It must have been days, or so I felt. I had managed to completely lose my sense of orientation and time. The worst was the tiredness that dragged me down, lurking at the edges of my consciousness, just to pounce on me, when, not if, I would let my guard down for just a second.

I fought it, of course, even if it did not seem to be that way at the moment, as I was more or less stumbling through the dark. I was on the run.

Zero was still guiding me. But more than once - holy hells of the dead gods, more than a dozen times - we had to retrace our steps through maze-like corridors, stairways with dead ends or collapsed, hidden or intertwining passageways. Or all of the above.

This city, if it could still be called that, was huge. And it was not really one thing. It was a culmination of clusters of buildings, plazas, and caves, carved and built skillfully, but with an unhealthy amount of madness considering the city planning and layout.

Twice, I had to draw steel to defend myself. Both times against groups of smaller critters, which had taken residence in the shadows of abandoned buildings. But they fled once I had cut down one or two of them. The danger of this place was not in the creatures lurking here but in my mind.

I could not rest, or the things from below would catch up to me. I could not run or I would collapse in exhaustion way too quickly and additionally, I had to have focus and a presence of mind to navigate the maze for hours and hours.

And it was with the mental strain, that Zero proved to be a big help. He provided me with much-needed guidance. He always knew the way back and as far as I understood, he seemed to know the general direction. The wrong turns he made seemed based on missing knowledge about the small streets and long-buried walkways.

I first felt the fragile wings of freedom beat as we came to a small bridge of metal, which elegantly crossed a little river boxed in by stone walls. On a pier below this bridge were several round bowls with wooden appliances and handles. It was a waterway you could travel using these boats.

But I left them behind for now. Not knowing where exactly they led, taking them would be a huge risk. What if the stream just ended in a lower part of the city or took me straight to the things in the mist?

But there also was the possibility that the river, ever running downwards towards the sea, as far as I knew, would take me out of the whole mountain range. That was a scary thought for a man born in Ravenrock. I knew of the rivers and streams around the mountains. And there was none near my birthplace that ran all the way to the coast. There was a whole side of the mountain range, east, that was an unknown wilderness to me and home to the people that had destroyed my castle, my kingdom, and my empire.

These thoughts meant nothing, of course. The unknown was stronger than any speculation. But even the fickle taste of freedom let my mind race with all the possibilities.

I was losing my mind a little. The exhaustion got to me, the gears of anxiety grinding ever so slowly, grinding me down between the need to flee and the still and silent darkness around me. I talked with Zero a lot. Never receiving an answer of course, but a bobbing, turning, or pointing end of a chain. But it helped. I did not feel as lonely.

Confronted with what I had to overcome, the knowledge that I would not have to do it alone had been encouraging. But even that courage was ground to nothing over the time in the darkness. I did not have these problems farther down the Abyss. I was a stronger man then. No, I had been a stronger beast, but much less of a man.

More than any feeling I felt, there was one that stood above all others: Boredom. The city was just empty. Dark, ominous, and sad somehow, but empty. Most of the buildings I briefly checked were clean. No item left behind. I had a pretty good theory about it, but it was completely based on absolutely nothing I could prove.

But as my mind suffered under the whip of exhaustion, I made my assumptions, just to be distracted for a while. Here were the facts: There was something in the labyrinth and lower levels of the city, that had kept the food and stuff, even the bones of the skeletons and the wood of some of the doors, fresh and mostly untouched by age. The day after I had killed the undead commander of a cursed order of knights - all of them coming from outside the confines of the city I had found them in - creatures began to ascend the entry hall by swimming in a rolling, oily mist.

There was a drum, or a heartbeat, or whatever it was, that drove them on. Above all of that was a city or something like that, forsaken and abandoned. No things of even the smallest value had been left behind. As if they had packed all their stuff and fled. There were no remains to be found, beside the one corpse that had obviously died by being buried under a collapsing wall.

Now, the Regicide had spoken about a barter and a duty worthy enough to recuperate the sins he and his knights had committed against ultimately my family. So here was my working theory: The Betrayer had bartered with a god of these four-armed and one-eyed builders of the silent city. Whatever that may have looked like. He and the field that had stopped decay were bound to each other in some way.

By killing the Regicide, the field, and the last anchor of the god to this world, vanished. The rest of the knights kept their promise and stood ready to take on what was sure to follow next. The creatures that had ascended with the mist.

