Chapter 1

  Waking up in the unknown

  Mallox' eyes snapped open, and the world around her felt foreign. Her body ached, each movement sending pain shooting through her muscles. She was lying on jagged ground, the air heavy with sulfur and a strange oppressive weight. She felt the different gravity force from the place, something supernatural.

  The sky above was a sickening shade of red, and the land seemed alive and unwelcoming. Her heart raced, but she pushed herself up, trying to focus. Her side burned, her body feeling broken as if she'd been through a violent ordeal. But her mind was more fragmented.

  Where am I?

  No.

  "Who am I?"

  She lifted her trembling hands to her face, trying to anchor herself in something or anything. Her fingers brushed against smooth skin, caked with dust but unmarred beneath. Her features, though foreign, felt symmetrical and soft to the touch. Her eyes were also worth mentioning, one eye a glowing crimson while the other was a striking cerulean. Her hair, long and straight, the color of midnight mixed with smoke, clung to her back in a heavy sheet. She noticed the unusual curve of her ears, it was not quite human, yet not entirely other. Though her body bore bruises and grit, it held the poise and resilience of a woman in her early twenties-youthful yet sharpened by hardship, her frame still retaining the natural grace of unspoiled age.

  The land did not recognize her, and neither did she. But whatever she was, she had survived.

  She checked her body and equipment where she happened to stumble a pocket dagger sheathed in her left thigh.

  It was not in it's best condition. Some part of it was rusting, whereas some part of the blade is jagged. She could just imagine what the blade had been through.

  She started checking all possible pockets in her suit, and she found something strange, an almost 10 inches artifact, it resembles an appearance of a key with five bitings, a serpentine key covered in scales, fangs, and claws to be specific.

  She analyzed it but she couldn't remember a thing. "Is this... a weapon?" She winced in headache, hid the artifact in the pocket where she found it and a strange crumpled paper happened to fell on the ground from one of her pocket.

  It was containing an intriguing message that said:

  [Rescue Morax from the Helllord of the 5th Hell, and you will get your memories back]

  "Mo- what? who is this Morax?" Her head aches even more.

  I don’t remember… anything.

  Mallox tried to center herself, the emptiness in her mind only amplifying her discomfort. She couldn’t recall how she had arrived here, or why.

  The note was telling something, that someone took her memories from her.

  "But first.. Where the hell am I actually?" She forced herself to her feet, hands brushing against the ground for balance. The barren wasteland in her front view and the huge gate portal-like rock formation behind her offered no answers, only confusion and dread.

  The place could easily be describe as some kind of dark realm, or maybe even worse.

  She just woke up with battered body with no memories and now she must rescue an enigmatic person to reclaim her memories. On top of all that, she didn't even know where she was or where was that 5th hell the paper was mentioning.

  "5th hell?" She tried to think of something that could make sense. Was she located on a part of a hell? Because if she was not on hell, she probably wouldn't have the ability to teleport to another dimension and find hell, let alone the location of this 5th hell.

  Was it an encrypted message? Or was it symbolizing something?

  She was absolutely oblivious.

  Her body twitched, gave her tingling sensation. There was a primal urgency in the air, the unmistakable feeling of danger closing in. This sensation gave her a nostalgic feeling.

  Something is approaching!

  Before she could take another step, a loud screech shattered the silence. She instinctively dropped into a defensive stance, her senses heightened. A shadow darted toward her, too fast, too agile. She had no time to react before it pounced.

  The creature was unlike anything she had seen. well to be fair, she had no memories to everything or other creatures she had seen in her entire existence. Its limbs elongated and twisted, its claws gleaming in the blood-red light. It's abnormal mouth drooled, anticipating her to be an unlucky prey.

  Mentally, Mallox froze by the sheer shock but her body moved on its own and drew her dagger, swinging it toward the creature as it lunged. It happened in an instant, in a split second, she barely dodged its swipe, the claws grazing her arm.

  She jolted from shock on what she just did. An idea that she critically damaged a monster unconsciously.

  The monster rolled in extreme pain from Mallox' severe damage through its abdomen. "What on hell is that?"

  Another screech echoed, and Mallox’ breath quickened.

  There's two more... Its hard to explain but-

  It's like she could detect them, feel and predict their behavior. Her sheer reflexes guided her to parry and fight.

  Two more creatures appeared from the shadows, circling her. Her mind screamed for her to run, but she couldn't afford to let them get the upper hand.

  She swung at the nearest monster, connecting with its face. It screeched in agony but didn’t back off. Mallox gritted her teeth, pushing through the pain and fatigue. She couldn’t stop, she couldn’t let herself be a victim. Each creature she felled only seemed to bring more. But her strength was fading.

