"Raging wind, your howls doth sway, As visage fades, night turns to day~"
"World in fragments, at my feet it lies, fire, storm, snow, and mist intertwine, they rise~"
"Hail my queen, in shadows cast~"
"Lonely ruler, time's moments passed~"
"Wax and wane, in ebb and flow, Ukiyo's song, eternal echo~"
A soothing melody rang in his ears.
"Who are you?" Kazami called into the sea of white. His eyes darted around the empty, formless landscape, searching for the source of the song. As he panned up, Kazami flinched as he found himself now standing before a cherry blossom tree. The tree stood tall beneath well-kept grass, dappled with sunlight filtered through the blossoms. The dreamer stepped upon a soft pink carpet of petals that floated down from the branches above like little confetti. The air smelled pink, along with many other sensual aromas of cherry, enveloping him in a blanket of warm tranquillity.
The singing continued as if the person the voice belonged to had not heard his call.
"No longer loved, no longer craved~."
"Yet in solitude, strength is paved~."
"Fair moonlight, fill my void eyes~."
"Guide me through these endless skies~."
Amid his slumber, Kazami found himself ensnared in a surreal dream. Blurry faces of two girls emerged from the tree; the one in tears looked like a middle-aged woman dressed in white, while the other was a young girl seething with anger, her form covered by a black dress that clung to her shape. The weeping figure began to sing, the harsh melody weaving through the air, while the enraged girl's eyes bored into him.
"It was you. You were singing?" He asked, trying to get closer to see their faces. Suddenly, Kazami felt a sharp, cold sting as she drove a phantom blade into his gut, and the dream began to bleed crimson. The other figure of the middle-aged woman reacted and tried to reach out her hand towards him before vanishing, as the dreamer found himself calling out to her. '...' Nothing came out, as if the words were trapped in his throat.
Gasping violently, Kazami jolted awake as sweat clung to his skin. The memory of the vivid nightmare was still lingering in his mind as he looked around, unsure whether or not he was still dreaming. He was underground, surrounded by the familiar rocky terrain that he had been in for hours. The flickering glow of a small campfire illuminated the sleeping faces of his friends around him.
"Shit! We overslept," he groaned, rubbing his sore back.
A sense of concern pricked at Kazami's consciousness as he scanned the dreary campsite. Everyone was accounted for, except for one.
"Ukiyo?" He whispered, trying not to wake everyone up.
From behind him, he heard the shifting of clothing. 'Ukiyo?' He thought, turning his head sharply to face the source of the noise. On the other side of the makeshift camp was Emiko, who was deep in the throes of an uneasy slumber, her restless mutterings punctuating the quiet night. A mixture of embarrassment and sympathy washed over him, prompting a rueful shake of his head.
As he scanned the camp once more, he noticed that Tang-Ji was teetering on the edge of her rock. Acting swiftly, Kazami moved silently to intercept her fall, cradling her gently. He eased her back onto the stone surface, ensuring her rest would be undisturbed.
"That was close," he sighed, wiping the sweat off his forehead. 'This is gross; I really need a shower. I hope my real body doesn't smell like absolute shit when I get out,' he thought to himself, scrunching his nose at the thought.
However, amidst the stillness, a familiar soothing melody once again echoed in his ears. He tried to dismiss it as a lingering illusion, a remnant of sleep-deprived delusions. Yet the singing continued, and eventually his curiosity got the better of him. Kazami pushed himself up and cautiously ventured towards the ethereal serenade, drawn to its melancholic strains.
As he made his way to the source of the song, he paced himself along the rocky route that was getting steeper with each step. However, he noticed that the light around him was gradually becoming brighter, as if the mellow singing were quietly driving away all of the darkness.
Not too far ahead of him, he could vaguely hear running water, and not before long, the scene before him shifted once more. The small stream that flowed between the rock formations began to widen, becoming a vast body of water. The reflection of the moon shimmered; its complete, bright form now perfectly mirrored in the water. Above, a crack in the ceiling of the cave opened into a large hole, revealing the night sky—almost a perfect recreation of an artwork Kazami had once seen. It was as if the sky was a black canvas, with specks of white dotted soul here and there around the moon's beautiful shape.
