The atmosphere inside the safehouse was thick with a mixture of humidity and tension, common characteristic of the Dark City. Shadows danced along the rough-hewn stone walls, cast by the flickering light of luminescent moss and a few scavenged oil lamps.
Alista sat around a makeshift table, his gaze fixed on the sprawling map spread out before them. Beside him sat Artemis, her posture rigid and commanding. Across from them were Klaus, Fors, and Gwen. The map was cluttered with markers—miniature pieces carved from bone and stone, resting on a grid of multiple checkboxes that represented territories, resources, and patrol routes.
Klaus, looking unusually serious, clasped his hands together. He held a small, spherical object—a relic from a time long forgotten. With a dramatic flair, he rolled the object across the board. It skittered over the parchment, making a hollow rattling sound before coming to a halt.
The number "1" faced upward.
Klaus's eyes narrowed with intensity. He reached out, picked up one of his bone miniatures, and moved it exactly one square forward. He exhaled slowly, looking at the group with the gravity of a general sending thousands to war.
"Checkmate."
The silence that followed was profound, but not for the reasons Klaus intended.
Artemis stared at him, her brow furrowing in confusion. Gwen tilted her head, her expression blank. Alista, unable to bear the second-hand embarrassment, let out a long sigh and buried his face in his palm.
It was Fors who finally broke the silence. He blinked rapidly, looking from the board to Klaus and back again.
"Dude," Fors said, his voice flat. "This is Ludo. Not Chess."
Klaus froze. The intensity on his face didn't waver, but his eyes darted nervously to the side. "Then... What should I say?"
Fors shrugged, moving his own piece to the home triangle. "I... Won."
Gwen raised her hands, her fingers moving fluidly in sign language.
[Interesting Game, Ludo. Where did you get it?]
Alista rubbed his temples, trying to steer the mood back to something productive. "It... is a Pre-Spell era game."
Klaus cleared his throat loudly, sweeping the pieces off the board with a sudden shift in demeanor. The playful eccentricity vanished, replaced by a cold pragmatism.
"Now that the game is over," Klaus said, his tone dropping an octave, "we should discuss the issues at hand."
Alista nodded, his expression hardening. He leaned over the map, tapping a section marked with their expanding influence.
"First, the recruitment," Alista began. "After the incident with the Spire Messenger—specifically, the kill—we've seen a surge in interest. People were watching. They saw that we aren't just surviving; we are fighting back. They are willing to join us."
He traced a line to a cluster of marked shelters. "We've organized minor teams. Some of them are even willing to join our own hunts, rather than just seeking protection. But enthusiasm isn't enough. We need to accommodate resources for future battles. Food, water, memories, shards. To keep them sharp and coordinated, we need to plan internal tournaments. Simulate combat. We can't have them freezing up when the real horrors come."
Artemis crossed her arms, her armor clinking softly. "That leads to the second, and perhaps more critical, issue."
Her gaze swept over the group. "We have attracted Gunlaug's attention."
The name hung in the air like a curse. The Lord of the Bright Castle. The tyrant who ruled this hellscape with a golden fist.
"He has sent people to make trouble for us," Artemis continued. "Probes, mostly. Testing our defenses, trying to provoke a reaction. But mainly, because of that pressure, Fors and Gwen had to officially leave the Bright Castle."
Gwen signaled again, her movements sharp.
[It was Seishan's suggestion. She spoke of this to us privately.]
Klaus looked at the silent girl and nodded. "Seishan did the right thing. It might seem like a retreat, but killing and discarding bodies in the Castle is much easier than doing it out here in the open. But it's getting messy."
He leaned in closer, lowering his voice. "Worst of all, I found a dead body. One of the Castle's people."
Alista's eyes narrowed. "Who?"
"Harper," Klaus said grimly. "The receptionist. The one who tracks the time people spend in the Bright Castle, managing their tributes. I found his corpse discarded like trash."
