Aisha woke to find Nero gone and immediately panicked.

She sat up so quickly that her vision swam, dark spots dancing across her eyes. Her hands grasped at empty air where his body had been, and for one terrible moment she was certain that everything had been a dream. That Nero was still out there somewhere, bleeding and alone.

Dying...

'No!'

Then she heard voices outside the cave and the panic receded slightly, replaced by a different kind of anxiety.

She rose on unsteady legs and made her way to the cave entrance. The fog outside made it difficult to see clearly, but she could make out two figures standing together. Nero and Obed, talking in low voices.

Relief flooded through her so intensely that she had to brace herself against the cave wall.

The relief was short-lived.

Movement in the fog caught her attention. Two more figures approaching, resolving into recognizable shapes as they drew closer.

Geor and Lucy.

Geor looked tired but unharmed, his large frame somehow still solid and dependable despite everything. Lucy, on the other hand, looked rather horrible. Her makeup was smeared and smudged. Combined with the dark expression on her face, she looked rather menacing in the darkness of night.

"No luck," Geor said as they reached the cave. His voice was heavy with frustration. "Same as before."

Obed sighed, rubbing his face with both hands. "This doesn't make any sense. There has to be a way out."

Nero stood slightly apart from the others, his gaze fixed on Lucy. She noticed his attention and looked away quickly, unable or unwilling to meet his eyes. Her hands clenched into fists at her sides, and for a moment Nero thought she might say something.

But she remained silent.

After a long moment, Nero sighed and pushed himself away from the cave wall.

"I'll go with you," he said. "Maybe I'll see something you missed."

Geor nodded slowly. "It's worth a try."

Obed glanced back at the cave, then at Aisha. "I'll stay here with Aisha. Someone should remain at the cave in case anything changes."

It was a transparent excuse, but no one called him on it. They all understood that Aisha would refuse to let Nero out of her sight again, and having too many people wandering around in the fog would only create more confusion.

Geor, Nero, and Lucy set off down the path, disappearing into the grey mist within moments.

They walked in silence for a long time.

The path was narrow but well-defined, winding between trees with branches that looked eerily similar to the gnarly fingers of a cursing witch.

Lucy walked at the back of their small group, her eyes distant and unsteady.

Nero turned back to glance at her from time to time, unsure of what to say.

Eventually...

"I'm sorry for your loss."

Lucy raised a brow.

Then she smiled,

"My sister was a sick, twisted fuck. She surely has it coming."

Then she sighed, "You don't have to be sorry. We live and we die rather quickly these days."

Nero was silent. Then he nodded,

"Indeed we do."

Geor led the way with steady, measured steps. And Nero walked between them, his eyes constantly scanning their surroundings.

Thirty minutes passed.

Then they were back at the cave.

Nero stared at the familiar entrance with growing disbelief. They had walked in a straight line. He was certain of it. There had been no turns, no forks in the path, no opportunities to double back without noticing. And yet here they were, exactly where they had started.

"I told you," Geor said quietly.

Nero nodded slowly. "Let's try the other direction."

They turned and walked back the way they had come, or at least what should have been back the way they came.

Another thirty minutes.

"Try straying from the path?" Nero suggested.

Geor sighed. "We've tried that too. Watch."

He stepped off the path, pushing through the underbrush between two trees. Nero and Lucy followed. They walked for perhaps five minutes, pushing deeper into the forest, away from the path and the cave.

And then they were at the cave again.

Not at the path. At the cave itself, emerging from the trees on the opposite side from where they had entered.

Nero felt his stomach drop.

"This is..." Nero muttered. He was completely stumped.

A golden glow appeared in the depths of his eyes.

The moment he activated the skill, Heretic Eyes, his perception shifted.

The world fell away into that familiar darkness, that void where only sources of Ein Sof remained visible. He could see the faint glows of his companions, the slightly brighter glow of the cave behind him where Aisha waited.

And then he saw something else.

A gaze.

Not directed at him specifically, but present. Vast and incomprehensible, like trying to perceive the full shape of a mountain while standing at its base. It wasn't looking at him so much as through him, past him, aware of his presence the way a human might be aware of an insect crawling on their arm.

But the moment Nero's Heretic Eyes perceived it, the gaze shifted.

It focused.

On him.

Terror unlike anything Nero had ever experienced crashed over him like a physical wave. This wasn't the malevolent hunger of the Defiled Cherub. This wasn't even the cold, unfeeling and inhuman gaze of the Stone Demons.

This was something older and vaster. More fundamentally wrong.

He deactivated the skill instantly, gasping as normal vision returned. His entire body was shaking, cold sweat pouring down his face and back. His hands trembled so badly he had to clench them into fists to make it stop.

'Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!'

"What's wrong?" Lucy's voice cut through his panic.

Nero tried to speak but had to swallow several times before words would come.

He had been warned never to gaze at these entities directly. That could have easily gone terribly wrong if he had tried looking even a split second longer.

He had no idea if this entity was already aware of his existence. If it was, things weren't going to be very pleasant.

He wiped the sweat off his temple.

"Something is watching us," he managed, his voice barely above a whisper.

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