Arthur woke up with a strange sensation in his body.
Pain wasn't the first thing to arrive.
It was emptiness.
A heavy, uncomfortable emptiness, something that had nothing to do with the arm he already knew was gone. It was something else. Something far more basic. A deep, almost primitive need.
He opened his eyes slowly. The corridor was still there, silent, littered with remains and motionless bodies. For a moment, he stayed still, breathing, confirming that he was still alive. His chest rose and fell with difficulty, but it did.
Then he looked to the left. The arm was gone. His shoulder ended in an uneven edge, covered in dried blood and dark tissue. He didn't feel pain anymore. He had no way of knowing how long he'd been unconscious, but it must have been a couple of hours.
'I'm surprised I didn't die from blood loss… strange,'
The sensation tightened again from within, different from any hunger he'd ever felt. It wasn't just his stomach. It was as if his entire body was demanding something all at once.
Arthur dragged himself into a sitting position and looked at one of the fallen chimeras. He thought about eating without stopping to consider how or what. Meat was meat. He wasn't in a position to be picky.
'Still, I'm not going near the second chimera. Disgusting bastard,'
Gripping the improvised dagger with his right hand, Arthur approached the closest one. He placed the blade against the body and pressed.
It didn't cut.
The dagger passed through the surface… and found no resistance until the tip struck the ground.
Where the blade had passed, the body began to break down. Not into chunks, but into something finer. Violet particles peeled away from the flesh like dust suspended in the air.
Arthur froze, not understanding what was happening or what he was supposed to do.
The particles hovered for an instant… then moved.
Toward him.
He recoiled on instinct, but it was useless. The violet dust accelerated and embedded itself into his chest, his forehead and his eyes, passing through his skin as if it didn't exist. A deep, uncomfortable tingling spread inside him.
He couldn't stop it. And he didn't even know if he should try.
When the process ended, the chimera's body had disappeared completely. And something inside him had changed. The sensation was still there, but it was no longer as urgent, as if it had weakened just enough to let him think.
Arthur looked at the next one.
Sensing no danger, he repeated the process. Every chimera reacted the same way: the body losing form, dissolving into violet particles that were drawn into him without his intervention.
With each absorption, the activity inside his body intensified. It wasn't pain. It wasn't pleasure either. It was… internal movement. As if something was working beneath his skin without asking permission.
After the fourth, Arthur bent forward, breathing heavily.
The need vanished completely. So did the thirst.
Only then did he look at his left shoulder again.
Where there had been nothing before, the skin was closing. Slowly. Not all at once. Not cleanly. New tissue advanced like a slow tide, rebuilding what had been torn away. The arm reformed until it stopped, incomplete, ending just before the wrist.
There was no hand. Just an uneven end, covered in new skin.
Arthur swallowed.
He didn't need to think too hard to understand it. The violet particles. The bodies. The internal sensation.
Aether.
His body hadn't consumed flesh. It had absorbed aether and now… he no longer needed normal food.
'Still, I'm going to keep eating. My mom's pancakes are too good,'
Exhaustion hit all at once, heavy, unavoidable. He lay back against the cold stone floor of the corridor, feeling his body continue its work, sealing other minor wounds.
The aether had prioritized the most severe injury, stabilizing it until it was no longer a threat. Then it had handled the rest. Maybe, if he gained greater control in the future, he'd be able to decide which wounds to prioritize.
This time, when darkness came, it wasn't a collapse.
Arthur simply fell asleep.
***
Unknown to Arthur, in the final chamber of the nightmare, a conversation took place.
"So falling asleep in the Relicombs really is in the DNA."
The figure on the throne let out a sigh. "Don't be so hard on him."
The other chuckled softly. "At this pace, I don't know if he'll make it."
***
Arthur woke up like last time, disoriented, with a persistent headache. Much of it came from the fact that time felt different in here.
'Is that the aether's fault?' he wondered.
Either way, he'd rested enough. If he wanted to fully recover his arm, he'd have to kill and absorb more monsters.
Another question surfaced.
What would happen if he absorbed excess aether while already in good condition, without injuries?
Would he be able to control it?