  With a final effort, she slammed the blade into the head of the last creature, its body collapsing to the ground. Panting, covered in scratches and bruises, Mallox stood over the creatures, blood dripping from her wounds. She couldn’t relax, the place was too hostile.

  Mallox didn’t hesitate. The sound of more creatures approaching pushed her forward. Her legs wobbled under her, but her focus kept her moving. She didn’t know where she was going, but she couldn’t stay here. She had to keep moving, or she would be overtaken.

  What the hell is this place? If this is just a nightmare, can somebody wake me up already?

  There was no sky. Only a ceiling of dying fire, bruised crimson and black, like the last breath of a murdered god. It pulsed faintly, smearing sick light across the hollow lands.

  No sun, no moon, just that flickering wound above and weeping ash.

  She successfully escaped from the monsters trying to consumer her but now she was welcomed by an even more vast terrain. The ground beneath her feet was brittle, a mosaic of shattered bone and burned stone. Her boots sank into pale dust that clung like guilt, soft as ash, but heavy as sorrow.

  A wind blew but it did not howl. It whispered. Soft, dry, and uncertain. Like a lost child trying to remember a lullaby. It brushed past her face, carrying scents of scorched metal, blood long dried, and a sharp sting of sulfur. Her throat burned with each breath.

  Somewhere far in the distance, lightning flickered without thunder. Veins of light across the rotting maroon clouds, vanishing as quickly as they came, like memories fleeing the grasp of the dying.

  Stolen story; please report.

  There were no creatures. Only remnants.

  Bent structures like a half-melted towers, or maybe petrified giants jutted from the earth. Spines of ancient beasts formed ridges along the horizon. The landscape shifted when she wasn’t looking. Hills rose and sank like breathing lungs. Pools of black water watched her, then swallowed their reflections.

  She had no map. No compass. Just her guts to move forward.

  Her shadow followed in silence, sometimes ahead of her, sometimes behind. And once, only once, it paused while she kept walking.

  She forgotten how much or how long she was walking through the stretching wasteland.

  Her hunger grew..

  She stared at the sky again, but it's the same scenery. "Where am I?" The question clung to her like fog. She had asked it before. She would ask it again.

  Everything here doesn't feel right, or real. They doesn't make sense. She murmured as she slowly traverse the Infinite wasteland, trying to find meaning, something helpful.

  She passed through a valley of hanging skulls—tethered to rotting trees by threads of black sinew. Their mouths moved in silence, their eyes filled with dust. One turned to follow her, jaw creaking open as if to speak.

  "hhh...gggk." It's like a sound of groan. It didn't give her sense of danger but it made her ponder. A place where the line of death and life seems blurry.

  But she walked on.

  The air grew heavier the further she went, thick with something unseen. It coated her skin, slick and cold, like oil mixed with breath. Her fingers were numb. Her thoughts slowed. Time became a haze.

  But the sound of her own heartbeat kept her grounded. It was slow, reluctant... And alive.

  Her stomach ached more and more, with the kind of hunger that made her body feel foreign-weak and trembling. Hunger sharpened her senses until every distant mirage looked like salvation. But the horizon always deceived. Her vision blurred and from time to time, she bit her own tongue to stay awake, tasting iron and heat.

  From miles of traveling, her body tingled in familiar sensation.

  Something dangerous was approaching!

  She sighted a strange anomaly far away in front of her. There was an erratic movement of dusts and winds, the sky was getting darker.

  What is that?

  Her eyes squinted, trying to understand what it was, as it was moving rapidly into her direction.

  Wait..

  "Frick, that's a storm!"

  She tried to run but it was too late. The strange storm was so fast that in a single blink, it already approached Mallox' position. A howl ripped through the stillness, and the wind came alive screaming, violent, a maelstrom of needle-sharp dust that sliced at her skin. Sound of thousands sharp objects were striking through the ground, producing high pitch crack.

  "Aahk!" She reacted as she was getting harassed by thousand of sharp objects flying from different directions.

  The realization of her ignoring her own survival instinct just few seconds ago slapped her with disappointment and regret.

  If she just followed her body instinct, maybe she won't be in this dire situation.

  She dropped as her body instinctively curling low. Lightning fractured the skies with crackling veins, but there was no thunder. Only heavy wind and dust and whispers that weren’t hers.

  While trying to survive, she found it by accident, a the ribcage of something long-dead and monstrous, bones fossilized into jagged stone. She dragged herself inside where she coughed blood as her armor clinking faintly against the calcified remains.

  This is futile.

  "Why am I suffering this?" Mallox uttered as she stared at her blood on the foreign soil.

  Her eyes wandered through the corner of the shelter. Others were there.

  Shadows shifted in the darkness of the bone shelter. There were misshapen creatures whose eyes glowed faintly but whose bodies trembled at every thunderless flash. One hissed at her with teeth bared, but it didn’t lunge. They were barely survivors just like her.

