Those Born In The Chasm’s Depths

Descending - Act 2 | Chapter 29 - Those Born In The Chasm’s Depths
Twelve Hours and Seven Minutes Since Juna Was Found Dead

The screeching of burning young Snatcher’s filled the room like background noise. Edgar was getting better, his breathing had slowed and the blood gushing from his side almost came to a complete stop. Almost.

What in the world was Specks? He’d once saved Theo from Snatcher’s poison and now had almost completely restored Edgar. The Gritborn now stood on his own and firmly surveyed the area. Though first, he squatted down to the eye level of Specks in Theo’s hand, then rubbed under the creature's chin.

“I didn’t believe The Chasm could grant miracles,” Edgar said with an unlikely smile.

Without a second's waste the semi-restored Edgar stood and patted Theo on his shoulder with his lone arm. Nodded. Then stepped away, leading them out of the nest as the fire consumed the last living eggs. Finally they—

“A Snatcher’s nest?”

A question. One that came not from Edgar’s mouth, nor Theo’s own. The voice from just beyond the nest’s entrance along with a lone waiting man bathed in the orange flickering light of flames. The bags under his eyes were more soiled than a worker's trousers and his back bent curved to an unsightly hump. Bandages wrapped his head and strung across his nose, with dried blood seeping through them.

All of that was fine. The image of the man was fine. Except for two gut dropping things.

The lime chucked DepthStone.

And his missing fingers.

“And here I believed Snatcher only lived in The Second Layer,” Doru said. “My goodness look at all this. It’s a scary thing, what can live in The First Layer. Ain’t that right?”

Doru awaited an answer.

Edgar and Theo didn’t respond.

Standing in front of Theo, Edgar placed a hand on his branched Fossil’s hilt. “An odd thing indeed,” the Gritborn said “Radu would know the answer better than I.”

Doru went silent, chuckled to himself, then took a single step forward. His twisting smile revealed in the blazing crimson light.

“Edgar? Is this the Edgar? Wow, to think I would meet you here. You know I’ve been in Ground Zero for some time and I haven’t seen you at all.”

“I stay in The Entrance Section,” Edgar responded.

“I’m a Gritborn too genius,” Doru scoffed. “I go to The Entrance Section all the time and never see you there.” He shook his head and grinned. “Now you can’t tell me after all these years, us not bumping into each other once is weird. Come on, it’s weird ain’t it?”

Edgar shrugged.

Doru stepped closer.

“Meeting now ain’t too bad. Your arms looking mighty gone and I promise you that hole in your side ain’t gonna get better.” Doru stopped just before entering the Nest. He stood still. Then cocked his head. Licked his lips. Smiled.

“Wonder if they’ll believe me,” he muttered.

The fingerless Gritborn pulled out an abomination of a weapon from his satchel on his side. A device made from the cleanest of silver. He strapped it to his hand with two fingers remaining and it began twisting. Sharp knives filled the empty slots of missing fingers like claws. Each individual blade stretching almost a foot out in length. Black wires wrapped his hand and suffocated the two remaining fingers. Thinly tightening them and causing blood to seep from the remaining fingers.

Doru clicked the deadly finger blades together. “Nah,” he said. “If I bring them your prestigious head they’ll have to believe me.” He nodded to Edgar’s side. “Wonder how much Metal I’ll get selling your Fossil there?”

Edgar drew his weapon with one hand. The branched Fossil’s handle extended and covered his hand once more. He pointed the emerald blade at Doru.

“Odd…” Doru mumbled. “How odd that a Gritborn such as yourself is guarding…” Doru peered behind Edgar. “That boy…”

Edgar sank to the position at his feet and gently pushed Theo back. The flames nicked at Theo’s spine, though he was more worried about the beast looking at the entrance.

Doru licked his filthy lips. “What could this be? What could this be? Edgar, Edgar, Edgar. Tell me, who is this boy?”

Edgar stood tall.

“He assaulted me, ya know?” Doru said with a devilish smirk. “Beat me crazy with a tankard, can you believe it? Assaulted a Gritborn of all people yet you took it upon yourself to treat him as a Lift? How might this be? What nonsense is this?” His tongue reached all the way to his chin in a lick. “My oh my what a thrill.”

