On the other side, far away from his companions, Clark found himself standing in the middle of a vast field of tall grass that stretched an immense distance before him, so far that his eyes could not see where it ended.
The grass was strange in a way that was difficult to explain; shades of blue, red, and violet intertwined among its blades, while their tips swayed slowly beneath a cold breeze whose source was nowhere to be found.
Clark wrapped his arm around himself, trying to ward off the cold, then said, his voice trembling slightly:
“What is this freezing place?”
He continued walking through the grass, but after only a few steps, a sharp pain pierced his head.
He stopped abruptly and raised a hand to his forehead.
The pain intensified for several seconds before fading…
Then, moments later, it returned, throbbing inside his skull with a strange rhythm he could not understand.
Clark lowered his gaze to his other hand.
He was still holding The Absent God.
He stared at it for a long while, then murmured:
“That book contains an endless amount of information…
It’ll be useful.
Good thing I took it.”
He drew the book slightly closer to his chest, then lifted his eyes toward the field stretching endlessly before him.
There were no buildings, no roads, not even a single sign that humans had ever existed here.
He let out a long breath and said:
“I need…
to find somewhere a little warmer.”
Then he continued walking.
The sound of his footsteps echoed through the vast field, while the vegetation stretched around him all the way to the horizon, as though the place itself had never known the meaning of an ending.
After several more steps, he felt a strange prickling sensation in the palm of his right hand, and at first, he assumed it was simply another effect of the cold.
He stopped.
And looked at his palm.
A strange symbol had appeared on his hand; tangled lines formed a pattern he could not understand, glowing with a faint and ominous light.
Clark stared at it in silence.
“What is this…?”
…
In the abandoned city, vegetation had coiled itself around the ruined buildings, climbing across the cracked walls until it swallowed large portions of them.
The others remained frozen, staring at the place where the entity had been standing, unable to comprehend what it had just done; how, in a single instant, it had created eyes, hair, and ears for itself.
But Nerv, unlike the others, smiled calmly and said:
“Well…
welcome.
I’m Nerv.”
Then came its voice; quiet and strange, yet carrying something that made everyone freeze in place:
“And Guanda…
Ben…
and White.”
Nerv’s eyes widened.
The voice continued:
“I know who you are…
the moment I saw you.”
The four exchanged stunned glances.
None of them could find anything to say.
Ben stared at the entity, fear and confusion mingling in his eyes, then said:
“Who…
in the name of hell are you?”
The entity turned, then continued walking slowly.
It remained silent for several moments before speaking in a calm voice:
“There is no need for you to know who I am, what I am, or where I came from.”
It fell silent for a moment, then continued:
“I am merely a survivor…
one whose history was destroyed after the darkness devoured his universe.”
Ben remained silent.
Its answer hardly felt like a real answer; as though every word it spoke concealed nothing except the fact that it left behind more questions than it answered.
The entity began walking away without looking back at them, as though it had already determined that they posed no threat, returning once more to its isolation amid the ruined city.
But Ben suddenly called out to it:
“We’re here to protect our universe too.”
The entity stopped.
It remained perfectly still for several seconds.
Then it slowly turned toward them.
It said nothing.
Suddenly, its neck began to stretch.
It lengthened unnaturally, farther and farther, until its head was directly in front of Ben’s face.
Ben froze in place, his eyes widening as he stared at the entity from an impossibly close distance.
Then it tilted its head slightly toward him and said in a calm voice:
“Continue…
what you were saying.”
Ben felt that any word he spoke at that moment might matter more than his life itself.
He could not answer.
He simply stood there, unable to comprehend what was happening.
White took a small step forward, then said cautiously:
“We came from another universe through a mysterious gate…
We’re here to find out what is causing this darkness and put an end to it.”
The entity did not answer.
It merely turned its head toward White.
She stopped speaking.
Then, as though nothing had happened, its neck contracted, and its head returned to its normal size.
No one understood what it had been doing.
Ben slowly regained his composure, trying to convince himself that the entity was not hostile.
Then he blinked.
And in the next instant, the entity was standing directly in front of him.
It was holding his right hand.
Ben froze, his entire body trembling.
He tried to pull his hand away, but he could not.
The entity noticed something on Ben’s hand.
It lowered its gaze.
A strange symbol was glowing on his palm…
the very same symbol that had appeared on Clark’s hand.
The entity fixed its gaze upon it for several moments, then said in a quiet, uncanny voice:
“So…
you are the ones whose turn has come.”
The entity remained silent for several moments, while Ben stood before it, unsure of what to do.
Then the entity slowly released his hand, extended its own toward him, and said calmly:
“Do not worry…
I am never hostile toward mortals.”
Ben looked at the offered hand for a few moments, then gave a nervous smile and shook it.
The entity’s hand was strangely cold, sending a shiver coursing through Ben’s arm.
Then the entity slowly raised its other hand toward his head.
Ben froze for a moment, but he did not move.
The entity’s hand touched his head.
Ben felt cold seep into his body as its fingers gently brushed through his hair and wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead.
The entity said calmly:
“Relax…
there is no need to be afraid.”
The entity moved one foot backward, then retreated a few steps, leaving a safe distance between them that brought them a measure of relief.
Everyone quickly moved closer to Ben, while Guanda asked anxiously:
“Are you all right?”
Ben took a deep breath, then answered:
“Yes…
don’t worry.”
He looked toward the entity, which remained standing exactly where it was without moving in the slightest, then said:
“This entity knows a lot about this world…
and strangely enough, it doesn’t seem hostile.”
He fell silent for a moment, then added:
“If it wanted to kill us, we’d all be dead by now.”