And there, at the water's edge, sat Ukiyo. Her voice carried the weight of the song, the lyrics etching themselves into the very walls of the cavern. There was a mixture of awe and trepidation as he approached her with careful steps, hoping not to disturb the echoes of the harsh tune.
He cleared his throat softly, breaking the spectral serenade. "That song," he began, his voice carrying a hint of wonder. "That's 'Dusk Befall,' isn't it?" The words hung in the air, and the bridge between dreams and surreal reality finally faded away.
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"Ukiyo, what are you doing?" Kazami asked before slowly approaching her.
"What I do is none of your business." She replied coldly, not even bothering to turn to face him.
"That song you were singing... It's 'Dusk Befall,' isn't it? The first soundtrack that was made for this game." Kazami paused, and his brow furrowed. "The lyric version was never released... So where did you get the words from?"
Ukiyo responded with a cold, icy silence. Only the ambience of the night could be heard as the sounds of insects reverberated from the pool of water Ukiyo sat facing and the walls of the cave. Kazami grew more concerned by how secretive Ukiyo was being. "There are only a handful of people who know the lyrics to this song, and most of them are gone. Tell me… Who are you?"
As if the question had piqued her interest, Ukiyo finally turned around to face Kazami, now standing atop the rock where she once sat, the moon's pure, white light casting shadows from her form. "What good is it for you to know?" She answered. "Will you be able to fix everything if you knew?"
Kazami hesitated and thought about her words. But before he could say anything, Ukiyo began to speak again. "I doubt it. If you could, you would have done so already. You and everyone else only care about satisfying their own desires. You say you're doing it for the sake of others, even though you're only acting out of self-interest." She looked down at Kazami and frowned. "Knowing can't change the past; it will only put more burdens on you."
"How can you be so sure? You don't know me," Kazami scoffed.
"I don't need to know the current you to know that you haven't changed one bit." Ukiyo turned back around and looked up to face the crack in the cave's ceiling. The source of the moonlight dimly illuminated the cave.
"What do you mean by that? Have we met before?" Kazami said, puzzled.
Ukiyo hunched her back before sitting down, hugging her legs tightly. "Indeed, we have met before. You are the one who lays dormant in every single one of my nightmares."
"You were the one who was eating my life away, as my flesh slowly rotted while you continued with your unending torture." She shuddered and crossed her arms over herself, as if hiding her body. "Every night would be a different dream—a dream of being choked by your words, a dream of being manipulated to rip at my own flesh, a dream of being used as sexual relief, a dream of being isolated from reality by the rusted bars of a jail cell."
He could sense the real pain in her voice but was in disbelief that he was the source of it. 'What? I've never even considered harming Ukiyo like that. Hell, why would I ever do that in the first place?' Kazami's face was a mixture of confusion and pity. 'Why am I the villain in her dreams? Have I done anything to her to make it that way?' Kazami's mind reeled, trying to process what Ukiyo had just told him.
"That's insane. What you're saying is insane; you're crazy if you think I believed all that," he chuckled hollowly.
"It's scary when people make you question your own sanity, but I realised I'm not insane at all. I was just made to think there was something wrong with me. Even if the other person doesn't know that they're manipulating me, they are." Ukiyo smiled softly for only a second, and it disappeared as quickly as it came.
"Believe whatever you want. In a world that feeds on the minority, may that self-centred belief lead you to the peace that you always had childishly envisioned. I still remembered everything back then. You and that boy spread me open for dolly pink and stuffed me with snow white artificial; the things that you both thought of as 'beauty,' were nothing but a mere child's delusion."
"I always thought of the possibility that you could have had someone else in your heart. 'All that stubborn loyalty is going to get you killed.' That was my mother's warning that I foolishly ignored. However, if that were true, you wouldn't waste your time tormenting a 'cold machine' like me. If you really were thinking about replacing me back then, you could at least have the audacity to kill me thoroughly. But no... you were relentless in your methods." Ukiyo continued
"Every time we've met, you've hurt me without realising. It's as if there was another Kazami. It's silly that, although a lot of my bad thoughts include you, I'm here talking to you. The parallel lines of our lives should never have crossed paths, yet here we are, standing face-to-face with one another. You've probably changed, so it should be okay… but sometimes it's like the 'old' Kazami is still around."
