Level “ ? ”: The Meadow of Silence.

  A heated argument was taking place in the meeting room. Commanders Volkov and Chan were shouting at each other, clashing over the fate of Mirko, the Leader of Barracks C, who was responsible for the clandestine distribution of Sunflower Seeds. The air was thick with paranoia; the internal betrayal had wounded the pride of the base.

  Bella, the Leader of Barracks A, was the first to notice that something was wrong. She stood up, pointing towards the head of the table.

  — Commander Nastacia! — she shouted, silencing the dispute —. She is having a premonition.

  Nastacia had entered a deep trance. Her eyes rolled back as her Premonition rune activated like a gale. Suddenly, she gasped for air, as if emerging from an ocean of nightmares, and dropped her staff. The sound of the wooden staff hitting the floor rang out like a death sentence. Her hands trembled violently before the astonished gaze of those present.

  — Q-Quickly, we must organise now! — she ordered in a voice that brooked no argument —. Chan, there is a large number of soldiers in the bar at this moment; you and Ryan go and help those who will survive. Commander Volkov, you go and protect Captain Ronko. Bella, you are coming with me to the labs.

  Nastacia looked everyone in the eye; her pale face reflected a pure terror that no one in that room had ever seen before.

  — Lilith has awakened — she sentenced.

  In the bar, the karaoke music was still echoing, but the atmosphere changed in a heartbeat. Stefan was smiling at two people singing on stage until he noticed a metallic clinking. The bottles in front of him began to knock against each other; then, the table started to vibrate, and finally, the entire bar shook violently.

  The structure of SIEN was trembling from its foundations. The military base that once dominated the meadow with its false calm began its transformation. Playing God always has consequences, and now the price was manifesting with a silent but absolute violence.

  The windows of the recreational area and the laboratories exploded outwards in a thousand fragments, as if an impossible blizzard had blown from the building's entrails. The walls and the ceiling — steel and concrete that had seemed eternal — twisted and came undone in the air. The thick glass that once served as a shield between the known and the illusory collapsed, slowly disintegrating into a golden ash that the wind of Nullaria began to sweep away.

  Dante, Alan, and the rest of the group watched in horror as the refuge crumbled around them, leaving cables and beams exposed to the level's tainted air. The dark blue sky was still there, far too perfect and indifferent, but the veil had been torn.

  For the first time, the base was no longer a fortress. It was just another wounded piece of the landscape. And what once remained hidden from the eyes of the entities inhabiting the sunflower fields was now visible.

  The grass, dancing to the rhythm of a non-existent breeze, began to tremble. In unison, the Nightmares in the sunflower field, feasting on the seeds, ceased their banquet. They twisted their necks at grotesque angles toward the base, which now glowed naked and vulnerable before them.

  They began to walk. To creep. To crawl.

  Dozens... no, hundreds of creatures emerged from the terrain as if sprouting from the ground itself, responding to the call of chaos. They were beings resembling long, thin corpses, with unnatural limbs and translucent skin that revealed black, throbbing organs within.

  They slid toward the base with lethal coordination. Claws like scalpels tore the earth, while their jaws opened vertically, revealing rows of needle-like teeth. They were deformed torsos housing a ravenous hunger, and they finally had their objective in sight.

  Kar’Nix emerged from a vent that was beginning to turn to ash, letting out a squawk of pure terror.

  — Dammit! You are still here!? — his voice broke the trance of Bealuna, Virellian, and Katrina —. This is not a drill! The base will be destroyed! Abandon this level while you can! — the raven spat, flying in erratic circles while searching for Dante in desperation.

  Virellian, reacting out of pure instinct, grabbed Bealuna’s arm to drag her toward the exit. But she pushed him away with force, breaking free with a jerk.

  — I am not leaving without Dante! — she shouted, with a determination that silenced the roar of the collapse for a second.

  Soon, the group noticed several mounds of concrete and metal rising slowly. The earth itself seemed to come to life to protect its own, releasing hundreds of wounded soldiers from beneath the rubble that had threatened to crush them.

