The blood dripped off my hands. I felt sick to my stomach...

I crawled over to the body, I flipped him over to his back. But the sight that awaited me only left me more confused, where his face would be was instead a mess of scratches, leaving nothing to even abstractly resemble a face.

I... I couldn't have done this. I don't believe it.

"I told you... You're going to find out. One way or another."

You! What did you do?!

Before I could think of a response, the voice was gone, either oblivious or uncaring to my questions.

I wasn't sure what was happening, but I couldn't stay here...

I got up and left from the workshop. I immediately noticed a stark difference to the surrounding scenery.

The sky, it was completely black. It can't have been night yet, It was midday when I went in just a few minutes ago.

I ran down the streets, rushing my way to the city guard headquarters. On my way, I saw a cart, drawn by familiar looking horse golems. Golems that were ripped apart and scrapped.

Sitting at the head of the cart, was Findal. I hadn't seen him in some time, but I'd never imagine our next meeting would be in this state. He was pinned to the cart by a giant stake that pierced through his chest. His face, like Grav's, was a mess of scratches and bloody scribbles, leaving nothing to resemble a face.

"This wouldn't be happening if you stopped being so... persistent."

I... I didn't do this. Why are you doing this to me?!

"Why?!" I screamed out. Echoing in the dark streets to no response. Defeated, I continue my trek to the center of the city, to inform the guards about this.

That voice... It was louder now, coming from everyone at once. Why now of all times? What does it want from me?

As I went down the road, I saw another site. It was a clinic. This must've been Octavia's clinic. I've never been here before, but I've been down this road many times now. Had I gotten lost and taken a wrong turn.

Approaching the entrance, I readied myself for whatever could be beyond it. I entered the building, and despite my attempts to steel my nerves, the sight froze me regardless.

From a thin rope hung Lillith, Octavia's young daughter. A puddle of what could only be blood was below her dangling body. As I stared in horror at the sight, the body twitches.

Immediately, I rush over and free her from the rope around her neck. But as I cradled her in my arms, the situation changes.

After a short blink, Lillith had been replaced by Octavia, and my hands no longer supported weight, but were rather wrapped around her throat. I pulled back, causing the lifeless body to drop into the blood puddle below us.

My hands had scratches from resistance... But, I didn't...

"You could've saved them this fate, but you insisted on fighting a hopeless battle. This is your fault."

How... How could I have known? There was no way I could've-

"Excuses. You know this is your fault, even if you won't admit it."

T- The guards... They can... Can still help...

"You still don't get it. There is no one who would help you. After all, you did this to them. Like everyone who came before you, and everyone who'll come after."

"What... The fuck are you talking ABOUT!!" My voice raised as I yelled this out.

"Why do you insist on tormenting me like this..." I asked, falling to my knees, and burying my face in my blood-soaked hands.

"Even still... You hold out some semblance of will. There is a breaking point though. Everyone has one."

After a while of waiting, the voice died down. I have to keep going.

I got up, forcing myself to keep walking, even if everything else was telling me to give up.

The headquarters... It was in sight. I rounded the last corner, and walked uphill along the path. I don't what I was expecting... It was the same as the rest of what I'd seen.

Blood and bodies littered the ground. My mind was filled with visions of atrocious acts. But, I couldn't have done these things, I would never do... any of this.

"Oh god no... H- How did..." I muttered, three bodies stood out among the piles of the guards' corpses surrounding me.

A wood adorned body, who's magical armor had been caved in, crushing who was within... An elf, with electric blue hair, and legs with joints forcefully broken and reversed... Lastly, a woman wearing a helmet, who's spear had been split in two, and pierced her skull through where her eyes once were...

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All three of them, dead. I stood there, my eyes locked on the bodies. Yet, there was no belittlement from an omnipresent voice.

Instead, an eerie silence filled the confines of my mind, and the rest of the city. I was alone. The last one left in a city of death.

I wandered the empty streets, anywhere life once was, only the miasma of death remained. With every passing moment I grew more alone. My thoughts being the only company I had, thoughts of why this was happening, and if I had caused it.

Black days were replaced by blood red moons, illuminating the starless night sky enough, only to see more of the horrors this city had been reduced to.

Hours turned to days, and days into weeks. I lost track of the time I spent, wandering the insides of these massive walls. But despite the time, I never got used to the sights. Fearful of what I might find next, I stopped searching.

I lied in the middle of a main road, bustling with trade and commerce no longer. Why must I be tormented like this? Was any of this real? I had been here too long for it to be a dream.

"You are... Different, than the others he has brought here." I hear someone say. My thoughts have been getting to the point of audibility it seems.

"After such a long time, you still have yet to give in." I hear again. Odd, this doesn't sound like my inner monologue, and it doesn't have the same feeling as the voice.

