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The blaziken was smashing up crates and barrels, using them for firewood. "Freezing..." He mumbled to himself.

"Just be thankful that we still have our lives." Robin replied. They were in a bit of a desperate situation here. They no longer had their food, weapons, or tents. Thankfully, Janus could still provide light, and Robin wasn't exactly defenceless without his halberd. Right now, they were sat at what appeared to be a small dock. There were a few other boats laying around, indicating that this must've been the final destination for anyone traveling here by boat. The floor here was chiseled, just like the floor was in the other makeshift cave dock. Nearby, there was a passageway so dark, it was black as pitch.

The blaziken piled up the wood, and grabbed a few nearby loose rocks too as he began to make a small campfire. He lit up the wood, and sat down close to the fire. "I was not expecting something like that to be waiting for us in the water! I have never seen anything like that before."

"Neither have I... I hope the women made it out alive." Robin replied as he joined Janus, and sat down close to the campfire. He was glad Janus was here, or else he wouldn't be able to see anything down here without the help of the nearby glow worms.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I am fairly certain I saw that creature going after Hilda. If she is alive, she is way tougher than I thought she was." Janus replied, fairly certain that the others were dead. He wanted to try lighten the mood, but that was kind of hard to do when half of the people they came here with may very well be dead. There was only one question on his mind. Who would be next?

Robin wasn't sure what to even say anymore. He had brought this team together, and already, he may have just led half of the team to their deaths. He felt responsible for their deaths, and the worst part was that it may have really all been for nothing. Now that he realized that they didn't have the numbers, nor strength to push on, he just wanted to find a way out of here. "We have to find a way out.."

Janus looked over to the nearby boats, before looking back to the gallade. "We could take a boat each, and take a chance rowing back to the exit. Maybe the monster will focus on one person while the other escapes."

"That's too risky for my liking..." Robin replied before letting out a sigh. He was determined to make it out of this place alive, not for himself, but for his family. They were counting on him to keep them alive. It was then a terrible thought entered his mind. He could kill Janus, and feed his body to the monster in order to make his escape. However, he already had plenty of regrets, he wasn't about to add another one onto the list.

"We could keep on moving, maybe if we're lucky, we can find another way out. Hopefully, somewhere in that dark, creepy passageway, there's a massive ladder leading right back up to the ground... Never thought I would miss the sight of the sky so much." Janus said with a sigh.

"There has to be another way out of here. There just has to be. If they built such elaborate paths, and even boats, they have to have built another exit!" Robin was beginning to lose his usually calm attitude. This was an incredibly stressful situation they were in, but he knew losing it wasn't going to help. He had to take a moment to calm himself down.

Janus could see the worry on Robin's face, he could tell that he was trying to keep it together. "... Are you going to be alright?" He asked. As much as he liked to push people's buttons, he didn't like to see them have a serious mental breakdown.

"I...I'll be fine. I just need a moment to think." He quietly responded as he just stared at the flames. He had a feeling that one or both of them weren't going to be leaving this underground labyrinth.

Janus stayed by the fire, trying to stay quiet. That was easier said than done. His eyes darted all around their surroundings. He couldn't help but look towards the pitch black passageway nearby. He grew curious, wondering what was down there. "I'm just going to take a peek over there." The blaziken said shortly after standing up.

"Alright..." The gallade wasn't in a talkative mood right now. He was freezing, and thinking about what may happen to his family if he never returns.

Janus picked up a plank of wood that was alight at one end, and began walking towards the dark passageway. "Just yell if you see anything weird. And if you hear me yelling, you better come running." Janus said with a smile, but his smile soon faded when he looked back, and saw the gallade did not look happy at all. The blaziken turned his attention back to the dark passageway. With his left hand, he held a plank of burning wood, letting it illuminate his way forward. So far, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but he couldn't help but think he saw shapes and objects moving around in the darkness. That didn't stop him from pushing on. Carefully, he walked, balling his right hand up into a fist as he walked on. This passageway seemed different from the rest he had walked down. The rest were made of big stone blocks, but this passageway seemed more like a natural cave. Only the floor of the cave had been altered, chiseled to make it easier to walk on.

"Go away!" Someone yelled from the darkness.

The sudden sound of a female voice startled Janus. "Thea?! Hilda?! Is that you?" He quickly replied. He was hoping it was them, after all, only one creature they had seen so far actually talked, and he didn't turn out to be hostile.

"I'm not your friend. Go away. Take your chances with the gorenyx! You don't want to be down here. They will kill you, or change you, or worse..." The female warned him.

