Darkness came in many forms. Physically, there was the darkness that came with the absence of light, and the darkness that devoured light. But darkness was not limited to just the physical realm. The darkness of Heart was even more terrifying than its physical form. Yet, the most terrifying of all, was the darkness of Death. The blank, empty darkness that existed in the void, devouring anything and everything that drifted in its path… if it even had a path.

  It was so confusing. Did the darkness have a path or not? And if it did, could the place really be called a void? And if it was a void, then what was he doing there? Why was he drifting… in the realm of dead? Was he going to get devoured by the darkness, just like his namesake had? Though that in itself would not be a bad idea. He could final rest—

  No! He was Alnea Oathkeeper. And he still had many Oaths to keep. Many people to protect. He had not even met his master yet. She was waiting for him somewhere in the inner city. And his mother… She still did not know if he was alive or not. There was also big sis Serena. She had asked him to take care of Cecilia before going to fight the Thralls. If she knew that he could not even take care of himself…

  Most important of all, he had not explained himself to Yuri, Cecilia, and Vestia. He had not told any of them what they meant to him. What place they had in his Heart. They might have been able to guess it on their own, but he had never found the right opportunity to tell them himself. Besides, he had yet to help them achieve their wishes, right? To help them fight against their Fate… No, he could not die. He would not die. He—

  “If you are so adamant about not dying, then you should not have trusted that purple robed girl in the first place.”

  As Alnea was struggling with himself, trying to find a way to go back to his world, a familiar voice came from the depths of darkness, spreading to its corners, leaving behind cracks and tremors in its wake, while startling him at the same time.

  “Who?” Alnea said, glancing around himself to find the per—

  “You already know who I am,” the voice said, creating even more cracks in the darkness. “Why are you trying to pretend as if you do not know me?”

  “…Who are you?” Alnea said, trying to subdue the tremor in his voice. “Where is this place? Why have you brought me here?”

  “…You sure have a lot of questions,” the voice, not caring in the least about the tremors spreading in the darkness in the wake of its sound. “Yet, you already know the answer to those questions. Or you would not have been so desperate to get out of this place.”

  “…What do you want from me?”

  “I want to have a good talk with you,” the voice said, finally causing the darkness to break down on itself, shattering like fragments of glass, disappearing into the void, making way for a broken world. A world with no Enn or Orn, a world with no stars. A world with a perpetual blood red light shining in the sky, dyeing the broken land under his feet in its shade, giving it a bleak appearance…

  For as far as he could see, all Alnea saw was broken lands, torn asunder by forces so great, that they literally left scars larger than mountains on the ground. There was no place left untouched on the ground, no place that could reveal glimpses of what the world had once been. It truly was a bleak world, bleaker than anything he had ever seen. Even more so than the dark empty worlds of his Domain, and Death itself.

  Yet, as Alnea glanced around the world, he could not help feeling a trace of familiarity from its lands, from the thick, dense air, reeking of blood and despair, from the rootless red light shining in the sky, from the destruction that had been wrought to the world… This was…

  “That’s right,” the voice sounded once again. This time, much closer than before. As if it was not the world speaking to him, but a man. A man he was very familiar with. A man who was standing just a few paces away from him, giving him a mocking look, before glancing at the world around them. “This is the world of your Heart.”

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  “You…”

  “What? Still having trouble recognising who I am?”

  “…How is this possible?”

  “…Why is it not possible?” the man in the white robe said, shrugging his shoulders, before gesturing towards the broken lands around them. “Can you not see where we are?”

  “…But…”

  “Stop running away, Alnea Oathkeeper,” the man said, turning back to face him. “I am you.”

  “No…” Alnea said, taking a step back, only for the white Alnea to take a step towards him in the next moment.

  “Or at least part of you.”

  “…Lying,” Alnea said, taking a step back once again, only for the white Alnea to follow him once again.

  “There is no need for us to lie each other.”

  “Stop,” Alnea said, a little hesitant, and unsure of how to process what was happening, but the white Alnea did not listen to him, taking a step towards him once again, shortening the distance between them.

  “But you can already feel that, can you not?”

  “Stop right there…”

  “We are one, you and I,” the white Alnea said, stopping only when he was just a hand’s distance away from him. “A part of the same whole.”

  “We are not the same!”

  “I never said that we are the same,” the white Alnea said, shrugging his shoulders. “Even parts of the same whole can have differences. But you already knew that, did you not?”

  “…Shut up!”

  “Are you sure?” the white Alnea said, with his lips curving upwards in a smirk, as he glanced at the broken world around them. “Do you know how to get out of this place?”

  Alnea paused, and glanced at the broken world around them, before turning back to the white Alnea.

  “Why did you bring me here?”

  “I did not bring you here,” the white Alnea said, shaking his head. “You came here on your own… to escape your Death.”

  “…Escape my Death?”

  “…The void you were in before.”

  “…That truly was Death?”

  “…Not exactly, but you were not far. Had the Blade of Void pierced you in your chest, then not even the greatest Healers of the Lost City could have saved you. Seriously, what were you thinking? Have you not learned your lesson already? I even went out of my way to remind you not to trust anyone, and then you go and pull off this stunt… Why do you still trust people so easily?”

  “…Blade of Void?”

  “…Of all the things I said, that is what you notice?” the white Alnea said, rolling his eyes at his counterpart. “Blade of Void, how to put it… Let me see… Right, Oren Weapon. You can think of it as a very special Oren Weapon. Like the Rings of Fate you wear. Except, the blade has no Grade. And it has only one function. To ignore all defences. That was how the purple robed girl was able to get past the defences of your robe. But I guess that is what you get for relying too much on that robe.

  “Still, I have to say, you truly are blessed. To think that you could survive being stabbed by a Blade of Void. Even Grand Attuners—equivalent to Grand Wanderers in your world— have ended up dying to the blade because of their carelessness. That is why the blade is also known as Inkah’s invitation. Because anyone who is stabbed by it will get a visit from Death. Kind of like a contract with Inkah, the Lord—

  “No, it should be the God of Death for you. In any case, getting stabbed by the Blade of Void almost certainly results in death. Maybe that is why there are so few of them in existence. I had to spend a whole year looking in all sorts of places before I could get one. Then again, maybe I was wrong about their rarity. For such a weak girl to get hold of a Blade of Void… Regardless, had the girl been a little more ruthless and stabbed you in your heart, then we would not be having this conversation right now.”

  Alnea glanced down at himself, brushing his hands over the place where he had felt the burning sensation earlier. Blessed? Him? Struggling within himself for a few moments, he raised his head back up, and hesitantly opened his mouth.

  “…Am I really not dead?”

  “…Not for now,” the white Alnea said, looking at his counterpart with disdain. “But if you continue being so stupid, then you probably will not live for long.”

  “…I am not stupid.”

  “Says the man who went to hug his enemy.”

  “I was not hugging her.”

  “Your arms were around her back, her head was resting on your shoulders, and you still say that you were not hugging her?”

  “…Forget it. Just tell me, what do you want from me?”

  “…It is not me whom you should be asking that question,” the white Alnea said, glancing at the broken world around them. “Let’s have a good talk, Alnea Oathkeeper.”