Chương 81: Everything didn't go according to plan.

People in the shadows sat in the dark hall, watching the screen with a mixture of surprise and anger on their faces, the light from the massive image pulling their tense, displeased features out of the gloom, casting long, trembling shadows across the walls. The silence in the hall was thick, charged with tension, as though the very air here had grown saturated with a pressure ready to burst at any moment. — You mean to tell me you don't know who this is?!

A woman in glasses, dressed in an MAI uniform, tried to explain herself to the unseen figures in the shadows, her voice trembling with poorly concealed fear, fingers nervously fumbling at the edge of the folder pressed to her chest, as though that thin stack of papers could somehow shield her from the gathered fury. — Our apologies for the inconvenience! This isn't a Player — we have no record of them in our database.

One of the figures slammed a fist down on the table, the sound rolling through the hall in a deep, threatening echo, bouncing off the tall walls swallowed in darkness, and for a moment everything around him seemed to freeze in anticipation. — Then what the hell is it doing there? The woman bowed nervously, stumbling over her words, her voice cracking on every other syllable, beads of sweat forming on her forehead, glinting faintly in the dim light of the screen, trickling down her temples in thin lines.

— My apologies! But the Administrator is responsible for that territory. This is entirely outside our jurisdiction. One of the figures jabbed an angry finger at the screen, his hand trembling with barely restrained fury, his eyes narrowed into thin, hate-filled slits, as though he meant to burn a hole straight through the image itself. — Fix this. Now!

But then the Creature suddenly turned to face the camera lens directly, as though it had sensed that gaze fixed on it across the thousands of kilometers separating them. Gesturing for silence, it began tracing a finger through the empty air in front of it, and a strange, swirling trail of darkness followed that finger, writhing through the air like living smoke, thickening and dissolving into thin, twisting strands.

In that same instant, every camera watching the Creature went dead at once, the screen going dark, flooding with a dead, hissing black, and a collective gasp of shock and mounting panic rolled through the hall — someone leapt to their feet, someone else muttered something under their breath.

The man's face twisted with fury, and he turned on the MAI employee with an even louder shout, spittle flying from his mouth in his outrage, the veins in his neck bulging, stretched taut like ropes about to snap from the strain. — Do something already! The MAI employee only stared guiltily at the floor, her shoulders slumped, as though bearing some invisible weight, her hands clenched around the folder gone white with tension, knuckles standing out in sharp, pale ridges.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. — There's nothing we can do here. Only the Administrator can grant us access there. The man slammed his fist on the table again, harder this time, scattering several papers across the floor, and a glass of water nearby tipped precariously, spilling its contents. — Then find him!

The employee bowed her head even lower, her voice fading into a barely audible, frightened whisper, as though she were trying to make herself as unnoticeable as possible, to dissolve into her own shadow, to vanish from the hall entirely. — I'm afraid that won't be possible until the second trial concludes...

The hall sank into a heavy, oppressive silence, broken only by the faint crackle of the dead, powered-down screen and the strained breathing of dozens of people whose plans had, by all appearances, just collapsed before their very eyes, leaving behind nothing but bitter, helpless frustration.

The Creature watched the Players with its three eyes, as though carefully studying each of them in turn, lingering on their faces a second or two longer than necessary, as though weighing something invisible, known only to itself.

The darkness around it rippled in slow, lazy waves, as though breathing to its own alien rhythm, rising and falling like the surface of some dark, starless ocean, and the red cloak draped over its shoulders shifted faintly, even though there wasn't the slightest breath of wind on the clearing, not a single gust that could explain the movement.

Then it pressed its fingers together and began moving them back and forth in front of itself, as though nervous, as though the gesture alone helped it cope with some inner unease entirely at odds with its monstrous, terrifying nature, with the still-smoldering scene of destruction behind it. — Why are you all so frightened? What's scaring you so much?

Its voice — or rather, an entire crowd of voices merged into one, male and female at once, old and young, childlike and cracked with age — sounded deeply sorrowful, almost hurt, as though it genuinely couldn't understand the reason for their terror, as though it were truly saddened by this misunderstanding between them.

But then it suddenly seemed to brighten, hopping in place with unexpected, almost childlike energy, sending the darkness around it scattering in short, chaotic bursts, like startled crows taking flight, and pointed a long, unnaturally bent finger toward the headless body of the Nightmare lying nearby, among the splinters of shattered trees. — Is that what you mean?

The Creature burst into wild, piercing laughter that echoed across the entire clearing, making even the surrounding trees shudder, the leaves on the nearest branches trembling faintly, as though caught in a gust of icy wind, drifting down in a sparse, silent rain. That laugh, dual and inhuman, struck Lloyd's ears like something almost physically painful, digging into his eardrums with sharp, invisible needles, making him wince and press his palms against his temples.

— No need to be afraid, this is just a pathetic imitation of a real Nightmare. It didn't have even half the strength of the true Mountain King. Lloyd stood frozen, listening silently to the Creature's words, his legs trembling treacherously, his knees buckling more with every passing second, fresh waves of icy, paralyzing fear rolling down his spine, never letting up for even a moment, locking every muscle in his body under a weight like lead.

He shot a quick glance at Lorian, at Brand, at Casper — all three stood motionless, tense to the breaking point, as though a single wrong move could be their last, as though the clearing itself had turned into thin ice, ready to crack under the weight of one careless step. Even the flame on Brand's shoulders, usually bright and steady, now burned quieter, dimmer, as though it too could feel the crushing, all-encompassing weight of this strange, terrifying creature's presence.