Chapter 13 — Crimson Rain
Darkness swallowed everything.
No warmth remained.
No candlelight.
No breathing.
No heartbeat.
Only silence.
Then-
something cracked.
A deep sound echoed through the endless void around Seren. Ancient. Heavy. Like stone splitting apart beneath unimaginable pressure.
Light bled slowly into the darkness.
Crimson.
Seren’s eyes opened weakly.
The checkpoint chamber returned piece by piece through blurred vision. The pale pillars. The black water. The cold floor beneath her body.
Reality.
For several seconds she could not move at all.
Her chest still ached violently even though no wound remained there now. Phantom pain pulsed through her body like the memory of something that should have killed her.
Then she heard it.
Crying.
Someone was crying beside her.
Seren turned her head weakly.
Clara knelt next to her, gripping Seren’s shoulders with trembling hands while tears streamed uncontrollably down her face.
“…Idiot…”
Her voice broke immediately.
“You wouldn’t wake up…”
Seren stared at her silently.
The warmth around her felt real.
Painfully real.
Then suddenly-
the chamber trembled violently.
A deafening crack echoed above them.
Both of them looked upward instinctively.
The massive crimson crystal embedded deep within the cavern ceiling had begun splitting apart.
Thin fractures spread rapidly across its glowing surface like veins.
The entire tunnel shook.
Dust rained from above while distant screams echoed throughout Underground.
Clara’s eyes widened.
“What…?”
Another crack exploded through the cavern.
Then-
the crystal shattered.
A wave of crimson light flooded the entire chamber instantly.
The pulsing walls surrounding them stopped moving.
The strange breathing sounds within Underground vanished completely.
The tunnel had gone silent.
Far away-
voices suddenly erupted throughout the corridors.
Confused.
Panicked.
Awake.
Clara froze.
“…People…”
Seren slowly pushed herself upright while the crimson light continued flooding the chamber around them.
Footsteps echoed nearby.
A man stumbled into view from one of the distant corridors before collapsing against the wall, gasping violently for breath like someone resurfacing after drowning.
Another followed behind him.
Then another.
People.
Dozens of them.
The trapped survivors inside Underground were waking up.
A little boy clung desperately to his mother while crying uncontrollably.
An old man touched his own face repeatedly in confusion.
A woman stared at her trembling hands as if remembering they belonged to her.
Clara’s breathing became uneven.
“The curse…”
Her voice shook.
“The curse stopped progressing…”
Another violent tremor shook the chamber.
Clara immediately grabbed Seren’s hand tightly.
“We have to leave. Now.”
Seren stumbled slightly as Clara pulled her forward through the chaos erupting inside Underground.
People crowded the tunnels everywhere now.
Some cried.
Some screamed.
Some simply stared blankly at the crimson glow surrounding them.
But none of them looked empty anymore.
None of them carried that hollow curse-stricken gaze Seren had seen before.
The deeper they ran through the tunnels, the quieter Underground became.
The walls no longer pulsed.
The whispers were gone.
The endless feeling of being watched had disappeared completely.
For the first time—
the tunnel felt dead.
Cold night air finally struck their faces as they burst out from Underground and into the forests surrounding Norvale.
Rain had begun falling.
Warm rain.
Crimson rain.
Seren stopped moving.
Drops slid slowly down her face while thunder rolled quietly above the mountains.
Far below them-
Norvale glowed beneath the storm.
Lights burned throughout the village.
People filled the streets.
Clara stared downward silently.
Then suddenly-
she ran.
Pulling Seren along behind her.
The muddy roads leading into Norvale overflowed with people standing beneath the rain in disbelief.
An elderly blind man near the central well slowly looked upward at the sky.
His cloudy eyes focused for the first time in years.
“…I can see…”
Nearby, a little girl who once covered her ears in fear laughed loudly as rain splashed across her face.
An old woman collapsed sobbing into her son’s arms after suddenly remembering his name.
Everywhere-
people cried.
People laughed.
People remembered.
The curse was gone.
Completely gone.
Clara slowed to a stop in the middle of the village street.
Her breathing trembled violently.
She looked around at everyone beneath the crimson rain.
Then her knees gave out completely.
She collapsed forward into the mud while tears poured endlessly down her face.
Seren stood silently nearby.
Clara looked up toward her through blurred vision.
“You…”
Her voice shattered instantly.
“You actually did it…”
Seren still didn’t fully understand what had happened.
But looking around the village-
seeing people smile without fear for the first time-
something inside her loosened quietly.
Clara suddenly threw herself forward and wrapped both arms tightly around Seren.
Not carefully.
Desperately.
“Thank you…”
Her voice broke apart against Seren’s shoulder.
“Thank you… thank you…”
Warm tears soaked slowly through Seren’s clothes while the crimson rain continued falling around them.
The entire village of Norvale stood beneath the storm together.
Alive.
Free.
And somewhere deep below the earth—
Underground had finally fallen silent.