Water surged around my eyelids, cold and relentless

I found myself in a sea of darkness. Bubbles escaped my mouth as I descended. The sea pressed against me, its weight a cold, endless force that swallowed light and sound alike

I was sinking into an abyss.

My arms ache to thrash, to claw toward the surface. My legs beg to kick against the tide. My eyes strain to open, to pierce the void and understand where I was.

But my body betrayed me, heavy as a sack of sand, dragging me into the ocean’s depths.

Powerless. Drained. The only sensation was sinking.

Sinking.

Sinking.

As I sunk deeper, a faint whisper cut through the water’s roar, a voice I couldn’t place

["You really shouldn't have come."]

My hand shot forward, grasping at the voice that echoed in my skull. My eyes snap open.

Who was it? Who called me?

Instead of seeing anything, darkness greeted me, thick and unyielding, swallowing any hope of seeing who spoke.

My hand clawed through the current, grasping nothing as water surged through my fingers, cold and unyielding.

The sea is a void, empty of answers, swallowing all but the echo of that voice. As I sunk, a deep voice rumbles in my skull, unyielding as the tide

[Through the unified World, End, and Beginning; Heavens, Hell, Earth- I alone will reach this World's End].

The words cascade into my mind, as if an unseen deity spoke through the void.

My mouth opened. Bubbles shot out. Water poured into my lungs, choking my breath.

The icy water surges into my lungs, my consciousness slipping away. I was about to sleep, feeling the my muscles fall into slumber.

No, I was about to die.

"Sorry," was my last thought.

But the word feels empty—I don’t know why I said it, who it’s for, or what I’m apologizing for.

As I wrestle with my final thoughts, a bitter laugh rose in my throat

Then, sleep washed over me.

I woke to hard, cold rock pressing against my back, sharp and hard. My head spun as the realization I was in a cavern sunk in.

"Did I fall here? How the heck could that happen?"

A shiver ran down my spine. This headache... it couldn't be.

Did I die from drowning? And then since the whole forest had seemingly collapsed, [Unending Death] moved me here instead of the river?

I spat out a groan and stared at the rocky ceiling. The cavern was moderately large, perhaps the size of a hotel lobby. I had plenty of space here to walk around.

To my right, a narrow opening yawned downward, its shadows beckoning. Its rocky walls glow faintly, lined with small mushrooms pulsing like veins at the base, almost a hallway. It was eerily quiet, with the exception of the running water that flowed through the middle.

A shiver ran through me, the cavern’s chill seeping into my bones—not freezer-cold, but sharp enough to bite.

I looked towards the entrance. And waited.

Huh?

I smacked my head and pinched my cheek, wondering if something was wrong. Why wasn't the communication device with Ayaka working? 

Then, I realized.

If I died, the communication device must have vanished, like the knife I lost before. It seemed like when I died, all the mundane things stayed but all equipment got lost to where I died.

"Shit..." I muttered under my breath.

No, something wasn't right. I can still feel the faint hum of the device in my skull. It was just completely silent.

"Did she die?" I whispered.

I stared at my hands. My legs felt weak.

Staggering to the wall, I leaned on the rocky surface of the cavern while staring at the entrance. My breaths were shaky.

With a heavy breath, I wiped my face.

Splash. Water hit my face as I washed my chin. As I looked at my reflection in the stream of water, I grimaced.

Though [Unending Death] mended my flesh, my reflection in the stream looks haggard, worn. It wasn't a magical healing ability after all!

[I alone will reach this World's Ending].

I slowly recited the deep voice inside my head. A small smile appeared on my face.

"I'm really going crazy now?"

Just as people cry when they're happy, a smile didn't mean happiness. A laugh didn't mean enjoyment.

I would know. I knew it too well, in fact.

The reflection of myself smiled back at me. Rather wide, too. It almost looked stupid.

In my chest, my heart sank as I felt the cold chip in the back of my head. [Unending Death] truly was a great curse.

