Erythos the Undying
Content Warning: This text adventure contains themes of horror, psychological distress, and mature content. Each article may include vivid descriptions and elements that could evoke strong emotional responses. Reader discretion is advised.
Your fall isn’t as loud as you expected. You land on unstable terrain that cracks and creaks under your weight, sending a chill down your spine. Your heart pounds in your chest, threatening to burst free at any moment. What is happening? you wonder, the question swirling through your fragmented mind. What new horrors await me? Wrath and fear churn inside you, an explosive mix you struggle to contain.
As your eyes adjust to the oppressive darkness, you instinctively search for an exit, desperate to escape these depths. You glance up, but the opening from which you fell has vanished, as if the earth had healed itself, erasing any sign of your descent.
Your breath quickens as you look down and finally realize the source of that unsettling crackling beneath your feet.
Bones.
Millions of them.
The remains of those who came before you, now nothing but brittle reminders of the depths to which you've fallen.
"Another? Lost soul... proceed..."
The voice surrounds you, coming from everywhere at once, pressing in on you like invisible chains. It circles, constricts; there is no escaping it. You spin around frantically, searching for the source, but the oppressive darkness reveals nothing. Then, with a sickening crunch, the bones scattered across the ground begin to stir.
A deep rumble echoes through the cavern as a gargatuan skeletal head rises from the shadows. Massive, hollow eyesockets lock onto you, devoid of life but filled with a malevolent awareness. The bones twist and snap together, forming the colossal figure of a beast long dead, yet unquestionably present.
Fear abandons all meaning as you stand frozen in place. A new kind of terror grips your body- one that is raw, primal, paralyzing. Pain spikes through your limbs, not from any wound, but from the overwhelming realization that this is no ordinary nightmare. This is the terror of facing something you were not meant to face.
"I am Erythos the Undying and you have found my lair."
Erythos rises from the sea of bones, his form a monument to corruption and decay. His skeletal frame towers over you, each rib a jagged spear, his massive body assembled from bones that creak and groan as if resisting the very force keeping them together. Ancient magic pulses faintly through the cracks of his decayed remains, holding him in a state that is neither fully alive nor dead. His once majestic wings, now hang in tattered shreds, barely capable of flight but unfurling with a menacing grace, as if they still remember the skies they once ruled.
His empty eye sockets glow faintly with a sickly green light, two orbs swirling with malevolent energy. They seem to see into your soul, sifting through your darkest memories. His maw opens with an agonizing creak, revealing rows of jagged, blackened teeth stained with the essence of the countless souls devoured over millennia. A thick, foul-smelling mist drips from his mouth, filling the air with a noxious scent of death.
Erythos speaks again without moving his jaws, his voice vibrating through the very marrow of your bones.
"Fear not the passing of life, lost soul... for I shall make you understand death in ways you never dreamed."
His words slither into your mind, a whisper of doom that claws at your sanity.
The ground trembles beneath him as his colossal form comes closer. Shadows cling to his decayed limbs like living things, writhing and curling around him. They seem to grow darker as he approaches, as if the mere presence of Erythos devours the light itself. Every breath you take is filled with the stench of rotting flesh and burning bone, making it hard to think, hard to move.
Then, with a slow, deliberate movement, he lowers his massive head toward you, the faint glow of his eye sockets intensifying. The weight of his gaze alone is enough to crush your spirit, reminding you that death is not the worst fate. Here, before this ancient dragon twisted by undeath, you feel something far worse; hopelessness.
"You stand before me, mortal, not by choice, but by fate..."
His glowing eyes narrow, and the shadows around him grow darker, the very air thickening with an unnatural weight as he continues, "Here, in the depths, you will face a truth you’ve long ignored. Death is not an ending. It is a passage... but not all who pass through understand its meaning."
He pauses, and the silence presses in like a smothering cloak. His skeletal form shifts as he speaks, the grinding of bones unnerving, echoing in the darkness.
"You seek to escape this place, but only those who embrace the truth may move on. Only those who understand its essence can pass beyond these depths."
Erythos’ massive head lowers, his eye sockets glowing with eerie intensity as he peers into your soul. His voice drips with malice and ancient knowledge, as though he’s speaking from the edge of eternity.
"I offer you a choice. A test of your understanding. I shall ask you riddles, and in those riddles, you will face life and death. Answer correctly, and you may leave, you may continue your journey through this cursed place. But answer wrong..."
His maw snaps shut with a deafening clatter, the mist thickening around him.
