"There will be water!" That was a phrase I've been shouting into the hot desert air for at least the last hour. But no matter how much I tried, it seemed that my divine creativity was just refusing to work that time. I still didn't understand anything about it. The anger I felt towards Jack made it manifest, so why couldn't I do the same thing when slowly getting cooked under the hot desert Sun? My regrets were slowly crawling on my back. I departed on the journey full of confidence, but it was so misplaced. I had no water, no food, no supplies. It was foolish. So incredibly foolish.

As it turned out, Jack's factory was much further away than I originally thought. That kind of threw a wrench into my plans. Who the hell would build something in the middle of nowhere? And how the hell did he find the water anyway? I didn't need an answer to that. Inside, I already knew it - the divine creativity. How the heck did he manage to learn its secrets so quickly? Well, there was no point in guessing. One tiny part of my mind wanted to ask him if he could teach me, but I quickly dismissed that thought. He might've been quite generous when it came to sharing his finances with me, but this was different. I would quite literally be asking him to make me stronger so that I can defeat him and his master. No sane person would ever agree to do that.

I kept walking through the desert just for a little while longer. It's been almost two hours since I left. I tried counting how many miles I'd walked already, but there was no way to tell that correctly. The sand of the desert was soft, and my feet were digging into it with every step, which most likely made the entire trip a lot longer. Finally, I made it to the top of one of the dunes and saw my goal right in front of my eyes. It looked more like a giant machine, rather than a factory. Maybe my sight wasn't perfect after the long time spent in the heat, but I would swear it was all made of nothing but metal. I smiled. It was finally here, the gem was somewhere inside there, waiting for me to take it. Back then, I didn't really bother about a plan on infiltrating the place. I just thought that I'm going to "imagine" my way inside. And so, I did. I closed my eyes and imagined myself being already there, standing in a room I have never seen before, looking at a gem I didn't even know was actually there. Then, as I took the next step, my leg slipped on the sand and sent my whole body tumbling down the dune along with it. I kept my eyes closed but not my mouth. If any of you are wondering what desert tastes like, then let me tell you, it's dry and disgusting.

I kept waiting and waiting until I would stop moving, but for some reason, it seemed like the hill was endless. My body was spinning around for so long now, that it was starting to make me feel sick. I wished for it to end. How far down could the thing go? And then, I finally hit the bottom. Although, it wasn't what I expected. Instead of soft and burning hot sand, I landed on a hard and cold metal surface. I finally opened my eyes and let out a painful moan. Then, as soon as I saw the ceiling still spinning, my stomach turned upside down. I don't remember ever standing up so fast as I did back then. I looked at an open barrel standing in the corner of the room, ran towards it, and threw up. This trip down felt like the worst rollercoaster ride in my life. Fortunately, I quickly felt better again. Then a realization finally came. This wasn't a desert anymore. I turned around and took a good look at the place where I suddenly found myself. It was a room that was literally made of metal, just like the factory. There were crates and barrels standing near the walls. Half of the place was buried underneath the sand. It seemed that the ceiling collapsed and made way for the desert to flood this place. I looked up at the sky. The pile of sand was going high up above the surface and onto the top of the dune where I previously stood. It was like a sand slide into a secret hideout. How come I didn't notice it before? Or... was it even here back then? Did my power make this entrance appear? I did wish for a safe way inside, so it would make sense. But no matter how I got here, the path forward wasn't easy. There seemed to be only one corridor leading further into the complex, and it lacked any sort of light source. If I went in there, the Darkness would quickly kill me. But getting out of here the way I came was impossible as well. The hill was steep and every time I tried to gain a stable footing on it, the sand just carried me back down. But that didn't mean all was lost. I still knew that if I sing to the Darkness monsters, they would go to sleep and grant me a way forward, that wasn't the only issue though. There was no guarantee that this way would lead me into the factory and navigating in the pitch-black room would be almost impossible. Not to mention that if I accidentally stepped on one of the monsters and woke it up, I would be dead in a matter of seconds and no amount of singling would change that. But there was nothing to gain from standing around and overthinking.

