded more like a cackle escaped his lips.
Seeing Hinata act like that made her heart twist. Her fingers pressed into her palms so tightly blood began running down them.
The figure approached the far wall, squeezed his body against it and began moving up and about.
Tamara steadied her nerves. Her gaze flicked toward the second entrance beside the warning, then back at Hinata.
At that moment everything clicked.
’It’s looking for the entrance, but why?’
She lowered her head for a moment to think. ’Was it there that it exchanged places with Hinata?’
Tamara couldn’t help but think that was the case. If it truly was, that meant this cave wasn’t under the control of whatever that thing was, and only by taking something inside it could he regain his powers.
Tamara raised her gaze to look over at Hinata, only to find the area around the entrance completely empty.
Cold dread seeped into her core and sweat ran down her temples. Her teeth gnashed together hard. In that moment she couldn’t breathe, yet she could still hear the sound of breathing.
Slowly she turned her head back, and her face went ghostly pale.
Breathing hard in front of her, eyes wide and looking as though they were about to pop from their sockets, was none other than Hinata.
He was staring at her with his hollow dark pupils, the kind that seemed to drag her soul into them.
With clenched, now-bloody fists she smiled, though even she couldn’t stop it from twitching. "Hey, Darling, what are you doing here?"
"How lo..." the voice of Hinata rose only to crack midword. "Long have—bzzzt—you..." the voice cracked again, this time accompanied by a massive glitch of Hinata’s entire form.
"Oh, you mean how long I’ve been here?" She let out a lazy sigh that sounded too forced to be hers. "Don’t I have the right to be around my own husband?"
She placed a hand on her waist, pouting slightly. "Or do you want to throw me away. You know I’m pregnant, right?"
The figure just stared at her, then a maniacal grin split across his lips and spread wide across his face.
"Look AT m...e!"
Tamara felt hot tears threatening to run down her cheeks. Throughout the interaction she hadn’t dared to stare directly at the figure.
Even after it had given her the command, she held firm.
"Humph, I don’t want to."
She was about to say more when the figure seized her by the chin and snapped her neck toward himself.
Crack!
Her neck bent unnaturally to the side, eyes wide, tears rushing down her cheeks.
It hurt.
It hurt like fucking hell.
She couldn’t make a sound even if she wanted to.
The smile on Hinata’s face widened, and a deep flush crept across his cheeks.
He threw his head back in pleasure, the sound of strained moans escaping his lips.
After savoring the fleeting moment it turned back to Tamara and asked, voice hoarse. "En...trance?"
It paused for a moment before yelling out. "Where... is... ENTRANCE!"
Although the pain Tamara was feeling was unbearable, she knew that telling it where the entrance was would never relieve it. It would only set that monster loose.
She paused, then a cocky smirk strained itself onto her face. "Fuck you."
The figure stared at her, back slouched. It stayed still for a moment as if processing her words.
Then it came...
A loud, soul-tearing scream that made the walls of the cave and the mountain itself shake.
Tamara tried to cover her ears but couldn’t move her arms.
Blood pooled from her ears.
Drip. Drip.
Blood ran down the ears and eyes of Hinata too, falling onto the ground.
Drip. Drip.
The figure turned toward her, then its entire body snapped to the side. "Hello..."
Its voice echoed through the cave like a warning rather than a greeting. "Hello Hello Hello Hello Hello Hello Hello Hello... Hello?!"
’Huh?’
Before Tamara could process it, she couldn’t breathe again.
Somehow she could now see her own back, the sight of it growing farther and farther away, dimming with every passing moment.
Ah...
I’m dead, aren’t I?
...
Deep within an abyss of pure darkness, a single soul floated naked at its center. Above him, light spilled from the heavens and gave form to his otherwise fading silhouette.
Screams that couldn’t pierce through two meters tore from his lips as he gnawed at his hair, nails raking across his handsome face.
Black long hair that framed a ridiculously handsome face, now smeared in blood. His purple eyes looked wholly vacant and from his body came the stench of death.
This was hell.
His back curved as he scraped his fingers down his chest.
He was trapped.
He alone was trapped in this endless void.
He couldn’t feel his body.
He couldn’t feel his senses.
He couldn’t feel his emotions.
The last hope and light left to him was far beyond his reach.
Is this the end?
However, in the next instant light exploded all around him and the void went still.
Not just that, but the sound of a woman screaming excitedly.
Slowly, Hinata pried his eyes open and saw a brand new world.
But... he had forgotten who he truly was.