A world, a white and dark place.
"So I died..." Liam... the white stage where only he stood, his gaze looking up at the starry sky, no, the suns, the stars, the planes, it was the universe.
The huge and infinite dark moved, not something in it, all of it...
A voice responded from within it, sharp and trembling with urgency... rage... it seemed heavy so heavy...
"Kid—don't you dare give up. There's no turning back now!"
"Give up? Did I give up? No... I fucking did not..."
"Then stand back up, Kid. Stand back up!"
"Stand up?
How?
I'm dead.
I AM DEAD!"
"Kid... Little Monster, you..." The heavy voice from the dark lost most of its power.
"Shut up!
It's not like I can do anything—I'm not a god! I am just a villager... even if I was something more like a monster I..."
"Kid..."
"Shut the fuck up! This is so fucking unfair... All of it... unfair. Unfair. Unfair! So fucking UNFAIR!"
"You can—"
The voice got cut like it drowned into itself, and a still silence fell. Heavy. Cracking.
Then it came—Cold. Distant. Louder than all that came before.
"You... So loud.
So very loud...
Who do you think you are, to scream here?"
"Who..." The heavy and dark voice questioned, incredulous at the loud words that were very much hypocritical.
"Worm.
Silence yourself.
You were no hindrance before, so I let you be.
But speak again... and I will wipe you from this world of ours."
"You are that thing? I see... is this the real..."
*Snap* The sound of a light finger snap and then... the heavy and dark voice just vanished.
"This is our world, even if that man came, he would die here, be thankful for not being filled with sin... Worm..."
"You...?" Liam stood confused as a dark figure stepped out from nothing.
"You are new. We are strangers...
Yet… you were born beside me.
As such, I will call you Brother..."
"I... Who are you?"
"Brother... You screamed of unfairness... Tell me—what, exactly, is unfair here?"
"It's..."
"Was it their strength? Is that what bothers you?
That they were evil and still stronger than you, the hero?
Or that they simply didn't deserve it?"
"No... it's just... They had the System... They could get stronger..."
"And you? Brother, could you not? Or was it that you believed you had enough?
Was it that you feared more power would push her away—force her to leave on her journey?
Or worse... That she'd fear you. Fear the monster inside."
"They also had more time—"
"Time? Or just excuses?
Do you mistake delay for injustice?"
"I... They might have suffered too. Been twisted by others. Maybe they were evil... maybe not..."
"But?"
"But I suffered too..."
"Did you?"
"I...
Didn't I?
That hunger. That wretched, choking hunger. I endured it all my life. Beat my fists into the dirt just to stay sane. I suffered enough...
Didn't I suffer enough?!
The pain. My insides twisting. Screaming. I could have let go... Could have just—let it consume me, but..."
"But you didn't.
In the end, you feared to harm the undeserving.
You feared the path that wasn't a hero's. Some might call that hypocritical... But then again, to fake bravery is to be brave.
So in truth, what you feared—was not being brave enough."
"I...
Did I truly not do enough?
At the end, I gave it my all. Even if I wasn't in full control—I fought! I could have run, consumed more, become stronger... just a little more blood, more flesh...
I could have—"
"But you didn't.
It is not a sin to fail. You are the hero and the main character of only your story.
The world is not made of fairness and unfairness—only cause and effect.
They fought more. Bled more. They were stronger. They might have been villains to others, but should their hardship be dismissed as if it meant nothing?
Is that fair or unfair?"
"I...
I don't know...
I...
I'm so tired... so sleepy..." Liam's eyes were closing involuntarily.
"Worry not, Brother.
You don't have to answer, I already know. You suffered and paid enough—just as they have.
For them, their victory and strength were their payment. And for you...
Here I am. Your payment."
The shadow stepped forward. Neither warm nor cruel. Simply... final. It reached its hands out, slowly laying Liam down.
"Brother... It is time..." the whisper echoed, as if through a thousand lives.
Yet even as Liam's soul stood at the threshold—
"Was I... always... mean to lose...?"
"Go. Sleep now. Just for a while."
"I... please.Save her..." He begged, even if it was to a shadow...
"Rest well... It's my turn now..."
Darkness embraced him. No pain. No more weight.Only silence... and the first breath of something new.
...
The fires were still burning in the village.
Ash drifted through the night like it didn't know where to land. And the body... it just lay there, unmoving—Liam was dead.
One of the younger bandits shifted nervously. "Boss… what now? He was supposed to be worth a lot, right?"
Another muttered, "The girl's still breathing… we could…"
The leader didn't speak. Didn't even look at them. Just stood there, staring at the corpse like it was still moving in his mind.
"Boss?"
He twitched.
"I'm thinking, you shits," he snapped, eyes narrowing. "Give me a damn minute. And for god's fuking sake someone silence that bitch!"
No one spoke after that, they just stepped back to mutter among themselves.
To him who was remembering a forgotten memory, only the fire answered, with the crackle of burning wood—and flesh.
And Mercy... She was in shock, screaming her lungs out.
