Chapter 232: The Prison of Eternity

  Zach wiped a trickle of sweat from his forehead. Then he took a few steps back so that he could really take in the view and appreciate his and Landy's efforts. “Wow,” he said. “I just can’t believe it.”

  He was standing outside the tower dungeon, not far from where he’d set up camp. And though it was only around four in the afternoon, the sky was already beginning to turn orange as the sun set incredibly early at this time of year. Luckily, however, it was still light enough out to easily see.

  A moment ago, he had summoned all the cards the two of them had collected today: eighty-two in total. And now, with them all out in front of him, the sight of it was just mesmerizing. He simply couldn’t believe that all of this was directly under his control. The sheer level of power…it was astounding.

  Spread out more or less at random, the gathering of mobs could almost be mistaken at a distance for some kind of party or celebration as 38 Legion Portal Guardians, 24 Vixen Portal Commanders, and 20 Acolytes of the Portal stood around and waited in the waning, golden light. The uneven distribution and randomly faced directions often made it look like there were numerous small groups mingling together and talking.

  Their presence highlighted how serious Zach was about brute-forcing his way through this Gods-be-damned spider boss tomorrow. And assuming he succeeded in killing it, it would probably then be a good idea to hop back down to the first floor and grab his two bags and other stuff lying around, as from that point onwards, it would be stupid to keep starting over from the first floor each day.

  “Zach…do we still need more cards?” Landy asked, standing beside him. He had once again chosen to possess a Vixen Portal Commander, though he tended to jump around a bit depending on whatever seemed to amuse him. Earlier, he’d spent an hour or two as a Legion Portal Guardian.

  Smiling, Zach turned his head towards the card and nodded. “Yep. I mean, even with all of these cards, it still probably won’t be enough. You saw how many adds the boss spawns, right?”

  “Lots of them,” Landy said, speaking through the card. “Spiders. Many spiders!”

  “Yeah, exactly. So basically, I figure tomorrow morning we should get another fifty cards, give or take a few, and then we’ll try going after the boss again.”

  Controlled by Landy, the Vixen Portal Commander turned its head upwards as if to look at the sky. “It’s getting dark,” said its feminine voice. “I’m going soon. Yes, yes. Have to go, have to. I have to go!”

  The frown Zach felt popping onto his face actually surprised him. “You do?”

  “Yes!”

  Even though Landy was crazy and highly temperamental, the loneliness of being up here on the island all by himself had actually led to Zach appreciating Landy’s company, especially now that he knew that Landy was actually real and not just some hallucination caused by a sick, ailing mind.

  He’s really not that bad to be around once you get used to him, Zach thought.

  Actually, Landy had grown on him since their defeat to the “Arachnid Queen Axanamat” early this morning. Even with the lack of meaningful conversation, Zach still found some amusement in Landy’s joyful, enthusiastic whoops and cheers each time they caught another batch of cards, something that he and Landy had spent the entire day doing.

  All day long, Zach—and whatever card Landy happened to possess at the time—had run up and down the first four floors of this tower-dungeon, turning every mob that they encountered into a card almost as soon as they respawned. And though it had been repetitive and simple, Zach had still liked the excitement and satisfaction that came with seeing this elite army of his build up and grow larger.

  “Landy, what are you even doing, anyway?” Zach asked him. “You said something earlier about going to ‘torture the Gods’ or whatever, but I still don’t understand what you meant by that.”

  The card Landy was controlling, the Vixen Portal Commander, drew her icy, crystal-like rapier and screamed out maniacally while swinging it at the air. “I hate the Gods!” it screamed. “Have to punish them. Have to let them know. Have to let them feel!”

  Zach badly wanted to inquire what, exactly, he meant by that, but the question had already worked him up into a frenzy, and Zach feared that any further prodding might cause him to go into overload and become dangerous and violent. Thankfully, Landy actually decided to elaborate for once without being pressed to do so. The card’s head turned again towards Zach, its expression locked in a grimace.