"W-What are you talking about? I… I've never met you before. And I've never done anything of those things you accused me of doing. You're not making sense," Kazami replied, gritting his teeth.
Suddenly, Kazami felt a sharp, numbing pain in his forehead. Kazami held his head as images and memories began to flicker in his mind—images of things he couldn't recall. The images were scarily accurate depictions of Ukiyo's dreams—things he had done yet hadn't at the same time.
Kazami stood, shocked, with his hands still resting at his temples. "There's no way... What the hell did you show me?!" Kazami stuttered. "I never did any of these things!" He yelled with familiarity.
"The current you might not have, but the you from the past did. Every single version of you I've met thus far has always had one similar flaw; your uncontrollable anger and selfishness. You wanted to hold people like possessions, as playthings rather than individuals."
"Shut up! What the hell are you even talking about?! The current me?!" Kazami continued shouting, slowly losing his temper.
Kazami began moving closer to Ukiyo as she continued talking, stepping heavily as he approached.
"Have you ever thought about what happens every time you get mad? Whenever you're mad, someone gets hurt." She said it coldly. "You never really think about the consequences of your actions, do you? Have you ever considered what comes out of your mouth? Your words were like poison knives, not only leaving scars on the surface but also withering people's hearts away." Her words cut deep, like cold steel.
Kazami had had enough and grabbed Ukiyo by the arm, pulling her down from where she was sitting. However, as he did, he accidentally pulled back her sleeve, revealing a scar on her right arm, one that he had not noticed before.
"What… what is this?"
Ukiyo hesitated, a fleeting shadow passing over her expression. Slowly, she pulled her sleeves up, revealing the scar. It was a slender line, a faint reminder of a past wound that had long since healed but left an indelible mark.
"It's from you, Kazami Lynn," she said quietly, her eyes meeting his. "Seven years ago, in that fiery hell, you burned me down along with our dreams."
Kazami's eyes widened in realisation, and the weight of reality came crashing down on his chest. It was identical to one he had given seven years ago. The same scar he gave to the person he loved the most in the world.
"Hoyeon…" he whispered, covering his mouth. The name escaped his lips, a revelation that rewound the years and brought back the forgotten echoes.
A dense stillness wrapped around them, the weight of her words pressing down his conscience. Ukiyo continued, "I can never forget you, Kazami. Your image has been engraved in my memory. Every night, your face haunts my dreams, a constant reminder of my stupidity."
Suddenly, warm liquid began to well up under his eyelids. Kazami attempted to wipe them away and stop the flow of tears, but it was impossible. Tears began to stream down his face as he continued to stare into the eyes of his lost love. "I-I thought you were gone forever... Your illness, I heard all those years ago... Y-you didn't have long left to live. How are you alive?" Kazami stammered through tears. He collapsed to his knees, overwhelmed by the influx of familiar and unfamiliar memories, yet he still clung firmly to Ukiyo's arm. His head ached with a splitting pain, and his eyes continued to run with salty tears.
The space between Kazami and Ukiyo seemed to shrink, the unspoken threads of their shared history pulling tighter with every unsteady breath. Silence filled the void, heavy and electric, as though the past itself had crept up from his shadow, pressing against his head. Kazami's gaze flickered, searching, while Ukiyo's fingers trembled ever so slightly at her side, brushing against her worn hemline as though grounding herself. The moment stretched, unyielding, like a storm building on the horizon, their unacknowledged truths crackling in the charged air.
Her gaze burned as she wrenched Kazami's arm away, the sharp motion breaking his reach. His hand hung there in the empty air, caught mid-motion, the space between them feeling heavier than the silence that followed. The abruptness of her pull felt final, as if she had pucked away his remaining will.
"After that night, I should have died long ago. However, I was given a second chance to once again live out my painful life." Clenching her fist, her expression was boiling with seething turmoil. "Why? Why did I have to live again? After many years, I finally got my answer. It was because of my worth, because my skills are needed by someone else. They didn't want me for me; they wanted me for my talent alone. After my father forced me to become an idol, he began working relentlessly to keep me alive. Eventually, he found the cure to my illness, but it came with a massive cost."
