How long had it been since he had last slept? Sett could not help but ponder that question.

He knew that he had not slept since the day before the blood moons rose, but exactly how long had that been. He was not even what time it currently was. Another question was whether the state that the vampires had imposed on him and his journey into Selt's realm had put him to sleep. He did not know.

He had not felt the lack of sleep too much because of the adrenaline that had been constantly coursing through his veins but now that everything had died down, he felt his body’s yearning for slumber.

Either way, he was currently running on fumes, with sleep being the most pressing of matters.

The doors had barely closed behind his back before he flung himself across the room, landing him on the soft and welcoming bed. It felt like a lost lover, incredibly appealing and pleasing to the touch.

After more than an entire day’s worth of stress, Sett fell asleep only moments after touching the soft surface of the bed. He embraced sleep with a content smile on his face.

His sleep had started peacefully, but soon the trauma of his past day caught up with him. The human body dealt with and processed trauma in many ways, one of them being through sleep. Sett had prepared for the nightmares that surely was to come as much as he humanly could, but it arrived, nonetheless.

He saw the terrifying events of the past day play out before his eyes in vivid detail, his unconscious mind focusing much more on what had happened after and during the blood moons.

He saw himself being kidnapped by the tentacle monsters, with them looking just as terrible as they had at the moment. He saw himself being stabbed with the knife, that was made from Selt’s core, twice and how the essence tore into his body. He saw the nightmares of Jess, reminding him of the horrors that the girl had gone through, and he saw himself absorbing Selt’s core essence and divine seed, turning him into a good.

There were much more that had happened that day and night, but then the nightmare suddenly froze. Sett felt consciousness returning, but he did not awaken. It was like he was in a lucid dream, no, a lucid nightmare.

Before Sett could think about what was happened, a point of light appeared within the nightmarish scene. Weary, but also intrigued, Sett started to walk towards the point of light. Had he been awake, Sett would never have taken the chance, but knowing that it was all a dream, he braved the dangers and touched the strange light.

It would prove to be a mistake. Intense pain assaulted his mind as he was slowly dragged into the mass of light. It was as if someone was holding a scalding hot piece of iron unto his mind. If it were not because of him tempering his sense of pain from merging with Selt, Sett would surely have screamed bloody murder.

Then, just as fast as the pain had arrived it disappeared.

Blinking his eyes, Sett realized that he was no longer inside the same nightmare as he had been only a moment earlier. He did recognize the scene before him, however.

He was back at the Seventh Eden, only that it was somehow different. It was as if the Seventh Eden before him was but a shadow of its true self. This Seventh Eden did not inhabit any of the beauty that the true one did. The grass was scorched and rotting while the trees were festering and leaking viscous liquids from many grim-looking wounds on their bodies.

Even the skies above were different. Where the true Seventh Eden seemed to be locked into eternal and bright daylight, this place seemed to be constantly painted in a grim grey, painting the landscape in a depressing light.

The last difference was a huge one as well. The essence was far different. The true Seventh Eden held an essence that was overflowing with nature and light, yet the essence that was flowing through the air in this place was corrupted in a sense. The moment Sett tried to draw some of it into his body, he felt himself become repulsed by it by instinct. He had to suppress a mighty urge to throw up right then and there.

Not even light essence, which was his polar opposite, would elicit such a reaction. There was something seriously wrong with this place.

‘Selt… What is happening here?”

Knowing that he was in far too deep waters, Sett yelled out for Selt’s assistance in his mind.

He waited, but nothing happened. He heard no response from the slumbering former god. He could not even feel his lingering presence that should have always been in his soul. It should not have been possible.

Panic began to set in. Sett was frightened beyond all belief. He wished that he could return to thinking that this was merely a livid nightmare, but his senses and the things he had learned in the last few days told him that it was impossible.

Here he was, in a hostile environment, where even the essence in the air wished him harm, and without his greatest ally, how could he not feel great fear?

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“Kræz Arb!” A strange and hoarse voice sounded from afar. “Yr Olyb Qwå?!”

Sett felt chills running down his spine. The voice did not sound human at all and the language it spoke was far too foreign. Without looking in the direction of the voice, Sett immediately ran for the bushes and trees that were to the side, completely disregarding the wretched smell that came from them.

“Oløs Sorå Wyrk!”

Another voice answered the other, which was immediately followed by a long string of hoarse repeating sounds. Sett could only reckon that they were laughing.

The two creatures were slowly approaching the place that Sett had been standing. A moment later, they crossed a bend in the road and their figures came into view.

Sett had to do everything in his might to not yell out in fright and give away his position. He had thought that he had seen much of what the world had to offer regarding monsters from his time in at the vampire’s place, but now he knew that the world had many more terrible things hiding in its crevices in terms of disgusting monsters.

