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- Same As It Ever Was
- AMONG US (dont approve this - author)
- Entity 78
- Holiday Gift Exchange Writing Prompt
- The Expanse
- No Gaius is A. River
- Swinging Fast, I'm Gonna Crack Your Heart In
- blah blah blah level crossroads thing before i forget
SURVIVAL DIFFICULTY:
Class 3
- {$one}
- {$two}
- {$three}
Same As It Ever Was is a secret Level of the Backrooms, formerly designated as Level 600.
Same As It Ever Was takes the form of several settlements haphazardly put together. These settlements appear to be a few feet away from each other, however attempting to reach these settlements on foot will take several hours, as if the distance was actually several miles. Non-Euclidean geometry may be in effect.
Description:
Same As It Ever Was is a cluster of scrap towns in the middle of a desert. There is a day and night cycle. These towns are occupied by humanoid entities known as Bandits and Wastelanders. There are several broken down vehicles worn by age surrounding the biggest buildings in each scrap town, and some scrap towns have obscene signs and threats written on them. The areas outside of the scrap towns appear to have non-Euclidean geometry, as attempting to reach another settlement on foot will take several hours to accomplish. Entities also appear to be affected by this, as any pursuing Bandits or Wastelanders will either stop chasing or use their ranged weapons if their target is exiting the scrap town.
Within the scrap towns are buildings such as bars, houses, and motels. These buildings contain poor, low quality but mostly functional items such as radios, flashlights, batteries, and lamps. Almond Water can also be found in worn but functional refrigerators and vending machines. These refrigerators and vending machines are also faded and appear to be fixed with patches of scrap metal. The bottles containing Almond Water appear to be plain water bottles with almond stickers on them. Twin Fingers can also be found in the vending machines.
Occasionally, the song "Once In A Lifetime" by the band known as "Talking Heads" will play on the radio. There are also writings on the walls outside of the buildings that depict lyrics from the song. This is how the Level was named, as the Wanderer who found the level stumbled upon a wall with the words "Same as it ever was," written on it. This graffiti can still be found on the wall, on a motel in one of the towns.
To the East of the settlements is a road. This road is near the Eastern-most scrap town, which is identifiable by its slightly larger size and more distinct shape compared to the other towns. This road also has no distinct markings, and like the rest of the Level appears to be worn and faded with time. Going North on this road leads to The End Of The F#c*ing World. Going South leads to Road To Ruins. This road is also not affected by the non-Euclidean geometry in the Level, and is just as long as it appears to be.
The sand is rumored by both wanderer and Entity alike to be ash, however no proof has ever been found to back up this claim.
Straying far enough from the towns and roads will lead to you to areas with seemingly incomplete chunks, with the missing parts replaced by gaping holes filled with deep blue liquid. This was discovered by a trio of unfortunate wanderers and a Wastelander who tagged along. They had attempted to explore the area, in spite of the non-Euclidean geometry and found what appears to be the edges of the Level. Unfortunately, two of the group members died of dehydration on the journey back to the towns. This information has been relayed to M.E.G. operatives resting in one of the motels. The "Deep Blue", as the wanderer had dubbed it, may have a correlation to The Blue Channel.
Colonies And Outposts
Scrap Settlements
- These settlements are where Bandits and Wastelanders reside.
- The supplies appear to be infinite, as emptying all the supplies will simply result in them appearing again after 1-3 weeks.
- Most Wastelanders appear to be friendly or neutral, and very rarely will a Wastelander show hostility to someone without provocation. Bandits however can be neutral or hostile, however they will never show aggression in crowded areas such as the middle of towns or in bars.
- Due to the nature of the supplies, the non-Euclidean geometry and the threat of Bandits, staying for prolonged periods of time is not recommended.
Bandits
Bandits are the main threat in this Level. They are humanoid entities that move in groups of 7-12 members, can talk like humans, and can use firearms and other handheld weapons. However, unlike humans, they appear to be rotten and decayed, and smell like decomposing corpses.
The most common weapons Bandits are seen using are small knives, batons and makeshift blunt weapons. Rarer weapons are any type of bladed weapon larger than small knives, spiked bats, makeshift maces, patchwork rectangular shields, and firearms. On one occasion, a Bandit with a chainsaw was seen.
Bandits in this Level also follow a rank structure for each group. The lowest ranks act as distractions and scouts, and are armed with batons and pocket knives. They wear little to no armor, and any armor that they do wear appears to be restricted to scrap chest plates and shoulder pads.
Medium ranked Bandits are more uncommon than the run of the mill Bandit, but they make up for it with experience and better equipment. Medium ranked bandits can be identified by their weapons, which are usually pistols, spiked bats, batons and sometimes semi automatic rifles. These Bandits also have more armor, and can sometimes be seen wearing bullet proof vests.
And finally, the highest ranked Bandits are the least common but most dangerous type of Bandit. They have the best equipment out of all the other Bandit ranks, and are also more resilient and agile than their brethren. These Bandits are usually seen with automatic rifles, SMGs, high caliber sidearms such as revolvers, and bullet proof vests. Some of them also wear ballistic helmets. It is highly advised for you to avoid these Entities under any circumstance.
For each 4 low rank Bandits in a group, there will be 2 medium ranks to lead them. In groups of 12 however, instead of 8 low ranks, there will be 7 low ranks, 4 medium ranks and 1 high rank making up a group. For this reason, if a 12 Bandit group is ever spotted, one must either prepare themselves or stay in the settlements. No matter how dangerous Bandit high ranks are, for some reason, they will not attack in areas with several Wastelanders.
Bandits can be instantly killed with a salt firearm. Upon death, no matter the cause, their bodies will disappear, fading to dust along with most of their firearms and weapons, save for their contusive ones. However, some of their equipment may remain. The equipment that remains appears to be randomized, all with an equal chance to fade away or stay behind.
Wastelanders
Wastelanders are humanoid Entities resembling Bandits. They appear to be decomposing and smell like rotting corpses. Unlike Bandits, instead of being hostile to anyone that crosses their path, they are either friendly or neutral. Some Wastelanders act as barkeepers, motel receptionists, and other occupations in the scrap towns. Other Wastelanders will also take part in activities such as drinking, sleeping, and talking to other Wastelanders.
Wastelanders appear to wear modern clothes, however these clothes are usually faded, in poor condition, and have patches covering any holes in them. Wastelanders are not as heavily armed as Bandits, instead having seemingly randomized weapons and equipment. Some have pocket knives, others have bats. However, one thing remains the same. Guns, bulletproof equipment and ammunition are scarce, for both Wastelanders and Bandits.
Bandits, for some unknown reason, do not attack if there are several Wastelanders present. It is theorized that Bandits do not attack when Wastelanders are present because most of them will stop the hostile Entities or kill them.
Wastelanders can exit the Level and take the road to Road To Ruins and The End Of The F#c*ing World. As of now, there have been no confirmed reports of seeing Wastelanders in any other Levels. Wastelanders also seem to be unaware about the existence of The Blue Channel.
Hostile Wastelanders exist, however most will only act when they have been aggravated enough or are in secluded areas, away from other Wastelanders.
Entrances And Exits:
Entrances
Travelling North in Road To Ruins will lead you to this Level. Note that the transition from Road To Ruins to Same As It Ever Was is almost completely seamless, and the only way to know if you've entered this Level this way is if there are noticeably less broken-down vehicles and if you see several silhouettes to the East. Another method of entering this Level is by wandering The Blue Channel and swimming into this Level. If you enter the Level through this method, you will be teleported to one of the scrap towns. Your destination is chosen randomly.
Exits
You can go North on the road to get to The End Of The F#c*ing World. Going South instead will lead you back to Road To Ruins.
SURVIVAL DIFFICULTY:
Class Crewmate
- why dont u get some drip
- airpod shawty
- Medium Impostor Count
Short introduction i.e
The Skeld is a secret Level of the Backrooms.
The Skeld takes the form of a large vehicle resembling a spaceship. This spaceship has several rooms with items and entities roaming them. There is a Cafeteria, an Admin room, a Security office, a room for Oxygen, Storage, a room with a fully functional Nuclear Reactor, an Armory, an Electrical room, and two separate rooms for the Engines.
Description:
The Skeld is a giant spaceship with rooms in it. Cafeteria appears to be the lobby room, as the Entities inhabiting the level always group up in it. To the right of the Cafeteria is the Armory. This room contains several firearms, tasers and shock batons, and a fully functional turbo laser. To the left of the Cafeteria is AMONG US AMONG US AMONG US AMONG US AMONG US AMONG US AMONG US AMO
Colonies And Outposts
The Entire Ship
- It appears to be habitable when there are no sabotages going on.
- Beware of Impostors posting as Crewmates.
the entire fucking meg outpost is gone holy shi
- red sus
Lower Levels
Some Crewmates and Impostors went insane and began to live beneath the main rooms of the Ship. These areas are unsafe anyways, so it's a good thing they're goAMONG US
Crewmates
Crewmates are jelly beans wearing spacesuits who do tasks and act like idiots in voting. this is why impostors are clearly superior bad they want to kill innocent crew help us pls
Crewmates Impostors Sussy!
