Water city part 3

They are in complete darkness. It's completely silent here; it seems as though not even sound will reach this place. It almost feels as though they are on a completely different planet. They continue moving forward. Just the two of them slowly but steadily moving into nothingness.

"Umh, what's the point of exploring further if we can't see anything?" Asks Gorge

"Who knows, maybe we will find another light source like before."

"Another light source... Oh my god, the lighter."

"What lighter?"

"You know the one I used to burn down the fish-snake monster?"

"I thought you lost it. Don't tell me... You carried a lighter the entire time we were stumbling around in the dark."

...

"Let there be light!" Gorge shouts out as he lights the lighter.

Both are in awe of what they see as the building's entire structure begins to illuminate.
They exited the straight hallway some time ago.
Now they are standing on the balcony, from which they can see just how massive this structure is; they cannot even see the bottom of it. There are numerous expansions, additional balconies, and what seems like an endless number of floors.

"What the hell is this place?" Periphirilia is completely shocked.

"Hey, look, there are more bones down there."
Gorge points to the pile of bones on the floor

"These appear to be in even worse shape than the one we previously discovered. The resemblance to human bones, while still present in these ones, is even less so than before. Sincerely, I have no idea what we are witnessing now."


"Hmm, well, over there, there are stairs. Do you want to go down to the lower floors ?"
Asks Gorge.

Well, it's either that or we go back, but it's important to realize that it's impossible to explore this whole place since it's so huge, so at some point, we will have to give up and go back."

"That's fine with me. I hope that we can find golden carp somewhere down here."

They continue walking downstairs until they reach a floor and decide to check it out.

"Hey, light that up there," Periphirilia points somewhere in the darkness.

Gorge shines the lighter in the direction, and there in the corner lies a skeleton of some weird creature, and above it is written, Everything shall return to where it came from.

"Oh my god, a writing skeleton!" Gasps Gorge.

"That's not the point; what's important is the meaning of those words. Since somebody decided to write them here, it must be something important. And they are written above the skeleton... Is it perhaps a warning?"

"It's getting kind of scary." Hey, look, there is a huge room right next to the skeleton."

"It might have some clues as to what that writing means; let's go check it out," Says Periphirilia.

They walk into the room and stop dead in their tracks, unable to move due to the shock of what they see. They can see many mummified human corpses right in front of them. However, every one of them has a minor animalistic trait.

The first has a horn, the second a wing, the third a tail, and so forth.

Gorge, who was startled by the unexpected sight, said, "Look, the deeper we go, the less human the corpses become.


"I think this is some kind of graveyard."


"Hey, let's go to the other room; I don't want to be here anymore," Says Gorge.

"Yes," Periphirilia agrees, "This place is creepy."

They make their way toward the next room, where the situation is even worse than in the previous room.

All over the room are posters of surgeries that partially turn humans into animals, bloody tools, and medical stuff.

"What the hell did they use this place for?" Gorge is utterly terrified.

"I don't know, but I'm certainly happy I wasn't around here when the place was active."

"Are you sure it's not active anymore?"

Well, of course, look at it; there is no way anyone has been here for a long time."

Gorge and Periphirilia look at the seemingly infinite structure, and they start to shiver a little. Are we alone down here? They can't get rid of this thought.


It was difficult to grasp the idea of being completely alone in a vast space, no matter how illogical it may seem. They knew there was no way anyone could have survived all this time down here, but the damn thought that someone or something else was there and might even be watching them just wouldn't go away.

Both of them continued walking in complete silence.


This time, however, it's different; instead of feeling alone and paralyzed by fear, I feel my body has been taken over and can only move forward instinctively. Gorge is getting progressively more anxious the deeper they go.


They continue walking, both lost in their own thoughts, until they come across something that fills them with an overwhelming sense of dread that they have never experienced before. The corridor in front of them is crowded with dreadfully misshaped skeletons. A strange cow-human mixed skull-human turtle hybrid, cow legs, cow torso, and a human with what appears to be a cow's face. Anybody would feel ill just from seeing these, but there was something even worse.

The ceiling, the walls, and the entire corridor were covered in weird writings- BACK TO THE OCEAN.

Since the lighter has weakened over time, it barely emits very dim light.

"Hey, I believe this is a good time for us to leave." Suggests Gorge


"But we are on to something big here."


"You are the one who told me that this place was too big to explore and that we would eventually have to go back. Well, now that things are getting weird and we are almost out of light, it's a perfect time to turn back."


"Not a chance. Let's keep going. I have to find out what the hell happened here. What is the cause of all this? I feel as though I would regret it for the rest of my life if we left without learning anything."


"Adventure it is then; let's hope we can have some fun, whatever happens. " Gorge smiles


To avoid tripping over a skeleton, Gorge and Periphirilia carefully watch where they place their feet as they advance. As they continue on venturing even further in, there are more and more skeletons, and each one is getting weirder. Then they finally reach it—the end of the corridor.


In front of them, on the entire ceiling, there is a painting of a huge tower and writing- TO THE HEAVEN.
Here, the skeletons are so horribly deformed that it is impossible to determine what species they are supposed to belong to.


"These are supposed to be humans, right ?" Asks disturbed Gorge.


"I don't know..."


"Wait, look at that painting again."


"And? It's a tower."


"Don't you think that it looks very similar to those trees growing on the water? Remember how I even joked around about how they are so wide that you could easily enter them?
Don't you think they are man-made?"


Periphirilia stares at the painting in shock.


''But they look just like regular trees."


"Are you really surprised? This whole place is weird. Anyway, after we're done with this place, want to check it out? Wait... The writing says to the heavens. Does that mean that it reaches heaven?"


"I guess we could check it out, but even if it goes all the way up to heaven, there is no way we could climb that high."


"Well, at least we can check it out." Replies Gorge

The light suddenly becomes even dimmer to the point where it is just barely visible.