There was a heavy pause as Ukiyo took a deep breath, her gaze locking with Kazami's before uttering the words that would finally answer all of his suspicions about Kyushu.
"The reason my father trapped everyone in the game was so that he could extract all of their lives. This was the only way he could preserve my brain. It was so that it could keep mine from deteriorating. A series of nanites have been implanted into my brain stem, nervous system, and sensory organs. These are the only things that are keeping me alive."
Kazami, still with his hand suspended in the space where contact was denied, listened to her story with a mixture of astonishment and disbelief. The words fell like a bombshell, detonating in the silence between them. Kazami's eyes widened in shock, a cocktail of horror and disbelief swirling in his gaze.
It finally clicked; everything made sense to him now—the reason why Kyushu wanted us to keep us in the game, his motives—it wasn't because he was a maniac that wanted to murder millions, nor was it because of money. But rather, it was her father, Kyushu, the orchestrator of her fate, who forced her into the spotlight, driven by motives far beyond the realms of paternal love.
'Is that really all there was to it? This grand scheme was all for Hoyeon? There is no way I can believe that, or rather, I know someone like him wouldn't do something this extreme without another ulterior motive. Sacrificing millions for one life, huh?' Even Kazami was unsure of whether or not this was the right thing to do.
Kazami remained silent as Ukiyo continued.
"You and that boy, I've had dreams over and over where I relive everything you did to me." Hoyeon shuddered. "I've had multiple dreams where I was forced to kill my best friend, and some where I was assaulted. In the dreams that I had recently, I died because it was the end of the world, and in another dream, I was stuck in a time loop, trying hopelessly to save the people I loved from dying."
"Long ago, there was a picture I drew. The drawing has the words 'far off dream…' 'Ukiyo,' the floating world. I drew it with our dream in mind. It seems wholesome at first glance, but soon after, I took it differently. The cabin and lake being on its own island all alone, and me, the girl, isolated all alone. So far away from Earth... That's how you made me feel, and where I felt I'd be forever. Isolated."
"I see you still kept the same name I made for you long ago. The name Kirizkuuk means cut through. I always thought that you were a knight in shining armour that was able to cut through my darkness and protect me. It's ironic how, rather than using your blade to protect the weak, you used it to strike them down, severing those who cared for you."
"But, I–I didn't want it to, please… You were the only one I– I'm sorry for everything…" Kazami mumbled incoherently. He tried to speak again. But the only sounds he could wring out from his parched throat were a few haggard breaths. All the words he tried and failed to cry out—'I'm sorry, wait, don't go'—remained trapped in his lungs, swirling around in a toxic haze with all the other things that were left unsaid. His chest burned with the urge to let them all out, but his mind raced too fast to even remember to breathe; he was slowly starting to get lightheaded.
Before the weight of her confession could settle in his mind, there was a sudden voice that cut in between them, sharp and chilling.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here? The poor thing got rejected. You know it's bad to play with your food, Mai-sama~" The voice prickled at Ukiyo's heart like a saccharine charm, as if she were stunk by sewing needles.
Startled by this, Kazami ran a scan ahead of him with his vision skill; however, there was nothing but a vast amount of water.
'Crap, is this a boss field? Did it say Mai-sama? No, it can't be; I made sure before we set up camps if there were any traps to trigger a boss. A mob shouldn't be able to speak, right? It can't be... '
'No, this has to be a person. But how can that be? They're... they're floating?' Upon zooming in closer with his vision skill, Kazami couldn't make out the figure's features yet; however, he noticed that there was a health bar above their head along with a purple cursor. There was also writing written in bold below the purple cursor.
There, hovering above the tranquil surface of the water behind them, was a figure cloaked in a grey colour. It was as if they were suspended in time; their cloaked form slowly as they stepped into the moonlight that came from the hole in the ceiling.
"You two seem to be engaging in quite the intimate conversation," the figure continued. Their voice was melodious yet tinged with a devious edge. "Forgive me for eavesdropping. I couldn't resist the temptation of witnessing such a delicious drama."
Kazami's eyes widened in alarm, his hand instinctively reaching out to summon his Leere, while Ukiyo stood there in stillness, unable to turn around.
