The Face Under the Face

The moist, last thud of Polina's body hitting the stone floor desecrated the chamber's sacred silence. Time itself seems to break. As the man no longer Suge languidly wiped his blood-soaked fingers clean, Nicolas and Katrina remained frozen, their brains refusing to absorb the scene. A twisted, demonic grin stretched his features into an awful form, and the cool, triumphant mask on his face vanished. A sound that was not of the world of men sprang from his throat: a chuckle. With a resonance derived from pure, unadulterated craziness, the deep, deviant cackling reverberated from the old stones, gnawing at their sanity.

In an effort to prevent his mind from collapsing, Nicolas turned to the icy solace of reason in the midst of this bizarre nightmare. "Why," he said, the one word a flimsy barrier against the creeping madness. "Why would you do that?"

The laughter stopped just as suddenly as it had started. Slowly, the creature's head rotated, and when it spoke, the voice was a deep, ancient baritone, with malice that had festered for ages oozing from every syllable. "BETRAYAL," it bellowed, the word itself a force to be reckoned with. "IT IS THE ONE SIN FOR WHICH THERE IS NO FORGIVENESS."

The creature raised a hand to its face after making the proclamation. It started to peel its own face away with a motion that went against all natural law, its fingers hooking under the edge of its jawline. It was an obscene sound, a moist, nauseating rend of skin as Suge's face was drawn up like a rubber mask, exposing the real, hideous face underneath. The new visage was paler, sharper, and marked with a brutality that never went out of style. The same evil crimson glow that they had witnessed from beneath the Black Knights' helms blazed in its eyes.

Katrina let out a sudden, choking gasp of awareness as her breath caught. She peered at the living hell in front of her, still holding the handbook, now a useless item. Breathing, "It's… impossible," "It's Gein."

Gein walked over his sister's body without even looking at the life he had just put out. He approached Nicolas with slow, methodical steps, exuding a sense of unwavering, terrifying strength with each step. Nicolas's instinct told him to run and escape, but his feet felt like leaden anchors. Gein moved more quickly than anyone had anticipated, even the ghostly murmurs of precognition. Nicolas saw just a flurry of action as Gein's arm swept through the air before the slightest hint of danger could come to him. It was a calamitous blow. Nicolas was knocked off his feet by a single, vicious blow, and he landed in a heap next to Katrina like a rag doll.

Gein was there, towering over them before the impact's reverberations had subsided. He took hold of Katrina's long, dark hair and violently threw her into the air. He ripped the book out of her hand with his other. A deep, dark delight dawned on his features as his crimson gaze examined the pages. "Just as I suspected."

Then, in front of the exhausted Nicolas, he threw the book on the ground, its leather cover laden with secrets. He demanded, "It is written in the language of the Zinox," in a voice that made no space for debate. "Read the book, if you wish for your friend to live."

For a brief while, Nicolas's suffering was overshadowed by the journalist inside him, a tenacious spark of professional curiosity that would not die. He tasted blood as he coughed, "Is that why you deceived us?" "To have me translate the game's secrets for you?"

"Just read the book, boy."

"If I do this… you'll let us live?" With a flimsy and desperate plea, Nicolas asked.

Gein's lips twisted in a disgusting smirk. He said, "Of course," lying. The deception was obvious because of the abyssal darkness that swirled in his eyes.

"NICOLAS, DON'T READ IT!" Thrashing in Gein's grasp, Katrina let forth a scream. Gein responded by putting his hand around her throat and tensing his fingers in a callous manner. He continued to stare at Nicolas.

"It will take me but a moment to snap her neck," he said. "Follow instructions. Go through it.

Nicolas gave a nod of total and total defeat. There was nothing else to do. He opened the book and saw page after page of cheat codes, exploits, and fixes for almost all of the game's structural problems. The main structure of their prison, adversary weaknesses, and secret passageways were all present. But at that very moment, Katrina's life being gradually suffocated was more important than anything else. And a desperate, crazy thought ignited in his thoughts in that furnace of anguish. There was no plan. It was a risk of forgetting.

He was aware of the price of saving Katrina. An enormous amount of sacrifice would be required. Nicolas picked up the bulky, thick book and made his decision. He used all of his remaining strength without hesitation and threw the book at the far stone wall rather than Gein.

Gein's predatory instincts overcame his logic as the book sailed through the air, certain to plummet into the unfathomable abyss at the core of the temple. He was too afraid of losing his prize, which was the ultimate secret to become a god. In one smooth action, he let go of Katrina and threw himself into the emptiness behind the falling book.

However, the attack on its most revered item triggered an immediate response from the system, their silent jailer. The temple's protection mechanisms were awakened when the book struck the wall. The air was torn by a piercing, loud alarm. The futuristic weaponry they had previously avoided resurfaced from concealed panels in the ceiling and walls, their barrels glimmering with newfound intent. All of the weapons rotated and locked on Gein, the NPC, the only non-player entity that has recently harmed a vital system item.

As he struggled to capture the book in midair, Gein was struck by a torrent of righteous rage that exploded from dozens of barrels. He summoned a dark energy shield, but the conflagration was too great. The precious pages of the book in his hands burned, going to ash in the storm, and the barrier cracked and splintered under the attack.

Nicolas rushed to Katrina and dragged her off the ground, seeing the turmoil as his only opportunity. When he yelled, "COME ON!"

At that moment, they noticed a crack in the wall, a constant flow of water gushing from the opening caused by the severe tremors of the protection system's activation. The two thrust themselves into the tight, black space without hesitation. A tunnel of rushing water engulfed them, and after a brief period of confusing underground journey, they were abruptly ejected into a river's cool, clear water kilometers away in the middle of the forest, leaving behind them the sound of alarms and the wrath of a god.