It happened so fast.
Valeo was so consumed by rage to the point he pushed the events of the day into the back burner,but now nothing was distracting him anymore. Nothing to dull the wave of emotion as Valeo fell to his knees, the memories coming back full force.
He wailed, all the emotions he bottled up came to the forefront as he screamed to the heavens, the eight years in the arena up until he escape from that hell finally taking its toll on him as his anguish wails continued.
"OVER HERE, MOVE IT!"
Snapping Valeo out of his anguish the footsteps and splashing of the water made him panic and dash into the forest to escape from his pursuers.
* * *
Valeo was panting heavily as he rested against a tree, straining his ears to hear if the guards were close and sighed in relief on not hearing anything.
But the wind blowing and the trees ruslting made him realize something.
"We're....outside."
He finally got to see the outside world, outside The Apex. The smell of wood and moss, the grass beneath his feet, it felt like heaven. He dreamt of sceneries like this all the time, it along with Laylana's words kept him going.
Laylana.
His legs wobble, they felt heavy and sluggish, he tried to walk.but he ended up face planting in the ground, tears fell as Valeo gripped the grass while sobs racked his body. Her smile was like a warm hug full of thorns, her voice remembered but no longer there.
"L-Laylana."
* * *
The sun kissing his downed body as Valeo stared at nothing, he didn't know how long he was there but he didn't care, the empty feeling consuming him as the orange hue of his surroundings grew darker, Valeo sat up to watch the sunset behind large mountains.
The sight should've been beautiful to him, it really should've, but nothing spurred in Valeo his face blank.
"If only..."
Valeo got up and began to walk in a direction aimlessly wondering, as minutes passed the forests orange hue shifted to a blue ethereal glow, Valeo looked to the sky in saw tiny white dots all over, but what really caught his attention was the three bright large rocks high in the sky.
" 'y the code." This time he couldn't help but marvel at the sight, his sight seeing was quickly interrupted as a fog covered his vision. Valeo twisted and turn as he saw the entire clearing he was in covered in fog and for some reason, Valeo felt he shouldn't be in it.
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
Valeo turned in the direction of the feminine scream his eyes wide, the silence that followed after was suffocating to him as he strained his ears to here if anything was close by, pure silence.
Valeo didn't hear anything at all, not even the noises of the forest which put him on edge.
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
This time he heard it behind him.
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
Then to the left.
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
Then to the right.
Valeo was completely on edge, his time in the arena trained him to be on his hard but usually his opponent or monster was in front of him, and plus he didn't have anything to defend himself with, and since he doesn't know his environment that well he was also at a disadvantage.
Heavy footsteps reached Valeo as he turned in the direction, they got closer and closer until whatever was making them came into view, Valeo didn't dare breath as he saw what made those horrible noises.
A male torso attached to four large human arms with it's multiple long necks having a female head at the end, all different in features except for one detail.
Their entire face was replaced with multiple eyes, staring deep into his soul.
Valeo and the creature stood still as the stared at each other not one moving an inch.
"What the FUCKis that thing." Valeo's mind was racing as the creature stood there, it's eyes boring holes into Valeo, it stepped forward, then again, then again, until it started rapidly approaching scaring the daylights out of Valeo.
Valeo would never mention to this moment to anyone as long as he lives
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHH." Valeo let out a girly scream as the creature started to chase him.
Valeo ran, his fight or flight kicking to overdrive as the monster chased after him slowly gaining on him. Because of the fog Valeo didn't see the root sticking out of the ground and flew a several feet before crashing down, dazed Valeo saw a blue inches away from him, before the creature could catch him the ground crumbled sending both creature and Valeo into a dark abyss.
The last thing Valeo heard was a wet nosie before everything went black.
* * *
The sensation of something dripping on him woke Valeo as he slowly opened his eyes.
"AH!"
He crawled away, one of the heads of the creature less than inches away from his were he was laying. The torso pierced by stalagmite.
When Valeo finally calmed his breathing the four arm teen finally looked around the cave he was in, sharp rocks pointing up and down littered the entire area, except for a part in the cave that caught his interest.
A mound of boulders that looked suspicious and out of the ordinary, he reached the mound and started to remove the rocks causing some to slip and fall.
"There's gotta be something here."
Shoving the last boulder to the side Valeo was greeted with a large square adorned with a symbol of a marquise with a dot in the center. Valeo swiped his hand over the symbol trying to get the dust of it, the symbol glowed making Valeo leaned back, the floor below shook before lowering itself plunging him in darkness.
For a while Valeo was in the complete dark, the fact he couldn't see made Valeo put up a guard waiting for something to happen, but nothing did as the floor stopped descending.
Valeo has to cover his eyes when a blinding light suddenly appeared, when his vision returned Valeo saw a long stone hallway leading to a set of black and grey stone double doors.
"Wait, where are the lights?"
Slowly making his way to the doors Valeo saw intricate lines along the walls giving an odd appeal to the design, reaching the doors Valeo pushed them open sending dirt and dust into the air, Valeo walked into a large circular room with the same design as the hallway and doors, statues armed with a variety of weapons circled the outer ring all facing towards the middle.
A large vertical slab floating in the air surrounded by red flowing energy, Valeo didn't know why but the hairs on his skin were standing up.
The red energy suddenly became violent as wind started to pick up in the room, covering his eyes Valeo heard a heavy object hitting the floor.
When the wind started to die down Valeo lowered his top arm to see what just happened.
An entity made of red and black energy was standing in front of the slab which was instead, a coffin.
A dried shriveled corpse inside the coffin, the same energy that the entity was made of was pouring into said entity from the corpse.
Valeo had a bad feeling about this.