Nick entered the Fiend of Darkness while holding the rope.
The first thing he felt was that he was suddenly being pulled forward, and he used the rope to realign himself with gravity's new direction.
The next thing he felt was the familiar pain of being under the Nightmare's influence.
Since Nick had his eyes closed, he couldn't see what was happening to him.
He could only feel it.
He felt something sharp and burning entering his chest.
He felt his muscles being pulled from his bones.
He felt acid encompassing his body.
The Nightmare's creativity was immeasurable, and it often combined different tortures.
Nick gritted his teeth and did his best not to release the breath he was holding.
But it was difficult.
It was so very difficult.
The pain was just so bad.
This was the worst pain someone could imagine, and it happened to him endlessly.
This was a pain that could only exist when someone was being killed by something, but Nick just didn't stop existing.
It was difficult for Nick to focus on the rope he was holding in his hand.
When he had been swimming in the sewers many years ago, he hadn't been able to orient himself under the Nightmare's influence, but after years of experience, he had become pretty good at it.
The pain was unbearable, but he could still feel where he was.
BANG!
Finally, Nick felt his body colliding with something hard with a lot of force, and he knew that he had hit the bottom.
He knew that this was not an illusion since the force didn't hurt that much.
The next moment, Nick felt like the left side of his ribcage had collapsed as something incredibly hard hit him there.
He felt himself getting flung into the distance before getting impaled by spikes.
His entire body was covered in sweat, and he tried his best not to fall into panic.
This attack had felt so incredibly real.
He felt like someone had just kicked him into the distance.
'It's not real! No matter how real it feels!' Nick told himself as he tried to move while being impaled.
He could still feel the subtle tug of the rope.
He moved his hand downward a bit and felt the metallic feeling of the harpoon.
Yes, he had reached the bottom.
At that moment, burning spikes poked through his eyelids and entered his eyes.
For just an instant, Nick had been able to see them, which terrified him.
'It's not real!' Nick thought as he gritted his teeth so hard that blood was flowing out.
But it was so difficult to tell his emotions that none of this was real.
The Nightmare's illusions had never felt so real before!
"YOU KILLED ME!"
The hate-filled scream of a little boy echoed in Nick's ears.
Even though it had been many years, Nick still remembered Horua's voice.
'I know!' Nick thought with gritted teeth as many human teeth bit into his shoulder. 'I'll repay my debt to you!'
Nick tried his best to remain calm, and a moment later, he focused on his Zephyx Synchronizer.
Sadly, that was almost impossible since he was assaulted by pain every single moment.
He could only feel his Zephyx Synchronizer at small moments between rapid explosions of pain.
It was like trying to see a part of the sun while thick clouds of smoke blocked it.
Outside, in the Fiend of Darkness' Containment Unit, a huge amount of Zephyx was produced.
The Fiend of Darkness kept producing Zephyx while somebody was inside it.
Aria technically didn't need to ask for how long Nick wanted to stay in there since she only needed to feel the Zephyx in the surroundings, but she wanted to be sure.
What if the Fiend of Darkness actually had a maximum amount of Zephyx it could produce in a day, and she prematurely pulled the harpoon out while Nick was still alive?
Over 30 seconds had passed, and Aria raised an eyebrow.
Surviving for 30 seconds under such torture was already impressive.
She could tell that Nick was still alive since she felt subtle vibrations on the rope.
Most humans would fall unconscious when assaulted with so much pain.
However, the thing with the Nightmare was that it kept assaulting the mind while it was unconscious.
But since the person didn't feel that much while unconscious, it would take quite a while for them to die.
Inside the domain of darkness, Nick kept looking at his Zephyx Synchronizer.
From time to time, he could feel it.
It wasn't changing.
It was the same as always, and Nick hadn't felt any change.
This meant that he was not close enough to any Specter to absorb their ability.
If it were possible to get the Nightmare's ability, he would be able to see at least a subtle change in his Zephyx Synchronizer.
But there wasn't any.
This meant that Nick couldn't get the Nightmare's ability.
When Nick saw that, he gritted his teeth even harder.
Even though he had expected this to happen, he was still scared and frustrated.
If it were that easy to get the Nightmare's ability, people would have already attained it.
Aria had said that the Fiend of Darkness couldn't give the Nightmare's ability, and Kugelblitz had probably invested tens if not hundreds of millions of credits in researching the Fiend of Darkness.
Powerful Extractors had probably been here for several minutes, if not hours, after years of preparation.
He wouldn't be able to get the Nightmare's ability here.
Nick resisted the urge to take in a deep breath and stood up, still holding the rope.
Then, he opened his eyes.
An endless sea of hate-filled grimaces assaulted him.
He was drowning in an eternity of endless hatred.
The grimaces were tearing at him with their teeth, and Nick saw his innards getting pulled out and consumed.
Opening one's eyes while under the Nightmare's influence was a bad idea since that made it much harder to orient oneself.
Nick tried his best to look around.
He felt the hatred of the faces deep inside himself.
They wanted to make him suffer for all eternity!
For several seconds, Nick just felt the hatred.
And then, he turned to look in a direction.
Nick felt like all the hatred originated from that place.
Nick's mind was going wild.
He wanted to return!
He wanted to go back!
He couldn't take this anymore!
But then, the image of all the people of the Dregs melting in the Crimson Sea's mist shot through his mind.
'I don't deserve to give up,' Nick thought with narrowed eyes.
'I need to redeem myself!'
And then, he did it.
He let go of the rope…
And walked into the darkness.
'If I die now, I deserve to die!'