We find a wooden door at the end of the treacherous forest path. If not for the guide, who genuflected and politely opened it for , I wouldn’t have known of its existence.
“Please, this way.”
“...right.” I nod.
‘Why so much secretism and mysticism? I don’t think there’s any need to hide the entrance… After all, nobody else would ever want to co here.’
I follow the guide inside the passage, and the door closes behind as soon as I step inside.
I gulp. There’s no way back now.
*Fwoosh!*
The sound of a fire being ignited surprises , making jump. Ah, it’s just a torch… Then, following the first, several torches light up, showing a path in this dark cave.
I’ve seen this a lot in movies and films; every ti I see it, it looks majestic. But for so reason, I can only think of it as creepy.
“Follow after , sir.” My guide turns around, staring directly into my eyes. I shudder at the glint in his eyes. “Otherwise, you might get lost.”
“...Sure.”
We continue.
A short ti later, I can feel the moisture stick to my skin, and a weird sll fills my nostrils. What could this sll be…? I think it’s better if I don’t ask. The less I know, the better.
‘Calm down, . We’ll soon finish this and I’ll go back ho and forget about everything that happened today…’
This is what I thought at the beginning, expecting this path to lead to our destination. But belying my expectations, the path soon splits into two. The guide mutters sothing to himself and takes the right path.
‘Hmm? Is there sothing else in this place…?’ Curious, I try to peak at the other passage, but I see nothing other than torches and the sa stone walls. ‘...maybe not?’
From this point on, the path divides a lot more tis. We turn left, right, go up and down… I could swear we passed through the sa place thrice… Not all the passages are illuminated, either. Most of them have torches, but so don’t, forcing us to put a hand on the wall to not get lost.
anwhile, my guide keeps murmuring to himself, reciting sothing all the ti. From ti to ti, he screams and hits the wall with his head before apologizing.
Scared, I decide to stay quiet and feign indifference.
My eyes start spinning after so much turning around. After a certain point, everything ends up looking the sa.
‘Again, why so much secretism? Nobody except for them would ever want to co here…’
It takes a while, but the path starts getting wider and taller. It seems we’re finally reaching our destination.
Then, after one last turn, a black door appears in front of us. I say a door, but it’s so huge it can’t be called as ‘a door’ at all. At least ten ters tall, and five wide.
“Wow…” I exclaim.
The first impression is so big that I have to pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming. As we get closer, the awe only increases. So much detail! Every part of this pitch-black door is engraved with drawings and sothing that looks like letters.
As if hypnotized, I can’t stop myself from getting closer. I caress the engravings, trying to understand what they represent. But as if repelled by so mysterious force, I can’t concentrate on them. As soon as my eyes land on one of the drawings, a headache overcos and my vision turns black.
‘Is this… the entrance to hell?’ I think while touching it. ‘Well, for , it might as well be.’
*Khm!* The guide makes a fake cough to get my attention. “Are you ready?”
Thanks to him, I snap out of my thoughts and recover my majestic posture before nodding.
“Yes, let’s proceed.” I convince myself that I have to do this once again.
Now that I’ve recovered my normal state of mind, I notice the lody coming from the other side of the dark door. It’s low, barely audible. It’s a fascinating lody, ford by multiple voices. They entwine and change drawing you in, digging into your brain. But, at the sa ti, it feels disgusting… nauseating.
With tallic grinding noises, the door opens and the dark lody inundates our surroundings.
I hold my breath at the scene on the other side.
“This… this…” My eyes spin around. “Do I really have to do this…?” I stumble inside, trying to capture everything.
Wide, tall columns, reaching to the sky.
Hundreds of hooded figures, kneeling and chanting. They’re split into two groups, leaving a passage in between so we can walk through them.
At the front, twelve more figures in a line, standing proudly on the altar.
Thousands of candles are everywhere, illuminating the dark cathedral with their scintillating flas.
From above, the moonlight passes through the glass panels, focusing the rays on the most relevant elent of the whole scene, the thing that draws my eyes and from which I can’t look away.
A colossal statue, sitting behind the twelve hooded figures on the altar. A colossal statue of a deford humanoid with a rat’s face, laughing maniacally while manipulating lightning.
“Oh my god… I want to die in sha…” I mutter, in the lowest voice possible. I don’t want to die yet, so it’s for my good that nobody present hears what I’m saying. “...I don’t want to be here…”
Trembling, but hiding it as best as I can, I walk to the altar, escorted by my guide. I can feel the eyes of everyone on , crawling on my skin, inspecting my every move with fervorous devotion.