  “I will hurt the Gods. Hurt, hurt, hurt! However they are hurt. However.”

  Zach, speaking softly, asked, “How, exactly, can you even hurt them?”

  The card answered immediately. “I will take from them. Attack what they love, what they like, yes, yes I have to, I have to. There are seventeen of them. I always knew that. Never met them, but always knew there are seventeen. I can only find three, only three, just three, I’ll find more.”

  Before uttering so much as a single word in reply, Zach took a few moments to really digest what Landy was saying, as Landy spoke in a way that was unintentionally cryptic and occasionally frustrating. And what made it frustrating was that Landy's volatile nature meant that every question asked of him could result in a meltdown, which meant that trying to extrapolate on what he was saying was often better than asking for clarification, because it was impossible to predict which questions would set him off. Further complicating things was that Landy tended to be light on details even when he was speaking plainly enough.

  But I think I understand what he’s telling me.

  The second part of what he said had confused Zach more than the first. For the first, Zach assumed Landy was simply stating that he would do anything and everything he could to attack the Gods, whatever it was that may be. Although specifics would have been helpful, Zach doubted he would get more out of Landy than that.

  But the second part of it was a bit more puzzling.

  Zach knew from Angelica that seventeen Great Ones had created Galterra and the system. He also knew that, of these seventeen, only three still lived. Originally, he’d thought that it was just two—and that the rest had traveled to a different galaxy—but he’d later learned that Adamus had actually orchestrated their deaths, with just one, Olandrin, somehow managing to survive.

  Clearly, Landy did not know this—which raised another question.

  How did he know there were once seventeen?

  It was here that Zach focused on a specific part of his reply: that part where Landy said he “always knew there were seventeen.” Taking this at face value, Zach's best guess was that sentient NPCs like Angelica, Mushie, Landy, and even ones like Ruby and Grundor came into existence already knowing certain things. It was probably why Landy could speak Human without ever having someone teach him the language.

  “What happened?” Landy asked him, his tone becoming wary and accusatory. “Why aren’t you saying anything?”

  Zach looked at his red-haired card. “Ah, sorry. I was just thinking about what you said.” He hesitated a moment, then added, “The reason you can only find three Gods is because that’s all that’s left.”

  “What does that mean?” Landy demanded, speaking through the card. “Why only three? Why? Why do you say only three?”

  “Well, because Adamus killed the other fourteen.”

  The eyes staring back at him widened, lashes raising to the top of the card’s face. “Fourteen Gods are dead?”

  “Yeah, I’m pretty sure.”

  “How sure?” Landy snapped, his words now angry and fierce.

  Nervously, Zach replied, “Like, really sure.”

  Another bout of silence transpired between them. And Landy, still in control of the card, caused it to shake and tremble as though it were about to explode into a rage.

  It didn’t.

  Its mouth opening wide, the Vixen Portal Commander released a bellow of loud, victorious laughter. “Yes!” it cried. “14 Gods dead! Only 3 left! I will hurt them. Yes, yes, I have to. Make them suffer. All three suffer!”

  Risking a question, Zach asked, “But how, specifically, do you plan to do that? You’ve basically said you’ll do it any way that you can, but can you give me an example? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I understand that it’s probably none of my business, but in my opinion, you probably shouldn’t fuck with the Gods.”

  “No!” the card roared, its joy turning instantly to rage. “No, no. I will fuck!”

  Zach had to look away to avoid laughing at Landy's reply and setting off an even worse rage. But even then, he also needed to raise his fist to his mouth and pretend to cough as he chuckled. Landy clearly had no concept or understanding of what he’d just implied, as he was likely just trying to respond in kind to what Zach had said. That only made it harder for Zach to avoid laughing, and what he said next made it even worse.

  “I will,” he insisted. “I will fuck all three Gods at once! All three, all three, yes! I will.”

