The interior of the structure is vast and full of corridors. There are signs on the walls, yellow stripes on the floors, ribbon lights, and no windows.

The huge metal doors that separate the spaces are open and I explore by nose.

Keeping right is useless in mazes with multiple centers and so I rely on more tangible landmarks. Bundles of pipes, flights of stairs, shelves occupied by metal containers, and little else.

In this place there is no dust and even the flooring is made of iron.

Some noises catch my attention. They come from a corridor to the north.

I approach cautiously. I doubt it's the [Fiend] or some other threat, but I'd rather be cautious.

A few minutes later the corridor leads to a lattice balcony. The view is of a frozen, dimly lit pool, and cables and pipes are falling from the ceiling.

The source of the noise, as well as the middle to which the cables converge, is a very strange being.

Metal skin, headless, and rectangular. It has four arms that end in spines and are equipped with countless joints. This allows them absurd movements.

The being is connected to cables and moves on spines. The noise is produced by its constant banging on the ice with them.

Ci-cin.

I grab my tail to keep it still. Fortunately, the noise produced by the being is enough to cover the bells.

It's a vain task. As soon as it shatters the ice, it recomposes and the being shatters it again.

It works at a frenetic pace and I lower my ears. I don't know whether to be intimidated or not.

[Scan]

Right, it doesn't work.

I continue along the balcony, keeping my sword ready and my eye on the creature.

It ignores me. I have reached another corridor. I breathe a sigh of relief.

That strange being is not normal. This place is not normal!

I find a map on the wall and I don't understand the writing. It is different from maps in the grimoire and does not offer any help.

It is helpless. A simple piece of paper with some markings on it. Maybe it's not a map—I can't figure it out…

Continuing for a while I arrive at another frozen tub. Here too there is a creature. But it is frozen to death and some cables are frozen with it up to the ceiling.

Yet I have never had deaths like this.

…could they be the legendary golems?

I think back to Gron. The warm, soft fur that passes between my fingers. Hmm, they don't seem to be the result of the same art.

Of course, Dal-Dazzer rests beyond the Golden Doors. I can't compare his art with what I see here. I study the dimly lit environment.

A metal ladder leads down to the pool. I'll take it.

I move with more confidence than before. The being is frozen and does not seem alive.

Up close it looks even stranger. It's as big as my house and under the metal skin, looking between joints and joints, I find more metal and substances I don't know about. They are the same as the cables.

Here there is no ash and the aroma of oil is intense. I turn up my nose. The closer I get to the body, the stronger the smell becomes. Not that I mind.

From the hum, I understand that energy still passes through the cables, despite the creature's inactivity.

Ci-cin.

I touch the outer plate above a limb stuck in the ground. The being begins to vibrate and I move away.

I got a shock and the creature stopped vibrating. As with the door, it seems that my contact generates a reaction. Is it a reaction linked to the limitation of magic?

I leave that horrifying creature alone and concentrate on the ice. In the light of the room, it becomes clear that there is no water beneath the surface. It is something twisted, similar to dark tongues of fire that curl and intertwine following unpredictable currents.

I notice swirls, bubbles, arcs of lighter shades, and dark pools. Whatever it is, I've never heard of it. I'm sure.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

I go back to the ladder and leave that menacing entity behind.

♦

I enter a familiar-shaped room. The great nave of a cathedral. It is an organ room.

My hand tightens on the hilt of the sword. I check that no one is around.

There is no one. But I check anyway, to remove the sense of anxiety that thinking about these places causes me.

Dark blue light filters from the central rose window and floods the entire nave, the benches, and the pipeline that emerges in place of the altar and continues beyond the door. Past where the door should be, as there is a frozen tub that the pipeline dips into.

There are no benches. In their place, eight rows of clone plates of the [core] plate. Very thin roots start and are lost beyond the light irradiated by the window.

Beyond the origin of the pipeline, under the rose window, there is a chained humanoid creature.

I wave my hand.

No reply.

“Hey, hi!” Hi, it's a bit rude, but I don't know if I should apply the usual manners to this circumstance.

No response. I wonder, maybe this creature is also frozen.

I get closer. I notice how the chains hold the wrists together and at the top, while the ankles are chained separately. She is in flip-flops and wearing a black silk dress that leaves the shoulders bare and falls open around the legs.

No jewelry. A collar with a half-moon pendant, analogous to the half-moon in my grimoire. On the other hand, I now notice that it is not chains that imprison her, but rather tubes and cables that also connect to her spine.

