Lower Lip District, 13 Sharp Tooth Street.
Ulicka, plump, with dark brown skin and small eyes, sat on the sofa. He took sun-dried, yellowed tobacco leaves and wrapped about ten different herbs and spices native to the Southern Continent layer by layer inside, then cut them into long strips.
He then held this homemade "East Balam cigarette" in his hand, brought it close to the match his subordinate lit, and watched the tip turn black and curl, glowing red.
After biting down on the end and taking a deep drag, Ulicka slowly exhaled white smoke tinged with light blue and said contentedly to the guest sitting on the single sofa beside him:
"This is what a cigarette is supposed to be, a real cigarette.
"Those in the Northern Continent are only fit for children!"
The visitor on the single sofa was a man in his forties, with a high-bridged nose, near-blue eyes, softer facial features, thick black slightly curly hair, skin that was neither dark nor light, seemingly a mix of Loen and Balam blood.
He chuckled at Ulicka's words and replied in the Dutan language:
"Unfortunately, I'm not interested in any kind of cigarette."
"Enzo, you really don't know how to enjoy life..." Before Ulicka finished speaking, the powerful spirituality derived from his own pathway gave him a premonition of danger.
It came so suddenly and urgently that Ulicka immediately judged it was no small problem.
Before he could even hurl himself from his original position, darkness enveloped his vision, as if he were directly seeing the deep night outside. He felt a strong drowsiness and an inner peace.
The entire Sharp Tooth Street, whether buildings were lit or dark, grew extremely quiet at that moment, as if no living beings dwelled within, or as if all had fallen asleep in the same second.
Just then, Ulicka, who had been snoring and slumping sideways, suddenly sprang up, a strange mix of confusion and clarity in his eyes.
Behind him, a little girl with skin so pale it was almost ethereal had somehow attached herself!
The little girl had dark circles around her eyes, deep black lips, and a sinister gaze fixed on the side. Her pale translucent hands and feet were buried in Ulicka's body, as if she was an inescapable spirit.
Her presence brought a chill to the spirit, allowing Ulicka to barely resist the unnatural drowsiness and forcibly break free from the influence of the "Nightmare."
Before Ulicka fully regained consciousness, he instinctively rushed toward the stairwell, reached out both hands, and pushed forward as if opening a door that didn't exist.
In an instant, a bronze door covered with mysterious patterns, indescribable, appeared in front of Ulicka. It swayed, creaked, and cracked open a gap.
Within the gap was endless darkness, in which countless indescribable eyes densely stared outward.
At the same time, a mass of wriggling, bizarre, yet indistinct things surged near the crack.
Ulicka was about to continue exerting force, to actively open the door and let the terrifying world behind it descend upon Sharp Tooth Street, when he suddenly saw a pair of translucent pale hands leap out of thin air, piercing through the deep darkness, and press against the inner side of the crack.
These hands had no origin, no connected body, and the wrists were bloody, as if severed by something!
Both sides exerted force simultaneously, and the mysterious bronze door stopped there, unable to either close or open wider.
Above the building at 13 Sharp Tooth Street, Soster, who had become a "Spirit Medium," floated half-suspended, supported by an unseen force. He held a golden sundial in both hands and slowly raised it high.
When the golden sundial finally rose above Soster's head, brilliant light suddenly poured out, quickly coalescing.
In an instant, it seemed as if a sun had leaped from the void in the sky, showering all its light and heat onto the building at 13 Sharp Tooth Street.
Without causing any harm, the light penetrated the building, fell upon the bronze door, and enveloped Ulicka, who stood before it.
Ulicka's expression became extremely pained. The pale transparent little girl behind him let out a shrill scream, but it was blocked and drowned by the "sunlight."
She twisted, evaporated rapidly, and wisps of black air overflowed, dissolving in the sea of light.
Inside that building, there was no longer any shadowy place!
When the "sunlight" faded, the indescribable bronze door had vanished. On the ground lay a corpse, swollen, bluish-black, with light greasy stains.
With a tearing sound, the corpse split open, and a small thin figure sprang out from within.
This figure had the exact same appearance as Ulicka, but his skin was as black as ink stains. He was only about 1.2 or 1.3 meters tall, with viscous pus oozing over his body.
As soon as he came out, he rushed to the stairwell at an exaggerated speed, ducked into the basement, opened a pre-prepared secret passage, and sprinted forward.
In just ten-odd seconds, the shrunk, blackened Ulicka saw the exit, saw hope.