The stone remained in Lloyd's hand, as warm as it had been, pulsating as if it had a life of its own.
His eyes were fixed on its faint golden glow, his body frozen as if he had encountered something inexplicable. He didn't understand how this thing had ended up in his pocket. It wasn't there last night... or maybe it was, and he just hadn't seen it.
In his heart, he knew:
What he had seen in the dream was not a dream.
He suddenly felt something move behind him.
--- "What are you doing? And what is that?"
Leon stood behind him, his eyebrows furrowed, his tone holding a coldness mixed with obvious suspicion.
Lloyd panicked and quickly closed his hand over the stone.
--- "Nothing... It's just a stone. I woke up and found it in my pocket; I don't know where it came from."
Leon wasn't convinced. He looked at his face for a long time, then said:
--- "Zeldris told me you were acting strangely last night. Are you hiding something, Lloyd?"
Lloyd was flustered, his breath hitched, but he quickly replied:
--- "No, I'm not hiding anything. I was just... probably exhausted, that's all."
At that moment, Zeldris entered the tent. His eyes went directly to Lloyd, and there was something in his gaze... something that couldn't be put into words.
He said in a decisive tone:
--- "The important thing now... we must begin exploring the island tonight. There's no point in waiting."
Leon replied curtly:
--- "Alright."
But he turned to Lloyd again, giving him a final look before leaving the tent. A look that said, "I don't believe you... but I'll wait."
After a few moments of silence, Lloyd left the tent. The air was colder than usual, and clouds were starting to form over the distant trees.
Inside him, the voice of the shadow still echoed in his memory...
"Do you love evil?"
He should have forgotten. He should have told them. But he didn't.
Perhaps it was because he wanted to know more. Or perhaps... because something inside him had begun to love this mysterious feeling, this secret that only he possessed.
He stood near the edge of the camp and found Frank, Kai, Leon, and Zeldris gathered together.
He approached them and said:
--- "Did you make a plan?"
Frank answered him while fastening his backpack strap:
--- "No, we'll all go together. It's better to stay as a group... safety first."
Lloyd nodded in agreement, even though his heart was telling him that this was not safe at all.
They began their journey into the island.
The deeper they went into the forest, the more the trees began to change. They became more twisted, their trunks wrapped as if they were growing against nature, as if they were trying to escape from the ground. The light was pale, and the air was filled with silence... not a natural silence, but a heavy one, saturated with an invisible tension.
After a distance, they reached an old stone wall with ancient, worn-out inscriptions.
"Do not approach the vault."
Leon read it in a low voice, then said:
--- "What is this place? It looks like someone deliberately built it to deter us."
Kai said in a tone of contempt:
--- "Whenever they say 'don't approach,' we get closer."
Frank smiled:
--- "The usual cliche."
But Lloyd... didn't smile. There was something in his chest that warned of danger.
Suddenly, Leon spotted a small, rusty iron box, resembling old audio devices. He bent down and blew the dust off it.
--- "It's an old audio player... I know this type."
He sat on the ground and began to examine the buttons. He took a battery from his bag in a way that surprised them.
He said while trying to turn it on:
--- "I used to be into these devices... we might be able to pick up something."
Moments passed, then the device started emitting strange frequencies. Intermittent pulses, like the sound from a sick heart, coming and going, rising and falling.
Then... a voice appeared.
A real voice.
--- "Zac... we found the vault... you have to get to us... when we entered the vault... we arrived at the main island..."
The sound cut off.
Then the frequencies returned, more disturbed, as if they were bleeding.
Everyone looked at each other in shock.
But Lloyd... didn't show anything.
He had understood.
The main island. The two faces. The vault.
Everything from the dream... was repeating.
But he remained silent.
He didn't tell them.
And in that moment...
A voice in his mind.
A cold, deep voice, not coming from a mouth.
"Very good... you have fully embodied greed and evil."
Lloyd's eyes widened.
His heart pounded hard, as if the voice had touched something inside him he had never known before.
Then...
A laugh.
A black, terrifying laugh.
As if it was coming from the gut of a creature not of this world.
A laugh he had never heard before—not in a game, not in a nightmare. A laugh that kept echoing inside his skull until he felt he would lose his balance.
And in another place...
Behind many screens, in a dark room lit by green lights, a group of people wearing black clothes had their faces covered.
On the screens, Lloyd and his friends appeared, moving through the forest, their faces confused.
One of them, watching Lloyd's face in particular, said:
--- "Good."
Then he leaned forward, smiled slowly, and said:
--- "The system's key point... has awakened."
As for the group, Leon looked at the old device with concern:
--- "Maybe we should keep this thing as evidence... we might need it later."
Zeldris raised an eyebrow sarcastically and said sharply:
--- "Keep it as evidence?! Evidence of what? We're stuck on an unknown island, with no clear way out... there are two islands, there's a person or something messing with us. Leaving this device here is the only option."
Frank agreed with Zeldris as he tightened the belt of his short sword:
--- "He's right... every signal or device could be a trap. We don't want to drag ourselves into something we can't get out of."
Kai also agreed quietly, but he was staring at the ground the whole time as if something else was occupying his mind.
As for Leon, tension seemed to take over his face, especially as he watched Lloyd, who agreed in a faint voice:
--- "Alright... let's leave it."
Leon felt that there was something uncomfortable... something left unsaid. But he had no choice but to agree with the others.
