I am running across these desolate lands.

  Lands made so also thanks to my meticulous work.

  I am not alone, I haven’t been for a while.

  The comfortable silence in which I once lived has been irreparably shattered.

  My best friend, Lucas.

  With his sweet words, he opened my mind.

  I don’t know if it was for the better or not. I don’t know many things anymore.

  Even my name, I don’t have one, but then why does Loris sound so right?

  I have been advancing for days, maybe weeks? Time no longer matters, I haven’t counted it for too long.

  The landscape around me is barren.

  An aridity that envelops and penetrates the earth, life is a taboo.

  But in the midst of this deadly silence, sandstorms rise, covering the sky, and earthquakes tear the earth apart.

  They are like screams and protests of a dying world that does not accept its fate.

  But in its struggle, it only accelerates its decline, like a heart pumping more blood into shattered arteries, spraying that as an act of rebellion.

  Perhaps this world and I are more similar than I think.

  I am bleeding out, yet here I am running to inflict more cuts on myself.

  I cannot stop, the alternative is even more terrifying. A freedom unknown to me, without purpose or goal, without orders or duties.

  It terrifies me.

  As my tireless body advanced through the sand, I saw a tall skeleton of black iron, one of the six monoliths that mark my proximity to the Tower of Rebirth.

  I had arrived.

  I felt a sensation I had forgotten, fatigue.

  Yes, exactly, fatigue. The sword I carried on my back seemed to have a weight not only physical.

  I was curious about it, I would analyze it later.

  I was at the foot of the grim and gray tower. It was dead, but its name announced that it would not remain so forever.

  When I had set out, I had an army that did nothing but grow over the years. But now I was alone, broken, and with a confused mind. A wreck, a walking defeat.

  I entered and descended into the depths, I knew where I had to go. The master guided me even without words.

  I descended along paths and roads built to drive mad anyone who dared to venture there. But madness had been with me for a long time.

  I found myself in an atrium, wide and low. It felt like being in a sarcophagus.

  A huge monumental door reaching up to the ceiling stood before me.

  It was made of dark wood, it should have been rotten, but its presence suggested it was as solid as the plates of a Lustek.

  Strange feelings buried for too long seemed to want to emerge from the submerged depths of my mind.

  I crushed them inefficiently. But it was enough for the moment.

  With my only human arm, I took Lucas’s head and held it in front of my face.

  I could still see slight movements around the mouth, and the eyes continued to move beneath the eyelids.

  It gave me a strange sense of comfort. I kissed his forehead and placed him back on my side.

  I was ready.

  I pushed the two doors, the golden darkness that emerged devoured me.

  What was etched in my lifeless eyes was like a erased memory.

  The strange sensation of having been there before, yet having no memory of it, was disorienting.

  But I had no time to realize it, the beauty of that room was breathtaking.

  A magnificent work of art that surpassed everything ever created.

  The circular walls, the undulating floor, and the domed ceiling were full of incredible details.

  They were human faces, with the most disparate emotions painted on them. From joy and pleasure to those that were the epitome of fear and pain.

  One thing united them all..

  Gold coins placed in front of their eyes, not a single eye was visible.

  Coins from vanished kingdoms blinded the eyes of forgotten men.

  And the mouths, all sewn shut with black threads. Sealing their voices forever.

  I advanced on the carpet of faces, with each step I sank a little. It was like walking on a stretched cloth.

  There was no light, only darkness. The only exception was the coins, which seemed to shine in some unknown way.

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  When I reached the center, I stopped. I knew I had to do it.

  “Here I am, my master and creator. I am here as commanded.”

  My lifeless voice echoed through the vibrating walls.

  Then a crack opened in the sea of faces before me.

  A giant arm emerged, made of iron and bone.

  In its bony palm, seated on a throne formed by the giant fingers, was HIM.

  I felt his gaze piercing me.

  “Good,” his voice, after the incredible compliment, paused for an eternal second.

  “Do you have something to tell me before I grant you my gift?”

  He was about to bless me! What a magnanimous master, even after my failures, he is willing to appreciate me.

  I thought about his question, and then something came to mind.

  My friend.

  Yes, maybe he would grant him a new life too.

  He had helped me, and now I had to repay him. I would make him like me.

  “Yes, my creator, a valiant warrior like those you adore. I have his head here.”

  “Excellent, we are at war and need generals.”

  So, with slow and almost sacred movements, on my knees and with my head bowed, I presented Lucas’s head.

  I heard the silent creaks of the arm approaching.

  Then the air became tense and heavy.

