The crimson-lit horror of the second loop stretched out, a tunnel of continuous grief. Just as the pressure of the shared madness threatened to become a new permanent reality, the scene before them dissolved.
Specs of glittering crimson lights shift around the area before then a thunderous roar echoed out through the hall.
A massive black sea surged down the corridor, and Aether's eyes widened when he heard distant, desperate screams carried in its roar.
Then the wave crashed over them.
The wave stole his breath, swallowing him whole but there was no chill or dampness. Instead, visions appeared around him of drowned scientists tumbling in the torrent, their final thoughts flashing in grotesque loops.
He saw a child's shaky drawing, a half-forgotten lullaby, a hastily unlocked door, the sharp sting of held-in panic. The current's distorted roar would suddenly sharpen into isolated screams that echoed through the area.
He tried to stand firm, but the floor vanished, replaced by the irresistible pull of the memory-tide. Then time itself seemed to slow as Lyria's Stillness Aura flared, pushing back against the Nightmare Zone's current.
He felt her fingers clench his as she narrowed her eyes and took a determined step forward.
Next, Mila squeezed his hand, and Aether turned toward her, his movement sluggish against the thickened flow. Her eyes were wide while her usual hum stilled, lips pressed into a thin line as she trembled against the invasive thoughts.
A smirk tugged at his lips as the three of them pressed onward, each step a battle to ignore the images and emotions leaking into their minds.
They brushed past floating corpses, their unblinking eyes replaying silent farewells. A scream rippled through the water, making Mila flinched with tremors running through her.
Aether frowned as foreign memories tried to overwrite his own such as a birthday party he'd never attended, a diagnosis he'd never received. Lyria's aura flickered, her body trembling but holding the barrier firm.
Then, after four agonizing seconds, came the crack of shattering glass.
The ocean of memory broke apart. In an instant they were stumbling onto a solid grimy corridor floor.
The transition was so abrupt Mila fell onto Aether, and Lyria fell back. Mila groaned before moving off of Aether while Lyria steady herself with a slight frown.
Mila hugged herself, rubbing her arms as if chilled to the bone. "I hate coming through this hall."
Lyria nodded, her breathing slowly steadying. "We won't have to come back again."
Aether looked back the way they came, at the now-featureless white walls that had contained such horror. "If we do find the source of this zone... Let's crush it before we leave."
Mila's eyes, still wide from the drowning, lit up with a sudden, fierce glee. She grinned, the expression cutting through her pallor. "Yes!"
Lyria did not refuse and merely adjusted her grip on her blade hilt.
They moved on, leaving the Memory Isolation Corridor behind. They left behind the dirty halls for cold damp concrete, and the air itself seems to have an odd sea salt smell.
They had entered the Isotope Baths.
The room was huge and round with six big eight-sided pools. The water in them was black, around the edges of the water was a shiny light that glowed.
They had only walked a few steps into the room when the shadows between the pools moved.
Twitch Lurkers pulled themselves out of the shallow muck. They were thin as sticks, with grey see-through skin stretched over too many sharp joints. They had no eyes, just big, round heads with slits that twitched, and making clicking sounds as they stood up.
Aether blinked before he groaned as he felt something stabbing into his mind while Mila and Lyria moved in front of him.
Just as the nightmare creature's figure began to tremble and then vanished. Before appearing three feet closer before vanishing once more and appearing even closer.
"Twitch Lurkers," Lyria's voice echoed out a bit later. "They jump through tiny folds in reality. So it is better to not watch them move or guess where they will be and simply strike when they appear. Be careful, they will try to push you into the black pools if given the chance."
"Ugh, of course… Wait, is it whispering?" Mila blinked before glancing to the side to hear muttering coming from it.
"It wasn't there before?" Aether asked as he aimed his gun.
"No!"
Lyria stepped forward and met the first lurker as it flickered toward her. She chopped through her needle-like hand, and the hand flew into the area with the creature shrieking before jumping back.
Mila started humming a strong clear note. The sound made the next lurker's flicker stumble, leaving it stuck in place for a second. Aether firearm fired, the blast rushing forward and striking into the lurker chest, burning a hole right through it.
The creature fell, already turning to dust.
But as if the fighting made it angry, the whispering grew louder, turning into a chanting song.
The black water in the middle pool bulged, and then it exploded.
A swarm of Noct-Eels shot into the air.
Their long, ribbon-like bodies flickered in black and white, dripping ink. Behind them, a wave of the thick, black water itself surged over the side of the pool and rushed across the floor toward the group.
"Get back!" Lyria yelled.
She shoved Aether and Mila behind her with her left arm while her other hand swung out towards the black water.
Kinetic Diffusion.
A visible shockwave shot from her hands and hit the wave of black sludge. The wave crashed against the shockwave before being pushed back. After that Lyria spun around and cut two more lurkers who had tried to rush her in half with her sword.
They all stepped away from the water's edge, standing close together in a triangle. Aether kept firing, shooting down eels that darted at them. Mila focused on her humming, using the sound to mess up the lurkers' flickering movements so they couldn't get close.
That's when Aether saw it.
In all the chaos, he spotted not a lurker, but a slimy, root-like tentacle from the oily pool skin. It was hiding in a puddle on the floor. As Mila stepped sideways to avoid a lurker, the tentacle wrapped around her ankle.
And pulled.
Mila cried out in surprise with her feet slipping out from under her. She fell backwards, right toward the open black water of the nearest pool.
Aether didn't think as he was already moving.
He lunged forward, dropping his gun. His hand shot out and grabbed Mila's arm just as her shoulders started to go over the pool's edge. He pulled hard with all of his strength to yank her back, hauling her out of her fall and into his chest, wrapping his other arm around her to hold her tight.
The moment he caught her, the black water where she would have landed erupted
Not with the eels from before but with huge shadowy tentacles. They smashed down on the exact spot she had been with incredible force. The concrete floor cracked and cratered from the blow.
Aether turned his back to the pool, shielding Mila with his body. He had no weapon or shield he could use to protect them from the tentacles. But then he remembered the information that rushed into his mind before and then he felt an energy stirring inside of himself.
Kinetic Diffusion.
His eyes glowed a deep, ocean blue with pure focus just as the second wave of tentacles hit him in the back.
The impact should have crushed him, but it didn't. As he felt the force behind the tentacle spreading over his body and then out of it.
The attack became a shove that made him stumble two steps with his boots squealing on the wet floor. The air was knocked from his lungs with a grunt, but he stayed on his feet.
And he did not let go of Mila.
The pool seemed furious as the water in all the pools churned. A forest of thick, shadowy tentacles rose up, ready to smash down together and crush them completely.
They never got the chance.
In the next second, Lyria reappeared in a streak of blue in front of Aether and Mila. There was no single slash to see but it was over in an instant. Dozens of slashes and sword cuts appeared in the air all around the room at the same time.
Every single tentacle was sliced into pieces that dissolved into smoke while the remaining lurker was cut apart.
The last few eels popped into nothingness.
Then there was silence.