Gleam [Karma Cultivator Isekai] - Chapter 93: Scream

Chance’s heart slammed in his chest, bucking like a runaway racehorse. Golden mist swirled off every footstep as he and Bella darted across the stone roof. Chance vaulted up a wall, digging his urumi into the top and pulling him over before reaching down to grab Bella’s outstretched hand and yank her up.

They’d been running for several minutes, and the hunched creature they’d seen in the doorway had yet to show itself again. Despite that, Chance couldn’t shake the chill from his back or make his hair stop standing up.

Something about the shadowy figure evoked a primal fear from deep within his soul, one that made every single instinct he had scream to run for cover. Bella’s eyes were just as wild as Chance felt, and her breath came in short puffs as she scanned the rooftops.

“What was that?” Bella demanded, backing up until her shoulder touched Chance’s. He was grateful for the reminder that he wasn’t alone with… whatever that creature was.

“I have no idea. I don’t see it anymore.”

“But I can feel it.” Bella turned, her hands raised defensively in a fighting stance before her. “That thing is wrong. It shouldn’t exist. Nothing should make people feel like that. Like…”

“Prey,” Chance finished. “We need to get off this island. The only way off is to locate the other transportation circle, though.”

“It might be at the top of the tower.” Bella tore her eyes away from the rooftops and looked up, where the tall, broken spire rose up over the rest of the island. It was still a good trip away. The idea of having to get all the way up it while avoiding whatever the thing in the hallway was made Chance shudder.

“If we run into it on the tower…”

“Let’s not think about that,” Bella said. “I take it you’re in agreement about getting out of here as fast as possible?”

“Yesterday, if we could. Let’s go.”

They set off, moving as briskly as they dared without making too much noise. Now that Chance couldn’t see the monster anymore, his only hope was that its hearing wasn’t very good. Bella had the same idea, and they spoke little over the next few minutes.

The jagged rooftops slanted and pitched in odd angles, as if a massive earthquake had torn the island apart years ago. Many of the buildings were partially crumbled in, and thick purple vines covered the ground everywhere.

They’d lifted some buildings completely from the ground, suspending them in the air like strange Christmas ornaments. Everything about the island felt surreal. Chance couldn’t keep his neck from craning back as they walked underneath a several story building that was held in the air by a massive net of thorny vines, ripped into four pieces but still somehow connected by thin strands of stone and wood.

The spire grew closer, and they continued to weave across the rooftops, avoiding any further ventures into the open doorways that littered the buildings. No promise of riches was enough to convince either Chance or Bella to risk running into the monster in an enclosed space.

Chance’s goosebumps eventually started to fade. It had been over fifteen minutes since they’d seen the monster, and they’d crossed over most of the ground between them and the base of the spire.

He squinted at every shadow they passed, but the irrational paranoia that it had inflicted was fading away bit by bit.

Maybe we lost it, or it just didn’t care about us at all. I guess we were kind of trespassing in its house, right? It could have just been trying to spook us. Yeah. That’s it.

Chance’s mental words of affirmation didn’t do much to ease his nerves, but they were better than nothing. He and Bella finally scaled the last wall and arrived at the center of the island before the tower.

It stood in the center of what had once been an open stone courtyard. Enormous vines stretched out from it in every direction, breaking through the stone and winding deeper into the island. They were far thicker than any of the other vines that Chance had seen so far. Some of the thorns were half as tall as he was.

If there was a doorway at the ground floor, it would be completely inaccessible now. The gaps in the jagged vines were few and far in between. Anything that jumped into the courtyard would probably be ripped to shreds.

“It looks like this is where the vines originated,” Bella said, looking over the edge of the wall they stood on into the mess of purple plants below. “I wonder what happened.”

“As long as we can get out of here, I’m not sure I care,” Chance admitted. He looked up the tower, then pointed at a window. It had long since been broken, but was large enough to fit through. “We could try getting in through that.”

“As good an idea as any. The tower has a lot of good handholds sticking out of it. With a running start we could reach it no problem. Are you confident you can grab onto it, though? If you don’t…”

Chance glanced down at the vines and grimaced. “I’ll be fine. You?”

“Maybe you go first,” Bella said. “I think my Essence would protect me from the vines if I fell, but I’d rather not find out they’ve got some stupid Essence of their own that ends up cutting me to shreds.”

Chance nodded. He called on his Essence and it leapt to respond, swirling around him. It moved with a little more trepidation that he was used to, as if it were also uneasy. The strain of constantly calling on it was starting to tug at the back of his mind, but it wasn’t serious yet.

After backing up a few steps to the edge of the roof they currently stood on, Chance charged forward and jumped. He raised his urumi above his head, sending Essence into its blade and bracing himself.

He slammed into the tower wall and drove the urumi into it. It carved through the stone, wedging itself firmly within it. Chance grunted as the air was knocked from his lungs, but he kept a hold of the urumi’s hilt and found his footing from under him.

Step by step, he scaled the wall of the tower, his fingers finding purchase on the dusty, protruding sections between the cracks in the stone. They were surprisingly easy to hold, but the yawning mouth of purple void beneath him made it the most nerve wracking climb he’d made that day.

He reached the window and poked his head through it. The room beyond was small, only occupied by several small wooden drawers that had fallen over, spilling the clothes contained within them across the ground. The drawers had fallen in such a way that they blocked the door on the other side of the room. Everything was covered with a heavy layer of dust that tickled Chance’s nose, threatening to pull out a sneeze.

