At the heart of the Recompense of Pain, inside the Hall of Production, (The Old Man), (The Little Boy), (The Little Girl), (Specter), and the speaking (Jar-Headed Woman) stood before the two guards with wild rabbit helmets. Behind them came eight knights in Gothic armor and Maximilian helmets, each carrying a zweihänder, all of them taller than the two rabbit guards.
They moved forward slowly toward the group, while the rabbits still stood around them.
(The Jar-Headed Woman): "This is not my fault. Carrying out punishment inside the Recompense of Pain is a clear violation of the rules it was founded on."
The slow clashing of armor began to echo through the empty hall.
(The Old Man): "My Lady, am I to be killed for something I do not even understand? How was I supposed to know he had already escaped?"
The knights came closer and closer.
(The Little Girl): "Trying to hurt us will do no good. You are wasting your time."
(The Little Boy): "No one can deny that your anger is deserved, but… do not take a step you will regret."
(Specter) looked quietly toward the knights, then sat down for no reason.
The eight knights drew their long swords and kept advancing until they reached them.
(The Little Girl) hid behind (The Little Boy), and while (The Old Man) closed his eyes, (The Jar-Headed Woman) moved to smash her head against the ground, hoping to break it. She almost did, had the nine knights not gone past them and headed toward the two rabbits.
The two rabbits trembled. They drew out their spears, and all ten clashed in a battle that made the body shiver. The rabbits fought with terrifying strength. They drove their spears into the knights' chests and heads, yet not one of them fell. Then heavy blows landed on the rabbits, breaking bones, tearing skin, ripping an arm, piercing a belly. The rabbits raised their heads and tried to seek help from their Lady, but she did not say a single word.
Then their speed burst open.
One of them snatched up his spear, while the other tightened his fist, and they fought with such violence that two knights fell, their helmets crushed. They almost brought down a third, but then the remaining five drove their swords into the hearts of the two rabbits and kept stabbing them savagely after they had fallen.
Then a voice rang out, a voice that shook the hearts of all who heard it. It was (The Lady).
(The Lady): "I will not save you. You were given one task: guard a single human. A weak human. A cursed, foolish, blind human. How could you lose sight of a target like that? How could you, when you knew full well that he was a black line, not a red one? How could you destroy my strongest efforts and my dearest wishes?"
(The Lady), her voice beginning to collapse: "My… my heart has been shattered. How am I supposed to mend it now? How am I supposed to achieve justice… how… how am I supposed to live again? Damn it… the worst thing I feared has happened. This is too much… this is… far too much."
(The Lady), her voice turning panicked, broken, and trembling: "I have no fortune at all. I cannot shape any desire. I cannot, I cannot even…"
(The Lady) breaking into painful sobs, a strange part of her voice coming out thin and high: "This… this… is a great… injustice…"
And she cried with such pain that even the hearts of those who hated her ached. No one truly understood what she had said except (The Little Boy) and (The Little Girl), who were the calmest of everyone there.
The knights stopped their stabbing, and the two guards with wild rabbit helmets rose again, their wounds still bleeding.
Then the whole place began to shake under (The Lady)'s endless crying. She muttered like a child, broken little words: "Why?" "I wish I had not come…" "Is this…?" "A fated end?"
The shaking became so violent that the head of (The Jar-Headed Woman) struck the floor and cracked. The two children vanished. (Specter) began rolling right and left from the shaking, despite being able to fly. (The Old Man) slammed his jaw and nose again and again until both broke, then fainted and began rolling across the floor like the sprawling (Specter).
The cries of the ghouls rose high. The frightened whistling of the ghosts followed. The groans of the shattered monsters were full of terror and darkness.
Half an hour passed with the place still shaking under her sobbing, until everyone thought it would never stop.
Then, little by little, it began to slow.
(The Lady) stopping after one last gasp that settled into silence: "…"
The place came to rest.
Then, without warning, the eight knights seized the body of (The Jar-Headed Woman), the body of (The Old Man), and the spirit of (Specter), who looked on in silence, and dragged them on a long journey outside, until the broken jar-head had re-formed halfway. Then they threw them all out through the gates of the Recompense…
Before the eyes of a giant Gothic city, a city so immense it made Snow Nexus look like an empty square. Thousands of buildings glowed with golden windows. Dozens of hanging bridges stretched between their heights. Symbolic clocks had become its clearest mark. The Nexus had grown rich with historical landmarks and brutally shadowed designs. All that crowded architecture led toward a magnificent palace so huge that the Recompense looked like no more than one room among its many rooms. The buildings had risen to the height of towers, and the whole atmosphere had become crowded.
The muddy ground was now packed and covered with stone paving laid in severe detail. The glow of the golden lanterns only added to its grandeur and dread.
More new races now appeared in the streets of the crowded city and among its new inhabitants, millions of elves, jinn, vampires, and dwarves.
(The Lady) speaking in a voice heard by both the survivors and the new inhabitants: "Snow Nexus has melted under my anger. Today it has become the Nexus of Torment. All the weak monsters have been replaced with beings that think and analyze. Be grateful, in the last moments of your lives, that I spared your worthless lives. From now on, the smarter and the more cunning shall survive, not for a goal that pleases itself, but for a greater use, one that serves me alone. What went beyond the bounds of the Nexus was never part of this world. I do not understand its existence. I cannot grasp its limits. I cannot cross it. So… it will become the greatest mystery. Whoever solves it will survive this torment. Whoever hunts (Jorvir), (Kirv), (Hovar), and the rotten (Rilaf) will survive and be honored with a great reward. Whoever solves it and captures (Rozen) alive… will survive, and will learn how to make a world like this… and much more than that."
And so began an age of deep strangeness and rapid change in the Nexus of Torment, after its snow had melted.
A brutal age began, one in which none survived except the vilest and the most cunning.