Episode 5 - The Crimson Hunters
1354 Words
The ceiling exploded inward.
Wood and stone rained across the room as a massive figure crashed through the roof. Elias threw his arms over his head while dust filled the air.
A Hunter landed in the center of the safehouse.
Its crimson eyes glowed like burning embers through the smoke.
Kael reacted instantly.
His sword flashed from its sheath, glowing silver as he lunged forward. The Hunter blocked with one arm, and the impact sent a violent shockwave across the room.
Tables shattered.
Books flew from shelves.
Elias stumbled backward into the wall.
“MOVE!” Kael shouted.
Elias didn’t need to be told twice.
Another crash shook the building.
Then another.
The walls cracked.
Lyra’s eyes widened. “There’s more than one!”
As if answering her, crimson lights suddenly appeared outside every window.
Hunters surrounded the building.
At least ten of them.
Elias’s heartbeat pounded violently.
“That’s not fair!”
One Hunter outside slowly lifted its hand.
Red energy spread across the walls of the safehouse like burning veins.
Kael cursed under his breath.
“They’re sealing the exits.”
The Hunter inside attacked again.
Its movements were terrifyingly fast, almost impossible to follow. Kael barely blocked the strike in time, silver sparks exploding from the collision.
The floor beneath them cracked apart.
Lyra grabbed Elias’s arm immediately.
“We have to leave NOW.”
“There’s literally monsters outside!”
“There will be worse monsters inside if we stay.”
That was somehow even more terrifying.
Lyra pulled him toward the back of the room while Kael continued fighting.
The Hunter roared violently, its distorted voice echoing unnaturally.
“THE KEY!”
Elias instinctively tightened his grip on the silver key.
It began glowing brighter again.
The Hunter noticed immediately.
Its crimson eyes widened.
Then all the Hunters outside turned toward Elias at the exact same moment.
The room suddenly felt much colder.
Lyra looked genuinely alarmed now.
“…It’s reacting to them.”
“What does that mean?!”
Before she could answer, the key burst with silver light.
Symbols spread across Elias’s hand like glowing ink.
Pain shot through his arm instantly.
“Agh!”
He dropped to one knee.
The key floated slightly above his palm again, vibrating violently.
The Hunters froze.
Not afraid this time.
Excited.
Kael saw it happen and shouted:
“LYRA, GET HIM OUT!”
The Hunter slammed Kael through a bookshelf, splintering wood everywhere.
Lyra immediately dragged Elias toward a hidden door behind one of the shelves.
Elias gritted his teeth as the silver markings continued spreading across his skin.
“It hurts!”
“I know.”
“You KNOW?!”
Lyra pushed open the hidden passage.
Dark stairs descended beneath the building.
“Hurry!”
Another Hunter smashed through the wall behind them.
The entire safehouse began collapsing.
Kael appeared beside them suddenly, breathing heavily.
His face was bleeding.
“We’re out of time.”
The Hunters moved closer.
Crimson light filled the room.
Kael looked directly at Elias.
“When I say run…”
The Hunters attacked all at once.
Kael slammed his glowing sword into the floor.
Silver energy erupted across the room like lightning.
The explosion threw the Hunters backward.
“RUN!”
Lyra grabbed Elias again and pulled him into the underground passage.
Kael followed immediately behind.
The hidden door slammed shut just as furious roars echoed above them.
The tunnel beneath Velmora was ancient.
Cold stone walls stretched endlessly ahead while faint blue lights flickered along the ceiling. Water dripped somewhere deep in the darkness.
Elias ran as fast as he could despite the pain in his arm.
The glowing markings had finally stopped spreading, but they remained burned into his skin.
Silver symbols.
Alive.
He stared at them while running.
“What happened to me?”
Kael glanced at his arm briefly.
His expression immediately became grim.
“That’s bad.”
Elias frowned. “Can you stop saying things like that?!”
Lyra looked worried too.
“The key is synchronizing with you faster than it should.”