  She sat, back against one of the ribs, clutching her knees. Her breathing slowed. She tried to not sleep as she couldn’t. Sleep could mean death here.

  A belief that the storm will be over for a few moments was a big lie. She couldn't tell exactly but she waited for so long.

  Half a day? Or a day? Or maybe two days?

  The flow of time in this place was a bit distorted, or abnormal. Mallox' senses normally shoot different kind of signal. It was the way of her body to communicate with her, unfortunately she could not understand some of it. But something was certain, her body clock got messed up from this place and she was insanely hungry.

  Her stomach growled and alerted the tiny evacuees taking shelter.

  Mallox just gave them a lifeless gaze. "I have no plan on eating you, you see." She stated. She even deduced that they will not comprehend her language.

  Her eyes happened to discover a strange mossy green mushroom like floras grown from the huge ribcage. They were no normal mushrooms, they were wide and lengthy.

  What if?

  Her eyes twitched, in her mind she was convincing herself to do not ever try nor imagine to consume it. "Hmmm.. tsk!"

  Crap.

  She failed to fight it and snatched a handful of the strange plant and devoured them.

  It tasted awful, too dry. Maybe the same experience of eating a wet rough paper with sands or dusts in it. But her stomach was forcing her to consume anything it could.

  After a few minutes her mouth and throat started to burn in pain. "AAAH!" The pain made her curl and convulse while gripping her neck.

  The little creatures who were also sheltering in the massive ribcage was shocked in fear in the situation. It was like that for a several moments until she threw up some of the mushrooms she ate with traces of thick blood.

  "Kill me already...."

  She collapsed from the terrible pain. Before she collapsed, in her mind, she wondered, what have she done to deserve this?

  [TSHK]

  A sharp pain woke her up. A thin piece of rock hit her in the arm. The devasting storm persist, rendering them unable to get out of the shelter. Not only that, her stomach growled once again.

  How long was she unconscious anyway? It was also a blessing that the tiny creatures didn't grab the opportunity to feast on her when she blacked out.

  "I'm thirsty." Her soft whisper lingered through the shelter. Again her eyes met the dubious mushrooms and her stomach boiled in hunger.

  Her body tingled in a nostalgic sensation. She couldn't remember any bit of thing as usual but the idea of eating something poisonous after getting poisoned felt familiar for her.

  As her body senses gave the familiar sensations, was this something she was normally doing in her past?

  It's the same question as, would she try to eat it again even if it make her vomit with blood?

  In her mind, Mallox just say 'Crap' again and harvest a handful of the mushrooms. This time, she wanted to experiment on her body. Logically speaking, all this time, it was her own instinct and reflex that made her survive. It wouldn't be bad if she will listen to it.

  Slowly, she give one mushrooms a bite. The taste was still awful but not like before, she can tolerate it more. One more thing, her mouth nor stomach burned in pain.

  She paused for a bit to feel her body and she didn't feel sick nor dizzy. "No way." She tried to eat more, one mushroom after another, engulfing all the mushrooms she could reach.

  It was not absolute or certain but her body could adapt to something poisonous. Her sheer survival instinct didn't fail her, it helped her ease her hunger.

  She believed it could suppress her hunger for a good amount of time.

  About several of hours later the storm did not leave. It was a brain draining experience to just sit and wait for Mallox.

  The storm's presence made her extremely bored and sleepy. Even if she should not, her body forced her to sleep.

  ***

  [CRUNCH]

  [GNAW]

  Not for a long time, she woke up again from a sound of unsettling ruckus. For Mallox, it was one of her dream come true that the blazing storm was already gone.

  Her attention returned to the source of the sounds, and there she witnessed the one kind of monsters who she fought before, cornered and being eaten alive by those flying carnivorous. It screamed, it wailed but the group of the winged monster showed no remorse.

  Mallox didn't push her luck and just waited under the shade of the ribcage. She had nothing better to do than to wait for the winged monsters to finish their horrifying business.

  She scented blood and flesh that made her hungry again. The sight of the creatures consuming each other strangely made her salivate.

  Mallox shook her head to snap out of it. "What the hell is wrong with me?"

  After their deed, the winged creatures left and flew somewhere else. But before Mallox continued her journey, she approached the area where the monster was ambushed. There was nothing left, not even a single piece of bone or flesh, only stain of dark pigment on the ground.

  Voracious, a word that slipped from her lips.

  "A place that don't reward mercy for weaklings. What have I done to be here?" She looked forward. "If this isn't hell, I don't know what this place would be called."

