The larger group followed behind the Narrator while he moved forward, advancing through the now broken saferoom corridors. While the 'main' group followed very far behind. They all took very careful steps, making sure they didn't fall down through the holes formed on the floor. The saferoom seemed to be taking its countermeasure to the very top, almost everything here had collapsed.
"This ain't a saferoom anymore." An earthly male said, "Everything's a mess."
"The saferoom has always been temporary." The Narrator said, "We have to move all the time when it comes." He added, looking back at the Centaurians in the larger group, "It's just that the thing found its way here again, collapsing the saferoom much earlier."
"What is the thing that's breaking the saferoom this early anyway?" Syle said from the back, punching lightly at the wall to his right.
While the other part of the group conversed with each other, the vampire was at the very back of the group. His arms are crossed, and he looks very annoyed.
█████ thought to speak to him, so they did, "Hey."
The male vampire didn't think someone called him at first, so █████ called him again, "Hey, Count Dracula."
The vampire heard them, eyes widening a little in surprise. He turned his head a bit to look behind him.
"What?" He said, "And no, I'm not Dracula or whoever that person is."
"What's your name then?" █████ asked him.
"What is it for you to know?" The vampire answered. For a pause, he didn't say anything and just stared at them for a short while until he decided to say his name, "You may call me Count Axor."
"Axor... that's pretty cool name, yo." A random human person beside him suddenly spoke, "Sounds like a named brand too."
"Tsk. You should not speak informally with me." The vampire, Axor, said.
█████ observed his outfit.
He looks like a noble man, with a black tailcoat with red lining and black trousers. He has messy, quiffed blonde hair, and his irises are golden colored. It also looked like he's in his mid-30s. Underneath the tailcoat are a black waistcoat, a white collared shirt, and a cravat. Both of his hands are covered in white gloves. He also wears a pair of black leather shoes with a slight heel.
("It definitely won't hurt trying to start a convo with him.") █████ thought to himself.
█████ speaks up to him, "So, Axor... How's life as a... noble? Vampire noble, to be exact."
Axor glared behind at them for a few seconds. "... Nothing much. Noble lives tend to make enemies." Axor glanced at his hand, adjusting his glove, "I've lived seeing people lying and being violent against others. Humans and our kinds. They all indulge in such sins."
Axor then continued, "Before I got here, I was participating in a banquet our family held. At the time while I was in my room, tidying up my outfit for this event, I was opening my wardrobe to see what I could wear for this special occasion. But instead of seeing my clothes, a bright white light has appeared behind the wardrobe." He paused for a while before continuing, "It was blowing me away with a strong wind. I don't know how, I thought it was magic. I tried to get close again, trying to close it. But when I get close, I can't even move the door with the strength I have. But then, I felt like my hand was grabbed by something, and before I realized... I was dragged in here... With all of you."
█████ nods in understanding, "I assume it's hard to trust people for you, knowing how many people have lied before, huh?"
Axor looks back forward, simply dropping his head down a bit, "That is correct."
Axor paused for a while again before saying, "I am able to detect the lies of people, an honorable power for someone like me. But... something is weird. I tried to do the same with the... 'Narrator' person. I... can't detect any lies from him. It was as if he could never lie. And that makes me suspicious of him."
Then, a random Centaurian speaks up, "If you don't trust him, then why do you follow?"
Axor looks at the Centaurian, glaring with his golden eyes, "Do you think I have a choice here? It's clear that I will die if I go by myself, alone."
Axor puts his hands behind him again, walking straight, following the path of the people following the Narrator. It's clear that he's not willing, but as he has said, he has no choice.
Axor stopped talking afterwards.
...
From behind █████, they can hear Monic and Dagus talking with each other.
█████ decided to eavesdrop.
"Huh, so the vampire can detect lies? And isn't ignoring the sins caused by others?" She thought out loud, "I thought vampires were bad."
"You're generalizing them, not all vampires are bad. You can tell from that man." Dagus said.
"Hmm, that's true. I guess I've read too many novels that introduce vampire kinds as bad figures." She added while nodding.
After hearing the two, █████ turned their head back forward, ("What I'm more surprised about is that the white space appeared inside his wardrobe.") They thought to themselves, they put their hands under their chin.
("I assume because it's an isolated empty space... It still counts?") They thought again, ("Hmm, that'll add up to where else it can manifest.")
... In front, the Narrator is still navigating through the broken saferoom's path. He's doing it so seamlessly without trouble.
"Hey, old man. How come you know the path? Everything here looks messed up and weird, sometimes it looks like it loops itself around." A random person in the larger group called.
"I've said before that I know this place more than any of you. It's dangerous, so be careful." The Narrator answered simply while walking.
"Where do the cracks even appear? There's no way our room back then won't spawn a rift. That's bullshit, it's big enough!" The same person said.
"Despite its room size, half of it has collapsed, and the saferoom knows where rifts can be accessible." The Narrator said.
"The saferoom 'knows'? Is this place alive?" Another random person said.
"It may sound unbelievable, but yes." The Narrator said, looking back at them, "The saferoom itself can-"
But before he could finish his words, the group suddenly called out.
"Narrator, in front of you!" | "There's something coming up at you!" | "Hey old man, look forward! Something's there!"
