I did not know how long I had been lying there.
Time had lost its meaning somewhere between the moment I woke up in this place and the moment I killed… that thing. My chest rose and fell unevenly, each breath dragging through my throat as if the air itself resisted entering my lungs, thick with the lingering stench of decay that refused to fade no matter how much I tried to ignore it.
The smell was everywhere.
It clung to the cave walls, to the ground beneath me, to my own skin. Every inhale carried it deeper inside, until it felt less like I was breathing air and more like I was swallowing something rotten and ancient, something that had no right to exist. My stomach twisted violently in response, tightening and churning with a hunger that had long since crossed the boundary of normal pain.
It wasn't just hunger.
It was something worse.
---
With a quiet groan, I forced myself to sit up, my body protesting immediately as a sharp pain spread across my ribs, making me suck in a shallow breath that only made things worse. My limbs felt weak and distant, as though they didn't fully belong to me, and for a brief moment I wondered if I would even be able to stand again.
Still, staying here wasn't an option.
Not beside that thing.
My gaze drifted toward the corpse.
Even now, it looked wrong in a way that my mind refused to fully process, its shape unstable, its surface uneven, as though it had never properly decided what it was supposed to be. Dark fluid continued to seep slowly from it, gathering beneath its body in small, irregular patches, while pieces of it seemed barely attached, as if they might fall apart at any moment.
And yet— Something had changed.
There was a feeling now.
Subtle, but unmistakable.
A pull.
At first, I thought it was just my imagination, a lingering effect of the fight or the exhaustion weighing down my body, but as I remained there, trying to steady my breathing, that sensation grew clearer, sharper, impossible to ignore.
It was coming from the corpse.
I frowned slightly, my brows knitting together as I stared at it, trying to understand what exactly I was feeling, but the more I focused, the more my chest tightened in response, and that twisted hunger inside me surged again, stronger this time, more insistent.
Not for food.
For something else.
"…What is this…?" I muttered under my breath, my voice hoarse and dry, barely audible even to myself.
I didn't want to move.
Every instinct told me to stay away from it, to leave the cave as quickly as possible and put as much distance between myself and that thing as I could. But my body didn't listen. Slowly, almost against my own will, I pushed myself to my feet, my legs trembling as they struggled to support my weight.
The pull grew stronger.
Step by step, I found myself walking back toward it, my movements unsteady but deliberate, as if something deep inside me had already made the decision long before my mind could object.
The smell hit me harder the closer I got, thick and suffocating, forcing me to clench my jaw as I fought the urge to turn away, but even then, my gaze remained fixed on it, unable to look elsewhere.
"…This is stupid…" I whispered, though there was no conviction behind the words.
My hand lifted slowly, hesitating for just a fraction of a second before moving forward.
And then— I touched it.
The moment my fingers made contact, everything changed.
A violent surge shot through my body, sharp and overwhelming, forcing a gasp out of my throat as my muscles tensed involuntarily. It felt as though something had been forced into me, not gently, not gradually, but all at once, flooding through my veins like fire.
My vision blurred instantly.
For a split second— I wasn't in the cave anymore.
There was sand.
Endless sand stretching in every direction, shifting beneath an empty sky that felt distant and unreachable. Something moved beneath the surface, something vast and unseen, its presence heavy enough to make the ground itself feel unstable.
Watching.
Waiting.
Then it was gone.
I collapsed to one knee, my hand gripping the ground tightly as I struggled to steady myself, my breathing uneven and ragged as the burning sensation slowly began to subside, leaving behind a strange, unfamiliar feeling in its place.
Something had changed.
The hunger was still there.
But it wasn't the same.
It had quieted.
Not satisfied, not gone, but controlled, as though whatever I had just taken in had eased something deep within me, even if only slightly.
I stared at my trembling hand, my fingers curling slowly into a fist as I tried to make sense of what had just happened.
"…Energy…" I murmured instinctively, the word slipping out before I even realized it.
I didn't know where it came from.
But it felt right.
There was something inside me now.
I could feel it clearly.
Not physical, not something I could touch or see, but undeniably present, moving faintly beneath the surface of my awareness, like a restless current waiting to be directed.
Cold.
Unfamiliar.
Dangerous.
I exhaled slowly, forcing myself to stand again, my body still weak but no longer as helpless as before. The difference was subtle, almost insignificant, but it was there.
And in this place— Even a small difference mattered.
My gaze shifted toward the cave entrance, where that faint, unnatural red glow still lingered in the distance, casting a dim light that barely reached the ground beneath my feet.
"I can't stay here…" I said quietly, the realization settling in without resistance.
If something like that existed here—
There would be more.
Turning away from the corpse, I began to walk, my steps slow and unsteady at first, but gradually finding a rhythm as I moved deeper into the cave, the silence around me pressing in from all sides.
Each sound I made felt too loud.
Each breath too heavy.
And yet, as I walked— Something strange happened.
A thought crossed my mind.
Soft.
Faint.
"…Don't go too far…"
I stopped.
My eyes narrowed slightly as I looked around, my senses sharpening instinctively, but there was nothing there. No movement. No sound. Nothing but the same endless darkness stretching in every direction.
"…What… was that…?" I whispered.
The voice hadn't belonged to this place.
It hadn't carried the same weight, the same wrongness.
It had felt…
Warm.
For a brief moment, I simply stood there, trying to understand, trying to grasp something that slipped away the moment I reached for it, until finally, I exhaled quietly and shook my head.
"…Doesn't matter."
There was only one thing that mattered now.
Surviving.
And for that— I had to keep moving.
Step by step, I walked forward, leaving behind the corpse, the smell, and whatever part of myself I had lost in that moment.
Because stopping— Was no longer an option.