It was then that the world shattered completely.
And without moving a single muscle… my true power awakened.
It felt as though it had been waiting for the moment I finally believed in myself—granting me the key I had needed all along.
The same key that proved to the
In that instant, an invisible timer began ticking between both sides.
Seconds became my new reality.I saw more than a thousand versions of myself, each with a different ending.
But this time, all my previous deaths opened the path toward the best outcome among a thousand shadows.
"…Today, I'll create a new ending."
Before me, the snowflakes drifted weightlessly while the shadows stood motionless.
The bandages tightened around my arms.
The message echoed again from the silent horizon.
The five shadows advanced at once, giving me no chance to escape.
My body trembled slightly, but I didn't step back.
After six years of dying, I had understood something simple:
If I didn't win today, I would never leave this place.
The spear cut through the air first.
I leaned to one side, feeling the edge grazing past my heart.
I answered with a slash that split the shadow instantly.
The heavy sword came next, dropping fast to cleave me in half.
But I blocked the impact with my left arm, and my right blade cut through its torso without hesitation.
There was no blood, no scream.
Only two red lilies blooming over the snow.
Even so, I didn't stop, though fatigue gnawed at me from within.
My left blade severed the scythe in two before the chains attempted to rip off my arm.
But I had already sliced through their grip with my right sword before they reached me.
A clean stroke tore through its silhouette, and the shadow dissolved into another red lily.
Only one shadow remained.
The first one I had ever defeated in this world.
The one that bore my face, my height—the one that never stopped imitating me.
Its blades crashed against mine, reflecting every stance and every breath.
It was like staring at a mirror that refused to break.
My bandages reacted at their limit, tightening with a surge that burned my arms.
"I'm stronger than you."
I leaped to the side and hurled my left sword with all my strength.
The bandage guided it precisely, carving a cut across the shadow's back.
The blade snapped back into my hand with a tug, sealing its escape.
I was ready to finish this.
I inhaled deeply and charged forward with both swords raised—
But the shadow screamed.
"GYAAAGHH!"
A sonic pulse blasted me backward.I covered my head, feeling the air splinter around me.
Then the shadow's body burst open from within.
Mist surged out of its insides, spreading until it engulfed the world.
More than a hundred eyes appeared in the darkness, forming a vast circle that followed my every move.
It wasn't trying to kill me quickly—it wanted to devour my will.
I froze, gripping my blades as I lowered my head.
"Why…?! Why…?!"
I took one step back, but there was no escape.
Instead, a swarm of tentacles rose all around me.
"If you want to kill me… then do it!"
In a blink, they lunged toward me, swallowing the space around me.
"I'm tired of your trials!"
There was no room, no time.
No human could dodge this.
Voices from the void crawled inside my head like shards of ice.
It was too much.
"Why can't I do it…?"
Next time… yes… the next time…
Always the same thought.
The next time…
I just had to die once more.
Then… my body would reset again, dragging me back to my room.
But I wanted to prove I could win.
I wanted a way to survive without losing another life.
A way to earn a happy one…
…Is such a thing even possible?
Today, however, something felt different.
I didn't know if it was a hallucination, but Minoru's words echoed in my mind:
"Come on, have you ever given up over something this simple?"
"It's not simple, you idiot…"
For some reason, I let out a small laugh.
"Thanks for that."
My brother was right.
Something felt different in this void.
"I was exhausted…"
"But even though this is the same scene as always… I can move."
"This alone is enough!"
I had to surpass my limits.
I was ready to endure anything.
"Come at me!"
The first shadowy tentacle slammed into my side, throwing me against the invisible floor.
"Is that all you've got?!"
As I shouted, the air filled with more tentacles.
"You don't know what it feels like to be devoured over a thousand times!"
"You don't know how much I wanted to move!"
Between my words and the approaching tentacles, I noticed a glimmer.
The hundreds of floating eyes opened and closed in perfect rhythm.
The eyes… they're controlling every strike.
While thinking that, I tightened my grip on my swords.
My fingers burned beneath the bandages, but I didn't care.
I clenched my jaw, took a deep breath, and charged toward the first eye.
If you're the real target—
"I'll cut you down until nothing remains!"
And with my strength on the verge of collapsing, I sliced through its core.