As I felt my chest, I felt a rather strange emotion.

A burning flame, a will to live. 

What is this miserable feeling? Why did I want to live?

I slowly reached out towards the narrow corridor in front of me.

"My body sure is insistent on telling me to survive." 

Suddenly, I laughed.

"I really have gone crazy. What am I thinking? I can't let some stupid shit like a feeling dictate what I'm going to do."

"On second thought... surviving wouldn't be terrible. I don't remember how I ended here, or why I wanted to be here, but not dying painfully is rather nice."

I stood up and let out a breath. I walked into the narrow corridor.

When I crossed the arc, a few things popped out.

First, the corridor isn’t narrow at all—though the entrance barely fits my shoulders, it opens into a wide riverbed.

Second, the river rather shallow. Even at the center, it looked like it could only go up to my knees. But of course, no one wants to walk in freezing cold water. It was great as a water source, however.

Third and arguably the most important, there was not a single animal or beast. Streams of water were typically filled with life, and animals would come beside the riverbank to get a sip of water. But here, there was nothing. Aside from the growing mushroom, there was no vegetation besides the mushrooms.

Well, it wasn't like there was much light to keep any sort of plants alive.

As I walked further and further, I noticed the water was getting deeper. Soon, the river was deep enough to cover the top of my head if I walked in. After a few more minutes, I couldn't see the bottom of the river anymore.

I glanced down the hill. Suddenly, it dawned to me that the water was flowing upwards. Curious, I ripped a piece of loose fabric off my shirt and threw it into the water. Instantly, the fabric was yanked down the river.

Down?

I shuddered. What appeared to be a mystical, gentle stream moving upwards was a fast torrent rushing down a mountain. The piece of fabric that had been caught in its tides was gone.

"Better not to fall into that..." I clenched my teeth and moved closer to the wall of the cave, away from the water.

Still, the road down seemed to be endless. How many feet had I descended by now? How had the pressure from being so deep not made my head explode?

I sighed and shook my head.

Better to wonder about things like that if I made it out alive.

As I treaded down the road, I bitterly thought about the communication device. I had tried to use it again, but it was dead silent. 

"Ah, damn, I'm alone again."

I bit back a hollow laugh.

How long have I been awake? I thought it was about 30 minutes or so.

Ayaka had told me that it was safe. This place seemed relatively peaceful, just walking around.

Upon thinking about that, my face fell. With a heavy sigh, I dragged my feet forward.

Soon, I came across a wall. A sheer of black draped over the cave exit. The deep stream was running into the void, vanishing as it crossed the border.

"What is this? This is nonsensical."

I reached forward to feel it.

Then, my hand simply passed through the dark wall as if it was air.

"Huh? What the-"

My head suddenly had a thought.

"It couldn't be... that this goes into a pitch dark world?"

I felt goosebumps on my skin. Turning around, I picked up one of the growing mushrooms. It's blue surface felt warm. So warm, my skin felt itchy. Wait.

"Are these like poison ivy?"

I threw the mushroom as far as I could towards the black wall. It passed through the wall and fell.

Down and down, until I didn't see it again.

However, its blue light did reveal a small ridge. And it's long fall revealed that the entire ground was not just flat. In fact, I was at the exit to a massive canyon. The stream turned right and fell off the cliff.

This was the end of a massive ravine trail. Or one could say, the start. The only path was to keep going to the left.

A laugh escaped my lips.

"This is hilarious. I have to navigate a canyon in pitch black darkness? What kind of odds are this!?"

I sighed and turned around to stare at the mushrooms around me.

The mushrooms weren't very bright, but if enough of them were lumped, there might be enough light. The problem was that holding the mushroom made my skin red and itchy.

Something in my gut told me that holding a handful of them would be a stupid idea. 

I snickered.

Poisoned by mushrooms or plummeting thousands of meters to my death? Escaping this canyon without light is impossible, so which fate is kinder?