The builders of the city had fled a long time ago, taking all of their belongings with them. The creator of Zero had wanted to flee as well but had suffered an accident of some kind while packing his things into a magical chest. He had built golems, maybe one had gone rogue. I shot my chain golem a suspicious glance. No. Maybe. Zero had joined the guard down below, helping the Regicide. I do not know who had found who.

The creator of Zero had packed his travel chest, that I now carried. It was not all of his stuff, most of it was heavy and big, but there was not much else left in his home and workshop beside the heavy machinery. So the builders, or their gods maybe, had doubted that the knights of the Ravenguard could hold the line, and fled anyway. Or maybe the knights came way later, put in place as an afterthought of a god on his way out, to place one more barrier between the old enemy and his people, who aimed to be moving elsewhere.

Maybe the Regicide had managed to use the power of the barrier or field, that held the creatures back, to prolong his own unlife. And then I had come along, destroying a careful balance and releasing whatever that creature had been to the world. Or, quite possibly, I was going mad and connected dots that were not meant to.

Nothing ever lasts forever, and so went the peace and quiet without even a sound.

We came to a large plaza, statues guarding entrances and the walls, and opposite of me, on the other end of the plaza, was everything my heart desired. A gate, easily four times as large as the drawbridge of Ravenrock. Giant slabs of polished limestone lined with dark metal and shining silver. It was detailed with countless carvings I could not make out from this distance.

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The plaza itself was an open space. As the entrance hall below, this one was lit up by glowing stones in the ceiling as well. And it was littered with rubble and bigger stones. This was the exit to the surface, surely. And yet, the thing of my heart's desire within reach, my heart sank to the bottom of my chest.

The statues moved. All of them. They left their podiums with heavy and clumsy steps, turned their heads with the crackling rasp from stone on stone, and looked at me, a faint red light glimmering in the jewels they had for eyes. They raised their weapons - swords, hammers, glaives, and spears - and moved to the center to draw a line across the plaza they would not allow me, or anyone, to cross.

"Noo!“ I screamed at them. "Not now! NO! Curse you!“ I raged. I yelled until my voice was hoarse and yet they showed no reaction. I was so close. But the builders must have left a last line of defense for their old enemies, to hinder their pursuit to the surface. I could reach that gate. I was sure that I could. But I did not know how to open it. Or if it was even possible to open it still. Was there a mechanism? Wouldn't the builders have destroyed that as well? And these four-armed statues would not let me search for a way out. Whenever I got a bit nearer towards them, they raised their weapons and advanced a single step in unison. A warning.

And still, I could get past them, I reckoned. I had to dodge two or three strikes with what looked to be heavy weapons made out of stone, and I would not survive a single hit, but what then. Trying to break a lock I wasn't sure was even there to begin with?

After my rage had run out, I just sat there, chin in my hands, elbows on my knees. Just staring at the door. Glaring at the immortal warriors, who could not make out friend or foes. Desperately trying to find a solution.

Then the mists started rolling in. At first, from one other staircase to my left, this one as well as mine leading downwards although to a different part of the city. Then, on the opposite side, coming through doorways and around corners.

Boom.

The beat rolled through the air once more, dust and debris exploding from the ceiling and even the statues barring the way. Then the sound of battle broke out somewhere. And everything exploded into action. Me included.

I saw shapes in the mist, smaller dog-like creatures racing forth, but huge shapes as well, towering brutes leaping at the statues with brutal abandon. The stone warriors answered with cold and mechanical precision, their arms raising their weapons and hammering down like a smith at his anvil. I turned and ran. Again. This time sprinting as hard as I could, summoning the sad last bit of strength I had left in me.

Mist shot out from openings left and right, out of doors and hallways I was passing, and I sprinted on. I heard the chaos and noise from falling mountains and breaking stones behind me. The city was being destroyed. The mountain itself brought down on the heads of the alien invaders. A last greeting from a dead and forgotten race of creators and builders. The ground shook violently around me and I had to slow down a bit, to set my steps with greater care.

The mist caught me in a small alley, billowing up with deceiving speed around me, and the dog-like creatures were the first to taste my blood.

I ran through the ever-thickening heavy mist, a tingle - no, a burning - on my skin were the droplets touched me. Without a sound or warning ice-cold daggers pierced my calf even as I activated [Stonehide], which took most of the impact. I stumbled in full sprint, went down hard, then tried to roll with it. Something followed tumbling behind me, thrown off by my momentum.