“That doesn’t sound good either!”
“It isn’t.”
A deafening crash echoed behind them.
The Hunters had broken through.
Kael cursed softly.
“They’re still following.”
Elias looked back nervously.
Far behind them, crimson light flickered through the tunnel darkness.
Coming closer.
Fast.
“How are they finding us?!”
Kael pointed at the key.
“That.”
Elias looked down at it in horror.
“You’re kidding.”
“The Hunters are connected to relic energy,” Lyra explained while running. “Once the key awakened, hiding became almost impossible.”
Elias felt panic rising in his chest.
“So basically, I’m a walking flashlight for murder monsters.”
“…More or less.”
“That’s terrible!”
Another roar thundered through the tunnel.
Closer now.
Kael suddenly stopped running.
“There.”
Ahead of them stood a giant circular doorway covered in glowing silver symbols.
Unlike the ruined underground chamber beneath Elias’s school, this structure looked intact.
Ancient.
Powerful.
At its center was a massive symbol identical to the markings on the silver key.
Elias slowed down.
“What is this place?”
Lyra stared at the doorway carefully.
“A Gate Shrine.”
Kael moved toward it quickly.
“If this one still works, we may survive.”
“That’s a very concerning sentence.”
Kael ignored him and placed his hand against the shrine.
The silver symbols flickered weakly.
Then dimmed again.
Kael’s face darkened.
“No energy.”
The Hunters’ footsteps echoed closer through the tunnel.
Lyra looked behind them nervously.
“How long?”
Kael answered quietly.
“Not long enough.”
Elias stared at the giant shrine.
Then at the key.
A strange feeling pulled at him again.
Like the shrine was calling him.
The same feeling he experienced beneath the school.
The same pull.
Without fully understanding why, Elias stepped forward.
Lyra noticed immediately.
“Elias?”
The silver key began glowing brighter as he approached the shrine.
The symbols on the walls reacted instantly.
Light spread across the stone like flowing water.
Kael’s eyes widened.
“…Impossible.”
Elias slowly lifted the key.
The shrine awakened.
Silver energy burst through the tunnel as ancient symbols ignited across the massive doorway.
The entire structure trembled.
A deep sound echoed through the underground ruins.
Like something waking up after centuries of sleep.
The Hunters suddenly stopped chasing.
Elias looked back.
The crimson creatures stood frozen in the darkness ahead.
Watching the shrine.
Watching him.
And for the first time—
The Hunters seemed uncertain.
One of them stepped backward slowly.
Kael stared in disbelief.
“They’re afraid.”
The tunnel shook violently.
The giant doorway slowly began opening.
Not like a normal door.
Reality itself split apart inside the shrine.
A swirling silver void appeared beyond it.
Wind exploded outward from the opening.
Elias shielded his face.
“What IS that?!”
Kael answered quietly.
“A World Gate.”
The silver void inside the gate flickered with strange images.
Mountains floating upside down.
Endless oceans beneath black skies.
Cities made entirely of crystal.
Countless worlds.
Connected.
Elias stared in amazement.
Then one Hunter suddenly screamed.
Not in rage.
In warning.
Kael’s expression changed instantly.
“…No.”
The Hunters immediately backed away from the gate.
Retreating.
Fast.
Lyra noticed too.
“Why are they leaving?”
Then the answer came.
A low growl echoed from inside the silver void.
Not human.
Not Hunter.
Something older.
Something worse.
The glowing gate darkened suddenly.
Silver became black.
The temperature dropped instantly.
Elias felt fear unlike anything before crawl through his entire body.
Even Kael stepped backward.
“What’s happening?” Elias whispered.
Kael stared at the gate in horror.
“The gate opened the wrong path.”
A giant shadow moved slowly inside the darkness beyond the portal.
Massive.
Far too massive.
Two glowing eyes appeared within the void.
Ancient golden eyes.
And they were looking directly at Elias.
The creature inside the gate smiled.
Then a gigantic claw reached through the portal toward them.
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