Noticing my laugh turning rather bitter, I stopped laughing and reached for the mushroom.

I crawled across the ground, holding a bundle of mushrooms near the floor to ensure I could see every trechourous crack that I could trip and fall into.

This is no mere path—it’s a ridge along a vast canyon. And I was pretty far from both the top and the bottom.

I threw a mushroom up to see how tall the wall was, and the poor mushroom did not even find a crack in the canyon. Throwing one down allowed me to see the mushroom fall for a few seconds before vanishing.

Occasionally, there would be caves or so against the wall. Only a fool would venture into those dark holes, unaware if they hide a monster’s lair.

In fact, most of them I had heard strange noises coming from within.

That left me with no other choice but to keep crawling forward. I had been crawling now for 30 minutes, but nothing notable has shown up. I heard eerie, snarling noises from above and below me, but when I looked, there was nothing. 

Strangely, I had a headache. My hand was itching stronger than before, and it was definitely not a normal color. It was blistered as if I touched a burning pan or something.

"I was right, these mushrooms are definitely poisonous."

Muttering under my breath, I sighed and continued crawling.

What was this place? 

The ground was cold sand. I could even pick up a handful of it and throw a dust cloud over the canyon. It vanished relatively fast, as expected when it emitted no light.

Was I just supposed to keep crawling till I died? From what? The cold, the hunger, or a possible hostile monster? The poison mushrooms?

I shivered, tightly hugging my torso with my free arm. At this point, I was crawling like an injured man, wrapped in only my torn T-shirt in this cold ravine.

Then again, running into a monster likely meant instant death.

Some feeling inside me warned me that it would be a terrible idea to create a fire. Why was it only these glowing mushroom inside a cave that emit light? Did creatures down here even need light to see?

Indeed, carrying around light mushrooms not only gave me a headache, but also made me easy prey!

I cursed under my breath and crawled forward. I found myself shivering uncontrollably.

The outside ravine was nowhere as quiet as the inside of the cave. The strange noises came from far above up and far below.

The ledge was fairly wide. I could crawl to the side and it would take me a bit to find the ledge with the glowing mushroom light. Perhaps a hundred meters? Two hundred?

As I crawled, I suddenly stopped. There were footsteps. And they were getting louder.

Suddenly, hope flared into my heard. Was it Ayaka? Was it Kazane? Was it Rei? Was it another person?

Then, my heart fell.

The footsteps were too loud. In fact, they weren't footsteps at all. It was a giant body slithering against the sand.

"H-haha... I knew I would run into one of this things. Still, I got some worth with my cursed life anyways."

My mouth curled into a bitter smile.

In front of me, a lizard with a light glowing body was walking up to me. It's eyes glowed with red, and it licked its jaws, as if hungry for a meal.

Run! Shoot this stupid Abomination from above with a LI shard! Don't just stand there and do nothing!

My body yelled at me.

But truly, I was terrified. I crawled back. And back. Until my back was pressed against the rocky wall.

The wall was ice cold. But I felt strangely warm as I compressed my body, desperately trying to increase our distance by even a centimeter.

I lifted my hand, pointing it towards the lizard. It shook uncontrollably, even when I held it with my other hand.

"Don’t… don’t kill me," I stammered with a voice barely a whisper.

The pile of blue mushroom had fell out of my hand, seperating us. The lizard took a disproving glance at the mushroom. It stepped back a little. 

-But then its belly growled. It was a sickening sound. And the lizard starting walking towards me again, stepping carefully over the mushrooms.

"S-stop."

I bit back a scream. 

Think, damn it, think!

How could I survive this situation!?

The lizard was rather bright in this canyon. If my theory on why things didn't emit light was true, then this lizard was truly no threat. 

If I had an extra minute to stall. 5 seconds was too less.

Instead, I just stared face to face with the lizard. It opened its jaws, ready for its meal.