  Zach fully turned around, his head lowered. He tried to speak but couldn’t keep his voice straight, so he said nothing and instead attempted to play off more laughter as coughing—especially since Landy had absolutely no sense of humor whatsoever. He reminded Zach of Trelvor in that regard, though to a much higher and much more frightening degree.

  “What happened? Why do you make that noise?” the red-haired Vixen Portal Commander asked, now staring directly at Zach, who lifted his head, having gotten control of himself.

  “I had to cough, sorry.”

  “Sick?”

  “No, no, it uh…I just swallowed some dust.”

  The card continued to stare at him. Zach remained quiet. Yet even aside from the heat in Landy’s gaze, his amusement quickly dwindled to nothing as it really began to dawn on him what Landy was attempting to do. In a matter of moments, unease replaced every last trace of humor, and a growing, nagging sense of worry accompanied it.

  Eilea. Olandrin. He’s going to go after them.

  The idea of Landy attacking them troubled Zach. Adamus, not so much. He didn’t care about Adamus. Fuck Adamus. But those two…could Landy actually hurt them? Surely that had to be impossible. They were Great Ones! They were supposed to have the power of Gods, so what could an NPC possibly do to them? The truth was that Zach just plain didn’t know. What if Landy’s own power was actually enough to rival or at least seriously threaten them? It wasn’t a pleasant thought. Zach didn’t want either of them to be hurt—which certainly wasn’t something he could say out loud.

  Oh, definitely not.

  The Gods only knew how furious or even violent Landy would become if Zach actually suggested to him that he leave those two Great Ones alone. Or even worse! What if Landy found out that Zach not only knew those two, but had extensively collaborated with one of them as well? For sure, it wouldn’t be pretty. Somehow, Zach didn’t think Landy would be able to simply nod and say something, like, “Hmm, that’s an interesting perspective you have there, Zach. Thank you for sharing your opinion.”

  No, he’d fucking lose it.

  There was no way Zach could try to appeal on behalf of the people Landy hated with such a burning intensity. Even still, Zach wished there was some way he could dissuade Landy from going after the Great Ones, because in addition to not wanting Eilea or Olandrin to be hurt, he also didn’t want Landy to get hurt, either. He felt kind of bad for the guy, too.

  “Landy,” he began. “Here’s the thing, I don’t know if—”

  “I already know, stupid Zach!” Landy shouted out furiously, interrupting him. “I know what you think. You think I don’t know, but I know! You and Eilea. You and Olandrin!”

  A hint of sadness, though buried, was distinctly present amid the anger behind his words, and it caught Zach off guard. Acting off pure reflex, he took a step back, and then a second one after that, this time out of a sense of caution. But then he stopped himself before taking a third, as he recalled something important about Landy: something that put everything into perspective.

  “Of course,” Zach said, tapping on the side of his own head with his pointer finger. “I forgot that you can see into my mind just like they can. And I bet you can see into theirs, too. That’s why you’re even here, right? That’s why you haunted me in the first place.”

  Landy didn’t reply—but he didn’t have to, either. Zach was sure he’d figured it out: the entire reason why Landy had come to this sky island.

  When Zach had first discovered Landy’s existence, he had been so relieved he wasn’t crazy and so focused on pushing forward that he hadn’t actually spent a whole lot of time contemplating Landy’s motive: the reason why Landy had ever threatened and mentally tortured him in the first place.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  Initially, Zach had thought it was something related to this tower or to Albion-4. But he soon realized the impossibility of that when Landy convincingly claimed to have never encountered or met his friends. Thus, his running theory had become that Landy was simply a trapped soul that had mentally escaped from some terrible place, and that Zach had coincidentally been the first “victim” to cross his path.

  But that wasn’t it. Of course not. No, Zach could see now that Landy had only ever come here because of him. Because Landy somehow knew that he was a friend to Eilea, and that Eilea cared about him.

