?Nick took a deep breath and grabbed the next grip.
He fixed that one onto the wall just like the other ones and continued moving forward.
Two minutes later, Nick's entire Barrier was surrounded by red mist.
Nick kept looking at the metal in front of him with a fixed gaze, but he could still see the mix of green and red in the corner of his eyes.
Without asking for it, an image of how he most likely looked right now appeared in Nick's mind.
He was facing an endlessly "tall" wall of metal while he was "climbing" it by creating a long ladder.
The world around him was covered in red mist that seemed to blow towards the "wall".
And in the opposite direction…
An endless domain of red with eyes in it.
An eye, over ten meters wide, was looking at Nick's back.
Its focus was unwavering, and its gaze intense.
It kept looking at Nick.
And looking.
And looking.
And looking.
Never turning away.
Never blinking.
As Nick kept moving, the huge eye kept following him.
Even though a world of mist was between them, the eye was very clearly visible.
Ever since Nick had entered the red world, his ability had deactivated and hadn't activated again.
Something was looking at him.
Always.
The Specter that Nick had freed was looking at him.
Usually, the power to notice when someone was looking at Nick was a great advantage.
But right now, it only increased Nick's terror.
Nick could feel the eyes boring into the back of his head.
He felt like somebody was directly behind him, constantly looking at him.
Unwavering.
Just waiting for Nick to make a mistake.
The crimson glow around Nick pulsed slowly.
There was more light and less light.
Luckily, the Crimson Sea's light kept the Nightmare at bay.
Nevertheless, the crimson glow's pulse made it seem like it was alive.
Nick's breathing had already quickened, and sweat was dripping down from his body.
"Hahahaha!"
Nick almost turned to look to his side when he heard the laughter.
"Hahahaha!"
Nick didn't look away from the metal in front of him.
Splash… splash.
How many people had already died to the Crimson Sea?
How much damage had Nick done to the city by freeing it?
When his mind arrived at that thought, Nick immediately steered it away from it.
He felt afraid.
He felt afraid of thinking about yesterday.
He couldn't face his actions.
He just couldn't.
Nick didn't move for a long while as the red mist kept engulfing him.
If he faced his actions…
If he did it…
He couldn't!
He didn't want to die.
He wanted to continue living.
Nick felt the familiar dark hole in his chest expanding.
Everything bright and positive in Nick's life orbited the hole until it was absorbed, never to be seen again.
Nick wanted to cry.
He wanted to shout that he was sorry.
He wanted to say that he would make it right.
But he didn't.
He just couldn't.
The bright lights orbiting the black hole lost some of their brightness, but at the same time, the hole seemed to become less prominent.
It was still there, but with fewer lights highlighting it, it didn't seem as powerful.
Nick gritted his teeth before he took a deep breath.
Then, he took out the next-
Ding!
The grip fell out of Nick's right hand and fell away.
Nick reflexively turned to-
'No!'
Nick immediately pulled himself to the wall again with all of his power.
CRACK!
Yet, while the grips were stable, they couldn't resist his full power, and he tore the grip in his left hand out of the ceiling.
Nick's eyes widened as he saw the wall in front of him falling away.
The crimson world was becoming brighter.
BANG!
Nick's right leg shot through the hole of the grip it was on and worked as an anchor.
At this moment, Nick was essentially kneeling on the ceiling.
He was facing the gigantic eye in the crimson world.
With closed eyes.
Nick had shut his eyes with all of his strength.
He could see a faint crimson glow through his eyelids, but that was it.
Seconds passed.
Then, Nick took a deep breath.
'I'm still alive,' he thought.
Nick moved closer to the ceiling again before he slowly and carefully opened his eyes again.
He had never been so happy to have his vision filled by metal.
After calming down for several seconds, Nick carefully looked at the damage.
A couple of big tears were on the metal plate in front of Nick.
This was where Nick had torn out the grip.
He couldn't put another grip there.
After some planning, Nick decided to create something he called a quick step.
There was a bit less than a meter of distance between grips on the same side.
Nick decided to avoid the damaged part by putting the grip at 75% of the usual distance and then putting another one also at 75% of the usual distance.
Naturally, the grips on the other side mirrored the distance.
Like this, the distance between grips would be smaller for a couple of steps, but it would quickly return to normal after getting past the point.
He decided to do it like this since he preferred having more grips over having fewer grips.
After a bit of work, he was done fixing his mistake and took a deep breath.
Then, he continued fixing the grips to the ceiling.
Some minutes later, Nick noticed that he had lost around 40% of his Zephyx.
'I can survive for around 50 minutes in total in here,' Nick realized.
His left arm touched the inside of the big sack of grips for a bit.
'I have five more. I can finish putting them onto the ceiling. Then, I have to go back.'
Nick continued putting the grips onto the wall.
"Hahahaha!"
Nick's eyes widened.
He wanted to look over, but he refused to turn his head.
Instead, he only looked at the wall in front of him.
For a while, he didn't move.
'That sounded like Kiara.'