Wicked Providence - Part Two

Wordlessly, Cobalt struggled to pull his boots out of the sinking sand. Behind him, an enormous worm-shaped creature—the Antliopede, as Cobalt dubbed it—shredded through a wall of sandstone as if it was nothing, then flung its lower body segments through, which further lashed at the collapsing structures.

In just a few seconds, the entire pavilion of sand crumbled, leaving nothing but the sinking rubble and enormous particles of scraps which had been cast into the air in its wake. He instinctively shielded his face, feeling additional rocks and pebbles cash in on the lashing sandstorm he was already caught in the midst of.

Biting his lip at the absurdity of the situation, he had so many words for such a disgusting and destructive creature. But he didn’t have the time to utter a single one of them.

Instead he abandoned the sinking structures, weaving in and out of tight corridors in an attempt to get closer to the other side of this Hell—before hearing the violent tantrums of the beast get much louder from behind…

“SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”

“STILL NOT SATISFIED?! HERE, HAVE SOME MORE ROCKS SINCE YA SEEM SO HUNGRY!!!”

Getting down in a defensive position, he screamed at the burly sandworm once more before kicking up a piece or rubble and chucking it straight at the creature’s skull.

But the result…

A fierce chill ran down Cobalt’s spine as the creature accepted the trajectory gleefully, its spiked mandibles clacking down and shattering the rock like glass.

Jesus Christ…

Beads of sweat ran down his face, but Cobalt knew from the beginning he was facing off against an opponent that would be impossible to fight. Instead—his only option was to utilize the Antliopede’s destructive tendencies, using it as a tool to breach the walls of this maze.

After all, Cobalt certainly wasn’t a stranger to relying on exploits in a game like this…

Sticking his foot in a notch in a sandstone column, he clung towards the grainy rocks, thrusting his entire body away from the screeching and thrashing monster in a desperate last-ditch effort to reach higher ground on top of the column.

“HERE GOOOEEES!!!”

“SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”

Cobalt winced as it felt like a bullet train had sped right past him.

The wind it kicked up, as well as the ear-splitting roar he barely managed to endure, genuinely made Cobalt feel as if he had barely managed to climb back onto the platform in a subway station in time…

In turn, the lower ground was absolutely demolished, shredded like paper by the creature’s mandibles.

Trapped in this circling labyrinth, and with the creature’s outbursts getting stronger and stronger by the second, Cobalt gulped down the thought of escape not being possible.

That is, until…

A… A door…?!

Through the cavity in the sandstone the creature carved out for him, he could barely make out the shiny rounded handle of something made other than sand or sandstone.

Something that shiny, something not yellow or orange—it might as well have been a diamond among the Hell he was enduring in this labyrinth.

Almost certainly a door handle.

However…

It’s… It’s circling back.

Its twisted mandibled came back into view as the ravaging Antliopede thrashed its entire body around, charging towards Cobalt faster than it ever had before.

“SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”

Shit, shit, SHIT!!!

As its scream echoed like a bullet train, Cobalt heard the reverberations of that of a thunderstorm, booming down on him like scattered lightning bolts.

Its twisted agape oral cavity came just a meter before him, before Cobalt leapt away from the peak of the column, just barely managing to pull off a roll which scraped the top of his head. Above him, the worm’s enormous slimy figure leapt over him, so low to the ground that if he craned his neck to view the oncoming carnage, Cobalt’s head would pop off against its train-like body.

He caught himself to the sinking sand, hanging as low to it as he could.

And just as quickly as it had come through…

The column which he had only poised himself onto for a just single moment was shredded into absolute oblivion by the screech of a fiercely squirming and wriggling creature.

But this time… Its attitude had completely changed.

“SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”

Watching on in utter disgust at the creature’s temper tantrum, it thrashed violently back and forth, dismantling entire walls of the labyrinth in mere fractions of a second with its millipede-like appendages.

Feeling the violent whips of sand and win against his bloody face, Cobalt adjusted his sleeve back over his forearm as he watched the creature thrash about, his silent lips just slightly ajar.

“SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”

Had it… Actually given up…?

Now more than halfway towards his goal, his opponent was left thrashing like an overgrown baby, destroying absolutely anything and everything was left in sight of the creature’s small sand-covered eyes.

