Rain poured from the darkened sky, drumming against the rooftops and turning the dirt road to mud.
"Why are you helping us?" Shiro asked.
"The patriarch is dead and they think you did it."
He knew helping them could cost him everything. But he had seen the truth with his own eyes. If he turned them over now, he would be condemning two people he knew were innocent. That would make him no different from the person who killed the patriarch.
Brenn wasn't a hero. He simply believed that if someone was in danger and he could help, he had no excuse to walk away.
"Traitors," a voice shouted behind them.
"You are a mage, can you make our steps lighter?" Brenn asked Casia over his shoulder.
"Hmm."
A faint glow enveloped her slender hand.
Immediately, a spell circle appeared beneath them. The moment they stepped onto it, the sound of their boots striking the ground vanished.
But before they could reach safety, a towering shadow dropped from the sky, slamming into the dirt path ahead and cutting off their escape.
"Head for the cliffside!" Brenn shouted, drawing his short sword from his hip.
"I'll hold it off!"
He charged into the creature, forcing it back as Shiro hurried down the narrow dirt path with Casia in his arms. Dense trees crowded both sides, their branches brushing against him as he pushed deeper into the forest.
Shiro adjusted his grip around her and kept moving, her body limp against his chest. Behind them, the clash of steel and claws echoed through the trees.
They followed the winding path until the forest began to thin. The ground gradually dipped beneath their feet, leading toward the cliffside.
Just as they reached the cliff edge, a blurred shape tore through the air above them, flying over the ledge and plunging into the abyss below.
Shiro's eyes flew wide.
Whirling on his heel, he sidestepped the sudden blur, then placed Casia gently on her feet.
Standing before them was a grotesque creature standing eight meters tall.
It possessed two thick legs, a hunched torso, and two massive arms ending in vicious claws. Its mottled brown skin was crisscrossed with glowing green stitches. Where its head should have been rested the head of a golden-brown eagle, its beak lined with rows of razor-sharp teeth. In one claw, it held a guard's severed leg before tossing the limb aside with cold indifference.
The anomaly.
The eagle-headed anomaly let out a piercing shriek and lunged forward with blinding speed.
Too fast.
Shiro tried to react, but his adrenaline-exhausted body refused to respond in time.
A massive forearm slammed into his chest, sending him flying across the clearing. He crashed hard against a tree trunk, bounced off the rough bark, and tumbled mercilessly across the muddy ground.
"...Shiro!"
As the creature turned away from him, a slender wooden wand materialized in Casia's hand.
She raised it high.
"-Minor Ventus Caedens."
A gale of razor-sharp wind erupted from its tip, ripping through the air with a violent howl.
The blast struck the creature head-on, forcing its massive body skidding backward. The compressed wind tore across its avian face, leaving deep gashes through its golden-brown feathers and flesh.
The surrounding trees were caught in the attack as well, their trunks carved apart by the same invisible blades.
Without warning, the creature opened its tooth-lined beak and unleashed a concentrated beam of green energy straight at Casia.
"-Prima Tempestas Ruptura!"
A rotating burst of wind deflected the beam into the sky. Without pausing, the beast conjured a swarm of green feathers that rained down upon her like lethal blades.
Motes of green mana gathered rapidly at the tip of Casia's wand as she raised it once more.
"Impulsus Ventorum!"
The instant she finished the incantation, the gathered mana exploded.
Casia doubled over, coughing violently as dark, blackish blood splattered against the dirt.
"Damn it... I thought I had a little more time."
The spell had failed.
Mottled patches of red and white spread across her face and along her slender arm. Seizing her distraction, the razor feathers sliced through her defenses, before the beast itself lunged, biting deeply into her shoulder, her hand holding the wand lowered.
"...Argh!"
Shiro, clutching his bruised ribs, lifted his ringing head, meeting Casia's eyes.
He mouthed a single question.
Even without sound, she read his lips:
What are you doing?
She could have blown a hole through the creature's head at any moment. But she didn't.
She stood completely silent.
It was a simple question. It wasn't asked as a command, nor out of judgment. It was asked out of genuine concern.
Yet she had no answer for it.
No one had ever asked her.
Not her family.
Not anyone she had ever known.
It took a complete stranger to look at her as though she had ever been given a choice.
Her life had been decided before she was even born.
She had been brought into this world to save her dying older brother. The transplant left her sickly, but she endured it because she had been taught that was what she was meant to do.
It gave him four more years.
Then he died.
And somehow, she became the one who was left behind.
After that, home no longer felt like home.
The warmth disappeared from her parents' voices. The things they once called her by changed. She learned to stay quiet when she was hurting, to endure and to stop expecting anyone to come when she called.
Eventually, she stopped asking.
She stopped believing she was someone worth saving.
