John felt disoriented as he stepped into the safe zone. The darkness enveloped him completely, and he couldn't see anything beyond the flickering bonfire. The light emitted from the fire was feeble, barely enough to illuminate his immediate surroundings. But there was something strange about the darkness. It was not the absence of light, but something else entirely. It was as if he was standing in the middle of a void, a gaping hole in reality.

He couldn't discern any walls or ceiling or floor, and the darkness seemed to stretch out infinitely. There were no shadows, no shapes or forms, only an all-consuming emptiness. John felt as though he was floating in an endless expanse of nothingness. The pitch blackness was suffocating, and he struggled to breathe.

He tried to move forward, but there was no sense of direction or distance. It felt like he was walking on an invisible tightrope, trying to navigate his way through an abyss. The darkness was oppressive, and it seemed to swallow him whole.

John felt the weight of the bog water on his skin and the stench was unbearable. He couldn't stand it anymore, so he took out his empty potion bottle and wished for a cleaning potion. As soon as he said the words, the bottle began to glow with a bright light. He quickly removed the cork and poured the potion all over himself.

The cleaning potion had an instant effect. It felt like a thousand small hands were massaging his skin, and the bog water stench was gone in seconds. The dirt and grime that covered his clothes were lifted away as if by magic. He felt renewed and refreshed.

The potion was so strong that it even cleaned his ragged clothes, making them look almost new. The colors were vibrant again, and the fabric was soft and fresh. He couldn't believe the transformation.

John didn’t want to stay there for a single minute. He started walking. His feet didn’t cause any echoes. There was no wind. There was no sound. The silence wasn’t deafening. He half expected his ears to ring but they didn’t. One would expect to be unable to figure out the direction in the darkness, but he could see the shapes and contours of the chamber. Like the darkness was a new color that he could distinguish.  His heart raced inside his chest. He wanted to ask out the questions growing in his mind, and let them out to create space for some new thoughts. But he was scared. He was actually scared to speak.

He believed in his heart that the monsters were scary, but this… whatever this was it was terrifying.

As he walked towards the flickering bonfire, the darkness seemed to intensify, closing in around him. The flames of the bonfire danced erratically. But even they couldn't penetrate the darkness, and their light seemed to vanish into the void.

He didn’t feel any heat from the bonfire. Although the goldfish had given him some resistance to fire. Since the bonfire had failed to hurt him even when he had put his arm inside it, he had still felt its warmth.

Now he felt nothing. Not even cold. If the fire wasn’t warm then it should be cold. But there was no sensation when he passed his hand through it like it wasn’t real but a phantom.

John felt a growing sense of unease as he realized he was completely alone in this empty, endless expanse. The void seemed to mock him with its emptiness, and he felt a sense of dread creeping up his spine. He wondered if he would ever escape this void or be trapped in it forever.

It didn’t take him long to find the altar.

The altar was a real circular tree stump this time, about three feet in diameter, with its roots extending outwards like legs, firmly anchored into the ground. The wood was charred and blackened, giving off an acrid smell that John found unpleasant. The stump was roughly waist height, making it easy for John to examine the items on top of it.

The first artifact was a necklace made of small rabbit skulls, their delicate bones strung together by a thin black cord. The skulls were all charred as if they had been through some intense fire. John shuddered at the sight of it, feeling a chill run down his spine.

It reminded him of the hunting trip his father took him on when he was about twelve or some years old.

He remembered the day his dad took him out hunting and handed him a gun, telling him to aim at a rabbit that was scurrying by. But John couldn't do it. He froze, unable to pull the trigger. His dad had been disappointed, but John couldn't bring himself to kill the animal.

Now, here he was, looking at a rabbit skull necklace, a reward for killing a bog monster, feeling a sense of irony. He chuckled to himself, thinking that his dad would be proud of him for finally "killing" a rabbit, even if it was just in the form of a necklace.

But the thought also made him feel a little sad.

The second artifact was a wand, about a foot long, made of gnarled and twisted wood. It was also charred, but its surface was smooth and glossy as if it had been polished many times. John reached out to touch it, but hesitated, unsure if it was safe to do so.

The third artifact was a compass, but unlike any compass, John had ever seen before. Instead of a traditional needle, it had a small spike that pointed down, as if it was attracted to the earth's core. The casing of the compass was made of a dark metal that John couldn't identify, and it emitted a faint hum that he could feel in his fingertips.

John studied each item carefully, trying to decipher their significance and what they could be used for. He couldn't shake off the feeling that these items were powerful and dangerous, and he knew he had to choose wisely.

The ethereal voice came then and told john about the working of the artifacts. According to it, the skull necklace would heat up every time he was in danger. The wand had a simple function to double the spells. And the compass always points in the direction most favorable to him at the moment.

Though nostalgic, John didn’t think the skull would be of any help to him inside the trials. The compass perhaps, but the wand was exactly what he needed. He was desperately starting to feel his lacking firepower.

John's heart was pounding inside his chest as he held the wand tightly in his hand. He could feel the ancient power emanating from the wooden wand. The voice in his head had promised that the wand would double the power of his spells and he could already feel the magic coursing through his veins.

