It wasn't mercy from a Higher Being. There was a deeper meaning behind it.
The blood had held destruction at bay, preserving a faint trace. That might have been merely a side effect.
Honestly, judging by Fu Qian's dealings with Higher Beings over the past few days, that explanation seemed considerably more likely.
And the movements of the two figures had been exactly what the Witch did when she first entered this place and showed that negative effects were accumulating.
Blood loss. That was the nightmare's theme, as they had summed it up at the time.
The Red Sand and the flow of blood that came afterward had also seemed to correspond to it.
And now the pieces seemed to fit even better. The Witch had mentioned that the final effect of blood loss erupting was that vital parts of the body were sprayed out like blood, ultimately causing irreversible changes to the body.
What lay before them seemed to be a perfect example.
The blood loss from slitting his own throat, the Red Sand underfoot, and even the protected ruins all spoke to that.
As for his body undergoing irreversible changes—if it was all gone, didn't that count as a change?
"Did this gentleman come all the way to the Sea of Mind to perform some kind of ritual here?"
Taking the helmet from the Witch, Fu Qian examined it and offered a guess.
That certainly seemed more reasonable, though it made the nightmare's origins even darker.
It hadn't been protected from certain death. This was merely a by-product of the ritual.
"Exactly. Something like a special ritual. And that changed the nature of things. It wasn't that the Sea of Mind needed him; he needed the Sea of Mind."
Having lived among Higher Beings for so long, the