Cobalt felt his hatred for the Antliopede rise higher and higher by the second. A creature that long, massive, and destructive—Cobalt knew it had no right to exist. An absolute apex predator of the underground Sea of Sand… The fact that Cobalt was even alive right now was still hard to grasp.

But to see this…

Cobalt had no words to express the emotions which rose to his mind, which until now, had buried everything else under a desire to survive.

“SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”

Towers of sandstone collapsed one by one, as entire several meter tall walls crumbled on impact. Watching a worm-shaped hole develop in the rest of the labyrinth’s structure, Cobalt’s eye twitched at the sight. Within moments, this absolute behemoth of an insect had made such a beautiful maze resemble the same civilization ruins he had seen earlier, from outside this Hell.

That was something that, in any other circumstances, Cobalt would certainly have felt guilty and remorseful for.

But here…

“I really can’t hate you too much, Antliopede… You’re definitely the dumbest opponent I’ve come across yet.”

Turning his back from the rampaging, infantile insect, Cobalt could barely even hear his own words of goodbye over the destruction and carnage that lay behind him.

But just as that breath left his lips…

“—What…?”

Another breath whipped past him, almost making him fall to his knees.

Darting past him in all directions, he once again heard the sound of a roaring train, a booming thunderstorm.

And turning to face that wind—

“AAAGH!!!”

Cobalt winced, shutting his eyes shut as he was engulfed in a tempest of sand.

The monster’s screams persisted incessantly, booming and echoing its shrill cries across the wall-less cave.

With all the sandstone sinking beyond that yellow sea, the reverberations from its screams had nothing to stop it except for the sandstorm, echoing back and forth perpetually, only gaining more and more traction.

He pressed hard against his ears as the vocal cries rose higher and higher in pitch, with their dissonant echoes only getting louder and louder upon each time passing through his ears.

Not only that…

But with this newfound sandstorm whipping past him in all directions, his eyes burned with each passing second.

And passing along with it, was the harrowing realization that Cobalt couldn’t open his eyes.

The behemoth’s last resort attack…

Overwhelming every single one of his senses until Cobalt couldn’t move.

“Like…”

Roaring, roaring, booming across all sides of Cobalt’s body, he felt like he was being stretched and compressed within the sandstorm, his feet unable to even keep their traction as his upper body was whipped around in all directions.

“—LIKE HELL THAT’S GONNA WORK!!!”

But Cobalt pushed on, forwards, forwards, clasping his hands onto his ears as he blindly stepped one foot at a time…

Left… Then right.

Left… Then right.

“Didn’t I already say it…”

Biting the corners of his lip, he could feel the dried blood give way and ooze more warmth into his clenched mouth.

And the grains that grinded against his teeth with every word.

That filthy taste—those putrid sand particles that lashed onto his tongue and made it feel he was dying of thirst.

It made every breath feel like it was corroding his insides…

“DIDN’T I ALREADY TELL YOU, YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF XP?!”

But still, pushing forward, Cobalt couldn’t stop himself from screaming.

Couldn’t stop himself from making damn sure everyone knew. From the Antliopede, to Arabelle and that Horror, to that Demon and even the inhuman monster who made this place…

Cobalt tore his hand from his left ear, and balled it into a fist as he pounded his heaving chest with all he had.

“I WASN’T ALLOWED TO HAVE A DEATH GOOD ENOUGH LIKE SAVING THAT GIRL!!! That means I wasn’t supposed to die today, so in the end… NONE OF THIS MEANS ANYTHING!!!”

And screaming those words at the top of his lungs, Cobalt believed them with everything he had.

“SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”

“DIDN’T I TELL YOU ALREADY?! IT’S POINTLESS!!!”

Screaming against the bitter taste of the whips of sand, he clenched his eyes as tight as they could, putting all his attention into his ability to walk forward.

But as the roaring continued…

He could feel the presence of the bullet train of flesh gaining, closer and closer, closer and closer…

The sounds and feelings across his beaten body screamed at him incoherently from all sides. He continued biting the corners of his lips, making sure the adrenaline that brought his heavy feet to move could continue pumping, no matter what the situation.

