The world of mist, a place where your fears are amplified and where sometimes visions of the past appear; this time, a presence from DANTE's past has emerged. What new things await our friends?
After a surprising ambush by an immense skeleton, our friends meet a creature who claims to be a friend from DANTE's past, but transformed into a strange beast.
DANTE HERALDI: Brayan? Is it really you?
The creature, somewhat nervous and timid, lowers its head and, bit by bit, approaches DANTE. After sniffing him, it proceeds to regain its human form. Before our friends stood BRAYAN, a soldier who belonged to the special forces alongside DANTE and ALEX. He was a very strong and muscular man in the past; now we only see a somewhat thin, trembling, and unclothed man attempting to speak with DANTE.
BRAYAN: (trembling)… Is it really you? (Holds his head) Is it you? This cursed piece-of-shit place isn't lying to me again, is it? DANTE, is it you? (Grasps Dante's hands).
DANTE HERALDI: Yes… calm down, it's me… (tries to soothe him) and you are Brayan, right? Brayan Spectrum, that's your name, right?
Upon hearing his full name, BRAYAN breaks down in tears and kneels before DANTE, grabbing his feet.
BRAYAN SPECTRUM: (crying) Captain, it's you, is it really you? Hehe, I thought I would never see you again, much less in this place, I'm so happy.
DANTE HERALDI: (lifts him from the ground) Calm down, Brayan, yes, it's me. What happened to you? Why are you like this? And how is it that you can transform?
BRAYAN SPECTRUM: OH yes, sorry, sorry (spins in place). Yes, this place is true hell, I have remained for quite a few years in this place (holds his head). You see, let me tell you everything. Do you remember when your wife came to visit you?
DANTE HERALDI: Yes, of course, that was the last day I saw all of you, well, except for Alex, who left with me to try to reach power.
BRAYAN SPECTRUM: (Scratches his neck) Yes, exactly, that one. The following day we had a special operation; we were hired as mercenaries for a war in Africa to overthrow a corrupt government.
DANTE HERALDI: (gets sad) Yes, I know, that day you and Norby died.
BRAYAN SPECTRUM: YES! Exactly, yes… yes (looking down), Norby and I passed away. Well, the important thing is that we arrived at this place, not exactly right here, but at a land of despair where we were tortured for years and then centuries, I no longer remember. The important thing is that we managed to break free, and wandering through this place, we met a person from Mexico who told us he knew this thing called Mictlan. Well, you know I'm from Argentina and Norby was from Peru, and we didn't know the mythology (remains silent for a few seconds)… Well, where was I? Oh, yes, you see, over time we made it to this place; along with our new companion we crossed this hell to reach peace, but (starts to cry) upon arriving at this place, for some reason we couldn't leave. I've been trapped for over a thousand years here alone.
DANTE HERALDI: Wait, what do you mean alone? Where is your friend? And most importantly, where is Norby?
BRAYAN SPECTRUM: (crying) Norby… died years ago; some creatures ate him, some floating heads. He called them "UMA"; they are creatures from his native land.
DANTE HERALDI: And your friend?
BRAYAN SPECTRUM: (sad) He died too, a gigantic bat killed him; (scared) that thing rules these lands… he called it "CAMAZOTZ".
DANTE HERALDI: Umm, how have you survived all this time, my friend?
BRAYAN SPECTRUM: (looks down at his feet) Hey, should I tell them what we experienced? What do you say?
REX and DANTE look at BRAYAN strangely, as he has started talking to himself.
REX: Hey, are you okay? Who are you talking to?
BRAYAN SPECTRUM: (embarrassed) Sorry, it's just that you can't see him, it's my friend, a little animal, I think he's invisible to you guys; he gave me courage all this time, hehehe.
DANTE HERALDI: (incredulous and sarcastic) Yeeeah, right. Well, how did you survive?
BRAYAN SPECTRUM: (looking down at his feet) Ah, well, nothing special. The friend I told you about, the Mexican guy, talked to me a lot about his culture, just like Norby, so that's why I know all the monsters here and also why I transform, since my friend told me about nahuales, people who transform into beasts. Even though I didn't get to know him for long, I feel sad that he's not with me; he was very talkative. (Gets sad) Same with Norby, he also used to talk to me a lot.
DANTE HERALDI: I'm glad you have knowledge of this place; it's starting to scare me. Could you guide us to the exit? Also, this place, do you know anything about it? It's an Inca town, right?
BRAYAN SPECTRUM: Exit! (Trembling) No, friend, it would be better if we stay here; the exit is controlled by that huge bat and you don't want to fight that thing (throws himself to the ground and trembles).
REX: Hey, Dante, your friend is a little sick in the head, right?
DANTE HERALDI: I don't blame him; more than a thousand years in this place is bound to affect his brain. Oh, that's right. Hey, Brayan, before arriving here, didn't you find a town before this place?
BRAYAN SPECTRUM: A town? No, the other place was immense, but we never saw a town; plenty of paths, and we took one of them that quickly led us to the exit and we arrived at this place.
DANTE HERALDI: Umm, (in his mind) it seems that bastard Tezcatlipoca was pulling the strings in that place to feed more meat to the other god. To what end are they doing all this?
REX: Dante, we have to move; those women are coming again, I can smell them.
BRAYAN SPECTRUM: Yeah, I smell them too, quick, this way.
