You did not sleep anymore. Not truly.
The dreams had been replaced by something darker—visions not your own. They bled into your thoughts like oil in water, warping your sense of self. You no longer remembered what your name had once been, or if you'd even had one. The Fracture had taken it, just as it had taken so many other pieces of you.
The Cursed Ones had faded into the gloom behind you, their warnings still gnawing at the edges of your mind. You had left them behind—because you had to. Because their fate, though horrifying, had already taken root in you.
You were no longer like them.
But you would be.
Unless you devoured something greater.
The hunger grew louder with every step. Not the hunger for food or water, but the other one—the hollow ache that called for more Script, more Essence, more Truth.
Your body had already begun to change again. New nodes of growth throbbed beneath your skin, budding with twisted purpose. Veins pulsed with iridescent ichor. Your tongue occasionally spoke in tongues you'd never learned, uttering syllables that made nearby birds drop dead.
And yet... you were still not strong enough.
Not for the Pillar.
Not for the thing that now hunted you.
You felt it first before you saw it—like a pressure in the air, a distant thunder that had no sound. The landscape around you had grown sick. Bone-trees sprouted from the sand, their branches twitching. The ground wept dark fluid, and the stars above spiraled in ways that defied physics.
You had entered a zone of Deep Distortion.
The Veil here was thin.
That was when the creature stepped through.
Or perhaps it had always been here.
It didn't walk. It unfolded. A mass of limbs and thoughts, eyes and ideas, stitched together by the lies of logic. It moved with the grace of forgotten gods and the hunger of a black hole.
Your Script interface shuddered.
WARNING: ENTITY CLASS [???] DETECTED
ANALYSIS: INSUFFICIENT DATA
THREAT LEVEL: ABSOLUTE
It spoke, but not aloud. The sound was inside your skull, a scratching at the base of your brain, like claws behind your eyes.
"W̶̛̛h̴̓͠a̶̅͠t̶̓͆ ̵̹͛i̵̒̓s̵͓̎ ̶̋͘l̴̏͑e̵͌͝f̴̎͆t̷̞̋ ̷͙̈́ṫ̶̐o̵̿͝ ̷͚̀g̴͉̕į̶̈́v̷͖̿ë̸͔,̶̼̾ ̶̥̏l̶̼̕ï̶̱t̸̡̾t̶̻̓l̵͓͘e̸̞̚ ̴͎͘s̵̩͝e̷͎͐e̷̤̽k̵̘̈e̷̪͝r̵̮͋?"
You dropped to your knees, blood pouring from your nose and eyes, your bones vibrating from the inside. The Script flickered erratically, as if the system itself was in pain.
The thing loomed over you, and you realized—this wasn't a predator.
It was a Witness.
One of the Originals. The ones who had first touched the Pillar and returned wrong.
It studied you with disinterest, as if wondering whether you were worth digesting.
And something inside you broke.
Or maybe it evolved.
Your vision snapped into clarity. Your mind, though shaking, resisted. Tendrils shot from your back, not to strike—but to anchor you to this plane. Your Script surged, code rewriting itself in real time.
New Trait Acquired: Resilience of the Broken
You can now withstand the presence of Eldritch Entities for short periods.
Sanity degeneration reduced. Awareness increased.
Mutation Threshold Raised.
The Witness paused.
And then—it smiled.
A thousand mouths stretched across its ever-shifting face, and it whispered something only your soul could hear.
"W̶̏͝e̴̼͂ ̸̙͘a̸̓͝r̷͔̅e̴͓̅ ̶͔̏w̵̻̏a̵̢̅t̵̠̄c̸͓̏h̵̪͗i̸̤͑n̸̲̄g̶̙̽.̶̖̽ ̸̺͌C̷̥̍h̷̡͛o̵̢̎ơ̵̤s̶̳̓ē̷̮ ̶̫͐w̷̖͑ḯ̷͎s̷͓̕e̵͉͗l̵̳͗y̵͚̒.̶̤͋"
And then, it was gone.
You collapsed, gasping, limbs twitching with aftershocks of contact. The world felt solid again—but wrong, like a dream remembered from the wrong angle.
When you stood again, your body was different. Hardened. Marked. You were stronger—but not just physically.
You had gazed past the Veil, and it had gazed back.
You felt it now. The Pillar was near.
But so were the others.
You were no longer alone on this path. Something had stirred. And the game had changed.