He awoke from the chaotic slumber like a newborn baby, touching this strange and incomprehensible world. His fragnted mories and thoughts were like foam bobbing and dispersing on the sea surface, unable to form a complete consciousness and cognition for a long ti.
The entire world seed to be shrouded in a thick curtain, while his own perception felt as if it had been shattered and reassembled a thousand tis by an invisible force. His mind could not comprehend those wildly disordered sensory signals—the buzzing and rumbling noise and the dim, terrifying lights and shadows seed etched directly onto his nerves, stirring his consciousness, and pricking his thoughts.
He tried to take a step forward, to distinguish the things beside him, to recall himself, to understand the current situation.
Countless indistinct shapes surrounded him; these entities had formless outlines and upright shells with floating, psychedelic hollows. Eerie streams flowed within those hollows, emitting indescribable howling and hissing sounds that were terrifying.
Then, a warm glow appeared in his perception. Following the warmth, he began walking slowly forward from the darkness and forgotten existence...
Nina suddenly put down the cheap accessory she was just picking and, with a puzzled frown, turned around to look behind her.
Sherry imdiately noticed and turned around curiously, "Ah? Nina, what’s wrong?"
"I don’t know..." Nina was still frowning slightly, her gaze sweeping through the crowd behind her, "I suddenly felt a movent behind just now, as if soone was staring this way, but it seed to be just... an illusion?"
"It must be an illusion..." Sherry, hearing Nina’s words, also frowned and subconsciously looked around the market, "There are people everywhere here, maybe soone just glanced this way?"
Though she said this, she still cautiously confird with Ah Dog in her mind.
"There’s nothing," Ah Dog’s response quickly echoed in her mind, "just lots of people."
"Ah Dog says there’s nothing," Sherry whispered to Nina with a lowered voice, "Its perception is definitely reliable."
Nina blinked, looked back again, and then shook her head, "... It seems to be an illusion."
The market was crowded, and the originally spacious area seed a bit congested with bustling crowds. Not only could one see locals, but many tourists in foreign attires leisurely strolled through the market. The vendors’ calls mingled with the crowd, sounding almost noisy yet vibrant with life.
In such a bustling place, feeling a gaze or two occasionally was nothing unusual.
"Ladies, are you buying or not?"
The vendor’s voice ca from across, interrupting Nina’s daydream.
"Oh, sorry," Nina imdiately reacted, apologizing to the vendor with a smile, then picked up the hair clip and brooch she had just chosen, "Pack these two for . Sherry, do you like anything?"
"I... didn’t choose anything," Sherry shook her head, "We’ll go to the next store in a bit."
After the vendor packed the items, and Nina had paid, the two girls continued their leisure stroll through the lively market. It was still early before sunset, with the sun still hanging high above the City-State, allowing them plenty of ti to enjoy.
(The engulfing mist around stung the skin and eyes. The incessant highs and lows of roars and howls seed capable of tearing the eardrums. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the fragnted thoughts and disordered perception sowhat dulled the unbearable pain. Forgetting his own existence, he staggered forward in this chaotic and indescribable world, continuing to think laboriously.
What is skin? What are eyes? And what are eardrums? How am I walking? How did I get here?
Starting from the most fundantal questions, he began to be puzzled by everything.
Yet there were annoying things, constantly interfering with his thinking and mories, bringing him more pain and confusion.
He tried to look up, seeking the source of that annoying disturbance—a vast... noise.
He was sowhat puzzled, for in his shallow, fuzzy consciousness, "noise" should be sothing invisible, but he felt... what he was seeing was indeed noise.
A ss of twisted ripples, endlessly oscillating up high, the ripples covering the entire chaotic sky, stirring those dim floating lights and shadows, mingling with countless roars and noises on the ground, nauseating, terrifying.
He cautiously moved forward amidst the noise, carefully avoiding the indescribable forms with psychedelic hollows emitting various hissing sounds, slowly shifting, continuing to move...)
Nina stopped again, this ti standing in the middle of the road, her eyes wide, staring at an empty space.
In her eyes, even a faint golden shimr seed to quietly erge.
