Chapter 60: Forgotten City [10]
The sound was vivid enough for Aegon to know it was a stream. The sound was of water flowing and from the drops on the ground of the tunnel, he was almost certain.
He had the dagger in his left hand and the touch in his right, he was ready to fight when it was necessary so he guard wasn’t down.
Aegon walked for a while, as the sound of the flowing water came closer from every step.
While he was moving, the tunnel curved right and Aegon followed, then it curved left and he followed.
At this point, there were visible portions of water in portholes on the ground. The majority of them were small, but for every more step a large size appeared.
Aegon was curious while walking in this place, he hasn’t encountered any monsters, not even a sound, or any evidence that they are, or was.
Normally, if it was a usual trap zone for humans or whatever was being stopped, they would be signs of dead bodies.
Like skeletons or remains of humans, but there was none. It was normal, just like how a city underground would be like.
"This is indeed strange.’
Even though this was the case, he didn’t let his guard down and continued to walk forward. He didn’t run but simply walked.
Then a thought came him
’I don’t know where exactly I am right now. I have been walking for nearly twenty minutes and it feels like I have covered a couple of miles.’
’Am I still in the city? Or have I been dragged out?’
The thought came to him and he couldn’t help but think about it.
This was only normal, seeing as he had been walking for a long time and hadn’t found the exit.
Even with the sound of water he could hear there didn’t seem to be any evidence of a possible exit.
At this point, he continued to turn left and right continuously as if he was going round and round.
"This is feeling like I am going around non-stop. Am I in another loop?"
He stood for a moment and pointed the torch at the wall.
"No I am not. The walls are not the same."
He continued walking, while speaking.
"I have been taking notice of my surroundings since I entered here, for any possible illusion but everything seems real."
"There are no same wall markings and the ground is also different. It is a normal underground tunnel and I can’t stop thinking that I have gone far from where I initially came from."
It was true indeed, and he knew it. If he was to go above the ground now, he wouldn’t even be able to tell where he would be.
Because the area might be different from when he was above.
"This is crazy. I wonder how Chrome is doing."
The thought of Chrome facing this was going to be way worse for him, seeing how there’s no way Chrome would possess a torch to navigate around.
It was pitiful.
Meanwhile, in a dark area, where nothing could be seen or nothing could be heard; except the single breathing of a person.
It was Chrome, he didn’t know where he was because he couldn’t see anything. Heck, he couldn’t even feel his hands or legs.
While he was falling down the pit, he was struggling to maintain his balance and therefore after he touched the ground, everything went numb.
Now, in a pitch black darkness, his breath was the only thing he could hear which assured him he was alive.
"_"
At this point, Aegon had already moved into twenty left turns and fifteen right turns, but there didn’t seem to be an end.
"Tch."
Just then the stream of water he was hearing began to fade away. It was like for every step he took, he was moving away from it.
"What the..."
Aegon realized this and stopped walking. Then he moved a few steps backwards and the sound of the water would be heard more.
He moved forward again, about a couple steps and the sound began to fade away again, and it could only mean one thing.
"There is actually no exit?"
He had been walking for a while and the sound of the stream was his only hope of finding an exit, but that wasn’t the case anymore.
"Hmph, would you look at that? Who would have guessed that they are tricky in their ways."
He was referring to whoever was controlling this place, the one who put him here; and was intrigued by their crafty scheme.
They had given him a stream to hear so he would think he was close to the exit, but just when his spirit was lifting, they cut it off.
"Well played."
It was at this moment that another thought came into his head, and he thought of it while still standing.
’Whoever is doing this knows that I am here and know what I am capable of. Heck, they might even know my plans, so they are keeping me away.’
’But who could it be? This doesn’t feel like the work of a mere monster, except one with intelligence.’
’However, I didn’t see any of those guard monsters having intelligence. The only one who could have had, was the seven foot monster, but I’ve already erased it from existence.’
’And after that, the others ran away, so there is no way it could be any of them.’
’Could it be... that there was someone there who was capable but was only watching and planning on drawing me here?’
Aegon closed his eyes and thought back to that hall. He could only see the mere monster, and the others who were there were the humans in the cage.
’No, it can’t be any of the Awakeners. They were all terrified of me and never left their cages even when they had the chance.’
’So who could it be?...’
It was in Aegon’s heart that none of the Awakeners left their cage because of how they felt about him.
However, there were two who did leave, but he couldn’t have known of this since he didn’t wait around to see.
He continued walking and turned to another right corner, then he spoke out.
"It doesn’t matter, if this goes on, I would just blast this place into smithereens."
As the words left his lips, he saw a next corner to the left but in that corner, the wall had a faint light on it.
This instantly caught Aegon’s attention as he rushed and entered the corner and the light began stronger.
He saw the light and knew it was the ray of the blood moon. So it was possible that it was coming from somewhere.
He walked fast and entered a couple more corners of left and right and the light became stronger and brighter.
At this point, he didn’t even need the torch to navigate since the light was enough for him to navigate.
Just then, at the next right corner, he stumbled on a bright and open area which allowed the moon light to enter.
Upon seeing this, Aegon stopped walking and stared at it, then the words left his mouth.
"Hmph... the exit."
For some reason, he didn’t have an excited expression on his face, but an expression that felt like he had won.
The thing is, all the while Aegon was standing and speaking, he didn’t speak out loud but within his heart.
The last word he had said out was ’well played’, and the one that followed after was ’blast this place into smithereens.’
"Hmph."
A smile played on his face as he knew what he had just done.
He had guessed that whoever was controlling this scheme could definitely hear him. But, he wasn’t certain at first.
However, after his last words, and the sudden appearance of the exit he was fully certain; that whoever it was didn’t want him to actually blow the whole place up, so they brought the exit for him.
"Hmph, played you in your own game and you lost into my hands."
The words left his lips, then he dashed forward to the exit, the moon light shining very bright as he came out of the darkness.