Exploring the Gateway

“So you’re telling me I could be permanently scarred?!” John panicked, that kind of irreversible damage was far scarier than having fainted for a bit, at least since he was still alive.

‘Just the thought of my soul being damaged makes me sick to my stomach… I’m still not sure what exactly that would do to me, but it cannot be good,’ he wanted to scream in frustration, even by defending himself he was putting himself in danger. It almost wasn’t fair, but he couldn’t let himself think that way, that was still better than giving up.

“Not exactly, and you’re just as much of a dimwit as you were before, you just fainted. If your soul was being damaged, you’d know it, despite it being more of a gradual effect. You will feel your personality fade away with time through every bone of your body, like every part of your flesh was being ripped off. Until all you were left with was bones, leaving you hollow and emotionless,” Matthew’s expression was grim in a way John had not seen before on him, and his description was just as vivid. The gamer figured he had seen it before, and he absolutely did not want to know how or on who.

“Everyone has seen it in the Abyss at some point,” Yan’s face went dark and she averted her gaze, “someone pushing themselves just a little too hard. They lose what made them who they are,” John was sure Yan knew it just as well.

“That’s… Worse than anything I could imagine,” John said. His voice was calm but he felt like screaming in horror and anger on the inside.

“Yes, yes it is,” Bass summed it up with an appropriate tone, before looking back to John with a smile, “ok, no need to dwell on that though. I have our report, boss,” she started with a fake military tone, “we have eliminated all tangos and cleared the rest of the cave besides one particular section where Charlotte has seen the alpha of the pack. She’s pretty sure it’s still alive, but we didn’t go to engage it before we were sure you were ok, so that’s why we waited for you. Not that I think it’ll pose too much trouble for us now!” she said cheerily.

“Yeah, don’t mention how we got lost or anything without his minimap,” Yan chuckled back, her mood clearly cleared too.

“Whatever Yan! They’re back now anyways,” Bass also laughed at the comment, and John knew her well enough to figure she probably wanted it to happen.

“I suppose it makes sense that you guys waited for me then…” John shook his head, trying to break out of the slight dizziness he felt. He got up slowly, stretching his limbs, his back was against the wall of the alcove, letting him feel the cold rock against his thin clothing.

‘I feel stiff…’

“How long was I out?” he asked, hoping they were still on time.

“About two hours now, I think?” Bass answered him a second later, then walked over to help him up. John took her hand, moving off the wall step by step. As soon as his back left its support, he felt his feet buckle under him, and Bass had to grab his torso with both her arms to keep him steady. She had a firm grip, but her hands were soft.

“Sorry, guess I’m still really out of it,” John felt his head spinning, and he was just grateful for Bass’ endless help.

“It’s fine,” she grabbed a rock from nearby and gave it to John. It was the same one Matthew had filled with water, and it was once again filled, “drink some more, you really need it, dude,” she half whispered, and he followed her suggestion.

The first few sips only made John realize how tired he truly felt. He felt a haziness in his brain that only grew stronger, but he fought it off as much as he could. After another few minutes of rest and enough water that he felt his dry throat was satisfied, it became tolerable, somehow.

“Alright, let’s go. We don’t have time to waste on me recovering,” John was determined to finish this mission.

“If you say so, boss,” Bass shrugged, and the rest followed the two of them as they slowly exited the cave back into the tunnels.

The mud walls around the entrance were now only half standing, the right side had been pummeled into the ground and the left’s top half was broken off. John wasn’t sure if that was due to the wolves or the rest of his team, but even without bodies the signs of fighting were obvious. Both the walls and the floor were covered by too many claw marks to count, and even more dried blood. Almost every surface was covered with half dried blood, with some still flowing into small pools among the crevices and holes in the floor like dark red blotches on the gray surface.

Once they started heading south, towards a large open area that was shown on the map, the other signs of the conflict appeared. Corpses filled every inch of the corridors, and their stench was almost unbearable. They had begun rotting in the humidity of the cave, but it only looked to bother John and Charlotte.

‘Jesus Christ…’ John almost retched, turning his gaze and trying to think of happier things, his mind wandered to Alice, ‘I hope she’s doing ok. Whatever she’s up to must be better than this,’ he chuckled to himself in his mind.