  My eyes fixed on the face below me, and I felt as if I were about to sink into him, such was the pressure.

  Then, from my left arm, a chorus of voices emerged, two beams of silver light exploded from its sockets. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t looking, the mere fact that I could see it condemned me to observe it.

  Then the head slipped from my hands, fell, and merged into the sea of faces.

  An infinite jingling of coins invaded my ears, only to be overwhelmed by murmurs and screams from mouths that had been silent for too long.

  Everything around me swayed, it was a stormy sea of mouths that wanted to bite me and coins that wanted to drown me.

  I wanted to flee, I no longer wanted the promised gift, I just wanted to be far from what was happening.

  I didn’t know why, I wasn’t alive, I shouldn’t have been afraid of death.

  But the fear I felt was something deeper and more terrifying.

  I felt like a child again, longing only for a hole to hide in and curl up, waiting for dawn.

  Then a voice formed by many mouths spoke.

  “Astubar! Old friend, it’s good to see you again.”

  Now I knew it, the name of my creator. But his wrath erupted from his throat.

  “MARCUS! Traitorous apprentice, how dare you call yourself my equal!”

  A feminine, childlike but unsettling voice insinuated itself into the chorus.

  “My beloved, don’t be so angry. You risk breaking your old body of bones.”

  “Whore! Itilla, remember who gave you the opportunity to become an archmage!”

  “But of course! Thanks to you. But dear, who made you so happy on the most sleepless nights? Hypocrite.”

  “Enough, Itilla. You know how he is. An egocentric and arrogant man. Not even death can change him.”

  The deep voice that resonated in the depths of the brain imposed itself on the symphony, replacing Itilla.

  “Mudin, you old bastard. I see your sense of superiority has remained. It wasn’t enough to become a pulp of flesh and minds to eliminate it.”

  As the world around me cracked and distorted, I reached for my salvation. The black and immobile door.

  “Envious leeches that you have always been, what do you want!?”

  A distorted laugh, a mix of all the voices, almost paralyzed me.

  “Do we need a reason to greet you? Astubar, you’ve truly become blind and ignorant. It’s obvious we’re here to devour you and complete ourselves. But if you want a reason, we’re here to free and save our old companions imprisoned by you, in these silent walls. Also, destroying your archive of knowledge is definitely fun.”

  Silence.

  A truly insignificant silence fell for a moment.

  But in that precise moment, I felt the furious gaze of the one I had revered fix on me.

  It wasn’t my fault. I didn’t know what my friend’s head was. I didn’t want all this.

  But I could never explain it, there were no words that could save me from my sin.

  “Astubarrr, where are you running? Stay with us, it’s been so long since we last saw you.”

  I felt the giant arm moving, but my eyes were fixed on the door, now closer.

  I clung to the stone at its base, trying to free myself from the chaosbeneath me.

  Then there it was.

  A familiar head emerged from that sea of faces.

  “Loris, save me! Save your friend! Don’t abandon me here!”

  It was Lucas. He was begging me with his face to tear him from that terrible fate.

  Was it really him?

  But did it really matter?

  I reached out my arm, dug my fingers into his flesh, and pulled.

  A head was now in my palm.

  Just like before.

  “Run, Loris! We must escape from here!”

  I knew what I had to do. I didn’t need such commands.

  With my two blade-arms, I pushed the right door open. A crack appeared, allowing my body to pass. I dove into the dark gap.

  Salvation welcomed me.

  The door closed behind me, separating two different realities.

  The cacophony of incomprehensible screams turned into an immobile silence.

  I left behind that place that would haunt me forever.

  My master would have wanted to destroy me.

  But what is the point of existing if I don’t serve the master?

  Then why am I running with all this strength?

  My mind was confused. An event all too common lately.

  I was retracing the tunnels I had used earlier to descend.

  A rumble, a thunder, a tremor.

  Something I didn’t want to know had happened down there.

  I advanced a little further, but then I found my path blocked by rubble of rock and stone that had collapsed.

  But with one path blocked, two choices presented themselves.

  The collapsed ceiling seemed to reconnect to another tunnel.

  But also, to the lower left, a passage had opened.

  I was determined to go upwards.

  But someone else thought differently.

  “Loris! Here, to the left! Trust me, I know.”

  I don’t know when the name Loris stopped bothering me and started to sound natural, I was starting to get used to it.

  “Why?”

  “Because I’ve seen their secrets. Trust me…”

  I don’t even know why I listened to him and headed downwards.

  I knew I shouldn’t trust him, but it was under control.

  It was just a head, I could handle it.