Edgar stabbed his emerald blade into the ground. The handle unnaturally sprouted branches that dug into Edgar’s remaining palm like snakes, tearing through skin and running alongside his veins. And before Theo could blink, a wall of vines and branches swarmed from the Fossils tip and created a wall of foliage stretching from Edgar to the nest entrance.

Edgar had secluded himself and Doru on one half of the wall. And created a safe passage for Theo on the other. This time Edgar didn’t tell Theo to go. The Gritborn’s eyes stayed locked on Doru, who from the small gap Theo could see between the vine wall, was very, very agitated.

“You’re burning your fuel here!?” Doru yelled through clattering teeth, his face flush with rage. “Now of all times! What are you mad?!”

Edgar took a deep, drawn out breath. Then relaxed his shoulders. “Keeps my adrenaline going.” He turned to Theo and said the word the boy didn’t want to hear.

“Go.”

And then what? Scamper out of the nest as Edgar either died from blood loss, turned to ash from the roaring flames, or became shredded by Doru. All while Theo carried two corpses by himself for hours until he finally found The Chasm exit. If he found the exit.

“Follow The Chasm,” Edgar said with a calm tone. “It will lead you out. Trust your feelings.”

Before Theo could respond, Doru intervened. The man jammed his sharp claws through the foliage wall and peered through a gap at Theo with one bloodshot eye.

“Go ahead and run! You’ll end up dead before I make it to you! Then you’ll be lucky…oh so lucky.” He pulled on the vine wall. Shook it. “Cus’ if I happen to find you, oh boy, what a time that would be. I’ll carve your insides out till there's nothing left of ya.”

Spit flung from the insane man's mouth. Theo looked at Edgar, the Gritborn remained calm, still keeping his body in front of Theo. Edgar lifted his blade, swung it, and stopped a hair away from Theo’s own neck. The Gritborn still looked forward regardless.

“Did Radu ever tell you where the term Gritborn came from?” Edgar said, lowering his blade from Theo’s neck. He spun the Fossil in hand before stopping it at a high stance. The tip bathed in the flames as he lowered the point towards Doru. Edgar's eyes narrowed thinner than ice.

“Those born from The Chasm’s depths,” Edgar said. “Through grit alone we preserve—”

“—regardless of what's lost, physically or mentally, we make haste—.” Doru continued with a smirk.

“—and continue to Descend,” Edgar finished.

The scorching flames grew to heights taller than Theo and slowly crept towards them. Not long until the nest and everyone inside it sizzled to ash or less.

“Go.”

Theo collected himself. Taking one last look at the lip-licking Doru with a metal clawed hand who faced the prestigious Edgar that lost one arm, Theo said a silent prayer of hope, and vanished behind the vine wall.

Clashing metal roared behind him as he sprinted towards Juna. He stuffed Specks inside and didn’t even take the time to pull the string close. Then sprung to the sole of his feet and ran outside before sliding to a stop. Turning a corner, he darted to what he remembered seeing during the Shifting.

The two stone pillars. The gap. Aurelia. Right where he had left her. Theo knelt down, hesitating for a second on how to carry the two corpses, but tossed the question aside. He had to move. Theo pried Aurelia from the stone and laid her on her back, then slid a hand under her legs and another hand behind her back.
Something caught his eye before he lifted her up fully. Aurelia’s hand. On it—the tight leather wrapped gauntlet. Or what the Gritborns had called it,

A Fossil.

Theo released the body and clasped Aurelia's hand with his own. He leaned forward, eyes stuck on the object. He could do something, with this, a weapon. He frantically unwrapped the Fossil one strap at a time, a hard process, but eventually the gauntlet slid off.

Theo hurriedly slipped it on but stopped, catching sight of Aurelia’s pale bare hand. Specifically the index and middle finger melded together. Stuck. Two fingers becoming one.

The Exchange.

Nonsense. Life was more important than a perfect hand. Theo strapped the Fossil on his person, the leather bands almost seeming to be alive as they squeezed and tightened themselves around his right hand. A perfect fit. The perfect squeeze. And just like Aurelia, the Fossil wrapped the two fingers together.

