Samael walked, getting even more accustomed to his new body. The soft crunches of bones could be heard from beneath him, one of the few sounds that were here, the other was of the Vessels. They walked and they fell as always, at this point it was just something that happened, something that would continue to happen. Samael brushed against one of them but they didn't react, their only purpose to climb and fail, he continued onwards.
Samael found himself in another tunnel, only thing different this time was that he noticed the black liquid from seeing the clock of time rewind, it was of course completely still, no fish or any other creature lay in it. Samael's curiosity got the better of him as he crouched down and extended his arm to touch the strange water, if it even was that. He knew that this was a stupid decision but he felt an odd familiarity coming from the small pool. His hand was hesitant at first but then he gave in to that familiarity. Then, the water moved.
Black tentacles emerged from it, they were shredded and sharp, a glimpse of a creature with a few pairs of eyes was the last thing he could see before he stumbled back. His hand was bleeding black blood, his face was also slashed at, leaving a scar on it. Samael's immediate reaction was to run but he noticed that he was not dead. A creature like this only grazed him and already did sufficient enough damage, surely it would be able of devouring him and using him as fuel for even more victims, but it didn't.
'Ah, so even the water wants to kill me, isn't that lovely?'
Samael stood up and examined his hand, he couldn't even see a wound, much less feel it, but it was there, the black ichor dropping from it was proof of that. Samael had a theory, about the black water. He picked up a nearby stone and chucked it into the pool, immediately, it was shredded instantly, leaving nothing more than dust.
'Thought so. Okay, don't bother it and it won't bother me, at least I figured out something about this place.'
Although hesitant at first he decided to jump over the pool, in actuality it wasn't that big so he did it without much trouble. He had to climb up a few times and jump down, as well as avoid the black mass underneath him at times, weirdly enough though it did not feel as though this was naturally formed, the platforms he jumped on may have had a rough design but were visibly made. There were too many perfections than imperfections for it to be otherwise. Another minute or so passed by and the tunnel once again opened into a space, much bigger than the scream room from before but also not as big as the main body of the abyss.
In the middle of it all was a lighthouse. It dwarfed Samael easily, it's sheer size imposing a certain authority in this place, as if it had proclaimed itself the only light in the world that was this black. Time had taken its effect a long time ago as the outer layers of the lighthouse were crumbling here and there, showing the body interior of it. The top of the lighthouse had glass and spikes on it's top as well as something familiar, something that Samael had seen before.
'Four protrusions, crowning the lighthouse... this has to be connected to my dream, right? This is the exact same symbol I saw in that castle! So many thoughts and so little answers, this place wants to drive me mad.'
The lighthouse itself was segmented into 7 layers, each one having an intricate design and decorative spikes on the sides.
'What's up with this place and spikes?' Samael wondered.
He had seen spikes on walls, spikes on creatures and now spikes on lighthouses? Whoever or whatever designed this place sure did like sharp objects, and water apparently.
Samael continued to move, jumping over one last pool of black before reaching the base of the lighthouse. The first thing that caught his attention was the lack of an entrance. No matter how much he looked or how much he tried to push and pull at the tower it did not show any sign of opening, he was unsure if this was a good or bad thing. Not like he needed to enter it though, the light atop it, white and blinding when looked directly into it was on, it wasn't like he needed to turn it off, doing that would worsen his situation if anything. His gaze was locked onto something else. In the direction that the light illuminated he saw yet again the black water, only this time it wasn't a pool. It was a lake.
It spanned to at least a few hundred meters in all directions. Samael's heart dropped, so much of this thing was here and therefore, so many abominations were here. Samael approached the lake with caution, ready to summon his Old Nail if not for anything but just to give himself some courage. As he walked closer and closer he looked at the water directly, his eyes gazing into an abyss... only thing was that it wasn't gazing back at him.
Whenever he jumped over the other pools that guarded the path to the lighthouse Samael would feel something when near it, familiarity, a sense of danger towards it maybe even a faint desire to jump in once in a while for some reason. Now though, he felt nothing, he curiously reached out a hand and quickly retreated it, sure enough, nothing attacked him.
'Is it scared of the lighth? This... actually makes sense, why else have a lighthouse in such a place? Surely there were no ships sailing this great nothingness, not that I want to jinx it.'
That was his working theory. He still made sure to be cautious so he threw in a few rocks to see if it was just waiting patiently for him to enter, nothing happened. As long as there was light then the water was safe, as safe as it could at least.
Now Samael had two options, he could either turn back and climb up...
'Fuck that, I am not risking falling down from so high, I'll never do that.'
