บท 5: Chapter 5: Sudden Dungeon
When I woke, the first thing I felt was an intense cold seeping into the side of my face and my body. My brain was foggy, like I'd just woken up after a bad hangover, and there was a steady throb in my skull that made me want to curl up and go back to sleep.
I opened my eyes, and the first thing I noticed was the stone floor beneath me. Stone? What the hell?
Ugh, my head hurts.
I groaned and pushed myself up, my limbs feeling heavy and disoriented. Once I regained my balance, I surveyed my surroundings. This… is definitely not the dorm.
The floor and walls were made of rough stone blocks, and moss was oozing from the cracks like some kind of slow-moving infection. The smell of animal excrement was thick in the air, and if I listened carefully, I could hear the occasional growl, hiss, or the distant, ever-present sound of water dripping.
If I didn't know any better, I'd say I was inside a castle's dungeon—or at least a really shitty, underground tomb complex. Definitely not a dorm.
I pushed myself to my feet, then stumbled toward the only exit—a stone door that seemed to have been carved straight into the wall. I gave it a push, but it wouldn't budge.
What the fuck is going on? How do I get out of here? How do I… come back? And what the hell was that book?
I need to find my way out of here. Fast.
I spun around in a panic. If the door wouldn't open, then maybe there was another way. A quick glance down the hallway showed a long corridor, stretching into the darkness. At the far end, there was another door—this one was open.
Great. I guess I don't have much of a choice.
I started walking toward it, my footsteps echoing in the empty hall like some bad movie cliché. With each step, I felt a growing sense of dread. There was something off about this place—something watching me, something waiting for me to make a mistake. I tried to shake the feeling, but the place had that giant, claustrophobic air—like giants once roamed these halls.
When I finally reached the door, I peeked around the corner. What I saw made my stomach drop. The room beyond was a massive hall, so vast that the far end was swallowed by shadow. On either side of the hall were staircases leading down to the ground floor. But it wasn't the stairs that caught my attention—it was the piles of coffins and crypts stacked into the walls, like some sick puzzle made of death.
And the creatures.
Skeletons. Moving skeletons.
They shuffled aimlessly between the crypts, their empty eye sockets fixed on nothing, their bones rattling with each step they took. Three of them, all of them as dead as you can get without being completely gone.
What the hell? I feel like I just got tossed into some fantasy dungeon.
I hesitated, peeking around the corner to see if any of them noticed me. Slowly, I backed away from the door, but before I could get out of sight, one of the skeletons turned its head. Its hollow eyes locked on me, and with a horrifying, mechanical clatter, its jaw started to snap open and shut.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
I froze.
Then it bolted at me.
Well, screw this.
Before I could even react, the skeletal monstrosity was charging up the stairs. I didn't wait to see what happened next. I bolted up the stairs as fast as my legs could carry me, barely glancing back to see if it was still chasing me. It was.
When I made it back to the top, I looked down at the stairs and realized that, much to my surprise, the skeleton was struggling to climb. It could barely get its bones up one step before it slipped and fell. Its legs were stiff and jerky, like a puppet with half the strings cut.
Well, that's one small comfort.
But this was bad. I can't just stand here and wait for the inevitable.
So, I did the only thing that seemed reasonable in a situation like this—I ran back down the stairs, charging straight at the skeleton.
It didn't even see me coming.
The moment I made contact, the thing disintegrated into a pile of bones, collapsing into a heap at the bottom of the stairs like a broken puzzle. I took a step back and watched in stunned silence as the skeletons all collapsed in a chain reaction, crashing down like a line of dominos.
That was… easier than I thought.
I stood there for a moment, still catching my breath, as the last of the skeletons clattered to the floor. The place was quiet now. Too quiet.
I took a step back from the scattered remains, scanning the dark hall. Just when I thought it was safe, a clunking sound echoed through the chamber. The skeletons… but they were nowhere in sight. I clenched my fists. Fine. If they showed up again, I'd just rush at them.
