White.
Black.
Nothing.
Silence.
This was what Nick felt.
Nick had stopped walking.
There were no more illusions.
There was no more pain.
Everything had become silent.
Everything around him was perfectly black…
Except for the floor.
It was perfectly white.
Silence.
Everything was silent.
Nothing moved.
Nick's mind slowly returned.
BANG!
And he collapsed onto the ground.
His mind didn't think.
It was just there.
Existing.
Nick closed his eyes and released a brea-
'No!'
Nick only released a tiny bit of his breath before he stopped, his mind snapping awake.
He hadn't known anything about the world just now, but when he had started to release his breath, something inside of him screamed at him.
Nick closed his eyes and gathered his thoughts.
'It stopped,' he thought.
'Everything has stopped.'
'I'm not dead, or I wouldn't have been so afraid of releasing my breath.'
'Yet, there are no more illusions and no more pain.'
'So, where am I?'
Nick slowly stood up, his journey from just now fading from his mind.
It was almost like one of the Dreamer's dreams.
It was like none of this had been real.
It was like he hadn't gone through any of this.
'For how long did I walk?' Nick thought.
He had no idea.
It could have been a minute.
It could have been several hours.
The only thing that gave him a clue about how long he was walking was the air in his lungs.
If he had been in here for longer than twelve hours or so, he would feel the need to take a breath.
However, he didn't feel that need.
A moment later, Nick looked around.
The white of the ground seemed unnatural.
Everything was so perfectly smooth and white.
Hadn't Aria said that there was no light in here?
So, why was the ground so white, and why could he see it?
Nick kneeled down and touched the ground.
That was when he felt it, and his eyes opened widely in shock.
'Zephyx!'
'All of this is Zephyx!'
Nick looked at the endlessness around him.
'And it's so incredibly dense and hard!'
Nick felt like the Zephyx was so dense and hard that just a tiny vial of it would be heavy enough to break all his bones.
The amount of Zephyx in this area…
Millions, billions, trillions of tons!
This was probably more Zephyx than all of humanity had access to.
'I can only think of one thing that can produce that much Zephyx,' Nick thought as he looked at the endless white plane.
Nobody knew where Nurse Alice was when she wasn't visiting any humans.
Nobody knew where the Maw was.
Nobody knew where the Null was.
Everybody knew where the Sun was, but no one could see behind it or beside it.
And the Nightmare?
'Is this the first time a human has reached an Eternal's domain?' Nick thought.
Nick silently looked at the endless white plane.
It felt so alien.
He was in darkness, but he didn't feel any pain.
This was a completely alien feeling.
Every human in the world associated darkness with pain.
It was like associating searing heat with pain.
But now, Nick was feeling the darkness but not pain.
It was like feeling acid burning his body but not associating that feeling with pain.
It was strange.
For a while, Nick just looked at the nothingness.
The hatred had also vanished, which meant that he didn't know where the Nightmare was.
'I've already come this far. There's no reason to turn back now,' Nick thought.
But instead of walking forward, Nick took off his shoes and left them at the exact spot where he stood.
Since he could see them now, he used them as a mark to get back.
And then, he walked forward.
'I should hurry up. I don't know how long I have already been in here,' he thought as he started to run.
In an instant, Nick had reached incredible speeds.
His ability was active, which meant that nobody was looking at him right now.
He ran for over 30 seconds, and the endless amount of Zephyx just never stopped.
But then, Nick's eyes narrowed, and his heart rate increased.
There was something in the distance.
It was not very tall, but there was something on the ground.
Nick slowed down and approached the object carefully and quietly.
The closer he got, the more careful he walked.
The Zephyx in the atmosphere around him became denser and denser, and Nick almost felt like he was passing through a mire of invisible Zephyx.
Eventually, Nick reached the object, and he looked down.
When Nick saw it, all his emotions screamed the same thing.
This was the Nightmare!
This had to be the Nightmare!
In front of Nick was a decaying corpse.
It was of average height, but the decomposition had already turned it thin and dried out.
Yet, the decomposition didn't seem to continue.
The corpse was half-decomposed, showing parts of its muscles and organs, but there was nothing else.
There was no smell.
There were no insects.
It was like a corpse that was frozen in time.
Even though he stood directly beside it, Nick's ability was still active.
He had no idea if this corpse was alive or not.
However, his soul was telling him that this was the Nightmare.
Was this the reason why it killed everyone in the darkness?
Was it like a corpse filled with highly toxic poison that killed anyone who came too close?
It was dead, but its power still covered the world?
Nick looked at the endless Zephyx around him.
'If it's dead, it wouldn't produce this much Zephyx.'
'Although, what if it actually isn't producing Zephyx?'
'What if this Zephyx was already here, and the corpse is actually converting the Zephyx into suffering?'
Nick raised an eyebrow.
'That wouldn't make much sense.'
Nick looked at the corpse for a while, and as he was doing so, his Zephyx Synchronizer was changing.
He was gaining the Nightmare's ability.