His aspect said no, but as his mother used to say:
"In a world ruled by impossibility, the possible is only a matter of perspective."
He'll try it at the end of the next zone. For that, he needs to be in good shape.
With that final thought, Arthur forced himself up from the floor. Even without broken bones, sleeping on stone wasn't exactly comfortable.
He stretched a bit and headed toward the portal at the end of the corridor leading to the second zone. The silence was absolute, broken only by the sound of his footsteps.
At the entrance, Arthur took a deep breath and stepped through.
The sight that greeted him was… beautiful.
On the other side was an open world that seemed endless. A vast forest stretched in every direction, giant trees rising like natural pillars, so tall their canopies vanished into layers of leaves and filtered light. Everything was green. Alive. Overwhelming.
The air was humid, heavy with natural scents: earth, sap, decaying leaves. The ground was covered in thick roots that twisted through the vegetation, forcing careful steps. There were no clear paths. Nothing was meant to be traversed.
Arthur moved forward and kept moving.
Minutes quickly lost meaning. The forest didn't change, yet it never truly repeated. Each stretch looked like the last, even though he knew it wasn't. The Aether Sense remained calm; he only felt the faint vibrations of leaves and branches.
He walked for hours.
He rested against a massive trunk, resumed his march, crossed denser areas and more open ones. Hunger didn't return. Neither did thirst. His body felt stable. Too stable.
With time, that absence of danger began to relax him then the terrain descended.
Not abruptly, but gradually, as if the forest itself had been carved around a natural depression. The sound arrived before the sight: moving water, constant and deep.
A river. Wide. Far wider than Arthur had imagined. The water stretched across dozens of meters, flowing slowly but with a silent strength that made it clear crossing by swimming wasn't realistic.
A wooden bridge spanned it.
It wasn't elegant or sturdy: thick logs, uneven planks, ropes barely tight enough. It swayed slightly even without wind, as if reminding anyone who crossed that it wasn't permanent, just something improvised within a wild environment.
Arthur crossed.
The forest on the other side was the same… and it wasn't. Same density. Same towering trees. Same omnipresent green but something in the atmosphere felt different. Not more dangerous.
Just… attentive.
Arthur kept walking. A long time passed without anything happening. Too long.
The Aether Sense continued to signal calm within its range. No attacks. No surprises. Nothing.
False security began to settle in.
That was when Arthur noticed the first odd detail.
Not a sound but an interruption. A minimal vibration, right at the edge of his perception. Barely a flicker. When he stopped and focused, there was nothing. The forest remained still… and alive.
He moved forward again. Another vibration. From a different angle. Again too far to confirm.
They weren't close. But they were there.
Arthur continued, now more cautiously. Every few steps, the Aether Sense reacted inconsistently, as if something was entering and leaving its range. Not a single presence, but several. Moving. Coordinating.
They still didn't attack.
They were watching him.
The shadows between the trees began to feel too dense. The canopies moved with the wind, but the aether marked displacements that didn't match leaves or branches. Something large moved from tree to tree… without occupying visible space.
And when several vibrations appeared at once, from different points around him, Arthur understood the trap.
It wasn't an immediate ambush.
It was a hunt.
The forest was still beautiful. The river still flowed. The world looked intact.
But Arthur wasn't alone and he suspected he never had been.
The first movement was just a brush at the edge of his perception.
Arthur stopped.
The Aether Sense reacted with a brief, weak vibration, as if something had entered and left its range. No sound. No broken branches. Nothing visible.
He took one more step.
Something crossed his perception to the right, fast, low. He twisted instinctively and snapped the whip in a short arc. He didn't aim at a body, but at the space the Aether Sense marked.
The whip tightened.
Something screeched.
An invisible body was ripped from the air and slammed into a tree trunk. The illusion shattered on impact: a deformed monkey-like creature, larger than normal, appeared for an instant before going still, its neck bent at an impossible angle.
[You have slain a Dormant Beast, Phantom Grove Stalker.]
Arthur didn't dwell on it.
Another movement. Behind him this time.
He lunged forward and turned, using the whip as an extension of his body. He shortened it to the minimum and swept low. The impact was solid. Resistance, then a crack. The second body fell without ever becoming visible.