Or to swim and see what was at the other end of the black substance, he jad already seen that it was safe so it was worth a shot, and Samael actually had to do something to escape. He was a coward yes, but a coward that wanted to live. Fortunately for him he had gone to swimming lessons when he was younger, silently thanking his parents for having sent him to swimming lessons he jumped in, his body absorbed by the still water.
***
'No, really, what the hell?'
To the absolute delight of Samael he hadn't died the moment he jumped in, in fact, he was the only thing moving. There was also the fact that he felt even more in place, even more familiarity now that he was in direct contact with the black lake, but there was another part of him, of his being, that felt wrong. It felt as though one part of him wanted to stay here forever while the other wanted to escape as soon as possible, lest it devoured it whole, but Samael kept swimming, he had to. There was also a primal fear instilled into him, being in water was bad enough but being in something that wasn't water and could eat him any second if there wasn't any light made his being shudder, but of course the reaction wasn't as severe as it should've been so he persevered.
Samael finally reached a ledge and pulled himself out of the water, surprisingly he wasn't wet, neither was the liquid dripping off of him, all that he felt was nothing, as there was no breeze down there. Actually, Samael had thought that he was deep below ground but in all honesty he could've also been somewhere very high up and just not know it, nevertheless he moved onwards. There it was again, another entrance to a tunnel, just big enough to fit him.
'This place really isn't all that creative, imagine describing this to someone and all you say is black, tunnels and nothingness... why am I thinking about such stupid stuff?'
As he moved the light from behind him got fainted and fainted with each step. Samael even though he jad died for a moment beacuse of the silence, no breathing escaped his mouth neither any clicks could be heard from cracking his joints, not that he had any in this form. His vision became more and more useless until he almost hit a rock which was right in front of him. He tried to go around it but realized pretty quickly that it was just a wall, a wall that the only way around was up. With a mental sigh he tried to find a crack to pivot his foot in.
Slowly but surely he climbed one step after the other, the stone was dry thankfully and so that made it much easier to climb, despite his comically large head being... well, that, he began to quickly adapt, his movement got faster and faster as he finally reached the summit of the wall. He practically jumped from the ledge up and slammed his head against the ceiling before falling right next to the edge, he of course did not feel the pain but felt the annoyance of not being able to see, at least he had made it up the wall.
'What the hell am I supposed to-'
But before he could finish even thinking his sentence he felt a nudge, something was calling for him, something wanted him, something needed him. It was almost the exact same feeling he had in his dream before coming here but it was different in one very important manner. This feeling didn't pull him, it called for him, it didn't force him to come but it definitely sang a hypnotizing song so that he would. He followed his senses, allowing himself to not think as his feet moved. For all Samael knew this could've been a deadly trap from a monster hiding in the dark, but he didn't care right now, all he cared about was the sweet call of it.
He stumbled and he fell for a few moments before finally reaching the ground with a loud thud. His body didn't care as it got up and stopped, his mind finally overcoming the mind hex that he had briefly fallen victim to. His already wide eyes were shocked even more at what he saw, or more so at what he didn't.
He felt the presence of something ancient and great, something that had seen it all and had sacrificed it all. How he felt all of that he did not know, maybe it was due to one of his 2 attributes that gave him an affinity to certain creatures, which one's effect he was feeling right now Samael did not know. Unfortunately for him he was still human on the inside, and so, his curiosity got the better of him as he approached the ancient presence.
He heard the sound of something flowing as he got closer. His body brushed against something big and bony. His hand reached out as it touched the flowing liquid, it was similar to the black water from before but this one wasn't water...
'It's ichor. This is profane ichor!'
Samael didn't know how he understood what it was, he didn't need to beacuse in the next moment the ichor climbed up his hand and crawled inside his scarred mask. Entering Samael's body. Immediately, he dropped to the ground, he was frozen as all he felt was profound wrongness and rightness as his body was being invaded by this guest and criminal. One half of him felt nothing but satisfaction and the other felt nothing but horror. He both convulsed and bathed in the profanity of it all, an equinox formed inside his being as the process began and finished. It all happened so fast and not fast enough.
Samael Grabbed his head and stumbled back, the infuriating voice of the Nightmare Spell spoke.
[Your being expands, your attribute has evolved]
[You have gained a memory]
'What the hell is wrong with this place!'
He thought with both anger and sheer amazement, this place was driving him insane, yet it refused him to succumb to insanity due to his body.
After a few minutes of gasping for air, which was him just standing in one place, he read the runes. At least he got something out of all this so it was a win in his book.
As he read them a small smile of satisfaction appeared on his face, at least it would've appeared on it if he had one.