A mysterious mist floated on the island, where nothing but the desert wind could be heard blowing on the rough surfaces of rock.

Where the hell was I?

The worser part, I could barely feel my body. It was excruciatingly light, and yet I had no muscle to move it. It was almost as if I was a ghost.

Then, a familiar voice called from behind me.

"Congratulations on surviving hell."

I turned around to find Saria looking at me with grim eyes.

She was still in dressed in her white robe. Her long blond hair fell to the ground. Her brown eyes were rough as she curled her mouth into a smirk.

"I'm surprised, to be honest. I never expected you to actually survive that."

"...Me neither."

I thought about the times in the tower with Kazane, the final showdown with Khosrow, and all the rest of the times I almost gave up.

A miracle indeed.

Saria chuckled as sand scraped against her robe.

Suddenly, I frowned.

"Wait. How am I talking to you?"

I dug through my memories, looking for a possible way Saria summoned me. 

The last memory I recalled was staring at the sleeping Ayaka, Kazane, and Rei. Then, when I blinked, I woke up in this place.

"What the heck? Did I seriously fall asleep when I told Ayaka I would keep guard?"

Instantly, a groan escaped my lips, and I buried my face into my hands.

"Of course... the last time I slept peacefully this happened too."

"Well you found out the conditions for me talking to you." Saria replied with a grin.

I glanced at her.

"Why does it need to be when I'm asleep?"

"Don't you think it would be horrifying if your body randomly became a ghost while people were watching?"

"...That's what happening to my real body right now!?"

My teeth clenched involuntarily.

Seeing my tense response, Saria raised her hands.

"Relax. No harm is being done to your body. Besides, the ghost effect goes away an hour after you entered this stance anyways, so no one will know."

"That's not very reassuring," I grumbled.

The ghost effect sounded rather similar to how my Unending Death transformed my body.

To be honest, while I enjoyed the opportunities Unending Death gave me, I despised using it. Not because I thought it was cheating but it was just...

Really, really, painful.

I mean, imagine what sort of torture you could put a creature that never dies through. The thought of being captured by Khosrow gave me shivers.

Saria turned away.

"I'm glad you survived, Ayato. But the Path you chose is a very, very arduous path. Your journey ahead is going to be miserable."

Hearing those words, a deep frown crossed my face.

"The Path I chose?"

Saria was silent.

I slowly turned my head, observing the large dry desert around us. Come to think about it, the last time we had talked was in a star void. Why had our surroundings changed if our communication is through a mystic channel?

As a thought slowly formed in my head, Saria interrupted me and shook her head.

"I thought I told you before, I can read through your memories and thoughts, but when I open the connection, I can’t. So if you have questions, you oughta ask them."

"Ack, I forgot about that."

I grimaced, realizing the bitter nature of our relationships. In my heart that she couldn't see right now, I secretly hoped that Saria would never be one of my enemies.

Indeed, I had plenty of questions for her. Too much of them, in fact.

"What the hell do you mean by Path? How is it dangerous?"

Bitterness danced in Saria's eye as she gave me a dark smile.

"Right now, you don't want to know what a Pathway is. But I will say, your next few months will be rather bitter."

"Next few months?"

"Indeed. Didn't you see the starry night when we met previously? Now you brought us into these deserts."

"---"

"Though, I suppose your choice is a better solution I guess. I just didn't know you wanted to bring this much pain on yourself to fight for a cause you don't even know about."

A sigh escaped my lips. Saria felt like she was rambling a lot. Truly, I didn't understand a bit of what she was saying.

I glared at Saria.

"Hey, why can you see through all my memories but I can't see any of yours? Don't you think that is rather unfair?"

Suddenly, Saria laughed. She pressed a finger against her temple and gazed at me with a funny look.

"I'm obviously hiding them. If you attained more knowledge than your body could hold, it would literally explode."

"L-literally explode? T-that sounds rather ominous."

"Did you think the Darkened World was nice? Let's see how many power shards you have... Aha! It is merely 1. A rank 1 body. If I share even one fragment of my 201 memory fragments, you would never wake up. Even Unending Death won't save you!"

A shiver ran down my spine.

