The black rain falling over "Ocasia" left behind a trace resembling the burning of sulfur, and every drop that landed on the city's marble left a small hole from which a faint moan emanated. In the midst of this funereal atmosphere, the statue of Alaric stood firm, but the crack that had appeared on the chest of his metal armor began to widen slowly, emitting a sound like ice shattering on a bitterly cold night.
Alaric was not in an ordinary coma; his consciousness was trapped in a place known as the "Isthmus of the Core." There, there were no mountains or cities, but infinite expanses of gray mirrors reflecting every sin he had committed, every tear he had caused to be shed. He walked through this void, his body appearing as if made of cracked glass, and whenever he looked into a mirror, he saw a familiar face blaming him.
"You didn't kill them to save them," whispered an echo resembling the voice of his deceased father from behind one of the mirrors. "You killed them because you feared weakness, and you used 'the Void' to escape your defeated humanity."
Alaric tried to close his eyes, but in this world, vision begins from within. Suddenly, the mirrors began to take on a pale golden hue, and a distorted shadow appeared, moving gracefully among the reflections. This was Merlock, or rather, the part of Merlock's ancient magic that had resided in Alaric's soul.
"Look at yourself," Merlock said with a sarcastic tone that echoed through the corners of the isthmus. "A king without a kingdom, a god without worshippers. You turned yourself into a dam of nothingness, but you forgot that a dam collapses if its foundations are dug up. I am here to reclaim what is mine, my wayward son."
In the real world, Elianor stood firmly before Alaric's statue, surrounded by the "Army of the Forgotten Ones" who raised their gray shields to block the black rain. Suddenly, the ground shook beneath their feet, and from the cracks in the square emerged creatures resembling humans but made of black clay dripping with gold. These were the "Marsh Specters," Merlock's messengers who came to desecrate the sanctity of the stillness.
"Do not let them approach the king!" Elianor shouted, raising her dagger of truth, from which a faint emerald light began to emanate. "If his body is tainted with this clay, he will lose the internal struggle, and the capital will turn into a crater of eternal despair."
A fierce battle erupted in the silent square. The Forgotten Ones fought fiercely, cutting through the clay bodies with their heavy weapons, but the specters kept reshaping themselves each time. The black rain weakened their resolve, causing their stone-like skin to begin crumbling.
Inside the isthmus, Merlock pounced on Alaric, trying to tear out the "Core of the Void" from his glass chest. Alaric screamed, feeling a pain that translated in the real world into purple sparks erupting from the statue.
"Elianor..." the statue uttered in a faint voice, the first human sound to come from it since its petrification.
Elianor heard the call and realized time had run out. She stabbed one of the specters in its chest and rushed towards Alaric. She placed her forehead on his metal chest, closed her eyes, summoning all the memories of warmth, every moment of hope they had shared in the forests and swamps.
"You are not alone in this darkness," Elianor whispered with both bitterness and love. "You are not the sins you see; you are the sacrifice under whose shadow we now live. Return to us.. for the Nebula is incomplete without a heart beating at its center."
At that moment, a tremendous purple pulse erupted from the statue, throwing the black specters far away and causing the black rain to evaporate before it touched the ground. Inside the isthmus, the mirrors of guilt shattered beneath Alaric's feet, and Merlock's shadow vanished, screaming in terror at the power of "human certainty" that had pierced the void.
The black armor began to soften, and natural color slowly returned to Alaric's hand that gripped the sword. He did not fully awaken, but the crack in his chest no longer bled darkness; instead, it radiated a calm light blending the green of the forests with the black of the night.
But Merlock, in his distant lair, was not finished. He had now seen the gap Alaric had left to return.. the gap named Elianor. And he decided that if he could not break the king, he would burn the hand that held his heart.
The square settled for a moment, but the horizon to the north began to take on a sickly green hue, as Merlock began summoning the "Plague of Shadows" to creep towards the capital, in a final attempt to strangle hope in its cradle.