Theo jumped to his feet and made haste to Edgar. How long could the Gritborn last in his state? Was it too late? Questions. Too many questions that didn't matter. Theo rushed forward head strong regardless of the thought of what could happen.

He breached the nest entrance and ran back to the opening in the gap. Theo spun on a heel, tossed the sack Juna’s corpse lay inside against the wall, and in the same motion released Flavia's DepthStone from his pocket. He gripped it in the gloved hand. Roared his hand back and gritted his teeth.

Then chunked Flavia.

The DepthStone soared with greater strength than Theo could have ever garnered alone. The Fossil doing all the work. It sliced through the air and diced through flames until it collided straight into the side of Doru's head. The man stammered backward and instinctively grabbed his skull as he leaned down, wailing in pain. In the fleeting moment of Doru’s suffering, Edgar rose with a mighty knee, connecting it to Doru's chin.

Blood sprayed like fireworks. Doru limped backward and shook it off. His devilish eyes now fixed on Theo from a distance.

“YOU!”

Edgar continued his assault as if Theo wasn't there. A swing from his emerald blade nicked Doru's shoulders and threw him off balance. Advancing, Edgar rammed his shoulder into Doru's chest and pinned him against his own wall of vines.

However, without his second arm, Edgar left himself open. Doru dug his claws deep into Edgar's open wound, piercing the tissue hidden between ribs. Edgar groaned in tremendous pain, though kept his body weight against Doru before jamming his own blade into the fingerless man's side.

At least he tried too. Doru was a tricky man. His claw scratched the insides of Edgar and he slipped from the pin hold. Doru took flesh with him. Laughing as Edgar dropped to a knee and his blade missed.

Laughing. Laughing. Laughing. Laughing.

All the pitiful so called Gritborn could do. The same smirk of laughter he sounded while speaking about a tail he pried from a broken girl’s selfless hands. How unsightly. How disgusting and horrid. How revolting and lacking any human feelings.

Laughing. Driving Theo mad.

The gloved Fossil on Theo’s hand led the way, his feet barely able to keep up and he pounded a fist into Doru's gut. Theo felt the man's flesh fold from the weight of the punch. Doru was raised from his feet and flung a good five yards, rolling to the ground and smashing into a Snatcher's flaccid egg.

“Edgar,” Theo called. Panicked.

The Gritborn stood. Allowing the new wound to leak blood as he focused his efforts toward something greater. He bent down and with a steady hand picked Flavia's DepthStone from the ground.

Edgar held it close to his face, his eyes watering, then kissed the Stone. “Again, I must thank you,” he said to Flavia. The Stone was then wrapped around his own neck, resting beside his own golden sphere DepthStone. Then Edgar stood with such might the flames around him seemed to back away. He firmed his resolve. Allowed the blood to keep draining as he raised his sword.

“How's that Fossil treating you Edgar?” Doru laughed. “Huh!? You burned enough Fuel yet? I can almost hear your body creaking from all the way over here.” Doru curled his lips and spat a gallop of blood. He licked the remaining clean.

“I can burn Fuel too, ya know.”

Edgar's eyes expressed worry. He tightened his grip on his own Fossil and extended it in front of Theo for protection. A bad sign.

Doru yelled. Screamed. Wailing in pain as if his own arm had been sliced off. The crazed man gripped the arm connected to the metal claw Fossil and dared to rip it off. As Theo looked closer he understood why. The black wires wrapped around Doru’s two remaining fingers were tightening around them, drawing blood as the wires tore through Doru's flesh and spilled blood. Ringing his fingers out like a rag, the Fossil illuminated a fluorescent silver and the edges dripped with blood pulled from the wires.

“I CAN BURN FUEL TOO!” Doru yelled in a crazed frenzy. Immediately he launched from his position with inhumane speed, closing the distance between himself and Theo in a blink. The edge of his claw touched Theo's collar bone. A wide bloody smile crept from Doru's face.

Quickly, Edgar kicked Theo out of the way and into the foliage. Doru's swipe went unconnected. Using the force from the kick, Edgar swung his own blade at Doru. Though the fingerless man was fast, Doru caught Edgar's blade in his claws and attempted to pry it from Edgar's hands. The old Gritborn held firm and kicked Doru from his advances.

