"Little one, congratulations on surviving the rift."

A low voice echoed in the darkness and a small figure of a doll appeared in front of her. Dola gritted her teeth hearing the voice's tone of speaking: amused, pleased.

"Who are you..? What have you done?" She asked as she stood up in the middle of the darkness.

"Mn? Are you blaming me, little one?" The doll whom appeared in front of her stood up. "Isnt this your fault in the first place?"

Dola froze. The Doll's lips twitched into an evil smile and emerged into a bigger doll and approached Dola smugly.

"You're the one who told them to go with you and finish the rift, didn't you?"

"What fuckery are you talking about?" Dola rebuked, her voice faintly shaking.

"Mn, sure, Dola my little one. Isn't your bestfriend reluctant about joining you to raid this cliff as you entered here? Didn't your beloved younger brother told you to not continue on raiding this rift for everyone's sake?" The doll said once again, smug.

Earning a hiss from the hunter, he emitted an amused laugh once again. "You killed them, Dola. Your greediness killed them."

"No! It's certainly not!" Dola screamed, in denial of the doll's fact.

The Doll could only laugh in the background as Dola desperately covered her ears and cowardly convinced herself that it wasnt her fault.

She knew. Dola knew. And for once, she didn't bought herself to believe it. Cowardly telling herself stuff that might comfort her.

The Doll continued to say things that made her insanity disappear one by one. Not long after, Dola started to lose her mind and screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop!!"

"No, I wont. There's no way I would! You greedy little fuck. They've told you! They've told you for how many times was it already!" The Doll shouted back as his smile widens. The doll continued to speak, not giving any chances for Dola to breathe. "Oh, I know! Wasn't it because of that bet you made with the Leader from the Lotus guild? AHAHAHA! PATHETIC!"

Dola screamed, her voice getting hoarse. Before she knew it, a rough hand blocked her lips and her body was lifted from the dirty cold soil. The hand was gripping her jaw harshly, the only thing that was held in order to lift her up. She struggled to break free, but unfortunately she can't. She can no longer move, her body limp. She had finally become silent.

"Listen, Dola." The Doll spoke, gripping her jaw harder with the doll's merged human hand attached on the soft cotton doll arm. "Do you want to live, or to die?"

Dola stayed silent for a few minutes.

"....ie.." She muttered.

The doll smirked. "What was it, my child?"

"I want to... die.." She muttered once again, life no longer visible in her eyes. She had lost everything, her brother, her bestfriend, her first love.

"Mn. Do you want to die because you feel guilty that you bought them here?" Dola pursed her lips altogether and clenched her fists.

"I knew it." The Doll laughed sarcastically and immediately lets go of Dola's jaw causing her to terribly drop on the ground. The Doll then excitedly flicked his human fingers and an ancient scroll appeared before Dola's eyes.

The Doll crouched, its doll like body had been finally merged into a human one. Complete sets of arm, fingers, but there's no face. Only a pair of big brown button sewed as its eye, and a slit below the buttons as its mouth.

"Then, if you'll sign the contract, you'll die here and their smashed bodies will regenerate. Although the world will forget you, forget your achievements, everything."

".....is it true?" Dola asked as her eyes looked at the doll, a small fire of hope started to kindle on her weak eyes.

"Of course!" Said the doll casually with a hint of smugness and excitement in his tone.

Without any second thoughts, Dola desperately clung into the doll's arms after it emerges into a doll once again. "Please..! Let them live and let me repay my sins! I...I want them to live!"

"Repay for your sins, you say?" Then, the doll softly cradled Dola on its slender arms and grabbed Dola's hand. The doll bought the hand near his mouth and—

"Ah!"

The blood trickled from her fingers with a huge mark of teeth that sunk from her skin earlier. The doll leisurely grazed her bloody hand on the ancient scroll and soon laughed obnoxiously.

"You need to find the end of the loop in order to stop. But you need to suffer because of what you've done."

Dola couldn't comprehend his words anymore. She was no longer conscious when the doll finished grazing her bloodied hands against the surface of the paper.