Sherry also stopped imdiately, a bit puzzled as she furrowed her brows looking at the empty space. After several seconds, she sowhat uncertainly broke the silence, "I felt it just now too, it’s as if sothing is watching us, and it even seems to have followed us over..."
"Did Ah Dog feel it?" Nina’s nerves involuntarily tensed up as she asked quietly.
"Ah Dog still says it didn’t feel anything," Sherry carefully observed the surroundings and replied in a low voice, "But it said that having ’illusions’ repeatedly itself is worth being cautious of, perhaps sothing that shouldn’t exist in the real world is exerting influence..."
Nina lightly nodded, while also using her peripheral vision to keep an eye on the situation at the market.
Among the bustling passersby, she could see the church guards stationed by the roadside.
The "Knowledge Guards" from the Academy of Truth watched over this densely populated place, dressed in academy-style robes with large-caliber revolvers at their waists. Their alert yet calm gazes focused on the streets and the square—those blessed eyes by the God of Wisdom Rahm could detect the intrusion of evil into reality instantly.
However, these "Knowledge Guards" seed quite relaxed, apparently unaware of anything amiss in the market.
"That feeling has vanished... The guards don’t seem to react either, but I still feel like it wasn’t an illusion," Nina muttered quietly to Sherry.
Sherry responded in a similarly hushed tone, "What do you plan to do?"
"...Should we report to those guards by the road?" Nina thought for a mont before saying, "Uncle Duncan said to report any danger like heretics instantly to the guards."
Sherry paused, startled. Her mind, usually filled with violence and profanity, hardly considered "reporting" as an option.
Yet recalling Captain Duncan’s repeated "righteous reporting" stirred another strange feeling in her—
As a violent, crude, uneducated misfit, was she morally unfit to align with the mindset of this family of the Evil God?
However, after a brief mont of dissonance, she couldn’t help but shake her head, "How do we report? Just say we always feel like soone is following us? The guards will think we’re causing trouble..."
(Broken and fragnted mories—what could be pieced together?
Struggling to think, stumbling forward, they recalled a dark red color, like thick accumulated blood, floating in the sky of their mories, endlessly chasing—chasing their... companions.
Companions? What are companions?
Suddenly, new mories surged from the depths of their mind, and finally, they rembered more.
Ah, they had companions, they had set off on a long journey, but what were they supposed to do?
It seed... they were to save the world.
Following the Prophet’s guidance, heading towards the direction where the red light fell, searching for a way to save the world. Many had started together, but soon the hunter siblings fell, then the gloomy magician, followed by several knights...)
Nina, however, decided to report to the guards at the scene after all.
Although explaining the motive for reporting might be intricate, professional matters ultimately needed the professionals. Besides, as Uncle Duncan had said—so long as one’s deanor was sincere, no one would pursue responsibility if the reporting failed, and who knew, it might even earn them a reward.
She dragged the reluctant Sherry towards the guards by the roadside.
(Ah, that warm feeling appeared again, not far ahead, even... radiating a dim brightness.
They stopped thinking, instinctively moving forward.
Thick "curtains" gathered around, seemingly intentionally obstructing their steps. Buzzing noises converged, emitting hissing sounds as bizarre forms moved around, filled with indescribable malice and emitting unspeakable terror.
Yet, they quickened their pace towards the light, like...
Rushing towards the only thing in their mory that still seed familiar, still comprehensible.)
Nina reached the roadside.
The Knowledge Guard in an academy robe turned around, curiously eyeing the two girls who looked like they were still in high school.
"Ladies, do you need help?" the guard asked with a smile, his tone gentle.
(Hissing and murmuring noises ca from ahead, the bundle of light seed to approach an indescribable form, and a surge of intense unease washed over them.)
"We feel sothing isn’t right..." Nina explained to the guard, voicing the sentence they had been formulating along the way, "Just now..."
(They finally reached the warm glow nearby, and from a distance, they reached out a "hand" to touch the blurred shadow.
In that instant, all veils and fog seed to turn into invisible boundaries, and the "actual touch" that pierced through the boundary was the first sting of pain felt by the lost wanderers in this new world.
They leapt forward.)
Suddenly, a scream erupted from behind, echoing throughout the entire market.
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