Doru sprinted towards a wall of the nest and dug his claws deep into the burning sack of a Snatcher’s egg. He pried out flaming scraps and chunked them at Edgar in a single swipe, forcing the disabled Gritborn to block the flames with his only remaining hand. Granting Doru enough time to re-engage. The Fossil twisted his fingers off more, and allowed Doru to slide all five blades protruding from his fingers through Edgar’s neck.

Blood. Gushing red liquid that sizzled as it fell into the flames below. Edgar’s grip on the branched sword slipped and the Fossil clattered at his feet. His eyes faded too quickly for Theo to tell. In a moment's breath—Edgar’s corpse lay on the ground.

“What a stubborn bastard,” Doru groaned. He kicked the emerald sword with his boot. Then smiled from ear to ear. “I could have all the Metal in the world selling this. First though…”

The fingerless man turned. Faced Theo. Grinned at Theo. And licked his filthy lips once more.

“A shame there's no tankards around,” Doru hissed.

Theo didn’t let himself be consumed by fear. He stood and raised his fist, clenching at the power from the Fossil and sent a bare knuckled punch right at Doru. The punch was too easy for Edgar and Juna’s killer. Doru dodged with just a twist of his body and then caught Theo’s arm. As Theo struggled to pull himself free, Doru gently inserted a single blade from his claw into Theo’s forearm.

Pain. Immeasurable pain unlike any other as flesh torn from the bone.

“STOP IT!” Theo hollered.

Doru smiled. He released Theo, tossing him against the scorching wall. Flames nipped at Theo’s shoulders, however, the monster in front of him frightened him more than a few burns. Slumping to the ground with no choice, Theo watched as Doru took his time stumbling towards Theo. The man chuckled to himself with each limped stomp. The fire illuminated his widened grin.

“What now? Do something now, Theo. Huh! Com’ on, do something! You sure said a lot with your fist at the tavern, now what! MOVE!”

Theo curled up, pulling his legs close and knees to his chest, hoping the fire would get him first.

“Are you scared!?” Doru yelled with saliva slinging from his snarl of a mouth. “Should have thought about that before you bore your fist at me! A Gritborn! LOOK!” He opened his hands towards Edgar—

No…at Edgar’s corpse.

“I did that! And YOU!” Doru pointed at Theo. The mad man’s index and middle finger were gone, sliced clean off by the wires. His entire hand now truly—fingerless. Doru held on by adrenaline alone.

“You—you’re next. Don’t think I forgot. Don’t think I’m soft. Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no. You’ve caused this yourself.”

Theo cowered. Scared, defeated. A man who had no common sense inched closer and gambled to slice him clean open. Not a gamble. A certain bet. Theo could do nothing but wait.

…

Again. For the second time today—nothing.

“The girl,” Doru hissed. A sound that woke Theo up from his fear.

Juna!

Doru approached the opened sack with a smile. He looked at Theo and most likely caught the exact expression he was hoping for, because Doru’s smile somehow stretched farther.

“She’s here?” He mumbled. “Oh…Oh! Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, OH, OH, OH, OH!”

He chuckled to himself. His eyes were no longer sane as blood ran from their sockets.

“SHE’S HERE!”

Doru scratched his chin. Not with his bare human hand, but with the razor blades on his fingers. The blades tore through his chin and he caressed it maniacally. Blood streamed down his beard until it collected at the bottom of his chin and dripped off.

“That’s why…” Doru muttered. He turned to Theo. “I know Radu’s game.”

No Snatcher could ever replicate the face Doru made. It was as sinister as evil could get, Yet somehow the mad man could still smile as blood ran from every hole on his face.

“Edgar…Radu…the girl…you…The Chasm’s Mercy…that's why, isn’t it?”

Theo shriveled up.

“HAHAHAHA. I KNEW IT!” Doru yelled. “That’s what the researcher has been working on. That’s why I never saw Edgar once in the Entrance Sections. That's why they sent YOU down here in a false pretense of protecting some OUTSIDER.” Doru slowed his breathing. Almost seemed…calm. He leaned right at Juna. Face to face with her corpse.