  Katrina quickly recognised Commander Chan. He stood among the ruins with firm legs and raised hands; the tattoo of his rune of the Earth glowed intensely on his arm, holding back the weight of the building as it fell to pieces.

  Stefan, with a split forehead and a trickle of blood running down his face, was the first to emerge from the remains of the bar, dragging Ahmed, who still seemed dazed by the effect of the seeds. Near them, Leader Ryan helped Miss Cuni, who was coughing, covered in a thick layer of grey dust. In another corner, Harold managed to stand up and, without hesitation, began to pull two other soldiers trapped under a beam.

  Bealuna watched the scene in horror. Her eyes met Virellian’s for a moment before she turned and ran in the direction where Dante had gone.

  — Bealuna, come back! Dante ordered us to leave now! — Virellian shouted, desperate, as he went after her so as not to lose sight of her.

  Katrina hesitated for a second. She looked at the wounded struggling to get up and then at her friends, whose figures were already being swallowed by shadows and dust. Seeing that Commander Chan was keeping the rubble at bay, she grit her teeth and ran after them. She could not allow them to get lost alone in the labyrinths of the base, now turned into a metal graveyard where corridors twisted and exits vanished under the weight of the collapse.

  Alan, crossing his arms in an X-shape, finished dissipating the protective shield around him. The remnants of greenish energy still vibrated in the air. Dante, lying on the floor and feigning terror, slowly pushed himself up while looking at him with mock admiration.

  — I told you, Alan… — Dante murmured, catching his breath —. Your Shield rune works perfectly as long as you have enough courage. You’ve just saved our lives.

  Alan, in a state of shock, stared at the massive steel beams that had remained suspended mere centimetres away from them, halted by his intervention. His hands were trembling with emotion.

  — I can’t believe it… — he whispered, staring at his own palms —. Did I really do that?

  But the moment of wonder was interrupted by a scream of pure horror. Niku, Miss Cuni’s twin brother, was shouting desperately at a dying soldier.

  — Get up! We have to escape this level now! — Niku pulled with useless strength at the arms of a comrade who had been crushed by a beam. The man was already dead, but Niku refused to accept it. Noticing the rigidity of the body, he let go of the corpse and stared at his own blood-stained hands —. This can’t be happening… this is a dream, it has to be a dream…

  Dante and Alan approached quickly, forcing him to his feet.

  — Snap out of it, Niku! If you stay here, you’ll be next! — Alan pleaded firmly, shaking him by the shoulders.

  In that instant, everyone noticed that the roof of the base had fully dissolved into that unsettling golden ash, leaving them exposed to the absolute sky. A system notification flickered across their retinas:

  [Level “?”: Axis +Y. Class 4 — Survival Difficulty: Distorted]

  The reality within the level follows no known logic.

  Time, space, and perception may suffer extreme alterations.

  The mind is put to the test. Few have returned from these levels.

  Finding an exit is a matter of will, intuition... or luck.

  Level 25,201 no longer existed as a safe zone. The SIEN base was now merely a ruin floating in the middle of the sunflower field. It had been devoured by the Meadow of Silence of the Lambda Level.

  Niku lowered his head and began to babble in a broken voice.

  — The fall of SIEN has only just begun. By creating something that goes against the cosmic equilibrium of Nullaria, that entity called Justice decided to balance the scales. It put us to the test with our own creation as punishment. That stupid obsession with breaking human limits and defeating the Terrors dragged us into forbidden practices. They fused a soldier with the essence of abyss entities, breaking the unwritten rule: do not alter the Great Balance of Nullaria.

  — Justice? — Dante asked, genuinely confused. His mind was working at a thousand miles per hour; this was not in his memories.

  — I was there, fixing some machines — Niku replied, his eyes fixed on the void —. I witnessed the appearance of Justice, one of the Nine Virtues of Nullaria. Upon perceiving us playing God, it decided to punish our hubris by releasing Lilith as an instrument of spiritual judgement.

