The being knew immediately that it had made a mistake in following the orb down here, but it might be too late to turn back now.

  The little light might be seemingly invulnerable, but despite all its musings about parting ways, the being wasn't comfortable leaving its friend down here. Nothing should be alone in this creepy place.

  It kept walking, even though it could see less and less.

  The being almost slammed against a dead end, which the little light had gone right through. But before it could panic that it had been left alone down here, it realized this was just some kind of enormous plate, almost perfectly the size of the tunnel, haphazardly blocking most of the way.

  Luckily it was at an angle, so that the being could squeeze through, albeit with some difficulty.

  They emerged in a more spacious part of the tunnel.

  The walls around were still very regular, but unlike before, there were many things cluttering the ground. More... slender and light than boulders, but still very capable of obstructing its passage.

  Sight here was truly horrible. The being needed to move carefully, with its hands held forward. And since it didn't trust the empty middle, it hugged the walls and walked the perimeter.

  Besides the one they had come out of, there were other tunnels forking outwards into the distance, spaced out regularly.

  The essence was even staler down there, and the being could see nothing without getting closer first. Which it absolutely didn't want to, down here.

  This 'void' was different than back at the epicenter, filled with a strange sense of unease. As if something was lurking just beyond perception.

  Of course, the little light ignored everything and just floated over random junk.

  The orb would be at it for a while, stuck around the area and spouting annoyances even quicker than before. Meanwhile, the being should devote its time to something more productive - like checking what went wrong at the entrance, since it definitely wasn't venturing forth on its own - and save itself from some mind-ache in the process.

  The being knew it was getting closer and closer to the exit by memory, but still couldn't feel the essence, and consequently its sight, getting any better. In fact, it had been reduced to navigating its way by touching the walls around. The only good thing about this situation was that the tunnel back here was free of junk, so it hadn't stumbled on anything yet.

  Soon, it turned the last corner and was back to where the entrance was supposed to be. What it saw was extremely... confusing.

  It wasn't a solid blockage that had barred the way, but rather some kind of web of material, that allowed wisps of livelier essence to pass through. Enough for the being's perception to improve drastically as it approached, and for examining the thing better, but rapidly deteriorating as they got even a little distance away.

  The material was stringy and completely unknown at first sight. But upon a closer examination, it was some kind of variation of a substance that was everywhere in the castles that the little light had brought it to. It must be hiding some secrets, otherwise why would it be so commonplace there? But to the being's senses, it was just yet another kind of strange rock, if a bit... sticky. And just as any other kind of rock, it wasn't remotely alive.

  So how had it ended up here?

  Rock never moved on its own. Or rather, sometimes a few events could make it move, like huge hummings or when cracks opened into the ground. But nothing like that had happened recently. And even if something had, those were ‘simple’ motions. Chaotic and messy. A humming might have caused some boulders to slide one way or the other, or changed their angle. Maybe even collapsed the tunnel entirely.

  This barrier though, it looked far too complex to be the result of anything like that. Far too precise and deliberate.

  The being didn't know what the cause was, but it didn't like what it was seeing. Not at all.

  Fortunately, it wouldn't have to bear with it much longer, as freedom was just beyond this flimsy-

  Unfortunately, there was another property of this material that the being was discovering just now: it was harder than rock, for rock in such thin and apparently frail formations would easily crumble at the slightest push. While this thing would bend a little, but otherwise stayed completely intact, no matter how desperately one pushed and hit it.

  And when it tried to pry it apart with a spike, it wasn't the bramble that bent out of shape. Maybe it had managed a few scratches, but all its spikes would be ruined long before it made any significant progress here.

  There was no way through.

  No way out.

  Having escape denied when so close at hand, so easy to see, was beyond frustrating. But there wasn't much to do about it.

  Maybe the little light would be done by now?

  Better to be flooded with annoyances than be alone down here.

  The being never thought the moment would come that it would be grateful for this barrage.