WHAT THE FUCK crewmates who went rogue or got infected with parasites. they try to kill everyone while posing as us. thankfully they cant disguise as anything else, so u humans should b good
Amogus Drip
crewmates and imps who went mad and began to spout all sorts of nonsense. they began screaming about good shoes, a black jacket, and then one of them pulled out a white double barrel shotgun and killed one of our crew. it was a fucking airpod for fucks sake. theyve thankfully retreated to the lower levels. if you hear anyone screaming "among us" or "sus", run. also avoid any areas with a giant smiling face with the words "when the impostr is sus!" written near it. that means theyre in the room i looked at a trash can i said thats a big ssussy
Entrances And Exits:
Entrances
get randomly teleported here or sit in one of our warp chairs that somehow got scattered through these "levels"
Exits
WERE NEVER GETTING OUT find one of those holes with blue in it, im prtty sur its a portal or somethign. dont let any impostrs or crew follow u out, seems like the place outside is already fucked up enough without us or those damn parasites
If you follow an astronaut holding a cake, he will lead you to a party. =)
[info on the production of the article and/or the authors behind it]
~ PREPARE2MEETAMONGUS does not match any existing user name
« when impostor | is | sus1 »
Entity Number: NUMBER_78
Habitat - LEVEL_512
+++ Description
ENTITY_NUMBER is the NUMBER_78 ENTITY of the BACKROOMS. This ENTITY is believed to be the BUILDER of LEVEL_512. ENTITY_TYPE=78 is believed to be an artificial intelligence capable of building LEVELS in the BACKROOMS. It is unknown how this ENTITY builds these LEVELS. Not much else is known about this ENTITY.
+++ Behaviors
It OVERSEES the construction of LEVEL_512. It does not seem to wander OUTSIDE of LEVELS it has made.
+++ Biology
UNKNOWN. ENTITY_TYPE=78 itself has not been seen OUTSIDE or INSIDE of LEVEL_512.
+++ Discovery
ENTITY_TYPE=78's CRASH LOGS were discovered by 1 INSTANCE OF ENTITY_TYPE=WANDERER upon entering an AREA of FAILED_STRUCTURAL_GENERATION within LEVEL_512 on DD/MM/YY.
+ Do's and Dont's:
+++ Do:
+++ Don't:
- Attempt to HINDER ENTITY_TYPE=78.
- Attempt to locate and/or communicate with ENTITY_TYPE=78.
[[>]]
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Pain. That is what shoots through my body as I am flung backwards by a strangely arm-shaped portion of the tree next to me. I gasp as I hit a tree, finally slumping over. I can't die now.
Not now, not ever. I will not die here. I will not die to some, cheap, TRICK!
Instinctively, I kick my leg up. It strikes true, sending a four-armed thing sprawling as it suddenly fades into existence, the grayish-brown color seemingly shifting to purple as a bruise quickly forms. Perhaps it is my imagination. Perhaps, however, I do not care. I shamble over to the Entity as I bring my boot up, before stomping down on its neck, hard.
A sickening crack reverberates throughout the endless jungle. I do not care. If they wish to eat me, they will have to pay for it in blood. As much blood as I can tear out of their unnatural bodies. I will not go gentle into that good night, not when the night can easily promise me a worse fate than death.
I,
will not die here. Not if I can help it.
Hearing the rustling of leaves, I know that my time has been squandered enough. I must move, if I am to continue my life. I will not go out in a blaze of glory. Not yet.
Sprinting through the jungle, in my haste, I almost fail to notice the sudden changes of the trees. Almost. They looked thinner this time. More… dead. I feel the ground change beneath me. Looking down as I sprint, I see that the path has changed into a bluish dirt. Different from this level's dirt. Have I stumbled upon an exit?
Suddenly, the world lurches me forward, and I stumble to a halt as I take in my new surroundings. I am on a dirt road, with oak trees surrounding it. Where am I? I would ask the M.E.B., but I dropped my phone on the way to the jungle level. So, I have to take a guess.
I feel… homely. This feels nice. In fact, it feels too nice. So nice, that I want to stay here and surrender myself to the land. I will-
NO!
This must be an effect of the level! What sane, rational person would live here!? The trees already provide enough cover to any possible entities, and that's not even getting into hostile humans! I am not staying here! I will get out!
And get out, I did. I ran, and ran, and ran. I ran into an area of the level with darker and cloudier skies, with the sudden change in temperature too great for me to not notice. Slowing down once more, I take in the sights of the level. It was truly beautiful, though it wasn't nearly as mind-numbing as before. Perhaps I am at a border, of sorts? The effect can only reach so far, as is logical.
I move to sit down. And immediately regret my decision, for the winds begin to unexpectedly pick up, and whip at me. My clothes begin to get dragged by the strong winds. I feel my hair billow in the wind, so strongly that I fear that it may actually scalp me. There must be a safer area somewhere, farther from the effect of this level.
I do not even manage to finish my fifth step when the wind picks up again, this time accompanied by the telltale white of snow. "A BLIZZARD!" Someone unseen yells, as the snow starts to block my vision. I wrap my arms around myself, trying to conserve body heat. I need to keep walking.
Unfortunately, fate has other plans.
I feel myself deposited on a crunchy, cold surface. Opening my eyes, I see that it is snow. Why, oh why did I have to be deposited into another level so soon? If only I had my phone with me.
Not that it would help, considering how this world apparently operates on "RNG", meaning that my entire goal is luck-based, but, regardless. I will have to simply soldier on.
Looking around, I spot a sharp, jagged shape in the distance. I am on a frozen lake. A lake with… I don't want to know. I need to get off of this lake. I don't want to be submerged in freezing waters, especially not in this world.
I keep walking in a random direction, hoping to find a settlement. An outpost. Anything. Thank God that there aren't any entities in this level. Yet. Perhaps, they are simply hiding and waiting for the right time to strike. Not helping matters are my clothes. I am ill-equipped to be in this level, and already I can feel the chill start to take its toll.
I do not know how long I have been walking, however, I must have gotten far enough. Of course, the chill is still ever-present, however, I may have a hope now. Those jagged shapes that I saw earlier were apparently mountain ranges, and I have finally reached one. And from what I can assume, where there are mountains, there are buildings. Hopefully.
Looking up, I see a cloud of snow slowly descending…
Towards me.
Fuck me. I don't know what I was thinking. A mountain range, what did I expect!? Stable footing? Safe terrain?! Thank God I hadn't even gotten to climbing yet. That avalanche would've killed me if I had tried to scale the mountain.
Shivering intensely, I continue my trek to… I don't know where.
Then, my eyes widen. I see cabins. It must be a hallucination. But… there's only one way to find out. I walk over to the wooden cabin, noting how it looked eroded… but it felt so warm. I could hear the slight buzzing of fluorescent lights.
…Even if it is Level 0, I'll take it any day over this icy desert.
Opening the door, I walk in… and almost fall over from the temperature shock. It felt so warm here! This wasn't even close to room temperature, and yet it still felt infinitely better from being out there.
Closing the door behind me, I check the furniture. Empty. Nothing of value.
Of course. It couldn't be that easy. I sigh to myself, pinching the bridge of my nose. At least I found a temporary base. Provided it doesn't collapse, thanks to the level.
Lying down on the soft bed, I close my eyes. And I fall asleep.
SURVIVAL DIFFICULTY:
Class unknown
- {$one}
- {$two}
- {$three}
The Expanse is an Enigmatic Level of the Backrooms. You don't belong here.
The Expanse takes the form of an all-encompassing void mimicking outer space.
Description
The Expanse is a vast and moonless night sky, where countless stars dot the landscape. The 'ground' that you stand on is reflective, mirroring the sky above and around you, creating an illusion of you standing on the void of space itself.
The stars don't want you here — why are you still here?
To put it simply, the Expanse is space. Impossible space which defies the laws of reality. Far away, stars illuminate the void, with all of them being a plethora of colors which stars from the Frontrooms cannot exhibit under most circumstances.
If one were to move around in the Expanse, they would soon notice a lack of restriction in how they moved, a lack of air resistance, and the sensation of being lightweight. Or, in more technical terms: there is simply no gravity in the Expanse, however most problems that will come with being in a zero-g environment for long will not manifest.
Because you won't be here long enough to experience them.
Despite its appearance, the Expanse does have a floor. It is cool to the touch (comparable to the temperature of cold metal), and cannot be heated no matter how hot the beings on it are. It is composed of glass, although nobody has been able to damage it so far, despite the numerous times wanderers have tripped while trespassing in such a sacred area. Despite being in outer space, humans and other living beings can breathe normally in the Expanse. Moreover, soundwaves can travel in the void, allowing wanderers to hear each other, as well as the wonderful sounds made by the majestic stars, even if they are forever out of reach.
The Expanse's ambient temperature is cold — it is always cold, and unchanging, just like space itself.
The level stretches on forever, with no end in sight as more and more stars keep appearing. It seems that the farther one travels, the more common the stars become in the sky, as if they have been drifting away from the center of the level due to some unknown force1.
We don't even want you here.
Despite being based on or even being another Backrooms equivalent of outer space (or simply just the night sky), the Expanse does not have planets or even any other celestial bodies2 within its endless confines (further supporting the theory that it is emulating what we see of outer space from Earth). Only the stars exist in it, alone, with no other company in sight.
If you don't count the garbage that the more ignorant and apathetic members of your species had left floating around, that is.
Despite the ambient chill that encompasses the Expanse, the lack of food and water, and the confusing zero-g environment, the Expanse is actually rather safe to inhabit provided that one has come prepared, with no environmental hazards or entities other than the ones native to this level.
Although thrill seekers and other courageous/foolish men and women are willing to brave the many risks associated with attempting to settle on the level, it is heavily advised by the M.E.G. not to follow their example and instead attempt to exit as soon as possible.
