Vyus stared at the frozen scroll held forth by the ice statue.
DANGER AHEAD.
The message was unambiguous. For a moment, he felt a flicker of apprehension that added to the literal chill of the mountain.
'Surely...it isn't that bad right?'
Vyus broke a sweat.
Tryss whined softly behind him, perhaps sensing the warning too. But the feeling was quickly suppressed, overridden by a wave of impatient resolve. Danger? This whole damn inner world was dangerous.
He scoffed under his breath.
'That doesn't matter.'
Thinking much about it felt like a waste of time. With a nod, more to himself than to Tryss, Vyus pushed past the figure, resuming their march. Tryss quickly followed, staying close to his owner's foot.
As they climbed higher onto the exposed slope, Vyus scanned the peaks above, searching for any sign of life. Instead, his eyes caught movement much higher up, near the jagged ridgeline.
He saw silhouettes with indistinct shapes, maybe eight or nine. They were too far away to make out clearly, but they were definitely present.
"Looks like we've got company, Tryss."
Then, carried faintly on the thin, freezing air, came a sound. It was high-pitched, intermittent at first, almost like the cracking of ice... but as it grew slightly louder, Vyus realized it was laughter.
Utterly mirthless laughter that seemed to mock the desolation around them. As he watched, one of the silhouettes detached itself from the group, seeming to bound down the impossibly steep slope towards Vyus.
In his eyes, as it approached, it looked like a gaunt, humanoid entity. The creature descended with startling speed, its unnerving giggle louder now. It ran, hunched over, long limbs flailing slightly, clearly targeting him.
Vyus readied his claw-dagger, Tryss letting out a low growl beside him. The entity didn't slow down at all, launching itself into a final, clumsy-looking tackle aimed at Vyus's legs.
With ease, Vyus sidestepped the tackle effortlessly. As the creature stumbled past, Vyus spun and brought the claw-dagger around in a single, clean motion.
The blade sliced through the entity's thin neck with barely any resistance, severing the head completely. The body collapsed bonelessly onto the snow.
Vyus lowered his dagger, expecting silence. Instead, the giggling continued, seeming even louder now, from both the fallen body and the head that had rolled a short distance away.
Vyus frowned, a genuine chill unrelated to the temperature tracing its way down his spine as he stared at the twitching corpse and the still-laughing head. He recognized the description from obscure Deep One lore, tales meant to frighten children.
"...It's a Mahaha," Vyus muttered.
Mahaha's weren't primarily from Deep One lore, but an elder at one of the temples in his hometown spoke about these things. They were similar to Frost Demons, but, instead of anger and pain, it was just... laughs.
Vyus looked down at the twitching form of the Mahaha, his expression softening with a sorrowful understanding. He closed his eyes briefly, the elder's words echoing in his mind.
'Not truly demons... just shells, their inner selves lost.'
The incessant laughter, now sounded hollow, a mocking testament to their existence. He opened his eyes, the resolve hardening once more.
Sadness wouldn't help him navigate this treacherous inner world. The danger was still ahead, and dwelling on the nature of these strange entities wouldn't change that.
"Come on, Tryss," he murmured, stepping over the headless corpse.
The laughter still echoed around them. Tryss nudged his hand with a snout, a low whine rumbling in its chest, before following closely.
As they continued their climb, the remaining silhouettes on the ridge remained there, their mirthless laughter drifting down like icy shards.
Vyus kept a wary eye on them, his claw-dagger still held loosely in his hand. He didn't understand their purpose, or why they were here, but he knew they represented another potential threat in this bizarre landscape.
The air grew thinner and colder with each upward step. Vyus focused on placing each foot carefully, Tryss's steady presence a small comfort in the environment.
Suddenly, the laughter from above intensified, and a high-pitch of shrieks occurred. The remaining silhouettes began to move, not bounding down like the first, but spreading out along the ridge.
Vyus could now make out more details. They were indeed gaunt and humanoid, their limbs unnaturally long and thin. Some carried crude jagged weapons fashioned from ice and bone.
"They're not coming one at a time," Vyus muttered, his grip tightening on his dagger. "Stay close, Tryss."
He scanned their movements, trying to anticipate their strategy. They seemed to be attempting to flank him, cutting off his path higher up the slope.
His heart skipped a beat as he heard something, but it was simply paranoia.
"We need to move, now," he said, breaking into a jog despite the incline. Tryss stayed right beside him, its claws scrabbling for purchase on the icy surface.
As they gained some distance, the Mahaha on the ridge began their descent, their movements unsettlingly swift despite their awkward gait.
The laughter pursued Vyus and Tryss, echoing off the jagged peaks. Vyus's paranoia was right. His literal eyes saw them following. The strange and disturbing nature of their foes was unsettling.