It burst into crimson mist, and one of the tentacles halted before reaching me.
"Die…!"
My body moved on instinct.
I jumped left, rolled between four tentacles, and lifted one of my curved blades in a sweeping slash.
They all exploded into red lilies.
Too many to count—enough to carve a path through the darkness.
The remaining eyes kept guiding the tentacles, but I leaped over them.
A whole ring of eyes split apart as I descended with my blade.
Thirty… sixty… ninety…
They became hundreds of cuts—like inverted constellations.
"I won't stop! Not until all of you disappear!"
I jumped onto a mound of solid shadow and from there delivered a downward slash.
For the first time, the darkness began to retreat.
I used the tentacles' momentum—turning them into bridges as I charged forward.
The last rows erupted in a flash that swept across the sky.
Only one remained.
Up above—the final eye.
The largest of them all, perched on top of the knotted mass of tentacles.
Its red core contracted when it saw me, commanding the others immediately.
The first aimed for my throat; the second, my waist; the third, my heart.
"Not this time!"
I lunged to the right, and the first tentacle missed my neck by a centimeter.
Another plunged down, shattering a chunk of the abyss.
Then I let out a cry and threw my left sword.
The blade spun, slicing a small cut across the master eye.
Another ten tentacles erupted in response.
But I had been waiting for that.
I slipped past the first, left the second behind me, twisted my body, and wove through the rest—ending up face-to-face with the master eye.
Its edge tightened, as if holding back its rage.
"This is for every time I died…!"
I lifted both swords as my breath trembled.
The eye opened its core wide, trying to summon more tentacles—but none answered.
My blades were a mere centimeter away.
"Disappear!"
With a scream, I slashed in an X-shaped strike.
The blade tore through its center, imploding into a million lilies.
A cerulean aura burst out of me.
The tentacles disintegrated, and the darkness crumbled like a shattered mirror.
Fragments rained into the void, and a starry sky emerged beyond the horizon.
My body had reached its limit, so I let go.
I fell as the world tore apart with me.I dropped my swords as silence embraced us both.
"Is it… over?"
I murmured as gravity pulled me down.
"Really…?"
There was no certainty.
Through half-closed eyes, I watched the lilies fall with me—dozens, hundreds, thousands…
And then… everything stopped.
The darkness that tormented me faded bit by bit.
My breath was unsteady, yet for the first time, I saw it clearly.
Beyond the gears… was the true sky.
It shone over me as though the entire universe was watching me fall.
And then… I heard a woman's voice—warm in a way I hadn't felt in years.
"Even as a fragment… you kept your promise."
I opened my eyes slightly, barely conscious, and saw a figure in the distance.
"A… promise…?"
I whispered, confused.I didn't know who she was, yet a strange nostalgia washed over me.
One question echoed in the back of my mind:
"Who… are you…?"
I received no answer, but it didn't matter.I was tired… so tired…
So I stopped thinking and simply closed my eyes.
For a moment, for hours, for days, for months—for however long eternity allowed.
Until I awoke again.
I found myself lying on a snow-covered path that led to a wooden bridge.
Around me, thousands of lilies waved gently across the frozen field.
A winter forest and a vast lake surrounded me.
There were no wounds, no gears in the sky.
I blinked slowly.
"Where… am I?"
I pushed myself up, though my body didn't ache.
In fact, it felt as though I had slept for days.
I looked toward the endless horizon.I searched for the presence that always appeared when the shadows awakened—my faceless enemy, the cause of everything.
"So… is this the end…?"
But silence remained, just like my uncertainty.
For six years, all I had done was fight to survive.
And now that I had succeeded… there was no answer awaiting me.
"If there are no more shadows… if I don't have to fight anymore…"
The question lingered, abandoned by the abyss itself.
Only silence.
The same silence that dragged me through those nights.
The same one that consumed me for so long.
I lowered my head and closed my eyes.
I didn't know how to live without fear—how to rest without tasting death.
I only knew how to survive… nothing more.
But when I opened my eyes again, the world ruptured.
The void surrounded me, but this time it glowed.A warm radiance.
The snowy ground crumbled, and the lilies spiraled into an impossible current.
"Why… is this happening now…?"
As the scene disappeared, I awoke again on the floor of my room.
Everything I had seen...had been nothing but a nightmare.