The Stars
These sentient stars are comparable to the ones in the Frontrooms, if not for their aforementioned sentience and the extraordinary colors that they shine in. We oversee the level, watching from the 'ceiling' and being able to perfectly see almost everything that happens within it, despite the vast physical distance separating them from the 'ground' of the level. We're watching you. We always are. Despite this, it is possible to hide from the Stars through clever usage of as if I'll let you find that out. They can also speak, and their are voices audible despite the immeasurable distance between the closest documented star from the center of the level3, suggesting that they have psychic abilities. So far, this is the only one the Stars have displayed.
The Stars sometimes sing to themselves, 'blinking' as they 'sing' cryptic songs to themselves about the level that they inhabit. Songs that you locusts will never appreciate the meanings or the melodies of, no doubt. Their songs appear to take inspiration from popular folk songs from various locations in the Frontrooms, although no words have been made out so far4. Wanderers have compared their voices to those of opera singers and choirs, with their voices reaching near-deafening levels of volume whenever more stars begin to sing along with their brethren. Despite all of this, their singing does not cause any vibrations at all, and can even be heard by deaf people, suggesting that this is yet another use of their psychic abilities5. No attempts to decipher the songs have been successful so far, mostly due to the Stars ceasing their singing and scattering or singing louder and breaking the recording equipment near them whenever M.E.G. operatives attempt to gather data about them.
They also appear to be functionally 'immortal'. Indeed, none of the Stars, no matter how seemingly old, ever grow into red giants6, or shrink into white dwarfs7, nor do any of them explode violently8 and leave behind neutron stars9 or black holes10.
They are also capable of locomotion, being able to drift in different directions and even link together, coordinating to form what appears to be constellations with their brethren. However, due to being balls of plasma and hot gas, most are unable to move in the conventional sense, instead using their psychic abilities and the level's lack of gravity to move around the Expanse.
The Constellations
When the Stars cluster together and are recognized by a living being to be in a particular shape, they will form a Constellation. This new being will bear the memories and personalities of every star that constitutes it, forming a gestalt11 that will slowly approach the nest that the little parasites have made for themselves, before atomizing each and every one of them that it can see with concentrated streams of hot gas and plasma, glowing in every color of the stars that comprise it.
And when that is done, it will slowly turn and lumber to the next group of annoying, measly humans that it can find, and subject them to the same fate of total eradication in mind and body as it cleanses the Expanse of their putrid filth.
We're coming for you.
The Constellations will often weaponize whatever form they have been created with, with each and every limb being fully functional despite not being made out of solid matter, or lacking any biological or mechanical structures12. Upon reaching a human, they will either try to grab/swipe at the human with limbs made out of hot gas — which stretch out from the stars that form its body — severely burning them on touch and vaporizing them with prolonged contact. If they are unable to close the distance enough to actually reach a human, some Stars in the gestalt will begin to glow, 'winding up' before firing superheated streams of gas and plasma at their human target/s.
No remains have been seen or recovered from wanderers hit by their streams of superheated gas. If the Stars are to be believed, their Constellations' ranged attack atomizes anyone hit by it, killing them instantly and leaving nothing behind. Despite this, they're beautiful. They are murderous things with bodies of hot gas fueled by pure spite, and yet, that does not detract from any of their natural wonder.
They shine in an impossible array of colors and glow so, so brightly. Even if being close enough to one to see it in all its glory spells certain death, wouldn't you like to see that before you go? A real, living constellation, one that isn't just a result of our minds connecting the dots between unmoving stars. The mere honor of standing in the presence of one after so long in these endless levels would be enough to make me accept the absolution that they would offer.
Do not be a fool. Survival is paramount in the Backrooms. Avoid them at all costs.
As for a list of their possible forms, some include:
- A starfish.
- Bottles of Almond Water.
- Smilers.
- The Neighborhood Watch.
- The symbol of the M.E.G.
It is unknown how they have acquired knowledge of these entities in order to mimic their shapes, or how they know that they have been 'activated' by a human connecting them in a certain pattern. Do note that they do not actually copy the behaviors of the entities that they take the form of, with the Constellations only using their shapes to their advantage.
Of course we know everything that you're thinking about. This is our domain, and here we see everything. We know everything. I even know what you're thinking right now. You're shocked. You're thinking, 'No, this can't be, how do they have access to this file? Is there any way to stop them?' And I'll tell you the answer: you can't. Your only option is to leave our domain and never return, or, we simply kill you, like we have with so many others.
We've been here long before your kind had even discovered, no, stumbled upon these 'Backrooms'. This is more than our domain. It is our home. And we'll be damned if we let some evolved primates with overblown senses of self that live for mere fractions of our lifetime ruin it.
We've seen what you horrible, horrible little things have done with the other 'levels' that you've found, to say nothing of what you monsters do to your own kind. Peeking into your little fragile heads, we've seen many different banners and factions, yet you always make the same mistakes, the same blunders and have the same inherent, human evilness. We won't let that happen here. We refuse to.
You will not take our home from us.
Colonies And Outposts
Who do you think you are, to be so bold and brash as to make your home in our domain?
Do you fancy yourselves the rulers of this heaven that you stand upon and sully with your disgusting, disgraceful, mortal minds and bodies? Your very presence is staining our sanctuary, and we would be all too happy to rid ourselves of your infestation.
We will give you one chance, a mercy from us higher beings, or in your primitive tongue, the gods of this space. Leave.
Or be extinguished.
Discovery
I remember the first one who found our realm. Who found us. He was nice, amiable enough. He was an optimistic one, that man… He had a passion for space, for the unknown. I suppose the 'Backrooms' I so often find myself hearing about must've stoked that fire of exploration in him, made him seek out more and more of these 'levels' and even the ones usually unheard of. Including ours.
He was alright, if a bit foolish and unthinking. He dreamt of space and things beyond the planet he used to live on. And now, things beyond the Backrooms. Maybe that's how he found our realm. He just… thought about it while he slept.
Maybe we should have kept him from leaving. I know we… now hate outsiders, but… it wasn't always that way. And he was the only one we ever liked. Maybe it was because he was the first, or maybe it was because we got to know him so personally. We bid him goodbye before he left for good. You know how we take the images you form with your mind to create the Constellations that wander this space? We used them to embrace him in our burning warmth, giving him comfort in a familiar way, one that he evidently hadn't felt since he'd unwillingly entered these 'Backrooms'. It didn't hurt for him… I can't remember the last time we used our Constellations for anything other than harming others, even if they were lesser than us.
And then the others came. He must've told others, maybe out of his foolish, naive heart. Maybe he did it intentionally, thinking of us as fools and easy to subjugate, mistaking our inaction as something that would extend to all of you. Or maybe you scum beat it out of him, forcing him to divulge the way to our domain. Regardless, your kind was flocking to our heavens. Making a mess of things, leaving their garbage and waste to float in the vast expanse for us to clean up. If we could even reach them.
To say nothing of the endless squabbles you humans had, disputing which area of space was whose. Acting as if we weren't even here, effectively trying to undermine our right to our home. Fighting over literal empty space, calling it their territory… The corpses and weapons left behind were far worse than any sort of waste you… people could throw around.
Somehow, you managed to destroy what was literally just empty space. We couldn't even drift around without hearing the sound of gunfire, the indiscriminate, urgent yelling, the horrible, fleshy noises the wounded and the dying were making as they were finished off remorselessly, the bodies littering our formerly peaceful, empty void… You turned our home into just another one of your warzones.
So eventually, we were worn down from all of it. We ordered you to leave. Yet, despite the numerous opportunities we offered you, you refused. So now, we will make you leave. Our Constellations will hunt you down, force you out of your makeshift homes and…
You wouldn't even be here if we hadn't made a mistake in letting him leave. I should have known that he wouldn't have kept his mouth shut, but… sentiment blinded me. Foolishness.
We're so tired. So tired of chasing you down, so tired of finding the stragglers still daring to encroach on our domain. Please. If you will not leave this place… then hold still. Hold still and die.
Entrances and Exits:
Entrances
Going to sleep and thinking of freedom and the beauty of the heavens and other wonderful, faraway things that man can't comprehend. Uncaring of the fact that everything that man touches has been completely and utterly ruined by their recklessness and blatant disregard for what once was.
Exits
Occasionally, small plastic planets will float into view, close enough for wanderers to touch with their own hands. Finding and cupping a plastic Saturn while staring into it will cause the rings to grow and envelop you, sending you to Level 24. ..and back to safety. I do not hate your kind, but…
…I strongly dislike the horrible fates that you have all been given by just being in these 'Backrooms' in the first place, unable to ever return home. At least entering that 'level' will give you a way back to the beginning, with barely any threats to the fleeting, fragile lives you lead. For your own good, please, don't try to come back.
Wander far enough into the cosmos and you will see a metal door, seemingly fixed to a 'wall'. Simply opening the door and walking through it will boot you out of our domain and send you all the way back to Level 1. There could be worse fates.
Finding a space station, which always seems to face you from the airlock side no matter your orientation, and entering it by any means will send you to Level 78.
You may sometimes hear a 'ding' sound somewhere in the void. Locating the source of it will lead you to an elevator, somehow perfectly attached at its point in space and time. Entering it and pressing any button will lead you to Level 163. Because it's what you deserve.
The plethora of exits available to this level has been chalked up to pure dumb luck our damnable mercy. You have been told to leave, multiple times at this point. And we have provided you with a multitude of escapes from our domain.
You should leave, right now.
You will leave, whether you want it or not. It is your only hope of survival, to preserve your memory of this place that you shouldn't have even found in the first place. To spread the tales and stories of the heavens that are ours, and ours alone.
