Nia suddenly stood up and stepped toward the thing that was certainly not Locu. Uda stepped in her way.
"What are you doing?" she asked, horrified, glancing over her shoulder while keeping the creature in sight.
"He is right! It is my fault, I was not careful... I am responsible for his death! He is dead because I was too..." Nia stammered, trying to slip past her.
"Nonsense! Only the monster that tore him apart is to blame! And that thing is definitely not Locu! He would never talk to you like that!" Uda shouted back.
It was hard to stop Nia from sneaking past her while keeping the creature in view. It suddenly started jerking and twitching. In a blink, it crossed half the distance between them, sending a jolt through Uda's limbs.
Nia had suddenly gained much more strength, and now it was not so easy to hold her back.
Orfet stood to Uda's right, Ya beside him, both holding their makeshift clubs protectively in front of them.
"Of course that is not Locu! Uda, I am not stupid. This is my fault. It is the guilt weighing on me, coming for me," Nia laughed hollowly from behind.
She had gone mad.
"That is right, my sweet, dear Nia... It is your fault. You always knew I was coming, didn't you? You always knew..." the Locu-imitation sang, taking another leisurely step toward them.
"Yes," Nia confirmed, her voice now relaxed and distant again, although she was so close to Uda that she could feel her breath.
"What?" Uda burst out.
"What it says is right. I felt it coming, just after you started to run back into the ruins. I felt that it was coming. And I knew I had to go to it and find it. It would judge me and erase me from this world, where I no longer belong... I am terrified of that thing, but I also feel that it will grant me release. I just have to reach it, and my pain will be over..."
Uda's thoughts raced. Was that the reason for her mood swings? Was that why she had so willingly followed her? Then another thought shot through her mind.
"Nia, did you ever want to help me save these people? Or was that just a pretense?" she whispered, almost forgetting to keep blocking Nia's path.
The monster had now stopped and seemed to revel in their words, savoring the situation with malicious ecstasy. Uda could not even blame it — it had all the time in the dream.
Nia laughed again, this time shrill.
"Save people? I cannot do that! Well, I convinced you to let me stay up here instead of with the wounded, so at least I gave everyone a small chance. This way, I can go to him and accept my deserved fate. Maybe you will survive if you barricade yourselves one floor down? That was all I could think of. All the help I could give you. I am so useless. I cannot manage anything, I always just run away. You are the one who managed something. No, I am no heroine and never will be. But you are."
Uda did not know what to say and just stared at her, barely comprehending what she was hearing. But Nia continued, the words coming out of her mouth in a stream, as if they had been held back for too long.
"Since we met, you have always given your best and fought, you never let yourself be defeated and threw yourself recklessly into every danger. I could never have done that. I have hidden away, like the cowardly piece of shit that I am. How could I ever risk my life for these people? I cannot even protect my own! They are not unimportant to me, no, but... it does not matter anymore! We are being overrun! And now I can finally find release! I can be freed from the pain that Locu's death tore into me, piercing every part of my being! I can collect my punishment. Let me through, Uda, if I matter to you! You said I should walk my path. My path ends here and now, with that monster!" Nia hissed.
"That is a good girl, a good girl... I will take you with me and let you suffer until I finally grant you an end, just as you wish... Come, I will embrace you..." crooned the thing that was not Locu.
Uda watched it take another step and made her decision in a single breath. Then she stormed past Ya and Orfet, who both shouted in confusion, and hurled herself at the undead horror. She would drag it down with her if she had to.
Once again, the world slowed, and she braced herself to knock the creature off the tower with a tackle. She almost reached it when it suddenly grabbed at her. She could neither resist nor fully comprehend what was happening, but in the next moment, she was seized and hurled into the air. Stinking hands clamped around her, and Uda felt searing pain flash through her body as she crashed through the platform.
Dizziness overwhelmed her, and she could not even properly grasp that she was now lying three stories below on a heap of rubble, unable to move. All her strength had left her in an instant, and her vision blurred.
Just barely, she made out the creature, grinning wickedly down at her from the edge of the hole, its gaping, abyssal eyes staring into her from some unfathomable void. Then it was upon her, and a sharp knee slammed hard into her gut.
Uda must have blacked out for a moment, because when she came to again, she was still lying amidst a heap of shattered stones.
Warm blood trickled down her cheek.
It was almost impossible to breathe, her lungs burned fiercely.
Whatever power and strength had protected her during the previous fights had now abandoned her, and she was nothing but a broken young woman, lying wounded at the base of a half-destroyed tower.
Above her, Uda saw the creature... saw it peering down at her again, and she prepared herself to leave the Dream.
Had she at least managed to save Nia?
That idiot! That damned idiot!
But Uda did not know what it was like to lose someone to whom one was truly bound.
The pain Nia must have felt was beyond anything Uda could imagine.
It was the only explanation for her companion's actions.
Slowly, tears began to stream down Uda's cheeks as well.
"I think you're done, you little bitch... you shouldn't have interfered. Now you're just as useless as Nia always was. I think it's time you woke up..." the false Locu smiled.
From its hands, a dark mist broke free, lazily drifting toward her.
What would happen if the substance reached her?
The monster seemed to guess her thoughts.
"It will engulf you, creep into your body through every opening, spread inside you... and then harden, trapping you in a slow, agonizing death. After that, I will go to Nia and take her with me. I have something much worse planned for her. I belong to her. I want her to suffer for as long as possible. I will let the other Nightmares overrun this tower. You won't live to see it — consider that a sign of respect, for you alone had the courage to attack me. I am looking forward to–"
Suddenly, everything happened very quickly.
Uda was still trying desperately to move her arms to cover her mouth, nose, and ears and to press her legs together, when a strange sense of distant peace washed over her.
Almost like a trick of her mind, as if she were trying to convince herself to keep fighting.
Then, abruptly, a tingling pain rushed over her and she dimly saw white sparks envelop her body for a heartbeat.
In the same instant, the false Locu vanished in a flash of blinding light, without another word.
The barrier?
The hissing and scratching noises that had seeped into the tower from outside stopped abruptly.
Exhausted, Uda allowed herself to relax.
Somehow she knew it was over.
Slowly her breathing calmed, even though she still could not move a single muscle. She waited, hoping someone from above would come down to check on her. Finally, she closed her eyes to rest and let herself sink into her soothing inner darkness.