"W-why would that be the case? How does learning memories get one destroyed?"

"See, your memories get fragmented into a shards. In your case, you have enough knowledge for it to be considered 2 shards, a nice notable improvement from the one very little shard you had when I first saw you."

I bit back a laugh that almost escaped my throat. The 15+ years of being a human just got told they were less useful than 2 weeks of dying. I shook my head.

"Then what would happen if I somehow gained enough memories to get a new shard?"

"You'd be long killed by the Inferno or the Cursed of the world before you even came close."

Hearing Saria's curt response, I frowned.

"Inferno? Cursed?"

"Surely, you didn't think those Shaangs were actually hard right? Because if you did, there might not be hope for you."

Saria watched my confused face and let out a laugh.

"Anyway, I don't want to tell you too much. If natural forces won't combust your brain, racking it yourself too hard will turn you old real fast. But I will tell you this."

She leaned closer to me. And then, a dark shadow began casting itself down onto where we stood.

"Truth is, nobody cares about power. You could be a rank 8 that is far more useless than a rank 4 with a fully saturated knowledge pool."

The world around me seemed to be getting darker and darker. 

"W-why is knowledge so damned in this world?"

Saria grinned and leaned closer. Even though I was just a ghost, my skin tingled as her face stood 2 inches from mine.

"Because only intelligent beings can realize that their world is damned."

Suddenly, the dark shadow descended on the rocky desert.

"Because only intelligent beings can realize that their world is damned."

Instantly, my body shot up. My heart pounded in my ribcage as I clutched my chest. A dark shard had formed in my hand.

And I was immediately greeted with the sound of snoring.

In front of me, Ayaka, Rei, and Kazane were sleeping.

A sigh escaped my chest. I leaned back against the tree and looked at the sky.

"Thank goodness nothing happened while I was out."

I stared at my hands. I was a GIRUS and not a KRS. What was the difference? Well, a GIRUS was something that wanted to kill KRS. But what was a GIRUS that didn't kill KRS?

That wasn't the only think I was confused about.

Paths, Corrupted, Inferno, Knowledge, Ranks.

What the hell did it all mean?

What did Saria mean that the Path was full of crap?

What was the meaning of that last line she had said?

So much bullshit!

I leaned my head against the tree, trying to make peace with the dizziness that settled in my head.

At the end, there was one clear message Saria was telling me.

Knowledge was dangerous.

Attaining it was hard. Maintaining it was hard.

[Darkened World] was the name Saria had given it. Did a whole universe really exist all below the Earth? How the hell did that happened?

But I shook my head, heeding Saria's advice.

There were things that I shouldn't know of.

The last thing I was thinking of was her mention of Ranks and power shards. Whatever the hell was a power shard?

I stared at the sleeping bodies of Rei and Ayaka, and a sigh escaped my lips.

"I guess I'll have to wait when these guys are awake... Well, they say curiosity kills the cat."

As sunlight peeked through the canopy, I heard yawn behind me. Turning around, I found Kazane awake, staring at my back. Her short brown hair fell onto her T-shirt.

Upon waking up, Kazane frowned.

"Ayato?"

"Yeah, that's me? Oh, that's the first time I haven't been called a nickname yet!"

"By the way Kazane..." I growled in sync with my rumbling stomach. "What the hell are we supposed to be eating... I didn't even eat a single meal yesterday."

Shortly after, Ayaka and Rei woke up.

We sat around the bushes as we ate bread buns and canned meat.

Where did this food come from?

It turns out, there were equipment in the world. Rei had a magical necklace that summoned a mysterious storage box out of thin air.

'If you had that much storage, then why did you let Ayaka pack her juice boxes in it' was what I was about to ask. But when I saw what was inside, I realized that question didn't make sense.

Rather, the contents of the chest were stuffed to the brim with various survival supplies. Rations and water, even a few swords and armor.

And also, 6 more packs of the healing drink.

"Absurd. Absolutely absurd." I muttered.

As I ate, I dreamed of having such an magical chest equipment. I was tempted to asked Rei where he got the relics, but decided to ask later. Sometime after, Rei left to scout while Kazane was practicing her wind ability on the deadstill trees.