"You fucking bitch, shut up!" A bandit came from behind her, slapping her face with the back of his hand.
"Ugh!" She, whose hands were tied behind her back, fell face-first into the dirt.
"Are you sane now?" Asking, he kicked Mercy over, landing her on her back.
"Liam..." Her voice was weak, trailing off into a whisper.
"Oh... don't be so concerned, that guy is dead, but I am here for you..." The men crouched beside her, reaching out, gently stroking her face.
"You see... now it seems you pretty much worth nothing... and I have been due some bonus from the Boss...
Hahah... you should be happy... I will use my precious bonus on you... We will have so much fun..."
"Liam..." She couldn't hear the disgusting words of the bandit...
"!?" *Slap* "Bitch, you are still thinking of another man!?" The bandit grasped her jaw. "You are mine, I will make you pay a thousand times over for my ear!!"
"..." She couldn't speak with her face held so tight, but even if she could, she still wouldn't have answered. Her eyes also said such things. Now she didn't care about anything else, just those eyes...
Those eyes she saw... the ones that always looked at her food with a slight distaste... those eyes that were so indifferent and cold to the villagers, those that always seemed angry at their father, those that seemed so desperate whenever she followed him, and those eyes... that only shone light whenever she looked in them...
It was those eyes... that now lay still... cold... colder than ever before... unmoving... tears that stopped-frozen... it burned her... in her mind, she only saw those eyes now, it burned into her... Those eyes that once begged for help—but never said it out loud. Now, they couldn't ask her anymore.
"Fuck... she doesn't even hear me..." The bandit saw it too, annoyed, but he knew now nothing would reach her mind.
"Liam..." The moment his hand released her, the word just came.
"You little...!!" Annoyed, he stuffed her mouth with a rag and also tied one tightly around to gag her.
"I use these to clean myself, I hope you like the taste..." The bandits' hand unmistakably began to travel down... "Since you will have to get used to..."
"Enough!" the boss barked. "Guss, get your filthy hands off her. You can't touch her, not until I am sure what to do with her."
"Ah, yes-yes, boss... I was just playing with her..." The bandit got up and walked away, not even concerned about Mercy trying to run away.
'Liam...' He probably didn't even have to...
'Liam... I...'
'Mercy.
Mercy, you need to listen to me.'
A voice. In her head. One somewhat similar to her own.
'Liam... I...' But even this she couldn't recognize.
'Hey! Get up, Mercy... Fuck...
He is not dead! Do you understand me!?'
'He... is... Uh!?' It was like magic, she instantly woke from her daze.
'Finally, Mercy, you need to listen to me, we have to get away from here now!'
'What!? Who are...?'
'There's no time! I want to help, so listen to me now... Get up. Right now. We have to move. You have to run.'
'W-what...?'
'Please just listen...'
'...' She felt something strange, like she was compelled to listen to this voice in her head.
'Ugh, I can't... the rope...' She struggled for a moment...
'I will help.' With that, a strange feeling encompassed her arms, and from just a little move, the rope binding her snapped.
Marcy got up so swiftly that the occupied bandits noticed nothing.
'Now run!' She didn't even take the gag out, and the voice already screamed at her.
'But... Liam...' She hesitated.
'He will be fine, just run for fuck sake, run before The Monster co—' but... the voice couldn't finish and the world... it alredy...
"This is our world..."Something… stopped.
It didn't begin with thunder.
No scream tore the air.
No lightning cracked the sky.
It was… the absence.
A breath held by the world itself.
No sound.
No movement.
Not even time seemed willing to continue.
The fire still burned—but its crackling froze mid-spark, flames caught in an unnatural stillness like painted cloth.
The smoke rising from the wreckage no longer swirled. It hovered. Dead air. Choked.
A leaf, halfway through its fall, hung above the scorched soil like it had forgotten what gravity was.
The trees no longer rustled.
The wind stopped mid-whimper.
Even the embers lost their glow—as if light itself was retreating.
And in that silence… people began to notice their own breathing.
Not because it was loud, but because it wasn't.
The youngest bandit clutched his chest. "I… I can't…"
His words escaped as fog.
One of the others gasped, not from fear—but desperation. Like air had grown sharp, like needles threading into his throat.
Another opened his mouth to speak—but sound betrayed him. All that came out was vapor. He tried again—nothing. Just a hoarse whisper that didn't belong to him.
The cold came next.
But not from above, not from the air.
It bloomed inside them. Deep. Between bone and breath.
The kind of cold that remembered things.
The kind that lived before fire was invented.
A cold that froze them the same way the world was frozen.
Cold that wasn't cold at all, fear...
Fear that wasn't fear at all...
Something was coming.
No — not coming.
Here.
Already here.
And it had always been here.
Then—
A voice.
But not a voice.
Not from mouth or sky or soul.
From everything.
The fire spoke it.
The trees spoke it.
Even the blood on the ground seemed to hum the words.
["All creatures of this world—prepare yourselves for—"]