A room with equipment. There were no windows. The only light came from indicators on the gray instrument panels.
Somewhere deep inside the building, muffled screams and dark, monotonous chants could be heard.
The All-Seeing was covered in blood. She had not yet recovered from the magical battle. Her wounds were regenerating.
"Keep the Frost Sword ready!" she said. "It shoots ice lightning bolts and can strike many enemies from a distance!"
The Cursed and the All-Seeing passed through a corridor and found themselves in a large room where many people were hanging on the walls. Transparent thin tubes protruded from their bodies and connected to a large device in the center of the room. Several figures in hoods and cloaks with emblems of a toothy maw devouring the moon were in the hall. Some of them poked the victims hanging on the walls with black rods, and they groaned in pain.
When the Cursed and the All-Seeing appeared in the twilight hall, several cultists turned their heads in their direction. Others did not have time to do so. Several blinding curved ice lightning bolts shot from the Frost Sword and pierced all the cult servants at the same time. They fell dead onto the floor.
At the noise, tall muscular guards in black masks and black leather armor, also bearing the emblem of the maw devouring the moon, rushed through another doorway. With drawn swords, pincers, and rods with the toothy heads of monsters at their tops, they attacked those who had entered.
The Frost Sword required recharging. The grenade launcher also could not be used because of the limited space and the victims hanging on the walls. In his left hand, the Cursed held the ray gun; in his right, the sword that had appeared. Armed this way, he entered the battle. With the ray gun, he was shooting down enemies as they approached, and with the blade finishing off those who managed to break through into close combat despite their serious wounds. Their swords, pincers, and rods were constantly twisting like living things, the monster heads on the rods were clicking their teeth, trying to bite. But after some time, all the cult guards lay dead on the floor.
They continued exploring the remaining rooms to make sure no enemies were left.
A night city could be seen beyond the windows. A gloomy multi-story palace and many houses around it. A red light glowed behind the palace windows, and behind the windows of most houses as well. Something terrible and beyond comprehension was happening there.
"I do not recognize this city, although I have been here more than once before," the Cursed said.
"It seems that it has become a huge magical laboratory since then," the All-Seeing replied. "In every house, unnatural experiments are being conducted on people. Therefore, no one will notice if I stay here to recover and support you with magic. You must infiltrate the palace. The source of all the evil happening here is located there, and there are also gates there that will bring you even closer to your goal."
"You are not going any farther with me?"
"My battle with the Black Sorcerers cost me too much. It could have happened that you would have found my blood-covered body in the tower, turned into a shapeless mass, with my severed head lying somewhere nearby. But now I need to recover. This hall has all the magical devices needed for that. When I recover, I will catch up with you, wherever you are."