The climb of the First Stairway proved, without a doubt, to be a herculean task for Damon.
It was a challenge that pushed his body and mind beyond their natural limits, almost breaking him in two… if it hadn't already.
He was so glad that he didn't have to make such a climb again… that this phase was over for now.
Happiness washed over his entire body like rain as he stepped through the door into a new world.
This new world of the Second Floor was warm and welcoming.
Everything he felt here came with a sense of refreshment, unlike the frigid and indifferent white world of the First Stairway.
With a deep sense of fulfilment, Damon acknowledged his own success.
"I made it," he whispered.
His notification bleeped.
[You have successfully climbed the First Stairway]
[Welcome to the Second Floor]
"Finally."
As if he was being careful not to speak so loudly, Damon said the word under his breath while his eyes moved left and right.
He could not believe that he made it out of the hellish void alive.
It was when he fully realised it that he let out a louder cheer that strained his throat.
"I made it!"
His voice echoed in the green expanse that now surrounded him.
Damon, out of sheer excitement, threw his arms into the air with tears flying out from the corners of his eyes.
Every fibre of his being was touched by the ecstasy that came from successfully completing the deathly climb.
The onerous and endless journey through the First Stairway was now a memory and soon to be... a distant one.
But will Damon ever forget his days inside the First Stairway?
He was not the same.
Even though he could sense it within himself, he couldn't tell exactly what had changed inside of him.
.
.
.
Damon looked around for a bit.
His surroundings were silent with only the wind whistling.
The player was not in a haste to continue his ascension through the floors of the Crimson Spire.
He wanted to rest for a while after the gruesome torment he had just undergone.
However, it gets worse!
Damon pulled up his profile in an attempt to log out but faced the same fate that his sister did.
There was no [Log Out] tab any longer.
Damon was dazzled by the revelation albeit briefly, but deep down, he anticipated something of this sort.
He knew that something must have gone wrong for every beta tester he checked out to have been declared missing.
Not dead, but missing.
"So this was it. This is how they trapped them inside here," he remarked. "I wonder if everyone knows already. They removed the log-out tab to trap us here."
Everything made complete sense to Damon.
He put every piece of information had garnered in the past three months to make a bigger and clearer picture.
He was starting to understand why what happened had happened.
Beth's sudden disappearance.
The attack on him and Nate.
The death of Lucia, which he eventually discovered had happened.
It was all too convenient for Lucia to suddenly be found dead just moments after Beth's disappearance and about the same time that they were attacked.
Even more convenient was the closing and eventual dismissal of her case.
The matter died out like nothing ever happened just like any other case that was linked to the time of NERVE's beta testing program.
Certainly, Damon had gathered quite a lot of information in a bid to understand what was happening and why those things happened.
But still, one thing has consistently eluded him.
That one thing was the motive behind all that had happened.
What did NERVE want?
What was Dr. Neons planning?
What was the end goal of all these?
Damon had thought over it several times but still could not find a befitting answer.
"We are all just disposable extras to him."
He recalled the words that Scarface had said to him when he and his brother were attacked. 'It's just our boss covering his tracks so that people like you don't come biting him in the ass.'
Damon exhaled deeply.
'Neons was indeed the one behind all of it and to cover his tracks, he eliminated the closest companions of his beta testers. Family, partners, lovers and friends. That's sickening.'
Damon gritted his teeth and clenched his fist.
'Very sickening!'
.
.
.
As Damon drifted farther away in his thought, his Axon gear had chosen the right time to pull him back into the reality of the Second Floor, where he was at the moment.
[Please proceed to a lighthouse]