Then, it's head started glowing. In this pitch darkness, it looked like a supernova. The light shone across the entire canyon. It could probably be seen thousands of miles away.

The lizard's eyes glowed red. It snarled, desperate for food. Then, it lounged forward, its paws reached forward to tear apart my face. 

And that was the last time it moved its head.

A dark shadow swiped down and the bright head vanished. Darkness splashed into the canyon, filling the world with darkness. A cracking sound could be heard, followed by flapping sounds. Then, the canyon went silent.

My body shuddered as I hugged myself. I pressed myself deeper against the rocky wall of the canyon.

"What a miracle... I-it is a damn g-good thing I c-can't make a fire."

It took a while for my nerves to calm down. I had prepared for [Unending Death] to trigger, bracing myself for a brutal death. Yet, by some miracle I had survived.

I uttered a prayer on my knees and pushed myself forward.

There was still a slim light emitting from the lizard. Its head had been torn off clean by the flying abomination in less than a second.

Staring at the dead monster, my stomach growled.

Was food or water a more dangerous killer? Many would love to argue water kills a human faster. But the truth is, water was rather defenseless compared to trying to kill an unknown abomination. I had hoped to find food or else I'd die as a pile of skinny bones repeatedly.

And frankly speaking, water was a lot less of a risk than raw food.

I frowned.

"I could eat it raw... but it sounds like a horrible idea."

Even if I cooked it, how was I supposed to know if that made the meat safe to eat? The [Dark World] seemed to have very little logic similarities with Earth. I had no clue what could happen to me.

Ah science. On Earth, [Unending Death] would be quite a miracle. If only science could have a human test subject that could come back to life no matter what they were given.

"I guess I'm a test subject of some mad scientist? If I'm going to die, might as well make the most use of every death."

I closed my eyes and lifted my hand towards the monster. A dark shard flew out of my hand and pierced into the monster's flesh.

I reached and pulled the shard out, brandishing it in my hand.

The shard felt like... nothing. Almost as if I was grabbing air. Yet, imaginary force exerted out of the shard, preventing my hand from moving through it.

"What is this strange weapon? Well, that's nice. Why bother carrying weapons around when you can summon them out of your hand!"

Slowly, I cut the monster's fur. It was shockingly thick, so it took quite a bit of strength to slash through. But I also thought the thickness was better that way. It would work well as a blanket.

Blood splashed onto my hands, but I didn't care. My shivering body was too happy at the thought of being warm.

After cutting what looked to be a rather large blanket of lizard fur, I started cutting out pieces of its body out. I cut out pieces of fat and threw them aside, focusing on cutting the arms and legs. I threw the ripped chunks of muscles to the side.

And I started praying again, that Earth logic Kazane taught me some time ago was going to apply to this abomination. Well, at worst case, I was just going to die. Probably.

As I cut through the lizard, I studied its inside.

What part of its body was emitting the light?

I didn't have the time to think a lot. I cut apart more parts and found a lose bone. Tugging it out, I found a rather sharp and hard pole.

"This can come useful."

Throwing the bone to the side, I continued to cut through the flesh. Suddenly, my hand felt something warm. Much warmer than the rest of the body.

"Found it."

I reached through where the heart was and pulled out what looked like a slimy crystal. It felt hot and warm in my hand. More importantly, it emit a faint radiance. 

When I pulled it out, the body of the lizard had suddenly became much darker. Now, it was barely more bright than the mushrooms.

"Great, I think I got enough from that. I would like to explore more, but I don't have the time."

I looked at the pile of tendons, the bone, and the fur blanket. 

"Curses, I can't transport all this."

Sitting down again, I cut out a moderately size square. It was much smaller than the blanket, but it was all I needed. I tossed the flesh and bone in there before I stood up.

I held the slimy crystal in front of me.

It was similar to the brightness of the blue mushrooms, now pulled apart from flesh. However, it was much bigger. It's light reached the ground, giving a faint trace of the ground.

I smirked.

