The transition from sunlight to shadow came abruptly like morning sickness, as he ventured into the cave.
Having kept track of Gerald and Elizabeth's spiritual signatures, Damon continued moving as his gaze flashed over the smooth cave interior.
The reddish-brown surfaces surrounded him and dauntingly stretched further ahead as an array of pale wax candles lit the path, flames casting shadows across the stone.
At the base of the candles, stone hands jutted out from the walls, their fingers curled inward, cradling the melting wax in their palms.
'These weren't lit before...' Damon slowed his steps and leaned closer to examine one of the candles. His eyes soon widened as he noticed the gentle glow had been made entirely of spiritual energy.
'T-this is Gerald's spiritual energy..'
The spectral flame burned the wick steadily, without sway as if it were just an illusion, yet the edges of the wax showed signs of darkening nearest to the heat.
Damon had a few guesses on how it happened; however, he had little time to dwell on them. Pressed for time, he quickly reached out and amplified his strength to shatter the hanging wrist of stone.
Crack!
With minimal force, the cold rock cracked apart like brittle wood, resting in his palm.
Damon's lips pressed together pensively.
'I don't know if the other Resonator will target me again, but this should help..'
While Elizabeth had allowed him to break free of the mental intrusion once, he was still wary of such another incident taking place. Therefore, he decided to take one of the candles with him, using it to maintain his concentration.
Thud!
Immediately after, another sound echoed behind him.
A handful of rocks rattled to the ground, falling from the concave ceiling.
Shining the light in that direction, Damon spun around and swiftly grabbed the hilt at his waist. For a moment, he worried a chain of dominoes had just been set off.
'Maybe I'm just scaring myself...' He subconsciously lowered his shoulders for a moment, taking a breath. Then he quickly reminded himself not to get careless as he drew the dagger and pressed against the wall.
'If I moved my hand for any reason, that should let me know if my mind's being forcefully resonated with.'
The plan overly relied on the physical sensation and his conscious choice to follow the surface till the path began to divert or distort. But that also meant that if he went against that choice, he'd have to decide whether to press ahead or turn back before he became another threat to be dealt with.
'I could also run back to Tomoe for help.'
'I just hope it doesn't come to that..' Damon sighed as he threw the idea aside. Throughout these thoughts, the knowledge that they would presumably be sent back home if killed was a silent comfort.
Suddenly, as he began walking, a familiar voice rang out.
"Liz? Is that you?"
"Your face looks really pale. Did Gerald lose against that Eirosian?"
Rudy's tones sounded casual at first, and Damon could picture the stupid expression of smugness that hung on his face. Whenever he wasn't pouting or acting clingy, the boy's features seemed to default to it.
However, his words were quickly cut short by feverish cries!
"Ah! W-what are y—argh!"
At once, Damon furrowed his brows. Yet without a second's hesitation, he quickly shot forward and silently ran through the path.
As he tried to follow the boy's spiritual signature, a thick mist of sweeping colours appeared in his view and his brain protested with throbbing pain as if telling him to turn back. It made him temporarily lose his strength as he stumbled.
Then suddenly his spiritual perception went blank!
'Ugh..That should have been Rudy, but the spiritual energy seemed off..' Damon became apprehensive as he struggled to stagger forward. His crimson eyes lost their luster, returning to a crystal blue.
At the same time, the throbbing pain in his head continued. Although it had weakened a little, it continued incessantly.
The unseen bastard was slowly scraping at his mind!
'Not this time! You're staying out!' Damon lowered his gaze to his right hand that had been holding the sculpted hand. Focusing on the flame of spiritual energy, he saw that his palm and fingers were covered in sweat.
Nonetheless, he continued forward. And at every turn, his mind churned with questions he couldn't answer.
'What if Elizabeth is the one trying to kill Rudy?' He hated the thought the moment it surfaced. But it lingered, burrowing deeper like a splinter beneath the skin.
What if this is just a family dispute? A disagreement that escalated? They'd both be fine—sent back to their entry points once their bodies in this dimension were killed.
Would intervening even matter?
He didn't know the Greyhounds well enough to judge. They were partners who couldn't even be said to share the same objective. Heck, what was his in the first place..?
Were it simply to return home, he could have let himself fall to any random blow, and if it was for strength, did he have to be here to obtain it..?
In lands he barely knew..? For people could easily turn on each other..?
'What am I even thinking?'
Damon stopped walking and shook his head, pressing the pommel of the dagger against his temple. The throbbing in his skull had faded to a dull ache, but the thoughts felt wrong—too sharp, too insistent.
He knew they weren't entirely his own.
'That's right. They're intrusive. Just intrusive. The other Resonator is still scraping at my mind.' Damon quickened his pace, pressing forward with renewed urgency.
Catching his breath, he forced himself to focus on the candle in his hand, a stable anchor. Shortly after, he flew by two empty supply crates that Gerald had cleared to start the meal.
His blue eyes then landed on a speck of red.
It was a thin trail of drops that littered the ground, leading up ahead like scattered coins.
Damon slowed his steps and crouched down, holding the candle low to examine the trail. The droplets were fresh—still dark and wet against the stone.
That's not a lot of blood. But it's heading somewhere specific.
He followed the trail with his eyes until it stopped abruptly at the wall ahead. The surface was irregular, covered in jagged edges and deep grooves, and one section in particular caught his attention.
A large patch looked slightly different from the surrounding rock. It was much darker, with a subtle pattern that didn't quite match the natural formations.
'Damage?' Damon rose to his feet and approached the wall carefully. With his spiritual senses still being suppressed, he was left with little options but to investigate directly.