Strangely, the two creatures did not even look like they came from the same species. One was tall and lanky, with arms that stretched all the way to its feet, while the other almost looked like an alligator only with eight legs and a very disfigured body.

There were a few things that the two monsters shared looks-wise was the thing that made them look like monsters. From every surface on their body, a viscous deeply black substance would constantly flow, covering their entire body before spilling onto the ground below.

Their faces were the second thing that made them look alike. It was what made them feel truly alien. They did not have eyes, a nose, or even a mouth, there were only countless holes that constantly leaked the black liquid. How exactly they spoke with such strange deformities, Sett had no idea.

When it came to their strength, Sett was truly uncertain. Never mind how much he tried to ascertain the essence in their bodies, he simply could not see it. In fact, it looked like there was a void in the air where they were supposed to be. It should have been impossible. After all, even a normal human contained some essence. Yet, here they were, proof that some rules could be broken.

In Sett’s eyes, they were frightening beyond all compare, even taking the spot from the tentacle monsters in Sett’s heart as the most frightening monster he had ever met. What made them especially frightening was not their looks, but the fact that they were clearly intelligent. The tentacle monsters had barely been able to think rationally, but these seemed to have full-blown conversations.

Sett looked with beating heart as he watched the two creatures walk along the path while speaking in their strange alien language. They walked leisurely, almost as if they were taking a walk in the park.

Suddenly, when they arrived at the spot that Sett had been standing in earlier, the monster that lightly resembled an alligator stopped.

“Kryz!”

It yelled loudly to its companion. It sounded agitated and almost excited. The loud yell caused the other creature to stop as well and the both of them crowded around a seemingly normal spot on the road. The alligator-looking one began to sniff with great vigour.

Sett cursed in his heart. With how they were acting, they had surely found his track. He did not know about these creatures, but he did not doubt that they would be hostile to him if he were to be found. Knowing this, Sett ducked beneath the tree and readied himself to run like his life depended on it.

“Kryz! Argor åleth!”

Suddenly, one of the monsters yelled out in great excitement. They immediately began to run, their feet kicking up the dirt beneath their feet.

Sett prepared himself for his inevitable demise.

Yet, it never came. The two monsters had run off in another direction, arriving at another spot in little time.

Sett peeked his head outside his cover, trying to figure out what was going on.

The tall and lanky monster reached out its massive arms towards something, though what exactly Sett could not see. Then suddenly, with the sound of splintering glass, the arm of the monster breached something in mid-air.

The space surrounding the arm became more and more distorted as the arm pressed further into the unknown. It crackled, almost exactly like glass would.

After a few seconds of pressing its arm into the glass, the monster stopped. With a large grunt and strain, its arm suddenly lit up. It looked like it was dragging something from beyond the breath that it had created.

Sett did not understand, and he did not care to know what was going on, he simply wanted to run. With the distraction provided by the monsters, he quickly slid away, hoping to escape to somewhere safer.

He was gladdened to find that despite this world seeming desolate beyond all that he had known, it still had some of the structures of the real world standing. Namely, the bridges were still intact.

Sett ran with all his might. He had a clear destination. The centre of the Seventh Eden. If there was anywhere he would be safe, it had to be there.

Yet, he did not get far. The moment that he crossed the last of the buildings that made up the 69th Crusader Company’s base, he almost fell on his butt. He could see all the way to the centre of the Seventh Eden, but he did not find salvation. No, the only thing he found was far more horror.

This place was more frightening than he had dared imagine. Instead of seeing the Grandmaster’s residence, all he saw was a gigantic monster. It made the two monsters that he had seen only a moment ago, look like ants beneath it. From where Sett stood, almost ten kilometres out, he could still clearly see its huge body.

It was enormous, stretching tens of meters up in the air and having a circumference that matched its height. From where Sett stood, it looked like countless different creatures melded together into one horrifying mass.

Much like the two monsters, this one also leaked the black substance from its orifices, making it pour all over the centre island. Countless tentacle-like appendages spread out from its body, each of them piecing the realm the same way as the lanky monster had done earlier.

Without warning, Sett felt the enormous being focus on him. The pressure was overwhelming. The false vampire master, Captain Thomas, The Grandmaster, or even Selt in his weakened form could not compare to this pressure. It bore down on him without mercy, forcing him to take the knee.

“Argor æleth!”

Then, a screech sounded from the gigantic monster. Countless figures moved in response to their master’s words. Beneath the enormous monster, Sett had not noticed them before, but now he saw innumerous monsters, all of which bore unique features, moving towards him. The monsters that bore upon him were like a black all-engulfing wave. There was no escape in sight.

“Begone…!”

The moment before the wave of monsters reached him, a lithe and weak, but powerful, voice sounded out. A powerful force of light suddenly erupted all over Sett.