"Are there other people here?" Lynch continued to ask, "I'm looking for the decryptor, or are you the decryptor?"

"People? That definition is quite interesting because it has too many answers. But if you're talking about the decryptor, I prefer to be called the Hound or the Key."

Regardless of whether the other party had hostility, the mage needed to gather enough intelligence from there. For a mage like him, accustomed to analyzing situations and formulating strategies, even with some false information in hand, he could extract what he needed.

"How did you get those names? Hound, Key?" Lynch put on a puzzled and anxious look and said, "I thought the Banaya devil did indeed lead me to the decryptor. It seems that, even in Bator Hell, order doesn't hold absolute power."

"Absolute power? Young man, listen to me." The half-lich now adopted the tone of an elder lecturing his descendants, a scenario that Lynch found somewhat amusing. "Mage, you don't understand the roles of those planes; there's no absolute power or absolute order there—everything is relative! Even in the Mechanical Realm, a world of gears and clockworks, chaos happens. This world is like a riddle, one with no real answer—or countless answers. I can't tell you its secret, but I can help you trace the path of Mr. Truth or open the bedroom door where Lady Truth resides. That's it."

"Reality? Are you talking about 'Everything Returns in Cycles' or 'All Things Come in Threes' (Note: two rules of the Outer Plane)?" Lynch shook his head, "I don't need such guidance, I'm selfish enough to focus only on the present: How can I get out of here?"

"There's actually nothing here but your imagination!" said the half-lich: "Mage, haven't you noticed? Behind you are beautiful natural scenes, and beside me is nothingness. These come from our inner selves! Before you entered this world, the guy who sent you in—Banaya, whatever his name was—would have told you before throwing you in that you could never get out. Isn't that right?"

"Yes, that's exactly what he said." Lynch nodded, and then suddenly lifted his head, a glow of excitement in his eyes: "So, if I believe there's an exit here, then there will be one? That's too easy, isn't it?"

The half-lich stopped floating, completely still before Lynch. Then he suddenly opened his bony jaw and laughed loudly: "Hahaha! Mage, do you really think it's that simple? Convincing yourself is the most difficult thing! Even I can't do it! There are things in the world that you know how to do, but just can't do. It's like trying to lick your elbow with your tongue or run swiftly on water. I'm not stopping you from trying, because watching you fail again and again amuses me! It's been hundreds of years since a smart fool like you came in."

"Are there other people here?" Lynch looked at the half-lich, ignoring his mockery. "Or, Key, are there other intelligent beings here?"

"There were, there once were." The skull slowly quieted down, but it still nodded up and down, looking at the mage before it. "Alright, young man, let me take you to see them..."

Before Lynch could take half a step forward, the previous void suddenly transformed into another scene. It was a valley in the desert, where tall dunes blocked the view further out. Although the mage hadn't entered that space, the constantly shifting and twisting scenery already indicated the heat and dryness there, no wonder the valley lay still with thousands of skeletons. They were in disarray, seeming randomly piled bodies eroded by the wind and sand, now tangled together. The bones were covered in small pits and scratches, surely the work of the fierce winds and sand here.

"This is the result of my old friends." The skull said calmly. "I won't miss them, because I've experienced too much of this. Numbed, hmm... you could put it that way."

"Then how did you survive?" The mage forced himself not to focus on the corpses, to avoid falling into despair. In the Grey Ruins, in the blood-soaked ruins after battles, he had seen such scenes many times. He asked, "Why are you still here?"

"Because I accepted failure; there's no way out!" said the demigod lich, "Young mage, I advise you not to be full of fantasies or think about how to concentrate your mind to convince yourself there's an exit here. It's useless. I've seen tens of thousands of people go mad because of it!"

"I am the hundred thousand and one, decryptor." Lynch lightly patted his chest with his right hand, smiling, "Since the two of us are stuck here and won't be leaving anytime soon, why not keep each other company? At least it can pass the boring time."

"Company?" The lich circled Lynch quickly, then stopped just a few centimeters from Lynch's eyes. "Listen to me, mage, I know just about everything in the world. What do you think I could find interesting?"

"Then do you know when I'll die here, all-knowing decryptor?" Lynch smiled, "How long it will take before I go mad and become a skeleton eroded by wind and sand here?"

"I know." The demigod lich said, "In half a year's time, you'll fall into madness. You won't last longer."

"Alright, we have half a year to interact then." Lynch remained with a confident smile, "Since we have such a long time to use, why not get to know each other better? Maybe you know everything about me, maybe you don't. But you've been around for thousands of years, can't you spare just half a year? Does time really mean anything to you here? If you ask me, since you have nothing else to do and have given up so-called hope, why not talk with me?"

"Oh, mage, I now understand why you were thrown into this place." The half-lich let out a chuckle, "The way you speak, like a Desire Demon. Where did you learn it? Really from a Desire Demon? It seems that the Banaya duke must have been fooled by you badly!"

Lynch spread his hands with pressed lips, neither confirming nor denying.

"Alright, young mage, since that's what you think, I'll stay by your side. But don't try to deceive me again." The half-lich said, "I know what you want! You mages are always after knowledge, after power. I have both, and I can keep telling you. But that will only bring you closer to death faster."

Lynch clapped his hands, sat on the grass, his eyes still on the skull floating in mid-air. He didn't seem like a young man abandoned in the corner of the universe, with only half a year before the sands consumed him, but rather like an apprentice sitting in a bright classroom, listening to his kind tutor explaining the mysteries of magic. Lynch had never been so focused as now, knowing his life and death lay within this half-year, perhaps in this "Key's" knowledge repository. Yet his eyes showed no fanaticism, the threat of death and the need for survival made him incredibly calm. Lynch gently said, "Alright, prison mate, you can start now."

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