Samael forced himself to look away.
The instant he stopped staring at that existence...
The pain came.
His eyes began to burn violently.
Hot.
As if needles were slowly piercing through his pupils.
Until then, he hadn't even realized he was in pain.
It was as if his mind had been incapable of processing it while gazing upon that creature.
— Ah... my eyes... — he muttered quietly, trying to act normal.
But there was no such thing as normal after looking upon a deity.
That experience would mark him forever.
Samael took a deep breath before beginning to walk back toward the room where Bel and Liu were.
This time, he didn't even bother lying to himself.
He was afraid.
And he wanted company.
The corridor remained silent.
Dark.
Illuminated only by the faint moonlight filtering through cracks in the walls.
Samael kept walking.
One minute.
Two.
Five.
Ten.
Slowly, he frowned.
The room still seemed distant.
Far too distant.
— How...? — he murmured in shock.
He had crossed that same hallway in less than a minute before.
Now...
Even after ten minutes of walking, it felt as though he had only covered half the distance.
And worse.
He should have noticed much earlier.
His steps weren't taking him anywhere.
That was when Samael finally understood.
His perception had been injured by looking at that creature.
"Could it be..."
A paranoid thought slowly emerged in his mind as he continued walking.
"Could it be because of that thing...?"
His heart tightened.
"Is the mere existence of that creature affecting the space around it?"
The more he thought about it...
The more sense it made.
That existence influenced the world simply by existing.
Samael hadn't even noticed the worms before.
Yet they lived under the influence of that monstrous being.
Like insects orbiting something infinitely superior.
A crushing sense of helplessness washed over him.
A feeling he had never experienced before.
Reading about Cursed Creatures could never convey even one percent of the pressure that existence carried.
In books...
Such creatures seemed grand.
Terrifying.
Yet still distant.
Almost unreal.
Because readers observed everything through the perspective of people who somehow managed to exist near those entities.
But Samael...
At that moment, Samael felt an absolute abyss separating his existence from that thing.
It wasn't merely powerful.
It was something completely beyond comprehension.
Something that crushed logic.
Space.
Perception.
The very concept of reality.
After several more minutes of walking, Samael finally reached the room.
And in that instant...
An overwhelming sense of relief swept through him when he saw Bel and Liu sleeping there.
Alive.
Normal.
Human.
Samael slowly walked back to the corner where he had been lying before.
Then sat down.
Wrapping his arms around his knees.
And remained like that in silence.
For the entire night.
Although it didn't show externally...
That encounter had taken far more from him than it appeared.
It wasn't just his eyes that had been wounded.
His perception had been damaged.
His understanding as well.
And beyond that, there was still the lingering influence of that creature.
The distorted sensation of walking for minutes only to advance a few inches.
As though the world itself had lost all meaning.
And so...
Samael spent the rest of the night curled up in silence.
Trying to recover after witnessing something he should never have seen.
When dawn finally arrived, Bel and Liu found Samael in the exact same position.
Sitting.
Motionless.
Staring into nothingness.
It was disturbing.
Especially coming from someone normally incapable of staying still.
Dried blood stained parts of his armor.
And over his golden eyes rested a faint reddish layer.
It was impossible to tell whether it was blood...
Or simply the result of spending the entire night awake.
Liu frowned slightly.
— What happened, Sam?
— Nothing. — Samael replied immediately.
But his voice sounded distant.
As though part of his mind remained trapped in the vision from the previous night.
Liu clearly didn't believe him.
Even so, she didn't press further.
Bel noticed the strangeness as well.
But merely looked away.
He didn't seem particularly concerned.
The three resumed walking through the ruined city.
With Bel naturally taking the role of primary attacker.
While Liu and Samael provided support.
Samael's Adaptation attribute had already begun reacting to the illness.
Ever since awakening, his adaptation seemed to accelerate more and more.
But something else became obvious as well.
Now that there were three of them...
More Nightmare Creatures began appearing.
Far more.
Throughout the journey, they encountered five different creatures.
The battle erupted violently.
Bel moved first.
The black vibrations surrounding his staff exploded the instant one of the creatures attacked.
BOOOOM!
The vibrating barrier destroyed the first impact.
But there were too many enemies.
One of the creatures managed to partially breach the defense.
GRAAAR!
Claws tore into Bel's shoulder.
At the same time, Liu vanished along the flank like a shadow.
SHHHK!
A brutal series of cuts tore through one of the creatures.
Meanwhile, Samael remained farther back, using the Bow of Despair to hinder the monsters' movements.
But something was wrong.
His arrows missed.
One.
Two.
Three.
His distorted perception completely ruined his aim.
One arrow passed dangerously close to Liu's head.
She barely dodged it.
After a long and chaotic battle, they finally eliminated the creatures.
Silence.
Heavy breathing.
Then Liu immediately turned toward Samael.
— What's going on with you?
Her voice was harsher this time.
— Now I'm serious. You almost hit us.
Samael remained quiet for a few seconds before answering.
— I got injured last night... but I'll recover soon.
His voice still sounded distant.
Disconnected.
Liu narrowed her eyes slightly.
— What happened last night?
— Nothing.
Samael looked away.
— I just fell down the stairs.
The excuse was absurd.
A blatant lie no one would believe.
There were no signs of combat anywhere in the building.
Even so...
For some reason, hiding the truth felt completely logical to him at that moment.
As if his damaged understanding itself prevented him from speaking about it.
Liu remained silent for a few seconds.
Then looked toward Bel.
— Did you notice anything last night?
— No. — he answered calmly.
Then simply added:
— Just leave him alone.
Liu didn't seem satisfied.
But decided to drop the subject.
After walking for some more time, they finally reached the center of the city.
And immediately realized that something had happened there.
Human skeletons covered the streets.
Mixed among the remains of countless Nightmare Creatures.
Deep scars marred the surrounding buildings.
As if a massive battle had taken place there.
Then Samael froze.
Because someone was there.
A girl.
Beautiful.
Pink hair swayed gently in the wind as she sat among the skeletons scattered across the ruined plaza.
She looked slightly older than them.
Her face was perfectly symmetrical.
Too beautiful.
Artificially perfect.
And her violet eyes observed the three of them with absolute calm.
Samael's instincts immediately reacted.
Awakened.
Liu and Bel raised their guards at the exact same moment before the stranger.