Eater Blade: Grinding in Apocalypse
Chapter 69: A HIDDEN HAVEN.

Chapter 69: A HIDDEN HAVEN.

Johnquis tried everything he could to stop the fall. He twisted mid-air, chain ready in hand, desperate to catch something, anything but the tunnel walls remained smooth, shell-like, and hardened. There wasn’t a single edge or groove to break his descent. Just gravity pulling him down in an endless, unforgiving slide.

He grunted through clenched teeth. "How deep is this place?"

His eyes narrowed as the tunnel began to curve, banking downward into something worse than darkness. He wrapped the chain tighter around his forearm. It bit into his skin, drawing a sharp sting—just enough to keep him alert, focused.

"Dancer, Savier... you better not be dead," he muttered. "I swear, if I hit bottom and you two are sipping blood martinis, I’m gonna kill you myself."

He started counting under his breath, trying to keep track of the time he’d been falling.

"Ten... twenty... thirty..."

Still nothing. Still falling. No bottom. No end. The shaft seemed infinite.

His vision blurred for a second before he forced himself to blink. The air around him had changed. It was heavier now, thick with pressure, pressing in on his chest. The smell shifted too. It was metallic, like rust, stone, and something electric—ozone, maybe.

Then, below him, a faint red light began to glow. It pulsed like a heartbeat, slow and ominous.

"Forty... fifty-five..."

He was far deeper than any of the team had ever gone.

"Seventy... seventy-five... Shit. How deep is this damn nest?"

Johnquis adjusted his posture, angling his body downward to control the landing. He bent his legs, wrapped the chain tighter, bracing himself.

Then he saw it.

The tunnel finally widened into an open chamber below—huge, circular, like a massive dome carved out of the earth. The floor stretched far and flat beneath him. Glowing stones covered every surface; walls, floor, and high ceilings alike. Radiating strange, shifting light. Violet, jade, crimson, gold... the colors danced like liquid glass across the chamber.

"What in the hell..."

He hit the ground hard.

THUMP!

His knees bent with the impact, rolling once to absorb the shock. He came up in a crouch, chain still gripped loosely in his hand. He took one careful step forward, his boots crunching lightly against the luminous stone floor.

A smirk crept across his face.

"Alright, Digger... Let’s see what you were hiding down here."

Johnquis moved forward, cautious but curious, every step echoing softly across the massive chamber. The place felt untouched, sacred even. Not a single claw mark or trace of Eaters corruption. Just the shimmer of the glowing stones... and the stillness.

He passed a shallow pool of water, no deeper than his ankles. It was perfectly still, like glass—reflecting the kaleidoscope of lights overhead. When he looked down, he saw himself staring back. Bloodied, bruised, dirt-smeared. And beneath it all... tired.

He stopped.

His reflection stared up at him. Not angry. Not afraid. Just... there. Present.

"Hi, you," he muttered.

A long pause. His voice softened.

"It’s been a while since I really looked at you. You look like shit... but you’re still standing. That counts. I’ll keep standing. I’ll keep going. No matter what’s waiting down here... I’ll find her. Jiana, I’m not stopping until I do."

The floor beneath him was unnaturally smooth—too perfect to be untouched by purpose, yet not artificial. It felt natural, but the kind of natural that had been shaped by intention.

He walked in a slow circle. A few broken pillars jutted up from the stone, wide and twisted like roots of a long-dead tree. A single pillar stood taller than the rest in the center. Its surface was cracked, but it pulsed faintly with that same warm, color-shifting glow.

Johnquis rested his hand on it, feeling the faint thrum under his palm.

"This doesn’t feel like a nest," he muttered. "Feels like a grave... or a shrine." _{free.w e bn.ov(e)l(.)com}

He exhaled, shaking his head with a bitter smile.

"So that fall wasn’t to kill me. It was to drop me into something I’d have to face—something quiet enough to make me think."

He wandered further, circling the outer rim of the dome. There were smaller chambers tucked along the edge. Hollow alcoves with no paths deeper, just more glowing stones.

"Were you watching this place, Digger?" he asked aloud. "Guarding it? Building it? Or was this your way of remembering something too?"

There was no answer. Only that strange, humming silence.

But as time stretched, the fear began to fade. This place wasn’t hostile. It felt calm like being wrapped in a warm lullaby, or standing in the center of a forgotten prayer.

He knelt at one of the pools, dipping his hand in the water. It wasn’t cold. It was warm. He splashed it on his face, letting the fatigue slide off his skin.

"Dancer would call this place beautiful," he whispered. "Savier would say it’s boring. No boobs. No booze."

He chuckled to himself. The sound bounced back off the walls, soft and distant, like the chamber itself was laughing with him.

Then silence again.

He exhaled, looking around one last time. "No Queen. No Eaters. Just pretty rocks and dead echoes."

His smile faded. He stepped back toward the center pillar and looked up, way, way up. Searching for the hole he’d fallen through. It was too far. The walls above melted into shadow.

Johnquis circled again, trying to find the curve in the stone that marked the tunnel’s end. Finally, in a far corner, half-hidden behind a slant in the wall, he found the vertical shaft he’d fallen through.

He cupped his hands and shouted, "HEY! ANYONE UP THERE? SAVIER? DANCER?"

Nothing.

He shouted again. Louder. "I’M ALIVE, YOU DUMBASSES! I NEED A DAMN ROPE!"

Still nothing.

He growled and kicked a stone into the water.

Then the ground beneath his feet began to rumble.

It started faint, like a low hum in his bones. Then it deepened, vibrating through the chamber walls. The glowing stones flickered. Ripples danced across the pools. One of the smaller pillars cracked and collapsed into dust.

Johnquis turned, eyes narrowing.

"...That’s not good."