Noticing that Ukiyo wore a panicked expression, Kazami knew that whoever this person was, it was bad news for them.
"Who are you?" Kazami demanded, his voice trembling slightly with a mixture of fear and confusion.
The figure chuckled, their laughter akin to the tinkling of wind chimes in a sinister breeze. "Oh, my dear, I am but a humble food connoisseur." The figure took a moment to sniff the air. "Oh my! What is that I smell? Such a delectable aroma is coming from both of you," the figure said snakely."
Shivers went down to Kazami's spine as he could feel all the hair on his body slowly standing up. "Stop playing around; who the hell are you?" Kazami demanded again, now pointing the edge of his elemental blade at the strange man who levitated seamlessly above the water.
"Hehe," the cloaked man laughed. "I am a wanderer of the night drawn to the succulent flavours of human suffering; you may call me Esmeray. The professor wants you back, Ukiyo, and I've been sent to collect you."
At the mention of the name, a sense of bewilderment washed over Ukiyo's face. She began to tremble before slowly turning around to face her nightmare.
"Father wants to see me?"
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A radiant veil was suddenly cast underneath Ukiyo as it quickly wrapped around her body like a snake strangling its prey.
"Ukiyo!?" Kazami called, unable to react to the attack.
In an instant, the veil expanded and inflated around Ukiyo, completely enveloping her in a strange bubble. With a flick of his wrist, Esmeray pulled the bubble towards his palm, catching its almost gummy surface in his hand.
"No!" Ukiyo cried. Let me go, you pig!" Ukiyo began smashing her knuckles against the walls of her prison to no avail.
'Was that a Technique Deployment? They didn't even move an inch. There's no way there's that much of a difference in our speed.' Clenching his teeth, Kazami strengthened his determination to get Ukiyo back.
"I apologise, Mai-sama, but I am simply following orders," Esmeray whispered, shrugging with his free arm. "Don't take it to heart, a maiden such as yourself shouldn't let pain and grudges weigh down your mind. You need to keep your mind clear from worries to maintain that beauty of yours~. We don't want you getting wrinkly now, do we?"
"You creepy bastard! Let her go!" Kazami yelled out, preparing to jump towards the floating man.
Esmeray clicked his tongue and threw a disgusted glare at Kazami. "Silence, worm, you're too noisy." His blood-shot eyes honed straight at Kazami, causing his leg to give out.
'This feeling, what is this feeling?' Kazami thought, feeling the numbness in his legs. He had almost let go of his Leere for a split second, if it weren't for his steel resolve.
"That is fear." Esmeray replied with a smile, as if he read Kazami's mind.
As if her captor had said something amusing, Ukiyo let out a light chuckle. She placed her hand on her face before laughing hysterically without care.
Esmeray raised an eyebrow, seemingly unusually concerned. "Uhm, did I say something you found amusing?" He questioned; however, Ukiyo ignored his remarks and continued to laugh wildly.
Esmeray gritted his teeth, somewhat offended by being ignored as he went completely red, as veins began popping on his head.
"Alright, that's enough... stop laughing…" His sweet tone now changed to a serious one. However, it would fall on deaf's ears as Ukiyo would continue on with her frantic laughs.
Ukiyo's laughter ceased as she began to speak. "You say I'm a maiden who shouldn't let pain and grudges weigh me down? To maintain my beauty? Why should I do that when everything in this world is drowned by the ugliness of people like you."
Esmeray placed a hand over his chest, somehow wounded by her insult.
"What do you know about pain? What do you know about true agony…" Ukiyo bit her lips hard—so hard that red particles began dripping down her chin.
"You're just an injured sheep following the shepherd's orders. Don't speak to me as if I'm an infant; you know nothing about me." Ukiyo gave Esmeray a death glare.
"I don't care what happens to me; I won't let you kill these innocent people. Even if you bring me back to that place you call heaven disguised as hell, I will find a way to escape again." Ukiyo slammed her body against the sphere.
Esmeray stared at the girl, who had so fiercely shouted her dissatisfaction with him and clapped his hands. "Well done, young mistress. Well done, Mai-sama~" he congratulated. "You truly are growing into a fine, strong woman... Anyway, I've got a job to do, so if you'd please remain quiet while I take you back to the Professor."
