My vision, blurry and heavy, caught sight of a small, fiercely bright dot.
The moment I noticed it, my vision cleared, sharper than ever.
I let my gaze wander over the place I was in.
It was the same bloody battlefield, lifeless and desolate, stretching endlessly.
Not a single sign of life remained, only endless corpses.
Bodies upon bodies piled across the ground.
[Just… what is this?]
The ground was littered with corpses. A massacre, painted in red.
Not just corpses of humans… but also creatures beyond anything I'd ever seen.
Some bodies were the size of a man, others towered like skyscrapers.
All of them sprawled lifeless, organs torn, blood pooling, flesh torn open.
The stench clung to my throat, sickening me, but I couldn't vomit. My stomach was already empty.
Desperately, I looked around, hoping to find at least a small clue on how I could escape this place. Anything.
A way out of this hellish vision.
[Is there... really no way out except to wait for the book to work its magic again?]
I complained silently in my heart.
Frantically, I searched for that faint dot, that spark of brightness in this world of death.
Then, I saw it—a man. Or something resembling a man.
He was breathing. Alive.
He sat atop a mountain of corpses, his katana plunged deep into the body beneath him.
A mist obscured his face, leaving only the tattoo on his arm visible—
[What… was he?]
Our eyes met—or so I felt.
A shiver shot down my spine as he looked directly at me, a silent acknowledgment.
Then he whispered, words laced with menace.
"The clock has started to tick again. The promised time will arrive soon. Be ready."
The moment his words faded, cracks splintered through the air.
Darkness swallowed me whole, pulling me away from the battlefield.
Slowly, the darkness began to lift.
***
-Step... Step...
Footsteps echoed softly in the empty void.
A man walked in the air as though it was solid ground.
"How many years has it been...?"
His voice was gentle, almost serene.
Cracks formed in the space around him, healing with each step.
It was as if the universe itself revered him.
Yet, he paused, as if savoring the emptiness around him.
There was something... a flicker of loneliness in his eyes.
He gazed towards the horizon, where light met shadow.
A stillness settled in his gaze, calm yet endlessly deep.
Cosmic tendrils extended from the void, twisting elegantly through the dark.
Stars scattered, like tears in the fabric of space, as he approached.
Wherever those roots reached, darkness followed, devouring all.
As if existence itself bowed before him.
Was this... the end of everything?
Yet he continued, accepting, not resisting.
A bitter smile crept onto his face.
Perhaps, he had always known.
A senseless pursuit, perhaps.
His journey was long... lonely.
"This is only the beginning of a very long dream."
***
Acceptance.
Not surrender, but the courage to face the inevitable.
It sounds easy to say, but living it...?
How laughable... my entire existence is.
...Ah.
"How could you do this to us?"
A middle-aged man knelt, his body bloody and broken.
His arms were gone, his clothes soaked with blood.
"You'll rot in hell, you... devil."
As if I don't already wish to.
Even in this fire-wrought cathedral, his curses felt like whispers.
Once-grand walls, adorned in mahogany and tapestries, now blazed in infernal flames.
"Why... Why...?" he rasped, his voice weak, almost lost.
Did he think I would answer him?
As if I even knew the answer myself.
***
She looked at me, wanting to speak, yet she held back.
Her face softened, a faint smile forming as she raised her hand to my face.
'You'll be okay.'
Her expression said it all.
As if I wasn't already broken.
Even now, she thought of me.
So... irritating.
Cough—!
Blood spilled from her mouth, staining her silver clothes scarlet.
And still, she smiled.
A strange warmth spread through me, and my lips dried.
Ba... Thump! Ba... Thump!
My heartbeat thudded, heavy and loud.
"Haa… haa…"
My body shivered, breaths growing short.
-Shk… shk…
A familiar itch pricked at my eyes.
It was so strange, this feeling...
-Swish… swish…
I reached up, brushing her hair back gently.
Ah... How strange.
'It's all right,' her smile seemed to say.
Liar.
Who could be "all right" with a sword buried in their heart?
Yet she only smiled, a peculiar, haunting smile.
Somehow, I knew it was a smile of acceptance.
Her hand, trembling, reached out to embrace me.
Her warmth faded, her body growing colder, until only her corpse remained.
She fell limp in my arms, lifeless.
Still, she seemed... so vivid.
And that itch in my eyes became unbearable.
Really, truly, annoying.
So annoying.
I was... tired.
Yes, that must be it.
What other reason could there be?
Yet, my chest felt heavier, tightly bound.
My legs buckled, collapsing beneath me, her body still in my grasp.
Thud—!
A sliver of light brushed against my face.
But my vision blurred, not from the light.
That itch in my eyes finally broke free.
Oh...
Warm trails traced down my cheeks.
Ah—
I was crying.
Even the tears... hadn't dried up entirely, it seemed.