Oh, come on. Stop you’re whining, will you? It’s not like I asked you to cut out your friends' heart. I don’t have time to deal with your sentiment, pitiful thing. 

“My sentiment? You basically turned me into your personal slave, and you wonder why I’m not happily complying to any of your wishes?”

Would you prefer to die instead? No problem. You could cut your throat open here and now, and I will choose one of your friends instead. Maybe they will be more willing to save themselves? 

“No, I won’t kill myself, nor will I simply become your puppet.” What should I do? I needed to find the rift’s connector to bring me and my friends back. But what would happen afterwards? Why did this voice require a human being? It surely wasn’t human. No human would have ordered me to drink a lizard's blood. So, who was he? 

It won’t help you to ponder on me. Get up, we wasted enough time here. Follow the path the lizard came from, and you’ll find the crystal you’re looking for. Take your staff and smash the connector with it. We will talk once you’ve managed to do that. 

Was this a test? It might be, as he just said, he’d expect me to obey his orders if I wanted to save my friends. Sure, I could have argued or tried to get more answers right away, but it might be better to play along. At least for now, until I had additional information on what I was up against and how I could free myself from his influence. If he was not human, what was he? I never encountered any mention of a living being, that managed to communicate through their thoughts. Nor was there any information about beasts that were similar to humans. 

He may still be human, considering that he could have undergone a change within the rifts, but my inner compass told me this wasn’t the case. Strange, how this knowledge seemed to reside within me, the same way as I had known the flow of time stopped before. But could I trust these instincts? If this strange being had been able to control my body's movement, could he control my feelings as well? Where were the borders of these abilities? 

While I tried to find answers to all of these loose thoughts, I took the route he had told me. I held on to my rod but made sure not to touch the wooden teeth again. Every step was taken with the same caution I had shown before. Still, I didn’t run into any bearhorns.

Why were they all gone? Of course, they could have simply been in another layer of the caves, but after we had encountered two so far, it seemed strange for none to cross my path. After I had walked for about an hour, I could finally see the faint light of the rift connector I had searched. 

Rift connectors appeared in different sizes, but their basic build-up was the same. The crystals owned sharp edges that were sometimes embedded in structures such as walls or altars. No one knew who had built them. Sure as hell, it couldn’t have been the monsters roaming in the rifts. None of them ever owned any tools capable of construction.

The light that crystal emitted was bright enough to hurt the eyes if you’d stare into them for too long. Its color was a dark, blue shade that reminded me of a lake's surfaces on rainy days. For a moment, I could swear I had seen the ripples created by falling raindrops. Was it just an illusion created by the crystal's glow? 

I raised the staff and smashed it into the crystal. Normally, I wouldn’t expect it to leave a single scratch on the hard surface, but after all that happened today, it could as well have vaporized without me batting an eye. The rod didn’t crack the crystal as the surfaces touched.

Instead, it seemed as if it melted into the crystal. I watched warily while the crystal's glow faded and the rift’s connector broke from within. Just like the crystal, the rod in my hands felt as warm as if I held a living being. Honestly, I wouldn’t have wondered to feel a heartbeat within the wood. 

Reality broke apart around me. My perception scattered, as if the world splintered in tiny pieces. I closed my eyes and tried to blank out the irritating stimuli. The ground disappeared. I expected to fall, but I couldn’t feel gravity pulling on me. The lights behind my eyelids had faded out. As I opened my eyes, trying to understand what was happening to me, darkness embraced me. 

It felt as existence had come to a hold. There was nothing to hear, nothing to see. No scents or feels left for me. Was I dissolving? Was the consequences of my choices that I’d disappear? If the rift’s connector was broken, I should return to my world along with my friends. Instead, I floated in nothingness. Was it strange to think I’d expect death to be colder? Maybe my concept of death was wrong as well? Was no further sensation the real end awaiting a human being? 

You’re not dead. 

The voice that had fallen silent spoke to me again. If I wasn’t dead, where was I? 

You’re asking the wrong questions once again, pitiful thing. 

Within the darkness, another light appeared. A shade of red melted within it, revealing a silhouette that was a few heads larger than me. 

“I wanted to talk to you face to face this time, pitiful thing.” His voice seemed to reside in ear and mind alike. The black irises that gleamed with a red nuances reminded me of coal emitting residual heat. His skin's shade seemed like ashes molded into a body. I had trouble grasping this creature's essence as I stared at him. He didn’t resemble a human, yet his build was similar enough to compare him. His clothing could be described as an armor of older times but thanks to the cloak that hid most of its features I couldn't make out many details.

He gestured towards me as if he’d welcome someone as a party’s host. I couldn’t stop staring at his hands. Where others would have expected fingertips, his finger blended into sharp edges that reminded me of beast claws. Their shard was slightly darker than his ashen skin. As he parted his lips again, I could catch a glimpse of two canines. Was he a vampire? 

“Oh, please, pitiful thing. Would you stop with all the assumptions already? Your loose thought process is exhausting.” He chuckled and shook his head. 

“If you’re not a vampire, what are you?”

“I could tell you, but what use would there be? The word would have no meaning towards you. So, why bother?” 

“I want to know who you are and what you want from me!”
“Who I am and what I want have nothing to do with what I am. Are you humans all so simpleminded?”
“What? No!” My blood was up. Would he stop teasing me already?
“No. Why should I stop with something so fun?”

I gritted my teeth. Would he hear every single thought I’d have? I’d never felt this naked before.
“Oh, come on. No need to exaggerate. But yes. I can hear every thought of you I want to hear. I told you – about this moment onward, your whole existence is mine.”
“Would you stop joking around and answer my questions already?”
“Didn’t I just answer one?”
“Honestly, would you finally stop mocking me?”