The Fifth Step to Darkness is entitled The Scales of Being and is a solo by the main author of the entire series in three parts
Howard Phillips Lovecraft, virtually unread during his lifetime due to his own impenetrability, but later one of the most influential writers in the horror genre thanks to his friends and devoted fans, explores the clash of two worlds - reality and "beyond reality". Behind the Wall of Sleep is a 1919 short story based on the then-innovative idea of using psychology to explain problems in the real world. By the way - the song of the same name (Behind the Wall of Sleep) appeared on Black Sabbath's debut album and was inspired by this story. The second in the series is From the Unknown World from 1920 (published in 1934). It plays on the theme of a mad scientist trying to look beyond reality - it has inspired several films and songs by death metal bands (one of its elements even appears in the popular computer game Half-Life). The final short story of the trilogy is The Transfiguration of Juan Romero from 1919 (written, of course, only for a very small circle of friends and published after the author's death), in which a mysterious evil plays the main role - one can even guess at a connection with a sacrificial ritual from the mention of the Mexican deity Huitzilopochtli. All three stories are read in an inimitable way by Petr Šmíd.