  And he said he wants to hurt anyone or anything they care about. So that’s why…

  Zach was grateful that, at least in his case, Landy had reconsidered. It was also probably why he came across as so conflicted when speaking to Zach. Landy probably wasn’t sure how he should be feeling, and who could blame him for that?

  “When you first found me, the reason you wanted to kill me was because you know how much it would make Eilea suffer, right? That’s why you made me see all those horrible things. You were toying with me because you knew she’d be watching, and you knew she’d be hurting.”

  He looked to Landy for confirmation, but Landy still did not reply. Not that Zach needed any confirmation. He was sure he was right, and so he continued speaking. “But here’s the thing,” he said. “There’s a lot of stuff you might not know, like that the only person who’s actually responsible for all your pain is Adamus himself. If you really wanted to get revenge on someone, you should go after that guy. He’s the one responsible for everything.”

  Zach was tempted to look away from the hazel-colored eyes of the Vixen Portal Commander, which continued to study him without a sound. But finally, after almost twenty seconds of silence, Landy spoke.

  With the card as his vessel, he said, “No, I must kill all the Gods. Every God.” His voice rose to a shout. “I hate them!”

  “And I understand why,” Zach said. “It’s because you’ve been trapped someplace alone for a really long time, right? Well, like I’m saying, that’s all Adamus’s fault. But don’t take my word for it. There’s someone else who was sort of in your position, just not as bad. His name’s Mushkie. Mushkie has an item shop that nobody visited for a really, really long time. And then there’s Angelica, who—”

  “I hate Angelica!” Landy screamed, the Vixen Portal Commander’s voice becoming shrill. “I hate her!”

  Until now, Zach had not known that his cards were capable of producing saliva. But he could see now that they could, as Landy began spitting on the grass before stomping on it, leaving a hole in the soil in various spots with each tantrum-like stomp.

  Zach, at the risk of incurring his wrath, couldn’t help but ask, “You hate Angelica, too? What’s she ever done?”

  “Nothing!” the card screamed. “I know Angelica. Never met Angelica. But I know her. Always knew. Always knew there’s an Angelica. She never came. Never came to see me. Never cared. She can leave. She can go places. She’s special. I’m not. She gets to do whatever she wants, gets to go, gets to leave. Why’s she so special? I hate her. Hate her so much. I hate Angelica!”

  These words came as a surprise to Zach, and they confused him as well, but only until he tried to think about things from Landy’s perspective, and he supposed he could see why Landy might come to view her in an unfairly harsh light. After all, Angelica had always been able to leave her inn and go wherever she wanted. Once, she’d even visited him in a hospital in Tomb of Fire after the dragon had messed him up. But being upset at her for that reason…it was a bit childish.

  Despite knowing he was playing with fire, Zach felt compelled to defend his favorite innkeeper. “You don’t know her at all, Landy. You might know that she exists, but you’ve never met her. She hates Adamus just as much as you do.” The Vixen Portal Commander scowled at him, but Zach stood his ground. “Don’t look at me like that. It’s true. She would do anything to kill Adamus. Anything.”

  “No, no, not true. It’s not. It’s not true. She does nothing. I know she does nothing.”

  “Only because she can’t.”

  “Why? Why can’t? I can. I am. I’m doing. I do. Why can’t she?”

  Finally, a question he could very easily answer. “Well,” Zach explained, “I actually asked her this once, and she told me that Adamus has a ‘kill-switch’ on her. That he can kill her with the press of a button if she steps out of line. Or even if she just says the wrong thing.”

  “Pah!” Landy replied, raising the Vixen Portal Commander’s hand and making a pushing gesture as though to dismiss what Zach was saying. “Excuses. Excuses from special-girl Angelica. Beloved-girl Angelica. Favorite-girl Angelica!”

  Zach shook his head. “No, please, Landy, listen to me. You’re wrong. If not for that kill switch, she would give up everything to kill Adamus. I know that’s hard to believe, but it’s the honest truth.”

