The change was instant. One second I was at the Orphanage the next I'm in the trenches, the sound of cannons and guns echoing all around the battlefield and broken and collapsed stone statues of children lay all around the trenches. Holes in the dirt had mouth like heads sticking out of them similar to Venus flytraps. I take a look around the place and immediately noticed a ray of light coming down onto a statue in the middle of the battlefield above the trenches. The statue appeared to be holding something, the Hunger effigy one of two other effigy's that are used to open the secret passage in the church that leads to the inner city. There are other passages into the inner city of course, one that comes to mind is the collapsed shack to the left of the Woodsman's house, in it is an Asymmetric symbol which if engraved with Vinushkas symbol allows entrance into the inner city. But the effigy isn't what I came here for.
"I'm here for the Rust-coloured pearls that are in the holes underneath the Ronteals, those flytrap looking things"
Twig takes a closer look at the Ronteals buried in the dirt, asking me curiously.
"But if the pearls are underneath the Ronteals how are you gonna to get them? Are you gonna dig them up out of the ground?"
I correct Twig as I explain more about the Ronteals
"They aren't plants, their just buried up to their neck in the dirt, when we get near them they will emerge from their holes quickly and begin heading toward us, they are pretty slow so when that happens we'll just run away and I'll have my arms grab the pearls"
I start walking toward the nearest hole, in this battlefield there are a total of five pearls. Once I get close enough to a buried Ronteal it emerges from its hole completely, the process looking like the ground just spat it out. I run past it as it chases me with the speed of a brisk walk, sending an arm to grab the pearl I pass by another hole, alerting the Ronteal in it I keep running through the maze like trenches, repeating the process until I have all five pearls and have reached above the trench's where the statue with the effigy rests, amassing a small party of Ronteals chasing me.
"Wow they really are slow, what do you need the pearls for anyway?"
Twig mused about the Ronteals as he asked me
"One of the new gods is a vendor who sells stuff for these pearls, all of his wares are pretty strong and will give me quite the advantage"
I respond as I yoink the statue and jump down back into the trenches, taking another route back to Rhers sigil and bypassing the Ronteals. Twig shakes his head sympathetically at the Ronteals.
"I kinda feel bad for those Ronteals, they spent all this time chasing you and now here you go leaving without even fighting one of them"
I smile a little as I reply to Twig
"They would have been easy fights anyways, right now fighting them is unnecessary"
Entering the circle and exiting the dimension back into the real world I walk out of the shed and leave the orphanage. Crouching around cars I make my way back to the speakeasy, once I get there I continue backtracking and head to where I killed the fecal hounds. Seeing another path besides the one I took originally I head down it, reaching a small aria surrounded by tall apartments, taking the door on the left I enter into the White Mold Apartments.
The door slams shut as I enter, clicking locked. Looking around the first floor I grab the key ring with all the keys for the apartments and head upstairs to the third floor, thinking as I do so.
'This place had a puzzle associated with it where five people were murdered by a Sulfur cultist and the player had to find out which order to put those peoples room numbers into a lock that's on a bloody washing machine, the machine leads into Rhers dimension where another effigy can be found, the Fellatio effigy, normally the player would head into the cultists room and read their diary, finding out which order to put from that'
"But using the spirit board I can talk to the ghost of one of the victims and get the code without having to do all that work, I can also get two other items that will help me along the way"
I finish the last part out loud as I walk to room eleven and unlock it, entering and immediately feeling the stare of all the dolls that lay around the room, shivering a bit I notice a doll in a baby rocker that's still rocking without any input, taking out the spirit board I begin speaking with the ghost.
"Is anybody there"
The board piece starts moving, spelling out the ghosts will
MY DOLLS
"What happened to you, what about your dolls?"
DONT TOUCH THEM, RAN INTO HALLWAY
Spirit board in hand I walk out of the room and head into the bathroom at the end of the hall, Twig stays silent, letting me do my thing. Holding the spirit board I ask again.