Robin quickly ran over to Janus. "I heard you talking to someone. Did you see someone?"

The female voice from the darkness answered the question for the blaziken. "There are a lot of people here, all of us were changed. Not all of us kept our minds... Hah! I used to be beautiful... Now... I feel sick when I see my reflection... My face, my body, my eyes, my teeth, everything changed... I want to die, but I'm afraid of the pain..."

Robin was shocked to hear the voice of something that didn't want to kill them. It actually brought him some relief, to know that someone else was here with them, someone sane. "Do you know if there is another way out?" He immediately asked.

"No way out, but the way you came... If you can bring yourself to do it, you should kill yourselves. I am hideous, and I can never live a normal life, but I got off incredibly easy. You wouldn't believe what I have seen... Men, turned inside out, writhing in agony. Women, impaled on living spikes, screaming for the pain to end! Then there's the others... They try to kill me, try to eat me, try to ra...y-you get the idea... This place is worse than you can ever imagine... Maybe there's a way out at the bottom of this place, but I don't go there... Every time I try, I just get a sense of intense dread, and fear... I physically cannot go down there, even if I tried." The mysterious female told the gallade.

Robin wasn't sure if proceeding on was a good idea, but what other choice did he have? Risk getting eaten by that big creature? He wasn't about to take that risk. He couldn't fight something that big in water. He looked back to Janus. "What do you think we should do?"

"I say we take our chances pushing on. We make a good team. If we watch each other's backs, we'll make it." Janus confidently said, before being interrupted by the female's disembodied voice.

"You're just two people, you will never make it... Never. I have seen so many people pass through this place, and they all die! Or get twisted! If you knew what awaited you...you would take your chances with that gorenyx." The voice warned them.

Janus just shrugged. "If I am going to die, I won't go quietly." He told her. "Being quiet was never really my style anyway."

"WHY DOES NO ONE LISTEN TO ME?! YOU DON'T WANT TO PROCEED! YOU WILL DIE! GO BACK! GO BACK!" The voice screamed at them both, shortly before the sound of strange wet footsteps could be heard. It sounded like she was running away from them, whatever she was.

The sudden screaming startled Robin, making him put his fists up defensively, preparing for the worst. "Going back isn't an option. We have to push on!" The gallade firmly said, but he got no reply from the female.

"I don't think she's there anymore." Janus replied before then walking on, lighting up the path in front of them.

"Wait! Is there gold in this place?! Where is it?! I NEED TO KNOW!" Robin yelled out as he walked on ahead, walking into the darkness, hoping whatever was talking to him would answer him. He didn't want this entire expedition to be for nothing.

"Err...she's gone, and I don't think you want to go walking off into the darkness. Not unless you want your face to get ripped off... Well, what's left of your face anyway." Janus said as he picked up his pace, hastily walking right up to the gallade. He could see the gallade was breathing heavier than usual.

Robin wasn't feeling too good at all. He may have led them all to their death, and he knew it. And for what? For gold that may very well be non-existent? He was pissed off. In a way, he thought that perhaps this may be some sort of a punishment from the gods, for what he has done in the past. He looked back to Janus for a moment. "Haha..." He sarcastically replied. "If we bump into something nasty somewhere along the line, can you handle yourself without a bow?"

"I'm a blaziken, of course I can!" Janus confidently said with a smile. He wasn't so sure if he could take out anything really big, but he could definitely fry most of the creatures they have went up against so far. "Think you can handle yourself without your big pole weapon?"

"I'd feel better with it in my hands, but yes, I can defend myself if things get really bad." Robin looked down to his elbows, looking at his blades. He hoped that he wouldn't have to take on anything else, but he had a feeling that this was just the beginning.

They both walked onwards, proceeding deeper into this nightmarish place. However, they came to a stop when they saw there was two different paths they could take. One led straight on, and the other led to the right. Both men looked at each other, but Janus was the first to speak up. "So, straight ahead, or right? I say right." He immediately said.

"You didn't have to think about that one much, did you? Why right?" Robin asked.

"Because right, is usually right! Come on, not like we know which path will lead us to the exit. My guess is as good as yours, but I just have a good feeling about right. Just don't blame me if this way gets us castrated or something, alright?" Janus really had no idea which path was the right one to take, but he went with his gut feeling on this one.

"Right it is then." Robin was more than happy to let Janus make this decision for the both of them. It wasn't like he had any idea where to go next anyway. All he could really do was explore everywhere, and hope that he was going in the right direction.

