Miras did not waste a breath, quickly reached for Mattias, and pulled him toward himself. Mattias was still confused by his change in behaviour, but then he could hear the sounds get louder.
Miras, not hesitating, started to fly upwards as Mattias dangled by his arm. As much as he disliked Mattias, he was grateful that he didn't leave him behind. Yet if something could get him this scared, then he was just a sitting duck at this point.
"Don't look at whatever comes from there," Miras whispered. "And don't let the goo keep moving like that, just stay calm."
Mattias glanced at his palm, watching the black substance tremble, moving as if trying to run away too. "What the hell is going on here, what is making those tremors? I want answers."
Miras didn't answer right away. His eyes flicked upward, scanning the shadow that stretched across the unseen ground. "That does not matter now, because without a doubt we are dead," he said finally, as they got out of the hole, the density going back to normal as they both crash landed on the edge of it.
The word didn't sound like a lie. It was filled with genuine fear.
Mattias swallowed. "You mean that thing below us is some kind of horror too?"
Miras let out a dry chuckle. "My, aren't you Mr obvious."
He stood up. Although exhausted, he had to move.
Mattias followed slowly. He did not believe him, but he could feel that tremor again, slower now but heavier. It was getting closer.
He moved closer to Miras.
Miras' hand shot out suddenly, stopping him mid motion. "Run so loudly," he mouthed.
At first, there was nothing, just the stillness of a corpse's breath. Then came, from beneath them, a motion. One that dragged across the area. Something massive scraped against the surface far below. It wasn't the sound of claws or flesh, like a mountain shifting under its own weight.
Mattias's chest tightened. His instincts screamed to move, but Miras' stare pinned him in place.
Seconds passed, then minutes.
Finally, Miras moved again, whispering just loud enough,
"Are you trying to get both of us killed? If you don't value your life, don't threaten mine, you fool."
Mattias, confused, whispered, "You keep saying we are in danger, but haven't explained what this danger is that makes you so afraid of that thing under us."
"You mouthy bastard," Miras, annoyed but not acting like he didn't have a point, just let out a sigh and continued to walk. As he did, he said, "That thing that makes me so afraid is an ancient horror. Ones that can't be killed and only exist to consume. And consume they do. They eat land masses, mountains, even pure energy. So yes, we are dead men."
Mattias' throat went dry. "…What the hell are even these horror things?"
"Unfortunately, even to horrors, that thing is a rare sight to see, as they only surface to consume horrors every so often," Miras muttered.
Mattias followed, gasping at the view. The terrain stretched into endless dark plains, split by mountains and valleys which were definitely not there before. The air carried an acidic scent. Far away, the mountains were moving as that thing beneath them moved.
Miras turned, voice clipped. "Keep walking. Just don't think about it too much. It should leave soon if we are lucky."
Mattias frowned, his frustration bleeding through the fear. "Don't think about it, like that makes the situation better."
"Shut up," Miras snapped, spinning to look at him with a face twisted not with anger but with sheer panic. "If you can't get it through your goo filled skull, there is a creature that is feeding on anything in its path. If it so much as flinches, your lack of information is the least of my concerns."
Mattias froze mid step in frustration, but continued walking.
They walked step by step. The only sound was the faint squelch of the dark soil beneath their feet.
Mattias whispered after a while, talking to himself aloud,
"I guess this is my first time actually seeing what it looks like since I came here."
Miras turned a glance at him with an eyebrow raised. "You came here when?"
"I don't know, I can't tell, but it felt like thousands of years," Mattias muttered.
Miras, walking forward, said, "That's unlikely. You would probably be dead long before meeting me."
Mattias, shocked, said, "What does that mean?"
"Simply put, if you're still alive right now, then you haven't been here more than a week in AW Time. That's about 200 years," Miras answered.
"What does AW Time mean?" Mattias asked, hopeful for some sort of answer. "This is the first time I hear of it."
As a low tremor moved beneath the area, Miras continued walking. "AW Time translates to Alistain World time, but I'm not surprised that you didn't know about that."
"Alistain World? Is that the name of this place?" Mattias asked curiously.
"No. This place is called the Primordial Void. The Alistain World is the place where you're probably from," Miras said as he walked ahead.
Mattias, surprised, just followed Miras. After a few minutes he finally spoke. "So there are two worlds, is that what you mean? So what are horrors then?"
Not stopping at all, Miras just answered, looking back a little, "Horrors are, in a sense, beings like any other animal that you can remember, but are made up of something called Primordial Void energy. It's the same thing I used to make the chains I had you in."
Mattias, shocked at the revelation, stopped in his tracks. "So why do they eat each other?"
Miras, stopping too, just looked down as he replied, "Because void energy can only be recharged by eating other horrors, and it is what keeps us alive."
Mattias, looking down, not knowing why he feels like this, said, "That's just… wrong."
A vibration crawled through the ground again, but closer this time. The terrain ahead rippled like ink struck by soundwaves. Miras froze, then looked over behind him with the expression of pure terror.
"Damn it all," he whispered. "We have to get going now."
Mattias felt the tremor in his legs before he too looked behind. The horizon itself was getting blocked by that thing as it moved towards them, scales of black and bone sliding under them, devouring everything in its path. The air went cold.
Miras screamed, "Run, you idiot."
Mattias could, as he was looking, stare into its eye, his every soul frozen in place. Miras, not wasting a second, punched him and shouted into his ear, "PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER!!!!" Mattias, still scared, looked at Miras as he began to run, dragging him along.
Sprinting across the uneven terrain, they heard that deafening subterranean groan as the world behind them collapsed inward, drawn toward the advancing mass.
Mattias, closing his eyes and running on his own, shouted between breaths, "What… is that… thing?"
Miras shouted in response, a sound of dread, "Faster than we can hope to get away from."
The ground split open behind them, letting out a black smoke from its mouth, and shards of flesh like rock grew on the horrors it touched. It felt like gravity itself was breaking them.
Mattias yelled, "What happens if it catches us?"
Miras shouted back, "It won't matter. You won't even live long enough to feel pain. Your body will get crushed in seconds."
Mattias, almost tripping, replied, "You're joking, right?"
Miras snapped, "DO I LOOK LIKE I'M LAUGHING?"
A cliff appeared ahead, a jagged line in the darkness. The air was colder there, thinner. Beyond it, the void opened into nothingness.
Miras pointed. "There, we can jump off."
Mattias gritted his teeth. "You're insane, we wil—"
Miras grinned again, wild and strained. "Just trust me."
The ground shook violently behind them as the thing loomed behind them, with pulsing gravity crushing everything before it.
Mattias felt his chest getting pulled behind him. His mind screamed to stop, but his legs didn't listen.
Miras' voice cut through the roar. "JUMP NOW!!!!"
As they jumped, the thing roared.
The last thing they saw was the cliff side get crushed, before both of them fell into the abyss. Miras pointed his hand under him and shouted, "Break," making a crack appear under them.
Then silence, as the two fell into it.