Everyone looked at their right hands.
The strange symbol was still there, as though it were part of their skin.
White whispered:
“What is this thing?”
The entity’s voice came from a distance, calm despite the space separating them:
“They are the Marks of the Chosen.”
Everyone raised their heads toward it.
It continued:
“Entities for whom the darkness has looked upon their own universes.”
Then it looked at the marks on their hands and said:
“It is the mark of the Fallen Gate…
the gate you came through.”
It fell silent for a few moments.
Then it added in an even quieter voice:
“I came through it as well.”
Everyone’s eyes widened.
“But I failed…”
The entity lowered its head slightly.
“I failed to protect my universe from the darkness.”
Silence descended.
No one knew what to say.
For the first time, they realized that the being standing before them was not merely a mysterious entity living in this world…
It was a survivor of a world that had been devoured by darkness.
The entity remained silent for several moments, then let out a low sound resembling a hum before saying:
“There were supposed to be five of you…”
It paused briefly, then added:
“Where is your fifth friend?”
They all looked at one another before the entity continued:
“Is he dead?”
Nerv quickly answered:
“No, no!
He disappeared inside another gate…
into another world.”
The entity remained motionless for several moments, then said calmly:
“In the end…
chaos is one and the same.
It gathers them all.”
Guanda furrowed her brows and asked:
“What do you mean?”
The entity released a slow breath, then said:
“Every universe devoured by the darkness falls into chaos.”
It looked at the ruined city around them before continuing:
“And that is where the decay begins…
slowly, until it loses its boundaries.”
Silence followed.
“In the end, all the universes converge into a single mass.”
The entity continued:
“In other words…
the universes are no longer separate from one another.
They have begun to overlap, to merge, and to lose their stability.”
It looked at all of them, then said:
“Only powerful entities can resist the decay.”
It fell silent for a moment, then added:
“But you…
will die within a few days.”
Everyone froze.
White asked in a trembling voice:
“What?”
The entity answered:
“Unless you undergo a spiritual fusion.”
No one could respond.
They had entered this world believing they were searching for a way to save their universe.
Now they had discovered that before they could do that, they first had to find a way to save themselves.
Ben spoke immediately, concern evident in his voice:
“Then…
what’s the solution?
Can you help us?”
The entity remained silent for a few moments, then an enigmatic smile appeared on its face.
It said calmly:
“Do not worry.”
It paused briefly, then continued:
“I help all the Chosen.”
It looked at the symbol on Ben’s hand, then said:
“I have helped countless Chosen before you.”
Its smile faded slightly.
“But they failed.”
Silence followed.
“They decayed one by one, just as you will…
if you fail to find a way to achieve spiritual fusion.”
The entity raised its head toward the sky, then said:
“And yet, I continue helping them…
hoping that one of them will succeed someday.”
It fell silent for a moment before adding in a quieter voice:
“And then…
perhaps I can reclaim what I lost from my history.”
Ben looked at it in confusion.
“What did you lose?”
The entity did not answer immediately.
It simply looked at him, then said:
“I was chosen too.”
Everyone’s expressions changed.
It remained silent for a few moments, as though the words that followed were too heavy to speak.
“And I failed to save them…”
It lowered its head slightly.
“My friends…
and my family.”
“They all vanished from existence…
before I reached the level of the gods.”
Nerv said quietly:
“Everyone disappeared because of that darkness, didn’t they?”
The entity remained silent for several moments before answering:
“Yes.”
Its smile faded slightly as it added:
“That darkness…
I do not even know what it is.”
It looked toward the sky, which was beginning to darken above them.
“I used everything I had to protect my universe.
Even conceptual powers and attacks I believed were capable of stopping it…
did nothing.”
It fell silent for a moment.
“It was cold.”
It lifted its head slightly.
“Cold to a terrifying degree…
swallowing everything quietly, without anger, and leaving nothing behind.”
Everyone felt the weight of its words.
Sorrow mingled with fear and despair across their faces, while the entity remained standing before them in silence.
Then its familiar smile returned.
The same smile it had given to every Chosen who had come before them.
And it said:
“Well…
let’s go.”
They looked at it in confusion.
“This place isn’t safe at night.
We need to find somewhere safer.”
They hesitated for a few moments, then everyone agreed and followed behind it.
It walked ahead of them in silence, the entity history had forgotten, the one who had sacrificed almost everything for a universe that had already been condemned to destruction.
…
On the other side, in a world where the grass never ended.
Clark was exhausted from walking.
The cold was seeping into his body, his head felt as though it might split from the pain, while the memories of the strange soul continued pouring endlessly into his consciousness.
Memories that were not his.
Meanwhile, his soul was still in the midst of an incomplete fusion.
Clark staggered, then muttered weakly:
“I can’t…
take this anymore.”
He slowly raised his head and looked around.
The field stretched endlessly, but something caught his attention.
A small wooden house stood not far away.
He did not know who had built it, nor why it existed here, but he had no other choice.
He began walking toward it.
His body was weak and battered, as though completely drained, while the strange soul continued merging with his essence, forcing more and more memories into his mind.
After long minutes of suffering, he finally reached the house.
The door was open.
Clark pushed it slowly and stepped inside.
No one.
There was no one there.
He took another step…
Then his legs gave out.
Clark collapsed onto the floor.
He did not move.
He looked as though he were dead.
He lost consciousness completely, and at that moment, the fusion began entering its final stage.
The strange memories began settling into his consciousness one by one, while fragments of the mysterious soul gradually merged with his essence.
And for the first time…
Those memories were no longer merely something Clark was witnessing.
He had begun to remember them as though they were his own.