The Narrator then looks back forward after being told to. What's in front of me?
... It's that thing.
That thing again, standing on 4 feet right in front of us...
It looks like a dog... but it doesn't have eyes.
Its body is dripping with fluids, mosaics, and particles. Its size is almost as big as a male human. People can hear buzzing sounds coming from it, sometimes followed by a random beeping sound.
And when it opens its mouth, it looks like the flesh, or whatever it is made of, is tearing apart. It barks at us, sounding very crisp, as if the barking were recorded on a bad device. But it barks again, in a high pitch, and again, in a different pitch.
And the Narrator knows that it's just one part of the entity chasing him.
... The Narrator steps back a few meters, "Everyone, do not provoke it. It's dangerous, we should move elsewhere."
"What?! We've been following you from behind, and now you want us to turn back?" A person said, "What the hell is this?! We're just going back and forth!"
Another person speaks up, a female, "But what is that thing? It looks like a dog..."
But then... the entity turned into a cat, a silhouette of a cat...
"It's... a cat now?" The same female said, and the cat... barks at the group.
"Is it some sort of a shapeshifter?" A male with horns said, "I've seen creatures like that, but not like... this."
But then it changed again, into something... unrecognizable. It's like a bunch of newly made polygons expand and shrink continuously.
"Narrator, you got an idea?!" Syle said, shouting from the back, "We got another problem!"
The Narrator immediately turns his head back, "What do you mean?" Despite everything that was happening, he sounded calm.
"There's... a shadowy-like dog over here!" Syle shouted back.
("I see, so it's surrounding us.") The Narrator thought to himself.
"Narrator, what do we do?" █████ shouted from the back.
("... I'll have to see further.") The Narrator thought to himself again.
He turns his head back and closes his eyes.
...
Words, countless words are coming up to his mind. Scrolling from up to down, as if an author were writing this down in real time. The words reference the events from earlier, mentioning the start of the early collapse, the threat of the entity, and currently, their escape.
But more words are being written down as well after that. These ones are referencing something that will happen, something that might happen. Most of the words were deleted for a second as if fixing a mistake.
It reads:
> "The Narrator apprehends the surrounding."
> "An old, obsessed enemy has found him once again."
> "And yet, he remained calm."
> "Because why would a narrator be in a panic?"
> "They see Labelthrough better than anyone. They see the world better than everyone."
> "Seeing further into the structure of this saferoom, the Narrator has found another fake wall."
> "It was right beside him."
The Narrator suddenly turned to look to his right and charged up a punch.
And after that-
CRASH—
The wall in front of him suddenly breaks apart and turns into dust.
"There was a fake wall there too?" Dagus said, surprised.
"Everyone, punch the wall to your right!" The Narrator commanded as he coughed, everyone looked to the right and began punching the wall.
Just after that, the wall in front of them also breaks apart and turns into dust.
"Was this here before? I'm sure it wasn't." Syle said, looking at the now-destroyed wall, "Narrator, how did you-"
"Ask questions later! Move!" The Narrator said, as suddenly the two solid-black creatures started barking again, but it sounded more crisp than usual and distorted. It sounds angry, like it's calling for someone. The Narrator began to move through the new path.
The others began to move as well, following the Narrator who has created the new path. While the larger group was on the move, the main group waited until they all went in.
The solid-black creatures continued to bark nonstop at them.
"Can someone shut them up?" █████ said, "My ears hurt from hearing them."
"Just throw something at them?" Syle said, "They aren't actual animals. Here, let me do it."
Syle grabbed a pebble off the wall, bouncing it on his hand for a moment, before glaring at one of the creatures and, with his might, throwing the pebble at them at full speed.
The pebble can be seen flying straight at their head, and when it reaches contact... Something unexpected happens: the head stretched back from the momentum, as if it were like rubber. Before recoiling back at full speed towards Syle.
Syle, not expecting this, simply threw a punch at the incoming pebble, successfully parrying and destroying the incoming pebble, though his hand started bleeding.
The creature from the front and at the back is growling at them after that.
"Okay, it's clear that thing is not a living being." Syle said, blowing at the wound.
"Are you okay?" Lanora asked him, "We should get going, the others-"
But, before Lanora could finish her speak, the main group heard a large footstep coming their way. Shaking the place around them.
"... What was that?" █████ said, stumbling a bit, "That's one giant footstep."
Then, something shadowed over them. Something big.
They looked to their left, which exposes the white space, but before them is something else.
A colossal humanoid figure with a hole for the head looks down at them, they don't seem to have an arm.
"Oh wow, what the hell is that?" Lanora said, looking at the thing in awe and terror.
"Probably something that followed the Narrator." Dagus said, horrified by whatever the hell that thing is.
The two creatures barked at the figure, they sounded happy.
"I'm running first." Syle said with common sense. He began to run towards the larger group.
"Hey, wait for me!" █████ said afterwards, following Syle from behind.
"Lanora, let's go." Dagus said, looking at her, "Lanora?"
"It's... so beautiful." Lanora said, in awe. She's sweating a lot.
Dagus, not wanting to wait any longer, simply grabbed her hand and dragged her along while she still looked back at the colossal figure.
The colossal figure stares back at them.