And now, after all these years, a stranger had looked at her and asked a question no one else ever had.
What was she doing?
As though her life belonged to her.
As though she could have chosen differently.
Casia forced a faint, bloody smile.
It was almost cruel.
Now, when someone had finally asked her to choose herself, there was nothing left to choose with.
It was already too late. Fate had already delivered what she had pleaded for.
"You're a kind person," she whispered.
Her voice was barely audible over the roaring wind.
She looked back at Shiro, a faint, melancholic smile resting on her lips.
"That's why you must get out of this place... unlike me, who has no family left anyway." Rain and blood ran down her cheeks.
"Forgive me... I should have given myself a chance to know you before I..."
Her voice faded.
With the absolute last ember of her life, Casia gathered what little mana remained within her.
She aimed her wand at the ground beneath them. A violent, concentrated blast of Impulsus Ventorum shattered the ground.
As the cliff edge crumbled, Casia plummeted backward into the ravine.
"CASIA!"
Shiro stumbled to his feet and rushed toward the jagged edge.
Far below at the base of the ravine, the crushed form of the eagle-headed anomaly lay twitching against the rocks. There was no sign of Casia's body, only the turbulent flow of water.
Shiro stared down, waiting for some burst of emotion to surface. Nothing came. It wasn't out of cruelty, but experience. He had seen far too many allies and enemies fall on the battlefield. Death was never something he had the luxury of dwelling on.
The only law that mattered was survival.
Turning his back on the cliff, Shiro dragged himself toward the forest path. He made it barely three steps before an agonizing heat ignited behind his ribs.
Shiro clutched his chest.
His breath came in ragged, shallow gasps. His vision turned into a dark haze.
Through the burning fog, a faint metallic scent returned to him. The water Casia had handed him.
The cup.
Only a few steps later, his legs buckled.
His knees struck the muddy ground.
He collapsed onto his stomach, a metallic taste filling his mouth.
With every passing second, his eyelids grew impossibly heavy, dragging him down into darkness, only for his eyes to snap open once more.
The familiar town greeted him once more.
The streets bustled with the same merchants, the same children, and the same birdsong as before, repeating exactly as before.
He clutched his chest. There was no burning sensation, and even his bruised ribs felt strangely fine. The fabric of his shirt was completely intact.
"...The third loop."
He let out a quiet breath before habitually looking around.
There was no sign of Daren, Elara, Casia... or anyone who had entered the rift with him.
Only the townspeople continued their routine.
Shiro's expression gradually hardened.
"...So that's it."
The realization settled over him.
"They didn't make it."
The others hadn't looped back with him.
Whether they had died or been consumed by the rift, the result was the same.
He was alone.
For the first time since entering the rift, Shiro had no one left to rely on but himself.
He slowly lifted his head, his crimson eyes drifting toward the distant mansion overlooking the town.
Daren stumbled out of the shadows, barely able to keep himself upright as he braced himself against the alley wall.
"Where am I? What am I doing?"
His skin itched as though hundreds of ants were crawling beneath it. He clutched his jerkin tightly, trying to suppress the strange sensation.
"Why does my skin burn like this?"
The itching intensified.
With a sudden jerk, he tore the fabric of his jerkin away.
His skin was mottled red and white, swollen across his body.
Daren stared at himself in disbelief.
"What happened to me?"
Just as darkness crept along the edges of his vision, threatening to drag him under, fragmented memories flashed unbidden through his mind. Casia's hollow eyes, the blood spraying, the knife striking his chest mercilessly.
"GAHHHH!!" Daren snapped out of the memory as he hurriedly stumbled out of the alley, nearly losing his footing as he unexpectedly collided with a woman passing by. Clinging to the last shred of hope he had left, he grabbed the edge of her dress.
Their eyes met for a moment.
"Where am I?" Daren asked, his voice hoarse and barely audible.
To the onlookers, the sight looked strange. A disheveled man clinging desperately to a woman's dress, almost as though he were pleading with her.
But from the woman's perspective, there was something deeply wrong with him.
Daren seemed to mistake her frozen expression for a willingness to help.
Then her face twisted with genuine disgust and terror.
"Kyaaaa!"
The woman dropped the goods in her arms and stumbled backward, nearly tripping over herself.
"Get away from me!"
Daren's fingers slipped from her dress.
He froze.
The woman's frightened cry drew the attention of everyone nearby.
"What is wrong with him?"
"Stay away from that man!"
Daren slowly lowered himself, his trembling fingers scraping against the ground.
The whispers surrounded him. Each one seemed louder than the last. His shoulders sank as shame washed over him. He knew something was deeply wrong but he did not know what.
Then his mind fractured.
Images surfaced from the depths of his mind. The loops. His dislike of Shiro. His plan. His two deaths.
