Soon, Star found himself lingering at the entrance to the ziggurat. The soul-draining, gut-wrenching feeling he had earlier was slowly returning, gnawing at him as he grimaced slightly.
Fighting through it, he continued to follow behind Katerina, and moments later, he found himself inside the outer corridor of the ancient temple. It was narrow, obscuring his view further into the distance, and along the sides of the walls, torches were fixed, burning with pale blue flames.
The walls were built of weathered brown, slightly golden stone, decorated with reliefs he couldn't make any good sense of. Just like the outer walls of the ziggurat, there were faces of both people and mythical creatures.
For Star, it felt different seeing the marvelous yet dreadful sight for himself. His heart raced in fear, and yet he couldn't help but marvel at what lay before him.
His gaze continued to linger on the walls as they moved further into the corridor of the temple. As they made their way deeper inside, the structure of the place began to change slightly. Star started to catch glimpses of the doors to a few rooms built into the sides of the ancient walls.
The first ones he saw were made of thick stone slabs, completely unbroken, yet worn smooth by the passing of time. Unlike the earlier walls, the ones around here didn't have any carvings, and the stone doors were slightly darker around the seams.
Star could feel a strange sensation growing stronger within him, like something intangible was forcing itself out of his chest. After a while, though, he realized what it was.
And it wasn't intangible...
'I feel thirsty.'
...It was his blood.
It had begun running wild the moment he reached the first section of the outer corridor. Moreover, it was igniting a foreign yet familiar sensation within him—the same one he had felt when he woke after being thrown into the dark void.
The thirst that lingered in him after his gaze had shifted to the glass of blood Katerina had kept on the table.
It all felt so... strange.
But he didn't have to endure it for long, as it only took him a few more steps to get past the first section. After that, only two doors stood a distance away on either side of the corridor, facing each other.
Due to the narrow structure, he was forced to move closer in order to get a proper view, and what he saw next made him shiver. In the middle of the doors, identical faces were carved deep—perfect and beautiful, their eyes shut tight.
Their eyelids were stained red, the color flowing down their cheeks, and across their faces ran horizontal scars. However, while the right face had its scar carved into the right side, the left one had its carved into the left.
And as they faced each other, the scars appeared to be on the same side of their faces.
As Star walked past the doors alongside Katerina, he trembled slightly, uneasy at the feeling that the eyes were watching him. The strange blood-thirst disappeared as well, replaced with a sense of emptiness he couldn't make sense of.
He hastened his pace, quickly reaching the third section of the outer corridor. Just like the first two, the walls around this one didn't have any reliefs, and while the single stone door situated to his right looked rather simple, half of it was caved inward.
Well, it only looked simple until he looked closer.
He quickly realized that it was by far the strangest of the doors he had seen so far. It seemed frozen in time—jagged stones stopping mid-fall, suspended in the air. And through the space created by the collapse, he caught a glimpse of the room's interior.
It was shrouded in deep shadows that the glow of the ghostly blue flames could not penetrate. The shadows were still and imposing, unmoving as though they too were frozen in time.
'What did the King even use these rooms for?'
The thought lingered in his mind as he gritted his teeth and forced his eyes away from the door. It was enthralling, making him want to stop and gaze at it for as long as he could—or rather, for as long as it wanted.
As he took another step forward, he couldn't help but wonder how a place could be so beautiful yet so malevolent.Without a doubt, the ancient temple was one of the most breathtaking sights he had ever laid eyes on, but it was also the most haunting.
Luckily for him, the fourth section of the outer corridor was simple, the only difference being the slight narrowing of the already tight passage. He didn't feel anything as he walked past it—not an elusive bloodlust, not an uninterpretable emptiness, nor a false longing.
It was peaceful. Just him, Katerina, and the blue torches hung along the walls. But it left him uneasy about what lay ahead. The peace felt wrong, like he had just passed the first trials and was now being allowed rest before something much worse.
Now, only one section remained before they would finally reach the stairs leading up to the second level of the ziggurat.
And soon, they reached it—the end of the corridor. Before them, the last door stood, slightly taller than the rest, crafted from the same black stone he had seen at the peak before their descent.
It was dark, polished smooth in some areas and rough in others, as if shaped by both careful hands and violent ones. Vein-thin branching lines the color of blood were etched across it, faintly gleaming beneath the pale blue light.
At the center of the door was a shallow relief of a hollowed chalice cradled by two outstretched hands. The hands seemed human, yet subtly wrong. The fingers were slightly elongated, and their palms were carved with grooves that reminded Star of open flesh.
The chalice itself was empty, its interior carved so deep that it seemed shadows nested within it, swallowing all the light around it.
His chest tightened as he drew closer to the door.
The thirst he had felt earlier returned, but much worse—like his blood was tearing through his veins and his heart would implode at any moment. His throat felt dry and sour, barely allowing him to let out stifled groans.
And beneath all that was a gnawing, elusive emptiness. He could feel his mind scrambling as he pressed his palms against the sides of his head and dropped to his knees, leaning forward.
The thirst still persisted, and yet he couldn't remember what it was he thirsted for. He felt empty, but he couldn't remember what he longed for.
'What the hell... Damnit.'
While he was still in agony, Katerina calmly walked forward to the door and made a cut on her palm. She reached out and gently pressed her hand against the surface, allowing her blood to flow through the branching lines and into the chalice.
The lights flickered, and for a moment the interior of the ancient temple grew silent—too silent.
Star gasped as the elusive sensations subsided, leaving him in a slightly better state. His chest still felt tight, but his throat was no longer as sour, and with his mind now clearer, he could resist the emptiness clawing at him.
His face turned stoic and slightly cold as he stood up from the floor and gazed at Katerina standing before the stone door.
Then something happened.
Multiple dull metallic clicks echoed from behind the door, and a huge tremor ran through the entire temple. The door shook, then slowly began to slide open.
It sounded harsh and grating—ear-piercing and unpleasant—as it scraped against the inner walls of the outer corridor. And afterward, the interior of the room came into view.
Lit by blue torches, the chamber came to life as the lingering shadows were swiftly chased away, allowing Star a glimpse of its dreadful yet marvelous beauty.
His gaze lingered on the single pillar that stood inside the room. Then he gulped, his face contorting.
What he saw made him sick.