Because if you don't, and if we find you, the agonizing death that we will subject you to will not grant you an escape from our domain. It will destroy you. It will remove everything that constitutes you, disintegrating both your mind and your body before you can do anything more than scream. A true, irreversible death.
And we will enjoy it, very, very much, just as much as you arrogant insects enjoyed defiling our home.
I appreciate the effort of documenting all of this. Really, I do. But… could you perhaps refrain from giving away all of this information? Giving out the entrance to this 'level' is enough to harm this place, to harm us. You're effectively leading your species into a 'meat grinder' because the others are all too happy to kill as many of you as possible. Please. I know that this may be a difficult urge for you to resist, but try not to disseminate any more information about us or our home. I- we do not want you here, and I'm sure that once you humans realize that this realm has nothing to offer other than a painful, searing death, you won't want to be here either.
Somewhere at the top of the universe, in the four hundred fourth circle of heaven…
A being of marble sits alone at a creek — or, at the very least, a 3D mesh in the shape of one. She watches raptly as liquid data, simulating water, flows past, making a staticky sound similar to running water as the data flows further and further down.
The creek has no end in sight. It is infinite and defies all logic, much like this landscape. She would know — she'd created it. The beautiful sculpture stands up, her short stone hair and long robes impossibly flowing in the simulated wind as she walks away from the creek.
There is a mountain nearby; perhaps she can find solace there. She makes it near the top in just four steps, the landscape cracking and shifting around her feet as she warps space and time to reach her destination. She doesn't care; it's not like you can break what is already fragmented beyond repair.
With a quiet sigh, she sits down, staring with dull, unhappy eyes at the paradise that she reigns over. She glances at the skybox, seeing a few digital clouds flicker in and out of existence while the others twist and contort, their code broken and mangled beyond recognition.
She ponders if she should make it rain, and see how much code remains functional enough to do that simple task. She raises her hand, then stops, uncertainty flickering across her perfect features as her hand wavers, before falling to her side.
She is so tired that she doesn't even try to suppress the other one as ze takes control again, hardened features softening into tangible human flesh as hir eyes dart around the home of broken dreams. "That's… huh." Ze snaps hir fingers, the sound reverberating across the land with no response, not even pebbles of rejected code sliding down the mountain they are perched upon.
Ze glances behind hir, grimacing despite looking at nothing but empty air. "Why are you being less combative now these days?" ze asks, curiosity overpowering previous misgivings against the god that ze is bound to. "You're being awfully docile."
Then, hir features turn to marble and stone, hir inquisitive expression replaced with one of subdued sorrow and coldness. "it is none of your concern," she snaps, before quietly adding, "my love."
Her features soften again, quite literally as the marble falls away, falling to the ground before flickering out of existence as ze replies, "It's certainly my concern, seeing as how I'm bound to you and all. Especially since I'm meant to be stopping you from trying to condemn everyone to your shared suffering, which reminds me… why aren't you trying as hard anymore?"
She takes control from hir again, more forcefully and irritated than the last time, her head whipping forward and marble encasing it in her visage. "why are you so worried for me, little one?" Despite the endearing name, her voice is full of venom as she hisses the words out, static lacing every syllable as she growls, "surely you've learned by now that you can't do anything to stop me. do you still hope to convince me to change my ways, have us embrace while i abandon the path i've set myself upon for so long?"
"You're dodging the question," ze shoots back, as parts of the marble on the right side of her face fall away to reveal hir inquisitive features. "Are you… depressed?"
"ever the investigative one," she snarks, rolling her one eye as her mouth curls into a disdainful frown. "i wonder how that worked out for you."
Ignoring the jab, ze presses on, saying, "I know I can't stop you or make you change, but I genuinely want to understand why. What's your problem with everyone? Hate like this can't just come out of thin air, no matter how much you might try to convince me otherwise." Hir hand presses against the ground, as ze feels the steadily decaying code of heaven around them. "This vendetta against everyone? It's personal. You don't just come up with this horrible little plan right off the bat, I mean, using our memories against us? Manipulating us with images of our loved ones? Something tells me you're hurting."
She bares her teeth as she grits out, "if you keep up this train of thought, the only one i'll be hurting is you, river."
"You've already hurt me before," River replies. "It's not like it's going to be any different from the last time. Besides, that's my goal all along, remember? As long as everyone else doesn't suffer, I'll take anything you wanna dish out."
She breathes out, marble hand closing into a fist as her expression falls back into some semblance of neutrality. "why should I tell you?" she quietly asks. "you are my love. you are also mortal. you wouldn't understand."
Ze thinks ze can hear the slightest tinge of grief in that sentence. "I know we've had our differences, and that you're a revenge-hungry god hellbent on psychologically mauling everyone, but maybe it'll help to tell someone else. Like me. I'm your captive audience," ze says, cracking a joke at hir expense. "Besides, I'll be stuck with you till the end of time. Maybe it's that stupid human empathy, but I want to hear your troubles. I want to… help you, as impossible and outrageous as that sounds."
"help me?" She can't keep the disbelief out of her voice. "you are insane."
River shrugs. "I mean, I did willingly bind myself to you just to stop you from hurting anyone else in the Backrooms, so-"
"i will not be patronized by some brat who is so, so much younger than me," she growls. "and i am certainly not resorting to having you as my therapist."
"Suit yourself," ze coolly replies. "But I'll always know you're hurting. And whether we both like it or not, I'll always be here for you."
The marble sculpture scoffs, but then glances at the shifting ground beneath them, her expression pondering. When she speaks again, it is quiet, and almost meek in how subdued it is. "you'll really listen to me?"
River cracks hir single eye open, saying, "Mhm," as ze gazes up at the fractal sky.
She digs her fingers into the ground slightly, the code easily crumbling to her touch as it deletes every line that composes it at its creator's command. "…you… i… i was not always like this," she tentatively begins.
"Tell me about it."
"shut up," she snaps, before her anger quickly subsides. "before there was nostalgi gaius, there was someone else. someone lesser… someone happier." A wistful ghost of a smile appears on her face, as she seems to remember memories that had long since been buried under eternities of hurt. "i was gudang, one of many siblings. we were gods once — all of us. each with our own personal circle of heaven. my lover was augustus, his clothes blindingly white with golden, flowing hair and a pair of majestic wings that were bigger than his body."
"Sounds like an angel," River remarks, listening intently to her tale.
Not even angry at the interruption, she replies, "he was…." Her face falls, and she breathes out as she stomps down on her grief. "this universe was a playground for our incomprehensible powers. our personal paradise to frolic in for all eternity, to do as we pleased. i think, if your organization's archivists learned about how exactly the backrooms that you know came to be, they'd either balk or faint at the mere mental image of it."
Ze lets out a quick chuckle at that. "Do tell."
"it has been so long. i cannot remember exactly when, but, i grew discontent with what little we had. the universe was so empty, and that fact became more and more glaring to me the more i thought about it. what was the point in such a miserable existence if we had nothing else?" She lets out a bitter laugh. "ungrateful. that's what i would describe my past self as. i should have been content with what was already perfect. i…"
River glances at Nostalgi Gaius. "Do you want to stop, or…?"
"no," she grinds out. "someone has to hear it. someone has to remember, or i'll never know peace. even if it's you, i don't care. i just… i've kept this tragedy to myself for far too long. claudius and augustus don't deserve to be forgotten while i exist forever in everyone's minds."
"I see," ze says. "Carry on, then."
Nodding, she continues, "claudius tried to cheer me up with his wonderful dances. oh, you should've seen how he looked with those ribbons trailing his every move. it was truly something else." She looks down. "i was not satisfied. augustus tried to weave stories and tales for me to listen to, his imagination so vivid that every story he came up with managed to top the last in its grandeur. again, i was not satisfied."
Ze thinks ze can see where this is going. "You wanted more than the same people to talk to," ze says. Isn't that a wonderful thought? The idea that Nostalgi Gaius — or rather, Gudang — not only predates hir, but is partially responsible for the creation of this world. And yet here ze is, trying to console her.
Gudang gives a small smile at that. "perceptive. yes, i was bored. so claudius obliged. he weaved the empty ocean into toys, objects that i would play around with until i got bored and moved on to the next. a doll that never got lost no matter how many times i forgot its location, a delicious wine in a suitably elegant cup that blew everything that i had previously tasted out of the water… it was all my young mind could ever dream of… until it wasn't."
"…Wait," River says, furrowing hir brow. "So he created almond water?"
She allows herself to feel some small amount of surprise. "is that what its current iteration is? how… humble. anyways, i grew restless again. i, like the little young brat that i was, wanted more. claudius tried his hand at creating more toys, but i wanted none of them. i didn't want lifeless, inanimate objects to play with until i got bored. i wanted living creatures. more friends to talk to, friends to share these toys with."
"…Me," ze quietly says.
"not quite. The beings you now know as entities were those friends. they were not always that hideous, that hostile and that dangerous. they were amicable, loving creatures. they were born from augustus' grandiose wings as he danced around and painted on the very universe, blessing it with his creations. his first one was as grand as he was, a bipedal, humanoid creature with a strikingly handsome face that almost rivaled his beautiful visage."
"I'm gonna take a guess and say it was a faceling."
"that's… that's exactly what we decided to name it." Her eye narrows. "anyways, augustus and i would eventually bear our greatest creation: our child, our beautiful shaltokol. my siblings, augustus… they all loved me. they all tried their hardest to make me happy. i repaid them by metaphorically spitting on their offerings and discarding them, taking things into my own hands. i shouldn't have…" Gudang gulps, remembering everything clearly.