Janus led the way, quietly walking through the dark, quiet passage. For a moment, everything was quiet. Then, he heard a massive almost ear splitting sound coming from right behind him. The blaziken's heart almost stopped. He spun around, only to see the gallade looking back at him.

"Sorry, sneezed." The gallade simply replied.

"You almost made me shit my fucking pants! You sound like a snorlax getting face fucked by an onix when you sneeze! Damn it, ahh...thank fuck it was just you." Janus held a hand to his chest, right where his heart was. Almost immediately though, he just laughed it off.

"Heh, you know it's kind of funny to see you scared like a little girl." The gallade said as he walked on. Seeing him jump like that brought a smile to his face. It was a small thing, but it cheered him up.

"I think this is the first time I have seen you smile." Janus said, shortly before realizing that this passage led straight into a massive cavern. There was plenty of room to walk around, and from the look of it, plenty of people had been here before them. Covering the cavern floor were a bunch of tents. Most looked old, and shredded. Some of them however looked quite new, and still usable. "Huh, looks like lots of people liked this spot." Janus said before then walking on with the gallade.

"There's probably something that we can use around here." He said, shortly before spotting a backpack. He was immediately happy to see something as useful as that just laying around. He then walked over to it, and began searching it. "Ohh yes! These will be useful." The gallade spoke to himself as he pulled out some torches. He then continued searching the backpack, and then pulled out a small steel dagger, with a six inch blade and a leather sheath. There didn't seem to be anything else in the backpack, except some rope.

The blaziken walked around, searching the tents. A lot of them had nothing inside them, as if they had been picked clean. However, some of the newer looking ones did have some stuff inside them, but nothing he really needed right now. Slowly, the stench of death slowly began to fill his nostrils. "Ugh, what is that?" He thought go himself as he got up, and followed his nose. The smell led him towards a white tent, that was smeared in blood. It still looked quite fresh too, maybe a day or two had passed, but it was definitely recent. Janus knelt down, and took a peek inside. The smell hit him hard as soon as he looked inside. Inside, there was a corpse of a lucario. Strangely, his face looked as if something had melted away the flesh. The flesh around his face, and the bed roll underneath his head looked as if some sort of acid had been poured over it. His gut was also torn open, the ribs exposed, yet there appeared to be no organs inside his carcass. Whatever had killed him may have scooped out his organs, ate them, and left.

"Did you find something over there?" Robin asked him as he put everything he had found into the backpack, and then wore it.

"Yeah, I don't think you want to see this though." Janus covered this face with one hand the smell was getting so bad, he could almost taste it.

"What is it?" Robin asked, before the foul stench reached him. Like Janus, he too covered his face with one hand.

"It's a fresh corpse, although it doesn't smell too fresh, does it?" Janus replied as he walked away from the tent.

Robin sure hoped that they weren't the only ones down here. This place was well known for being the type of place that drew people in, only to swallow them whole. He once heard a rumour that this entire place is alive, and it survives by eating people whole. He didn't believe in such superstitious nonsense. While magic did indeed exist, he didn't believe any kind of magic could possibly bring something like a huge building to life. "If the corpse is fresh, maybe his friends are still down here with us."

"If they are, let's just hope they don't want to melt our faces off." Janus then just started looking around, hoping to find something else that might come in handy. Suddenly, he heard a squeaking sound. He stopped in his tracks, and looked back to the gallade. "You heard that, right?"

The gallade looked back to him, looking a bit confused. "What?" He replied, before hearing something very strange. It sounded like a baby's cry, combined with the strange squawk of a bat. "I heard that..."

Janus wasn't sure what to think of that. It was his first time ever hearing such a sound, from any creature. "Whatever it is, just be ready to stab it, a lot." He said, knowing it was most likely dangerous, whatever it was.

As the gallade looked around to see what it may be, he heard something behind him. When he spun around, he saw a dead lucario, standing there with his mouth wide open. Suddenly, it sprinted right towards him. Startled, gallade threw up his arms, managing to grab onto the lucario's shoulder with his left hand, while he tried to press his right forearm against the lucario's neck. The gallade stumbled back a bit as he tried to hold the ravenous undead creature back, but this just gave the lucario a chance to grab the gallade's forearm, and bite down right into it. Pain shot through his arms as the fangs of the lucario sunk in so deep, it hit bone. Robin screamed in agony as he balled his hand up into a fist, and slammed it against the undead lucario's head. "GET IT OFF ME!"

