The gate loomed closer with every step, and without realizing it, Morden slowed instinctively; though he was already neck deep in it, he remembered exactly what had happened the last time he’d walked through it alone.
The two guards stood in their usual unmoving positions with their spears standing straight upright beside them. The metal-armor-plated statues were carved from nothing but patience and silence.
Morden approached with his shoulders tense, mostly half expecting the same unnatural stillness followed by that unblinking stare.
Instead, the moment he crossed within a few paces of the gate, both guards turned their heads toward him, and this time their movements were in no way slow; they could even be considered extremely fast.
Morden’s steps faltered, his hand instinctively rising to hold onto the Ghost slayer sword or at least where it would be if he’d bothered to summon it. But neither guard moved to attack or do anything to threaten Morden.
They gave a single, curt nod.
The nod might not sound massive, but it should be remembered that those same guards had remained completely unmoved when two people with Epic-grade genes started a full battle just outside the gate.
Then, in perfect unison, both guards raised one hand to their chest to perform something that looked really strange, something that looked unmistakably like a salute.
Morden stood frozen for a moment; he was caught completely off guard by the gesture.
A lot of things actually contributed to his current stillness, but the major one was the fact that it was so different from before—no lingering stare, no unnatural chill crawling down his spine, just two brief, deliberate movements before the guards returned to their original positions, as still and silent as they’d been the moment he arrived.
’What was that supposed to mean?’
He didn’t have an answer, and honestly, from all that he had heard, seen, and experienced, he wasn’t sure he wanted to stand around long enough to find one.
Whatever that gesture meant, whether it was recognition, respect, or something far stranger tied to everything the Flaming Lion had told him or even the Old world, it wasn’t something he had the energy to unpack right now.
’Add it to the pile. Everything else is already in there,’ he thought with a strange smirk.
He hurried through the gate instead, weaving quickly through the thinning crowds of the evening streets, letting the already slightly familiar layout of Evergreen City guide his feet almost automatically toward the hostel.
Though he had only passed through twice, his current Intelligence stats were enough for him to get a full grasp of the road he had already passed through.
A few Bearers passed him on the way, none of them sparing him more than a glance, and for that small mercy alone and the fact that there was no specifically fussing about him, Morden felt something in his chest loosen slightly.
Whatever the guards’ salute had meant, at least it hadn’t followed him any further than the gate.
The building looked exactly the same as it had the first time he’d arrived, rows upon rows of identical doors lining a quiet central courtyard. Morden found his own room without much trouble, the number etched faintly into the wood matching the one burned into his memory from hours ago.
He pushed the door open and collapsed onto the bed the moment it shut behind him, every muscle in his body finally allowed to relax now that there was nothing left demanding his attention.
’Just a little rest. Then I’ll figure out how to find Lisa and Darlus.’
The Omnisphere, on the other hand, had other plans; his eyes had barely closed when a familiar string of text appeared in front of him.
[Return journey shall now be initiated.]
’Already?’
Before he could even process the thought fully, his body began to feel strangely light, the same falling-apart sensation from before creeping in from the edges of his skin inward.
There was no pain this time either, just a slow, steady elevation, like his body was slowly being separated from his Spirit.
The room around him blurred, colors bleeding together into streaks of light before fading entirely into a familiar, formless dark.
He couldn’t feel his hands and he couldn’t feel his legs. For a moment, there was nothing at all, no sensation, no thought, just the same stifling vacuum he remembered from the last time this had happened.
’Not this again.’
The thought barely had time to form before it was swallowed too, along with everything else that made him feel normal.
Then they slowly began creeping back in.
Morden’s eyes snapped open.
He was staring up at the ceiling, and it took him only a second this time to recognize where he was.
He was Back in the real world, back in the underground watchmen organization; the transition was actually far smoother than it had been the first time.
He sat up slowly, testing his limbs, relieved to find them fully responsive this time. His body ached in a distant, manageable way, nothing like the broken exhaustion he’d felt hours ago.
’Small mercies.’
Voices drifted in from somewhere close by, familiar ones.
Darlus and Lisa sat not too far away, both looking just as worn out as he felt, though the moment they spotted him, something in their expressions shifted all at once.
"Morden," Darlus said, relief flooding his voice as he took a step forward.
Lisa’s eyes locked onto him immediately too, though there was something guarded behind her gaze; it was something Morden recognized instantly, the same look she’d been wearing since the fight with the shadow.
’Did something happen to them too?’
Morden felt the exhaustion in his own chest give way to something heavier, the weight of everything he’d learned in the Omnisphere pressing down on him now that he was finally standing in front of the two people he felt he could trust the most in this entire strange world.
Neither of them asked what had happened to him yet, though he could see the questions sitting right behind their eyes, waiting.
"We need to talk," he said.
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