They both looked towards the Hollow Quill, who had been waiting for them.
“I see no one has died.
Frankly, I’m surprised.
You were both really fast in the first phase.
But the higher you climb, the harder it gets.
So, Accompanying Flesh and Starved Soul, I’m going to explain to you both what you can expect in the second phase.” he said politely, but somewhat coldly.
The Hollow Quill stands on a mountain of books, carving a glowing line into a leather binding.
“Survival is an entry fee, not a victory.
You have proven you can fight blind.
Now, let us see if you can think while drowning.”
“Hear the parameters of Phase II: The Archive of Whispers.
This floor is a repository of things forgotten.
The ink-weavers who walk these aisles do not want your blood; they want your truth.
The shadows here are rich, dense, and eager to be eaten.
They will call out to your hunger.”
“But heed this warning, Starved One: every shadow in this archive belongs to a liar.
Consume them, and their false lives, fabricated sins, and manufactured horrors will bleed into your empty mind.
Eat too much, and the stranger inside you will execute the boy who stands here now.” With its faceless head, it looked directly at Monster.
He concluded his speech with the words: “Good luck, Starved Soul and Accompanying Flesh.
If you figure out how to complete this stage, you’ll find it’s not so difficult after all.”
Monster took the first step toward the next stage, which, as the Hollow Quill had told them, contained a library-like floor inhabited by ink-weaver demons.
He saw several and pulled Janine behind some bookshelves.
These demons were already waiting for them, so they had to hide and figure out how to reach the third stage.
Janine looked around.
It was a huge, multi-tiered library, its floor covered in shallow pools of black ink.
The bookshelves stretched endlessly to the ceiling.
They could see the ink-weavers—slender, faceless figures rising from the pools of ink.
They don’t strike with claws; they shoot jet-black ribbons of ink that wrap around a person’s head, sucking out their true memories and replacing them with hallucinations.
Monster signaled to Janine to follow him.
His plan was to wander aimlessly around the area and perhaps find the gateway to the third stage.
After wandering aimlessly for a few minutes, Janine was captured by one of the ink-weavers.
It had emerged from the ground, wrapped black ink bands around her head, and triggered hallucinations.
Janine forgot who she was and why she had come here, but for some reason, she still remembered Monster.
This means that these ink-weavers possess a limited ability: they cannot erase all memories, only a few, but that is enough to change a person forever.
Monster had to use save state to travel back in time a few seconds, and then took her on a different path, even though she wanted to insist on going the way she thought was right, until Monster said: “ENOUGH, DAMN IT!
Just listen to me and shut up!
If I say your way is wrong, then it’s wrong, got it!”
Janine fell silent and nervous, while, as always when she was anxious or nervous, she nervously fiddled with her necklace.
Monster’s path was also wrong, causing more ink-weavers to emerge from the shallow puddles of black ink.
Both ran in opposite directions, and more and more came out, realizing they had become too noisy and were now being cornered.
One of them even captured Monster and used their black ribbons to give him hallucinations in which Janine tried to sabotage him, or how he had mercilessly killed people in the past.
Slowly, some of his memories began to erode, so he had to use save state to rewind time by a minute and change course with Janine.
Monster muttered to himself, his face darkening: “Yes… Get faster updates on g.com.
it’s just an illusion, I would never do something like that.
Janine would never sabotage me either…
it’s just a hallucination.”
Janine noticed his expression and patted him on the back: “Are you alright?
First you yelled at me that you’d sort it out, but now you keep changing your mind about which way we should go.
Do you even know which way is the right one anymore, or are you just relying on luck?”
Monster glared at her and pushed her away.
“Shut up and follow me!
Nothing about me is just luck.
I do everything myself, and that’s the only thing you can come up with?
Be glad I’m helping you at all!”
“I didn’t mean to upset you, but okay, if that’s what you want.” She follows Monster and remains silent as he commanded.
Monster searched for other paths, looked exhausted, breathed heavily, and often looked around.
Janine began to believe that Monster was indeed a monster; he spoke to her as if she were merely an object to be used.
She had no idea that Monster repeatedly turned back time, just to find the right path for both of them.
Monster and Janine reach a dead end, whereupon Monster, frustrated, kicks the wall: “Damn it, I hate this place, why the hell are we even here if it’s impossible to get out?”
His words echoed through the endless library, drawing the attention of the ink-weavers who rose from the shallow pools of black ink.
Monster had an idea: What if he ate all their shadows until he found the right one to learn the structure of the entire second phase?
“Janine.
Look away, or you’ll see something disgusting,” he said seriously.
Janine wanted to say something, but Monster’s piercing gaze frightened her, and she turned away and let him do what he wanted.
Monster then went to the ink-weavers, who simultaneously wrapped their black ink ribbons around his head.
He simply walked on, letting them steal his memories and cause hallucinations.
Then he began devouring three shadows at once.
He saw multiple false timelines.
Janine wanted to turn around, but Monster’s agonizing screams caused her to collapse in shock, leaving him to die there.