Chance scrunched his nose and took a slow breath, wiping it against his shoulder and repressing the urge. Once it passed, he pulled himself up and slipped through the window. He turned, watching as Bella leapt from the roof.

One of her hands failed to find its grip and her feet slipped out from under her. Chance’s chest tightened and panic bubbled up, but Bella braced her feet against the wall and managed to find her grip with both hands.

Chance let out a slow breath as she clambered up the side of the tower. He grabbed Bella’s hand once she got high enough and pulled her through the window. They both staggered away from it and stared back out over the rooftops, searching for the shadowy figure.

“Up it is,” Bella said, shaking her head and turning her back to the window. She grabbed the fallen drawers and raised them with one hand. The wood creaked and dust cascaded down as Bella pushed the furniture back against the wall.

Chance coughed, waving the dust away and pulling his shirt over his nose to muffle his choking.

“Sorry,” Bella whispered. “My Essence protects my airways too.”

Chance waved his hand dismissively. “It’s fine. Let’s just get out of here.”

Bella tiptoed through the piles of ancient clothes and carefully pulled the door open. She poked her head out, glancing in both directions, then stepped out of the room. Chance followed her onto a long, winding staircase.

His eyes widened in awe. The center of the tower was completely hollow. The stairwell wound all the way down to the bottom and up to the top in a continuous path, with doors laid all along the walls during the ascent.

An enormous vine ran through the center of the tower in a pillar, running from the peak all the way down to the thick, thorny mass on the ground. Smaller vines sprouted from all along it, jutting through the walls and over parts of the stairway.

Chance and Bella wordlessly started up the stairs. They moved cautiously, slowing every time they passed a door and readying to fight against anything that might burst out of it, but the attack never came.

They ducked below a thick vine that extended at head level and then carefully scaled another that was just a few steps farther along the path. Every so often, the tower creaked as a breeze passed over the island.

It was louder near the holes in the wall that grew more numerous the higher up they grew, the howling akin to that of a pack of mourning wolves. The air grew chillier as well – and at an alarming rate.

Both Chance and Bella were both shivering after just a few minutes of climbing, and they hadn’t gone nearly that high up in the atmosphere.

Slowly but steadily, they continued to make their way up the stairs. The top of the stairwell came into view, stopping before a sturdy wooden door inlaid with metal. Beside it, the walls of the tower had been completely torn away and replaced with a thick cascade of vines.

Chance approached the door warily.

Metal lining covered its edges and wound through its center in a swirling pattern that didn’t seem to have any purpose beyond decoration. There was no knob, but the hinges still looked functional.

He couldn’t place it, but something about it felt off. It was certainly more intricate than the other doors they’d passed, but he would have expected that from the entrance to the top of what had once been a grand tower.

“Let’s go,” Bella whispered. “Even if there isn’t a rune circle to get us out of here, when we’re at the top of the tower, we’ll have a better look at the rest of island. Maybe we’ll be able to spot it.”

Chance nodded. He nudged the door with the hilt of his urumi. It swung easily. Mildly surprised, he pushed it open fully. A strong wind buffeted Chance, blowing his hair back and forcing him to squint.

The top of the tower was completely open to the elements. Something had ripped its entire roof off – probably vines, if he had to guess – and most of the walls had either crumbled away or were well on their way to.

The open space was larger than he’d originally thought it was. It was easily the size of the Whiteheart House, maybe even larger. At the center of the open platform was a large throne. It was carved of the same material as the tower around it, but it was taller than Chance and covered with detailed carvings and runes. The throne faced away from them, looking out through a hole in the wall over the ruined island sprawling beneath.

“Look!” Bella whispered, thrusting a finger at the base of the throne, where a rune circle had been carved into the ground. It was difficult to tell if the circle was the same as the one that had sent them to the island, but Chance was just about ready to settle for anything.

He took a step toward it, a relieved smile crossing his face, then froze. His spine was so cold that it burned, like someone had poured ice down his back. An invisible static energy in the air slithered across his skin, making every single hair stand on end.

Bella took a step toward the rune circle and Chance grabbed her arm, yanking her to a halt. She glanced at him in surprise.

“What?”

“Something’s wrong,” Chance said.

He called on his Essence for comfort.

Where is it? What am I sensing?

The shadow cast by the throne twitched. Chance’s throat tightened and Bella drew in a sharp breath as it lengthened, rising up in front of the throne. The faceless monster unfurled to its full height, towering at more than twice their combined height. Even without eyes, Chance could tell that it was staring straight at them.

Chance and Bella stood frozen as the monster raised a gangly hand to its face and dug deep into its tarlike skin. It dragged a curved line through its face, digging a section out and leaving a jagged mockery of a mouth.

The discarded flesh splattered onto the ground at its feet. Its makeshift mouth widened in a soundless scream. Chance’s Essence quailed in fear and he shoved it into his third eye, shoving it open.

An empty void greeted him. There wasn’t a single strand of Karma connected to the monster. It was a swirling mass of nothing, lacking all connection to life. Its mouth split even wider and a scream split the air – not from the monster, but the tower itself.

Stones shuddered and creaked, desperately trying to pull themselves away from the creature above them. Vines peeled away from the walls, ripping themselves to shreds and pitching down to the island below. The air grew still as the wind itself vanished.

A wall of force slammed down on Chance and, with a pop, his Essence vanished. He fell to one knee, his eyes wide with terror as the oppressive presence wound around his chest and started to constrict. Bella fell beside him, doubling over and retching.

The faceless’ monster’s mouth stretched wider still. And then – only then – did it start screaming.