  “Adamus only? What about the other Gods? What about Eilea? What about Olandrin? What about? What about all Gods?”

  Zach shrugged. “Those two…she likes. So probably not.”

  “See? I told you!” Landy shouted, the card’s arms trembling with rage as it shook a finger at Zach. “Angelica is bad. Angelica is terrible. The worst. Evil Angelica. Evil, bad Angelica! I hate Angelica. I hate, hate, hate her. Angelica likes the Gods.”

  “Okay, but apparently you knew all this time that I also like Olandrin and Eilea, and I’m not your enemy, right? I mean, you said we’re friends. So, if I’m not your enemy, why does she have to be?”

  The card’s gaze turned from vengeful to confused in a split second. Its lips moved, but only a few muttered sounds came out, none of which formed into coherent words. “She is bad,” he said, as though those words alone would suffice in proving his point. It actually reminded Zach of a phrase Jimmy had once said. He wasn’t sure why it suddenly popped up in his mind, but he almost made a highly inappropriate smile as he recalled it.

  It was one of the last times I ever heard his voice.

  It had been shortly before he, Donovan, Eldora, Fluffles, Jascaila, and all the others had pulled the boss guarding the tower’s entrance. Having just landed on this very same island where Zach was now standing, they’d paused to wait for the others who were jumping out of different aircraft, as well as those with a lower constitution who would be parachuting into the raid. Zach, who had been en route to the Orcish homeland and had been watching the raid with Kalana through a live feed from the comfort of a private jet, had witnessed the typical sort of banter occur between Rian and Jimmy.

  “Jimmy,” Rian had said, far too confidently in Zach’s opinion. “You’re wrong. Just admit it.”

  “Nah, I’m not. Sorry.”

  Rian, who should have known better, had started arguing with Jimmy about adventuring-world stuff, something that, by now, everyone should’ve realized was a losing battle, as no one ever defeated Jimmy in these kinds of debates, because he seemed to know everything and was right almost every time.

  “I’m telling you, Jimmy. It’s common sense. Look at its feet! If we all huddle up together near that giant monster like you’re saying to do, it’s going to stomp on us and take out the entire raid in an instant.”

  “How you know that?” Jimmy asked him.

  “Because it’s obvious!”

  And then Jimmy had said something. One of those weird “sayings” from Earth. Zach, along with Kalana, had watched as Jimmy laughed at Rian and said, “Source: trust me bro.”

  “What?” Rian had asked, and so did his sister and about thirty other people, including some of those who were only first parachuting down. No one had understood what he’d meant in the moment. What source? What was he talking about? It was only later, upon really thinking about it, that it became so damn obvious. He’d been speaking in shorthand. Jimmy was basically saying that Rian’s “source” of information was him saying “just trust me on it” rather than providing any kind of evidence. Though, to be fair, that was also Jimmy’s source 99% of the time, too. In fact, he was the worst at using that kind of argument.

  Now, as Landy insisted Angelica was “bad,” Zach opened his mouth and said, “Source: trust me bro.”

  He didn’t take it well.

  Despite the fact that there was almost no chance he even understood what it meant, Zach found himself taking several more steps backwards as the Vixen Portal Commander pointed the bladed end of the rapier directly at his face. Zach, holding up both hands in a gesture of peace, said, “Whoah, take it easy.”

  “Why do you say that? What does that mean? Tell me!”

  The card stopped its pursuit of him, and Zach stopped backing away. “It means you should at least go and meet Angelica before assuming you know anything about her. What do you have to lose? Just go talk to her before you do something that’ll get you killed.”

  The card again jutted the rapier forward, and now, it was only an inch or two from Zach’s throat. But thankfully, after a few more seconds, there came the sound of a grunt, and the rapier was sheathed. “I’ll think about it, will think, have to think. But now I’m going. It’s dark. Getting so dark, have to torture the Gods.”