She believed he wanted to sacrifice himself for her, even though his plan was to turn back time once he had devoured the right shadow.
Monster had seen many things in just a few minutes: lives in which he had lived as a serial killer, turned his back on his supposed old friends who were also fake, and then there were his parents who died in a car accident while he was the only survivor and cried.
He had seen many lies, and these slowly drove him to madness and emptied his mind of his own memories.
He’s forgotten everything, even his ability to use save state.
This could be dangerous for him, because he can only rewind time by five minutes, and since he’s forgotten his own ability, he can’t return to the timeline where he at least remembered Janine after five minutes.
He’ll lose all his memories again.
He ate 5, no, 10, 20, 40, 50, 80, 300, he didn’t stop.
He even saw many timelines in which he had done terrible things, or died, or been tortured.
He became extremely traumatized, but continued to eat shadows.
In the end, he devoured all the ink-weavers that had risen from the shallow pools of black ink.
He could have led himself and Janine to the exit, but he had completely forgotten who he and Janine were.
So why go to the exit if he didn’t even know why?
His mind was flooded with the lies of the ink-weavers, so he could no longer distinguish truth from falsehood.
Monster grabbed his head and fell to his knees screaming as his mind was flooded with many timelines that were not his own.
His ability to eat shadows only works because each person’s shadow is a time anchor; The more shadows he devours, the more time anchors he eats from each person.
Why do his enemies disappear after their shadows are eaten?
This is because Monster rewrites reality, creating a paradox.
Because he took their “time anchor” and took it into his own body, the universe suffers a massive, irreversible paradox.
The world no longer recognizes the ink-weavers as existing in the current timeline.
The ink-weavers physical body turns into a transparent, silent phantom that drifts through the air, unable to touch or be seen by anyone. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
Every time Monster eats a shadow to gain memories, the foreign timelines fight inside his head.
He remembers how to use a sword or speak a language, but he begins to forget the context of his own actions.
He becomes a living graveyard of stolen time, completely disconnected from the natural flow of the world.
All of this is written in Monster’s book again; the book itself has rewritten itself to tell him so.
He read it before he even thought about eating the shadows of the ink-weavers and losing his mind.
Janine finally turned around and looked at him.
She couldn’t bear to look away any longer and thought Monster must be half-dead or something from all the screaming and crying.
She saw that he was alright, only emotionally broken and traumatized.
She went to him and hugged him, but he pushed her away.
“Go away from me!” he said, frightened and angry at the same time.
In the false memories he had received from the ink-weavers, she was plotting to kill him and do even worse to him.
She wouldn’t let go, which only made Monster angrier.
He started hitting her, headbutting her, and kicking her away.
Janine persisted; she still saw Monster as a true monster because he had treated her so badly, but at the moment she believed he had done it all for her, so she felt guilty and wanted to calm him down so they could both reach the third stage, because she knew she wouldn’t make it to the end without him.
“Get away from me!” He shouted.
“You’re just trying to manipulate me, aren’t you?
I don’t want anything to do with a witch like you!
You’re crazy to do this to me!” Monster screamed.
He believed the ink-weavers lies because his memories of Janine had been erased.
Janine held his hand tightly, refused to let go, and then placed it on her chest where her heart beat.
“Do I look like a witch to you?
I’m only here to help you.
Don’t listen to what those creatures have taught you.
You are Monster, and that will not change, understand?”
Monster’s eyes widened, her heart raced like crazy; this showed how much she feared his condition, which meant that she was really worried about him and trying to help him.
Then she hugged him again: “You don’t have to answer whether you trust me or not, but we will get out of here together.”
Monster nodded slightly, although he still didn’t completely trust her.
This was because something had been carved in his left arm that read: “DON’T TRUST THE GIRL, USE HER BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!”
Monster believed his former self had carved that into his arm before losing his memories, probably to avoid becoming too attached to Janine.
Or perhaps Monster had already calculated how it would end, and that could have been the reason he carved it into his arm, to remember it after his memory loss.
Monster clung to Janine for the time being, to keep his sanity and avoid another breakdown.
Perhaps he would figure out how to regain his memories.
After all, he was starting all over again.
“I can lead us to the gate for the third stage, but can you tell me your name before we go there?” Monster asked.
“But you already…” She trailed off, remembering that these ink-weavers take memories and fill them with lies.
Therefore, he would naturally ask for her name, because he suspected that the name he knew might be just as false as his memories.
“My name is Janine Wagner, nice to meet you, Monster.” She offered him her hand to help him up.
He took her hand and stood up to lead the way to the gate.
Janine held Monster’s hand until they reached the gate and tried to bind his mind to her voice.
Both eventually reach the third phase; this time they do not have to face a boss, but the loss of all memories is worse than fighting a boss.
The Hollow Quill awaited them again and said: “The second phase seems to have been quite strenuous for both of you; three hours is a long time.
I’m somewhat disappointed that you didn’t find an easier way to the next phase by using a simple tactic that only the Starved Soul could have employed, but it seems that living is better than being dead.”