A heavy silence descended on the room. Harper wasn't a fighter; he was a functionary. His death implied a breach of the fragile order within the Castle.
"Later, I found out the truth," Klaus continued, his voice barely a whisper. "He was killed by the Changing Star's scout. Sunless and Caster tried to dispose of the body."
Alista felt a jolt of recognition. He knew this plot point, but hearing it confirmed in reality gave it a terrifying weight.
"If Gunlaug tries to shift the blame onto us for Harper's disappearance," Klaus theorized, "it will be an all-out war. We aren't ready for a siege. And apparently, Changing Star—Nephis—is not friendly either. We are caught between a tyrant and a usurper."
Artemis stood up, the finality in her movement signaling the end of the debate. "Fors and Gwen will stay with me for now. My quarters are secure. As for this Harper fellow... let's leave that issue for the moment. If people come asking us, we feign ignorance. We deal with it only when forced."
She looked at Alista and Klaus. "Meeting adjourned."
The group dispersed, moving into the shadows of the settlement. However, Alista and Klaus did not head to their sleeping quarters.
Without exchanging words, they walked toward the outskirts of their territory. The air grew colder here, the gloom more oppressive. They arrived at a secluded location, a dilapidated structure that no one entered—a place rumors said was haunted, which made it perfect for their needs.
They slipped inside, the heavy door groaning against the stone floor. The darkness was absolute until Klaus ignited a small memory crystal.
In the center of the room lay a chest.
Alista approached it, the smell of decay already faintly permeating the wood. He unlatched the lid and threw it open.
Inside lay the corpse of Harper. The young man looked small in death, his face frozen in a mask of final terror.
Klaus stood behind Alista, looking down at the body with a mixture of disgust and practicality. "I was planning to dispose of it afterwards, dissolve it or bury it deep. But you didn't allow me. Why?"
Alista stared at the corpse. He knew the narrative. He knew the threads of fate that were currently being woven by the Weaver. But he also knew that to survive, he had to pull some of those threads himself.
"What I am about to tell you," Alista said, his voice cutting through the gloom, "you must do secretly. No one else can know."
He turned to Klaus and whispered the instructions. He laid out exactly what needed to be done with Harper's body, how it was to be used, and the precise timing required.
Klaus's eyes widened as he listened. He stepped back, looking at Alista as if seeing a stranger. "Oi, oi... This is crazy. This is beyond risky. Why are we doing this?"
Alista closed the chest with a heavy thud. "For the future."
Klaus stared at him for a long moment, assessing him. Then, he shook his head, a wry smile forming on his lips. "Fine. But since we are sharing secrets... there is something I need to show you."
"Show me?"
"Wait for a minute," Klaus said, checking an invisible clock in his head. "It is coming."
Alista frowned. "What is coming?"
Before he could demand an answer, a small, scurrying noise echoed from the corner. A crab-like creature scuttled out of the shadows. As it reached Klaus's feet, its form blurred and shifted, reverting back into an inert, large rock.
Klaus picked up the stone. "This is a Visual Rock. A rare find. It records audio and video and projects it like a hologram,It can be used Multiple Times. I had it planted."
"Planted where?" Alista asked, a pit forming in his stomach.
"I recorded an important conversation," Klaus said, his voice turning icy. "It happened a few hours before our meeting commenced. "
Klaus infused the rock with essence. "Listen to it. Watch closely."
The air above the rock shimmered. Light bent and twisted, coalescing into a high-definition projection. The gloomy room faded away, replaced by the dying light of a sunset in the Dark City.
Two figures appeared in the hologram. Alista knew them instantly.
Changing Star, Nephis.
And the treacherous shadow, Sunny.
The audio crackled to life, crisp and clear.
[Grrrr.....
In the projection, Sunny sighed heavily. He turned his face away from the beautiful, ivory-skinned girl.
"Hey, have I ever told you about my sister?" he asked.
Nephis blinked, her expression unreadable. "No. Why bring this up all of a sudden?"
