Soulless Soul

Chapter 4: The Black Sea

Sky felt like he was floating.

No weight. No cold. No rain. Just an endless, velvety space, soft and quiet. For a fleeting second, he thought this might be death—peace, the definitive end of the voice. He could just stay here. Never move. Never hurt again.

And then, the universe ruptured.

[Wandering Soul! Welcome to the Dungeon Array.]

The comfort shattered instantly. Immediately following the Array’s mechanical greeting, Sky found himself blind and drowning. He tried to scream, but freezing salt water rushed into his mouth, burning his throat and forcing him to choke. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t see.

It wasn’t just that his eyes were failing him; there was simply no light to see by. The sensation of drowning was absolute. A cold, viscous liquid filled his lungs and clung to his skin, feeling less like water and more like liquid shadow. It was heavy, sticky, and dragging at his limbs until they felt like lead.

His chest burned. Air. Need air. Panic spiked through him, sharp and electric. His body thrashed on instinct. His hands cut through the suffocating darkness, clawing wildly but finding nothing to grab. No surface. No ground. Just more endless black.

Somewhere in the chaos, his eyes snapped open. He expected a glint of light, a horizon, anything. There was only an infinite abyss.

Then, the deep shook.

Far below him, something massive moved. A colossal, shifting silhouette rolled in the subterranean current, slow and deliberate, like a mountain turning over in its sleep. Two lights ignited. Sickly yellow, bioluminescent, and entirely wrong, a pair of gigantic eyes fixed on him from the depths.

The creature opened its maw. It was a cavernous void lined with rows of jagged, obsidian teeth, each one larger than Sky’s arm. As the jaw unhinged, the water around it began to violently spin. A massive undercurrent formed, pulling Sky backward, down toward that ravenous throat.

Sky kicked. He kicked with every ounce of strength left in his breaking body. His legs screamed. His lungs were on fire. The current was overwhelming, but raw panic lent him a sudden burst of adrenaline. He clawed upward, throwing one arm over the other, until his fingers finally broke the surface. Cold, stale air hit his face like a slap.

Coughing and gagging, he dragged his upper body onto something solid. Sharp, ash-colored gravel bit mercilessly into his palms and knees. Behind him, the beast’s jaws snapped shut with a sound like underwater thunder, missing his boots by mere inches.

He collapsed onto his back, his chest heaving violently. Freezing. Trembling. Looking up, he saw no sky—only a ceiling of jagged stalactites dripping moisture from somewhere high above. The air was thick with the stench of sulfur, ozone, and the rot of something ancient left to decay.

He had survived the Black Sea. That was the name he gave it.

His reprieve lasted all of three seconds. "Shit," he rasped, his voice a broken whisper. "Is that how I was going to die? Just now?" He needed to think. The officer’s final warning echoed faintly in his mind: Check your runes.

Right. But how the hell was he supposed to do that? The officer had never explained the actual mechanics. Coming in late was my fault, he thought bitterly, holding his throbbing head.

How did it work? Was it like the old hologames, or did it require something else? This wasn’t a game. He exhaled a ragged breath and decided to just start shouting. "Status window! Spell! Comfort! Appear!"

Nothing happened. Skies focused his mind, staring hard into the empty air, willing something to change.

Suddenly, sharp golden text flickered to life, hovering directly over his chest.

Name: Skies

Title: –

HP: 4 / 5

Armor: 4 / 5

Energy: —

Gems: —

Passive Attribute: —

Active Attribute: —

Soul: Wandering Soul

Sky stared. "What the..."

How had he already lost a point of health and armor? He looked back at the Black Sea, its surface still rippling darkly. It made sense. Drowning in shadow-water clearly counted as environmental damage. The Array wasn’t going to be generous. Then, his eyes landed on a sub-text section of the runes, and a surge of anger washed over him.

Soul Description: [You are just a Wandering Soul walking the path to immortality, but you are just trash.]

"What the hell?" Sky muttered. "Aren’t you supposed to give me something to survive in this hellhole?" If he could have physically torn the golden runes down, he would have done it without hesitation.

He reached out to scroll, wanting to check for hidden menus or skills, when a sudden sound paralyzed him.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

Heavy, synchronized footsteps echoed on the loose stone. He wasn’t alone. Sky’s head jerked up. He tried to scramble to his feet, but his limbs were heavy, frozen by the absolute cold and the lingering trauma of drowning.

From the gloom, tall figures emerged. They towered over him, draped in heavy, crimson robes that dragged through the ash-colored gravel. The fabric was embroidered with a disturbing, recurring symbol: a single, weeping eye.

They didn’t speak. They didn’t need to.

Sky tried to fling himself backward. "Wait— I’m—"

The lead figure raised a thick iron staff. It came down fast.

The back of Sky’s skull exploded in agonizing pain. A sickening crack echoed through the cavern, and the world instantly plummeted back into darkness.

He couldn’t feel his arms or legs, but he could feel hands. Rough, calloused hands grabbed his wrists, binding them tightly with something cold and metallic. Chains.

They hauled him up roughly. His limp body bounced against the jagged stones as they dragged him along.

Above him, their murmurs filled the dark. It was a low, buzzing chant, sounding like insects trapped in a glass jar. He couldn’t decipher the words, but the tone was clear: reverent, hungry, and deeply unsettling.

The rough, blood-stained fabric of their robes brushed against his cheek, smelling heavily of copper and old sweat—a stark, suffocating contrast to the icy sea he’d just escaped. Every muscle in his body ached. How could they drag a human over solid rock like this? His vision swam behind his closed eyelids, displaying erratic streaks of red and black.

Fight. Move. Do something.

He tried to summon a spark of strength, trying to pull against the chains, but the blow to his head had left him paralyzed, trapped inside a body he couldn’t control. The sound of the crashing black waves grew distant, replaced by an echoing, hollow silence. It was the kind of silence that lived in tombs.

They were taking him deeper into the subterranean maze, away from the water, away from any hope of light, and straight into a nightmare that hadn’t even truly begun. Sky wanted to scream for his life, but his jaw remained locked.

The last thing he perceived before losing consciousness entirely was the soft, wet sound of the weeping eye embroidery brushing against the stone floor.

[HP: 4/5 | Armor: 4/5]

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