The void had finally pushed past the breach and touched the floor of the mine. For the first time, the void had entered the light, and for the first time, Nis could understand its form.
'It's a... a hand.'
The void was a hand. An extremely large hand, completely covered with thick fur that was such a deep black it seemed like light had no chance against it. Its claws scraped across the ground to make room for the rest of its hand. The Hand used its palm to feel the ground. It reached around as if it were a starving creature searching for an unlucky soul to make into a meal. Maybe the hand was attached to just that.
The young ant, with his limbs even more paralyzed than before, skuttled deeper into the mine as fast as he could. Granted, that wasn't actually very fast. Compared to the size of the hand, the young ant was tiny. He stood no chance against it. He would become red mist immediately on contact.
'Do they bleed red actually?'
Nis's mind was clouded, as if he were trying to ignore reality. His thoughts ran wild, in an attempt to distract himself. He didn't want to accept the reality of just powerlessly watching someone die. Unfortunately, Nis couldn't allow himself that luxury. It was too pitiful for someone like him to do.
Nis's face formed into a deep grimace.
'He's a lost cause. It's unfortunate, but out of all the miners, losing one person isn't bad. Maybe, the bug's beloved Queen will even reward me.'
Nis stayed silent for a few moments. He wanted to keep his grimace; it felt like that face would be correct in this situation, but that would only end in failure. His face slowly morphed into a cold grin. A quiet giggle erupted from his lips.
'Haha, why am I trying to delude myself? I haven't done anything worthy of reward. Hell, the bastards didn't even listen to me when I told them to run! Haha! This is crazy! It's like I'm some talentless waste! Wasn't this supposed to be MY incursion?! Wasn't this supposed to be MY ascension?! Wasn't this supposed to be MY way to freedom?! Yeah! Like hell I'm gonna let some bastardized hand mess this up for me!'
Nis let out a slow exhale. A cold grin rested comfortably on his face.
'It's really simple, one of us just has to die.'
Nis started to walk forward slowly and sighed.
"Do or die time, I guess."
Kragg, who was standing beside him, took a step forward and grabbed Nis's shoulder.
"Hey brother... Nis, where are you going? It's too dangerous. Soon, a member of the-"
Before Kragg could finish, Nis spun himself around and freed himself from Kragg's grasp. Facing Kragg while he walked slowly backwards, Nis stuck his arms out and flashed Kragg a bright smile.
"Don't worry, brother. I'm just going on a quick stroll. I hope to even bring back a friend."
With that, Nis spun back around to face the hand. His path was set. All that was left was to do or die.
***
The hand continued to squirm around. It hadn't found the young ant yet, but there was no way for the ant to escape to the exit beyond the hand. Likewise, there was no path for Nis to get to the ant. Nis was still walking slowly, desperately trying to think of a plan. Nis reached down to his left hip and flinched.
'Right, that thing. It feels kinda violating to have my stuff forcibly moved.'
Nis raised his right hand from his hip and pushed it forward slowly. Suddenly, a small circle opened in front of his hand. The circle seemed to contain a void all its own. Nis's hand entered the void, ripples surfaced in it like a body of water. Nis forcefully pulled his hand out of the void. With it, came a simple Katana with a silver blade and a white wrapped hilt.
'It kept the sheath in there. How disgusting.'
Nis held the blade with his right hand. Its weight felt familiar and pleasant.
'Alright. This'll be... kinda fun.'
Nis had gotten fairly close to the breach now. At that moment, Nis took off in a sprint. He ran toward the wall where the Hand's nails were. Hugging the wall was the only path to the other side that contained mild danger; the rest was certain death.
Nis reached the point of the wall where the Hand started. The Hand was a right hand. As such, the first finger was the pinky and was not long enough to reach the wall. The next finger, the ring finger, was close to the wall but left just enough space for Nis's relatively skinny body to pass by. Nis would not be so lucky for the next finger.
The middle finger was long enough that it's, on closer inspection, very sharp nail was partially stuck in the wall. The wall had been left covered in markings from the hand's incessant search.
This would have been unfortunate, but to Nis, this was what he wanted. Nis needed to confirm one thing about the Hand. He needed to know if he could cut it. If he could cut it, his options would be plentiful. And now he wouldn't even need to deviate from his path to find out.
Now approaching the middle finger, Nis raised his sword high into the air with one hand. And then swiftly brought it down between the nail and the first knuckle. The sword bit into the Hand's skin. It only managed to go blade deep, but that was enough; blood had been drawn.
Just as the first drop of blood was drawn, the Hand reacted. It curled its palm into a fist, the nail that was stuck in the wall dragged, tearing a path in the ground towards its palm. With the Hand's movements, Nis's blade was torn from his hand, flying toward the young ant, landing slightly to the ant's left. With the hand out of the way, Nis kept his body low and sprinted toward the young ant.
Nis stopped just next to ant and in front of his blade. He bent down and picked up the Crazy Bastard. He rested it on his shoulder and turned to face the young ant with a wide grin on his face.
"Hey buddy, you look well. Did something good happen?"