At the end, I was left with just Ayaka.

She watched Kazane practice as she sat on the grass. Her loosely fit cyan jacket draped over her slim build and rested on her gray shorts. 

"The last time we were alone like this and talked peacefully, you uttered something about the downfall of the city right? How the hell did you know?"

"Downfall of the city? Oh, I remember vaguely saying something like that."

Ayaka blinked. She turned her head to face me.

"In truth, it was very easy to guess. Khosrow appeared several weeks ago in the park. Does it not imply something is deeply wrong?"

"How so?"

"'How so' you say? Either GRS know I'm up here or hell on Earth is coming. Aha, I'm too sneaky for those bastards to know where I am so by some god's hand they happened to find me when scouting."

"Hell on Earth?"

I shivered.

"By the way... is the shelter you and Rei are talking about more dangerous than Khosrow's siege on the city?"

"Depends on where you go," Ayaka replied with a shrug. "To be honest, Khosrow's siege is not remotely close bad compared to where you could end up."

I frowned. Now that I think about it, Rei had never called it a safe shelter. Just a shelter.

"Then how is it a safe shelter?"

"What does safe mean anyways? It is just a mere comparison to how dangerous the places outside of it can be."

"God help me with this logic... There isn't another Khosrow waiting for us, is there?"

"Not at the entrance, no."

"..."

I bit back a frustrated scream.

What the hell did she mean that 'safe'? It seemed to be even more dangerous than just fighting Khosrow, Forna, and the Shaangs. At least it seemed... predictable.

I sighed and glanced at the place we ran from. 

"You might not get it now. But in a bit you probably will."

Ayaka hugged her knees and murmered quietly.

I turned to face her. 

"By the way, take this."

"What? Take what?"

"This."

Ayaka reached out to me and placed a silver piece of paper into my hand. Her fingertips felt cold as they pressed against my palm before she pulled her hand away.

I observed the device she left.

It was not paper, rather a thin slice of metal with an intricite wiring on top. Wiring? No, it looked more like thin paint. Beneath the 'wires', black letters were etched on it, spelling COMM.

"What kind of equipment is this?"

"It is a togglable equipment. When you use it, it vanishes, though you can deactivate it and summon it out."

"...What does it do? Is this some communication chip?"

"Indeed. It is a Tier I equipment that creates a private messaging channel between the two of us."

"A Tier I equipment? The hell does that mean?"

"It means it's really powerful. But I dunno, I'm sure there's a lot more to it than just a chat. But from what I was allowed to read, it was a simple communication device."

I stared at the chip. Was it really that powerful of a device?

Suddenly, there was a blue flash of light. When the flash cleared, me and Ayaka stared at each other. The chip in my hand was gone.

[Ayaka: "Oh, it worked."]

A sound rang in my head. Even though all that I heard was a voice, my head felt with certainty that it was Ayaka's. 

[Ayato: "..."]

Even more strange, responding to her felt natural, as if talking to myself.

[Ayaka: "I'm suprised it accepted you. Though, I had a feeling it would."]

[Ayato: "What do you mean 'accepted'? Does this not work on everyone?"]

[Ayaka: "...No. I've given it to many, including Rei. But it never activated."]

She chewed her lips. Then, she sighed.

[Ayaka: "It seems we are linked though."]

[Ayato: "Surely, there are restrictions on this item? Like, if we get far enough apart? Or use it too much?"]

[Ayaka: "...I'm not sure. I've never gotten the chance to test it. It never worked on anyone after all."]

My head was clear of Ayaka for a second. Suddenly, she spoke aloud.

"Let's not rely on these too much and forget how to talk?"

"Y-yeah..."

Seeing my response, Ayaka smiled. She turned around to watch Kazane.

Suddenly, my pocket vibrated.

"What the hell is this?"

I mumbled and reached into my pocket. Inside, I felt a familiar hard metal.

"My phone!"

What the hell? How did this still work? How did it not get lost when my [Unending Death] triggered?

Giggly, I reached inside my pocket to see a call.

[Father]

Kotaro Hinode

What? How did he not call earlier? Is this really him?

Immediately, I pressed the answer call button. 

