Part Two
Chapter Three
"Am I in reality?"
Shura was walking through the forest…
But the forest was not a forest.
The trees seemed taller than they should be, as if they had grown without nature's permission. Their trunks were twisted, bent, resembling bodies that had been strangled yet left standing. Their leaves were black, tinged with red—a color that belonged neither to autumn nor to fire, but to something that had drunk ancient blood and become saturated with it.
The air was cold… not the cold of wind, but the cold of emptiness.
There was not a single breeze—
And yet—
There was a sound.
Footsteps.
Shura stopped abruptly.
Silence snapped shut like a trap. A heavy, suffocating silence, so dense that his ears began to ache, as if the pressure in the air had suddenly increased. His breathing became audible. His heart pounded violently.
Then he saw them.
Two silhouettes among the trees.
Unclear… yet their movement was slow, intertwined, very close to one another—as if they knew the path better than he did.
He took a step forward.
Then another.
With every step, his heart slammed against his chest with unnatural force, as if it were trying to escape his body.
And when the scene became clear—
The blood froze in his veins.
Two children.
Him…
And Yuki.
They were playing.
Laughing.
Stumbling, falling, then standing back up without fear.
Clean clothes.
No tears.
Faces untouched by terror.
No blood… no screams… no death.
He extended his hand instinctively.
His fingers trembled.
For a moment… just a moment…
He felt peace.
And in that moment—
Laughter.
A woman's laughter—long, mocking, slicing through the scene like a blade.
"Mika…"
He spun around violently, one eye widening in terror, his voice hoarse as it escaped him:
"Where are you?!"
The laughter echoed again, closer this time…
As if it did not come from the forest, but from inside his own head.
Then suddenly—
Another voice.
Low.
Rough.
Crawling.
A hiss, like bones grinding against each other.
"Stop."
His entire body trembled.
"You…?!"
The shadow appeared behind him.
It was not a complete body.
An incomplete form—half features, half darkness, and two red eyes glowing like embers in a starless night.
The entity said,
"This is not of my making."
Shura shouted, his voice breaking apart:
"Then why do I see it?!"
The entity took a step closer.
The ground beneath its feet cracked, as if its mere existence were a burden on reality itself.
"Because your mind…"
It paused.
"Has begun to collapse."
Then it added, with terrifying calm:
"And I am merely… lifting the cover."
The two children vanished instantly.
No light.
No smoke.
Just disappearance.
The place changed.
He was standing in the very spot where he used to sit with Yuki.
He knelt slowly, as if his body were heavier than his thoughts, and touched the soil.
Cold.
Rough.
Solid.
He pulled his hand back quickly, staring at it.
"This… is reality?!"
The entity chuckled softly.
"Memories are never this vivid…"
"Unless they are real."
Shura stood up and continued walking.
Suddenly—
The scene flipped without warning.
He was training.
Falling.
Bleeding.
Standing up again.
His body was covered in wounds. His breathing was ragged. His muscles screamed in pain.
The entity's voice pierced the scene:
"Why were you training?"
Shura shouted, as if shouting at himself:
"To protect her!"
The entity appeared before him—this time clearer, more solid, less shadow… and far more threatening.
"A lie."
The word struck his chest like a hammer.
"You were training because you were afraid…"
"Afraid she would be taken from you."
Then—
Fire.
Screams.
The stench of burning flesh.
His family.
Their bodies lay scattered, eyes wide open, empty of life, as if they were still waiting for something that would never come.
He knelt among them.
His hands trembled.
His mouth was open… without sound.
At last he screamed:
"Why won't these memories disappear?!
Why me?!"
The entity stood above him.
Its shadow covered his entire body.
"Because you did not die."
Then it spoke slowly, as if delivering a sentence:
"The survivors…"
"Are the ones who are tortured."
The scene tore apart.
He was standing.
Yuki was in front of him.
The stab.
The blood.
She screamed:
"I'm sorry!"
A burning sensation flared in his left eye.
Tears gathered—
But he crushed them with his fist.
The entity asked:
"Did you feel regret?"
Shura whispered:
"It wasn't me…"
The entity laughed—this time more clearly.
"It was you."
"But without will."
Then—
The first victim.
Sliding backward.
Begging.
Crying.
Hands outstretched.
And him…
Smiling.
He looked at his hands.
Thick, dark blood dripped slowly.
He inhaled its scent…
The scent of the innocent.
He trembled.
"No…"
The entity said with deadly calm:
"You were enjoying it."
He screamed with everything he had left:
"SHUT UP!!!"
The blood vanished instantly.
He raised his head.
They were there.
The kings.
Standing in a long line, laughing, applauding.
"Vessel."
"Tool."
"Without will."
The voices overlapped, multiplied, until his head screamed in pain.
He struck himself hard.
The pain was real.
The blood was real.
He breathed with difficulty.
The forest returned.
But—
The entity did not disappear.
It stood before him.
Its body clearer.
Its eyes closer.
It spoke in a low voice, almost a whisper:
"Now…"
"Tell me."
"Are you in reality?"
Shura clenched his fist.
"It doesn't matter."
And he kept walking.
The entity laughed behind him—a cold laugh.
"When reality begins to fracture…"
"You will wish all of this were an illusion."
"And when I realized that reality does not shatter, but quietly recedes, I finally understood the truth that had taken too long… that I was not lost in a delusion, but awake inside a nightmare called consciousness, and I was no longer able to escape it."