Everyone tensed.
"What-" Karl looked up at Alcina. "Heisenberg, what in the world are you talking about?" Alcina asked as she looked down at the man, suspicion in her voice but Karl shakes it off and points at the crater.
"Just believe me!" he shouted as he started to use his metals to float to the inside of the massive hole.
Mold roots sprung everywhere inside of it and Karl could only hope Rosemary is still okay.
It's possible that the human shot her.
Karl shakes his head. He wanted to hope the blonde was still alive because if he even just thought she was dead without making sure he was certain that Ethan would nuke his entire land.
But he killed the pestering human, anyway. He wouldn't matter even if Ethan did nuke the former village's outskirts. And it's not like he still had the factory to live in, anyway.
Salvatore was slow but he managed to run towards Karl.
"W-wait! Karl!"
Salvatore caught up to him before he could have dug too deep.
Karl turned around to face him, "What?"
His voice sounded annoyed, but also desperate.
The deformed-man pressed his webbed hands together and seemed to struggle getting his words out.
"I, uh..." he glanced at Karl. Karl frowned at him.
"You..."
Karl floated up at him, "Just spit it out!" he boomed and Salvatore backed away.
The deformed-man shook his head. "You have to be careful and think things through! Who knows? The mold might grow again!"
Karl looked stunned at the sudden shout but then Salvatore recoiled.
"I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-"
Salvatore was cut off when Karl sighed through his nose.
"So that was what you meant..." the man muttered before shaking his head and floating back lower.
Angie leaped out of Donna's arms and skipped steps to Salvatore.
Karl was about to say something again before Angie suddenly jumped towards him from beside Salvatore.
Alcina stood back as she watched Donna run to the side from where Angie jumped.
The veiled woman didn't say anything as she peered down at Karl, now trying to throw the doll back to the ground.
"Get off me, you psycho doll!" he shouted as he tried to take the doll off of his arm.
The doll clung to him like an angry cat.
Karl wanted so bad to throw the doll away, but at the same time he had to be careful. Its cadou is in its head so if it gets hit too hard, he might be the victim of Donna's hallucinogens for life.
Soon enough, he decided to let it go.
He floated down further.
-----
"So you're finally allowing me to come! So iconic." the doll mused sarcastically as it started to loosen its grip on his arm.
Karl rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah, I'm doing this for Donna. Now shut up before I rip your cadou out myself."
Karl's threat was empty. He wouldn't dare do that to one of his siblings' only coping mechanism since childhood.
The doll laughed after that before then also quieting itself.
Soon enough, Karl reached the deepest, probably.
It must have been the deepest because the mold roots everywhere had soon enough covered even the day light.
Karl could no longer hear the wind whistling like when he was at the top.
It made him shudder. Just the atmosphere reminded him of the laboratory Miranda used to experiment on him.
He shakes his head as he then continued to float to another level.
Surprisingly, the mold roots seemed to have created halls, kind of.
Actually, the holes looked more like giant tunnels that can fit a grown man and a doll held tight on his arm.
Karl sighed and he could hear his sigh echo all around. "Get off my arm, will you? Didn't Donna give you legs?"
Karl didn't mean to be sarcastic but he couldn't help himself.
The doll stayed quiet for a moment, before finally jumping off.
Its porcelain feet made clanking sounds as it landed on the floating metal Karl had supplied.
For safety measures.
Karl couldn't risk anything with the mold so he decided it was better that way.
The doll didn't seem to mind the metal under it as it stayed still, staring forward emptily.
Karl looked around and noticed that in a span of only a few minutes, the mold had managed to grow up to this much.
That is just another proof that the power Rosemary holds is beyond what she could possibly control.
Karl wondered how she felt when she generated all this, because he knows they are far from being even a tad bit similar.
His ears didn't pick up anything, not even wind. The average human couldn't have made it as far as he has.
And, in fact, he didn't even need to breath. His organs had all been changed by the cadou that kept him alive all these decades.
He glanced at the doll and it didn't seem to look back at him.
Suddenly, he got an eery feeling.
All of a sudden, goosebumps graced the back of his neck.
He started sweating, as well. Although he couldn't deny that the place was indeed hot.
The air was trapped inside despite it being so open just hours ago.
Karl thought it was just him being nervous but what changed all that was when he heard static.
That static brought back memories he never thought he would gain ever again.
He swiftly turned around and the metals he held shook.
He saw from the corner of his eye the doll flinch.
But he didn't mind that as he shouted.
"Who's there!"
The doll turned its head to look up at him in unbridled shock.
"What are you doing?" it asked as it turned to the direction he was shouting at.
Karl growled lowly.
"Something else is here with us." he said.
The doll looked up at him again. "Like what? No human can come down here alive, and I didn't hear anything."
Karl glanced at it with knitted brows. He started to sweat more.
"You don't know what fear is like, doll. All you can do now is stay behind me and don't speak."
He also didn't mean to seem rude but, yet again, he couldn't help himself.
The doll crossed its arms and looked away, saying nothing more.
Karl didn't want to admit he was starting to get creeped out, but he needed to say it for the doll to finally shut up.
He nodded at himself before training his eyes in front of him again. What he was staring at is the path they already went through, but he couldn't help but feel unnerved.
It was like, there was a presence, that he couldn't quite describe.
After a few minutes of only staring, he finally sighed and broke contact with whatever he was having a staring contest with.
But right as he was about to turn back around, he suddenly heard... a sound.
He couldn't describe it, but it sounded almost like something was ripping and... forming?
He couldn't describe it because it was too unheard of, nothing like the usual revving he last heard years ago.
He turned around again and to his surprise, there was a huge shadow covering a portion of where they came from.
He followed it with his eyes and what he saw made him grab Angie and use his metals to float past everything else.
What he saw was a huge creature that was made up of nothing else but mold roots.
Even if he had metal powers, he only had a few metals with him because everything inside this crater was stone and soil and now, mold, so he couldn't take anything to protect himself while he was still in here.
He floated fast as he heard the thing start to move.
Its steps are massive and it made the ground shake the first time it moved its feet.
Karl could tell it was also destroying the other mold roots around.
He gritted his teeth and trained his eyes at everything in front of him as he tried to speed up.
He kept on glancing at Angie and the doll did the same to him.
Although it also glanced behind them.
Karl could also tell that the creature-the giant root creature-was taking massive steps towards them.
God damn, what kind of monster did Ethan create!?
Karl didn't want to think that seeing as they were all still freaks, but he also didn't want to compare that freakily-massive creature to them, the them which includes him, who are closer to humans then most cadou or mold-infested creatures.
Soon enough, he reached a dead end.
He tightened his already-tightened hands closed as he tried to steady his breathing.
The creature's roars were static, and he knew because it got closer and closer.
His still-living heart rapidly beated as the monster got closer and closer.
Not long after he reached the dead end, with him still frozen there, the creature caught up to them.
One last time, he looked up at the monster and then-
-----