Darkness!
Pure darkness, without the slightest trace of light.
Arthur felt an unprecedented sense of oppression.
It was not just difficulty breathing. There was also his heart-
Thump, thump-thump!
Arthur's heart began pounding more violently than ever before.
With every contraction and expansion, pain spread from his chest!
His hand instinctively went to his chest, and he opened his mouth wide, trying to breathe. But a moment later, his body froze in place.
Eyes!
Pairs of scarlet eyes appeared across the dark vault above!
Like suns, like moons!
Like stars that had remained unchanged since time immemorial!
Men, women, creatures-or gods-swept their gazes over him, their eyes brimming with cold malice, cruelty, chaos, bloodshed, distortion, destruction, and despair.
Buzz!
[Death Intuition] flashed faster than ever before, like a hundred-watt light bulb!
Frozen in place, Arthur had never felt so insignificant.
As insignificant as dust.
As insignificant as an ant.
Those gazes did not linger. A moment later, they all receded.
But that single moment had nearly shattered Arthur's mind.
Hah! Hah!
Arthur gasped for breath, his vision a blur.
Amid the violent swaying, text began to appear-
[Ei a (Basic) Lv1 (-/-): Written characters once truly possessed power, but as time passed, most people forgot their strokes, forgot their pronunciation, and even forgot their existence. Only a small number of gifted individuals could glimpse a fragment of them. Herke once pursued the origins of these characters, but when questioned, the master chose to remain silent; you have now mastered the basics of this script and can read some texts recorded in Ei a.]
Written characters once truly possessed power!
As Arthur's eyes swept over that sentence, he involuntarily thought of those gazes.
What had those gazes been?
Almost the instant he thought of them, horror filled Arthur's