"I'd say he bit off more than he could chew when he brought you here." Upon hearing this, I tilt my head back to see where the voice was coming from. To my shock, a man was standing there, leaning overtop of me.

I scramble to my feet and back off, unsure of his intentions. This was the only contact I've had for weeks, and it was just as strange as the lack of it.

The man in front of me, if you could call it a man, was about my height, dressed head to toe in a black outfit. From heavy looking boots, to the open duster and cowboy hat, pitch black, to the point I could barely make out any details in the clothes at all. It was strange, these clothes looked oddly... familiar. I hadn't seen anything like them in this world I was brought to, instead, they looked as if you plucked them off of earth and brought them here.

His clothes were far from the strangest thing however, despite being partially covered by the hat, I could tell the man didn't have any facial features at all, and his skin, was just as dark as the clothes he wore. It's like I was staring at the void, and I could tell he was staring back at me...

"So you still got some fight left in you, huh?" The man said to me. He put his hands into his pockets as he did.

"You're gonna need it in a place like this." He continued.

"W- What do you mean? Where are we?" I ask him, confused as to what he meant.

"So I guess that head of yours is just for show then. Look around, you really haven't figured it out?" He asked me. Confused, I began to look around at the city we were in, I didn't know what this man meant by that.

"Anyone with an inkling of magic could figure out this is an illusion. A damn fine one, but an illusion nonetheless." He explained. As he did, he took out a knife from his pocket, and slashed it at the empty air to the side of him.

I stared in disbelief, as the knife appeared to cut something, leaving an opening in the air which he sliced. It steadied for a few seconds before it resealed.

"What did you just do? What was that?" I began asking. He put the knife away before answering.

"Like I said, it's an illusion, all I did was... distort it a little." He said, smugly.

"That is ENOUGH." The voice returned.

"Uh oh, looks like I made him mad." The man said. I was stunned, he acted like he could hear the voice.

"Wait, can you hear the voice too?" I ask him, while motioning around me.

"Course I can, that bastard is the reason I'm here to begin with." He answered. I was shocked, that meant I wasn't the only one that voice had brought here. There were others like me.

" *sigh* Yeah, yeah. Sorry, you weren't my first choice." The voice rang out.

"Yeah no shit, cause I was. Though, it seems like you still haven't figured out the best way to do it. You tried a bit too hard with me, and not hard enough with him." He said, directing to the voice.

"What do you mean he 'didn't try hard enough'?" I asked him.

"You got a headache when you first got here yeah? Well you fought back enough it seems, and stopped the transformation halfway. So, you didn't get any magic from him." He explained.

"Alright, I've had it with you, you are leaving, NOW." The voice said. What looked like a portal opened up under the man dressed in black, and he began to slowly sink into it.

"Welp, looks like this is where we part ways, see you later Gen." The man said nonchalantly.

"Wait! Who are you?" I ask as he sunk further down, hands still in him pockets.

"Me? I'm Nobody... Haha! Man, I love that book." Nobody continued laughing at his joke as he was eventually fully submerged in the portal, and it closed behind him.

Once again, I was alone. In a city that I now knew was falsified.

Determined to break free from the voice's game, I pressed my hands against street below, and began to focus my energy into my hands.

It was difficult, and I had no choice but to follow my instincts as the tingling grew into a burn and once again that green aura began to flow around me.

In a final push, the energy was ejected, and the space around me cracked. Pieces of empty air shattered and fell into an abyss, and soon enough, I fell with them.

As the dim bits of light from the city disappeared above me, I was engulfed in a twilight space. I floated freely and looked around for any sign out.

After a few moments of hopeless searching, sparkles of light began to circle around me, before drifting off in another direction. These sparkles continued to grow in numbers and gathered far away from me. They were forming the shape of something, but I couldn't make out what it was just yet.

"You play a dangerous game, Gen Justarios." The voice returned, louder than ever. The sparkles finished collecting and what formed was a face. It was massive, spanning what seemed like miles.

The face and voice synced together, communicating with me more directly than ever before.

"I am the will of something greater than you could imagine. This pointless fighting does naught but delay your downfall." With this statement, the sparkling lights deform and encase me in a bright light, forcing my eyes to close.

When I open my eyes again, I'm in a familiar place, Grav's workshop. I rub my head as the headache still lingers from when I was sent into that illusion.

"Kid! Yer awake! Ya had me going for a bit there." I hear Grav shout out from across the room.

"Grav... How long was I out?" I ask him.

"Only about five minutes or so, any longer and I would've gone and gotten Octavia." He tells me.

Only five minutes? That illusion was something else, and Nobody... What role does he play in all of this, and how did he get into that illusion in the first place?

So many questions and no way to find out the answers. I can only hope an opportunity will show itself in the future.

I stand up and steady myself, for better or for worse, I'm ready to get back to work.