I started to walk down the tunnel—south, according to my Aura—until I reached a fork. Southeast or southwest.
I chose southeast and kept going, not even bothering to mark the passage. My plan was to continue south no matter what. Southeast was my second choice.
This strategy actually worked out pretty well over the next half hour. I felt like I was making progress. Sure, all the tunnels looked the same, but according to my Aura, I had traveled almost half a kilometer southeast of where I had set my marker.
The core of the Coliseum spanned roughly one square kilometer, so it was likely that I was somewhere outside of that. I tried to remember the rough area of the Umbanor butte itself. I want to say that it was maybe two kilometers by two kilometers, but I couldn’t be sure. The only thing I knew was that these tunnels couldn’t go on forever.
I set off again, keeping south, and occasionally southeast. And then I found the pit.
The tunnel ended in a small circular room. It was empty except for a man-sized—or maybe Yueldian-sized—hole in the ground with a wooden ladder sticking out of it.
My Aura registered a significant jump in the temperature in this room. It was a good ten degrees hotter here.
Peeking down into the pit, I saw a rough earthen floor three meters down and another tunnel running south.
I also spotted something else.
Bones.
I had to investigate. This was the first variation in my surroundings for several hours. Plus, who can resist bones?
I climbed down into the pit. The air was even warmer down here. Close to thirty-two degrees. And over ninety percent humidity. I squatted down and poked the bones with my knife. One looked like a forearm bone, and the other looked like part of a spine. Human-like, but maybe fifty percent larger. Could be Yueldian. Both bones were partially smeared with a translucent goo. When I pulled my knife away, viscous strands stretched back to the bones. It reminded me of Fun Gum.
Unlike the passages above—which were constructed from stone blocks—the tunnel down here appeared to have been dug out of the earth. I ran my knife along one wall, and bits of a sandstone-like substance flaked off.
Interesting.
As I followed the tunnel south, I came across more bones, as well as pieces of pottery, crumbled bits of statues, and even some metal objects I couldn’t identify. Everything was coated with the goo.
I also registered a faint humming sound. I actually felt it more than I heard it. The frequency was very low—barely audible—but I could feel the vibration in my bones and also when I touched the surface of the tunnel.
This was either very bad or very good. I wasn’t sure which. But, again, I had no choice but to continue.
The tunnel sloped noticeably downward, but ran completely straight and due south. I must have gone another couple of hundred meters before I sensed what might be a faint glow up ahead. When I killed my helmet lamp, I could tell for sure. There was definitely something glowing ahead.
Hope surged within me. Maybe I had finally discovered a way out of this hellish maze. I redoubled my efforts and sprinted towards the glow.
I almost didn’t see it in time, but caught myself before plunging off the edge of a cliff.
The tunnel abruptly ended and three or four meters below me stretched a large natural cavern. And right there in the center of the cavern was the source of glowing light.
It wasn’t a passage out.
The source of the glow was some kind of object at the top of a dark mound. The mound stood a half-dozen meters tall and took up most of the cavern.
I couldn’t make out what the glowing object was, but I sure as hell was going to find out.
Carefully, I climbed down the cliff, stepping over more goo-encrusted bones and other debris. And as I approached the mound, the beams of my head lamps cut through the thick air and illuminated a grisly sight.
The mound itself was made of encrusted bones. But not just bones. Mummified body parts. Arms, legs, thoraxes, heads. They must be the remains of ancient Yueldians. All preserved and glued together with that translucent gelatinous goo, like some weird organic concrete.
As I stared at the mound, trying to make sense of how it came to be, I saw other detritus fused in with the bones and desiccated body parts. Broken ceremonial objects, tools, artwork, bowls and vessels—and other man-made objects I couldn’t identify. It all formed a grotesque amalgam.
Out of the corner of my eye, I registered movement.
The mound shifted and roiled in slow motion. I staggered back, not fully believing my eyes.
Holy fuck! This thing was alive!
Then I got a good look at the bright object atop the seething mound. It appeared to be a meter-high stump—like the stump of a tree—but made of a glowing green material that was wet and fleshy and translucent. At the top of the stump were dozens of thick tendrils, reaching out like fingers and slowly moving of their own accord. And then I realized that this was also the source of the low humming sound.
Heart pounding, I increased the magnification on my visor. Now I could make out various polyps and lobes at the base of the tendrils. These quivered and pulsed as the tendrils reached out and grasped at nothing in particular.
What was this thing?
It looked for all the world like an oversized glowing sea anemone, but there was nothing in my memory about a life form on Yueld even vaguely resembling this.
And then the mound heaved and something shot out at me!
It was a glowing tentacle, as thick around as my waist. I slammed back against the rock wall, trying to get away from the thing. But it rose up in
