After the shocking revelation about the cruel futility of their long and arduous journey to the Dark City, the desire to reach the promised castle that kept the four of them going for so long had diminished significantly. However, they still wanted to get there as soon as possible. Kane, especially, wanted to know what was exactly going on and what he should do to survive. He needed to understand the rules of this new hell so he could find a way to get out of it.
But Effie wasn't in a rush to leave the granite tower. She looked at the fading sunlight and shook her head. "There's not enough daylight left to traverse that much distance. Moving through the ruins is a slow ordeal. Get comfortable and rest. We'll leave tomorrow at dawn."
After that, she got busy dressing down the monster carcasses with a long knife that appeared in her hand. She even summoned a Memory that looked like a leather apron to avoid getting blood on her tunic. Whistling an upbeat melody under her nose, the vigorous young woman looked like an enthusiastic gourmet chef, completely at ease in this morbid setting.
Kane, Nephis, Sunny, and Cassie were in no mood to talk. Each of them sat somberly by themselves, trying to digest the awful reality of their new situation.
Kane was tired. He knew he needed a proper rest to move on and tackle the future. He felt like he needed to plan how to deal with the flaws in his current approach and find a way to get out of this hell. Luckily, nobody around him had died yet. He looked around at the others to see what they were dealing with in their minds. Cassie seemed to be trying to digest all the information, a sort of guilt consuming her. Sunny appeared to see some positivity in their predicament but was still visibly down. Nephis seemed to have something in mind. Ever since she heard about the Dark City, she seemed to be fixated on the idea of Gunlaug and his power. Kane tried to guess what she was thinking but left it alone; he simply didn't care to know her plans at the moment. He then looked at Effie and thought, 'This Amazon warrior seems sincere and is surely strong. She seems trustworthy.' With that thought, Kane prepared to sleep. He made a simple mattress out of his armor. After getting his flaw, he rarely slept, but recently he had been able to get used to it despite the constant murmurings in his mind. He lay down and let sleep take him.
As the last rays of the falling sun colored the world in shades of red, the cursed sea began to surge out of the great crater. Kane and Sunny watched as the distant statue of the beautiful, faceless woman was slowly drowned by the darkness, until only her open hand remained above the waves. Then, he shifted his gaze and looked down. The undulating black surface of the cursed sea stopped mere meters beneath the edge of the granite wall. It seemed as though he could almost touch it with his hand. On the other side of the stone barrier, the ruined city lay submerged in shadows, dozens of meters below the water level. Trapped between the endless expanse of the dark sea and the vast emptiness of the ruins, the mighty wall seemed to be as thin as a sheet of paper. And yet, it silently withstood the crushing pressure of the black waves, serving as a dam that protected the city below from being erased by the terrible flood… just like it had for thousands of years. However, Kane couldn't help but imagine all that crushing weight bursting through the collapsing wall in an all-consuming torrent of darkness. He felt shivers running down his spine.
Kane saw Nephis and Sunny start to exchange conversation, but he didn't care. He simply closed his eyes and drifted into an uneasy slumber.
********
Kane jolted awake, but the world around him wasn't his. He was standing in the middle of a bustling, sun-drenched market, alive with the sound of laughter and the aroma of roasted nuts. It was a vibrant, almost saccharine scene, with people of all ages dancing to a strange, lilting music. This can't be real, he thought, his mind screaming against the impossible detail. He tried to speak, but his throat was a barren wasteland. He tried to move his hands, to run, but his limbs were heavy, unresponsive. He was a statue, a ghost trapped in a body that wasn't his own. A chilling sense of wrongness seeped into his bones. The people around him were too happy, their smiles too wide. He felt a wave of emotions—grief, despair, terror, and a cold rage he didn't recognize—wash over him, not his feelings, but the feelings of the body he was trapped inside. He was a passenger in a vessel on auto-pilot, an unwilling spectator to a horror film he couldn't stop.
Then, his body began to move, walking with an unnerving purpose. It didn't hesitate, weaving through the joyous crowd until it reached a closed, stone hall. Inside, a grand auditorium stretched before him. Hundreds of ancient, wooden chairs were arranged in neat rows, facing a stage adorned with skeletal, unknown flowers. A dozen couples were dancing on the stage, their movements fluid and unsettlingly synchronized. His body led him to a seat, and he watched, his mind racing. There was something terribly, fundamentally wrong.
Suddenly, a blind girl appeared beside him. She reached out, her fingers brushing his shoulder with a feather-light touch. He turned, and a voice—not his own, but a deep, serene baritone—escaped his lips. "What is it?" he heard himself ask, the words a shock. "How can I help you?"
The girl smiled, her blind eyes fixed on him. "How do you plan to kill us?" she whispered, the sound a razor's edge. "Are you going to rip out our hearts and feed on them?"
Before he could process the question, she plunged her hand into her own chest. There was no struggle, no gasp. She tore out her still-beating heart and began to eat it, a faint, sickening crunching sound echoing in the silent hall.
Then, a sudden, sickening crack echoed through the auditorium, and Kane's mind snapped back into his body. The horrifying realization hit him: he was in control again, at the absolute worst possible moment. He looked at the girl in front of him, her face split by a smile so wide and unnatural it made his skin crawl. She was still eating her heart.
A shiver of primal terror coursed through him as he looked around. The other dancers were no longer dancing. They were all sitting in the chairs, their faces contorted in the same manic grins, their hands pulling their own hearts from their chests. The air grew thick and heavy, and a deep red liquid began to seep from the floor, creeping up the wooden legs of the chairs. It smelled of rust and salt. It was blood.
Panic seizing him, Kane tried to scramble out of the hall, but a cold hand clasped his wrist. The blind girl. Her grip was impossibly strong.
"Remember, Kane," she said, her voice now a chorus of whispering screams. "Nothing and everything are the same. Past is the cause of the future, and future is the effect of the past. Shed with change, and change will shred you."
He could only stare, his mind a whirlwind of terror and confusion. "Who the hell are you?" he choked out.
She threw her head back and laughed, a sound that was a cacophony of agony and glee. The blood in the hall rose, now up to his knees. "Stop laughing!" he screamed. "Just tell me!"
The laughter cut off abruptly. She released his wrist, and a deafening shriek erupted from her mouth, a sound that was not human. He clamped his hands over his ears, but it was useless. As the shriek tore through the air, he felt something on his own hands. Small, fleshy growths began to sprout from his skin, forming into tiny, infant hands. Then came the eyes, heads, legs, and ears—a grotesque, impossible harvest of body parts bursting from his flesh. As the new hands, eyes, and limbs tore through his skin, a hand—his hand—reached out and pulled him down, dragging him under the surface of the blood until the screams were silenced by the crimson depths.
********
Kane immediately woke up, panting. Still reeling from the horrifying dream, he examined his surroundings for any creatures. But Effie, Sunny, Cassie, and Nephis were the only ones present. Kane sighed and relaxed for a moment. He then noticed the others, their expressions a mix of concern and confusion. Sunny was alarmed, his face a mix of caution and care. Effie was deeply confused, about to burst with questions. Cassie was scared and cared to the core; she was trying to come near him. When he saw Nephis, he was shocked and confused for a moment and asked her, "Nephis, why is your face covered with Nightmare creature's shit?"