"Is anybody there"
A ghost erupts from the ground next to the toilet with a banshee like scream, even knowing what was going to happen I flinch a bit, Twig jumps almost two feet into the air, cursing once he lands back on my shoulder. Walking up to the ghost it looks at me.
"HE IS COMING, THE SERVANT OF SULFUR, HE USED US AS SACRIFICIAL LAMBS"
I ask him about what happened to him
"I RAN INTO BATHROOM, HE CHASED ME WITH A HAMMER, HE BROKE IN, FIRST HE KILLED IN APARTMENT 9, THEN IN APARTMENT 13, THEN HE KILLED ME, THEN IN APARTMENT 6"
I mentally lock that knowledge way for future use as I ask him
"Is there anything I can do for you?"
"TAKE MY DEAREST, TAKE HER TO SAFETY, DONT LET THAT MAN HURT HER"
He wailed as he passed me a molded doll, diving back into the floor of the bathroom. Taking the doll I put it in my bag, the doll increased magic attack which while not that useful to me it also increased magic defense which ups my survivability by a lot. Walking down to the first floor I head towards the back of the room and find a bloody washing machine, putting in the code for the lock the washing machine door opens and I crawl through. Twig has by now gone silent and is just observing my actions as I enter Rhers dimension.
Finding myself in a cell I see a headless corpse being pumped of some kind of liquid through their neck. Unlocking the door with the managers apartment keys I hear something walking up to me from the left, knowing immediately that it was a Neighbour, a weird poop looking monster that does quite a lot of damage with its heavy mallet like fists as well as a suction ability that can potentially kill me, I head in the opposite direction and try to follow my memory of where the effigy is and eventually find it behind a locked door that wouldn't unlock with the keys I had.
'I could go the long route in order to get the effigy, but I don't think I will'
I think as I hold up the Trenchgun to the door lock and shoot a whole through it. The sound of the gunshot was warped weirdly throughout the dimension, taking on an eary hue. Walking through the door I grab the effigy and run back towards the exit, the slaps of the Neighbours feet on the ground chased me as I practically jump through the hole I came from.
I grabbed a picture of a familiar looking man with the face scratched out before walking out of the apartment that was now unlocked, Twig jumps off my shoulder and stands in front of me.
"Alright buddy that was weird, what's actually happening here? How can you know about all this stuff, you don't have to worry about me pal I'm with you for life, you can trust me"
Sighing I sit down and begin telling Twig my story, sadly I couldn't entirely tell him the truth so instead I explained to him that I could see the future of a possible timeline and I was using that to my advantage. Twig stands silently for a minute or two before walking up to me he nudges my leg with his head.
"I'm sorry you have to see all that stuff buddy, you must have seen some pretty bad stuff, are you ok?"
I freeze. I hadn't expected him to say something like that, I didn't really know what he would say, but I didn't think of that. He had just experienced a huge revelation from me, and all he asked me was if I was ok. Tears bud in my eyes and they slowly trace down my cheek falling onto the gravel.
"I'm not entirely sure myself Twig"
I chuckle emotionlessly, Twig jumps onto my shoulder and nudges himself against my neck.
"Well you have me now buddy, you can rely on me, you said it yourself, I'm the one keeping you sane, and I plan on doing exactly that"
Tears had began pouring from my eyes as I felt the connection between us strengthen, it wasn't like my arms, it was more etherial, I just felt something in my heart that as long as Twig was with me I would be alright. I silently promised to myself that I would never let anything bad happen to Twig, even at the cost of my life. I get up off the ground, wiping the tears from my eyes as I let out a shaky sigh.
"Thanks Twig, I really needed that"
"No problem pal, anytime"
Heading back to the fork in the road I leave the city and enter the town once again, firstly going back towards the Woodsman's house, once I get there I continue going and eventually reach a metal hatch in the ground, a hatch that leads to Tunnel 7, an old military bunker used by the Bremen army for experiments. Pulling open the hatch I climb down into the bunker, braving the darkness, this time with a stronger connection to my friend.