Sunny smiled, but it was a wistful, painful expression. "I just was reminded of her recently, so I thought I'd share. You see… our parents died when we were little. She got adopted, but I ended up on the streets. Life wasn't really sweet for me. In fact, it was nothing but unsavory and bitter. So, young as I was, I simply imagined that it was the same for her. That's why I got obsessed with the idea of finding her. I had this fantasy in my head, you know, of saving and protecting her. Becoming a family again."
Sunny grimaced, looking down at his hands. "But how could a penniless undesirable like me find anyone? You know how the city databases are. Even if they're functional, unsealing anything requires you to be a citizen, and one of a considerable rank, too. However, I was ready to do anything to accomplish my goal. So, I saved up money. A street kid can't earn much, but even then, I saved up as much as I could."
A dark shadow passed over his face in the recording. "Even if I had almost nothing to eat, I would keep putting away the pathetic amount of credits I had earned through doing all kinds of horrid crap. And after four or five years of this, by the time I was nearly seventeen, I finally had enough to hire a private investigator."
He smiled again, but it didn't reach his eyes. "You see, there was this detective who sometimes hired us nobodies to gather information for him. His services weren't cheap, but I trusted him. Or in him, at least. So I gave all my money to that guy and told him to find my sister. And you know what? He did. One day, about a month after we made the deal, he gave me a piece of paper with an address written on it. So I went there."
Nephis hesitated for a few moments, then asked in a quiet voice, "So what happened? Did you meet your sister?"
Sunny rubbed his face, glanced at the holographic sky, and said, "Sort of. I actually met her near the tram terminal. Only at that time, I didn't recognize her. You see, despite my lofty ideas of being her savior, I couldn't even really remember what she looked like. There was this girl, around twelve years old, wearing a tidy school uniform. She was walking in the same direction as me. I only realized that it was her after she entered the house from the address."
He fell silent for a while. When he spoke again, his voice was strangely emotionless. "It was already dark. I think it was raining. The house was situated in a really nice district. They actually had the whole house to themselves. Just one family living in it, can you imagine? Well, I guess you can. Anyway… there was even a lawn. And a window… a big window that shined light outside. Watching them through that window was almost like watching a television show."
He continued, the memory clearly vivid in his mind. "Standing in the shadows just outside the edge of that light, I observed her family for a while. She had parents who loved her and treated her well. She had real food, and enough of it to never go hungry. She had pretty clothes and expensive textbooks. She even had cute younger siblings. They were all smiling, laughing, and having a great time together."
Neph looked at him, her grey eyes piercing. "So what did you do?"
Sunny didn't answer immediately. After taking some time, he spoke softly. "I did the only selfless thing that I have ever done. I turned around and went away. Do you know why?"
Nephis slowly shook her head.
Sunny grinned, the anger finally finding its way into his eyes. "Because even a cretin like me was able to realize that the person he wanted to save didn't need his saving. So please tell me, Neph, why is it that you, with all your intelligence and clarity, can't seem to do the same?"
She stared at him, a deep frown appearing on her face. "Are you implying that I lied about my intention to help these people? If so, you are wrong."
Sunny clenched his fists. The hologram flickered slightly with the intensity of his emotion. Before he could stop himself, words flew out of his mouth. Glaring at Changing Star, Sunny spat:
"...Fuck you, Neph."
She blinked. "What?"
He smiled crookedly. "I said go fuck yourself with that bullshit… Saint Nephis. You might have fooled everyone else, but I know you. I know you better than anyone else. So I don't buy your whole savior act even for a second."
Sunny repeated her gesture, pointing at the surrounding hovels of the outer settlement. "Help these people? Please! What are you going to help them with? Help them turn into corpses? You and I both know how this ends. Cassie already told us. Fire and rivers of blood, right? Is this what you're planning?"
Nephis stared at him, a dark expression written on her ivory face. Her cold grey eyes weren't calm anymore. Finally, there was a burning emotion in them. Was it… confusion? Pain? Disappointment?