"Fail me, and you will join the bones beneath your feet; one more lost soul in this endless graveyard. Understand this, mortal... Death might be patient. But I... am not."
He rears back slightly, his towering form casting a shadow that seems to swallow you whole. The ground trembles beneath you as the challenge hangs heavy in the air, and Erythos waits, his gaze locked on you, daring you to face the test of life and death.
The Riddles
The weight of the dragon's words presses heavily on your chest. As he begins his game, the ground shifts ever so slightly under you, bones creaking in the silence.
"I have no life, yet I can die. I may bring joy, but I also bring a sigh. What am I?"
Tension coils in the air as you weigh the options. Choose poorly, and the jaws of death will snap shut. Choose correctly, and perhaps, you will move forward.
As your trembling voice utters the answer, Erythos’s colossal form halts. For a moment, the suffocating pressure around you lightens, as though the very air loosens its grip.
"Hmm... you see more than most," he rumbles, his voice a deep, unsettling growl. "But one correct answer is not enough to save you."
Erythos’s immense frame shifts in the darkness, and the next riddle slithers from his lips like a creeping fog.
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"Your view, mortal, is so… narrow," the dragon whispers, its voice echoing in the cavern's oppressive darkness. Shadows writhe and stretch toward you, hungry and insatiable, as the gargantuan maw before you yawns wide, revealing glistening teeth that gleam with a sinister light.
In that heart-stopping moment, time seems to freeze. Your last thought, a fleeting glimmer of desperation, is snuffed out before it can fully form. The crumbling jaws snap shut around your body, sealing your fate.
As you are consumed, your journey through the Macabre reaches its grim conclusion. Here, in these forsaken depths, you will join the ranks of the lost, your essence entwined with the shadows that linger, forever trapped in this wretched place.
"I am always ahead, yet never arrive. I mark your days, but I cannot survive. What am I?"
Again, the choices form in your mind. What do you choose to say?
Erythos’ voice descends into a cold, sinister whisper.
"Hope is fleeting, mortal… and so is your time."
In an instant, his skeletal jaws snap shut around you, silencing your cries forever. Your journey through the Macabre concludes here, as your forsaken soul is consigned to this ominous, unknown boneyard, joining the countless others lost to the shadows.
Erythos tilts his head, a low growl of approval rumbling from deep within his chest.
"You begin to grasp the truth. But one final question remains to seal your fate."The last riddle reverberates through the bones beneath your feet, as if the very ground itself holds its breath, eagerly awaiting the outcome.
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"I am the shadow that follows you near, a whisper of darkness that feeds on your fear. What am I?"
As you stare into the void around Erythos, the weight of this moment is unbearable. Choose wrong, and you will find yourself swallowed by the beast.The answers hang heavy in the air. What is your choice?
Erythos pauses, his gaze sharp as he leans closer.
"Yes… Death is always near. But you need not fear it anymore. You have already looked in its eyes."
A chill crawls down your spine. His words claw at your mind as he shifts his attention to your broken arm.
"Does it hurt?" he asks, his voice a cold wind that penetrates your very soul. "You haven’t noticed it for some time, have you? The pain… is gone. I wonder why that is..."
Erythos pulls back, leaving you grappling with the weight of his cryptic message. Shadows twist around his form, and his voice fades into the cold, unyielding darkness.
"Now you understand… or soon will. Proceed, if you still dare."
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When the dragon hears your answer, his voice hardens with cruel satisfaction.
"The night conceals many horrors, but you, mortal, should have known better than that by now. You are already prey for something far worse."
His eyes flash with malice, and your vision plunges into darkness as his immense maw descends. Your journey through the Macabre concludes here. For a fleeting moment, you feel the dragon's teeth sinking into your flesh, your bones shuddering under the weight of his overwhelming force.
In the end, the only remnant of your existence is an echo, a distant, distorted memory destined to be forgotten.
Erythos steps back, his massive form parting like a shadowy curtain to reveal a gaping opening in the stone wall behind him. A faint, otherworldly glow spills from the darkness beyond, casting eerie reflections that dance across the jagged surfaces of the cavern.
The opening beckons, its edges lined with cryptic runes that flicker ominously, whispering secrets of the unseen. A soft, mournful wail lingers in the air, chilling your bones and urging you to venture deeper into the unknown.
An unsettling sensation creeps over you, as if a persistent gaze is piercing through the veil of time. You know someone waits within that darkness. Someone who sees all: the future, the past, and the truths you fear to confront.
It is time to meet
Really well done MLNW! I've been enjoying your articles a lot! Keep it up!
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Thank you so much! It feels great to write again <3
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