Kaivasita: Sons of Heaven 〖Chapter 14B: "What lurks below"〗The water was lukewarm, murky, and quiet. Thankfully, the murkiness of the water meant it was impossible for Roisce to see them if she came outside. However, the water also made it absolutely impossible to see more than a meter in front of him.Albin immediately began to swim towards the nearest wall, looking for an exit and conserving his air the best he could. Ryker was looking around anxiously, but Albin wasn’t sure why.Thankfully, the nearest exit appeared below them. Albin felt relieved as he saw it, the less swimming he had to do the better.The exit at the bottom of the chamber led into a narrow tunnel with webs of flesh stretching all through it like a cobweb, just barely big enough for both of them to move through easily. It was very, very dark.The tunnel led to another small room, where thankfully, he could come up for breath. There didn’t seem to be much else in the opening but more grossness, but it was nice having a moment to relax.Albin poked his head above water and took a deep breath. He looked back at Ryker. “Where should we go now?”“I don’t know, there’s not a lot on this layer…”“Well, I can’t keep swimming forever. You must have some idea, right?”“Not really, but we should stop and rest as soon as we find land.”“Why?”“The water is gross for a reason. This layer lives off of death. Danger is everywhere below you. Stay alert.”Albin groaned. “That’s great…”“We shouldn’t waste any more time, come on.”“Fine.” Albin took another deep breath, then went back underwater.He continued swimming straight forward, looking for another exit. He didn’t quite see what Ryker meant, there wasn’t even fish as far as he could tell. Just lots and lots of algae, and strange plants unlike anything he’d seen before lining the walls. They sucked in algae from around them occasionally, pulling it into their narrow stalks, almost as if they were eating it. All things considered, it was rather peaceful.It took him a minute or two of swimming around, but he eventually discovered an exit to his left and swam through it.Concerningly, this opening went even further down. Albin wasn’t sure if going downwards was the best idea, but his only other option was backtracking and risking being spotted by Roisce. He just hoped he wouldn’t get stuck somewhere without air.Ryker chuckled a little. “You know, it’s surreal breathing underwater like this. I feel like I’m dreaming...”Albin couldn’t respond, so he just nodded and kept swimming.“I agree, this is very nice. I wish I was able to feel it…” said Zero.You don’t, trust me. Gross… This passageway was surprisingly long. Albin was starting to have trouble holding his breath, but it’d be pointless to go back at this point. At least if he were to drown, Ryker wouldn’t, but he wasn’t sure if he’d be in a better situation not being able to swim.The walls of the passageway suddenly ended, and Albin found himself in a surprisingly large area. He began to instinctively swim towards the surface. It took him a while, but eventually, his head breached above water and he gasped for air.This area, thankfully, had a large passageway above water within reachable distance. There was a vehicle of sorts parked in it. Albin wasn’t sure if whoever it was was friend or foe, but it had to be better than endlessly wandering- or worse, getting trapped and drowning.He began to swim over to the vehicle.Everything was going well, but there was one thing Albin failed to do; heed Ryker’s warning and stay alert.In an instant, something grabbed his leg, dragging him under.He let out a yelp of pain and fought to keep himself above water. Ryker noticed what was happening and let go of Albin, struggling to stay afloat.Albin kept kicking at whatever had his leg, desperately trying to fight it off. “Ryker! Call for help!”Ryker was visibly distressed. “I- I don’t know what to do! I-”“For god’s sake! Call for hel–” Whatever had him tugged on him harder and pulled him underwater.Albin barely managed to hold his breath in time as whatever it was began dragging him through a hole at the bottom of the cavern. He kicked at it with his free leg, but it kept dragging him deeper and deeper.Now he really started to panic. Whatever it was didn’t have the sharpest ‘teeth’, but it was still enough to leave a nasty cut and fill the water around him with blood.He looked down at the gun on his belt, and the rifle-like gun Arazel had given him earlier. He doubted the rifle would do a lot, his zyrgia wasn’t very strong, and whatever had him definitely had some sort of natural armor.The gun he had on his belt however, had an extremely powerful shot stored. Should he use it now? What if Neowise came back and he was defenseless against him? Even if he did shoot it, would he be able to get back to the surface in time with the little air he had left?“Do you still have your bread knife with you?" Asked Zero "Maybe you can try to cut it?”But what if I drop it? I can’t risk losing something that important! “And I can’t risk losing you!”He squirmed, and found himself unable to reach his bag. No use anyways, I can’t even turn around!It dragged him through an opening and into another lit chamber. He kept kicking at it, but nothing made it budge. Kicking it only made him lose air faster, he had to think of something else.He reached for the gun on his belt, it didn’t look like he had any other choice. But before he could shoot, he realized what bit him was, in fact, a long rope like part of something much larger, which was now dragging him into it’s actual mouth. It spread open like a flower, and while it didn’t have any teeth, It was so massive and smooth that there was no hope at grabbing at the sides. He panicked and tried to pry it off his leg, but it’s grip remained strong.Realizing he was almost helpless, as he was dragged into it’s mouth, he instead looked for vulnerable spots inside he could exploit. As he did, he got a better idea of what he was dealing with. The inside of whatever it was was hauntingly smooth, and not fleshy in the slightest. What exactly was this? Was this actually a plant of sorts? Either way, it was undeniably trying to eat him.