With a deep breath, John called forth his Grimoire and chanted the incantation for a homing missile spell. As he finished the spell, a missile shot out from the Grimoire and another from the wand. Then both the spells just disappeared. They flew a few feet away from John and fizzed out of existence as if devoured by something.

Without a moment's hesitation, John started running. He didn’t know what was happening in the safe zone but didn’t want any part of it.

Sweat poured down his forehead as john raced toward the exit. He had never felt such an overwhelming sense of anxiety before. Every fiber of his being was telling him to get out of there, to move on to the next zone. He couldn't shake the feeling that something terrible was lurking just out of sight.

Despite the fact that the next zone was also home to a monstrous creature, John found himself feeling more at ease at the thought of facing a known danger. At least he could prepare himself for that. Here, he didn't even know what he was up against. It was like standing in the middle of a nightmare with no way out.

He took a deep breath, trying to steady his nerves, but it only seemed to make things worse. His mind raced with all the terrible possibilities, and he began to feel trapped and helpless. He had to get out of there.

With a shuddering breath, John began to move forward, his feet making no sound on the featureless ground beneath him. He felt like he was walking on a tightrope, with every step taking him further into the unknown. He couldn't see anything, but he could sense a kind of malevolent energy all around him, like a thick fog that he had to push through.

The thought that the altar would be descending any moment into the ground and unleashing some unforeseen kind of disaster was enough to send shivers down his spine.

As he ran, he couldn't help but glance over his shoulder, half-expecting to see the ground opening up beneath him. But nothing happened. The altar remained still and the ground beneath him stayed solid.

When he finally made it to the exit, he couldn't believe it. He had made it through the trial without any disasters or monsters attacking him. It was a strange feeling, one that he couldn't quite describe. It was almost like a mixture of relief and disbelief.

He didn’t know what to expect when he went for the shimmering barrier covering the exit. But he knew he was shells hocked when the barrier blocked his advance, refusing him to pass through.

What happened?

He knew exactly what happened!

It was that fucking altar that glitched on him. it didn’t descend! That’s what happened.

John stared back, looking for the altar. He couldn't see it, but he knew it was still there. He had expected the altar to descend into the ground, but it hadn't. It was odd, and it left John feeling uneasy. What could have gone wrong?

He knew the exits in the trials and the safe zone only opened when their subsequent special condition was met. In the trials, the condition was always the death of the challenge. In the safe zone, it had always been the descent of the altar. He had taken the artifact as always. So it should descend like always too. But it didn’t.

John knew he had to go back to the altar and see for himself what went wrong.

He didn’t want to, but he had to do it if he didn’t want to be sealed in the chamber with the darkness. He would rather be sealed in the chamber alongside the gargoyle. At least he wouldn’t feel so cold then.

The altar hadn’t changed a wink when John returned to its side. It stood there like a table without purpose, just waiting for someone to relieve it of its misery.

Since the altar hadn’t descended into the ground it either meant he needed to take all the artifacts from it, or something was stopping him from leaving. He hoped it would be the former because the latter didn’t sound so hot to his ears. Whatever the case, John had to leave the safe zone. His heart was pounding, eyes dazed. When he stood in front of the altar he felt a variety of thoughts pass through his head. Some told him to not be greedy, others told him it was a chance to procure more artifacts. The altar remaining upright meant the artifacts were still being offered. He should take them.

He worried the altar would descend and unleashes hell on his head the moment he then he picked up the rest of the artifacts from the stump. He is a cliff and well kind of situation. Where there was no right answer.
There’s nothing worse than being forced into a situation. He knew something might go wrong if he took the other two artifacts, but he had no choice.

So he took the artifacts and the moment he did that, the altar disappeared into the ground like a thief on the run. John saw the hole it left in the place, a hole that reminded John of the mural. He knew he was in trouble.

Even if he didn’t believe his intuition, he had to believe the strong heat emanating from the skull necklace because its only function was to grow hot to reflect nearby danger.

John didn’t even pocket the compass or wore the necklace around his neck but ran for his life with all his might.
The hole in the ground had other plans. A strong negative pressure erupted from it, pulling John toward itself.

John fought back, blocked the hole with a mesh of earth spikes, and then ran toward the exit. He knew the spikes wouldn’t hold on for long. They did not. They broke and were sucked by the hole when he was halfway to the exit. The pull which erupted from the hole was countless times stronger than before. It instantly pulled john off his feet and started dragging him back.

John grew earth spikes behind his feet to stop himself from getting pulled. Clenching the wand, he grew a wall of spikes between him and the hole, but they held on barely before breaking and being swallowed by the hole.

Knowing too large spikes wouldn’t work, he grew a set of smaller spikes in front of him and started pulling himself toward the exit. The set of spikes behind his feet and the one he had as handholds worked in tandem to counter the pulling force. Pushing and pulling on the spikes he progressed toward the exit.

Though it took all of his concentration and strength, he managed to make progress toward the exit and despite the vacuum's maximum effort, he reached the exit and crossed the barrier to the other side.  

His face was pale, arms throbbing and hearts racing when he looked back at the barrier. His bloodshot eyes told the exact state of his mind far better than any words could. He escaped death. Not for the first time, but never had the possibility of death been higher before. He was alive, but he didn’t know for how long. He might have escaped the safe zone, but now he was inside a challenge. And another monster awaited him there.