  Zach sighed. “Just be careful, all right?” He looked upwards at the sky, which during the last few moments had darkened considerably. “And I’ll try to be careful, too.”

  “Careful why?” Landy asked him.

  “I told you earlier. I’m going to try grinding all night. I need more levels, and I need them fast. But it gets so damn dark here that I’m not sure how I’ll be able to see. Especially on the lower levels like one and two. I’m thinking of dragging in leaves or something and starting a few fires.”

  Landy was again studying him, peering at Zach through the eyes of the Vixen Portal commander, eyes that, for just a brief moment, seemed to go vacant, as though Landy’s presence had left, and he had gone elsewhere. But the harsh, penetrative look to them soon returned, though not for long.

  “I know what will help,” he said. “I will help, and then I’ll go. Yes. Yes. Okay, go through there.” He pointed at something—at nothing. At the thin air. The card’s arm was fully extended, index finger raised, and it seemed to be gesturing at the immediate area ahead of Zach, but there was nothing to be seen.

  “Go through where?” Zach asked. “Landy, I—”

  Zach’s words fell off as something caught his eye: something faint. There was a flicker in the air, something so slight it was almost difficult to be sure it was really there at all. At least until it started to grow. Then, at a rate fast enough to startle him, this flicker turned into a full-on spray of yellow sparks along with a buzzing-like sound as though a saw was cutting through metal, except there was no metal or steel, and it was the air itself being cut.

  Right there in the open, in a spot about two feet in front of Zach and a few inches above the top of his head, these sparks continued to burn and grow hotter, and then they split apart to become two clumps of equally bright and burning sparks, which began moving in two separate directions, leaving behind a burning, yellow streak in their wake that soon revealed itself to be the top-left corner of something—but Zach didn’t know what.

  The two sparks continued onwards, with the first bunch of them moving off to the right and the second bunch moving straight down, and everywhere these sparks traveled, they left behind this same burning yellowish streak in the air. This continued until the yellowish streak formed a single solid object: a rectangle that hovered about a foot off the ground and was right in front of where Zach was standing.

  Then came a very strange sight.

  Everything within this rectangle began to twist and bend. All of a sudden, the world within started to fold in a way that reminded Zach of paper. It was such a surreal sight that Zach wondered if this was another one of Landy’s hallucinations. This folding…it continued until the sight of the tower behind the rectangle, the grass, and the birds on several of the trees were “ripped” off like they were just a painting, and what remained was a dark, cavern-like entrance.

  A door, Zach thought. A portal.

  “Go in,” his card said. “No more wasting time. I have to do things. Hurry. Come now, come now, I can help.”

  “Just…go in?” Zach asked, staring uneasily into this portal that Landy had erected in front of him.

  “Yes! Go now.”

  Zach hesitated, but he did not hesitate for long. Ultimately, he knew that if Landy really wanted to kill him, he wouldn’t actually need to lure him into some kind of trap or horrible place. There would be absolutely no purpose for him to do so. And though Landy might have been neurotic, temperamental, and very difficult to predict in terms of how he reacted to various things, he had so far shown himself to at least be honest in the things he said.

  “All right, then,” Zach said.

  With a small hop, he jumped up and onto the bottom of this impromptu gateway, but he lingered there a moment. Twisting his hips, he briefly looked over his shoulder, reassuring himself that he could leave; behind him, he spotted his personal items, his sleeping bag, and the grass he slept on. Everything was still there. He wasn’t trapped—at least not yet, anyway.

  With a deep breath, he entered deeper into the darkness within, finding himself in a narrow hallway that quickly widened into a very large, decrepit, burned, and miserably battered area that looked like something out of the worst days of Shadowfall Coast. Only, Zach had the sense that this was very, very far away from Galterra. He highly doubted he was anywhere near home.

  What the hell happened here? he wondered, both confused and alarmed as he looked around.