  Dante opened his eyes in horror. He was facing a completely new temporal variant. In none of his previous regressions had he ever heard of an entity called Justice, let alone the Nine Virtues of Nullaria.

  — What is Lilith? — Alan asked, his voice trembling.

  — A victim — Niku replied —. A manipulated young woman who offered her body and soul for a cause she didn’t understand. Her name was Nancy.

  Alan’s eyes widened. The name hit him like a physical blow. Without thinking, he seized Niku by the shirt, shaking him in desperation.

  — Nancy?! Tell me where she is! What did they do to her?!

  Dante gripped Alan’s hands, forcing him to let go of the mechanic.

  — Let him speak, Alan. We need to know everything.

  — I only know what my sister Cuni told me — Niku continued, catching his breath —. Nancy was a soldier from Barracks D, the place for the discarded and the broken. She had a psychic rune that only grew stronger by causing harm to others, something she would never dare to do. She volunteered for the new experiment seeking redemption... or perhaps she just wanted someone to see her.

  — The Lilith Project... — Dante completed in a sombre voice.

  At the same time, several levels away, Commander Nastacia narrated the same story as Niku while running through a massive underground corridor alongside Bella, Leader of Barracks A. Along the way, they had dragged TJ and Luke, who followed stumbling behind, listening as the Commander unearthed the terrifying truth that SIEN had hidden.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  — They injected her with the blood of multiple entities, altering her flesh until it was unrecognisable — the Commander narrated without breaking her stride —. Her soul became trapped between the human and the abyssal. But something unforeseen happened: she was disconnected in the real world. She should have died here, but the blood infection from the entities kept her consciousness bound to this plane. Therefore, it can be said she is half monster, half human... and her main power is the absorption of runes.

  — If she has killed so many soldiers... does it mean she possesses all their powers? — Bella asked, terrified.

  — No human can possess more than one rune in Nullaria — Luke added, trying to cling to a logic that no longer existed.

  — That’s because she is no longer human! — TJ stressed, watching the walls that were beginning to crack —. But that accumulation of power should make her unstable.

  — Exactly. You’ve hit the nail on the head — Nastacia replied with a firm voice as they turned a corner —. That is precisely where our only hope of defeating her lies. If we can make her own energy collapse from the overload, we will have a chance. But for that, first we must survive her first attack.

  While Nastacia mapped out the battle plan in the depths, the calm on the surface was being torn to shreds.

  A desperate squawk broke the tension between Alan and Niku. Kar’Nix arrived flying at high speed, his feathers bristling as he searched for Dante.

  — Everything is wrong! Everything is going to hell! — the raven cried —. We have to leave this level now! Something very bad has awakened!

  — Calm down! — Dante ordered —. Kar’Nix, turn into an orb and enter my body now!

  — With pleasure! I’ll leave the rest to you — the raven accepted, vanishing in a purple flash and sinking into Dante’s chest like a trail of luminous dust.

  — I never imagined a Mystic Beast would be such a coward... — Alan muttered with annoyance, before turning back to Niku. His face was distorted with grief —. Nancy was my best friend! Nobody told me anything! They lied to my face!

  Alan seized Niku by the shirt again, but the mechanic could only respond with sad resignation:

  — I suppose it all comes down to a military secret that, at this point, no longer matters.

  Before Alan could respond, a harrowing cry for help from the nearby corridors caught the attention of all three. Alan recognised the scream immediately, turning pale in an instant.

  — That’s Mirko! The Leader of Barracks C... — he exclaimed, pointing towards the end of the corridor.

  Dante reacted with pragmatic coldness. He pulled out a Lunar Fruit and tossed it into Niku’s hands.

  — Eat it. Get your senses back and heal your wounds; we need you whole if we want to get out of here alive — Dante ordered —. The scream isn’t far. We’re going to help him. I know he’s responsible for the Sunflower Seed smuggling, but he possesses a rune that will be vital if we end up face to face with Lilith.