She opened her mouth, then closed it again. Then, Changing Star slowly shook her head. Finally, she seemed to find the right words. Looking Sunny right in the eyes, she slightly raised her chin and said:
"...Fine. You got me."
Sunny stared at Nephis, stunned by her answer. He didn't expect her to admit it so easily.
Meanwhile, she just shrugged. "What? Was I supposed to deny it? Why should I? You are the one who is obsessed with lies, Sunny, not me."
The corner of Changing Star's mouth twitched. "Actually, I have to thank you. If it wasn't for you, I would have never learned how to deceive people so easily. I had a very sheltered upbringing, for obvious reasons. Communicating with others had always been something I knew very little about."
She smiled darkly. "How fortunate it was to meet you, of all people, on this forsaken shore. Lucky me. Right?"
Sunny blinked. The confusion was evident on his face.
Neph took a step forward and pierced him with an intense, burning gaze. "No one survives in the Dream Realm alone. I knew that I won't be an exception to this rule, so I watched Cassie and you and tried my hardest to learn from you both. That's when I noticed that nothing you ever said—or did—was true. Wasn't it?"
Sunny felt a cold shiver running down his spine. The viewers, Alista and Klaus, felt it too.
She scoffed. "No matter what happened, you somehow always managed to keep your real thoughts, desires, and reasons hidden. I've never seen anyone so adept at deception. Congratulations, Sunny! The mind games you played with us were almost as devious as the mental hex of the Soul Devourer. It was nothing short of inspiring."
Changing Star paused and shook her head. "You can even easily turn truths into lies. How… brilliant. I never even knew that such a thing was possible. Silly me. I didn't know a lot of things before I met you."
She smiled. "So, you see… while you were learning how to use a sword from me, I was learning how to use people from you. So please, Sunny, accept my sincere gratitude. I could not have wished for a better teacher. Without you, none of this would have been possible!"
Nephis raised her hand and stabbed a finger at him. Then, with anger in her voice, she spat: "So where do you get the audacity to blame me for doing the same thing you do to everyone you ever meet?"
Sunny trembled and spoke. "That's not the same…"
Changing Star scowled. "How is what I am doing different? I haven't told a single lie to these people. I gave them just enough truth to make them deceive themselves, just like you taught me. But what, now that it was turned around on you, it is suddenly not fair? Now you won't settle for anything less than the whole truth?"
She smirked. "Fine. I'll tell you. Yes, you are right. There's going to be fire and rivers of blood. That is my plan. So what? How is it worse than this pathetic, hopeless existence? It isn't. I am going to kill Gunlaug. After he is dead, the Bright Castle will become engulfed in a civil war, with each of the five lieutenants vying for the throne. I am going to kill them, too. And when I am the last one standing…"
Her eyes glistened with fanatical light. "...I will gather those of us who remain alive and make a road of bones for the lucky few to reach the Gateway. That is my promise. That is the salvation I offer to the people of Dark City—a chance to return to the real world or die like a human should, standing tall and with a sword in their hand, instead of living in fear like a rat! I thought that you, of all people, would understand."
Sunny stared at her in disbelief. Shaking his head, he whispered: "Is it really so terrible to live here? Is Gunlaug really so bad that you would rather see all of us die than let us remain under his rule?"
A dark expression appeared on Changing Star's face. With cold contempt ringing in her voice, she said: "Gunlaug has done many despicable things. But I won't judge him for those. Who knows if any of us would have done any better? Keeping a thousand hopeless people alive in this hell is the kind of task that can turn a saint into a demon. No… there is only one crime he committed that I can never forgive."
Sunny raised an eyebrow. "Which one?"
She lowered her chin and gritted her teeth. "It's that he gave up."
She looked at Sunny and said, her voice full of intensity: "It's that he never even tried to reach the Gateway. With so many years to prepare and hundreds of powerful fighters under his command… do you really think that there was nothing he could do to enter the Crimson Spire? No… no, he simply changed his mind. Why return if he can live like a king here, in the Dark City? He abandoned his duty as an Awakened and submitted to the Spell."
