Dark Arts and Dark Minds

Chapter 16: Spectre's Labyrinth, Part I

*Cedric's POV*

*Supernatural Bastion, B1F*

"This place is so dark..." I said, my eyes straining to see anything but the glow of Charizard's fiery tail.

"And..." Photon tried, in vain, to light the area with Flash, but, each time he tried, the glow died out within seconds.

"And I can't light up the place, either. It's like there's some sort of magical barrier stopping me from doing so. Do you think Spectre had planned for our coming here? It's like it was ready and planned accordingly..."

The thought of being outfoxed by that puppet in this creepy place sent a chill down my spine. I couldn't see much besides whatever wall Charizard was walking next to, but I was able to get the general feel of the area:

The walls and the floor were made of solid stone, like the style used in olden-day prisons. The ceiling was arched, making the place look like suspiciously like a crypt. Each part of the wall was painted a solid black color, and every brick seemed to drip with malice. I could hear a trickle of some liquid behind me. By the overpowering smell, I figured that it was most likely blood. Besides the scent of blood, the air was thin and devoid of much oxygen, making it both hard and extremely uncomfortable to breathe. The entire place was deathly quiet, as if sound didn't exist inside the walls of this fortress.

Then, when Risk spoke, his voice bounced all around me, due to the curved acoustics of the cavern. It was definitely unsettling to hear his voice from every possible direction,

"Wait..." He held his paw out, and the entire group stopped.

"I can feel the Aura of something... Something really big! Proceed with caution, everyone!" he said, and we cautiously eyed the next room, unsure of what to expect.

*Supernatural Bastion, B2F*

"Something seems off about the next room. I'll check it out," I volunteered.

"Not without support, you're not," Photon scolded me, pulling a long rope out of his pack. Before I could ask what he was doing, he tied it to my foot and said,

"Just in case..."

Nobody could come up with a better plan, so I shrugged and took a few dozen steps inside.

After about thirty seconds, I felt like somebody was grabbing my insides and twisting. I just managed to choke out,

"Why does the air suddenly feel... So... So sickening?!"

"Pull him back!" Felix shouted.

Coughing, I felt the rope drag me by my foot out of the room. I took a large breath of "fresh air." My lungs appreciated being able to filter out whatever gas was in that room with the cavern's natural air, regardless of how uncomfortable it was.

"What happened in there?!" Risk implored. He grabbed a Lum Berry from his pack and stuck the tip of it in my mouth. The sweet taste of the berry was enough to revive me, and I pushed it out my mouth with my tongue.

"Well?" he asked again.

"I... I really don't know what was inside there, but I think it was the air itself. It felt like it was killing me from the inside out..."

"Poison gas..." Photon cursed.

"What a despicable way to fight- killing without even knowing it's there..."

"Poison gas?" I asked the Ampharos.

"It was a terrible, terrible thing that Sophia told me about from her history books. Some of the humans used it on each other during a war. The death toll was absolutely astounding!"