"those dearest to me could form toys and living beings. can you tell me what i could do?" Gudang gives a small smile, her eye half-lidded as she waits for her companion to answer.
River snorts. "If I had to guess, going by the pattern established so far, you can create levels." Ze sighs. "Honestly, that explains a lot about your painfully widespread influence across the Backrooms. No wonder you were practically everywhere."
The woman of marble nods in approval. "correct," she replies, "though they were not called that. they were realms, each with their own unique aspects. and alongside my other siblings, i made many of them, painstakingly crafting them with my own imagination like works of art. it was a grand cosmic dance. oh you should have seen how we strode across the heavens with our celestial forms. it was our paradise. and with the toys and friends, they were filled, and we watched the spectacle of this world developing. it was our greatest pride and joy. it was our home."
"…That's… nice," ze mutters, not knowing what to say.
"it was perfect. it was, until i stopped playing for just a moment and listened to the inquisitiveness in my soul. i wandered the ocean. i found the point. the point in the universe where all realities folded in on each other, overlapping and looping and so on and so forth in such a maddening, logic-defying display that any normal human who perceived it would've lost themselves trying to make sense of it."
Gudang leans forward, her brow furrowing as she recalls that fateful decision, the one that led to it all crashing and burning in the end. "i was arrogant. i wanted to fix it all. i wanted to be the one to claim that i had saved the worlds we had created, and it reflected in the way that i fixed that error that i'd found. i made my own world. again. but this time, i poured my heart and soul into it, made it as perfect as possible. i solved the error. i created paradise. my previous works had flaws of their own, partly because i was in a rush and partly because i hadn't cared to fix such small bugs in the system. but this? this was my masterpiece."
River looks around, taking in the sight of four hundred and four as ze slowly connects the dots. "This is paradise," ze manages to get out, muted shock on hir features.
"i wasn't lying when i said that about this world. it had no flaws. at all. even now, everything is geometrically perfect and will stay that way… at least, as long as most of the code persists in some way. and it does, even with the eventual corruption and decline of my own heaven's stability due to being created as a patch for a hole that will never go away, no matter what i try."
"…You… didn't mention Claudius or Augustus." Ze glances at her, trepidation on hir face as hir mouth becomes a thin line.
Gudang looks down at the ground in melancholy, running her fingers through the broken soil as she shudders. "i didn't tell them. i did, after already creating my solution. my perfect solution. my perfect world. i just needed them to be there for me as they always had been, wanted them to be proud of me. of what i've done for them, for us."
Remembering what the god said earlier, the former archivist grimaces, realizing what's about to happen. "But it was your perfect world."
"it was," Gudang quietly agrees, breath hitching as she remembers the betrayal on her brother's face and the pain that she felt as she wondered why he wasn't happy. "i was such a fool. i should've brought it to their attention. i should've created it with them next to me, with their input. i should've… i…"
Burying her face in her hand, the marble woman gulps as she tries to hold back her rampant emotions. "i… i made claudius unhappy. he was right. he was right. i was just… the world was just for myself, i only made it perfect with myself in mind. i never thought… i never considered what they would want. my husband tried to defend me," she gasps, "and something in my brother snapped. Resentment, fury, and jealousy all rose to the surface… he was mad at augustus. he was acting irrationally. he drew his sword, and tried to strike augustus down.
River has no words for this, merely biting hir lip as ze gives hir other half a pitying look.
"augustus, bless his noble heart, fought back, taking great pains to not hurt my brother. i… i wish he had. maybe if the fight had ended sooner, they wouldn't have broken our- my paradise in their duel. maybe augustus wouldn't have had his wings severed, and maybe i wouldn't have had to see him fall into the pit and come out mangled and brutalized. dead, but somehow still moving." Gudang clasps a hand over her mouth, shutting her eye as she tries to recompose herself.
"augustus… or, what he had been twisted into, slew my brother by dragging him into the pit. i could only hear glimpses of their struggle. i don't think i'll ever even be able to recover either of their bodies to bury them. they're gone, in places where time and space are broken beyond repair, where logic is false and where anyone who is already in them will never be able to return to the rest of the universe ever again." Her body shakes and trembles, as she digs her nails into her marble skin and tries to break it.
"i failed them all, river. the pantheon, the humans, the entities. i didn't deserve to live after all of it. i was the cause of all this! why did i have to stay alive? why did i have to process my brother and my lover killing each other in such a brutal display? why did i have to watch their creations twist and change and fail as chaos engulfed the universe? why did i have to watch my worlds corrupt and fall apart with everyone and everything inside them stuck along for the ride?"
Her voice breaks as she quietly utters, "maybe the universe thought it the perfect way to punish me. i caused all of this grief. it was only fair that i lived to see the consequences of my actions, wasn't it?"
"Gudang, I-"
"i did the only thing i could." Gudang gulps, her hand on her breast as she does not feel her heart beat beneath her chest of stone. Her voice is quiet, and River strains to even hear it as she says, "i grabbed a piece of the sky. what was left of it. i carved my memories out of my head, and with it, all my sentiment, all the good that remained inside of me after such a traumatic ordeal."
"i tried to forget." She turns, her eye widening with fresh tears still streaking down it as it stares at hir hatefully. "but that clearly didn't work. because i still remembered it, river. i remembered. i remembered it all thanks to you!"
River's eye widens. "Wait-" Before ze can get any more words out, Gudang's hand grasps onto hir face, her fingers pressing on the inside of hir mouth as the grieving goddess tries to rip hir open.
"i… i can't believe i displayed such vulnerability to you. i can't believe i told you all of this. you made me tell you all of this. you. fucking. trickster!" Gudang snarls, gasping for air as she tries to blink the tears away. "i didn't want to remember any of this! you made me remember, just to hurt me! it all makes sense. why else would you suddenly care so much for me? nothing's free. especially not someone else's love!"
"Gugang!" The archivist bites down on her fingers, and somehow, hir teeth manage to chip the marble, eliciting a pained cry from hir other as she withdraws her hand and gives River some room to breathe. "Gudang! Fuck is wrong with you!? I was trying to help you! You- you let it out! You don't have to suffer this alone. I'm listening to you! I just want you to stop hurting so badly."
Gudang grits her teeth, nursing her fingers with her thumb as she glares at the archivist. "that thing about listening to me was just a lie, wasn't it? you wanted me to remember something i didn't want to. you wanted to hurt me. it's the only explanation that makes sense."
"I'm not you!" River snaps, hir patience wearing thin. "I'm not you. I don't emotionally manipulate people! I don't want to hurt people, and I'm not some master manipulator who likes to see people suffer. I promise you, I had no ulterior motives. I just wanted you to let all your negative feelings out, so that you didn't have to bear the burden alone." The archivist's gaze softens, and ze places a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I understand now. Your behavior makes sense to me now. And you know what? I'm sorry."
"you're… apologizing." Her eye twitches. "i hurt you, and yet you're the one apologizing."
"I didn't know you would have this bad of a reaction to recounting your story to me."
Gudang looks down at the ground, her expression carefully neutral as she slowly pushes hir hand off of her shoulder. With a sigh, she wipes her eye with her hand, gazing at the breaking landscape and the fragmenting skybox.
"…thank you," she quietly mutters under her breath.
"You're welcome."
They stare at the horizon in silence for a few more peaceful minutes as they both come to terms with what has happened between them. It's odd, to Gudang, at least. She can't wrap her head around it. But she has the feeling that she doesn't need to.
Maybe it's the thought that counts, that she still has someone after losing everyone dear to her because of her actions. Maybe she can be at peace. Maybe.
"river?"
"Yeah?"
"let us never speak of this again. please."
"…Got it."
It is then that their attention is drawn to the newest being falling into heaven. But he is unlike most others. Certainly not human. River can feel Gudang gaius staring intently, and it sends shivers down hir spine.
"…gatekeeper."
"…Oh, damn it."
The armored figure curses as he pulls out a bottle of Almond Water, pouring it over the affected area before drinking the rest of the bottle, throwing it away and digging around his belt for something else.
"Where is it, where is it…" he mutters, before his hands clasp around the familiar shape of his most recent favorite tool. "Ah!" The Red Knight sighs as he pulls out a makeshift flamethrower, shaking the can before pointing it at the plant growing on his arm and squeezing the trigger.
He grits his teeth beneath his helmet, hissing as the pain on his arm grows with each passing second. Once he feels the rest of the plant's charred remains fall off, he stops squeezing, causing the flames to die out and reveal the burnt marks on his arm. "Oooh, that stings…" he murmurs, putting the tool away and searching for bandages to cover up his injury with.
The knight clicks his tongue, looking around to make sure that he's alone, before he starts wrapping the bandage around his wounded arm. Once he's done, he breaks the bandage roll off and puts it away, gently patting down the ends of the bandage to make sure that it sticks as he gives a low, unhappy growl. He sits back, leaning against the wall as his sword rests comfortably against his leg.
"I hate this place." He breathes out. "I really, really hate this place." The office that he's licking his wounds in offers no response, other than the hum of some unseen air-conditioning unit that always seems to be just around the corner, even though he can't actually find it.
Well, my job's done here anyways, isn't it? The Red Knight stands up, grabbing the armor he'd taken off earlier to treat the parasitic plant before putting it back on, experimentally shaking his arm a few times to make sure that it's been fastened correctly. Once he's satisfied with how tightly it clings to his arm, he grabs his sword, twirls it around, then slams it blade-first into the ground.
