It still felt so strange.
Nick was looking at the Nightmare.
He was actually looking at the Nightmare's real body.
Had any human seen the Nightmare's real body before?
It was just so strange.
This was an Eternal.
Something that could end all of humanity if it wanted.
And yet, Nick could just stand here, looking at it.
The fact that his ability was still active meant that the Nightmare either couldn't or didn't perceive him.
Either it was simply not paying attention to him…
Or it was unable to pay attention to anything.
Was the Nightmare truly only a corpse?
Something that didn't even have a will?
But then, where did all of this endless hatred come from?
After all, the Nightmare's illusions were filled with the purest hatred imaginable.
It was like the Nightmare wanted to cause as much suffering in the world as possible.
Yet, could a corpse even have such feelings?
Nick looked away from the corpse and closed his eyes.
Then, he focused on his Zephyx Synchronizer.
When he saw that it was changing, he felt his heart rate spike.
'There have been people with the ability of an Eternal before, but has there ever been anyone with the abilities of two Eternals?' Nick thought.
'Maybe someone got one from the Maw after getting one from the Sun or the Null, but I can't be sure.'
Nick opened his eyes again and looked at the corpse.
'After arriving here, I don't think anyone has ever gotten the ability of the Nightmare.'
'Sadly, I can't find out what ability it would give to new Extractors. I barely managed to get here on my own, and I don't think I can pull someone with me.'
'But that doesn't matter now. I should focus on my ability advancement.'
Nick closed his eyes again and focused on his Zephyx Synchronizer.
A couple of minutes passed.
And then, Nick felt his Zephyx Synchronizer stop changing.
'I can feel it,' Nick thought.
Nick opened his eyes again and looked away.
Then, he focused on a random spot and made his Zephyx move.
Nick's Zephyx rapidly drained and vanished into nothing.
Based on the Nightmare's powers, Nick had a good guess as to what ability he had unlocked.
'However, since it has to be connected to my main ability, this probably means that it must be related to perception as well. I should test it on Aria later since she probably wants to make sure that I didn't manage to get the Nightmare's ability.'
Nick looked in the direction of where he came from.
Then, he glanced a last time at the Nightmare.
The corpse was just lying there.
In silence.
It was like time didn't exist in here.
He wondered what the background of this corpse was.
Was it just how the Specter looked, or was it an actual corpse?
In the end, Nick just shook his head and ran towards the place where his shoes were.
He arrived there pretty quickly and put them back on.
The white endlessness of Zephyx ended at this spot and was replaced by an infinite darkness.
The Nightmare's influence didn't touch this area, but as soon as Nick stepped into the darkness, it would return.
'I only have to return,' Nick thought.
Nick prepared himself mentally.
And then, he stepped into the darkness.
…
Nothing.
Silence.
Nick was inside the darkness, but nothing was happening.
No pain.
No illusions.
Nick opened his eyes again and looked around.
Everything was black.
Even the area behind him was black, even though there had just been the endless white.
That was when Nick saw it.
In the distance was a thin white line.
Nick blinked a couple of times in surprise.
If his guess was right…
Since there were no illusions, Nick decided to run forward.
Earlier, when he had traveled through the darkness to the Nightmare, he had walked very slowly, taking one step at a time.
This meant that the rope wasn't actually that far away.
From what Nick could see, it was maybe two or three kilometers away.
Nick reached the white line in a minute and stopped in front of it.
Sure enough, this was the rope.
Nick furrowed his brows.
'Is the influence of the Nightmare no longer working on me?'
Nick turned to look in the direction of where the Nightmare was.
'It has no intelligence and no will. Therefore, it probably also has no way to see that its power isn't working on me.'
Nick lifted his right arm and looked at it.
Earlier, it had been impossible for him to see anything down here except for torture.
But now, he could also see his hand easily.
'My arm isn't shining with light, like the rope. So, how can I actually see it?'
'Can I actually perfectly see in the dark now?'
Nick couldn't be sure.
'Or all of this is just one of the Nightmare's tricks, and I actually ran into a random direction.'
Yet, even though this possibility was terrifying, Nick didn't feel like it was true.
He didn't feel any danger.
Nick slowly grabbed the rope.
Then, he gritted his teeth and bit a chunk of his left hand off.
It hurt a lot, but he wanted to seem desperate.
Finally, he rapidly tugged on the rope a couple of times.
CRK!
The harpoon loosened, and the rope started to ascend while Nick kept hold of it.
Nick looked upward and saw a black wall rapidly approaching.
Then, he looked one last time in the direction of the Nightmare.
It was still difficult for him to believe that he had seen the Nightmare.
Finally, Nick shook his head and gritted his teeth before he vanished into the darkness together with the harpoon.
The world had returned to perfect darkness.
Nothing was living here.
Nothing was happening here.
And yet, just a couple of kilometers away was a land of perfect white upon which a rotting corpse lay.
It just lay there.
Forever.
Unchanging.
On the perfect white surrounded by the perfect black.
In silence.