"Towards those rocks!" He yelled to Tryss, picking up his pace. The laughter behind them grew closer, and he could hear the scraping of their crude weapons against the ice.
The danger ahead, as the frozen scroll had warned, was very real indeed.
Vyus scrambled behind the cluster of sharp rocks, pulling Tryss down beside him. The cacophony of laughter washed over them, seeming to emanate from all directions.
He held his breath, listening intently as the scraping sounds and the unsettling giggles moved past their hiding place.
After a tense moment, when the sounds began to fade into the distance, Vyus cautiously peeked around the edge of a rock. The slope ahead seemed clear.
"Alright, let's go," Vyus whispered.
Rising to his feet, Tryss also stood up with him, shaking slightly, and they moved quickly around the rock.
As they rounded the corner, their escape was shattered by a sudden horrifying sight. A Mahaha, which must have detached itself from the main group earlier and moved with surprising stealth, stood directly in their path. Its gaunt face was contorted in a silent, wide grin, its eyes vacant and black.
Before Vyus could react, the Mahaha lunged. He instinctively raised his claw-dagger to parry the attack. The crude ice weapon of the Mahaha slammed against his blade with unexpected force.
The brittle mineral of Vyus's dagger shrieked under the impact, and with a sickening snap, the blade broke clean off, leaving him holding only a hilt.
Panic awakened in Vyus. Disarmed, he threw a desperate jab at the creature's face. The Mahaha, with a jerky, almost unnatural movement, tilted its head, the blow passing its cheek.
Then, with surprising speed, the Mahaha launched itself forward, tackling Vyus around the legs. He fell heavily onto the icy ground, the breath knocked out of him.
At the same time, the creature lashed out a long, bony leg, catching Tryss in the side and sending the wolf skidding across the frozen ground with a yelp of pain.
Vyus's eyes widened in a surge of adrenaline. As the Mahaha's cold fingers scrabbled at his chest, he twisted violently, grabbing the creature's thin, icy arm at the elbow.
With a grunt of effort, he leveraged his weight, turning the Mahaha's momentum against it. The creature shrieked, a sound that was still somehow laced with unsettling giggles.
Using the leverage, Vyus pushed himself up, scrambling back onto his feet. The Mahaha stumbled, its broken arm flailing uselessly. Before Vyus could fully orient himself, the creature lunged again, its remaining arm outstretched.
But the near-death experience had sharpened Vyus's focus. Time seemed to slow as the Mahaha moved. He sidestepped the clumsy attack with fluid movements that he didn't know he possessed.
As the Mahaha stumbled past him, Vyus pivoted, his empty hand lashing out. His open palm struck the Mahaha's chest with brutal force, the impact echoing in the thin air. The creature recoiled.
Before the Mahaha could recover, Vyus followed up with a swift kick to its side, sending it sprawling on the icy ground. He didn't hesitate. Driven by a primal need to survive, he moved with terrifying speed. He stomped down hard on the Mahaha's chest, the brittle bones cracking.
Then, in a brutal series of stomps and strikes with the hilt of his broken dagger, Vyus unleashed a torrent of violence. The Mahaha's thin body offered little resistance. Icy blood, black as night, splattered the snow around them.
The mirthless laughter finally ceased, replaced by gurgling sounds.
"Not laughing now, huh? You pain in the ass. I felt bad for you, so I fled, but now, I don't care anymore."
Within moments, the Mahaha laid still, its limbs twisted at the deformed angles, its heading lolling to the side. It was a mangled mess. Vyus stood over the corpse, panting heavily, his knuckles red as he gripped the broken hilt.
Just as Vyus's rage began to halt, a final, weak giggle escaped the remains of the Maha. Vyus's eyes flickered with intensity, as his eyes locked onto the Mahaha.
But this time, something was different. An aura, cold and heavy, emanated from Vyus, however, he was not aware of it, as it was only visible to the creature.
The giggling twisted, contorting into choked sobs, filled with an agony that finally seemed real.
As Vyus's hand tightened, the creature's fear intensified. The sobs escalated into heart-wrenching cries, filled with a pain that Vyus didn't give a damn about.
The cries ceased abruptly. The fear vanished, leaving behind only the biting cold of the mountain air and the sickening stillness of death.
Vyus stood there, his hands coated in black blood, and had a feeling of satisfaction settling over him.
He had silenced the laughter, but the cries... the cries would likely haunt him. It doesn't matter to him, all that mattered was this 'fear' that made the creature finally stop.
"You demons — you do feel fear don't you? I like that. I'll change my declaration. I'm no longer hell itself — I'm fear itself."