The man awoke.
He was now in a new place.
The same hall… but abandoned. No bones, no throne, no guardian.
Only… a door.
A massive door of black metal, bearing a symbol.
A symbol like an open wound.
He approached.
Touched it.
And as soon as he did… the door opened slowly.
Behind it… darkness.
But it was not ordinary darkness. It was thick, alive, as if it swallowed light itself. Every step inside felt like walking on the skin of a sleeping creature.
He stepped forward.
Moved on.
He felt his body being pulled, not moving by his own will. The stones around him throbbed, the walls twisted, and the shadows moved as if they were watching him.
Then… the sense of ground vanished.
As if he fell, or floated, or slipped out of reality.
Suddenly…
A gray light pierced the darkness.
Beneath his feet… ground.
Sandy ground, but not a normal desert. The sand moved… not by wind, but with a pulse, as if it were breathing.
The sky… was not a sky.
But a gray void, from which fog hung like melted chains.
And above all that… something began to emerge in the distance.
Faint sounds. Heartbeats.
Then… the earth trembled beneath him.
The sands split open, as if swallowing themselves, and a massive vortex formed.
And from its core… columns rose.
Black columns, towering, stretching from the depths of the lower void up to the gray void above.
And suspended above them… was a city.
A vast structure floating in the void, connected by black columns hanging downward with no end. A city unlike anything in this world. Its walls resembled bones, its balconies hung in the air, its windows looked into nothingness, and its roofs bent as if yielding to an invisible weight. Everything was silent… but not still.
The void in which this city was born was not complete darkness. It was a blend of pulsing gray light, like the breath of the world, dissipating around the black columns like fog writhing from an unknown pain.
From where he stood, he saw a staircase carved from a substance that resembled neither stone nor metal, but was soft and curved, as if alive. A staircase descending from the mouth of the fissure, leading to a narrow bridge suspended in the air, ending at a massive gate at the city's edge.
He stepped forward without hesitation.
Each step echoed with a delayed response, as if the void itself disliked repeating sound. He reached the bridge, narrow enough to barely fit his feet. No railings. No guarantees. One misstep, and he would fall into the unknown.
But he didn't hesitate.
As if he knew this was not a path of death… but of birth.
At the gate stood broken statues, bearing featureless faces. No eyes, no mouths, no noses. Only carved emptiness. Each statue bore a different inscription, symbols like the screams he saw in the awakening chamber.
When he touched the gate, it split open slowly, not as if opening… but as if breathing.
And he entered.
The city inside was far larger than it appeared from the outside. The alleys were long, winding without order, and the buildings curled upon themselves, as if refusing to remain in one form. There was no visible life. No people. No animals. But every stone… every wall… gave the feeling of being watched.
The air was heavier than sand, filled with a rusty scent—a blend of old blood and forgotten bones.
In the middle of the first passage, he saw the first sign.
A mirror.
Suspended in the air, without strings. It did not reflect him, but something else.
A being.
A shadow undulating in the mist, resembling him in form, but without eyes, without a heart, without a voice.
The same voice he heard in the chamber spoke:
"This is you, as you were born in the void. Nothing more… nothing less."
He approached the mirror, reached out, and touched it.
The mirror shattered, and the wall behind it opened, as if the city was rewarding his courage… or luring him for more.
He entered the new passage.
Here, the change began.
The walls were no longer stone, but flesh-like. Pulsing.
The ground made faint sounds, like groaning. The gray light turned deep red, as if the city itself was bleeding.
Then, he heard a voice.
But not the old voice.
A female voice… weak… barely audible.
He followed the voice until he reached a circular hall, in the center of which floated a glass cell. Inside it… was the girl.
The girl he had saved in the desert.
But now she was bound, her eyes open, looking at him.
She said in a voice barely heard:
"I escaped… but I did not survive…"
He approached. But as soon as he touched the cell, the place around him trembled.
The city changed.
Everything became darker. More alive.
And in a single moment, he heard the voice he knew… from all directions.
"The second knot… has begun."
The girl disappeared.
The cell collapsed.
And the entity appeared.
But not its shadow this time.
Something bigger.
A humanoid form, cloaked in black, but with hands, feet, and two glowing red eyes in place of a face.
The entity raised its head and spoke:
"Who are you… to enter this place without permission?"
The man responded in a voice he didn't know he had:
"I… have no name."
The entity laughed, a rough laugh that made the walls peel.
"If you have no name… you will find no path among us."
Then it lunged at him.
The battle was physical.
But also psychological.
Every strike from the entity dragged images behind it. Memories not his. Screams from a past he didn't know. And every block from him peeled away a layer of his inner self, as if he was stripping himself bare with a blade.
Blows rained down. Blood splattered, but it was not red. It was gray liquid, like time made fluid.
In a fleeting moment, the man grabbed the entity by the neck and lifted it.
The entity said, its voice filled with fear:
"No… you were not meant to awaken."
He replied:
"I have awakened… and I no longer need a shadow."
And he squeezed.
The entity dissolved, turning into black dust, scattering into the air, and vanished.
Silence.
Then, he heard the voice… again.
But this time… it was not external.
It came from within.
"The second knot… has been passed."
And in the heart of the city… a new gate opened.
A gate with no form, like a tear in the universe.
And inside it, he saw something… indescribable.
And for the first time since his awakening… he felt fear.
Then he stepped toward it.
Without shadow, without name… but with a strength greater than ever before.