The being is kneeling on the cushion and has cat ears and two tails…

…like mine!

Now that I see it better—she's identical to me!

Almost…

The blue light masks the colors, but it's clear that this ‘twin’ has golden hair. Her eyes are closed. I can't tell whether they are blue or not.

As I feared, the white, purplish skin and glassy lips suggest the possibility of frostbite. To the touch, even the metallic tails are stiff on the floor.

A cable with a sting that is too long pierces the snake's skull and so does a cable at throat height.

Unsettling.

Incredible.

I do not know what to say. This vision is disturbing. I would use [Scan] to investigate, but I cannot.

It is unusual for a [Bakenekro] to freeze to death. And, strangely, this one looks so much like me. And what is she doing in this place anyway? If she is dead, why didn't she rain in the desert with the [status: Deceased]? Again, why didn't she rain in the desert? Who imprisoned her in this way and this place?

So, are the other creatures imprisoned too? If so, perhaps I should go back and free the first one, which I avoided…

Yet I don't think there's anyone here. At least, not someone capable of doing this kind of thing.

I look up and notice that the cables are intertwined with roots at the edges of the rosette.

Those dark luminescence roots.

Hmm, the [core] tree?

I don't know what to do.

I lean towards her body. With the nail of my index finger, I bring a lock of hair behind her ear.

No reaction.

The noise of magical electricity is present in those tubes. I get closer and sniff the air.

The smell of oil, the smell of blood. Further strangeness, given that the blood of my species should be odorless.

Perhaps the ‘twin’ belongs to a completely different alien species. Maybe it takes on appearances suited to the context, but…

…I'm scrambling.

With my foot, I try to move a particularly soft cable. The buzz fades and a blue arc of blue flame reaches from the point of contact to my ankle.

Ci-cin!

“AHI!”

I step aside and in doing so I hit her body which loses composure and falls. She remains supported by the taut cables, even as the stinger in her throat slides out of her and her head falls forward.

Worried, I try to put it back but I don't put the stinger back in my throat.

She is dead and not in pain. She's dead and not in pain, come on N!

But she doesn't regenerate either and that hole in her throat—mmm, I don't want to think about it!

I let it go and moved away from the body cautiously. There are no noises that indicate other presences, but as Sylviette would say, it's better not to be surprised!

I move away from that disturbing central nave in search of the staircase. I want to check if there is an organ.

I find a staircase behind a pulpit that curls around a column and go upstairs.

The cables are blocking my passage and the pipes are frozen. I find a small port and enter it.

The room is very bright and the frosted walls increase the general albedo.

The organ is illuminated, by lights on the high ceiling. I finally see it in all its magnificence. The forest of reeds is lost in the wall and they are golden. The keyboards and the seat are similar to those I already knew.

I approach, raising my head towards the top of the instrument but the lighting is too strong and after shielding myself with my hand, I give up and look away.

There are knobs on the sides of the keyboards. When I pick one up, I find that I can pull them. I have no idea what they do.

The keys are covered in a thin frost. I press one on the lowest keyboard.

PRRRR!

“AH!”

The note reverberates in the air even after I release the key. It takes several seconds to dissipate like the clouds of my breath.

In terms of sound power… outstanding, remarkable.

I distance myself from the instrument and search the room for clues. I'm not sure what I'm looking for but I would like to find something that makes me understand where I am.

I can't find anything.

No, wait—in the crack between two walls, I notice some of the [Devil]'s corals. I block myself.

They are little [Devil]'s corals.

I check the other cracks in the room and also the ones between the floor slabs. Anxiety rises.

[Devil]'s corals are proliferating everywhere! But being too small they do not emit light, they are still opaque—in this illuminated room, I saw them, but…

…they could be anywhere.

Everywhere!

I wander around the room to check again and again. I scrape some off with my nails and study the grain trapped in my hands.

If they aren't [Devil]'s corals, they are identical. Their alien twins, like my twin over there.

But what place is this!?

Do I have to run? Or should I get to the bottom of the matter? What if the [Devil] is still at work?

I recall the words of the [Leviathan] and—surely the [Devil] is still acting. Or not. Why not tell me about this threat, if it is a threat? Helping me is also in its interest.

Sigh.

I cannot use [Dungeon path] here, so a daring escape would be useless and, perhaps, counterproductive. I might as well try to understand if this infection is spread beyond this area, maybe I also need to understand what this area is.

I leave the organ room. I take one last look.

If I were Sylviette I could play it and get myself out of this situation, but I'm not Sylviette. There's no point in beating around the bush.