BRAYAN transforms back into a beast and runs off; our friends chase after him and venture deeper into the mist-covered town. Now we head to where MALEKIN and QUETZALCOATL are, who are slowly entering the forest.
MALEKIN: Hey, Quetzalcoatl, look, deep in the background you can see a stone town, and if my eyes don't deceive me, there's a huge pyramid further back.
QUETZALCOATL: Yes, I see it. To think this place is so powerful that it amplifies fears, even those of a god like me; something tells me Mictlantekuti isn't the only one involved in this.
MALEKIN: Yeah, I think so too, there's a lot of power behind this. Umm, look ahead, what a bizarre thing coming toward us.
In front of our friends, about 20 meters away, a tall, somewhat thin being wearing a hood that covered its face, in its right hand a machete and in its left a gallon jug made of clay; this being approached our friends slowly, moving its head in a very strange manner. It seemed to be trembling, repeating the word "grease" in a very disturbing voice.
MALEKIN: Who is this being? It gives me a bit of unease.
QUETZALCOATL: In my life I have never seen these beings.
Out of nowhere, a person bursts out of the undergrowth to the right of our friends, running frantically and sweating with torn clothes, and after advancing a few meters without realizing it, bumps into Quetzalcoatl, who catches him. The young man, seeing the goddess, introduces himself as Jorge, relieved to see such a beautiful woman, but gets frightened upon seeing MALEKIN without his bandana. They try to calm him down, because our new friend was terrified.
MALEKIN: (Puts on his bandana.) Hey, calm down, I'm not a threat.
JORGE: (trembling) Not everything in this place is a threat.
QUETZALCOATL: Umm, Jorge, right? Calm down, we both came to this place too. How did you get here?
JORGE: (Frightened) I traveled the entire path of Mictlan. I'm a historian and archaeologist—to put it simply, I deserve hell, but I didn't know everything would be jumbled together like this. "I've seen many beings that don't belong to this mythology, and..." (He notices the creature that was approaching our friends; it is now just 15 meters away.) "Not that thing—why is *it* here, too?"
Our friend falls to the ground sitting, while MALEKIN and QUETZALCOATL look at him; he is terrified.
QUETZALCOATL: Do you know who it is?
JORGE: (trembling) That thing is known as "the Pishtaco". Noooo! Just a moment ago I was escaping from something similar and now I bump into this!
As we see JORGE's teeth chattering as if the temperature were below freezing, we hear a macabre, otherworldly whistle sounding very close and echoing repeatedly through the eerie forest where we are (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, and Si). Upon noticing this whistle, everyone freezes, even the Pishtaco, and JORGE gets even worse.
JORGE: (crying) No, now him too. God, why do you hate me so much? I know I wasn't the best in life, but please, stop this already. AHHH! (Trembles on the ground)
MALEKIN: Hey, who is making that noise? Is it an ally or an enemy?
QUETZALCOATL: I feel a very strong presence approaching; even though that whistle sounds close, it's still far, but it's definitely coming this way.
MALEKIN grabs the man by his clothes, lifting him off the ground, and demands that he calm down.
MALEKIN: Hey, mortal, calm down, we will protect you. We need information about this place, so tell us, who is coming?
JORGE: (calms down a bit, but keeps trembling) You see, it's a legend from South America, a specter known as "El Silbón", and he is very bloodthirsty, just like that thing over there (pointing at the Pishtaco, who was standing still).
After this, silence takes over the place, and then the whistle is heard in the distance, and Quetzalcoatl says: "He's here." Out of the bushes comes a somewhat elongated and hunched-over man with ragged clothes, a straw hat covering his hideous, disfigured face, and carrying a sack of human bones on his back. This being stands in front of our friends; now two supernatural beings were blocking their path, with "El Silbón" standing about 15 meters away, positioning himself on the right side.
MALEKIN: (sweating) That thing with the hat emits an aura that makes my skin crawl.
QUETZALCOATL: (sighs) His murderous intent is so strong that it even scares me a little.
JORGE: (trembling) You guys aren't normal, who are you? I'm completely terrified.
Our friends, without taking their eyes off the entities present, begin to introduce themselves to the human JORGE.
MALEKIN: I am Malekin and I'm a demon, pleasure.
QUETZALCOATL: My name is Quetzalcoatl, pleasure.
JORGE: Wait, Quetzalcoatl? Seriously, the goddess Quetzalcoatl? And you, Malekin, are a demon... what are you doing here?
MALEKIN: Kid, now is not the time for this; those things are already coming.
QUETZALCOATL: (sweating) Damn it, now something else is joining in too.
MALEKIN: Huh?
JORGE: Huh?
Following QUETZALCOATL's words, a bone-chilling woman's scream echoes through the place, and everyone, including the specters, turns their gaze toward the origin of the scream. JORGE, trembling even more and clinging to Quetzalcoatl's legs, manages to utter the word "Sayona", and we see a haggard woman with disheveled hair, wearing a white nightgown with a bloody knife in her right hand, standing on the left side of our friends, about 15 meters away. We see her pale face with irisless white eyes, sharp teeth with holes across her face, and worms crawling out of them; she stares intently at our friends while screaming deafeningly, unnerving MALEKIN and QUETZALCOATL, who are now cornered.
We see that on the right side stands "El Silbón", on the left "La Sayona", and in front of them "El Pishtaco", just 15 meters away, while behind them an enormous rock blocked their path. How will this spectral encounter end? Who will Jorge really turn out to be? Very soon we will find out.