‘Keep calm… Keep calm… This’ll soon end, and I’ll be able to forget about everything…’
ntal note to my future self: never do anything without thinking about the consequences again, or I’ll kill you.
I force my right foot to advance. Then, the left. With every step, I feel as if I’m digging my own grave.
Cold sweat covers my whole body, or it would if this wasn’t a ga. I can feel shivers running down my spine. In fact, I can feel them running all over my body.
It seems as if I’ve been walking for ages, but I’ve only covered half the distance. From here, I can now read the text below my statue. I thought it was so pedestal, but it turns out it has text too. It reads:
[All Shall Despair! Fufufu! Hahaha!]
‘I never said this! How dare they put this on my statue!?’
Well, there’s no use arguing with madn… If I say anything now, I’ll make them explode. Forget about living a ‘normal’ life, if I anger them with my words, I might not have any more ‘life’ at all.
Co on, Andreu. Just a few more steps. A few more steps, then you say sothing stupid and then you can go ho. You’re almost there!
‘Sigh… I want to go ho… I don’t want to do this…’
Finally, I reach the altar, where the Leader is eagerly waiting for . I can see the excitent in his eyes, and the undeniable craziness too.
I dreaded the walk with everyone staring at , but at the sa ti, I didn’t want it to end. Because now cos the worst part.
The Leader raises his arms and all the chants stop imdiately.
“All Shall Despair!”
“ALL SHALL DESPAIR!”
He shouts, and everyone present, except for , repeats his words.
“Oh, Great Mad Rat, we’re honored to have you here today with us…”
Sobody.
Anybody.
Please… save .
“Aah, I’m so excited!” As I prepare everything I need to play DMA, I keep talking to myself. “Today’s Thursday, and as every Thursday, we’re delving into a new dungeon! What dungeon will we visit today?”
I’m so happy I switched schools! I t my two best friends there, and now I can play every week with them.
“Dungeon Invasions are so much better with friends!”
I quickly put my helt on and start DMA. Today is going to be so much fun!
As soon as the teleportation lights disperse, I turn to Matta and ask what’s been on my mind.
“The Mad Rat’s Lab…? Hey, Matta! Is this the dungeon you were talking about? The one everyone was talking about this weekend?”
“Of course it is,” he answers, “I’ll never make a mistake with this. Who did you take for? I’m the king of pranks, but I’ll never lie to my friends. Hihihi!” He hides his face as he laughs.
He likes to play as a goblin, and he also calls himself the king of pranks, but he’s a nice guy. I asked him why he always played with a goblin instead of using a stronger champion, but he answered that he liked the extra challenge; that a goblin fits his playstyle the most.
So he created a short, chubby goblin that likes hiding and ambushing his enemies. Though he isn’t using the basic goblin either, so his Champion isn’t that weak.
Matta usually works as our scout and is the one who always chooses the dungeons.
Don’t ask why he’s called like this. Everybody called him Matta when I t him for the first ti, and he never told why.
“Don’t be a bother to us again, ok?” I joke, grabbing his flabby belly. “Last ti, you didn’t fit the hole and we had a hard ti pushing you in…”
“Hey!” He complains. “Leave my belly alone! Go buy one for yourself if you want one!” He slaps my hand away. “Got a problem with being fat? And we wasted more ti waiting for you to recover your MP!”
It’s true that, with my dragonborn, I always overuse my dragon’s breath and end up running out of MP.
But it’s so fun to spew out fire!
“Ahahaha…” I scratch my cheek. “You’re right… But look at this. Wooob, wooob! It’s like a tsunami!”
We joke and play around for a while until our friend decides to intervene. She pulls us apart and makes an angry face.
“When will you two grow up? Stop acting like little kids!”
“Eeeh? But you’re the one who looks like a kid, Berta.” I poke her cheek. “Even Matta’s goblin looks like an adult compared to yours!”
Her fairy Champion doesn’t look like an adult at all.
*Chomp!* She bites my finger.
“Auch! It hurts!” So this is how she’s going to act, huh? “I’m sorry, mommy,” I apologize, mocking her. “I didn’t take you for an adult because you look like a chopping board… Hahaha!” I start running away.
“Chopping board!? Co here, Carles. I’m going to kill you!”
She starts flying after .
“Hahaha, you aren’t fast enough! You’ll never catch !”
“Everybody has so dark history they want to forget about. What happened that day was part of mine.”
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