The sound was deafening. tick. All over the walls, tock, thousands of clocks, tick, were striking in unison. tock. Through the metal grate, tick, forming the floor, tock, thousands more could be seen. tick. The walls reached so high, tock, that the narrow corridors, tick, seemed to have no ceiling, tock, the unending rows of clocks, tick, loosing themselves, tock, in a regular, repeating, always ticking, tick, mechanical heaven. tock. Below, unending rows of clocks, tick, constructed a striking, tock, depiction of a clowkwork, tick, inferno, one that was, tock, always ticking, silent a second, tick, deafening a split. tock.
Melissa was standing, tick, taking all of that, tock, in. Jhin was beside, tick, her, similarly dumbfounded. tock.
Slowly they etched, tick, their way through the, tock, metallic halls, the, tick, rhythm of their steps, tock, dictated by the, tick, ticking and tocking, tock, of the unnumerable, tick, time counting apparatusses. tock.
Perhaps the hell depicted, tick, underneath was extending, tock, above them, and, tick, what they thought was, tock, the realm of the living, tick, that separated the, tock, celestial realm from, tick, the depth of hell, tock, had all along been, tick, the land of the dead. tock. Perhaps they had never, tick, been alive, or perhaps, tock, their bodies had cooled, tick, to a freezing, tock, temperature like a, tick, long immobile corpse.
But they didn't have time to think about this. They had something to do, they had places to go, and none of these were here. This was their drive. For this floor, one who simply wandered with no goal in mind would become broken.
They advanced. Trudging through the ticks and tocks, like one would trudge through a sandstorm. Wether they wanted it or not, even the beat of their hearts and the rhythm of their breathing had synchronized itself with the surrounding clamor.
Around them, similarly to the floor above, countless body were strewn about. Some lay on the floor, others were hung on hooks next to clocks, but all of them were mechanical. None was complete, either. All of them were spewing gears and mechanical parts through their incomplete sections, like guts.