"My knees owe this lantern a huge one."

Above me and below me, the scourging noises got louder. It was just as I thought; they were attracted to light, meat and blood.

Well, my body was stained with blood and I was literally carrying a blood sack of flesh and bone. But of course, the dead lizard was tons more blood and tons more flesh.

I quicky shuffled away from the dead monster, hoping the creatures were too stupid to find me.

Eventually, I came across an empty cave. It wasn't very spacious. In fact, it had just enough room for me to lay down and sit up comfortably. Standing was out of question, but I could still stretch a little.

Is this what living in a car trunk felt like? At least I never knew such confinement on Earth!

I threw the bag of monster remains into the cavern to let them dry. Then, I tossed some blue mushrooms against the rag that covered the entrance.

Indeed, I had never thrown the mushrooms away. I just stopped using them as lanterns. I was curious if they actively discouraged the monsters. How come that cave didn't harbor any fearsome creatures? Even that lizard didn't like them. 

"This is the worst natural experiment I've ever seen! Who's shitty idea was this? I better not die!" I thought bitterly, looking at my redden hand.

Alas, an experiment to await results for was better than nothing. I ducked inside the cave and cuddled in the corner, wrapped around in the fur blanket of the dead lizard.

It's texture was rather hard and stiff. It didn't feel anything like a blanket. Well, perhaps a 40 year old one. 

But I did stop shivering and my body felt warm again.

"God, trying not to die is so hard. Is this really what life is like for those without [Unending Death]?"

If I died, my progress of navigating would be reset. I could find myself in that cave and have to travel up this road again. Travel up again but without the miracle of an abomination dying. 

How long had it been? 3 hours? I was also lucky perhaps and met with zero monsters outside the lizard abomination.

More importantly, the communication device. It felt cold and inactive, but I could easily feel it there. If I died again, would I lose all possibility of communicating with Ayaka? If that happened, then it would be pure gamble for us to meet, since we'd need to physically see each other.

Perhaps the reason the device was silent was distance. Yeah, it was probably distance. That way, all I had to do was be in a 1000 kilometer radius or something. If I kept moving around, the signal would be found at some point.

I had seen Ayaka kill the moth abomination, despite how fast that thing was. If she could survive that, compared to the lizard, maybe things weren't too bad.

Or maybe I was just deluding myself to stay alive.

"Ayaka, you're right. When was I such a hero? When was I noble enough to think I could save someone?"

I let out a hollow laugh.

Savior, was it? Saviors were those that saved someone. What is a Savior that failed to save anyone? Are they just a hollow shell of a wish?

A mere, wishful essence that drifted in the infinite horizons.

"In the end, amn't I just a wishful bastard?" I grinned as I reached out to the fur cover. "I'm not upset with life turning out to be a fluke."

I couldn't help but laugh at my situation.

Is this what truly being in the face of death means? Hiding in a cold cave with nothing but a blanket from a dead lizard and some raw tendons. I couldn't even imagine living like this when I was on Earth, but I thought it was rather luxurious after being so cold and huddling across the trail. 

Perhaps this is what true hell looked like.

Endless, bitter, and cold. There was no escape route but a bitter path forward. Earth was falling apart, my [Unending Death] would take me to the same damnation place. I would die over and over again.

No.

[I alone will reach this World's Ending].

Whether Ayaka, Kazane, and Rei died, I would never die. No matter how many times my body was defiled and destroyed, I would be reborn again.

I was a wishful bastard that thought they could do anything. I was a spiteful bastard that hated failing my wishes.

What kind of fate awaited for an undying bastard? If [Undying Death] would always move me to safe places, then when would it ever stop?

-When the world ended.

Then this wishful, spiteful bastard was for sure going to live to bear witness to the world's ending. What other fate could await a useless fool full of vengeance that could never die?

I grinned as I wrapped the fur coat around me.

"This was way cooler." 

Outside, a small distant red light slowly rose.