They all moved forward, their steps heavy with suspicion. As they advanced, Zeldris lingered for a moment. He looked back at the old device, gave a cold smile, then quickly picked it up and took a small recording tool from his pocket. He began to record in a low, calm voice:
--- "Everything is leading them to the abyss... I don't think anyone will intervene."
He paused for a moment, as if savoring the words, then ended the recording with a mysterious smile and hurried to catch up with the group.
Leon noticed that he was suspiciously late, and when he arrived, he asked him directly:
--- "Where were you, Zeldris?"
The latter was flustered for a moment, but before he could answer... Lloyd stepped on something solid under his foot. He bent down to pick up something that was half-buried in the dirt.
--- "A weapon?!" he whispered, raising it in his hand.
But his breath hitched when he looked up. There... a few meters away, a body lay on the ground. A decomposing body, with skin stuck to the bones, covered with a layer of small insects crawling incessantly.
--- "My God..." Frank muttered, taking a step back.
But that wasn't the worst thing about the scene.
Directly above the body, on the trunk of a huge tree, was a giant insect... impossibly huge, its torn wings fluttering slowly, making an annoying sound like the screeching of metal. Its compound eyes glittered with a dark red color, as if they were on fire from the inside.
Everyone froze in their places; even their breaths had an echo in the forest.
Kai said in a trembling voice for the first time in a long time:
--- "That... is not a normal insect."
The insect suddenly laughed... a distorted human laugh, coming from between its jaws as if it were an echo from another world.
Lloyd shivered and began to hear the voice inside him again... that shadow he saw in the dream:
--- "The path to the vault begins with blood... test your strength, Lloyd."
Lloyd tightened his grip on the weapon, his eyes widening with fear and anger, while the entire group prepared for an encounter they had not anticipated...
Lloyd quickly raised the weapon, pulled the trigger, and a quick shot was fired towards the giant insect. But the bullet had no effect. It bounced off its solid body, as if it had hit a wall of steel.
The insect laughed, a distorted human laugh, echoing among the tree trunks, and everyone trembled.
Then... it began to change.
Its bones shattered and were reshaped, its wings melted into its body, and its limbs extended in an unbalanced way. In seconds, it stood before them in a distorted human form, half-human, half-insect, its face painted with a permanent scream.
Everyone was shocked. Even Zeldris, known for his coldness, had his eyes widen for a moment.
And suddenly... the voice.
That cold whisper that pierced Lloyd's mind:
"How about you give me your body?"
It didn't wait for an answer. The shadows flowed into his veins like black poison, and his body began to change.
His skin became pale, his right hand was covered in a cracked black color, and a single dark horn emerged from his forehead. A sinister smile was drawn on his lips; it was not his smile.
The distorted insect stopped, surprised for a moment. As for Leon and Zeldris, they exchanged looks of genuine shock.
At that moment, Lloyd pounced.
He jumped with inhuman speed, his hand covered with shadows, to deliver a fatal blow. But the insect raised its huge arm and blocked it, and the shadow hit the hardened flesh.
Lloyd smiled a distorted smile and whispered in a dual voice, as if it wasn't his:
"Shadows of light... destroy it."
A strange force exploded in his body, as if darkness had married light. He attacked again, hitting the insect with a violent blow that cut off its arm from the shoulder, causing it to fall to the ground, writhing and screaming.
He didn't stop. He leaped again, and with terrifying force, he ripped its body in half.
Silence prevailed.
The group's breaths rose, and each of them stared at the scene in disbelief.
But the shadow inside Lloyd didn't laugh.
Something was not over.
From the remnants of the torn body, thousands of small insects crawled, gathering like a miniature army to cover what remained of the corpse. In seconds, the insect returned... but bigger, with a more distorted body, and eyes burning like embers.
It screamed a deafening scream and attacked the group directly.
--- "Get away!" Leon shouted, pulling Frank.
But Lloyd took a step forward.
He raised his hand, and the shadows formed to create a black shield that wrapped around the group and blocked the first blow.
The ground shook under the impact, but the shield held. Then it disappeared quickly, as if Lloyd didn't want them to know his full capabilities.
He extended his hand again, whispering:
"Black shadow flames... gather."
His hand ignited with a dense black flame, swirling like a hellish vortex. He attacked the giant, embedding the flames in its body, and the outer layer of skin exploded, but the monster remained steadfast, screaming hysterically.
Lloyd didn't stop. He gathered all the shadows around him and rushed with the last of his strength. The air itself split, and a huge blow exploded, splitting the giant's body into scattered parts, turning it into black ash that faded with the wind.
Silence.
Lloyd stood in the middle, panting, his eyes half-darkened, and the horn still protruding. But with the enemy's demise, the control began to wane, and his body gradually returned to its normal state.
He fell to his knees, staring at his hands, unable to believe what had happened.
Then he turned slowly...
To find Zeldris standing behind him, a gun aimed at his head. His eyes were filled with hatred and fear.
--- "You're a monster... you're not human. We don't even know what island we're on, and now you're proving you're more dangerous than any other enemy."
Lloyd raised his hands in surrender, his voice trembling:
--- "Calm down... I'm with you; I didn't choose what happened. Believe me."
But Zeldris didn't back down.
Leon intervened quickly, shouting:
--- "Calm down, Zeldris! Maybe we can understand what's happening through him... if you kill him, we lose everything!"
But anger overwhelmed hearing.
The bullet was fired.
The place shook.
Lloyd fell to the ground, blood bleeding from his forehead.
The group froze in their places, their faces frozen between astonishment and shock.
The forest remained silent.
No insect sounds, no whispers.
Just Lloyd's body... lying motionless.
And so... the night ended.