Catgirls And Dungeons (Yuri)-Chapter 143: Walking in the dark

The sludge clings to her boot, refusing to let go, as if it has a will of its own. It stretches and pulls, thick and greedy, trying to swallow her down into its black depths. Each step becomes a desperate struggle.

Damn…

It feels walking while carrying weights, like our legs are chained to a hundred kilos of despair.

And the worst part?

It reminds me of something pitiful… of a mouse caught in a glue trap.

Helpless, struggling.

Slowly breaking.

Ah… how ironic….

"Fuck… this is already worse than I thought," Alter mutters, her voice tight with strain.

She grips the hilt of Sheol and begins to drag it behind her. The blade cuts shallow grooves through the muck, leaving trails of dark ripples in its wake.

Her heart beats faster, pushing more energy into her limbs to keep going.

But the environment fights back.

The corrupted mana starts pressing harder against us, trying to seep into our skin, searching for cracks in our will. It scratches at the edge of our thoughts, whispering nonsense, trying to worm its way inside.

Even Alter, who is very, very resistant to this kind of demonic curse, grits her teeth and narrows her focus, actively resisting it.

"Tch… if I stay in here too long, even I might go mad as well."

Step by step, we push forward.

Each footfall is a battle.

Each breath a war.

It takes us nearly a full minute just to adjust, to find a rhythm, to stop stumbling with every move. The fog is so thick, it's like walking blindfolded through the heart of a storm. We can't see more than a few feet ahead.

There's no light, no sound, every sense of direction is lost.

Just us, dragging ourselves through this swamp of death, like wandering souls caught in the endless void.

And still… there is no sign of Morvena.

Nothing, only endless dark.

However…

"Just hang in there," Alter mutters, probably to both herself and me, pushing herself forward with sheer determination. "We're almost there."

Well…

I hope she's right.

Because this place feels like the edge of the world.

And I don't know how long we can last.

———-

And so we walk.

And walk.

Time loses its meaning here. It stretches and bends, warping into something cruel and endless. A single minute feels like an eternity, pulled thin by the weight of madness. Each step is like dragging our souls through a mire of poison and shadow.

The corrupted mana clings to us—thick and cold, like tar smeared across skin. It coils around our thoughts, wraps itself through our minds, suffocating reason and drowning clarity. It seeps into every crack of our consciousness and whispers.

Soft, slithering words.

Words that belong to no language I know, and yet I understand them. Their meaning settles deep, speaking directly to the parts of me I wish I didn't have.

They tempt.

They torment.

They twist everything I am into something sharp, something ugly. They feed me visions I never wanted to see.

And then, somewhere between one footfall and the next, the line between real and unreal disappears completely.

The ground vanishes beneath me.

Suddenly, I am no longer walking.

I am standing.

Ankle-deep in blood.

The sky above has turned a deep, blistering red, like a dying sun is burning the world from above. The clouds churn with black smoke, and thunder rumbles without lightning. The air is thick, heavy with the stench of rusted iron and rotting flesh. Every breath I take feels like swallowing decay.

Corpses lie scattered around me.

Dozens.

Hundreds.

Men, women, even children.

Their bodies twisted in pain. Their mouths frozen mid-scream. Torn apart, broken, hollow.

And then I see them.

No.

No—no no no.

I stumble backward, my stomach twisting, a scream caught in my throat as pure terror swallows me whole.

First, there's Eris.

Her eyes stare up at me, wide, glassy, and lifeless. Her chest doesn't rise. Her lower half is gone, ripped clean off, as if some great beast devoured her. Bones and flesh exposed, intestines strewn across the ground like discarded string.

Then Alter.

Her body is crumpled, mangled. Her limbs torn apart and scattered like broken branches. Her mouth is open, but no voice comes out. Only silence. She was trying to fight, even to the end. Next to her are fragments of what used to be a greatsword.

And then… Morvena.

Her chest has been caved in, her heart missing. Her eyes have been gouged out, nothing but dark hollows left behind. Blood drips from her fingers like red strings.

They are dead.

All of them.

And I am alone.

Alone… except for them.

Yes.

Them.

They rise from the blood-soaked fog.

Demons.

Dozens.

No—hundreds!!!

They slither and crawl, their shapes shifting with every glance. Some have faces stretched thin and featureless, smooth like wax. Others wear human faces—our faces—mocking echoes of people we knew. Some have the snarling heads of beasts, their jaws unhinged, their breath like burning meat.

But all of them share the same eyes.

Eyes that glow with a sick, feverish crimson.

And their mouths—

Too wide, too full of teeth, twisted in permanent grins. Blood drips between their fangs, thick and black.

Their hands are long and skeletal, claws curled like dead branches. Their joints bend the wrong way. Their limbs twitch and jerk like broken marionettes.

Surrounding me, they crawl.

They skitter.

They lurch toward me with grotesque, unnatural movements, dragging themselves through the blood with wet, splattering sounds.

My legs refuse to move.

My body locks up.

My voice is gone.

And then—

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One demonic creature reaches out, its fingers brush my arm.

Cold.

So cold it burns!

No…

NOOO!!!

I scream, but my voice doesn't carry. It vanishes—swallowed whole by the void, like it never existed.

And then, just as I feel the icy drag of the demon's claws scraping across my skin—

"Hey! HEY!" a voice shouts, slicing through the silence like a blade. "Wake up! Felicia! Don't listen to them!"

It's Alter.

It's her.

She's alive!!!

Her voice pierces the fog like a sword, hoarse, strained, but real.

And the moment I hear her voice, the illusion tearing like brittle paper. The blood, the bodies, the demons…. All of it fractures, breaks, dissolves into shadow.

And now, I see myself again walking, moving inside the darkness.