His fingers curled against the cobblestones hard enough to break his nails.
Ever since they had entered the rift, everything had unraveled like a row of falling dominoes. His companion Elara had died before the plan could even begin. His final trump card had slipped beyond his control.
Casia was dead.
The ring that had guaranteed her obedience was now nothing more than a worthless piece of metal.
'This... this is all your fault, Shiro!'
Then he forcefully lifted his head. Scanning the townsfolk, buildings, merchants. He didn't recognize anything. None of it made sense.
Then his gaze stopped.
Not far ahead, a familiar figure with black hair stood among the crowd.
Daren's eyes flew wide.
"Shiro..."
The despair that had filled his eyes vanished, replaced by a desperate madness.
He stumbled to his feet and lunged toward a nearby merchant's stall. A rack of weapons stood beside it.
His hand seized the hilt of a sword.
"Hey!" The merchant barely had time to react before Daren shoved him aside.
"Get off me!" The merchant crashed against his stall as Daren tore the sword free.
"What the hell?!"
"Someone stop him!"
"Call the guards!"
The shout cut through the street.
Daren heard it.
So did Shiro.
Shiro's head turned sharply toward the commotion. Around him, the onlookers screamed as they fled in every direction, knocking over carts and abandoning their belongings. The once peaceful streets dissolved into complete chaos.
Through the chaos, Daren's eyes locked onto Shiro, his gaze sharp with barely restrained hatred.
With a furious roar, Daren lunged.
The instant he closed the distance, an overwhelming pressure washed over him.
It wasn't killing intent.
It was simply Shiro's unwavering gaze.
For the briefest moment, Daren's body instinctively flinched.
What was that...?
But the hesitation lasted only an instant.
His sword came crashing down.
Shiro calmly ducked beneath the descending blade.
BOOM!
The sword chopped into the ground with a muffled thunderclap, sending cracks racing through the earth as dust and shattered stone burst into the air.
Shiro pivoted.
Even after everything, my reaction speed hasn't changed.
The realization came as a surprise.
His elemental ability, physical strength, and endurance had all been reduced to a fraction of what they once were, yet his instincts remained just as sharp. His body had reacted before his mind had even finished processing the attack.
But there was a problem.
Could my body keep up?
Although his mind could perceive every movement, his weakened body struggled to execute them. The strain was already beginning to build.
If I keep forcing it... it won't be long—
Shiro glanced toward Daren in shock.
Daren had endured two entire loops while the others faded into nothingness. It was the first time Shiro had ever seen or heard of a human surviving this long. Normally, a person could only endure forty-eight hours, two loops, before the rift consumed them. Yet Daren had survived. Not just one loop, but two beyond the expected limit.
For the first time, Shiro faced something he couldn't explain. Daren should have been gone. But he was still standing. Was his obsession keeping him together? Whether it was hatred or simple refusal to accept defeat, something continued to anchor Daren's fractured existence.
But even that was beginning to crack. His skin was mottled red and white, swollen.
"So you've finally shown your true colors."
"What did you say?" Daren's voice trembled.
"I meant you finally abandoned the cowardly way."
"How dare you!" Daren spoke through clenched teeth as he grabbed the hilt of his sword and yanked.
However, it refused to move. The blade remained lodged deep within the cracked stone where it had struck during the previous battle.
Tap. Tap. Tap. The sound of metal boots hitting the cobblestones approached from behind.
"Sir..." The guard called cautiously. "Stand down."
Daren didn't hear a single word.
Shiro's voice echoed relentlessly inside his head.
"You finally abandoned the cowardly way."
"Coward."
"Coward."
A crimson aura suddenly pulsed from his body. Veins bulged across his arm as he roared and pried the sword loose from the ground.
The blade burst upward in a violent arc.
Slash!
The nearest guard was cut down before they could even react. His blood splattered across the stone.
The remaining guards froze in disbelief.
"W-Where is he getting that kind of strength? Not that it matters."
Daren's bloodshot eyes remained fixed on Shiro as he braced against the sword.
Shiro stared at him without the slightest hint of panic.
"Daren..."
His calm voice echoed across the street.
"Have you already forgotten the rules?"
Daren's eyes widened.
The rules...
His blood ran cold.
Behind him came the thunder of armored footsteps.
"He's violated the Patriarch's decree!"
"Subdue him!"
Before Daren could react, the town guards surged forward from every direction.
Their mancatcher polearms shot toward him like a cage of steel. One struck his waist. Another drove through his neck. More followed in rapid succession, pinning him to the cracked street.
"Ugh!"
Daren struggled violently, but every movement only made him more paralyzed.
Shiro watched in silence.
He had known from the beginning that his current strength wasn't enough to face Daren directly, especially not while the anomaly remained hidden. So he had provoked him. And Daren had taken the bait.