Godless Domain

As they stepped inside the building, the sharp scent of burnt wood and smoke hit them. The first floor didn't seem too bad, not yet. There were signs of destruction. Furniture overturned, Broken doors, shattered glass on the ground but nothing too catastrophic. The hallway lights flickered overhead, casting shadows that seemed to stretch unnaturally long.

Zane moved first, taking the lead with a determination that Kade didn't quite share. Zane had always been the type to push forward when the going got tough, but Kade couldn't help but feel the weight of the situation settling deeper into his bones. The quiet was unsettling, too quiet for a world that had just been turned upside down.

"Stay close," Zane muttered, keeping his voice low.

Kade nodded, gripping the baseball bat in his hands like it might suddenly grow heavier. Every corner they turned, every creak of the building felt like a warning, as if something could be waiting for them around the next bend or hidden in the shadows.

They reached the second floor, and the difference was immediate. The destruction was much worse now. Furniture was smashed to pieces, the walls had been gouged by something sharp, and the air smelled faintly of burnt plastic. Red markings, smeared, chaotic, almost animalistic were scrawled across the walls, a mix of anger and frustration.

Kade's eyes landed on a door that had been completely ripped off its hinges. Wood splintered, jagged pieces scattered across the floor. He stopped, his breath catching. "What the hell happened here?" he muttered, his voice barely above a whisper.

Zane's grip tightened around his metal rod, and he looked over at Kade, his expression tense. "I don't know, but I'm guessing it wasn't just goblins."

They moved past the shattered door, each step echoing in the silence. Kade couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched, like something was lurking just beyond the corners of their vision, waiting for them to make a mistake.

They continued through the second floor, past a few more apartments, each one bearing the unmistakable signs of chaos, crushed furniture, belongings strewn across the hallways and windows smashed in. It was almost like the world had turned into a broken puzzle, pieces scattered across the ground with no hope of ever coming together.

Zane paused, looking back at Kade. "We keep moving up but don't get too comfortable. The higher we go, the more likely we are to run into trouble. Stay sharp."

Kade didn't need to be told twice. His senses were on high alert now, every sound, every flicker of movement setting him on edge. Something about the emptiness of the building made him feel like they were the only ones left in the world and that feeling? it wasn't comforting.

The air in the hallway shifted, a faint rustling sound coming from behind one of the doors. Kade's grip on the bat tightened, his heart pounding in his chest.

"Did you hear that?" Kade whispered.

Zane nodded, his voice low and steady. "Yeah. Let's keep moving."

They didn't stop, but the air felt thick now, the tension hanging between them like a rope ready to snap. The rest of the walk up was a blur of uneasy silence, their footsteps echoing through the empty building as they climbed higher, each floor seeming to reveal more destruction than the last.

The second floor had made it clear: something much worse than goblins was on the horizon. And Kade had no idea what that something was, but he was starting to feel the weight of it settling in. The world wasn't just falling apart—it was being torn to pieces.

Upon reaching the third floor, the horror of what would become the new reality had finally set in.

Just like the previous floors, signs of destruction were scattered everywhere. Furniture torn apart, walls gouged, remnants of life strewn across the hallways. But something far worse waited at the end of the hall, something neither of us was ready to face.

Four overgrown, grotesque moles surrounded what appeared to be a lifeless young man, his body crumpled on the floor, barely recognizable. The creatures were feasting, their mouths gorging on his flesh in a horrifying display of savagery. It was like something ripped straight out of a nightmare, a scene so barbaric it didn't seem real.

Zane's earlier bravado and sense of morale vanished in an instant. He recoiled, his face twisting with disgust as he gagged, almost like he was about to vomit. I, on the other hand, broke out in a cold sweat. My body froze, unable to look away from the gruesome spectacle, my mind struggling to process what was unfolding in front of us.

"God, why have you abandoned us…" The words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them, the first time I'd thought about such things since the chaos of the day began.

Funny how I hadn't prayed in years—hadn't even really thought about God in ages—but when you witness something so barbaric, when your mind can't process the horror before you, the first place your thoughts go is to some higher power. Oh the irony.

I couldn't take it anymore. The grotesque scene before me, the sound of flesh being torn apart... I couldn't look at it, not for another second. I turned away, my stomach churning as the bile rose in my throat. I bent over, unable to control the nausea. My body betrayed me, throwing up all over the floor.

But that wasn't the worst part. That wasn't even close to the true nightmare of the day.

The moles these hideous, overgrown creatures hadn't noticed us at first, lost in their grotesque indulgence. But the moment my body betrayed me, the moment my stomach emptied itself in the hallway, that's when the nightmare really began.

The moles paused, their grotesque, bulbous heads rising slowly as they sniffed the air, drawn by the scent of something perhaps the same hunger that had driven them to tear apart the young man lying on the ground. It was like they could smell us now, like we were the next course.

One by one, their heads snapped toward us with chilling synchronicity, and in that moment, their eyes opened wide, glowing with a sickly yellow hue.

It was as if time stopped for a second. One heartbeat. One breath. That was all it took for me to realize we were utterly, completely fucked.