Several instructors carried their cases and followed behind her, retracing their path.
The Gray Mist still clung to them, inscriptions spreading around them. Nothing else went wrong along the way.
After leaving the area covered by the Copper Wall, Selina paused.
The four Night Watchers were still slumped against the wall, unconscious and unaware of anything. Their breathing was steady, but they would not be waking anytime soon.
Selina glanced at them, smiled helplessly, and shook her head.
She had not intended to do anything to them either.
The contract had reached its end. The Person on the Wall had called a halt, leaving her free and clear instead.
She had accomplished nothing, but she no longer had to bear anything either.
"Move faster. The next shift will be here soon."
Selina picked up the case and led the instructors into the darkness of the Pipe Network Layer.
At the top of the Tower of Erudition.
The Guardian had remained seated in the same spot without moving.
Layer upon layer of black threads had already wrapped around that enormous skull, so densely packed that the bone's original color was nearly invisible.
Black eyeballs had grown from those threads, one after another, all staring in the direction where the Person on the Wall's consciousness had departed.
The Guardian waited like that, but not for long.
Deep within the skull, the mass of gray-white mist suddenly stirred. The Person on the Wall's consciousness had returned.
The mist gathered once more within the skull, slowly swirling and condensing into the shape of a small head.
The instant it took shape, all those black eyeballs turned toward it in unison.
The Person on the Wall's misty face froze.
It saw the threads wrapped around the skull, the eyeballs filling the surroundings, and the killing