Frowning, Sunny asked: "Don't you think that, maybe, he just wasn't willing to see hundreds of people die? All these young men and women living in the outer settlement and the Bright Castle… how many of them are you ready to sacrifice to achieve your goal?"
He grew silent, afraid that her answer would confirm his suspicion.
Neph straightened her back and glanced at him. Once again, her eyes were firm and calm. Without pausing to think, she said, not a shadow of a doubt in her voice:
"All of them. Of course."
In the dark room, Klaus's fist clenched so hard his knuckles turned white.
In the recording, Sunny grimaced and turned away, feeling a terrible headache. The sun was almost gone, and the night was following in its footsteps. He didn't have much time left.
With a desperate smile, Sunny looked at Changing Star and asked: "What can be so damn important? What can be so valuable that you are ready to condemn everyone here to death?!"
He shook his head, guessing that he already knew. "Don't tell me that it's some stupid crap like bringing the glory of the Immortal Flame clan back. Duty of the Awakened? What, you gave a terrible oath to become the first human to conquer the Fourth Nightmare, like your father conquered the Third, and your grandfather the Second? Or even worse, is it something even more foolish? Are you planning to save the damn world?!"
"Save the world? No, I'm not going to save the world, Sunny."
Then, the smile disappeared from her face, and white flames suddenly ignited in the depths of her cold, grey eyes. With dark and frightening conviction, she said:
"I'm going to destroy it."
Her words echoed in the darkness, making Sunny feel an irrational sense of dread. He stared at her, both failing to comprehend and afraid to believe in what he had just heard.
Deeply inhaling the cool air, Changing Star looked up at the sky. "This world, Sunny. This cursed place. The Dream Realm. No, I won't be the first one to conquer the Fourth Nightmare. I will be the first one to conquer every Nightmare. I'll go through them one after another, destroying anything and anyone who stands in my way. And when I get to the heart of the Nightmare Spell, I'm going to obliterate every part of it, I'm going to rip it to shreds, I'm going to decimate and bring it to ruin."
She looked him in the eyes and said: "You think Gunlaug can stop me? You think a Fallen Terror can stop me? Those three ghouls can stop me? No, Sunny. Nothing will stop me. Anyone who dares will die. I'll kill them all."
Taking a step back, Sunny stared at her with wide eyes. He shivered, feeling something cold touch the back of his neck. Then, he grimaced and asked, a hint of anguish in his voice: "Why? Why do you want to destroy the Spell so much?"
A corner of Changing Star's mouth curled up slightly. After a few moments, she simply said: "Because I hate it."
He closed his eyes and whispered. "You are actually insane."
Neph smiled. "What does it mean to be insane in a world that has gone mad? I would be wary of anyone who remained perfectly sane in this hell."
Then, she sighed. "So, are we done here? Or do you have more questions? The sun is almost gone, so you'd better hurry up and ask them."
Sunny shook his head and said, his voice hoarse: "...Yeah. Yeah, Neph. I'm done."
With that, he slowly turned around and took a step forward.
Left behind, Nephis frowned. "Where are you going? Come back here."
He waved a hand and said in a suppressed tone, refusing to turn his head: "Sorry. I have an errand to run. We'll... talk some other time."
Her frown deepened. Looking at his back, Changing Star gritted her teeth and called: "I said come back, Sunny! This conversation isn't over! Come back here right now!"
But there was no answer. Sunny had already disappeared into the shadows, leaving her standing alone in the alley that was brightly lit by the last light of the dying sunset.
Grrr....]
The hologram flickered and died, plunging Alista and Klaus back into the gloomy darkness of the safehouse.
Alista stood frozen. He was shocked—not by the content, for he had read the novel in his previous life and knew exactly what Nephis believed—but by the logistics. How the hell did Klaus find out about this? How did he record it?