Using this moment to his advantage, Kazami had taken a fighting stance, 'At a distance as far as this, approximately 45 degrees, the distance travelled from the ground, not accounting for the uneven plain, should be around 20 metres. Wind should be the perfect element for this; as for the blade, a katana should be most efficient.' While Esmeray was distracted, Kazami had already strategically analysed the distance between him and his opponent. This was the unique skill that his Leere grants him—the ability to analyse not only his opponent's but also everything on the battle field.
"Level 1 deployment, amplification technique: Matrix Shift." Kazami's blade began to alter, bending its shape like clay soaked in water. The once long great sword curved its figure backwards, creating an arch in between the metal and the hilt. With the rectangular hand guard transforming into a circular one, his Leere now took the form of a jade-like katana. "Level 6 deployment, rush technique: Vacuum Slash."
An invisible current of wind shot out at high speed. He was sure that he had caught his opponent's off guard, however, what came after had him shook to the core. Esmeray stared down at the incoming attack and swatted it away, as if it were nothing more than a noisy fly.
Kazami's eyes went wide. "No! Thats impossible!!!"
"You call that a skill deployment?" Esmeray let out another cheerful giggle. "Your Leere is a mono offensive type that has the ability to change its shape depending on the user's imagination, correct?"
Kazami's face went pale.
"Such a straightforward Leere, much like its user, single minded incompetent who doesn't understand the situation he's in." Esmeray spoke with a low, mellifluous voice, admiring his fingernails. "However, I do have to admit that it is a very effective weapon, having some weaknesses, including the long internal cooldown of each blade change and the limitation of only allowing the user to conjure blades' that they have seen multiple times." Esmeray looked back at Kazami, who was still reeling.
"I can sense your innate potential and, might I say, it's a pleasure to meet someone with such... delectable potential." Esmeray murmured.
"Bastard, how did you know?" Before Kazami could finish his sentence, he was taken back by the purple cursor hovering above Esmeray's health bar. 'An admin?!'
'Usually, NPCs are adorned with a blue cursor above their heads, while mobs are distinguished by a red hue. Normal players, on the other hand, sport a green cursor, but the rare purple cursor signifies a high status— 'admin status.''
"Now then, onto the matter at hand. Since my only task is to bring Mai-sama back, which I've already done, I will now enjoy some free time here by indulging myself with you as my meal." Esmeray continued, his voice smooth as honey. "I haven't had dinner, you see, so I propose a challenge, if you will. A duel of flavours and finesse, with your friend's freedom hanging in the balance."
Ukiyo knew exactly what Esmeray was up to. "No!" She yelled, her voice echoing in her floating prison. "Run away, get yourself to the second Delve, I will find my way back to you."
Kazami's expression twisted into one of mild disgust at Esmeray's continued use of food analogies. "Cut the sweet talk. You're proposing a duel, right? I see, so that's how it is." Kazami looked down, ignoring Ukiyo's warning as he let out a long sigh.
"Let me get this straight, you want to duel with a mere mortal while you play god? How noble of you!" Kazami scoffed, his voice laced with disdain. What you're saying right now just shows me how much of a coward you are. If you really want a proper duel, why don't you turn off all your admin privileges and come down here to face me? Fight me using your own skills rather than hiding your disgusting self behind a digital wall of commands." He rolled his eyes at Esmeray's lofty proposal.
"Hehe! Do you honestly think the professor would do such a thing to his own masterpiece?" Esmeray shouted, holding out his arms high above his head.
Kazami was confused, not expecting his reaction.
"This world is the professor's life's work, a masterpiece that transcends all reason, revealing truths that stretch far beyond the confines of mere code. In this world, status means nothing; you can be a disabled person, a commoner, or a god like me. Under the sky of Yagami Kyuden, we are all bound by the one thing that no human can escape. The one and only thing that people tried desperately to escape from by entering this game, only to find themselves to be reminded again of their mortal body. Would you like to guess what that is?"
Kazami stood still, with sweat dripping down his forehead, 'The one thing that no human can escape would be...'
"Death." Kazami murmured.
Esmeray gave a smirk, as if satisfied with Kazami's answer, before descending enough to still look down on Kazami from his levitated state.
