The door creaks shut behind me, sealing out the echoes of the chaos I'd left in the previous chamber. Darkness wraps itself around me like a shroud, and the silence is thick. The floor beneath my feet feels solid, yet there's something strange about it, as if the very ground is resonating with a slow, pulsing rhythm.
"Luci!" I call out, my voice slicing through the silence. "I didn't come here to play hide and seek. You're not fooling anyone with your cheap tricks."
A cold laugh ripples through the darkness, bouncing off unseen walls, distorting in a way that makes it sound as if it's coming from all directions at once.
"Oh, Zero," Luci's voice echoes, thick with mockery. "Always so confident, so... certain. And yet, you've no idea what awaits you here, do you?"
His words feel like a whisper against my skin, making the hairs on the back of my neck prickle. I keep my composure, though; I know his games, his mind tricks.
