Chapter 36: (an unknown era) 1,999,999 Years Before Zero : This place is truly terrifying.

Van swallowed, the cold wind continued caressing every abdominal muscle that was not wearing a shirt.

"Damn....do I enter? Do I enter or not?"

Van remained silent for quite a long time, he only stared into the darkness where there was a staircase going downward not far from the mouth of the cave.

"Is that something ancient?"

Van blinked several times, he crossed his arms while imagining various things he had watched before about conspiracy theories in Antarctica.

"Wait wait...I am now in Antarctica, is that conspiracy theory true?"

Van rubbed his lips that still felt slightly sweet from blood.

"Of course it is true..." Van turned around and looked at the sky which was a layer of ice and had an aurora that continued dancing without stopping.

"The proof is there is a Hell Gate...and all these weird things...even that angry winged man is also strange."

Van nodded several times while narrowing his eyes, he finally began walking into the embrace of the cave’s darkness without any lighting equipment.

He was only wearing sandals, short yellow pants, and he pinched the air to take another white T-shirt that he immediately wore while carrying his camera.

"What’s down there? Well, let’s take a look for a while..." Van shrugged both his shoulders, he created an invisible space that covered his entire body, no longer a raincoat like before.

This time he covered himself with two layers where the invisible space moved automatically every time he moved like clothes that fit his body.

"...yeah, if I really wake up something scary, I can just run away...hehe."

The sound of Van’s sandal footsteps echoed in the dark corridor, the sound became quieter because Van tried to walk carefully while sticking to the cave wall.

His camera swung as he hung it around his neck while Van walked like a crab.

Van finally arrived at the end of the cave where a descending staircase could be seen, Van tried to stick his head out to see what was below the stairs.

His gray eyes blinked several times when he saw a room that seemed to widen like a secret room instead of a corridor.

Van swallowed, he slowly descended the stairs one by one carefully while sticking to the wall and walking sideways like a crab.

His heartbeat beat faster until it covered his hearing.

Van held his heart.

’Good grief...I could die from a heart attack before reaching the bottom.’

After carefully stepping down dozens of stairs, Van finally reached the bottom where a room that looked more like a dark hall was located.

Van had not stepped onto the floor of the hall yet, he was still trying to look around.

Van saw that the hall was round from inside the darkness, on the opposite side from where Van was, he saw ten corridors whose darkness Van could not penetrate even though he had narrowed his eyes several times.

Van swallowed, he then saw an empty stone stage located in the middle of the dark round hall.

There was no sound of bats that usually claimed dark places as their nests.

Van wiped his mouth, his own voice echoed in the dark hall.

"Nothing?"

Van, who had stood for quite a while to consider whether he should enter or not, finally decided to jump onto the hall floor which became his first foothold in the hall.

Van began walking carefully, he created extra protection by creating four turtle shells that surrounded his body like planets orbiting the sun.

Van began sniffing the smell of the hall that felt strange to him who was exploring an ancient building for the first time in his life.

Van began looking at the stone stage in the middle, he walked around the stone stage while looking at two footprints printed on top of the stage.

Van frowned, he began photographing the footprints with his camera.

Flashes repeatedly appeared inside the darkness together with the sound of the shutter.

’Footprints...?’

Van began remembering the figure he had fought earlier where that figure was as hard and cold as stone and his body produced bits of soil.

’Was that figure a statue? Was he from here-’

Van’s words stopped when his gray eyes accidentally saw something on the floor.

He tried to approach and crouch around the stone stage.

His gray eyes blinked several times, inside the darkness Van could see clearly because of his adaptation potential.

Reflected in his gray eyes, he saw a painting of a woman with long white hair that was longer than the woman’s height.

Van’s heart felt like it was about to explode when he saw the woman’s face.

The woman had a face like a statue with red eyes, the face of the most beautiful woman Van had ever seen.

The woman was sewing a black cloth that hung on a window.

’Curtain?’

Van tried to take several pictures of the painting of the woman.

He then checked the results of the pictures which made his heart stop for several seconds and Van forgot how to breathe.

