The dark walls of the tunnel echoed with their footsteps, each one racing alongside the pounding of their hearts. They were running, but Klein's mind refused to rest. The faster they moved, the louder the questions became in his head. "Who is this guy? Why was he caught in the middle of such a ritual? How could someone this powerful be captured? Which church is he affiliated with? Or… is he even affiliated at all?" These thoughts swirled in his mind as a dim red light appeared at the end of the tunnel.
When they emerged to the surface, they were met with the deep darkness of night. The sky was clear, the moon was still the same red color.
Morpheus stopped. He tilted his head up, eyes wide open. Frozen in place.
"Woah... why the hell is the moon red?" he asked, almost to himself. His voice carried his confusion.
And in that moment, something rippled through Klein's body—a shiver, sharp and sudden. His breath caught in his throat. His eyes widened as he turned to stare at Morpheus. He had heard it. That confusion in his voice, that raw surprise...
"You don't know?" Klein whispered inwardly, his heart thundering in his chest. 'You're not from here!'.
His whole body buzzed with a strange energy, a surge of excitement he hadn't felt in a long time. He couldn't tear his eyes away from Morpheus.
Morpheus looked back at him and waited, as if expecting an answer to his question.
He snapped back to the moment. This wasn't the time. The Church was still out there, combing the area for the guilty. They could still be found.
"We need to keep moving," Klein said in a calm but firm tone. "The Church might still be after us. I'll explain everything later."
Morpheus gave a slight nod, his eyes lingering on the moon one last time before following Klein. They moved through narrow streets, the silence of the night cloaking them like a second skin. Eventually, they arrived at Klein's home.
As Klein carefully closed the door behind them, he turned to Morpheus.
"Now," he said, his voice steady. "Shall we?"
With that, they sat down—and finally began to explain their side of the story.
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"So, you're telling me you came from another world too? You enter nightmares to obtain your Aspect. Wow! And that Flaw you got doesn't seem to hold you back at all," Klein said, his voice carrying both curiosity and disbelief. He leaned back slightly, trying to process the magnitude of what Morpheus had just shared.
Morpheus glanced at him, his expression unreadable for a moment. "Thanks to the Robot sequence and blood manipulation, I can ignore my Flaw. As my Sequence increases, it becomes even easier to do so. I was surprised to hear you come from a peaceful world," he replied. "You fight pretty hard. And I still don't fully understand these Beyonders. There's so much I don't know about them."
"Don't know?? Aren't you a Sequence 6 Beyonder yourself? How can you not understand?" Klein's voice raised in disbelief, his eyes narrowing as he tried to make sense of the situation.
Morpheus let out a short, bitter laugh. "These are different things. As I said, I got my powers from Nightmare. I didn't even know what was happening at first. It just started developing on its own. The first Beyonder I encountered was that bastard. They tortured me for weeks, twisting my mind, breaking me. I didn't have the luxury of understanding it all like you seem to."
Klein was silent for a moment, his mind reeling from the weight of Morpheus's words. He hadn't expected this. The kind of pain Morpheus had endured... it made his own struggles seem trivial in comparison.
------
"Puhahahhahahah... Are you playing the role of a god?!!! Hahahahahahaha and its name is The Fool, puhahahahahaha!" Morpheus was bursting with laughter. Klein's face reddened the more Morpheus laughed. "Hahaha, you really have some guts. In a place like this, where gods can descend to the world, playing the role of a god takes some real courage."
"Shut up already. It just happened suddenly, and it went pretty well," said Klein.
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"Is that why your eyes and hair look like that?!" said Klein. His face paled when he saw Morpheus looking at him seriously.
"It was a big snake," Morpheus said calmly.
"Puhahahahaha!" Now it was Klein's turn to laugh.
------
"So, you were a prince, huh? Must've been nice," said Klein with jealousy.
"Yeah, it was nice, but money doesn't buy happiness," said Morpheus.
"All rich people say that," Klein complained.
The conversation continued through the night, neither of them in a hurry to stop. Klein, for the first time in a long while, felt a strange sense of relief. It wasn't just about the information he was learning—there was something about sharing his burden with someone who seemed to understand, even if only in part. Morpheus, on the other hand, found comfort in the strange alliance they were forming. After everything he'd been through, having someone to talk to, to share the weight of his nightmare with—it was almost enough to make the darkness feel a little less suffocating.
"So, what are you going to do now?" Klein asked. "I mean… about your Nightmare. How do you plan to get out of here?"
"I'm honestly impressed by how easily you dismiss the idea that this place might be fake," Morpheus replied, his tone thoughtful. "But… this Nightmare is probably real. It's different from the ones I've heard about."
"Honestly, I don't even want to think about the alternative," Klein admitted. "I'm going to treat it as real and move forward from there."
"I don't really have much of a plan," Morpheus said with a shrug. "For now, I'll trust you to lead the way. I have a… close connection to fate. You saving me was probably not a coincidence. Besides—" he gave a smile, "I owe you one."