  Glass was everywhere, all of it broken, but it was nothing compared to the heaps of wood, all of it having been reduced to mere chips. There wasn’t even a hint of furniture in this place. It was like whatever had been here had been blasted to pieces, and then even those very pieces had been blasted to pieces, and then those had been further ground to dust.

  It was also freezing cold in here—to the extent that Zach had to wrap his arms around himself as he began shivering. It was dead quiet, too. The sound of his feet walking on the uneven, sometimes smashed, and red-colored floorboards sounded like miniature explosions amid the haunting quiet.

  Wait a second, Zach thought as he glanced downwards and had a better look at things. The floorboards aren’t red. No, that’s…

  Zach gasped. It was blood. So much dried blood. Everywhere. As in literally everywhere. On the floor, on the walls, even on the ceiling. So much of it. Unevenly applied, too, so that in some places the color of wood could be seen in trace amounts, and in others, the red had a patchier appearance, but for the most part, it was uniform and everywhere he looked, differing only in shade and intensity.

  And then there were the scratch marks.

  All over the walls, the floor, and yes, also the ceiling, there were an incomprehensible number of deep, jagged scratch marks. Some were short and ran for just a few inches, whereas others circled the entire room in one continuous, unbroken stretch, with a few making spiral-shaped patterns every so often.

  It was like an animal lived here: an animal that had spent thousands of years desperately, frantically struggling to escape the confines within.

  And the burn marks: these black, tarry blots. Many of them either disguised or amplified the scratches. This place…it was a canvas of suffering, an illustration of misery so potent that, in a sick, twisted way it could almost be called artistic. Just a single look was enough to invoke a sort of understanding in Zach: to truly let him appreciate the unimaginable pain that Landy must have endured for thousands upon thousands of years. In here, all alone. Just…existing.

  Is that him? Zach wondered.

  In the entirety of this wide and open space, there existed only two functional pieces of furniture: a front counter and a chair. Both were totally undamaged, which likely meant they were indestructible. And sitting at this counter was an unconscious, level-19500 NPC whose head was lying flat on the top of it and whose eyes were closed as though asleep—or as though his mind was currently somewhere else.

  A name floated above this head: Landy.

  As if reacting to Zach’s arrival, the NPC let out a soft moan and then lifted his head before sitting up in the chair and meeting Zach’s eyes. Upon seeing Zach standing there, he did not react with surprise or anything more than simple impatience, which confirmed to Zach that this being before him was, in fact, the one he had only just been speaking with in the form of the Vixen Portal Commander.

  Only, now, this was the real him—and he was grotesque beyond belief.

  He wore nothing more than rags, revealing a body filled with greenish, flaky, and peeling skin that was covered in boils and other lumps, many of which ran down both of his arms and legs. His face was twisted beyond belief. One of his eyes was significantly larger than the other, and his teeth were all bent at different angles. His ears were malformed, his lips were oddly shaped, but most striking of all was the look in his eyes: one of pure hell, a hell that was reflected back at whoever happened to stare into them. Such madness, so easily and readily seen.

  But more than anything else, more than even the hatred and pain, Zach could see with such clear, unmistakable clarity what could only be described as the look of someone who desperately wished they weren’t alive.

  “Come on,” the NPC said, waving Zach over. “I have to go. I have to kill the Gods.”

  In this form, he sounded weaker, exhausted: an exhaustion of living, of existing. Never before had Zach looked at someone and received such a strong sense that they yearned for death. Compared to how he expressed himself when possessing Zach’s cards, he sounded different.

  Very, very different.

  His voice was far lower in pitch than Zach had expected, and it was gravelly, jarring, and disquieting. By all accounts, he had the look and sound of a monster. He called to Zach, asking him to come closer. Asking him what was taking him so long. And yet, as he continued to beckon Zach, and Zach continued to stand where he was, all Zach could do was utter three words to him, words that he could not stop himself from speaking.

  “I’m so sorry.”