“It’s not a pleasant sight, but it was necessary,” Yan grimly said.

“I know, I know…”

“I-I al-always hate seeing it,” Charlotte said, her voice shaking.

Bass put her hand on both John’s and Charlotte’s shoulders and pushed them along, “it’ll be alright, you guys. We’re almost there anyways.”

The rest of the way was passed in utter silence. While more bodies kept appearing, the amount of them lessened as they neared their goal

It was even larger than the minimap made it look, with an eerie and incessant noise echoing through it. Along the walls there were stacks of vibrant gemstone that glowed with a faint light, and even more mushrooms and foliage covered them. For a while he saw nothing other than them inside the cave, until he spotted something on top of a hill of rock. Yellow dots stared back at John from atop it, adorning the face of a humongous wolf that was before them.

A low growl came from its mouth, as if it was trying to scare them off. Its belly was huge, but it was clearly far more agile than that entailed. Without a second warning it started rushing towards them. Each one of its feet striking the rock under it with huge rumbles that shook the cave. John could barely see small craters form where it had stood just a second before. Barely a breath later, he felt a chip of stone fall from the ceiling onto him, the cave was clearly not capable of handling the size of that thing.

The five of them stood there, Charlotte and John frozen in shock. Bass was the only active member of the group, looking around for something, and Matthew and Yan were both staring at the creature, their jaws wide open, but their bodies still obeying them.

“That thing is going to be able to break through the tunnels. If we retreat into them, they will collapse on us,” Matthew said briefly, motioning the others to him as he took a few steps forward. He was clearly willing to fight the thing “we need to fight it here and now,” that notion out of the ice mage’s mouth was just enough to shock John back into action.

“Then that’s what we’ll do,” he shouted back.

‘We don’t have much choice, that much he’s right about-’ was all he could think before he had greater things to worry about.

Its low growl had suddenly turned to an ear splitting howl, and everyone but Charlotte covered their ears. Even with that measure, John felt his whole body shaking as the thing continued approaching them. Desperately, he summoned barrage after barrage of Arcane Bolts and slung them at the giant wolf. A wave of sound John could barely hear over the noise and a dozen ice spikes were thrown at the monster as well. Most of them bounced off it, and those that didn’t only barely scratched the wolf enough for the beast to bleed. The force of gravity still stained its fur, showing its color as that of a deep almost purple blue.

The alpha crouched down, readying its hind legs. In a split second, it lunged. A blast of air escaped from beneath its enormous feet like a whip, shooting towards the group. John withstood it for a moment before losing his footing, sliding back and falling over himself in an attempt to recover. He couldn’t see the rest, only Bass remained in the corner of his vision, who had found herself in a similar circumstance. She was quickly getting back up about five meters to his right. But before he could see her standing, the sight of the giant black creature covered all of John’s vision in front of him.

John saw its shadow before it landed, and it was far too close. Another thud hit him as the beast landed twenty meters in front of him. Now he was able to examine the creature more closely, it looked like a wolf, but almost four meters tall and wider than he thought any creature could be. Its breath and smell was all John could concentrate on as it moved slowly towards him, looking unconcerned with anything else. John quickly threw an Observe at it, hoping some help would appear.

His last ditch effort did indeed help, ’if only I could stall that thing for a while… We might have a chance of killing it.’

“Strike at its feet! That’s where it’s weakest!” John shouted as loud as he could, trying to get that message to the others even without seeing them.

’I doubt Arcane Barrier would last against the alpha, and I might just end up like last time,’ every second he spent thinking it got closer. As its nuzzle drew in on John’s face, the smell of rot, blood, and fresh meat got worse and worse and he could hear its slow steady breathing and the noise that came along with it, ’the bolts did nothing either…’ it was now practically on top of him, lowering its head to his face, its eyes were a piercing yellow but everything else about it was terrifying. What stared at him was barely a wolf’s face, with how marred by scars and disfigurement it was. Despite that, he still thought, he had no other options.