  But now wasn't the time to feel good about having company. The fact they were trapped inside was secondary, because on the way here, its fears and 'delusions' had become more and more undeniable. The vague sense of unease evolved into something much worse.

  It wasn't just that this place was creepy. There was something... crawling, just outside of perception. Which meant quite a lot of space to lurk in, with the being's increasingly weakening sight.

  But every time it was sure it had caught a sign and turned its gaze... there was nothing.

  Which far from calming it down, had only increased the being's unease, until it was cresting panic. There was something down here with them.

  Worse, so much worse, when it inspected the other exits, it found brambles barring them too, similarly to the entrance.

  And there was no way to communicate with the little orb, to make it understand the danger they were in.

  Rather, there was one thing that usually got its attention...

  The being grabbed one of its spikes.

  The little light darted away, floating frantically against the farthest wall.

  The one time the being had weaved a spike through the orb's strange body, it had rendered the creature insensate for a time, and absolutely furious when it recovered.

  It might be the only thing that could actually hurt its seemingly untouchable body.

  The being was already only a few steps away when it realized that boxing in the little light and approaching with a weapon could be seen as threatening, and not very friendly of it.

  But any feeling of regret and thoughts on making amends were swept away when there was yet another movement at the corner of its vision.

  And this time, it didn't disappear when the being turned to look.

  The way it had just come back from, the same tunnel that it and the little light had first entered through, was now filling with... a mass of bulging, slowly pulsating, flesh.

  It didn't look like any other creature the being had ever seen.

  First of all, it glowed so much in its vision that it didn't understand how it had stayed hidden so long, even though it didn't light its surroundings at all, as if they were all standing inside the void of the epicenter.

  It had no fixed shape, but flowed and swelled agonizingly slowly as it entered their cave. Sometimes, it even seemed to float in the air, against any logic.

  After the initial scare, the being decided to approach. Because there was no other way out in any case, and because with such mind-numbing slowness, the creature didn't seem that threatening.

  Upon closer inspection, it was clear that the thing wasn't actually floating, but rather held up by bramble growing along and inside it. The very same type of material that had blocked the entrance and all the corridors.

  This must be the creature that trapped them inside.

  But looking at it right now, this thing didn't look that threatening. It didn't even feel like a predator.

  Actually, it didn't feel like much at all. It felt... weak.

  And since the being was a tiny bit angry at it for needlessly scaring both of them, it decided to punish the little thing.

  But at the last moment, out of caution, it pulled back: probably better not touch the mass of flesh directly. Instead, it reached forward with the spike still in its hand, trying to gently poke-

  the spike slipped inside the creature with extreme ease.

  The being panicked, as it hadn't meant to cause such harm... but the spike didn't seem to be hurting the creature in any way.

  It hadn't even twitched! But kept slowly advancing, engulfing more and more of the spike.

  The being was very confused by this behavior and stood stunned for a bit.

  ...Until its possessiveness won out, and it started tugging back against the thing that was trying to steal its precious spike!

  But then the mass of flesh suddenly squeezed flatter, and surged forward with a slender pseudopod, something frail and pitiful, reaching for the back of the hand that was holding the spi-

  Pain.

  Pain the likes of which the being had never felt. Deep and violating in a way that shouldn't be possible, as if even the concept of its every existence was at risk.

  It let go of the spike and recoiled back so hard that it ended up slamming painfully against a pile garbage, sending stuff clattering all around and then falling onto the ground on its back.

  It slapped at its hand desperately, trying to remove the leftover parasite.

  Luckily, it fell away easily enough. But the pain didn't go away.

  Lunging backwards so fast, the hostile flesh that had touched its skin had snapped from the main body and interrupted the creature's attack. But the damage was already done.

  Its hand was numb, and the tiny point of contact was flaking over, entirely dead.

  Somehow this thing could suck the very essence out of its body with but a touch.

  The spike didn't do anything to it.

  The faintest touch would be deadly.

  And it was slowly but inexorably filling the entire place with unbreakable bramble.