Reborn with a Necromancer System-Chapter 224: The Tunnel Deity

Kai stood at the jagged edge of the hole, its darkness swallowing the faint torchlight that flickered from the pale creatures' hands. The smell rising from it was earthy at first… but deeper in, there was a damp, metallic tang that reminded him disturbingly of old blood.

Orlin stood beside him, silent. The lich's expression never changed, lips long gone, teeth fixed in an eternal grin, but there was something in the slight tilt of his skull, in the deliberate slowness of his movements, that suggested amusement.

Without a word, Orlin raised one skeletal hand over the pit. Mana leaked from his fingertips in a slow, deliberate stream, forming a thick, viscous liquid that shimmered like oil in the torchlight. It swirled unnaturally in the air before dripping down in heavy globules.

Kai's breath caught. It was eerily similar to his own soul ichor, dense, alive in some way, wrong in others. He didn't know if that was comforting or horrifying.

The drops fell into the abyss.

The sound that came back wasn't the splash he expected. It was more like the muffled thud of something massive shifting far below, followed by a deep, resonant vibration that traveled up through the stone beneath their feet.

The floor trembled. Pebbles skittered away from the hole's rim.

Kai instinctively stepped back, eyes flicking to the pale creatures around them.

"God comes," one rasped in its broken, guttural version of the Forebearer's tongue. "Sacrifices ready."

They began to retreat into the shadows, slow, careful movements, never turning their backs on the pit. Their eyeless faces remained fixed on Kai and Orlin, heads cocked at unnatural angles, as if memorizing every twitch of their prey before vanishing into the dark.

The trembling became a violent shudder. Dust rained from the cracked ceiling above, drifting down like a fine snowfall.

Kai's pulse quickened. Something's coming.

From the depths came a sound, wet, grinding, and impossibly loud. A shape emerged from the pit's darkness, swelling upward in one smooth, grotesque motion.

First came the mouth, if it could be called that. A circular maw lined with rows upon rows of razor-sharp teeth, each one curved inward, rotating like the blades of some infernal machine. Stone scraped against enamel with a noise that made Kai's bones ache.

And then the rest of it followed. Segmented flesh glistened under the torchlight, slick with mucus and lined with faint ridges that pulsed as the creature moved. Its sheer size made the chamber feel smaller, as though the very air had been swallowed up by its presence.

Kai's mind betrayed him with a single comparison.

That's… like a science fiction sandworm.

Only this one was real. And it was hungry.

The worm surged forward with a guttural, grinding roar, if rock could scream, it would sound like that. Its massive body scraped against the tunnel walls, showering the floor with broken chunks of stone. The air stank of damp soil and old blood.

Kai reacted first, flinging a volley of shadow spears at the thing's face. The spell hit with sharp cracks… and shattered harmlessly against its slick, pale hide. The worm barely noticed.

"It's bouncing off!" Kai yelled, already summoning more magic. He switched to necrotic bursts, channelling soul ichor into corrosive bolts. They splashed uselessly against its outer layer, black stains sliding off without a mark.

Orlin stood his ground for a moment longer, threads of soul magic lashing out from his skeletal fingers. They coiled around the worm's midsection, tightening, then snapped apart as though they'd been trying to bind steel cables.

The worm lunged.

Kai barely managed to dodge as the circular mouth slammed into the floor where he'd stood, rotating teeth chewing through the stone like it was stale bread. The vibrations rattled up Kai's legs, numbing his bones.

"Run," Orlin said simply, and then they both bolted.

The tunnel's darkness pulsed with the worm's presence. Its body was so large that it filled the space behind them entirely, forcing them to sprint ahead with no chance to slow down. It slammed into walls, the sound like collapsing buildings, pushing waves of dust and debris forward with each movement.

Kai's mind worked furiously between gasps of breath.

'Nothing's piercing its hide. It's too big to restrain… unless...'

"Orlin! What's inside these things?" Kai called back over his shoulder.

"Flesh! It has to be! Much softer than outside! We cut our way in!"

"Yeah, just need to not die before that!"

They darted into a wider cavern, the floor uneven and littered with jagged stone pillars. The worm followed, smashing through them in sprays of rock dust. Orlin conjured a wall of spectral bones between them and it, the worm ploughed through without slowing, but it gave them two precious seconds.

"Two options," Orlin said, voice calm despite the chaos. "We climb inside… or we bury it."

Kai glanced at the chasm it had emerged from. The idea of diving into the creature's mouth wasn't exactly appealing, but the second option wasn't much better.

"…Let's make it choke."

The worm's roar was a deep, grinding sound, like boulders rolling over steel. Its ring of teeth spun faster, and the air was filled with a choking stench, wet earth and rotting meat, pushed from its gullet with every heaving breath.

Orlin's bony fingers clenched into a fist, his voice low. "The ceiling."

Kai glanced up. Jagged stalactites hung like a hundred stone blades, and the worm's massive body filled most of the tunnel behind them.

"Got it," Kai said.

The worm surged forward, its grinding teeth churning with wet, metallic clicks. The ground shuddered with every heave of its body, the vibrations rattling Kai's bones.

Orlin raised both skeletal hands, arcs of necrotic energy leaping between his fingers. Kai called on shadow magic, threads of darkness knotting together in his palm until the air itself seemed to groan from the strain.

"Now!" Orlin barked.

They unleashed everything at once. The blast tore upward, cracking through stone and sending a thunderous ripple across the cavern. Shards rained down. Massive boulders sheared free from the ceiling, tumbling in a deadly cascade.

For a moment, Kai thought they'd done it, until the worm's maw opened impossibly wide and it ate through the falling rock as if it were nothing but sand.

Chunks of debris crunched and vanished into the grinding vortex of teeth. The worm let out a deep, shuddering roar that was more vibration than sound, and lunged again.

Kai's gut twisted. The blast hadn't even slowed it.

"Alright… stupid idea time," he muttered.

Orlin turned his skull toward him. "Define 'stupid.'"

Kai didn't answer. He was already sprinting toward the worm. The grinding teeth spun faster, slick with rock dust and viscous saliva.

Regret was already tightening in his chest, but the thought of just running was worse.

The ravine mimic flashed in his memory, every rib-cracking squeeze, every suffocating second. He just hoped this would be… smoother.

And then he jumped, straight into the worm's maw.