On Van’s camera screen, the painting of the woman had no face.

Van tried to breathe, he then tried to photograph it repeatedly, but the result remained the same.

The woman’s face could not be captured by the camera like what Van’s eyes could see.

Sweat began to wet every corner of Van’s body.

"This is mystical...this is clearly mystical...damn, this is horror."

Van began wanting to stand up but something appeared again at the corner of his eye, he briefly saw another painting.

Van tried to approach the painting whose position was still surrounding the stone stage.

But as soon as Van’s gray eyes looked at the painting, he screamed immediately and fell sitting down.

The second painting Van saw was a man showing his face while he was moving aside a black curtain while smiling.

"Shit!! This is really horror!!"

Van tried to calm himself, he began paying close attention to the features of the man’s face.

The man had long white hair, with a white beard and both eyes colored black.

Van remained silent for a while, he tried to photograph the face while something bothered his mind.

He could then see the result of the photo, where the man’s face was clearly visible on the camera screen.

Van stared at the man’s face for a while.

"He...I feel like I’ve seen him before."

Van rubbed his chin.

"The survivors? Impossible...what is the point of having their paintings here...then who else has a face that looks like a human-"

Van’s gray eyes widened, memories of the one-eyed figure carrying sickles finally began filling his mind.

"This is that man?!"

Van turned his body and looked at the empty stone stage.

"Damn...or is that his statue?"

Van’s golden hair began to itch together with his brain beginning to heat up.

"What the hell is all this?"

Van began searching for other paintings around the stone stage because he felt there was something else.

Van then found the third painting, it showed the back of the man Van had fought earlier, the man was looking toward the back of a blonde-haired woman that was glowing right in the woman’s shadow.

Van bit his nail because he was curious about the woman’s face.

He then photographed the painting again, then Van automatically searched for another painting.

He finally found the fourth painting, but his body now stood frozen seeing that painting and something around the painting.

The painting depicted a sickle blade reflecting a blonde-haired woman whose face could now be seen. The woman had blue eyes and a charming smile even though she was not as beautiful as the white-haired woman.

But Van’s gray eyes began focusing on something else.

Around the painting, there were carvings that scratched the hall floor, those carvings were words from a language that Van could read.

An arrow pointed toward the painting with writing.

Do not disturb the owner of this temple, Van.

Van blinked several times, he then saw another arrow.

Ahh this is me, Kalael. Don’t be scared like an idiot.

Van began rubbing his face repeatedly and tried to stare at the written carving made by Kalael, but eventually his calmness broke.

"AAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"

Van’s scream echoed for quite a long time in the dark and empty hall, he finally fell sitting down and leaned against the stone stage.

Sweat poured heavily over his entire body while both his hands trembled.

"Shit!! What the hell is that?! Old man?! Are you here?!"

Van tried to calm himself but he couldn’t.

He began to stand even though both his legs were trembling.

His heart increasingly wanted to come out when he heard the sound of footsteps that did not resemble human footsteps.

Van looked at one of the dark corridors that he could not see.

But something finally helped him.

Slowly light appeared because two flames suddenly lit up, the flames burned on two objects that looked like deer antlers.

The flames slowly illuminated almost the entire hall and revealed the figure behind the flames.

It was a white deer with two burning antlers.

The deer’s shadow and Van’s shadow looked large in the hall.

Reflected in the deer’s black eyes was Van trembling and cold sweat wetting his face, he began to feel like he wanted to urinate.

Van swallowed, the deer’s shadow slowly moved, more precisely the deer’s shadow mouth moved while the deer only stared at Van.

A man’s voice was clearly heard echoing in the hall.

"Kekekek...you really look like Kalael."

Van only stood frozen like a statue hearing the unfamiliar voice.

Meanwhile the deer moved slightly, and the deer’s shadow mouth opened again, this time the voice that was heard was a woman’s voice.

"Where?! Let me see!!"

"Hey don’t do anything weird!!"

Van exhaled while staring at the white deer with burning antlers. He finally urinated in his pants while screaming.

"AAAAAAAAA!!!!"