Volume 1: Rebirth Arc
Chapter 16: The Scent of Death
Shu leaned back against the damp, freezing wall of the cavern, his chest heaving as he fought to regulate his breathing.
Every intake of air sent a sharp, stabbing reminder of his cracked rib, a dull ache that throbbed in rhythm with his rapid heartbeat.
Across the cavern floor, the carcass of the slain Voidling began to undergo a gruesome metamorphosis.
The dark, smoking ichor pooling around its limbs started to bubble and hiss, slowly dissolving the stone beneath it.
Within minutes, the physical body of the creature began to sublimate into a thin, foul-smelling violet vapor, leaving behind only a faint discoloration on the rock.
“Shu…”
A soft, trembling voice broke the heavy silence.
Kai’Sa emerged slowly from the narrow cleft in the rock, her dark eyes wide with shock as she stared at the spot where the monster had just vanished.
She looked down at Shu, taking in his bruised face, the dirt caked in his hair, and the dark smears of Void-blood staining his small hands.
“Are you…
are you hurt?” she whispered, rushing over to his side.
Her small fingers hovered anxiously over his bruised ribs, not daring to press down too hard.
“I’m fine,” Shu rasped, forcing a steady tone despite the burning pain in his chest.
He pushed himself up from the wall, his legs shaking slightly before stabilizing.
“We can’t stay here.
The blood from that thing…
its scent will draw others.”
Kai’Sa swallowed hard, her young face pale but hardened by the sudden, brutal reality of their situation.
She nodded silently, scanning the dark, branching tunnels that loomed around them like the jaws of sleeping beasts.
“Which way do we go?
The surface is gone.”
Shu looked up into the vertical shaft they had fallen through.
Tons of rubble and shifting earth had completely sealed the collapse.
There was no going back up.
The only path left available to them was deeper into the underbelly of Icathia.
“Forward,” Shu said quietly, picking up the jagged granite shard he had used in the fight.
He wiped the remaining ichor against his trousers, his eyes narrowing as he stared into the gloom of the nearest tunnel.
“We keep moving down, and we stay quiet.”
They began their descent into the dark, two children swallowed by the earth, walking side by side down the winding corridors of the waking Void, entirely unaware that the trials they had faced so far were only the opening whispers of an endless nightmare.