[You have slain a Dormant Beast, Phantom Grove Stalker.]
The third attacked from above.
Arthur felt it before he saw anything. He dove aside, released the whip, and focused on the dagger, thrusting backward blindly, guided only by the correct vibration. The improvised blade pierced soft flesh. Weight crashed onto him, and he rolled to shove it off.
[You have slain a Dormant Beast, Phantom Grove Stalker.]
Three.
Arthur took a deep breath. It wasn't over.
The fourth and fifth came together. Coordinated. One from the front, one from behind. He lengthened the whip and hurled it upward, anchoring it to a high branch. He pulled with his entire body and lifted himself just as something swept through where his legs had been.
Refocusing on the dagger, Arthur dropped onto the first.
One died silently.
The other tried to retreat, but switching back to the whip, Arthur cinched it around its torso and crushed it against the ground until it stopped moving.
[You have slain a Dormant Beast, Phantom Grove Stalker.]
[You have slain a Dormant Beast, Phantom Grove Stalker.]
Five.
The forest went quiet again. Too quiet then the Aether Sense exploded.
Not one. Not two. Many. Moving through the trees, entering and leaving his range, surrounding him. They were no longer testing with isolated attacks. They were closing in.
Arthur moved. There wasn't time to absorb the aether from the bodies he'd already killed.
He didn't run in a straight line. He changed direction, used trees as cover, the whip as an anchor to propel himself. Each attack was measured, precise. A dagger strike here. A violent pull there. But they started to overwhelm him.
Invisible blows grazed his back. Something cut his side, not deep, but enough. Pressure built rapidly. His body began lagging behind his mind.
Then it happened.
Residual Echo activated.
Arthur's body moved before he could think. The whip expanded violently, dozens of meters wrapping trunks, branches, invisible bodies.
He pulled.
The forest responded with violence.
Bodies were ripped from the air, smashed into one another, shattered by impact. Arthur didn't see most of them. He didn't need to. The aether traced paths, openings, mistakes.
He moved through the trees as if he already knew the terrain. The dagger rose and fell at angles he didn't remember learning. Every movement had purpose. Every turn ended with something collapsing.
The monkeys tried to attack in groups.
They failed.
The whip caught several at once and used them as projectiles against their own allies. Others were pinned to trunks with such force that the illusion broke before they died.
It wasn't a fight.
It was a purge.
They specialized in stealth, not durability—but the damage they dealt if they caught you was severe.
Blood stained leaves, roots, soil. The forest filled with chaotic vibrations until, one by one, they faded. When the last body fell, Arthur's legs gave out.
Residual Echo shut off as abruptly as it had appeared.
Silence returned.
Arthur breathed heavily, leaning his back against a tree. He looked at his incomplete left arm. Still the same. There hadn't been time. He hadn't been able to absorb anything.
Too many enemies. Too much pressure. And yet… He'd survived.
The forest still stood but Arthur knew the truth.
This zone wouldn't let him rest. It would be trial after trial.
It wasn't the last group. Nor the second. Nor the third.
The nightmare creatures stopped attacking in coordinated assaults and shifted to something worse: persistence.
Small, intermittent waves. Always from different angles. Sometimes two at a time. Sometimes five. Sometimes just one, waiting for the exact moment his guard dropped.
Arthur lost count quickly.
Hours later, the ground was covered in drag marks, dark blood, and shattered trunks. His breathing had become automatic. His movements mechanical.
Every kill released aether. Every absorption healed minor wounds, strengthened muscles... but never enough to complete the arm.
Over time, they learned but so did Arthur.
They began attacking from outside his maximum range, forcing him to move. To make mistakes. To waste energy.
When the last of that wave fell, Arthur didn't feel relief.
The Aether Sense—for the first time since entering this area—fell into absolute silence.
The calm before the storm. As if the entire forest had taken a step back.
Arthur advanced.
Each step was heavy—not from exhaustion, but pressure. The air felt different. Denser. The green of the forest looked dull, as if light avoided the place.
Then he felt it. Not intermittent vibrations, not multiple presences.
One. Large. Stable.
