Alice's breath hitched as she recognized Elara instantly, even from a distance. But something was off.

  The way she stood—too rigid. The lack of any warmth in her stance, the unnatural stillness beneath those shadowed robes like a puppet with its strings cut mid-motion…

  Juniper stepped forward instinctively despite Tenzing’s silent warning (a hand subtly raised to stop them). “Elara?” she called out cautiously, but no response came beyond that eerie motionlessness except for one slow tilt of Elara's head toward their voices as if just now registering their presence...

  And then: A voice echoed back at them but not from her mouth, instead speaking directly into each girl's mind all at once with chilling clarity:

  "You should not have come here."

  Not quite Elara’s tone either... too hollow and layered like multiple whispers speaking over each other while simultaneously echoing through an endless void.

  Tenzing finally moved again after observing this exchange closely, her paintbrush twitching ever so slightly before gripping it tighter while saying under her breath:

  “…She has been taken.”

  The words made goosebumps run down both their spines, what did that mean? Was Elara alive, being controlled somehow? Possessed, even?

  Chie was the first to break the stunned silence, though her voice was still shaky. "T-Taken? How? By who?"

  This time, there was no answer, only another pulse of Nexus that sent another shiver down all present's spines. And still, that eerie silhouette remained unmoving inside that tear in reality. Like a dark reflection of everything they knew.

  Tenzing’s grip on her paintbrush tightened, just slightly, before she answered, voice low and grave.

  "By the Void," she explained. "The same force that created this place." She gestured around them at the endless expanse of Nexus. "It is not just a realm; it is an entity in its own right... one which hungers for lost souls like Elara's."

  Juniper paled visibly, staring between Tenzing and the shadowy figure inside reality's tear as if expecting it to lunge forward any second now.

  Chie swallowed hard before finding words again: "...So what you're saying is… that thing isn’t even really Elara anymore?"

  A pause stretched too long for comfort while Tenzing held their gaze unblinking before finally nodding once, confirming their worst fear outright with no room left for hope or denial after hearing such news aloud here where truth could never be escaped from anymore...

  And then? The silhouette moved.

  Slowly raising one arm toward them all as cracks spiderwebbed across space itself beneath its fingertips…

  "You are next."

  It wasn't just a threat. It was a warning.

  Suddenly, everything became clear. How Elara had managed to escape their grasp through such a dangerous Void Gate to this place, and why Tenzing had warned them that they shouldn't be here.

  Everything was too late. Elara had been consumed by the Void and was no longer herself anymore but a puppet under its control. An unstoppable force bent on swallowing all of reality.

  Tenzing didn’t hesitate, she moved.

  In one fluid motion, her paintbrush flicked downward, splashing a single drop of ink onto the ground between them and the advancing figure. The moment it landed, reality warped around them like water disturbed by a stone's impact, an invisible barrier forming from pure artistic will alone as she muttered under breath:

  "Repel."

  The effect was immediate, black tendrils recoiled violently upon contact with Tenzing’s technique while Elara’s hollow silhouette snarled in frustration before lurching back into its rift but not without leaving behind one final whisper that slithered through their minds like ice:

  "You cannot hide forever."

  Chie stumbled backward instinctively despite knowing full well they were already shielded; Juniper grabbed Alice just in time before she could bolt after Elara out of sheer desperation (or foolishness).

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Tenzing exhaled sharply once more, this time sounding almost weary instead of calm.

  "...We must leave," She stated flatly while turning towards where the exit portal might exist within this cursed place. "Now."

  Chie felt a shiver run down her spine at the finality in those words. They were in way over their heads here.

  But as they followed Tenzing, another thought struck Chie that only deepened their unease…

  Alice had known that Elara had been consumed by the Void. Not just suspected , known. But she never told them despite understanding what it meant.

  And for some reason, that realization stung more than everything else.

  The group walked in silence for a few minutes without incident, each step feeling heavier and heavier as if the very weight of knowledge bore upon their shoulders.

  Finally, unable to take the tension any longer, Chie spoke up, but still kept her voice quiet for fear of being heard by anything hidden within Nexus.

  "How much longer do you think before we reach that exit you mentioned?" Her tone sounded calm despite the growing impatience beneath.

  Tenzing cast a side-glance at Chie, the look almost unreadable as usual but with something closer to understanding in it. "...Patience." was all Tenzing replied bluntly with a slight shake of head while keeping her focus on the path ahead.