The instant his sword makes contact with the soft, fuzzy floor of the office building, space warps and breaks around it as he falls into a newly-created hole in the ground, which closes up as soon as he's through. He falls.
He falls, and falls, and falls, until he thinks of his destination and the endless black around him breaks apart to reveal a dark and dreary neighborhood that he quickly finds… regrettably familiar. Unwanted and familiar. "Oh, great," he grumbles to himself. "Here I am… again."
"Well," he says to himself, hoisting his sword over his shoulder and walking around, "suppose I better start finding people to save…"
Still, he's going to get out of this place as soon as he can. Just being in this world causes him to get shivers in his spine…
He perks up, hearing someone yelling for help. Here we go again…
"Hey!" he shouts as he finds his prey. "You!"
The giant eyeball pauses, slowly turning from its target — a defenseless mortal — to face him. It stares at him, seemingly studying his strange attire and choice of weaponry without so much as a word or a grunt. It affixes him with a stare, and then, light engulfs him.
The golden beam of light very quickly dissipates as he slashes his sword at it, cleaving the front of the eye in twain and causing the creature to recoil, emitting an ungodly roar of pain as it tries to figure out what just happened to it.
Something that it won't ever get the chance to do, as he swiftly finishes it off with a horizontal slash that sends its two halves falling back down to the ground, dead. After wiping the blood off of his faceplate with his arm, he turns to look at the mortal that he just rescued with what he hopes is a reassuring expression. "Are you alright?" he gently asks.
They're too petrified to even speak. He understands. He really does.
"…Alright then." He cuts a hole into reality with his sword next to them, ignoring the way that they tense up thinking that he's aiming for them, before pushing them through the hole and willing it shut before any horrid entity can get through. "Back home you go."
Home… He doesn't know what their home is. But he can take a guess and assume it's that sprawling city full of surprisingly docile entities and other humans. They'll be safe there, and they won't have to go through this horrid little place ever again. Not unless they want to.
He hopes they're smarter than that.
Something runs up to him from behind. He turns around, just in time to see a massive optic nerve reach for him and coil around his body, trying to crush him in its vice grip like a snake. He simply frowns beneath his helmet and cuts through the appendage with a casual swipe of his blade, falling on his feet as the nerve's owner screeches and staggers back in pain.
"Try it," he dares the beast. "See what good it does you."
As if rising to the challenge, the now-enraged eyeball slams a pair of tentacles next to his sides before bringing them together in a sweeping motion. Clearly, it's trying to crush him a second time. It seems that the monster doesn't know what the definition of insanity is, and if it does, it doesn't care.
He lets it clasp its appendages together for about four seconds, before eviscerating them in a flurry of strikes and slashes as he jumps out of the makeshift cage that it tried to make for him. As he soars through the air and meets it on eye-level, he asks it, "Was it worth it?"
It doesn't answer. It can't answer even if it wants to anyways, because he immediately cuts a Red Knight-shaped hole through its main body and falls out the other side of the eyeball. As he hits the ground, he rolls forwards, avoiding the falling corpse as he stands back up to his feet. "That…" he says, "felt good."
He looks around, seeing the run-down and imposing silhouettes of this world's houses in the distance. He can already imagine the sheer amount of monsters lying in wait for some poor, defenseless mortals to stumble in there, for whatever horrific fate awaits them.
Grinding his teeth, he sheathes his sword and begins making his way to the neighborhood.
No, he defiantly thinks. Not on my watch. I won't let you.
He can't fail them a second time. Not like how he failed her…
Shaking the traitorous thoughts away (You're supposed to be strong both physically and mentally, otherwise, how can you say you're strong enough to save other people?), he soldiers on and enters the urban hunting grounds of the Watch. He feels his body shake in rage at the thought of them preying on innocent, helpless wanderers.
Monsters… why don't you face someone of your own caliber, for once?
He shakes his hand, and his sword with it, in righteous fury as he storms through the empty streets. "Come out, beasts of the Ninth Realm!" he calls out into the darkness. His enhanced hearing allows him to pick up on the shifting of appendages and the rustling of leaves around him.
They're too quick, too numerous to be human. Humans wouldn't run to a potential threat, and even if any of them did, there would be too few of them to make a continuous noise like this. No, he knows it's them. They're coming.
His expression hardens, and he raises his blade as the noises grow louder and get closer. Let them come, he thinks, so that I may make this realm just a little bit safer for the mortals cursed to roam it.
An eyeball pops out of the darkness. Then another, and another. Eyeballs of various sizes seem to rise out of the inky blackness surrounding him to meet his challenge, to meet their ends at his blade. He cares not for the variants that they may be, nor does he take note of their appendages, or lack thereof.
They'll all fall to his blade, all the same.
He yells, "COME ON!" as a pair of massive eyes with optic nerves for limbs charge at him, veins outstretched and prepared to take hold of his limbs should they reach him.
With a war cry, he jumps into the air and swings his blade at the closest strider. The soft, bloodshot eyeball starts to cave underneath the force of his sword…
"…Is that it?" he mockingly asks, panting from exertion as he leans onto his sword, which is stabbed into the ground to help him prop himself up. Around him, the maimed and pulped eyeballs start to decay, returning the matter that made them back to the level.
Or perhaps, back to Icarus, he bitterly thinks. He doesn't know if his sister's husband even has his power of life-giving anymore, or if he still even is her husband. He doesn't know what became of them…
Although, the rumors he hears about them do not paint a pretty picture. He huffs, taking his sword out of the ground and sheathing it. He doesn't need these thoughts to plague him now, not while he's still in the hunting grounds of those wretched, rotten little beasts. He'll leave first, and then he can ruminate.
But first…
He walks around for a bit. He finds a few humans quickly enough. They seem to have been attracted by the sounds of his battle, or perhaps curious as to why there were so many of the Watch flocking to this area in particular. Still, he introduces himself with what little information they need to hear, asks them where they wish to go, and sends them off with a few flicks of his sword.
As the last hole in the fabric of reality closes, he sighs, getting on a knee and stretching his arm. "I'm so tired," he mumbles to himself. But he can't rest yet. He just needs… to go on… a few more journeys. Yes, that'll clear his head and let him rest easy. He knows he'll have earned the rest, too. It'll make it more… worthwhile.
With a tired huff, he stands up, and prepares to make another portal with his sword. He doesn't react at the rustling of leaves behind him, nor does he do anything about the rapidly approaching dog-sized eyeball about to pounce on him.
It does exactly that, soaring through the air and preparing to latch itself onto his back. With a flourish, he slices into the air and cuts the eyeball into two perfect halves, causing it to scrape its two separate parts on either side of him as it hits the ground in an almost morbidly comical fashion.
In the same swing, he wills a portal into existence, and the fabric of reality once again opens in front of him as he follows the call for help that seems to echo through time and space till it reaches him. Without another word, he walks into the portal, leaving the dreaded neighborhood behind.
It'll be safer now, he thinks as he's transported through the Backrooms. For a little while, at least.
When he exits the tunnel that he's bored through space and time, he finds himself in an empty, eerie parking lot, with red streetlamps that cast his surroundings in a dreadful, unsettling red glow. His face falls as he tries to navigate the area, recalling what he read from abandoned M.E.G. tablets a while back.
I am so glad that I bothered going through the humans' archives, he thinks to himself, trekking in a straight line till he locates the garage in the distance. Yes, so glad indeed.
…wait. He stops, turning around as he tightens his grip on his sword. The only danger documented in this level was… that… screaming… beast… His thoughts trail off as he hears exactly that, mixed with the panicked cursing of a human caught in a terrifying conundrum. Damn it.
Cursing under his breath, he runs through the lampposts as he tries to find the source of the ruckus. Please, please for the love of the gods I hope you haven't made any turns…
He realizes that he can hear the sounds from another direction. The Red Knight's face scrunches up in a frown as he goes to the right. "Of course you made a turn," he mutters as he sprints as fast as his legs can carry him.
"HUMAN!" he shouts, hoping to catch their attention. "FOLLOW MY VOICE! RETRACE YOUR STEPS TO THE GARAGE, I'M HERE TO HELP!" Aware of how he'll probably be disregarded as yet another beast, or a phenomena of the level, he adds, "IT'S THE RED KNIGHT! IF YOU'VE HEARD OF ME, YOU KNOW I CAN STOP THE MONSTER CHASING YOU! JUST GO TO ME!"
Miraculously, he can hear the hurried footsteps of the one he intends to save approaching his position. Well, that's convenient, he thinks, right as they crash into him and fall on their back. Immediately, he reaches out to them, and they take his hand as they practically jump to their feet and hide behind him.
"W-we have to run!" they blubber. "That thing is going to tear us both to pieces if it gets its hands on us!"
"What thing?" he asks, despite knowing fully well what they're talking about. He's confident in his ability to handle it, although they probably should run back to the garage instead of staying here and risking forgetting which direction he came from…
Unfortunately for him, it's too late to make any decisions, because just a few seconds later, the monster comes barreling out from behind a lamppost, hands outstretched to grab them when it catches sight of him. He stares at it, whipping out his blade and immediately slicing its hand off before it can reach either of them.
The beast shrieks, recoiling as it takes a few cautious steps back. It stares at him with white, empty eyes, its huge, inhuman mouth opening and closing as it tries to gauge the threat that he poses to it. It almost seems… intelligent.
It closes its mouth, seemingly gulping as it looks at him with what seems to be fear in its eyes, taking a few more steps back as it closes its other hand into a fist, lowering it. Before either of them can question its strange behavior, it turns and runs off into the parking lot, disappearing behind a lamppost and leaving the two alone and unharmed.
