The cave swallowed sound in a way Junwoo didn't like. Footsteps echoed too long, stretching and bending until it was impossible to tell whether they belonged to him, Kaelsu, or something else entirely.
Junwoo's footsteps were quicker, and so he walked slightly ahead of Kaelsu. Almost protectively. As a monster, his eyes were more adapted to the darkness. He could see much better than his summoner, but that didn't help ease his concerns.
Junwoo was certainly on edge. Despair and anxiety curled tight in his chest, and continued to tighten with each shaky step. The stale, humid air made his hands sweat, and fuzzed up the fur on his tail. Hot, sweaty, matted and very uncomfortable. Even his breaths felt stale.
Each pebble that shifted, sounds of water droplets hitting the floor, and bugs skittering across the ground made him jump out of his skin. Or, well, his fur.
Claws were drawn and ready to react at the slightest movement.
"We're almost there," came Junwoo's confident voice. Something inside of Junwoo knew where he was going, as if he were moving through pure muscle memory.
Kaelsu watched the map slowly complete while they migrated through the cave. It was just as he expected (and hoped): a shortcut with minimal to zero encounters. Although it was far foggier and darker than he'd been informed.
The pictures he'd seen online were also a lot different, most of them quite dated, but there was an expectation that this particular tunnel would be dimly lit with dying torches, threatening to extinguish.
He watched Junwoo with amusement. It was adorable how he'd freak out over every noise. He tested the theory by gently kicking a pebble into a wall and had to stifle a laugh when Junwoo was crouched in a defensive position about ready to lunge at the wall.
Junwoo barely registered the pebble before instinct took over, then turned around after realising what Kaelsu did, and shot daggers at his summoner. The snicker behind him made heat crawl up his spine and flare in his cheeks.
"What are you trying?" That was Junwoo's mildly irritated voice.
"Just testing a theory." The response from Kaelsu was vague, and amusement simmered in his tone and rested on his face in the form of a smirk.
Junwoo didn't respond with his usual snark, but instead continued on when his ears pricked. He could hear water… an exit?
Feet clunked on the ground with louder and more impatient steps as he picked up the pace, the summoner following suit after realising the curious glint in golden eyes.
Through the foggy occlusion, a light could be seen. Daylight? They could've sworn it was the middle of the night when they'd entered this place. Had they lost track of time? Or entered the wrong area?
They were just about to continue their adventure when Junwoo stopped in his tracks. The fog was wrong. The patch in front of him was noticeably thicker. Something didn't seem right.
No echoes. No scent. No airflow. One of the perks of being a monster is the heightened senses, especially his smell. But this was wrong. Wrong in a way that made his insides scream.
"The fog here smells… different?"
"What do you mean?" Kaelsu tried to move forwards, but was stopped with a harsh grip before he could take a step.
"Don't." A warning.
Junwoo's face twisted when he tried to sniff the air. "It doesn't smell… of anything?" He looked around and pondered, but nothing else seemed to be suspicious. The walls of the cave were thick and dry. So why could he hear water, and why didn't it echo the way every other sound did
"Is it supposed to?"
"Yes. You can't smell the fog?"
Kaelsu looked at Junwoo as if he were insane. It was easy for Kaelsu to forget that Junwoo was just a guy stuck in the game in the body of a rare monster. But when he sees the twitch of ears, the visible tension in the fox's muscles and the way his body shifts with each breath. All of it screams 'real' to Kaelsu.
It was also equally as easy for Junwoo to forget that Kaelsu was a guy behind a screen. Not that he could really grasp the concept with his current amnesia, anyway.
"Ah right, of course not."
Junwoo's grip on Kaelsu's strong arm loosened. His physical strength was inferior when it came to handling his summoner, but even so, Kaelsu was curious to see what Junwoo does.
"I'm not sure how to explain it. I guess it's kinda smoky? But this smells like there's nothing here…"
And something clicked. You could almost hear the sound of alarm bells ringing from Junwoo's skull.
A claw came up to his chin and danced between his lips, thoughtfully. "It's not real."
He took a step back and so did the summoner. Then charged up an attack; fire swelled up within his palms and launched the controlled flames into the fog, immediately dispelling it like an illusion.
In front of him was no ground at all. It was an empty blackness. A relentless abyss, that swallowed light whole, from which screams could be heard from now the magic had dispersed. There was no sense of depth: no walls, or floors could be seen. Just an endless nothing stretching onwards and down.
The screams weren't distant. They weren't even loud. They were close enough to be felt; a vibration like another heart beating inside his chest.
For a terrifying moment, his body leaned forwards. Junwoo and Kaelsu had almost walked into it. The longer he stared into the darkness, the more it tugged at his soul. A silent invitation that made his muscles scream at him to move.
A drop of sweat dripped down Junwoo's face, he didn't know what would happen if he died here. Yet, something inside of him thought testing that concept would not be a good idea. Just a hunch.
Kaelsu let out a breath of strained air, not realising he had held his breath for so long. Then simply laughed, strained and awkward like he didn't know what else to do.
"That was a close one, huh?" Junwoo finally commented, grinning like a child with his arm rubbing the back of his head. The beam on his lips did not match the guilt in his eyes, his brain screaming at him for nearly leading them both to their deaths.
Recovering from the shock, Kaelsu checked his map again.
"I don't believe we've been going in the right direction. I think that illusion actually started much further back." He showed the map to the pet and pointed at a junction earlier on in the cave that they'd missed due to the illusion magic.
"We were meant to go that way, but obviously couldn't see it."
Junwoo's lips pursed and fell into a sigh. "How didn't I notice that…?"
Crimson eyes narrowed, Kaelsu turned around. In an instant, his staff materialised, glowing brighter when a shot of white light sped towards the pair at unmatched speeds.