’Wait! That said it was intelligent, if it’s intelligent it could have emotions and… It’s a desperate move, but,’ he looked around, and all he could see was the alpha’s giant body, and he knew he had no other options. The moment he felt the skin of its mouth, he decided. He exited his mind, feeling outside his own body and soon finding the flickering thoughts of the giant monster. Without any time for hesitation, he entered them.

The giant wolf stopped in its tracks, falling onto its back, and more than that, the sound quieted. Only silence was left as Bass stood there, shocked and unsure of what had happened. They had only done minor damage to the creature, there was no way it was already defeated. Yet, it didn’t move. Carefully, Bass moved around it to check on John, and his body was similarly limp.

“Is everyone still alive?” Bass was surprised to hear Yan’s voice coming from the other side of the alpha.

“Yeah, I’m fine, but it looks like both John and the wolf are unconscious. They’re not moving and he collapsed on the ground,” she said nervously, trying to remain calm.

“We should kill that thing while it’s asleep,” Matthew said, almost immediately.

“No,” Charlotte stated outright, “I-I can see John’s Mana on it… If we did that, we’d be killing him. Be-because I think he entered its M-mindscape,” her voice was so quiet Bass barely heard her.

’There he goes again, being a dumbass,’ he knew how incredibly dangerous that was. But yet, he did it anyways, just to help the rest of them.

“Alright, so what do we do?” Yan asked, her tone twitchy.

“We get ourselves ready to give that thing a hell of a beating when he comes back,” Bass responded. He wasn’t here, she knew she had to take the reins now.

“So you believe he will? You are far too much of an optimist, Hollmey,” Matthew said, his words cold and distant.

“I know he will, he’s someone we can all rely on, I know it,” somehow she was certain of that.

First there was only darkness, filling every crevice. Then, John opened his eyes and saw the moon. It was a shining white with deeper tones and colors than he had seen before, and far larger than the moon on earth. It was almost like a giant white sphere that loomed above him, as if threatening to fall to the Earth and destroy it. Despite barely being able to see the ground, the sky was brighter than he had ever seen, with the same lights and constellations, but they were all far more vivid. His back was on the cold ground, but somehow it was not as hard as he expected. Soft grass covered it all and the individual blades poked at John like a pleasant bed. Around him in every direction was a thick forest, with trees as tall as buildings, but they never hid the sky. When their leaves overlapped with each other, the dark green of their beauty was replaced with an ethereal white tinge that let light go through them. Everything here was in service to the sky above him.

When his attention came back to the ground, he heard many things around him, crickets chirping, the slow shifting of the leaves in the wind, and from the distance he heard howling. The trees around him were not the same as he was used to on earth, but even with their size they were almost identical to those in the Gateway. Instead of oak and pine these were trees with much thicker trunks and leaves only at their tops, more like those John had seen in jungles than back home.

Not wanting to waste any more time looking around, John slowly got up, shifting uncomfortably as his head ached slightly.

’So it does have a Mindscape. Not that that helps me much as long as I don’t find a way to stop it,’ his goal now was unclear. John didn’t know exactly what he wanted to do like in Brad’s mind, nor was his instinct guiding him like in Graham’s, ’I’m on my own this time. Bass, Charlotte, Yan, and even Matthew, they’re all depending on me, again. I won’t let them down, not this time,’ he decided, ’this is a wolf’s mind, so the howling is somewhat promising. Maybe I’ll find what I’m looking for there,’ his thoughts felt even more hazy in here, but he felt a certain calm fall over him with the almost haunting landscape and sky around him.

He walked slowly, measuring each step into this foreign world. Hoping that outside it his body was safe and well, ’if the wolf is still active and attacks me… Who knows what might happen. I need to find whatever will help us end this as soon as I can.’

Soon after, he neared a clearing, which John thought was the source of the howling. He heard leaves rustling to the right. A wolf was coming, that much was obvious, it was the ideal setting for them and that would be the most logical protector of the alpha’s mind.

’Fuck. Hope my powers work in here like they did in Graham’s Mindscape,’ luckily, he managed to summon Arcane Bolts to confirm that they did. They didn’t end up being necessary, however, as what came out into the clearing was absolutely not what John had expected.

They were human.