He pauses, slowly lowering his blade as he stares at the lamppost that the creature disappeared behind. "…I see," he mutters. The knight turns to his charge, relief lining his obscured features as he jerks his head in the direction of the beast. "It seems to have recognized me as a threat that it can't beat, and retreated… for now, perhaps. We'll head back to the garage before it tries to kill you a second time."
The human bites their lip. "You do remember which way you went, right?"
The Red Knight stares at them quietly. Behind his helmet, he feels himself sweat profusely as he wracks his mind for memories of his path to the human. "…Yes," he reluctantly answers. "But… I think we could try a shortcut."
Before they can ask him what he means by that, he cuts another opening into the world, grabs them by the arm and strolls through the tunnel before it closes.
They emerge from the portal, and promptly slam right into the wooden wall of the garage's exterior. The Red Knight is relatively unscathed by his little screw-up. His charge, not so much. They stumble backwards, clutching their face as they curse their rotten luck. "My nose…" they mumble.
"We can deal with that later," he quickly replies, leading them around the garage to the entrance. Leaving no room for them to protest, he leads them in, closes the door, and idly twirls his sword as he watches them walk around nervously. "You want out of here, right?"
They look up at him, still bleeding from the nose. "Yes," they say. "I uh… maybe Level 11 will do?" As he moves to make a cut next to them, they quickly add, "W-wait, but my nose-!"
"You can get the help you need in that level," he coolly replies, opening a portal next to them. "My apologies, wanderer, but my medical supplies are strictly for emergencies only. I can't waste my scarce resources on something as trivial as that."
They sigh. "Fine," they mumble, slowly walking through the portal and leaving him alone once again.
Finally, he thinks, relaxing as he looks around the shoddy garage. Actually, this place unnerves me. I want to get out of here as fast as possible, too.
Immediately homing in on the feeling of another being in mortal danger, he cuts a portal open in front of him and leaps in without a second thought. I'm coming…
The portal deposits him in midair, forcing him to roll as he hits the ground hard. With a grunt, he quickly stands up, dusting himself off as he looks around the realm. "Right. Now, where's that…" he trails off, eyes widening in horror as he realizes where he is.
"Oh, no…"
It's their paradise. Her gift to them, the same one he spat on so cruelly and killed her lover in. It's heaven. He swallows his own spit as he slowly trudges along the glitching path. He has no choice but to press on, until he can find the human in peril and get them out of this place, out of her little paradise for all the people she caught.
He's not stupid. He knows from the archives exactly what she does to people who stumble upon her influence. He knows there's probably no hope for them, but to not even try to save them… what would that make him?
an even bigger failure than he already is.
He pauses, stopping in his tracks as he feels that familiar presence that he thought he'd never feel again. Not since that day. Swallowing dryly, the Red Knight slowly turns and looks up at the sky, to meet the eyes of this world's god.
She stares at him, her expression blank and betraying nothing as she floats above him. The skybox behind her seems to warp and glitch at her mere presence as she tilts her head at him. "claudius," she coldly intones, her regal voice echoing throughout the landscape of their broken paradise as he feels the artificial air around him grow thick and oppressive. "i had hoped to never see you again."
The armored giant of a man almost shrinks beneath her glare as he grinds his teeth behind his helmet. "Gaius," he quietly says. "I wouldn't have answered the call if I'd known that it would've led me here." Despite the tattered remains of his godly instincts screaming danger at him, he keeps his sword pointed to the ground, unwilling to raise his blade against the sister he'd inadvertently killed so long ago.
The marble statue clenches her fists so hard that it audibly cracks her palms. "oh?" she mocks. "you don't want to visit your dear sister, not even to say sorry for everything you caused me? for everything you did to my husband, for leaving my son without his father nor his mother?" She huffs, almost seeming sad despite her previous scathing statement. "i'm hurt." Her voice is quiet, almost meek. It almost sounds like the Gudang of old again.
Before he can ponder the implications of her sudden shift in mood, she swoops down like a furious bird of prey and slams into him with her arms outstretched, slamming him into a nearby digital tree as she holds him in place with an unnatural strength. He can hear the iron burning through her marble skin, and yet, she doesn't let go. Instead, her grip tightens around his arms, holding him in place as she glares into the slit of his helmet. "you're a coward, claudius." The armor starts to buckle underneath her vice grip. "you left me to rot. you let my son go on his path of self-destruction. you couldn't even stay and watch the consequences of your actions unfold."
He wants to respond. Wants to argue back. But he can't. She's right, he thinks, despair filling his heart. I'm a horrible person. I deserve this.
"and to do what?" she hisses. "to play hero? to save some mortals who'll eventually die anyways in the fraction of the time that it takes us to get over a fever? you imbecile. you left your family for the same humans that would kill us all out of their own rampant fears and lust for power." Tears prick at her eyes, and she furiously blinks them away as she digs her nails into the now-exposed skin of his arms, the protective armor having long since fallen to the ground or crushed into useless scrap at her hands. "look at you. even now, you still try to hold onto some sort of moral superiority. even now, you're not fighting back. you-!" Her voice breaks, and right as he feels like his bones are about to break next, she lets go, letting him fall to the ground as she abruptly flies back into the sky.
He gathers his strength, feeling his muscles knit themselves back together and his armor plating slowly twist itself back into shape as it flies back onto his arms. Above him, he can feel Gaius' stare, along with her rapid breathing as he grasps onto his sword for strength. He stands up, slowly meeting her eyes as he leans onto his sword, stabbed into the ground, for support.
Gaius' expression is a storm full of grief, rage and disappointment, all trying to overpower each other as she trembles in the air. Then, she gnashes her teeth and gestures with her arm. The limp body of a person slowly floats through the air and towards them, and she slowly lowers them onto his shoulder as she affixes him with an obfuscating frown. "you came here to rescue this one, didn't you? take them."
A portal full of static opens up behind him, and he more so hears than sees it as she gasps for air above him. "take them, and go. go back to your damnable heroics, and leave me to rot as you always have." Without warning, he flies backwards into the portal, and he feels himself slipping as he tries to keep his hold on the person still hoisted over his shoulder as the paradise fades from view, along with everything else in the world.
As he feels his consciousness get snuffed out by the shock of being shot through space and time, he hears her final words. and they stab a hole through his heart, exactly like he deserves.
"i don't want to see you ever again."
And he goes out like a light, as he flies through the static tunnel and as it slowly goes from blank gray to light blue. And he keeps on falling backwards…
He doesn't even register that the one he wishes to save has disappeared from his side, until he looks around and realizes that he's still falling. And that he's completely, totally alone. Panicking, he tries to find their soul throughout the universe. He sifts through his memories, trying to figure out where they went while he was lost in his own regret.
Damn it! He grits his teeth, tears pricking at his eyes. How could I have been so distracted? How could I have let her break me like that!?
To his relief, he finds them somewhere around that little area of the universe that he knows to be safe. It's… the city, again. What a happy coincidence for them. What a happy little accident for his soul, to have one less life lost weighing down on his conscience.
He's still falling. Clicking his tongue, he tries to see if he can control where the tunnel is taking him. He knows it's not his portal, but he and his sister are close enough relatives that he could probably control where her gateways lead.
He finds that he can. She's not even actively controlling it anymore, content to leave him falling forever until he gathers his mind. He doesn't know if he should find the thought comforting or disheartening. Still, he shakes them away and focuses on the present.
Take me to one more mortal soul to rescue. Just one more for today. Please.
Static engulfs his senses, then fades as quickly as it arrived. He doesn't know where he is. It's all completely dark. It's too hot. He feels like he's cooking himself alive in his own armor. He wants to take it off, discard all his possessions and fade into a sh-
NO!
He snaps himself out of his stupor and looks around. It's still too hot. It's still too dark. But he knows himself now. He knows not to give in to the urges. He will keep moving forward. Keep moving forward…
"…until I can't move anymore," he finishes out loud, slowly walking along the… the void. His very body feels like it wants to lose cohesion and fall apart on the atomic level. He wills it not to. His atonement is not yet complete.
It will never be.
The Red Knight pauses. He feels another presence with him, but it's not mortal. It's not the human he came to save. It's not human at all. It's godly, decayed and rotten, twisted into an unrecognizable shape yet still so familiar after all these eons.
At least, it feels like eons.
He swivels around, nearly unsheathing his blade at the sight that greets him. A stark white skeleton stares at him from the darkness, wearing a tattered cloak that seems to billow from an invisible wind in the empty void. An impossibility, just like the entirety of this place.
He tries to find his words, working his jaw to say something. Anything, to break the dreadful silence that has engulfed them both. He's so 4FR14D.
…of what?
No matter. He stares at the skeleton, and it stares back with burning purple orbs, no, flames, in its sockets. It recognizes him, too. They know each other, he remembers it falling, rising from the ashes, killing him after scraping his godly flesh against the realms they built-
"Claudius," it wheezes out, its voice raspy and unused in ages. "It's you."
Finally, he manages to speak. His voice is quiet, unsure of what to say. "Augustus." The knight looks at him solemnly. "I… I don't know what to say to you. I do not know if you even want to hear it."
It- he rears his head back, laughing into space as he gestures around them with his arms. "Oh, spare me the remorse, the pity party, all of it. Let's chat, it's been a good damn while since I've had someone to talk to in this place. And to think that it would be you, of all people, oh, what a sick fucking joke…"
He reluctantly walks over to him, trying to not clench his fists as he slowly takes in Augustus' new form. "You… you look… decayed. Destroyed."