Janus acted quickly, running behind the lucario, and grabbing at its jaw, forcing it open so Robin could pull his arm away. As soon as Robin managed to pull his arm away, the undead lucario slammed his elbow right into the blaziken's ribs, and swung at Robin's face with his spike on the back of his wrist. Robin saw it coming, stumbled back. The spike scraped across Robin's already scarred up cheek, leaving a long bloody scratch. Janus grunted as he felt the elbow of the undead lucario slamming against his ribs over and over again. "BURN IN HELL!" He yelled as the palms of his hands suddenly burst into flames, quickly scorching the lucario's fur. The blaziken then quickly pulled his hands back, only to slam his left elbow right into the side of the lucario's head.

As the lucario's fur went up in flames, it let out a horrifying screech, swinging its arms around in an attempt to attack either the blaziken, or the gallade. It was blinded by the flames engulfing its face, burning his eyes. The heat was so intense, it burnt up some of the nearby tents. The flames quickly illuminated the entire cavern, the heat hitting Robin like a brick wall. Robin had already been scorched by fire once before, and he wasn't about to go through that once again. "Let him burn! Let's get the fuck out of here!" He yelled to Janus before then making a run for the nearest passage he saw.

Janus just ran straight towards Robin, managing to keep up with him as the lucario continued to scream, and torch the remaining tents with his burning body. They only stopped briefly to light up a torch, and after that, they just kept walking. "That could've been worse, but could've been better. How's your arm?" He quickly asked, noticing that the wound was bleeding quite a bit. If these things could smell blood, then right now, they were pretty much ringing the dinner bell.

"Not good! Bastard! He bit in deep." The gallade looked to his arm, knowing that he needed to stop the flow of blood. He kept on moving, wanting to find a safer spot than this place to treat his wound. He just hoped that this wound wasn't infected.

As they walked on, the passage they were walking down got narrower, something that Janus wasn't liking. Eventually, the passage they were walking down led them straight to a wooden door. "Oh, look! Something man made! Looks like we're heading in the right direction! Or we're heading straight into our own graves."

"What other choice do we have?" The gallade replied before then swiftly pushing the door open. As it swung open, light from their torch poured into the otherwise pitch black room. Inside the room, there was nothing but ruined clothes, and three small bath shaped wooden washbasins. The room wasn't exactly big, but it felt safer than the caves. At least here, they had proper walls, and nothing could sneak up on them seeing as there were only two ways into the room, and both ways could be blocked by the doors. Blood continued to run down his arm, and drip off his fingers. "Shit, I have to do something with this wound."

"We could wash it, but I don't trust whatever is in those washbasins! What is in those washbasins anyway?" The blaziken asked whilst they both walked into the room.

The gallade stayed away from the washbasins, he had no interest in getting a nasty surprise again. "Whatever is in them, I don't want to find out."

"Losing your courage?" The blaziken asked with a chuckle as he then went near one of the washbasins, and looked inside it. It looked like stagnant water. There was nothing else in it but water. "Nothing in that one."

The gallade watched as the blaziken inspected all three washbasins, but there didn't seem to be anything but water in them. He said nothing more, he just handed the torch to Janus so he could sit down for a minute. With a grunt, he sat down in the corner of the room, and pressed his hand to his wound, trying to stop it from bleeding so much.

"I don't know about you, but I am damn exhausted! Maybe we should make this place our little camp." Janus suggested. It was a small room, but at least it had doors.

"You want to rest here..? Alright then." The gallade simply replied. He couldn't argue too much, he was exhausted too, and concerned about this bite. He had no idea what was going to happen next. The bleeding was slowing down, but now, he had to worry about infection.

The blaziken looked around, but there wasn't much to make a fire with. "Doesn't look like there is much we can burn, and the torch will burn out before we wake up. If you wake up first, just call my name and I'll make us another fire." He said whilst he put down the torch, and sat down. It was going to be hard, getting some sleep in this place with all these nightmares crawling around.

"Alright..." The gallade simply replied, not really in a talkative mood right now, but still thankful that he was not alone.

Janus could see very clearly that this man was in no joking mood, so he decided to hold back on any snarky comments. Minutes passed by in silence, and as the torch light dimmed, so did his will to stay awake. It was then, the blaziken fell asleep. The gallade had a much tougher time falling asleep. He couldn't help but think that perhaps this was all some sort of test, or a punishment from the gods. He had never really thought about the more spiritual side of life, but this place got him thinking that perhaps he was not going to the best of places if he were to die. Perhaps this place was quite literally hell.

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Author's Note: Things can change in the blink of an eye. Hopefully, they won't run into anything bigger, and nastier. Thank you to Zarfy and BigBossSonic once again for editing for me! Thank you all for reading this far! I hope that you're all enjoying this so far! :3