A profound darkness surrounded Rosacer's vision. From within it, a voice called to him, addressing him by name. He had heard it before.
'Michael Maysee!'
The voice reverberated endlessly, its presence pressing in from all sides, engulfing him.
"What is death, I ask you?"
"Is it a suspension of form, or a famine of movement?"
"A drought of thought?"
"A parched throat of darkness?"
"Rise, men of death, for there is no death for you."
The voice echoed within the darkness. There was nothing else he could see.
Suddenly, a light tore through the void, pulverizing the darkness itself. From the horizon, a new dawn rose, restoring vision to what had been blind.
Back in the hallway, the budding flowers began to dry. Their stalks and petals blackened with necrosis, and as they withered, they fell away. One by one, all the flowers followed, until the body beneath was buried under a fine black powder formed from their decay.
Then, without warning, the black powder surged upward, flooding the hallway and plunging it back into darkness. Behind the door, the sun attempted to burn through it, but something entirely different occurred.
The black powder engulfed the sun itself, smothering its light and turning it into an eclipse.
A shimmering window blurted out of the non-existence, bold text written on it:
[Mercy of the Death God: Grants immortality to whoever receives it]
Just as the sun was being swallowed whole, far away at the Mist Lake, a knight slowly turned his head toward the sky. He felt the air shift around him. Upon his chestplate was emblazoned a black sun.
He let out a low grunt and brought his greatsword crashing against his shield.
Back in the hallway, the corpse began to move once more, its flesh binding itself together again. Slowly, it returned to the condition it had been in before.
Its eyes opened, glowing with the same vibrancy they once possessed.
"Back again, it seems," Rosacer said, twisting his wrist.
'Seriously. I need to hold myself back. If not for the immortality granted by the mercy of the Death God, I would be forever dead,' he thought about his act of burning the curtain without a second thought.
With the hallway dark once more, he could barely see ahead. Still, it was better than being burned by the sun. He did not know how long the eclipse formed by the black powder would last, but he had to move quickly.
He ran toward the end of the hallway again, searching for an exit from this supposed loop.
He had already attempted to use Ananta after his revival, but it seemed his connection to that realm had been severed by the mysterious place he now occupied.
He turned to the System as he ran.
"Where am I trapped?!"
The System responded at once.
[Prison of the First Sun, Location: Eastern Sector of the City of Brewing]
[Only descendants of the Sun are not punished within this prison.]
Rosacer asked again, this time about escape.
The System window shimmered once more.
[Condition to Exit: Obtain the Mercy of the Sun God.]
[The user currently possesses: Mask of the Pharaoh. This item may be used as a substitute for the Grace of the Sun God.]
He had always been curious about what the Mercy of a god truly meant. At times, there were also mentions of Grace. Now, he finally asked.
"What is the difference between the Grace and the Mercy of a god?"
The System answered, even though Rosacer was already prepared for rejection.
[God's Mercy allows the blessed to resist or negate the effects of the god's domain.]
[God's Grace allows the blessed to wield and manifest the authority of the god's domain.]
So that is what it meant.
Rosacer contemplated the System's explanation and felt a faint sense of gratitude toward the Nightmare God, who had granted him mercy without demanding anything in return. Yet his thoughts soon turned heavier. Why had the Death God bestowed mercy upon him as well? And why had the Dark Messiah chosen to plant His seed within him?
From the moment he awoke, Rosacer had felt as though he were part of something far greater than himself. The power bestowed by the Dark Messiah reverberated through his veins, undeniable and alien. The instant he returned to life, he knew he had changed, though he could not yet understand why he had been chosen by both.
He tried to guess their intentions.
'Perhaps I cheated death through that macabre doll, and so the Death God granted me His mercy. As for the Dark Messiah, I may have been selected as a pawn, against my will.'
The true reason behind the planting of the seed would be far darker than he could imagine. For now, he chose to wait, to observe, and to learn more about the Men in Black and their motives regarding the Dark Messiah.
Another question lingered in his mind. He turned to the System, asking about the voice he had heard during his revival, and to whom it belonged.
The System answered this time.
[Michael Maysee. Descendant of the people of Mount Har'Our, worshippers of the Sun God.]
Confusion took hold of Rosacer. Why would he hear Michael's voice? He was nothing more than an ordinary servant of the Dream God, perhaps also to the Dark Messiah.
He remembers the description of the item, the Mask of Pharaoh, which he has adorned by combining it with the Dark Messiah's Statue.
'The Mask of the Pharaoh requires the Mercy of the Death God, even though it originates from the people of Mount Har'Our, who worship the Sun God. Why?'
He could only think of one reason.
'Both the gods are the same one or they are bound by alliance.'
The information left Rosacer unsettled. The truths unfolding around him were far beyond his understanding, and for the first time since his revival, he felt profoundly out of place.
For a moment, he wondered if the sun god, the death god, and the dark messiah were all the same deity.
But he quickly put that wild thought aside, as there was no solid proof or connection.
He was still in the hallway, and it still stretched farther ahead.