“Do you have anything sharp at all?! I don’t even know if a gun would work on this thing!” said Zero.You’re not helping! “Sorry I just- augh! I don’t know what to do, I’m sorry!”It let go, and began to suck him inwards instead, it’s mouth closed behind him, and his surroundings plunged into near darkness, only lit by the glow of his coat and the gun his father gave him. He grabbed at the sides of it’s “throat” …or whatever equivalent to that carnivorous plants had, but it was too slippery for him to get a proper grip on. It was times like this he regretted sanding his claws down…Wait, he could freely move around now, couldn’t he? Being extra careful, he took off his bag and began to dig through it. Several papers and much more that he’d forgotten about came flying out and quickly vanished into the depths below. Eventually, he found it, and quickly sealed up his bag again.He took his bread knife and jabbed it into the side of the plant’s throat as hard as he could. It cut a long line down it’s throat, and stopped. It was in loosely, but it’d stopped him from moving any further.But that, of course, didn’t fix his other issues- for example, how he was going to get out, and how to avoid drowning. He only had so much air left now, he wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold it…Some ideas would be really helpful about now! “S-shit… I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I-I… I don’t know… I’m sorry.”It kept trying to suck him in harder and harder, he had to use both hands to stop himself from being swallowed up, and even then it seemed futile, as his knife was starting to come out from the wall. It was getting harder to hold his breath, but he still held on. There had to be something he could do.After a few unsuccessful attempts to pull himself up, he came to the horrible conclusion that if he didn’t let go and try to shoot at it, he wasn’t going to have any chance of getting out.He braced himself for the inevitable, and let go. Unfortunately, he underestimated the speed it’d be able to pull him down. In an instant, he found himself being sucked in even faster and his knife knocked out of his hands. He could feel his heart beating in his chest, there was no way he could shoot it in time to escape. It was going to swallow him whole before he could even do anything.The rush of water pulled him further and further in. It’s throat opened up into a space the size of a small car, which he quickly discovered was filled to the brim with rotting corpses of various creatures covered in algae. It was abundantly clear that they’d all died of starvation, drowning or similar.He felt the way out shut behind him.“Quick, find that knife again!” said Zero.Struggling to stop himself from inhaling the water and god knows what else around him, he dug through the piles of bloated, disintegrating bodies. It had to be somewhere in here, there was nowhere else it could go, where was it?!“Wait! There it is!”Where? “Under that weird fish like thing to your left, you see it?”Albin quickly spotted the familiar silvery shine of his trusty bread knife. Thank you! Pushing himself off a nearby wall and resisting yet another urge to inhale, he grabbed the knife and immediately started cutting away at the walls surrounding him. Every cut he made regenerated, would the knife even be enough?“Wait, Albin! You’re only cutting it!”I know! I’m fucked! “Look at the scars on the wall! They’re all cuts, but none are punctures! A swipe might not cut deep enough, but maybe a stab will? Drive your knife into it!”But I might inhale!“Albin. Listen to me, if you don’t try to stab it, you’ll drown anyways. Both our lives are on the line here! Hurry!”Zero was right, whether he liked it or not, he had to take the risk. His urge to inhale growing impossible to ignore, he used all his might to drive the knife as deep as he could into the wall nearest to him until only the handle was visible.And finally, exhausted from everything.He inhaled the water around him.Time seemed to slow as he felt he water rush into his lungs. There was an intense, horrible burning sensation flowing relentlessly all through his chest, a horrible pain that was so bad, he felt almost as if he was being torn apart.The room lurched around him, and he felt himself get pulled out of the room and back up the throat of the plant along with all the other disintegrating bodies around him. He was forced to inhale again, causing even more water to flow into him. He panicked, desperately writhing about for any hope of air, but it was futile.“No no no no no! Hang in there, please!”In a rush of water, he found himself outside again, but he was still hopelessly deep underwater. Not only that, he was finding it hard to swim, feeling disorientated.The pain grew more intense, causing him to breathe in again.And then, it faded away.“Albin! Come on, please, you have to try to swim, please!”I’m sorry, Zero… I… I can’t… “No! Please! Stay with me!”I-I’m… s-so… s-sorry… “GODDAMNIT! I DON’T WANT TO DIE! I need you Albin, PLEASE! Don’t you DARE die on me!”He felt himself feeling almost euphoric as the water carried him, flowing all around him and making him feel hazy.“ALBIN!”Growing weaker by the second, he looked above himself.There were waves, beautiful, glistening waves crashing against a nearby shore.He saw stars shining in the crests of the waves, reflecting endlessly off a distant, black sky above. Flickering glimmers of light were starting to trickle in from below him, twirling and spiraling past the veil, like sparks from a fire.He looked around, feeling weightless. He couldn’t hear Zero anymore. It was so hard to think, he could barely understand what was going on. Everything was so quiet now…He looked up again. The waves were even more beautiful than before.Trillions of stars shone behind them magnificently with a scale he could scarcely put into words. It must’ve been gorgeous on the other side…An inexplicable familiarity drew him towards it, overpowering all remnants of sensation he was feeling before. He looked around himself, still feeling hints of confusion. The stars haunted the corners of his vision, and a deep, black haze made it hard to see very far.He looked back up. It looked almost like daytime on the other side now. Almost like the ocean outside his home…What was stopping him from going to the surface anyways?He swam upwards, and into the light of the stars.After all, it was a beautiful summer’s day out.And everything would be alright.persontrophy