And in a Hell like this…

“SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”

“AREN’T THOSE WORDS ENOUGH FOR YOU?!?!?!”

Cobalt kicked back, knocking his body back as he barely managed to connect his feet and hands to the ground.

Roaring incessantly, bursting through his battered and possibly bleeding eardrums, a wall of flesh roared past him at an incredible speed, dangling and throwing about its appendages at random as its body twisted with fury.

But even though the terror of the situation rose his hairs on end, Cobalt disregarded them all, stretched both arms out.

And within those outstretched hands…

Cobalt latched hold of one of those appendages as tight as he possibly could.

Clinging with a death grip to the bullet train, he felt his arms could pull off at any second…

But he knew he wouldn’t be the first to break.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHH!!!!!!!!”

Cobalt screamed as loud as he could, ripping the appendage from its very flesh.

His lungs nearly gave out, his vocal cords pierced through his nervous system, his chest felt heavy enough to cave in.

But pulling himself away from that behemoth, in his hands he felt the words of victory screaming back at him, louder than his cries against the Antliopede, and even louder than its cries against him.

“SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”

“REEEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGH!!!”

“SSSSKKKKIIIIIIIIIIIIYYYGGGHHH!!!”

“RRRRRAAAAAEEEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!”

Cobalt blinded himself from the monster’s abhorrent screams, shutting himself away from it’s deranged nature as much as he could…

He instead raised both hands above his head, feeling the twists of his furious face rise with each passing second…

“—Burn…”

With both arms stretched over his head, he reared his jaw open as far as it could go, and with spit flinging from his sandy teeth…

“BURN IN HELL!!! YOU CRAWLING NIGHTMARE!!!”

Cobalt threw his arms forward with everything he had, stabbing into one of the creature’s many abdomans, piercing through its insectile flesh with its own leg.

“RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIKKKKLLLKK!!!!!!”

The creature screamed in return, bursting with more pain than it had most likely ever felt in its lonesome life.

Watching all of that pain, and knowing that he himself was the cause…

Cobalt felt absolutely nothing.

Wiping the spittle from his dry lips, Cobalt collected himself, stepping forwards.

Tempest of sand raged on, whipping across every ounce of his body.

He took step after step, while slowly stuffing his unoccupied hands in his pockets.

The roars continued, the screams continued, bursting through this sea of sand every second, echoing further and further, seeping deeper and deeper into the cracks of the former labyrinth.

Taking step after step, Cobalt pulled his eyelids apart, shaking his head to push the bangs out from in front of his eyes.

The sand lashed at his irises—a burning sting that was comparable to any of the pain he had felt against the previous Horror.

But walking forwards, seeing that diamond in the shape of a doorknob, and seeing the rest of that metal door come into view, Cobalt completely disregarded the pain, staring forward with a gaze hot enough to melt right through its metal.

“SCRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! RRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRR!!!”

Shaking off the pain this disgusting place had put him into, Cobalt found his feet on solid ground, stepping up carefully as he shook the sand off his shoes.

Every part of his body, from his sweater, to his jeans, to his hair, shoes, and socks, they were all drenched in the grains of sand.

Cobalt parted his lips again slightly with a faint click of the tongue, paying a last-second tribute to the disgusting creature he had stabbed in the belly.

It flipped through the air, lashing its huge body against the sea of sand in a fit of rage as the sandstorm slowly engulfed it, taking away Cobalt’s entire ability to make out the creature.

And slowly, the flailing tantrum-throwing child of a monster faded away into a silhouette of yellow, disappearing from sight entirely.

“…”

Sighing, he ruffled the sand out of his hair, leaning against the door as he grabbed the handle with his other hand.

“The Developer’s got shitty taste, so this isn’t on me.”

He spoke as if he was directly acknowledging the Antliopede as a proper foe, even though he knew it couldn’t hear those words.

“But if I ever come back to this Sand Hell, I’ll put you out of your misery… Got it?”

Turning the knob with his left hand, he rotated his body around, shaking away the grains from his clothes as he prepared to step forward.

Then basking in the light of the open door frame…

But that being said…

“I can only hope to God that I never see you again.”

With that, the battle had concluded…

And the light from the door swept him in, taking him away from that Hell entirely…