Perfectly still… even within his maximum range.
Invisible? Yes, but not hidden.
Arthur swallowed.
"So you're the one in charge," he murmured.
The air ahead distorted slightly, as if something massive breathed without wanting to be seen and this time, it wasn't a hunt.
It was a duel.
Surrounded by trees that reached the sky, some branches wide enough to hold houses, others barely large enough for a single person.
Wherever Arthur looked, there was an obstacle if he wanted to move fast.
That's when he realized it. He was no longer in the regular forest. He had entered the boss area. He'd walked straight into its trap.
His vision showed nothing unusual—but his Aether Sense did. Meters away stood another invisible monkey—but this one wasn't like the others. Its silhouette felt larger. Its aura different.
It stood on one of the thick branches. Arthur didn't fully understand its posture, but he was certain of one thing: It was measuring him.
Any careless movement, and it would strike.
Arthur briefly expanded his Aether Sense to confirm if they were alone.
They were.
This would be a duel with no interruptions. No escape. To the death.
Without his left arm fully restored. With his body exhausted and against a monster that surpassed him in strength, size, and experience.
Arthur didn't know if it was the pressure of the coming battle or adrenaline flooding his body, but he couldn't stop a smile from forming.
The monster moved.
Arthur did not see it. He only felt the vibrations.
He jumped backward on reflex, and a fraction of a second later, the branch he had been standing on split apart as if struck by an invisible battering ram. Splinters flew through the air. The hit had not been direct, but the shockwave still caught him and sent him rolling through the roots.
He did not see the attack. He only felt the result.
Arthur got up immediately, using the whip to propel himself toward a more open area.
Mistake.
His sense of aether tensed behind him, and something enormous rushed past, tearing the bark off three trees in a row. The monster was fast for its size. And precise.
The next hit did connect.
Something invisible slammed into Arthur's torso and lifted him off the ground like he weighed nothing. He crashed into a thick trunk, the air was knocked out of his lungs, and he dropped to his knees, dizzy. Pain. A lot of it.
The aether around him vibrated steadily, dominantly. It was not in a hurry. It did not need to be. It was stronger, faster, and larger than him.
Arthur forced himself to move before the next strike came.
He extended the whip in a wide arc, not trying to hit it, but to mark its exact position. The aether reacted when the whip passed close to the invisible body: a minimal distortion. Enough.
He adjusted the length instantly and waited for it to collide with it. Seconds later, he felt the tension in the whip. Something heavy was struck, and he saw a branch nearly snap from the weight that fell onto it.
The creature lunged.
The world turned chaotic. Invisible blows from above, from the sides, from angles that did not match its size. It used the terrain better than he did. It leaped between branches as if the forest were part of its body.
Arthur was barely surviving.
Every dodge was precise. Every movement cost him. His sense of aether warned him of attacks with barely a breath of anticipation. He could not afford mistakes.
An invisible claw sliced his side. He felt hot blood soak his clothes. Another charge forced him to throw himself to the ground to avoid being split in half.
It was stronger. More resilient and it could remain invisible even after taking damage.
'I cannot win like this,'
He thought fast. The forest was not an obstacle. It was a tool.
Arthur retreated on purpose, drawing it toward a tighter area where the branches intertwined and space was limited. The creature noticed… but followed anyway. Confident.
A grave mistake.
Arthur anchored the whip to two massive trees and pulled with all his weight right when the vibrations marked it. The invisible body slammed into the tension of the whip and lost its balance for an instant.
Residual Echo awakened. His body moved on its own.
Arthur rolled beneath its torso, his dagger rising at a perfect angle and barely sinking into the inner part of its thigh. The roar it released shook leaves and branches.
Taking advantage of how close it was, it struck back. Arthur managed to partially block it, but it still slammed him into the ground.
He felt something crack. He did not know what.
But he did not stop.
Using the whip again, Arthur wrapped it around its arm, pulled, moved closer, and tried to stab deeper. But it saw it coming. With a single maneuver, it redirected his movement and struck him square in the chest. Everything went blurry.
Arthur fell onto his back, struggling to breathe.
