As the Deathmist continued flowing out of its body, the phantom’s confidence finally began to crack.
For all its earlier declarations about enduring torture and embracing death, the reality proved very different when its existence was truly being stripped away. Deathmist wasn’t merely power. It wasn’t some expendable resource that could be replenished with time.
It was its vitality. Its essence. The very thing anchoring it to existence.
The creature’s body trembled violently.
"Wait..." it whispered.
The word barely escaped its lips. Then its eyes widened as more Deathmist streamed from its body.
"Wait..."
Its voice rose in panic.
"No... stop..."
I looked down at it calmly.
"No. I don’t see any reason to."
The phantom stared at me.
"There are plenty of others like you that I can interrogate."
For a moment it simply froze. Then genuine terror appeared in its eyes.
"No..."
Its voice cracked.
"Wait... I... I don’t want to die."
The irony almost made me laugh. Only minutes ago it had been preaching about sacrifice, eternal service, and unwavering loyalty. Now it sounded no different from any ordinary mortal facing the end.
I watched the Deathmist continue to leave its body.
"You are an abomination. You died a long time ago."
Another scream escaped its throat.
"What remains is nothing more than a puppet wearing the corpse of a dead soul."
The trembling intensified.
Its remaining limbs shook uncontrollably as more and more Deathmist poured from its ruined body.
Eventually the pleading stopped. All of it faded away. Not because it had accepted death. Because it no longer had the strength to resist it.
The phantom simply lay there, staring at the ceiling with hollow eyes. There was no fanaticism left within them.
Only exhaustion.
Now we could finally have a proper conversation. I loosened my grip on the Deathmist slightly.
The creature immediately noticed. Its eyes shifted toward me.
"Now then," I said. "Tell me what you know about the All-Seeing Eyes and which Eternal possesses them."
For several seconds there was no response. Then a hoarse voice emerged from the broken phantom.
"Not much. They are a special set of eyes... capable of revealing information. Visions. Clues. They help uncover secrets that would otherwise remain hidden."
I listened silently.
"The Lacome Eternal possesses them."
I nodded.
That matched what little information I had gathered so far.
"And where can I find this Lacome Eternal?"
"Region Four."
My eye twitched. For a brief moment I considered punching it again. Fortunately, I managed to restrain myself. The phantom was currently balanced in a delicate state somewhere between life and death. Disturbing that state might cause it to collapse before I finished gathering information.
Instead, I took a slow breath.
"Where in Region Four?"
The phantom hesitated before answering.
"Every morning... the daily meeting..."
"What meeting?"
"The control tower."
Its voice was growing weaker by the second.
"The Lacome Eternal attends the daily briefing there."
I nodded.
"And where exactly is this control tower?"
The phantom lifted a trembling hand.
"The tallest building in the region..."
It coughed violently.
"The one with the globe... and the black eye insignia."
That narrowed it down considerably.
"Understood."
The phantom glowing horizontal lines dimmed. Perhaps it thought the questioning was over. Perhaps it simply lacked the strength to keep them open.
Either way, I rose to my feet.
"Well then. You’ve done well. It’s time for you to rest."
The phantom stared at me. Then, slowly, its shoulders relaxed. I wasn’t sure whether it was relief or resignation. Perhaps it was both. With a final motion, I devoured the remaining Deathmist within its body.
The last traces of black mist flowed into my hand. The phantom’s eyes lost their light. Its body collapsed onto the stone floor.
This time, there would be no resurrection. No Eternal dragging it back into another mockery of life.
Only silence. At long last, the creature was truly dead.
The moment the phantom’s body hit the floor, I left the underground chamber.
There was no reason to linger. The interrogation had yielded exactly what I needed. More importantly, the creature was finally at peace. Whatever twisted existence the Eternals had forced upon it had come to an end.
Even as the artificial sky shifted toward afternoon, countless figures continued moving through the streets below. Administrators barked orders from elevated platforms. Phantoms drifted between districts wrapped in clouds of Deathmist. Massive transport constructs carried supplies from one sector to another while endless streams of souls marched through the avenues like obedient ants.
I blended into the crowd without difficulty.
Nobody paid attention to a hooded figure walking among thousands.
For several hours I wandered through the region, slowly making my way toward the location described by the phantom.
Fortunately, the building wasn’t difficult to identify. Even from several kilometers away it dominated the skyline.
The Control Tower rose high above the surrounding structures like a black spear piercing the heavens. Countless floors spiraled upward around a central pillar, while a massive metallic globe floated near its peak. Beneath the globe sat an enormous insignia resembling a cluster of black eyes staring in every direction at once.
I chuckled.
"Subtle. Very subtle."
I found a rooftop several blocks away and settled down to observe.
The tower remained active throughout the day. Personnel entered and exited continuously. Flying constructs arrived at regular intervals. Groups of administrators passed through the gates carrying documents and crystalline devices.
Yet after several hours a pattern slowly emerged.
My eyes narrowed. The ordinary residents of Region Four never entered.
Not once.
The people moving through the gates belonged to only two categories.
Phantoms.
And administrators.
Specifically administrators who possessed unusually dense rune networks embedded within their souls.
I focused my vision and activated Right To Insight.
The world shifted. Layers of information became visible to me.
Souls, energy, runes.
The countless markings hidden beneath the surface of reality. Almost immediately another detail caught my attention.
The ground beneath the tower.
A massive formation stretched across the entire district.
At first glance it appeared identical to countless other formations scattered throughout the region.
It wasn’t.
The deeper I looked, the more complex it became.
Thousands upon thousands of interconnected runes formed an enormous detection network centered around the tower itself. Streams of information continuously flowed through the formation before being transmitted toward the upper levels.
I spent the next hour studying it. Eventually I decoded it. The formation wasn’t detecting physical bodies.
It was tracking souls. More specifically, it was tracking the rune signatures embedded within those souls.
Every administrator possessed them. The formation identified them automatically and granted access accordingly.
Which explained why no ordinary resident ever approached the building. The moment someone lacking the proper signature attempted entry, the formation would know.
I leaned back against the rooftop.
According to the phantom, the next meeting wouldn’t occur until tomorrow morning. That gave me plenty of time. What I didn’t have was any intention of waiting outside until then.
I needed a look inside.
A proper one.