Then, my father's face popped up on the phone screen.

"Dad!" I yelled with a grin.

"Oh Ayato, you're alive! I geniunely didn't think this was going to work... What a stroke of luck. Anyways, I'm glad you are well enough to answer, but where are you right now?"

I sighed, glancing around.

"Well, I ran north of the city into a forest. We're just resting for a bit. I heard that there was a safe shelter up here."

My father's face suddenly brightened.

"Ah? So I didn't have to worry about that at all? Amazing... wait. Where did you hear that from?"

A frown had suddenly crossed his face.

"Did you run into Khosrow?"

I nodded.

My father grimaced. Then he shrugged.

"Oh well, I guess I shouldn't be too concerned since I don't see hell breaking around you. What about Kazane? Is she safe as well?"

"Yeah, Kazane is safe."

"Oh, that's good to hear. I figured you'd be able to do it. You are my son after all."

There was a pause as we stared to each other. Then, I spoke.

"What about you two? Did you guys manage to find a safe place?"

"You bet we are! Your mom and I are rather powerful! Er, escaping Forna did take some work but we managed to head find a temporary safe place."

"You guys did what?"

I rubbed my temples, recalling my interaction with Forna. 

How the hell? Forna didn't even lift a finger to kill me. Only god knows what she even looks like when trying to kill someone.

"Escaping Forna? How the hell do you do that... At any rate, where is this safe place you guys are at?"

"Oh, it's in a cave. That should be where your safe location is?"

"It's suppose to be a cave? I-I didn't know that."

My father grimaced. 

"You don't know what the safe location is? Well, if you heard it by word of mouth, I suppose that's not unlikely."

"Actually, Rei and Ayaka are guiding us there."

The moment I spoke up their names, I wondered if it was a mistake.

My father's face fell, and he rubbed his temples.

"Ah, I totally forgot they were here too."

"I-is there a problem dad?"

"Of course! What the hell is this bullshit?" my father growled.

I shivered at his tone. When I had first talked about Ayaka and Rei with him, he didn't seem to have a significant issue. But now, it was as if he didn't want me near them.

Sighing, my father leaned back against the limestone wall of the cave.

"Well, I've got nothing to say, really. Just gotta say, prepare for living hell. Also, pray a lot. You'll need it."

Suddenly, a chill ran down my spine. It was the second time I recieved a warning about hell.

What was going to happen?

Then, I remembered Saria's warning about knowledge. Was it possible that neither of them could say anything because they knew it would get me killed?

So instead, I took a deep breath and asked.

"How does the world look around you dad?"

Sighing and shaking his head, he turned away.

"Forna's gone, Khosrow's going to be gone, all the Shaang will be gone. This place is rather peaceful now that all those bastards left."

"Really? They just left?"

"Well what are they going to do? Stay longer and try to find Ayaka? It's too risky."

"Oh? Will they come back? If not, we can hide there and wait until the time is returned. Then, maybe we can go back to the home, get everything and train."

A slimmer of hope filled my heart. I didn't leave my home in peace last time. Maybe I'd get a chance to collect all the stuff I wanted. And... suprisingly, return back to a normal life.

Coolness was fun, but I was going to get burned out.

Suddenly, my father's expression fell. 

Instead of agreeing with me, my father shook his head. He glared at me with a cold expression.

"Oh dear. They won't come back but that certainly won't work."

I flinched in response to his sharp tone. My father continoued:

"Have you wondered why Khosrow and Forna came up and activated the time pendulum?"

"Time Pendulum? You mean the thing that froze all humans but us? It was to kill us right?"

"Yes. Do you know what else it does? It prevents any materials from the [Dark World] to affect any pre-existing surface structures while any KRS are alive."

"I thought that was just because they didn't want humans to interfer with their killing session."

A dark laugh escaped my father's mouth.

"Do you think Khosrow is afraid of surface crawlers? He's fought the horrors of hell. No, they're doing a favor to humanity, actually."

Catching his breath, my father looked at me with a solumn expression. 

"Ayato. The surface world is about to abolished by flames. Run below while you still can."

Then, the phone screen went dark.

And a fiery beam of orange shot across the sky.