Chapter 1530: I Don’t Even Have A Hazmat Suit
Well... I could still shift my senses back to my original body and I can see through my real body that I was still standing inside the bubble and looking at the tear in space in front of me.
I split my attention to speak through my real body, "We’re trying to close this portal, right?"
Chancellor Vastraea turned to me, "Yes? Did... Did something happen to your Shadow Summon?"
"I’m looking through its eyes right now and... It’s not a nice place, I can tell you that for sure... In fact, I would say it’s quite a troublesome place..."
"Should we go in then?"
I shook my head, "The moment my Shadow Guard went inside the portal, the way out disappeared... Hmm? Actually, let me try something..."
I called out another Shadow Guard and had her move towards the portal, sticking her hand through it.
On the other side, I saw through my first Shadow Guard that a hand was now sticking through the wall and immediately grabbed a hold of it.
I tried to pull her back but while my second Shadow Guard could pull her hand back, my first Shadow Guard simply hit the wall and was forced to let go of the hand as it disappeared through the very solid wall.
Great...
What? Forget about my Shadow Guard and leave it behind?
No, no, no... That is definitely not an option. No one gets left behind, not even one of my Shadow Guards.
I turned to the Chancellor, "I’m going in. If I don’t come out... Tell my girls."
Vastraea grabbed my arm before I could step out of the bubble, "Wait! Why are you going in there yourself? If it’s too dangerous, we should make more preparations before we even think about heading inside!"
"Well... I honestly don’t think there’s anything we can do to prepare more for what is inside there to be honest... And I think I have a plan on how to deal with it but... Truth be told, it might get a little messy so I’d rather handle it myself."
She blinked at me, "You know how to close this portal?"
I scratched my cheek, "Yeah... You know I’m an Off-Worlder right? This thing is... Kind of connected to my old World."
She frowned a little before turning to the portal, "Does it lead back to your old world?"
I shook my head, "No but... It’s similar to something in my old World and I believe I can handle it if I do it alone. If there’s other people with me... No offense but it would be more of a burden for me if there were others with me."
She seemed surprised by my words, her gaze shifting between me and the portal a few times before settling back on me.
"Are you sure... You can handle it?"
I grimaced, "Well... Not a hundred percent... But I believe I should have a good chance of dealing with it at least..."
She pursed her lips before nodding her head, "Then... I place my faith and trust in you, Apostle Aster. May the Gods bless you. I will pray for your safety."
She lowered her head in a deep bow and released my arm.
I gave her a nod before stepping out of the bubble, floating towards the portal and entering it with my other Shadow Guard as well.
I stepped into the... Rooms in the back, taking a moment to look at the eerily familiar but also alien space that I have found myself in.
I let my Shadow Guards disappear back in my shadow and started walking forward, not really having any destination in mind but also keeping an eye out for any objects of note.
The good thing was that the place was quite brightly lit so I could see quite clearly where I was going, not that it would have been much different if it wasn’t brightly lit anyway but it was definitely preferable for a place like this I guess.
The place was a giant maze where every few steps was broken up by the same yellow pillars and walls dotted around the place, separating the place into small individual rooms though each of these ’rooms’ were never fully enclosed.
Aside from the sound of my heels, the only sound that could be heard in this place was the soft, electronic hum coming from the fluorescent lights overhead.
Just saying, I took my egg out to continue filling it with mana.
I mean... I’m already here right? So I might as well just continue feeding it. Not like I need both my hands right now anyway...
I had no way to tell the time but it felt like I had been walking for at least a good few minutes or so and all I have seen so far is just the endless yellow corridors with nothing else in sight.
I almost thought that this might be the type where it was just endless corridors of yellow walls and pillars with no way out when I finally found a break in the consistent walls and pillars.
There, at the bottom of one of the walls, was a hole that was just big enough for a person to crawl through.
I immediately made a beeline for it and crouched down to peek through the hole.
The hole only stretched for a few feet before it ended on the other side of the wall which seemed to be unreachable from this side of the wall that did not involve me crawling through this hole.
I didn’t hesitate and laid myself down to slide myself through the gap in the wall, using my [Sedusa] boon to move my hair to pull me along the floor so I didn’t have to let go of my egg.
When I moved to the other side of the wall, I noticed that the yellow walls here were... A shade darker than before.
It was subtle and probably something you might not notice but... I definitely noticed.
And as if reacting to my presence, the lights dimmed slightly, making the rooms here look darker than the previous location I had just crawled from.
Unperturbed, I continued walking, still keeping my eye out for anything that was different from the endless yellow corridors.
I did not have to get far before I noticed the scratchings on the walls.
Scratchings that looked like claw marks, like something with long claws had dragged its claws across the wall as it was walking through the corridor.
Then, I came across my first writing on the wall, a few words that looked like it had been hastily scribbled on the yellow wallpaper with a sharpie marker.
’Run, don’t hide’
I looked around to see if there was anything else aside from that but unfortunately that was the only thing I found in this corridor.
Looking at the clawmarks, I decided to just follow where I believe the thing that made the claw marks was walking towards when they made those marks and moved down a specific corridor.
A few metres down and I found another set of claw marks that looked similar to the first set I found.
Following those marks, I moved even further and past another corner, I found a pool of blood on the ground.
The blood was still wet and aside from that pool of blood, there were no other traces of where it might have come from or where it could have led.
Like someone just poured out this puddle of blood from a container and walked away or something.
Taking that as a sign that I was moving in the right direction, I moved even deeper, finding a specific room where there was bigger space compared to the other corridors I have been moving through.
In this room, there was an old, retro television sitting on top of a wooden table, its screen turned on to show a bunch of static.
On top of that, there were blood splatters across the screen but yet the rest of the TV was completely clean without even a speck of dust on it.
As I got closer to it, the static sound coming from the television got noticeably louder, like the volume of the static was being turned up instead of just the sound being more audible because I was getting close to it.
Right then, what I could only describe as a giant creature that looked like a child’s drawing of a stickman with a square head and very long fingers appeared from around the corner.
It scratched its fingers along the wall, leaving the same claw marks that I saw on the wall and started advancing towards me menacingly.
Yeah... This is the part where I run, right?
Nah.
I walked right up to it and it raised its arm, clearly intending to slash its fingers at me but I was faster.
I spun around and slammed my tail into its abdomen area and smashed it away from me, the impact sending it flying back to crash into the wall several feet away from me hard enough to leave a large spiderweb crack in the wall.
I cracked my neck and continued walking towards it while still hugging my egg, only for the creature to quickly clamber back on its feet and scramble away to run from me.
Hey?! Why are you running?! You better not be running somewhere to hide!!