Dean had always wanted an awakening ever since he started chasing the life of a Hunter.

He knew it wasn't essential, but it was an incredible help for fast tracking the process; and after two years of waiting just to get in the course, he was ready to get all the help he could.

The sooner he became a Hunter, the sooner he could be getting the kind of pay people only dreamed of.

These two years he's been living in a cramped apartment that only has enough room for a springy single bed and a kettle. It was driving him up the wall, his claustrophobia was barely handling it.

He wouldn't have to be living off a cheap foreign brand of noodles that was better suited for landfill than consumption.

Becoming a Hunter wouldn't only provide a better life but would bring many benefits that others would kill for. He needed to be a hunter and he knew the risks well.

"Hello?" Crescent snapped her fingers loudly into Dean's ear. She had been trying to get his attention.

"Huh?" His mind was hazy from leaving deep thought.

"We need to go. I'm not keen on waiting here long enough to starve myself and I don't know about you, but a rat isn't on the menu for me."

Crescent started to make her way back to the door, calling him to follow.

Dean nodded reluctantly, finding it hard to let the bath house go but she was right. There was no point staying here when they've already done what they came here for.

They returned through the large steel door and stood back on the fork in the tunnel.

An opaque window popped up for them.

 

[Safezone: Crystal Bathhouse left]

[Disabling safe zone]

 

After the notification disappeared, the large steel door quickly shut behind them. The crystal walls grew over the door, removing it from sight.

It's hard to imagine that the inside of the Gates were alive, but it was quite a popular theory that people believed were true. Dean was starting to believe it.

"What now?" Dean asked.

"We're going in the hole." Crescent pointed at the small hole built into the crystal wall.
Dean let out a short shriek, his breath had turned rasp and wild.

"Please not the hole. Please, please!" He pleaded; the colour of his face started to quickly fade.

Crescent sighed and grabbed her book from it's holster, she snapped it open.

Crescent ran her index finger across a page of her book, she drew an open circle with her finger. Her finger was set ablaze as if it were a match being struck. A purple flame covered her finger. She gently blew on her finger and pressed it against Dean's forehead.

He jumped in reflex, expecting to be burnt, but no burning sensation came from the flame. It felt warm and calm, soothing his panicked state. The colour started to come back to his cheeks.

"That should last for an hour. Sheesh. The hole isn't going to kill you." She patted him gently on the back and led him into the hole.

Dean was relaxed, almost as if he were intoxicated.

A warm blanket was covering his mind, so Dean did something he thought he never would. He got into a crawl and went into the tunnel headfirst, calm as can be.

The good thing was that the small hole in the wall wasn't dark. The crammed in crystal walls lit up the hole perfectly. Though the spell calmed him, Dean was sure it couldn't make him enter the hole if it were pitch black.

Crawling through the narrow hole they met another fork that splits two ways.

"What's the hold up?" Crescent shouted from behind.

"It separates into two different parts. Which way should we go?"

"We should split up, one of them will lead to the next core."

"What about Rats?" Dean asked, remembering the fact the place was supposedly infested with them, the heavy blanket like spell had kept him calm and levelheaded.

"You've seen one. It's way too large to fit into this hole."

Crescent gave him a gentle push from behind.

"You go left, I'll go right. Be quick though. I wouldn't want the spell to run out in here if I were you."

Dean heeded her words and makes his way through the left hole at a quick pace.

After minutes of crawling through the hole, he found himself exiting into a small room. The room was just tall enough for him to stand.

The same crystal walls came out from the tunnel lit the room, but they were much dimmer compared to the other rooms he had been in. A much stronger light came from a small horizontal crack in the wall, just wide enough for Dean to see through.

He gasped at the sight, swallowing a lump in his throat.

On the other side of the crack, there's a wide spacious room below that's littered in rats. Too many to count. They climbed over each other constantly moving like a black dirty wave. Red glinting eyes flowing within the wave. Noises come from their claws scratching against the floors and other rats, their deep breathing intertwined with the scratching.

"Oh god."

Dean fell back, shocked at the sheer number of rats.

"I'm not getting out of here alive..."

The calming spell snapped him back before he could go into a panic.

"Mister?"

A voice came from the other side of a wall.

"Crescent? Where are you? There's a room full of rats, too many to count..." Dean's tone panicked and uneven, the spell was doing its best to keep him calm.

He searched the walls as if there' would be a handle to get to her.

"Don't worry, we're getting out of here alive remember? I need you to focus."

Dean pulled away from the wall and focused on Crescent's voice. He took some deep breaths, letting the spell relax him.

"What do I need to do?"

"Look around the room. Search for anything unusual in the room."

Dean searched around the room, burying the thought of the room full of rats. He found an imprint of a hand in the crystal wall.

"There's an imprint in the wall, it looks like a handprint." He told her through the wall.

"Good, there's one on my end too. I'm going to count down from three and we'll both put our hands into them. Got it?"

"Three!"

Dean held his hand above the handprint.

"Two!"

"One!"

Both of them firmly pressed their hands into dents at the same time.

An orb dropped down from the ceiling, shattering against the floor. A faint blue light escaped it as soon as it shattered.

Ding!

An opaque window popped up in front of Dean.

 

[Hidden Gate core has been destroyed by: Dean, Crescent]

[Hidden Gate core has been destroyed by: Crescent, Dean]

[F Gate mission clear requirements updated] Destroy the Gate's cores: Incomplete (3/5)

[Special Rewards being calculated...]

 

A familiar black opaque window pops up in front of him.

 

[Special Rewards consumed for System Bootup]

[...67% until system booted]

 

A loud thud came from Crescent's side.

"Are you alright?!?" Dean shouts through the room.

"...I'm good, the entrance has been blocked by a large stone slab. It won't budge."

Dean put his head into his hands. "Oh god, oh god."

"Calm down now, there should be something to open it somewhere. Search your room, I'll search mine too."

Dean extensively searched the room, nothing cropped up. Hope faded from his eyes.

He won’t stand a chance on his own and he wouldn't be able to live if he abandoned her here.

Crescent broke the silence.

"Mister..."

"Did you find anything?" Dean asked, hope came through his voice.

"Yeah..." the sound of Crescent's voice quiet and empty.

"What's wrong?"

"... it's in the room full of rats."

Dean moved to the crack, searching the room of rats. A lever on the wall was shining just above the swarm.

"Shit, I'm not going in there! I'll die." Dean turned and fell with his back to the wall.

"Listen, I'll distract them. Just like we did before. There's only a few more. You'll be fine. Trust me."

"But..."

"Trust me."

The calming spell seemed to be doing its job. Dean tightly gripped his axe, his head clearer and empty of panic.

"I'll do it."

"Good, good. Go back through the hole and go down the hallway. Keep low. I'll see you at the entrance. I'll distract them then."

Dean heeded her words and made his way back through the hole.