“I know what you are.”

Claws brandished. Eyes bloodshot. Arm raised. Doru planned to stab Juna.

A hand gripped Doru’s own, locking it in place before the claw could meet Juna’s skin. Edgar—holding him back with just enough strength one arm could manage. Blood gushed from the gritted man's neck as he pried Doru away from Juna with one hand. Edgar managed to bring him three feet away until Doru’s claw tunneled into the Gritborn’s abdomen wrist deep.

A second was all Edgar could fight for.

“Stubborn one aren't you—”

Doru cut himself short. Raising both eyebrows he looked down. He couldn’t pry his claw from Edgar’s stomach. Stuck. Wedged between something. And Doru’s eyes shook as Edgar lifted his remaining arm and connected it into the side of Doru’s skull. A brutal punch.

Again.

Again.

Again.

A brutal pummeling from a dying man that caused Doru to spit teeth. Eventually Doru broke free. All Edgar managed was a few bruises and a couple of seconds longer to live.

“So long as it grants you a second longer to breathe it's mighty worthwhile.”

Edgar’s words ruptured Theo’s mind. The second was what Edgar fought for. And as the Gritborn lifted his one and only shaking hand. The finger pointing directly at Theo was all he needed to see.

Tune—Burning Fuel. Both are the same. Theo managed to grasp that. The Fossil wasn’t just a weapon on his hand. The object was a part of his own body.

An Exchange.

Theo’s two strapped fingers tightened and his blood ran hot. With haste, Theo burst from the wall, clattering against sputtering flames and blood across the ground as he dashed directly to Doru. The fingerless man raised his claws in defiance, but it was too late. Theo’s punch connected deep within the man's stomach. Throwing his scorching back into it, Theo twisted his punch and burned Fuel.

Crack—Doru’s bones split. The fingerless man soared a great distance before a hard wall stopped him, and the man slumped to the ground. Theo huffed—his fingers deep in a swelling pain.

“It’s not over!” Edgar yelled.

Doru stood with hollow eyes and blood dripping from his mouth. He stepped with a sway that made his body look like string. The claw-like Fossil dragged against stone as he walked forward.

Doru wasn’t a Gritborn for nothing. He had grit.

Theo’s hand hurt. The impact most likely fractured if not broke the majority of his knuckles. Doing it again could cause permanent damage. He didn’t know if he could afford that.

“The Fossil…” Edgar mumbled, barely able to keep a standing balance.

Laying at Theo’s feet was Edgar’s machete-like Fossil. It’s emerald finish coated with blood. Theo picked it up and placed it into Edgar’s hands. With a huff, the prestigious Gritborn moved forward. Doru advanced as well.

The two men collided, yet only one drew blood. Pressed against each other, Edgar’s head slumped on Doru’s shoulder. His torso once again pierced by the claws. Edgar made no effort to move or keep his body straight. Even his grip on the sword weakened until he let go. Yet the Fossil remained in his palm. The handle had melded with his own hand.

A whisper came. One barely audible to Theo from across the room and along with the crackling flames. But to Doru, the sound would have been horrifying.

“May The Chasm take you whole,” Edgar whispered.

Branches sprouted from Edgar’s Fossil’s handle, following the path of Edgar’s arm in haste—vines coiled around his arm like a snake and his own skin started to harden to wood. Doru panicked and fought to break free. But at last the vines had captured him too. Stretching from Edgar’s torso the branches locked Doru in places as they too turned him into wood.

Doru screamed, yelling at Edgar in vain as the Gritborn had already passed while standing. Theo could only watch as Doru struggled to break free and call on him for help. Apologizing. Begging. Pleading as wood consumed his body whole.

Theo tittered. What an enjoyable sight.

In gruesome seconds both Edgar and Doru turned into wooden statues. Edgar with his head rested on the fingerless man's shoulders, yet his spirit high. And Doru, trapped in an eternal state of screaming.

And now finally, Theo was the last person alive. Alone in The Chasm. Bloodied. Bruised. Beaten. Hungry.

Surrounded by corpses.