  Chie huffed slightly under breath but held her tongue despite wanting to argue further, they'd already learned the hard way not to question their guide during their earlier encounter here.

  As they continued walking, the silence continued to thicken.

  But just as boredom started to make the journey feel even more grueling, Tenzing's steady strides slowed to a stop suddenly, her body tensing in a way that sent alarm bells ringing inside Chie and Juniper's minds even before either of them saw what she had:

  A single shadow loomed large against the endless walls of Nexus, and it was not alone.

  Chie felt her heart rate spike as she took in the new threat, more of those shadowy figures surrounding them from all sides now. They had gotten caught in an ambush from which there was only one way to escape.

  "What do we do?" Chie hissed urgently to Tenzing without taking her eyes off of the encircling shadows.

  "We leave," Tenzing said, conjuring her canvas. Time around Tenzing froze still as she began to paint. A few quick strokes of her paintbrush later, Alice, Chie and Juniper realized that a hole was forming in the floor before them. Tenzing was literally painting a hole in the floor from her canvas.

  "...You can do that?" Alice blurted out before realizing she'd spoken aloud, her surprise momentarily overriding caution.

  Tenzing shot her a cold glance, pausing in her work for a second. "I can do many things," she replied dryly before resuming, and before long a full door-like hole appeared in the floor.

  "Jump in.”

  Chie didn't need to be told twice.

  She grabbed Juniper's wrist and Alice’s arm, practically yanking them toward the hole just as Tenzing finished her final brushstroke with a sharp flick of ink, sealing it into reality behind them like an exit sign in hell itself.

  They tumbled down into darkness together while the frozen shadowy figures loomed above for one last moment before everything went black around their ears...

  Chie woke up with a gasp, the smell of ink and dust filling her lungs as she sat up abruptly to realize they fell right onto the floor of some dusty old room.

  Juniper and Alice were groaning beside her, both clearly having just come to as well. "What in the world..." Juniper mumbled, rubbing her head groggily.

  "Where are we?" Chie muttered, her eyes quickly adjusting while she got to her feet and glanced around.

  They were in a room filled with dusty furniture, all covered in white shrouds like they hadn't been touched in ages…

  Chie felt a strange shiver run down her spine as she looked around the eerie room. Everything was covered by dust but even then, she could tell this place hadn't seen visitors in years.

  "Whoever owned this place must not have been here in a very long time…" Chie mused out loud while Alice and Juniper got to their feet next.

  Tenzing was also standing now, surveying the scene with almost bored detachment despite their recent ordeal.

  "This is a safehouse of sorts," she commented flatly. "We will rest here until morning.”

  Chie froze mid-step, those names weren’t just whispered. They were carved into the air itself, each syllable making her skin crawl like ice down a spine.

  Juniper gripped Alice’s arm hard enough to bruise, both girls exchanging wide-eyed looks of sheer panic now as Tenzing's paintbrush twitched in warning again, this time with real tension behind it.

  "Stop," Tenzing ordered sharply before anyone else could react further... but Chie was already moving toward that door despite knowing full well they should listen when their guide sounded like that.

  Her fingers brushed against the handle...

  And then came an echo from beyond: A slow creak of wood turning on its own hinges somewhere unseen inside whatever lay ahead... followed by something whispering back at them:

  "You called?"

  Chie nearly stumbled backward into Tenzing and Juniper at the voice. It was so smooth yet wrong in a way that she couldn't place, like the very atmosphere was being twisted around her ears while she listened.

  She found her voice with some effort even while fear made her hands tremble. "Who are you?" Chie called out, her words sounding too loud in the sudden silence following that creak of the door.

  There was another pause like something invisible was contemplating how to answer such a simple question.

  The moment Chie stepped inside, the temperature dropped sharply, her breath coming out in visible puffs of white mist as if she'd walked into a freezer.

  The room stretched endlessly before her, walls lined with shelves upon shelves of glass jars filled with... something murky and shifting inside each one. At their centers? Tiny lights flickering like dying stars trapped within liquid darkness.

  "I go by many names," the voice answered after an agonizingly slow moment of silence. "But my favorite is...the Collector."

  Chie's breath hitched in her chest. The Collector, she thought suddenly. That name was familiar somehow but she couldn't pinpoint why...

  "...You want us," the voice continued, a cold amusement coloring the undertones of its otherwise silky-smooth voice as it chuckled softly. "And I want you.”