Forcing himself to get up before it hit him again, he threw the whip at a branch to use it as support. He stood just in time to try to dodge a trunk flying at extreme speed.
He barely avoided the trunk by turning right, and that was when he realized his mistake. The trunk was not the main threat.
Arthur did not even manage to lift his gaze before he felt the aether around him shift to make space for the monster's fist.
The blow sent him flying several meters back, and he ended up at the edge of the river.
Trying to breathe, Arthur realized he was choking on blood. The hit had broken his ribs, and they had punctured his lungs.
With few other options and using the distance, he moved toward the first body of one of the monkeys he had fought earlier.
When he tried to pierce it, the same thing that had happened with the chimeras occurred. The body turned into violet particles and flowed toward him.
He did the same with the other nearby bodies until, thankfully, his ribs healed and his lungs returned to normal.
That did not mean he was in good condition. The blood he had already lost was not coming back. And it had been a lot.
'If this keeps up, this will not end well. Is there no way to do something with aether?' Arthur wondered.
Trying the previous idea of controlling it inside his body, Arthur approached another monster and closed his eyes, focusing on his sense of aether.
The result?
Absolutely nothing. Aether ignored him completely and before he could try again, he felt the vibrations of the zone boss once more.
The good news was that he was just about to fully recover his left hand. Maybe absorbing aether from one more monster would be enough.
Unfortunately, he did not have the time. The next second, it was on top of him but this time, it was different.
Arthur felt the strike meters before it happened.
Dodging to the left, he drove his right fist toward where he assumed the monster's torso was. Even with his sense of aether, identifying its exact physiology was difficult.
Sensing his intent, it twisted its body so his punch passed by. What it failed to avoid was the kick Arthur delivered to its head.
The punch had never been meant to connect. It was a feint. The purpose was to make it dodge, and by jumping and spinning in midair, his foot struck what should have been its ear.
He did not send it flying like it had done to him, but Arthur was certain he stunned it.
Taking advantage of the moment, he switched to the whip and wrapped it around its entire body, but he did not pull. He needed a better perception of its form.
Feeling the whip around it, the creature tried to jump to a branch, failing to realize that this was exactly what Arthur wanted.
At that moment, he commanded the whip to extend as much as possible.
With both its movement and his, the whip tangled in such a way that any movement from the creature would only cause it more damage.
That was, of course, only if the Memory could withstand its strength.
Trying to take advantage of the moment, Arthur moved as close as possible and drove the dagger in his right hand into where he calculated its thigh to be.
The dagger met resistance at first, but eventually, it gave way.
Letting out a scream that nearly deafened him, the creature began to thrash desperately.
Arthur hoped the whip would hold.
As if the world itself had heard his thoughts, the whip endured, and with every movement the creature made, it only hurt itself more.
Raising the dagger again, this time Arthur aimed for its chest.
Just as he was about to strike, he felt a vibration of aether he did not like. The whip was giving in under the pressure. A few more seconds, and the Memory would shatter.
Luckily, the dagger pierced the creature's chest before that could happen.
Strangely, Arthur felt no resistance at all. It was as if the creature's chest was its weak point.
Seconds later, he heard the spell's voice confirming its death.
[You have slain a Dormant Demon, Phantom Grove Alpha.]
[You have received a Memory: Phantom Armor.]
A smile formed on Arthur's face as he dismissed the whip.
He let himself fall beside it, exhausted, staring at the sky barely visible through the canopy. His sense of aether slowly faded, returning to silence.
He had won.
But it was not a clean victory. Not elegant. Not free.
As Arthur stabbed the demon's body, it began to break apart, dissolving into denser violet particles than before.
The particles moved toward him.
When the process ended, Arthur felt a deep pull in his left shoulder. Not pain, but pressure. He looked down just in time to see the skin close completely, and finally, fingers began to form.
A hand. His hand. Not perfect. Still weak. But real.
A dry laugh escaped him, ending in a cough.
"In the end… it was worth it," he muttered.
The forest was in absolute silence. No vibrations. No presences. The zone had accepted the result.
Arthur stayed there a while longer without moving, letting his body finish its work as he rested.
Now, he was halfway through the nightmare.