And so, I started with "Twinkle twinkle little star," which was the only lullaby my memory could recall out of the blue like that. I hesitantly stepped into the corridor and made sure to stay close to the wall and keep my hand on it at all times. That way, I would always find corners and manage to get around just fine. As the light slowly faded my heart rate spiked up. But even though my voice was cracking with the fear, I kept pushing forward. I could hear snoring around me, along with breath that sometimes found its way to the back of my neck. I tried to ignore that and focused on my goal. It was difficult to silence all the negative thoughts. With no real object to focus on, my mind started to overflow with ideas about how I could die here. Panic was setting down on me and I could feel my hands shaking. Usually, in situations like this, I would talk to myself, which helps a lot, but I couldn't stop singing for one moment. When I was done with the lullaby, I started again. It was a never-ending cycle. I kept my feet close to the ground and shuffled them very slowly. From time to time, I could feel something brushing against my leg. It always sent shivers down my spine but didn't make me stop going. I took a few turns, but the light was still nowhere to be found. Was this Jack's plan? Did he turn off the lights on purpose? Was his intention to trap me here all along? I kept trying to imagine a lightbulb turning on, while still singing for the monsters. A few times, I could feel them touching me, only to fall asleep in the next second. Their touch was cold and itchy. It was like being touched by Death itself. Well, not really. White's touch was far more pleasant. If I'm not counting that creepy ability, she used to melt Marley away.

I don't know how long I've been there. The silence of the room quickly got filled with the catastrophic voice in my head and in the darkness, my mind painted fifty shades of my unavoidable demise. But then, I discovered hope, I found something that felt like stairs, and they were going up. After so long, I finally had at least some positive thoughts.

*Maybe this way leads to the surface and towards the light.

And so, I followed them, hoping that they lead to the actual factory, and not just into more danger. There were so many creatures over there. I could hear their bodies sliding down the stairs. Fortunately, they didn't wake up. A few times, I tripped and fell onto the metal floor. I could hear how at the moment I stopped singing, no matter how short it was, the monsters let out a faint growl. But there was no stopping me. I kept going. My breath was running out, I must've walked at least five stories. My legs were all bruised from the falling and the combination of fear and fatigue made them slowly turn into a wobbly jelly. I started thinking that I won't even make it up there alive. My throat hurt from all the repetitions of the lullaby. I haven't stopped talking for something over an hour. I wanted to cry. This was nothing like I thought it would be. This horror of death constantly floating around was taking its toll on my mental health.

And then I saw it. My own hand. I could see it again. Within a second, my eyes flew upwards. There was light shining there. It was very weak, but even that would be enough to save me from the monsters.

I kept going for another ten minutes. Walking up the stairs almost completely blind, hurting, tired, and afraid was not the easiest task. But eventually, I made it. There were doors at the very top. Through the glass panel inside them, I could see the rest of the facility. It was lit up. I was so happy I completely forgot that I don't have to sing anymore. The monsters and their snoring continued to echo throughout the room, but at least it was distant now.

I quickly grabbed the handle and opened the door. Fortunately, they weren't locked. As soon as I was there, I disappeared into the closest room, after making sure nobody was inside. Each door had a lock on them, which I immediately used to make sure nobody would be able to follow me in here. Then, I could no longer keep myself together. The weight of life-threatening danger and Darkness finally fell off my chest and gave room for other emotions to spew out. I leaned against the wall, slid down along it onto the ground, and curled up into a ball. Tears started flowing down my face, but I managed to reduce my cries to mere sobbing, not to alert anyone to my presence.

*You're no hero Eddie!

*Look at yourself!

*Where is your pride now?

*Pathetic!

I couldn't object to that. I was no hero. Heroes keep going and no matter what goes wrong, they find a way to either get what they want or die trying. But I couldn't. Real heroes would never cry like this. Not in the middle of an enemy base. I stayed there for a long while. "If someone finds me, let them kill me. I don't care," I mumbled to myself. The dehydration from the desert was already pretty rough and so I quickly ran out of tears to cry. And while that was a cowardly position I found myself in, it did help me to clear my head a bit more.

Once again, I got up from the cold ground. There was a window in the room, but it didn't lead outside. Instead, it seemed to overlook the entire facility. I slowly walked up to it and looked at the machines below me. They seemed to be pumping water all over the place, but that wasn't what I cared about at that moment. Right there, in the middle of all that mechanical ruckus, was the gem. It was sitting in some sort of a device. Judging by all the cables and pipes running out of it, it was being used as a coolant of some sort. That was a wise idea. Not only was the biggest weakness of Ifrit safely secured inside this place, but it was also being used to provide fresh and cold water to Sunwalley, a place with a significant water crisis. I stood there, looking at the machines. By messing with them, I would throw the city back into the old days, when water carried at least a ten percent chance that you'd get some kind of disease when drinking it. But I had no choice. I clenched my fist and promised myself, that when I finally take down Ifrit, I will write a better story for Sunwalley. They will no longer have to live such bad lives. With that thought, I stepped outside the room and onto the railing above the machines. It was time to finish what I started.