It was a creature built like a huge and muscular dog, seemingly painted into being with black, shimmering ink. It had six legs and a skull with several short...tendrils or tentacles. I was quicker to my feet by a hair and pierced his skull with the pointy side of my hammer I had ripped off my belt. One more of them had overshot me as I fell down, and had impacted a wall, was still trying to get to his feet. I threw myself on him, raising my hammer, again and again, just stopping when It ceased to spasm under me.

I ran on and tried to hide myself with [Walk the Night Unseen], but the next hunters didn't even hesitate for a second in their pursuit. I lost my hammer in the skull of the third dog, two struck me in the chest and the leg with their barbed tendrils, while I tried to get my large sword free of its scabbard at my back.

As I struck a jumping dog with as quick and precise a hit I could muster, requiring every ounce of [Improved Strength], the creature exploded under the impact into a black viscous liquid which showered me from head to toe. I stumbled onward after retrieving the Ravenbeak, both weapons ready in my hands.

There was no way to fight with this heavy and wide a sword in one hand, but I wanted it to be ready, just in case. Then, I was suddenly free of the mist. I could feel and see acid burning and bubbling on the craggy stone of the [Stonehide].

Was the mist itself the reason for the breaking structures? Did it corrode so quickly, what time so long had not been able to touch?

It burned and hurt where my [Stonehide] had already been split by the attacks of the dogs and the acid seeped onto my real skin. But I had done it, hadn't I?

There was the bridge! I took on tempo, fastening my weapons again, losing precious speed in the process. Zero seemed to know what I planned because he rattled around my back to secure my stuff and to wrap around the sword, which had the greatest chance of getting lost.

I gritted my teeth under the pain of the acid and my aching legs and jumped, while I released [Stonehide], so that the increased weight of the stone would not drag me underwater.

The water embraced me with a slap of cold and shock, but sweet relief from the pain. I came to the surface, gasping, trying to move my shocked limbs. The water was quick here, pressed in between walls of stone, way quicker than I had anticipated. I shot to the pier and before I even could raise my hand out of the water, I was beyond it.

With a crackling lash Zero shot out from behind my head, reaching the pillar with the very end of him, for the rest of him was still wrapped around me and my belongings. But he fettered himself to the pillar of the pier and for a few seconds, I bounced in the stream hanging on a chain, that held me in the torrent, constricting me in the process. I do not know how I managed to pull myself to the pier, but I spat water once I had done it. It had not been my strength, It must have been Zero saving my life.

I could hear the splash of creatures jumping into the water behind me. I grabbed one of the upturned boats, dragging it with all I got, screaming defiantly in the face of death. Then I was out of the water, dragging myself over the railing.

The boat, perfectly round and big enough for four people, swayed wildly and I almost lost balance as I slashed the line to the pier with my sword the same moment Zero let go of the pillar. We began to drift away, gaining speed every second.

Then some of the swimmers reached the boat. I could not see them clearly in the dark. My lantern had naturally gone out and maybe lost in the water and my Mana had been spent on [Stonehide], so I had not enough left for even a moment of [Eyes to Pierce the Darkness]. There were still glittering specks of light in the ceiling and I saw shapes and limbs, tentacles, and eyes so black, they stood out from the darkness around them.

I smashed, hacked, punched, kicked, and shoved. I felt Zero move, freeing himself from my things and torso, whirling with a whistling sound through the air above and around me, smashing faces, lashing out with speed and force. He did not seem to be hindered by the darkness at all.

For a couple of minutes, the only sounds I heard was the rushing of water and blood in my ears, and the squelching noises of steel hitting flesh. Then my little boat stopped rocking, got free, and shot forth into the narrow tunnel with anewed speed.

The tunnel was so narrow in fact, that I could have touched the walls on either side of the boat, which was gliding on smoothly, never much impacting the sides and when it did, it was only a slight bump to correct the course. It was perfectly built.

The water had saved me. Where I had been struck by the creatures, and where it had pierced [Stonehide], the acid was still bubbling and still deepening the wounds. Had the water not washed away all of that on me, I would have been dead already. I was now carefully, and painfully, removing all of that bloody foam that was left in my wounds. On my leg, my deepest wound by far, I had to go so far as to really scrape it out. I lost consciousness a few seconds and screamed as I dangled the leg over the side of the boat to wash away the residue. The ice-cold water was a balm on my tortured soul.

I was done. Once again I was done. "You saved my life buddy!" I said to Zero with true admiration. And with nothing to see or do in the eternal darkness of a tunnel that did not seem to stop, I fell to sleep eventually.

When I came too, I was gently rocking back and forth, caressed by a calm and cool breeze on my face. Around me was a lake. And above me the sweet blazing sting of sunlight in my eyes