  Again, she walked forward and witnessed as the terrain changed. Rocks jutted from the ground like broken fangs. The path was cruel, forcing her up steep ridges and down crumbling slopes. The wind was constantly biting, carrying the scent of rust and decay. Her vision tunneled.

  Not like before, Mallox was more comfortable now. She cannot understand it but her body adapted to the gravity in this strange place, from its air, gasses and even the temperature.

  She stumbled upon a large wasteland covered with cracks and fissures. It was also worth to notice the amount of bones and cadaver littered all around the plain. There was no sign of life, only sharp and rigid rocks.

  As she traverse the new terrain the fissures and ground cracks glowed in an orange hue.

  Mallox halted in her position. "Seems more peaceful here." Just four second after she said that, the ground began to tremble. Softly at first. "Okay, maybe I'm wrong."

  The ground trembled violently. The cracks largen and creating more fissures. She froze and lowered her body as the dust around her boots danced. But nothing came. No creature. No movement. Just quakes from a hollow world. Fog of dust started to build up in the surroundings, decreasing the visibility of the environment.

  In this very situation Mallox fully believed that this place despises her. Every terrain, wherever she go, troubles just kept on following her.

  Her knees gave in as the world beneath her surged in a more violent pulses like a living, furious entity. The ground wasn't just shaking; it rose and dropped in brutal waves, each heave nearly two feet high, slamming with the force of a god’s heartbeat.

  She staggered as she was trying to brace herself, but every step was a gamble. Stone and soil shifted like water underfoot. A fissure cracked open beside her with a thunderous snap, spewing dust and heat as it widened.

  She slammed her boot down to steady herself, but the unstable earth gave no mercy. The force of her own stomp split the ground beneath her, and the kinetic backlash threw her off her feet. Her body hit the quaking ground hard, bouncing against its buckling surface as if caught in a colossal drumbeat.

  Again...

  She collapsed, swallowed by the tremors. Darkness crashed over her like a falling sky. It was cold, it was dry, and dreamless. The world faded into a black ring of silence, and only a shrill ringing filled her ears as the convulsing land continued its furious descent into madness.

  When will these madnesses halt?

  ***

  "SOMEONE... PLEASE... HELP ME!"

  A scream broke through the stillness. It was a man's voice—cracked and desperate, clawing at the edges of the void.

  Mallox gasped, the breath slicing into her chest like rusted glass. Her eyes snapped open. The world spun above her, a canvas of dark ash.

  Luckily for her, the trembling of the ground already ceased.

  She pressed her palm to the ground, tried to rise. Her limbs trembled beneath her, frail scaffolding barely holding together what remained of her body. Her throat was parched, her muscles hollow, but the voice pulled her forward like a thin thread of hope dangling over an abyss.

  This scenario of waking up from unconciousness felt like a never ending deja Vu for her, but it was different from before.

  “Who was that?” Her voice barely left her lips.

  She moved. One foot, then another. Her gait was uneven, but she trudged.

  Minutes stretched. Time faded. She wasn’t sure how long passed.

  The ache in her body became a rhythm. Gradually, pain was teaching her the virtue of persistence. Even if despair whispered in her ear, she would not listen.

  She perceived you cannot survive on strength alone. You survive by refusing to stop.

  The scream of a creature in a language she understood was the first sign that she might not be alone here in this rotting place.

  The land began to change. The rocky terrain thinned into pale, silken dust. The wind grew quieter, as though holding its breath.

  A strange scent drifted in, not just decay but deeper than rot, older than death. A scent of something no one would want to understand its origin.

  Then, she saw them.

  Trees.

  She has no memories about different kinds of trees but what she saw were something grotesque for her intuition.

  The forest stood like a cathedral of decay. Twisted, unnatural, blackened like they’d been burned and bled dry. Its branches curled like withered hands. Its bark was bone-white, veined with black, as if the trees bled ink.

  There were no birds. No insects. Just unique silence, a breathing silence.

  "AAAH!" Another scream echoed, coming from the deeper part of the woods. She cannot be mistaken, that was the voice that woke her up!

  The wind shifted again. Another scent found her olfactory senses, a damp rot, wet bark, and something sweet… like a wild honey soaked in blood. Ahead, the ash thinned, and pale trees began to rise from the ground like ghosts in mourning.

  She hesitated at its edge, staring at the hazy woods infront of her and murmured, "I wish I had a choice."

  As Mallox took her first step into the strange forest, the trees shift almost imperceptibly. Vines twitched like fingers. Her breath fogged the air despite no cold. Something ancient has noticed her.

  A sniff of the hazer almost made her vomit with its abominable smell. A smell of a thousand years rotting corpse, or a pile of flesh being decayed by strong chemical. She can taste it from the lingering scent, disgusting was a weak word to describe it.

  Her danger senses kicked in.

  Something terrible would happen in this haunting forest..