  They ran through the rubble, dodging pools of blood and the lifeless bodies of countless soldiers who had been crushed in the initial collapse. Rounding the corner, they encountered an unexpected scene: Virellian, Bealuna, and Katrina were there. Katrina held her hands outstretched, using the power of her rune of the Sand to disintegrate the walls of the cell where Mirko and a handful of soldiers remained imprisoned.

  Dante stopped, his face transforming into a mask of fury.

  — Virellian! I gave you a clear order! — he shouted, his voice echoing down the corridor —. I told you to get out of the base!

  Bealuna, who was already running with open arms to embrace him, stopped dead. Guilt shone in her eyes; she was the one responsible for the group’s return.

  — I didn't want to leave you alone... — she murmured in a thin voice.

  — I do all of this because I care about you! — Dante exploded, giving her a reality check that made her flinch —. Why the hell can't you understand that?!

  Bealuna froze, her face flushing in a sudden blush at Dante's unexpected confession. He, for his part, lowered his head with bitter resignation, clenching his fists.

  — No matter how many times I try to push you away... — he whispered to himself, barely audible —. Fate refuses to change its course.

  — Dante... what do you mean by that? — she asked, confused.

  There was no time for answers. The ground beneath their feet emitted an ear-splitting crack and shattered completely. In a heartbeat, a massive fracture swallowed Virellian, Bealuna, Katrina, Mirko, and the rest of the soldiers. They fell into the subsoil, disappearing into a dense, dusty darkness.

  — No! Bealuna! — Alan screamed, lunging toward the edge of the crater.

  Dante, however, remained motionless. His eyes closed for a brief second, processing the loss of control over the situation, but his survival instinct took over.

  — Forget them, Alan. We can't go down after them now — he ordered, with a coldness that terrified the boy —. Take me to Barracks D. Now!

  — What?! — Alan turned, completely bewildered and with tears in his eyes —. They just fell into the void! Why do you want to go to that place now?!

  — Because the Cursed Relic of the base is in there — Dante replied, locking his gaze with Alan's —. And it's the only thing I believe can help us face what Lilith has become.

  Little by little, the screams of the scientists were dying out, drowned by the sound of tearing flesh. Their runes, the treasures they had cultivated with such effort, were being violently drained and absorbed into Lilith's body. It took her only a few microseconds and a couple of dismissive gestures to massacre entire groups of soldiers who tried to stand against her. They were insects trying to stop a storm.

  After taking a few steps out of the laboratory, a thick mist began to cloud Lilith's vision, forcing her to halt her advance. Almost instantly, countless chains of energy sprouted from nowhere, winding tightly around her hands and feet. Lilith didn't even flinch; she observed the bindings with icy curiosity.

  A few metres away, Bella and TJ maintained their strategic positions following Commander Nastacia’s orders. The tattoo of the rune of the Mist on Bella’s arm and the rune of the Chain on TJ’s shone with feverish intensity. At that moment, Luke activated his rune of Open Wounds, causing bleeding cuts to erupt almost instantaneously across Lilith’s entire body.

  But there were no screams. There was no pain.

  With a lazy movement of her hand, Lilith pulverised TJ’s energy chains as if they were fine glass. Just as Commander Nastacia delivered a powerful blow with her staff aimed directly at her head, Lilith raised a single finger and stopped the impact dead.

  She didn’t need to touch her. With a simple mental impulse, she brutally slammed the Commander against the ceiling and lashed her with inhuman ferocity against the floor, leaving her gravely injured amidst the rubble. Then, with an almost imperceptible breath, she dissipated the mist completely, revealing her unharmed figure to a retreating TJ and Bella, who were overcome by a paralysing horror.

  Ready to finish Nastacia, Lilith directed her hate-filled gaze toward the Commander and unleashed a devastating psychic attack. However, in the final millisecond, the air distorted. The attack did not hit the Commander; instead, it struck Ahmed squarely, whose bones began to crush under invisible pressure.

