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Muffled gunshots to his right, soft humming of the trinkets he brought back from the Walls to his left. A single long breath escaped him, getting up from the bed he fell asleep on a while ago. Getting quality sleep wasn’t all that difficult; in fact, his nap was rather okay. Maybe that’s what it feels to get some well deserved rest - that’d be what he did after finishing the Gauntlet alongside two other Knights. A challenge of utmost importance and highest prestige in the Midnight Lounge, it was only appropriate that Hito and the two put on a proper show for the observing robots. Surely enough, they did; almost like a perfectly choreographed dance.
Almost like someone was looking at all of this with no prior invitation, or known motives. But it had to be someone known by the Midnight Lounge’s ‘higher ranking’ robots, by all means but one. The only other way was being a deity, but there was only one he knew could watch from just about anywhere.
Unless there was something he didn’t know of? The energy when he finally noticed it certainly was far from the Voice’s presence, but still familiar enough to him. How could he forget the barren hellscape and the sense of dread that came with it? It’s as if every time he stepped foot in there came with so much disapproval from the Walls that they just left him to himself and the mercy of whatever controlled the area commonly referred to as ‘Dreams’. Not without a bad reason either, the being inhabiting the area like an overseer to it did claim multiple times that time in there passes like in a dream - feels like hours, but only in theory - despite all the events being entirely real. Whatever came at the Gauntlet matched the environment of Dreams in its very core.
He thought for a moment - should he go investigate it himself in the hellish purgatory? No, that’d be a bad idea, let alone the fact he wouldn’t be told anything of use. His eyes moved to the glass container with a reality-shifting object inside of it. Just holding it in his hands filled Hito with a sense of unease.
Maybe this time around he could leave the ramen pack from Fie in the room while on his way to take on the Gauntlet once more.
The World seemed less merciful than before. Though that didn’t matter if it fell at the hands of the Knight’s pistol. He didn’t have high hopes in regards to any success in his endeavors of picking the Fine Line up from his desk this time around, though who knew with the unstable cube of yellow-looking energy in his pocket? Any kind of reality manipulation seemed to be possible at this time.
Crossing the large door that was to lead him into the rewards room, Hito was instead met with another break room. This time, shifted in reality to the point of appearing uncannily close to the dreamscape, just without the red haze over it. The closer he came to the next door - or should it be said, what was left of a previous door - the more notable the shifts were. A narrow, changing path came at his entry past the frame, yet he decided not to cross it yet, instead approaching what looked to be an item selector. Matter of fact, it was one.
What could come in handy… Maybe some green tea and a set of handy tools for fixing anything that’d ail a robot, for some extra exposure of the other party. Only then did he step past the frame where a door was, causing the rest of the path to appear as he took the turn.
The arena bore a strange resemblance to his own previous fight against a being too close to the Voice Beyond for his, and seemingly their own, comfort. Though, he was too focused on the arena to notice just who the figure in the distance was at first.
“Knight.”
The word was enough to cause Hito to perk his head up, only to realize just who he was going against. The very being he fought in that barren, red, false hellscape, now right against him in a splintered fragment of the Midnight Lounge’s Gauntlet arena set.
All in all, he knew that he’d have to give it his all, but also that there would be no mercy from the other party. The one he only knew to be considered a ‘cursed creature’ by the Voice, without ever knowing a reason why, was he to skip the part he fought the being at some point. He felt that the competition was of more power than back in the dreamscape, or perhaps they always did, but held back there for some unclear reason.
And yet, even now, he felt stronger than before, as if the exact Voice he’s heard calling him into the Walls was directly offering him its aid. Would it really be this bad to utilize it this once? After all, it felt like it’d be something similar to what he’s been through with them, just with some extra steps.
A dance he once knew, and they did too. Ready to be gone through once more with a fresh coat of paint, as Hito stepped back, took a deep breath as the effects of aid to him flooded into his body, and unsheathed his blade.