The moment they stepped past the threshold, the world changed.
It wasn't gradual.
It wasn't subtle.
It was immediate.
The light behind them dimmed as if swallowed, the open sky cut off by jagged stone teeth above. What little illumination remained came from strange, bioluminescent growths clinging to the walls. Soft blues and sickly greens that pulsed faintly, like the cavern itself was breathing.
Yuzuki took three steps in.
Then stopped.
The air felt heavier.
Not physically, but perceptually.
Sound didn't behave the way it should.
A single footstep echoed too long.
A breath lingered.
Even the slight shift of fabric carried farther than it had any right to.
'Yeah… this place is not normal.'
Behind him, Menchi spoke.
"Stay close."
Her voice carried.
Too far.
It bounced.
Warped slightly.
Returned to them from somewhere deeper in the abyss.
"...close… close… close…"
Yuzuki glanced sideways.
"…That's unsettling."
Menchi didn't respond to the comment. Her posture had already changed. Looser, but sharper. Alert. Every sense tuned.
"This is where it starts," she said quietly. "Echo Beasts."
Yuzuki's eyes moved slowly across the cavern.
At first, there was nothing.
Just stone.
Shadow.
Light that didn't feel alive.
Then—
A sound.
"…Hey…"
Yuzuki's head snapped to the right.
It was his voice.
Exactly his voice.
Same tone.
Same cadence.
Coming from somewhere off the ledge.
"…Hey…"
He frowned.
"I didn't say that."
Menchi didn't look at him.
"I know."
Another voice.
This time from behind.
"Yuzuki."
He turned.
It was Menchi's voice.
Perfect.
"Don't turn around."
He had already turned.
Menchi was still in front of him.
Not behind.
"…Right," he muttered.
Then came a third.
Softer.
Closer.
"…Help…"
Yuzuki's eyes narrowed.
That one wasn't his.
And it wasn't Menchi's either.
Menchi exhaled slowly. "They've noticed us."
The cavern seemed to respond to that.
A faint shift.
Something moved along the wall. Too smooth to be stone, too fluid to be natural.
Yuzuki's gaze sharpened.
There.
Clinging to the side of a distant ledge.
A shape.
Humanoid.
But wrong.
Its body stretched thin, limbs elongated, skin pale and reflective like damp marble. Its face—
If it had one—
Was indistinct.
Then it opened its mouth.
"…Hey…"
Yuzuki didn't hesitate.
He stepped forward.
The moment his foot hit the ground, the entire cavern seemed to echo it back in layers.
The creature twitched.
And then—
It moved.
Fast.
Not toward him.
Across.
Sliding along the wall with unnatural precision, disappearing into shadow.
Then—
Three more appeared.
Different ledges.
Different angles.
"…Don't move…"
"…Stay there…"
"…This way…"
Voices overlapped.
Conflicted.
Deliberately confusing.
Menchi stepped forward beside him.
"Don't trust anything you hear."
Yuzuki nodded once. "Figured that out."
Another Echo Beast dropped from above.
This one landed silently.
Too silently.
Yuzuki saw it the moment its weight touched the ground, because there was no sound.
'So they can suppress it too.'
The creature lunged.
Yuzuki moved.
Not back.
Forward.
His fist drove straight into its torso—
Enhanced.
Just precise.
The impact crushed through the creature's midsection with a sickening distortion, the body folding unnaturally before it was sent flying into the cavern wall.
This time—
There was sound.
A wet, echoing crack.
The cavern carried it everywhere.
"…crack… crack… crack…"
The remaining Echo Beasts reacted instantly.
More movement.
More shapes.
More voices.
"…Behind you…"
"…Duck…"
"…Run…"
Yuzuki didn't move.
Instead, he closed his eyes for half a second.
Then opened them again.
"Menchi," he said.
"Yeah."
"Make noise."
She didn't question it.
She stomped her foot hard against the stone.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
The echoes exploded outward.
The cavern sang with it.
Yuzuki moved immediately.
Not toward the sound—
But against it.
He ran diagonally across the ledge, eyes tracking the delay, the distortion, the inconsistency.
'There.'
Another Echo Beast clung to a vertical surface.
Its mouth opened—
"…Left—"
Yuzuki didn't wait for it to finish.
He stepped—
And struck.
This time his punch didn't just hit.
It pulled.
A subtle distortion in space collapsed the distance just enough for his fist to land a fraction faster than expected.
The creature didn't have time to react.
Its body snapped backward and disintegrated against the wall.
Menchi was already moving too.
A knife flashed in her hand.
Clean.
Efficient.
She didn't chase sounds. She read movement.
One Echo Beast lunged from the side—
She pivoted.
Cut upward.
The blade carved through its neck in a single motion.
No wasted effort.
No hesitation.
"Don't get surrounded!" she called.
"I won't."
Another voice.
"…You will…"
Yuzuki ignored it.
More creatures were appearing now.
Not rushing blindly.
Testing.
Probing.
Waiting for mistakes.
'They're not dumb.'
That was the problem.
They weren't just reacting.
They were learning.
Yuzuki slowed his breathing.
Listened. Not to the voices, but to the pattern of distortion.
Which echoes came back too quickly.
Which came back too clean.
Which didn't match the space.
Then—
He moved again.
Faster this time.
A blur across the ledge.
One strike.
Then another.
Each movement deliberate.
Each hit fatal.
Behind him, Menchi moved just as cleanly, her steps light but controlled, cutting down anything that got too close.
The Echo Beasts began to thin.
Not because they were weak—
But because they were cautious.
They had tested.
And now—
They were retreating.
The voices faded.
"…this way…"
"…don't go…"
"…stay…"
"…stay…"
"…stay…"
Silence.
Real silence.
Yuzuki exhaled slowly.
"…Well," he said. "That was annoying."
Menchi wiped her blade clean against a cloth and slid it away.
"You adapted fast."
"You explained it well enough."
She gave him a look. "That's not all it was."
Yuzuki shrugged.
"Maybe."
He stepped forward again, peering deeper into the Cathedral.
The path ahead stretched downward along uneven stone platforms, twisting into darkness where the faint glow of bioluminescence barely reached.
No more voices.
For now.
But the feeling remained.
This place was watching.
Listening.
Waiting.
Yuzuki smiled faintly.
"Let's keep going."
Menchi nodded.
And together—
They descended deeper into the Hollow Cathedral.
---
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