'How did he know beforehand to plant a Video Recording there?' Alista thought, his mind racing. 'It seems... Prepared. Almost premeditated.'
Klaus slammed his fist against the wall, shaking dust from the ceiling. His face was twisted in pure, unadulterated rage.
"Their Oracle seemed to have some vision about blood and rivers," Klaus snarled, his voice dripping with venom. "A massacre is coming, and this Bitch is the main cause of it. Who could have thought that the Saintly Star, the supposedly hope of the people, would be a psychopath who simply gaslights herself to justify murder?"
Alista looked at him. The usual playful Klaus was gone. In his place was a man looking at an existential threat.
"She's autistic in her conviction," Klaus spat. "Who the hell gives her the right to dictate everyone's life choices based on her own personal vendetta? 'A road of bones'? She talks about sacrificing us like we are kindling for her fire. I would like to rip Nephis's head off and take a bath in her blood."
"Cool down a bit, Klaus," Alista said, though his own heart was pounding. "What are you intending to do with this recording?"
Klaus paced the small room. "Initially, I wanted to release it to the public immediately. Broadcast it . But if I did that, people would lose all hope. They wouldn't even try to escape this hellhole if they knew their 'savior' plans to march them to their deaths. I don't want to break them... I just want to stop her. I want your opinion."
Alista closed his eyes, weighing the options. The plot was fragile. If he disrupted it too much, the Butterfly Effect could kill them all. But this information... this was power.
"People will see this Recording," Alista spoke in a firm tone, opening his eyes. "I will make sure of it . But the timing must be appropriate. We cannot just dump it on them. It has to be precise."
He paused, a dark smile touching his lips. "Trust me. When I release it, it won't just be a revelation. It will be..."
He looked at the empty space where the hologram had been.
"Absolute Cinema."
Klaus looked at him, his rage momentarily paused by Alista's strange confidence. Then, a thought seemed to occur to him. He squinted at Alista.
"By the way," Klaus asked abruptly, "do you have any brothers?"
Alista blinked, confused by the non-sequitur. "Nope. Why?"
Klaus frowned deeply, muttering to himself. 'Why would Alista Tudor have red hair in my vision? I showed this recording to test his reaction... to see if he aligned with the destruction I saw. He is considering the people's safety. He wants them to know. Just what happened in the future I saw?'
"Never mind," Klaus said aloud. "Just a stray thought."
Meanwhile, in the deeper rings of the settlement.
Nephis walked back to the lodge she shared with Cassie. Her face remained a mask of stoic calm, betraying nothing of the turmoil inside. She was pissed. She was angry at Sunny for leaving, angry at his inability to consider her point of view, and angry at the world for forcing these choices upon her.
She pushed open the door to their room. It was quiet.
Cassie was sitting in a wooden chair, asleep. Her blind eyes were closed, her chest rising and falling in a gentle rhythm. Nephis moved silently, not wanting to disturb the blind girl who carried the weight of prophecy on her frail shoulders.
All of a sudden, Cassie gasped.
It wasn't a waking breath. It was a scream of pure terror.
Cassie convulsed in the chair, her eyes flying open, staring sightlessly into a horror only she could see. She screamed again, a high-pitched sound that curdled the blood.
"Cassie!" Nephis was there in an instant, gripping the girl's shoulders, shaking her gently.
It took several long minutes for the girl to calm down. Her breathing was ragged, her skin clammy and pale. She clutched Nephis's arm with a grip that threatened to draw blood.
"What is it?" Nephis asked softly, brushing hair from Cassie's sweating forehead. "What did you see?"
Cassie's hands trembled violently. Her voice was a broken whisper, forced out through chattering teeth.
"We... need... to.... kill.... them..."
"Who?" Nephis asked.
Cassie swallowed hard, the names tasting like ash in her mouth.
"Fors... Wall... and... Alista... Tudor...."
She looked up, her blind eyes wide with fear.
"Especially... Fors."
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Hey Guys,It is a long Chapter.Kindly read it