The darkness was calm and still. Damon had once again found himself right where he started or right where he ended, depending on how you looked at it.

After about two hours of studying the darkness, Damon had more or less figured out how to pass. It was tempting to try and jump over it, but there was another way.

He poked his head through the exit, gazing into the shadows and the shallow forms of the Murmur Worms. Either that or his imagination was playing tricks on him.

Damon glanced at the sides of the walls.

"Suppose I have no choice then."

There was only one way he could think of to move along the edges of the wall until he reached the other side.

Taking out two daggers, he stabbed them along the edge and began to climb. He paused, glancing down at the darkness as he imagined a Murmur Worm shooting out to grab him. The urge to gulp almost reached his throat as he remembered how that unfortunate wyvern had been utterly ripped to pieces by one of their kind.

Damon stabbed the dagger into the wall. The smooth surface was surprisingly harder than before. His dagger created a small spray of sparks and a clicking noise that echoed out.

He quickly turned his head downward. Nothing. The darkness remained still. He let out a small sigh of relief.

Looking at the daggers, it seemed the wall was too hard after the initial stab, which meant Damon would have to climb along its sides even with no purchase, clinging to virtually nothing.

Or at least, it would have been difficult if not for his dealer's hand.

It floated beneath his feet, giving him leverage to stand on one leg while his hands and the other leg pressed against the wall.

Damon didn't know if ghost could sweat, but if this had been his own body, he would have broken out in a cold sweat.

Slowly and silently, he began to move along the edge of the smooth wall. It was slow and arduous, but Damon persevered, reaching the first corner. Turning back, he leaned his back against the angle and held himself between the two sides.

Then he glanced at the passageway, he was halfway there.

He almost laughed at how easy it seemed or rather, how annoyingly difficult it actually was.

Taking a breath, he continued to the other side, slowly reaching the next angle. He was now sideways to the far end of the chasm. The worms didn't even seem to sense him or they simply didn't care.

Carefully, he inched toward the passage.

Damon edged closer until his hands reached the entrance. All he needed to do was pull his body up.

With a stretch of his muscles, he pulled himself toward the passage, until something grabbed his hand.

Damon hung at the edge as he saw a long, grey arm with thin, bony fingers and long hair wrap around his wrist. He felt its immense strength as it squeezed tightly. Tilting his body, he placed one leg on the edge of the passage, but another hand of similar length grabbed his face.

Damon felt his skin crawl, or a sensation close to it when he looked at what was holding him.

He saw a long, grey entity with a thin, stretched face that reached down to its chest. Its eyes were inverted and placed wrongly on its face, its mouth stitched shut with white thread. The creature's chest was bony and thin, but its belly bulged outward grotesquely, round and swollen like a pregnant woman's.

It stood eight feet tall, towering over Damon. Even with its hand gripping his face, he felt no warmth, no vitality, nothing. It was simply there.

"Hehehehehh… hehe… hehe."

It laughed as Damon hung over the edge.

He was slightly shaken by the suddenness of the encounter, but he was no stranger to horrors like this.

The creature reacted almost instantly, as if waiting for Damon to see it before acting. Then it pushed him down with its hand.

Damon felt gravity pulling him toward the worm-infested chasm, but at the last moment he raised his leg up with the falling motion and hooked his legs around its neck.

"Fall with me, bastard."

"Ehhehhhhhhhhhhh!"

The creature let out a piercing shriek that echoed throughout the chamber as it flailed violently, trying to escape Damon's grasp.

Raising the rest of his body, Damon headbutted the hideous face of the entity. Without hesitation, he pushed his thumbs into its foul, inverted eyes.

He rolled off its body and landed hard on the ground as it flailed around in pain.

At last, he had landed on the other side of the chamber.

Damon grabbed his dealer's hand and stabbed it into the creature's round stomach, cutting to the side as a putrid smell burst forth, followed by a thick green sludge and the piercing cry of an infant.

Faces poured from its stomach, each one screaming and crying in grotesque agony.

The visceral stench of rot, birth, and death filled the air. Damon felt a chill spread across his arm as small white maggots began crawling out of it.

He didn't even change his expression. Grabbing its head, he stomped down with his foot, crushing the infant faces beneath him without hesitation, squashing them like insects.

This was terrifying, but not something new.

"Those who have walked through hell fear no devils."

Damon's cold voice echoed out, causing the creature to shudder in fear. He twisted its head.

"I don't know from whose twisted mind you were born, or if you're all that's left of some broken soul…"

He glared at it, then with a single kick, slammed it into the darkness below.

"Die."

The entity fell into the deep abyss. Before it could reach the bottom, a giant maw opened and consumed it whole.

Damon took one last glance, then turned to face the darkness ahead.

In the distance, he could hear giggles and the countless eyes of unseen entities watching him.

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