Marichi, the lone boy that floated through the seemingly endless abyss, surrounded by nothing but the blackness of his thoughts and memories.
Huh…Where am I?
He opened his eyes, waking up to a mixed black that gave the feeling of life.
His black silky hair freely flowed while he slowly descended.
Am I in water?
He sloshed his hands and feet around, feeling a slight resistance like one feels when moving in water.
How'd I get in water?
He gurgled for air, his body frantically moved around as he tried to swim up for air.
But…What's he swimming in? Is he even swimming at all?
Reaching his hand upwards and then mistakenly, he breathed in, but he didn't suffocate or drown.
How am I breathing in water?
He still moved around while still trying to use his mind to figure what's going on, a futile act.
The place he was in, the darkness he thought he's swimming in, all then felt weightless to him, he was just there, in the abyss.
What of Kacis? Acis? Even Blutsatchel?!
He turned around while he still slowly descended.
No…I have to think for myself now.
They aren't here, so they should be okay…
I believe that they're okay!
*No they're not* A voice chimed in his head.
Marichi tried to open his mouth to ask who's there but couldn't, his mouth felt sealed. He can't even see his body let alone anyone else.
W-Who might be there?
He thought in his head.
*You're acting as if you don't know my voice anymore Marichi?*
*Oh how I feel so pained, you not recognising the voice of your own father* The voice wheezed while its tone dropped.
Wait…Dad?
No! He can't be here!
He's dead!
As memories permeated through his temples, memories he didn't want to remember, but at the same time, ones that he didn't want to forget.
There he was, when Marichi was younger, on a table with food in a wooden plate before him while a man and a woman that held a baby smiled at him.
*See We're not dead----I'm not dead!* The voice then changed to that of a stressed feminine voice.
M-Mom…?
This…
I remember this…
This is the day that----
Marichi's lower body then felt a greater pull on his lower body as if it had dragged him straight from his memories. His descent now increased in speed as he felt his foot coming out of somewhere.
Soon after, his whole body fell down, from the granite and dirt above him while he felt that whatever liquid he was in still latched onto his body, stopping him from falling. But he still fell towards the ground on his back as he looked above.
Now where am I?
Marichi groaned while he tried to stand up. He dusted himself then he felt something quite rather absurd.
Wait…Wasn't I in a liquid just now?
Why am I not wet?
He patted all around his body while looking confused, even up to the point of removing his mask and dumped it on the ground. His black silky hair dropped while he licked the scar on his upper lip.
He sat on the ground beside his mask and shook his head while he gasped for air. Then bubbles began to rise from the ground. Blobs of the very earth were rising in the air and just suspended.
Marichi saw this and quickly stood up and backed up while he reached to his lower waist at his back for a dagger. He removed it and readied his body in a stance reminiscent of a beast getting ready to pounce.
What are those…
They seem like fluid but also circular.
He moved in closer and hesitantly touched one with the tip of his dagger, the bubble didn't burst but instead it reverberated from the point of contact. Marichi then moved back again.
I have to get out of here!
Fast!
He turned his head and ran in the opposite direction, he looked around and the more he looked the more he was confused.
I-Is this a cave?
His eyes looked at the stalagmites and stalactites all around with the deformed walls.
Do I even know where I'm going?
He panted and nodded his head while the bubbles continued to still rise from the ground.
How am I even seeing in a cave? Where is the source of light?!
He looked around, not finding any indication of any light source, he then slowed down and fully stopped running.
I seriously need to know where I'm going…
Don't wanna get lost.
He planted his hand on his head and gently stroked it as his head bent down.
Did I even stop hearing that voice.
What was it?
Better not even ask, I don't to hear it ever again.
Marichi then frowned his eyebrows and held his feminine face firm.
He then stepped a foot forward, before it even touched the ground, he was suddenly lifted right into the air with his back hitting the ceiling.
Argh! What now?!
He grunted as he tried to get back down, but was always coming back right at the ceiling. Instinctively, he tried to stand up while on the ceiling and surprisingly it worked.
He was standing on the ceiling as if he was standing naturally on the ground, he looked around at his feet and the ceiling visibly confused.
…
His mind was at a loss of words, so he had no choice but to keep moving on even as he was on the ceiling. The stalactites he passed by all seemed to have a twisted shape, some even fluttered like a flame.
This definitely isn't normal
But he ignored it and still pushed on.
He ran and ran, when bubbles began to form not from the ground but also the ceiling he was on, this startled Marichi as he dodged every last one that headed his direction. One then formed right in front of him which as he came to complete halt.
You know what!
Out of frustration, he sliced his dagger at the bubble, but it didn't burst, instead his blade went right through it as if nothing had happened.
What?!
He continued slashing the bubble as he huffed, but each slash didn't lead to anything till his eye caught something inside in the bubble in one of his slashes.
Hmm…
He slashed it multiple times again, this time from the bits he saw, he managed to form what it was.
Hollow spaces…White parts…What seemed like teeth.
Was…that a skull?!
He shuddered at the thought and quickly moved back, his body trembled.
Do all of them have skulls?!
He wondered as he looked at all the floating bubbles while he ruffled his hair. He then dodged all the bubbles and ran straight ahead, to where only him knows.
Then again, seemingly like an unorganised clockwork, he lost balance as he was running, as if the ground below him has lost friction. He grazed his hand against the ceiling but it slipped off, then he tried to stab his dagger right through it.
But it didn't even graze the ceiling as his body was soon pulled by another force----Gravity!
W-Wow!
He then fell----sideways? He waved his hands in the air like a helpless child falling from a tall building. He tried to scream but couldn't as he felt the air leaving his move but no sound coming out. Soon after his mouth and throat were filled with a vacuum the more he tried to scream.
He hit his dagger on the ceiling as he fell, but it didn't even scratch it ket alone no sound was heard, it's as if he has either gone deaf or everything has lost sound.
He still fell, even passed the point of where he dropped down from the liquid and he saw his mask falling sideways with him as he neared a wall.
Oh what, am I going to pass through this one too?
Marichi braced himself for the inevitable of going back to the liquid.
But he didn't pass it, he just hit the wall flat like a bug, his back ached due to the intensity he hit the wall with. He was almost knocked out, but got himself back together while he groaned.
He then grit his teeth and faced himself towards the wall then clanking his knife at the wall and placed his hand on the wall. It didn't slip off, somehow friction had returned for some reason.
Then he finally dug his dagger into the wall but that was interrupted by him instantly as he passed through the wall and went through the liquid with everything returning to the darkness.
*Welcome back my little Marichiten*
A feminine voice said as Marichi eyes boggled and he still instinctively held his breath even though he could breathe in it while he passed through it at incredible speed.
He bursted out at the other end, with him falling on the ground, not the ceiling or still going sideways but the ground itself. His body slightly shuddered as he breathed heavily.
His eyes dotted around the place as he still saw the stalactites and stalagmites not twisting but turning while the bubbles still rised, but the ground wasn't slippery anymore as well.
"Ha…Haha…I can walk on my own two feet again." He tiredly smiled as he walked forward slowly, the hair on his body still on edge. Then as he walked, dagger still gripped in his firmly he saw a lone man standing.
"Hey…What are you doing here?"
"Are you stuck here as well?" Marichi asked, his voice sounded gleeful. But the man didn't answer, instead he slowly turned around.
Marichi was horrified when the man bared his front at him, he couldn't move but just stare, his only solace was him gripping his dagger tight.
---The end of chapter 23---