The chant grew louder. Sickening, guttural voices swirled in the air, the walls around them quivering and expanding like the lungs of a beast.
"Die. Die. Die."
The word bled from the twisted mouths set into the fleshy walls, lips cracked and bleeding, tongues quivering with anticipation.
The Bound Horror lurched forward, each step accompanied by a nauseating squelch of its mismatched limbs. The cleaver-arm dragged against the floor, leaving streaks of blackened gore that sizzled where it touched. The other arm, that writhing forest of tendrils tipped with serrated blades, shuddered and twisted like starving worms. Its face, that hideous union of The Butcher's stitched mask and the void-like darkness of The Man in the Top Hat, rippled and twitched with unearthly hunger.
Amara hauled Raelyn to her feet, her eyes fierce and unyielding. "Move! Now!"
Raelyn stumbled forward, legs trembling as her mind clawed desperately for control. Eden grasped Damien's hand, her grip unyielding even as his gaze lingered on the abomination staggering after them.
"Damien, focus," Eden said, her voice sharp with urgency. "We need to run."
"There has to be a way to destroy this thing or slow it down," Damien panted, his mind racing with equal parts terror and desperation.
"The heart," Amara replied through gritted teeth. "If we take out the heart of this place, the whole thing dies. The monsters, everything."
"But we don't even know where it is!" Raelyn snapped, her voice cracking under the strain.
Behind them, The Bound Horror's laughter cut through the air like jagged glass. The sound was broken, glitched, as if the creature's very existence was a distorted reflection of pure malice.
"Yes... run... flee through the darkened depths where shadows feat upon screams and pain becomes art..."
The creature flickered into existence mere inches away, its cleaver slamming into the ground just as Raelyn lunged to the side. Flesh splintered and spat dark bile where the blade buried itself, the maze itself shuddering in pain.
"But where will you go, little morsels?" The Bound Horror's voice crackled like shattering bones. "You have wandered deep into the mouth of this beast, and there is no escape from the gluttony of its hunger."
Damien dared a glance back, his mind racing despite the terror freezing his limbs. "It's like... it's everywhere at once. Flickering in and out. What even is this thing?"
"It's not meant to be understood, Damien," Eden shot back, her voice taut with panic. "This place defies all logic. If you try to comprehend it, you'll lose your mind."
He wanted to argue, to demand answers, but there was no time. The walls twisted around them, arteries writhing and convulsing, choking the passageways with pulsating meat.
"There!" Amara pointed to another chamber yawning open ahead, its entrance lined with jagged, skeletal teeth.
They stumbled through the maw, collapsing against the cold, twitching floor. Their breaths came out in ragged burst, chests heaving as their eyes darted about the gruesome new surroundings.
Pillars of sinew and exposed muscle stretched upward like colossal nerves, endlessly branching until they vanished into darkness. But worse than that were the bodies.
Dozens of them, strung from the pillars by their own entrails, suspended like obscene marionettes. Their torsos were flayed open, rib cages splayed and contorted into twisted shapes resembling wings. Their mouths hung agape, tongues swollen and blue, eyes bulging from torn sockets.
Faces stretched into masks of pure horror, their last moments etched into their flesh like dreadful paintings. And the stench. Oh, the putrid, acrid stench of decomposing bodies mixed with the sickly-sweet musk of living tissue. It clung to their throats, a taste of rot and blood and madness.
"They weren't here last time," Raelyn whispered, her voice trembling with revulsion. "What is happening? This place... it's changing."
"It's growing worse," Amara murmured, her own voice shaking despite the iron in her eyes. "The longer we're here, the more it corrupts."
"Hide," Raelyn said, her eyes darting around the grotesque chamber. "Just... hide."
They pressed themselves against one of the pillars, the greasy warmth of it pulsing against their backs. Damien stared up at the hanging bodies, his stomach twisting with nausea.
The Bound Horror appeared again, glitching into the chamber like a fractured hallucination. Its form quivered and distorted, as if its very existence fought against reality. It sniffed the air, that terrible grin spreading wide.
"Hide, hide..." it crooned. "But hiding only prolongs the agony, for I always find my prey..."
Its eyeless gaze swept the room, the void in its stitched mask radiating a darkness deeper than death.
"Raelyn, the prey that got away. How I seethed when you slipped from my grasp... A cruel fluke of fate, a crack in the fabric of suffering that allowed you to flee. And to calm the raging void within me, I feasted upon others. They came to me, oh yes... in droves."
It giggled, the sound thick with sickening delight.
"They wandered in dozens, as if the gods themselves craved to satiate me. A banquet of terror and torment, but none... none held the sweetness of your pain. You are the delicacy denied me. And now... you have returned."
Eden's lips tightened. "It's all blasphemy," she whispered, her fingers clutching Damien's hand so tightly he nearly cried out.
The Bound Horror's form jittered with barely contained rage. "Blasphemy? This place is my kingdom. My art. And you are nothing but meat for the feast."
It tilted its head, the mass of tendrils twitching as if tasting the air.
"Do you like what I've done with the place, little morsels?" It purred. "The treats I've added? The glorious ornaments of torn skin and shredded bone?"
The ground trembled as it slammed a cleaver-blade through another pillar, splattering blackened gore in all directions. "ANSWER ME!"
Raelyn's mouth moved but no sound came.
The creature's voice lowered to a venomous croon. "Ah... Do you remember your little friend? Luna. The girl with the wild hair and those fierce, piercing eyes... So strong. So brave. Right until the moment I tore her apart."
Raelyn's face went pale. Her eyes filled with tears.
The Bound Horror continued, its words seeping through the cracks of her sanity. "Another of her bloodline, yes. The boy. The brother. Such agony etched into your lineage. Your sister... Oh, she fought so valiantly. Even as maggots wriggled through her flesh, her eyes popped from their sockets like overripe fruit. The horror and hopelessness contorted her face so beautifully."
Damien's body went stiff. His voice was a shattered whisper. "She was here... My sister was here? How... Why... When?"
The Bound Horror's crooked grin stretched wider. "Fate weaves the most delightful tapestries. And your suffering shall complete the masterpiece."
The pillar behind them exploded, spraying viscera and blood as The Bound Horror materialized inches away.
"Ah, yes... The demon's vessel. Vexis. The disgrace."
The air split with a sudden scream, Vexis's voice howling from within Damien's mind, thundering through the maze itself.
"YOU DARE CALL ME A DISGRACE? YOU DARE?"
The Bound Horror laughed, a sound like bones grinding against rusted metal. "A demon shattered by his own grief. Broken not by betrayal, but by love—the love of a mortal who was torn from him, burned by the very kind she belonged to. And what did he do? He wept. He howled. And in his sorrow, he called upon his kin, unleashing ruin upon those fragile little creatures. But oh... in the end, he lay hollow and lost, sealing himself away—a fragment adrift in the void, a piece severed from time, a wound without memory."
"ENOUGH!" Eden's eyes blazed, her hand unleashing a radiant blast of light that tore through the air, slamming into the creature and blasting in backward.
"RUN!" Eden screamed, seizing Damien's hand and yanking him forward. Amara and Raelyn followed, their flight resuming through the nightmare's veins.