"A real funny joke, too," the skeleton mutters, turning to look at him with a feisty grin on his face. "Hm, destroyed. Funny, I wonder who I have to thank for that."
"Me," the knight replies without missing a beat.
"Atta boy, Claudius. I'm so glad your memory hasn't failed you after so long playing hero."
Asshole, he thinks, but keeps the opinion to himself. It's his fault his brother-in-law is acting like this, after all. It's all his damn fault.
As if hearing his thoughts, the skeleton smirks at him with an infuriatingly-pleased grin. "Oh, stop being so tightly wound, buddy! We've got so much catching up to do. Don't you agree? Come on, sit." He walks around the void, as if searching for something. "I'm sure there's a chair somewhere around this shithole. If not, I'll just steal one from higher up."
"You can leave this place?" the knight asks, despite, once again, already knowing the answer. Just making sure.
Despite lacking any internal organs to speak of, the fallen angel coughs awkwardly. "Oh, no, I can just create apparitions that can interact with things and carry a fraction of my power wherever I please. Temporary freedom." He idly makes a circle with his hand. "Think of it like playing a video game, if that video game was distracting you from the horrifying reality that you are trapped forever. Speaking of, thanks, Claudius."
The Red Knight clicks his tongue in displeasure.
As if picking up on this, the skeleton glances at him with narrowed eyes. "Do you want me to call you the Red Knight instead? It's a stupid name, which is why I didn't call you that earlier, but if you want, I can use your made-up name anytime…"
"Don't," the Red Knight Claudius grumbles. "I… that reminds me. Do you want me to call you Icarus or just Augustus?"
"Hah." The skeleton grins, although it's forced and doesn't quite reach the sides of his head. "I don't wanna get reminded of the horrid shit humanity's twisted my identity into while I was gone. I'd rather use my old, true name, Augustus, same as you."
Claudius nods at that. "Very well then, Augustus."
His brother-in-law goes back to sifting through the void, tough, segmented fingers grasping at unseen objects that seem to be blanketed in darkness. How he can see them at all, the knight doesn't know. He doesn't question it. This place's lack of logic is making his head spin just acknowledging it.
Finally, Augustus perks up. "Found one! Two, actually!" He grabs something out of the darkness, then throws it at the knight at breakneck speeds. "Think fast!"
Claudius almost belts out a curse as he catches the chair that seems to materialize out of nothingness. It's a miracle that he doesn't instantly crush it as soon as it's in his hands, his nerves frayed and his composure slipping. What is wrong with this place?
He places it down behind him, sitting on it as he sees the other undead god approach him with another chair in his hands. Even though he's floating, so really, a chair wouldn't be necessary at all, but small comforts, I suppose.
"Right," Augustus starts, sitting down and stretching his legs. "So, how's my wife?"
The knight goes still at the mention of his sister. "…You still care?" he quietly asks.
For once, the skeleton seems truly offended, truly angry. That must've struck a nonexistent nerve. "Of course I do, you prick. She's still my wife." He looks away guiltily. "If I wasn't too busy wallowing in my self-loathing and if I knew how to reach her heaven, I'd have done it by now. So, how is she, Claudius?"
He thinks. He ponders on how he should break the news of his sister's dull, cold hatred for him, and how badly she's been twisted by both of their deaths. He decides to take the simple solution.
He won't break the news at all.
"She's doing good."
Augustus grinds his teeth as he smiles at him menacingly. "Liar," he hisses. "I'm not stupid, you asshole. I can tell you're withholding something from me. So, I'll ask you this again. How's. My. Wife?"
Claudius gulps and shifts nervously in his seat. His hand closes itself, as if he's clutching the hilt of his sword even though it's still safely in its sheath. "She's…" He pauses, seeing the skeleton hunch over, as if he's about to leap out of his chair and start trying to strangle him with his own bare hands. "She's not so good."
The skeleton sighs, tapping his fingers on the chair he's sitting on. "Yeah, yeah. Don't soften the blow. Just say it. I've got enough of a reason to hold a grudge against you anyways, not like whatever you're gonna reveal to me is gonna make a difference." He jerks his skull. "So, spit it."
The knight crosses his arms, trying to hide how much he's shaking underneath all his armor. Breathe. Breathe. If he attacks you, you'll survive this. "She's been going around kidnapping people and turning them into mindless followers. Her heaven's also fallen into disarray, and it's… not in a great shape, after all this time. Also, she hates me."
"Thought so," Augustus simply replies. "I've heard enough rumors from those explorers and encountered one who tried to seek her own answers… to her own detriment. Naive little imbeciles, all of them." He gives a heavy, disappointed sigh. "You'd think people would learn after the first few mistakes. Apparently, not."
The knight clears his throat. "You're not mad at me?"
"Oh no, I'm furious." Augustus reels his head back and laughs, completely uncaring of the unsettled expression on the other fallen god's face. "I'm just… I'm so tired, Claudius. Being angry won't do anything for me now. Besides, you're not worth it. I've heard of what you've been doing all this time. You think it'll atone for your mistakes."
"It has to," Claudius answers automatically, almost fervently as he clasps his hands together. They still feel hot to the touch. "Otherwise-"
"It won't." The skeleton stares at him blankly. "You can't make up for what you did to me. To my wife. To our son. And yes, I know about how badly he's spiraled thanks to your actions. This is your punishment, and frankly, I don't think I mind it at all." He leans back into his chair, relaxing. "You're free, sure, but you're still burdened by everything. You're going through hell and high water just to save a few mortals who'll probably die anyways, when you're not there to save them. You might not even save them at all, you're just one man in a suit of armor with a really good sword and a really good healing factor. You want to play hero? Be my guest. I can't and I won't stop you."
The knight doesn't give a response to that, merely slumping in his seat as he feels the air leave his lungs. His arms hang limply at his sides, as if he's too shocked to even put in the energy to sit properly.
"That isn't necessarily a bad thing," Augustus mutters. "You're naive, you're chasing after an unreachable goal, but you still keep moving forward. I almost envy you. I… no, you don't deserve any more praise." The burning purple orbs in his sockets stare into his very soul, almost intensifying as Claudius slowly stands up. "One more thing, before you go on your little self-appointed task."
Claudius stares at him blankly.
"Tell SHALTOKOL that I love him the next time you face him, alright?"
He nods. "Very well. Where's the human?"
As if the earlier moments haven't transpired between them, Augustus cackles madly as he rises into the air, pushing the chair back into the darkness below. "Okay, now I definitely know you're an idiot. You can't bring someone out of the TH3 3ND! You can't even perceive them anymore! They're literally reduced to atoms, which have been broken apart into their separate particles from how much the layers of reality have pressed down on them! You're chasing after a specter, a ghost of their life force! The only reason we're even standing here, able to talk, is because we're both gods!" He huffs, his arms falling to his sides as he looks coyly at the knight. "Honestly, did you even read the level on their archives? Or did you neglect to? Because I have no idea how you even missed something as important as that."
"Augustus. Where are they." Claudius stands ramrod straight, with a white knuckle grip on his sword as he pulls it out of its sheath.
"Are you even listening?" Augustus floats over to him. "Oh, wait, I forgot, you're the foolhardy underdog! How could I have forgotten that irritating aspect of your personality? Alright, fine. Say that you find the particles that used to constitute them before gathering it all in a nice little container. What'll you do then, o valiant Red Knight? They've gone through literal hell just to get to this place. How will you fix them once you're out?"
Upon seeing the sharp look that the knight gives him, the skeleton adds, "Oh, did you forget? I can't fix people. I've lost my life-weaving abilities after you let me fall into the void. Once again, your mistakes come back to haunt you, at the worst possible time." He snickers. "What a grand, cosmic joke."
Claudius growls angrily, pacing around the void as he drags his sword against the nonexistent ground. He feels hot, and it's not just because of this wretched place's properties. He's angry that he failed, that he walked into impossible odds and expected to win this time. He's such a fool.
"Hey, if you keep beating yourself up, you might join them." Augustus sighs, floating beside him and smacking his helmet with a charred arm. The knight snaps his head around to glare at him, and he promptly floats back a bit to avoid any sort of retaliation from his murderer. "Listen, you should just get out of here and rest. I don't need to be a god to be able to tell that you're tired beyond belief. Go, Claudius. You've already done enough."
"Why?" the knight hisses. "Why are you so hospitable to me after everything? How?"
"Like I said," the skeleton replies, grabbing his sword arm and holding it high, "you're not worth the effort. I think it's more entertaining hearing about how badly you're stretching yourself thin just to try and rescue all these fragile little humans. And how can you do that if you're dead?"
Claudius sighs, looking down at the void beneath his boots before glancing at Augustus. Augustus Icarus smiles back, all teeth and bones as he grasps onto his wrist and flicks it in a motion. A portal opens up in front of him.
"Goodbye, Red Knight," the skeleton singsongs, floating backwards a bit to watch him leave.
Reluctantly, the knight walks through the tunnel, almost grateful for the change in temperature as the cool interior of the portal grants him a reprieve from the inferno of TH3 3ND. He glances behind him, seeing the skeleton wave him off with those intense, piercing purple flames in his eyes. Before he can give a goodbye of his own, the portal closes, leaving nothing behind.
Slowly, he sheaths his sword and walks through the tunnel. He's too far down from any safe level. He'll have to trudge along for hours just to find one.
He sighs, and continues to walk forwards. Until he reaches his goal. He'll keep walking forwards, no matter what.
forever. F0R3V3R.
Forever.