'Rudy must have used his abilities to shift the rocks and create a hiding spot..'
'He's probably terrified. Jumping out and shouting his name would only make him retreat deeper. Any sudden movement could also spook him.'
Damon exhaled slowly. Nothing clever came to mind. So he settled for the simplest approach.
He cleared his throat.
"Rudy? You in there?"
Not hearing anything in response, Damon knocked the pommel against the disguised section of wall and added, "It's me, Damon. I chased Liz off..she's gone for now."
"We need to leave before she comes back.."
The lie came easily as he tried to keep his voice steady through the mental pain, yet the silence stretched for three full seconds before a faint grinding sound echoed.
The rocks were shifting against each other!
'Is he coming out or attacking..!?' Damon hurriedly took a step back as the damaged wall groaned and the stone began to pull apart, revealing a narrow opening just wide enough for a small figure to squeeze through.
Suddenly, a blur of gold and white shot out!
Rudy's arms clamped around Damon's waist with surprising strength, forcing him to raise the candle higher and sheath his dagger to keep from dropping it. The boy's body trembled against his, face buried in Damon's chest as he let out a choked sob.
"You came! You actually came!" Rudy's voice was muffled against Damon's shirt. "Thank you! Thank you!"
Damon awkwardly patted Rudy's shoulder. "Alright—"
But Rudy wasn't finished. He pulled back just enough to look up, his face streaked with tears and dirt, and his voice cracked as he spoke.
"Please..please save me! I'm going to die soon!" His grip on Damon's shirt tightened. "Elizabeth stabbed me! I'm bleeding and I'm going to die!"
"It hurts so much!"
"I don't want to die! I can't die. I've never even kissed a girl before!"
'Of all the things to worry about.' Damon stared at him for a long moment, the absurdity of the statement cutting through the tension like a blade.
"Will you quit the crying and show me the wound."
Quivering, Rudy hiccuped and shifted his coat, revealing a thin slash across his right bicep. It was shallow and weeping blood, but nowhere near fatal.
Surely it would only need a bandage and a few hours to close.
Upon coming to this realization, a strange mixture of relief and exasperation ran through Damon's mind.
"You're not going to die. You'll just be sent back to the place you entered this place," he clarified. He then gently pried Rudy's fingers from his gi and crouched down to assess the situation.
Tearing another piece of fabric from his sleeve, he swiftly tied it around the boy's wounded shoulder and tightened.
The blood quickly stained it red and slowed slightly.
Rudy flinched back, a sharp hiss escaping his teeth, but he didn't scream again. Instead, he looked up into Damon's eyes inquisitively.
"Who told you that?"
"The old per..I mean Tomoe," Damon quickly corrected himself mid-sentence. "Now, do you remember the dagger Liz attacked you with?"
Rudy's breath hitched, but he forced himself to think. "It was... it was the one with the black handle. Wrapped in silver wire. The blade had a diamond-shaped notch near the hilt with a violet lithos crystal inside and a curse that prevents the blood from clotting."
'A curse meant to stop the victim from recovering.. And I can't treat him either since I left my pack and their supplies outside.'
'Dammit, how could she use that on her brother..!?' Damon groaned inwardly.
To use a weapon like that implied it wasn't about the act of killing. The wielder sought to make the victim suffer painfully long before they dealt the final blow.
'In that case, she'd still be hiding nearby to finish him off..'
His eyes darted around as he searched for her figure, finding nothing. He then looked towards the boy crouched in front of him and voiced the question that had been nagging at his mind. "Hey Rudy, you had any issues with your spiritual perception?"
"Well, for a while it was working, but suddenly I couldn't sense anything outside. It's why I came up in the first place."
Hearing this, Damon raised a brow.
"Up? I thought this place only had one level.."
Rudy cleared his throat before responding, "Um. So we kind of um.. lied about that earlier..."
He then scratched the back of his head and added sheepishly, "W-when we found it, there was only one. Gerald had me remodel this place to have three levels afterwards."
"We stored most of our supplies on the third, and that's where I was."
Damon's mind froze at that moment. 'Just how many lies did you people pile on!'
His brows twitched as a dash of red began to creep in and his eyes fell to the candle. Then he took a deep breath to regain clarity.
"It doesn't matter how much you look at it. That trick won't do you any good soon."
Damon snapped his head up as those words entered his ears.
"What?"
Before him, Rudy's face had transformed!
The tears and dirt remained, but the expression beneath them had contorted entirely. An eerie smile stretched across his cheeks, almost reaching his ears.
It was as if invisible fingers hooked the corners and pulled them upward, revealing rows of pearly whites and bubblegum pink gums.
'That's not Rudy!'
Damon's instincts screamed before his mind caught up. He leaned back, his hand already moving to draw his dagger.
But the blond boy was even swifter. His grip clamped onto Damon's forearm with inhuman strength that didn't match his stature, and his other hand sealed his mouth.
Suddenly, the wolf insignia on his flat chest plate began to glow. The rings on his fingers followed suit, one after another, each one glowing brighter than the last until they cast their own shadows against the cave walls.
'No. No.. No, wait, wait..' Damon screamed with his eyes.
However, Rudy's smile widened impossibly further as the edges of his jaw began to tear. His voice then came out in a distorted rasp that didn't belong to him.
"It's been fun, yah stinking brat. Hehe."
Damon's mouth opened to shout, to push the boy away, to do anything—but the metal shattered. Every piece exploded outward in a burst of violet light that consumed the space between them.
The force of the blast threw them backward, his body weightless for a single terrible moment as the shockwave tore through his chest, his arms, his face.
And after all that, the world went white.