"You see, even a god like me can be killed; no one is immortal in this world. If you want special privileges, you must earn them with your own strength. You must have known by now that the Leere system is not a normal combat system. Each person possesses their own unique Leere, like the colour of their soul. However, if I were to describe this power, it would be more like a curse than a blessing," he whispered.
"A curse? What are you talking about? This combat system was just a way to gain access to everyone's mind, was it not? How else would you be able to give everyone a distinct weapon from one another? It's impossible to have millions of unique weapons that cater to their fighting style; your end goal is to seize control of everyone's personal life, isn't it?." Kazami asked, but Esmeray stayed silent, still smiling. Kazami grew more frustrated by the silence. "Tell me, you bastard! You people are all sick fucks! You think it's alright to play with people's lives while you sit somewhere safe, watching people get massacred. And…" Kazami began to trail off, as he started to run out of breath.
Despite hearing it from Hoyeon herself, he refused to believe in what she said was true… If he really wanted to kill everyone, then he should have done it with a single command. Why even give players the opportunity to fight back? He had a feeling that there was more to Kyushu's plan than just to save his daughter's life.
Esmeray chuckled, ignoring the boy's demands, "Tell me, boy, do you know what it means to be hungry?"
"Hungry? Like wanting food?" Kazami answered with a perplexed expression, not knowing what being hungry had to do with this conversation. For a moment, Esmeray's cheery expression softened, almost as if in disappointment, before going back to his usual demeanour.
"Hrm…" Esmeray clicked his fingers, and in an instant, a blue outline materialised in the air. It twisted and rotated violently before solidifying into the shape of a fork. "Just as I thought, there is no point in justifying my actions; a kid like you would never understand. But let me tell you this—you and many others probably think that Leere are nothing more than mere tools used to monitor and extract your private information. To be honest, we couldn't care less about any of your worthless lives. If you think that is our true motive, then you are dumber than you look."
Esmeray played with the translucent fork as if performing a magic show, as he spun the cutlery smoothly between his fingers. "The Leere is no ordinary combat system. You must have felt something odd about your Leere at some point. It reaches out to you in your dreams, deep within the depths of your heart."
Esmeray held up the glowing blue fork, its eerie light casting ominous shadows across his face. "The Leere is far more than your tiny brain can comprehend." With a swift motion, he pointed the fork towards Kazami, its sharp prongs gleaming menacingly.
Kazami flinched, fully expecting an attack. 'What is he doing? Is that fork his Leere?'
Esmeray closed his eyes. "Right now, I can see it clearly—the colour of the void within your soul." Esmeray flicked the fork back into his palm, revealing a strange black-and-white ball of energy pulsating in the air. Even at this distance, Kazami could see the faint glow.
Esmeray pondered the orb, admiring its energy curiously. Slowly, Esmeray brought the ball to his lip before consuming its energy. "Mmm..." he sighed in satisfaction, licking his lips as if he were savouring its flavour.
"Wait! What did you just do? What did you do to me?"
"It's my own unique ability, you see. I have the ability to fully analyse someone else's Leere by tasting it. Much like food, all humans have a distinct taste to them, and as a connoisseur, I must try all the delicious cuisine out there." Esmeray chuckled softly.
Kazami stood with a grim look in his eyes. 'Analysis? He's got similar powers to me then….' Kazami's mind was torn, should he focus on the adversary who stood before him, or should he make sense of the Leere's true nature?
He looked past Esmeray at Ukiyo, seeing her pained, worried expression. Despite the pain and strife he had caused her, she had still come this far with Kazami, and even cared enough to sacrifice her freedom for his safety. Kazami looked back towards Esmeray and grit his teeth. "I accept the duel; if I win, you let Ukiyo go and…" Kazami paused, as if his words struggled to escape his lips.
"And?" Esmeray replied, raising an eyebrow.
"And you will tell me how to get out of this game. Now tell me your conditions," He steeled his resolve
"Sure, I'll gladly tell you how to escape this place. That is, of course, if you're able to make me kneel before you," he said sarcastically. "As for a condition, my dear... How about this—a fight to death. We will feast on each other's corpses until there are nothing but bones and ashes left." Esmeray licked his lips in anticipation.