  Ahmed, in a final act of desperate heroism, had used his rune of the Exchange, swapping his position with the Commander’s to save her. With blood spurting from his mouth and his body collapsing, Ahmed managed to utter his final words:

  — I might be high... but I still have a thread of sanity left, you damn bitch.

  In a burst of psychic energy, every fibre of his body was scorched and shredded before the horrified eyes of everyone present. Ahmed vanished into a tangle of flesh and light.

  — AHMED!! — Harold screamed, his voice tearing in a lament of pure horror that echoed through the ruined corridors.

  Lilith’s power was something that escaped any military logic. It took but a thought, a psychic blast born of the purest hatred, for everything around her to rumble with seismic force. As she extended her hands, the walls that still remained standing trembled once more, and the bleeding wounds Luke had inflicted closed and healed almost instantly, without leaving even a scar.

  She fixed her gaze on Harold, reaching out a hand toward him as if to tear out his soul. Harold, facing death head-on, activated his rune of Gravity with a desperate cry. The air became heavy, dense as lead, and for the first time, Lilith was forced to her knees under an invisible weight of several tons.

  — This is as far as you go! — Harold roared, extending his hand to maintain the pressure with every fibre of his being.

  — Attack now! — Commander Chan shouted, reinforcing his own position —. It’s impossible to defeat her alone! Throw everything you have at her!

  Not far from there, in the darkness of the subsoil, Bealuna, Virellian, Katrina, and Mirko felt the blast of Lilith’s power like underground thunder. When the roar of the collapse finally ceased, Virellian let out a ragged sigh; the dust barely let them breathe, but they were whole.

  — Thank you, rune of Good Fortune… — Bealuna murmured with an almost mystical relief. Rubble and steel beams had fallen everywhere, forming a mountain of metal around them, yet the exact spot where they stood remained miraculously clear.

  — This can't be real… — Katrina whispered, shaking off the dust. It was too much luck, even for Nullaria.

  But the relief was short-lived. Monstrous shrieks, like the screeching of rusted metal, began to seep through the cracks in the walls. Bealuna, terrified, curled into herself.

  — What on earth is happening in this place…?

  Outside, in the surroundings of the base, reality cleared slightly like a dissipating fog, revealing the deformed silhouettes emerging from the horizon. The hundreds of monstrous entities sliding from the sunflower fields were no longer just a few shadows; they were a tide.

  The SIEN base, now exposed and vulnerable, lay directly in their path. They did not come to negotiate or observe; they came to devour, to destroy, and to extinguish.

  The first soldiers trying to run toward the ARCADE sign to escape to Level 7 were overtaken in seconds. Screams of agony flooded the air as the creatures tore their necks or ripped off their limbs with vertical jaws. Other monsters, even more twisted, vomited a viscous substance onto the dying bodies; upon contact with the flesh, the corpses began to mutate horribly, turning into giant sunflowers that bloomed with savage speed over the bloodstained rubble.

  Alan, Dante, and Niku reached the sealed Barracks D. With a fluid movement of his Sword of Light, Dante cut through the security seals and the heavy metal doors, clearing a path inside. The atmosphere was silent and desolate, wrapped in a stale air that felt charged with a ghostly tension.

  Alan couldn’t help but be struck by a wave of nostalgia as he remembered his former comrades, the outcasts of SIEN. But there was no time for mourning; the seismic shocks continued to shake the structure. Dante headed straight for the female dormitories.

  — What exactly are we looking for? — Alan asked, confused by the confidence with which Dante advanced.

  Dante felt a pang of helplessness. He couldn't give him all the answers without raising suspicion; Alan had to be the one to find the object on his own for the bond to work.

  — It must be something related to Nancy — Dante replied, stopping in front of the row of beds —. She was manipulated and betrayed by the high command to be part of the Lilith Project. They altered her soul and mixed her being with fragments of monsters... but as long as there is something human left inside her, there is still hope.

  Alan whispered, his voice breaking: — Can we… still save her? Is it possible to wake her consciousness? If there were even a sliver of a chance... I’m sure this can help.