Then, a loud thud shattered the silence. My head snapped toward the sound, and my blood ran cold. The stone coffins had crashed to the floor, leaving deep cracks in the stone. The lid slid open with a slow, grinding creak, and from within… they rose. Skeletons, all of them, but this time they were armed, wearing fragments of rusted armor and gripping ancient, decayed swords.
My breath hitched. So much for just charging in.
They rose to their full, unsettling height, hollow eye sockets zeroed in on me. One of them let out that haunting clack of its jaw before they all lunged forward, swords raised.
I gulped, my mind racing. Guess it's time to put those kendo and judo lessons to the test. I steadied myself, taking a stance, and waited as the nearest one rushed at me, its sword raised in a clumsy slash.
I dodged to the side, gritting my teeth as I swung a fist at its head. The impact was like hitting rock, but the skull dislodged with a satisfying crack, and the skeleton crumbled in a heap, armor and sword clattering to the ground.
Ignoring the ache in my fist, I snatched up its rusty sword and turned to face the others. Another one was nearly on top of me, and with a quick swing, I brought it down in a single hit, sending it crumbling just like the last one. So there was a pattern here—one hit, and they fall apart. Good. I could work with that.
I grabbed the skull from one of the fallen skeletons, testing an idea, and lobbed it at an oncoming skeleton. It connected, and sure enough, the bones disintegrated instantly.
Alright. Maybe this won't be so bad after all.
Grinning, I grabbed another femur and threw it at the remaining skeletons, watching them fall, one after the other. One hit, and they were done for. Soon, the hall was littered with scattered bones, the silence finally broken.
I couldn't help but exhale, half in relief, half in disbelief.
"Alright," I muttered, wiping the dust off my hands. "Looks like I'll live to tell this story. For now."
—
After a moment of scavenging, I continued my walk through this seemingly endless hall, now equipped with crude armor pieced together from the skeletons and a rusted sword gripped tightly in my hand. The silence pressed in around me, broken only by the steady echo of my footsteps, each one drawing me deeper into this labyrinth. And in the quiet, thoughts began to creep in.
A second chance at life. But for what? To face a never-ending battle—one that tests my will to survive, my strength, my sanity. Fate, it seems, has a twisted sense of humor. Just days ago, I thought I'd live a comfortable, if not fulfilling, life. Now? Now I'm dragging a sword through a dark stone tomb, hoping the armor doesn't fall off if I run.
But will any of this really be enough? These skeletons crumbled with a single hit, but I'm not so deluded as to think they're the worst of it. This place feels like an RPG dungeon, which can only mean one thing: there's a "boss" waiting somewhere. The idea makes my stomach clench. I can barely keep up with skeletons, let alone a boss, or a shadow of Tartarus. A persona would be good right now, even if I have the potential to awaken a Persona, what are the odds I'll last long enough to unlock it? I'd be lucky if I'm not reduced to a pile of bones by morning.
And Father… He's the reason I'm here in the first place. The book that trapped me in this nightmare was his doing. Did he know? About the Dark Hour? About this Kirijo mess? He might be able to explain, if I ever get out of here alive.
That means I need to keep moving. If this is a dungeon, there's only one way to survive: find the exit—or the boss—and fight my way through.
Just then, I found the end of the hall, and up ahead, I saw a door. Not stone, like the others—this one was made of wood, towering and ornately carved, like the kind that guards the inner chambers of a castle. Relief washed over me. Maybe this is the way out. Maybe I don't have to fight the boss after all—
The ground shook, nearly knocking me off my feet. I took a step back, eyes darting around as the ceiling above cracked and splintered. And then, in a shower of dust and debris, it dropped down.
The thing crouched in the middle of the hall, half-shrouded in shadow, and I could only make out pieces of it at first—a dark, egg-like shell, thick cockroach-like legs extending from beneath, and the gleam of a needle-sharp joint jutting from its front, aiming right at me. The air grew thick with the stench of decay, and then I saw them: two red eyes peering out from a hole in the top of its shell, locked onto me with a hunger that made my skin crawl.
This… this wasn't going down with one hit. Hell, this wasn't going down with twenty.
Shit.
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