  He ran desperately toward the end of the row of beds, searching for the corner where Nancy used to sleep. — Her old bed… — he murmured —. It must still be there.

  Dante and Niku watched expectantly as Alan rummaged through the dust-covered belongings. — There was a doll — Alan continued, as if speaking to a ghost —. An old doll, handmade, with buttons for eyes and yarn for hair. She always carried it with her; it was her anchor to reality. It’s the last vestige of who Nancy was... not what Lilith is.

  Niku frowned, doubting. — A doll? Is that what’s going to save us?

  — It’s not just any object — Dante intervened, looking at Niku intensely —. For someone with a psychic rune so connected to emotions, memories are doorways. If we can put her in front of something so personal, we might trigger an emotional break. A doubt.

  Alan stopped dead in front of an old locker. His fingers trembled as he pulled out a tattered rag doll. He held it with delicacy, as if touching something sacred.

  — She made it herself — Alan said in a low voice, his eyes welling up —. Nancy always had it with her. It was the only thing that kept her sane in this hell. If she still remembers who she was… this might wake her up. Or at least, make her hesitate. And a doubt, Dante… a doubt is our only chance.

  Dante did not respond. His silence was dense, heavy with an understanding he could not express, but also with uncertainty. He knew that in Nullaria, objects charged with such immense pain and love eventually became something more.

  — How did this doll become a Cursed Relic? — Niku asked in a whisper —. Did Nullaria know from the start that all of this would be connected?

  [Rag doll — Cursed Relic]

  A receptacle of threads and patches housing a high-intensity residual psychic echo.

  It possesses no offensive power of its own but acts as a conductor for traumatic memories.

  Effect: Upon being presented to its original owner, there is a 50% probability of triggering an emotional collapse (Redemption)

  and a 50% probability of unleashing an uncontrollable outburst of fury (Annihilation).

  The three of them looked at each other in a deathly silence; the object's description was the only answer they would receive. Suddenly, a massive roar shook the foundations of the base once more. It was followed by monstrous shrieks that no longer sounded distant. They were inside, prowling the corridors that still remained standing within the base.

  Dante placed a hand on Alan’s shoulder, forcing him to tuck the doll against his chest.

  — It doesn't matter if Nullaria knew or if we provoked it — Dante declared, while his Sword of Light vibrated intensely in his hand —. What matters is that the time for theories is over. The SIEN base has fallen.

  Dante pointed toward the hallway, where the shadows of the Nightmares were beginning to project against the metallic walls. In the distance, the roar of the Commanders' battle against Lilith felt like a constant earthquake.

  — Listen closely, Alan — Dante continued, looking at him with deadly seriousness —. If that doll doesn’t work, if Nancy doesn’t respond... you will be annihilated on the spot. Do you still have the courage to do this?

  Alan pressed the object against his uniform, feeling the bulge of the buttons that served as the doll's eyes. He looked toward the darkness of the corridor, where the carnage awaited them, and for the first time, his gaze did not flinch from the danger.

  — Nancy was my friend, Dante — Alan replied —. I’m the only friend she has left.

  Dante nodded, a slight and almost imperceptible smile of approval crossing his face. He turned toward the corridor, clearing a path through the debris with a slash of light.

  The SIEN base, the pride of humanity in Level 25,201, was being devoured by the Meadow of Silence of the Lambda Level. And amidst the ruins and the fields of sunflowers sprouting from dead flesh, the final judgement of Lilith was about to begin.

  End of Chapter Twenty-One.

  SIEN. It’s a bit chilling, isn't it? Seeing how quickly a place of power can turn into a graveyard of sunflowers.

  Lilith remind us that in Nullaria, there are no easy victories. But perhaps the most striking moment was that 50/50 gamble of the Cursed Relic in Alan's hands. It’s a haunting thought: a simple rag doll could either be the key to redemption or the trigger for total annihilation.

  SIEN’s ambition created a monster that no amount of humanity can reach?

  Meadow of Silence.

  — Alberto Báez