'Ah.'

The instant Crimson raised her hand, Yuto knew what was about to happen. He also knew resistance was impossible. But he could not simply do nothing. Cradling Flokiro's fallen body in his arms, he turned his head.

He looked at Gaon and Rugil. Both wore expressions of pure admiration. Yuto had killed Evil, the owner of the colosseum. They were not the only ones reacting to it. Gladiators, Evomon, jailers—everyone was staring at him in astonishment. And in their eyes was a certain hope.

It was because she had said they should stop here. Perhaps this nightmare would finally end. Many of them hoped so, but Yuto knew better. Crimson Ringmistress. That cruel monster would not show mercy merely because she was satisfied. Hadn't she said so herself?

Only those who pleased Crimson would live. Saying they should stop here because she doubted she would see anything more entertaining meant she expected nothing from the rest of them.

"R..."

Yuto opened his mouth.

"Run..."

Before he could finish, a crimson storm swept through the colosseum.

There were no screams. They were not even given time to scream. The instant the blood-red aether descended on the colosseum, every sound ceased.

The humans and Evomon desperately killing one another to survive. The jailers swinging their weapons. The slaves trembling beneath corpses.

All of them were swallowed by the blood-red aether. Yuto watched, his eyes wide. Gaon and Evil, approaching him with bright smiles, disintegrated in the aether. They did not even realize they were dying.

The same was true of Jackie. The corpse concealing him turned to dust first, and Jackie beneath it followed a moment later.

"Ah..."

Yuto looked down at Flokiro in his arms. Gravely wounded, the creature was looking up at him, gasping for breath. Even now, Flokiro felt relieved to have protected him.

Amid that relief, the aether ate into Flokiro's body. In Yuto's arms, it crumbled into dust and blood. The remains flared with light, then became a fist-sized Evostone.

"Ah, aaah—no...!"

In despair, Yuto clutched Flokiro's Evostone. At that moment, the crimson storm subsided.

No life remained in the colosseum except Yuto. Human bodies had been broken into fine dust and scattered, leaving only spilled blood, clothing, and possessions pooled on the ground. All the Evomon lay on the floor as Evostones.

SCUFF.

As Yuto stared blankly at the scene, a footstep reached his ears. Stiffly, he turned to look behind him. Crimson Ringmistress. The monster who had turned this colosseum into a killing ground, forced its inhabitants to struggle for their lives, then killed them all because she had lost interest. She had descended into the colosseum and was smiling brightly.

"Congratulations."

Crimson stood with a hand on her hip, tilting her head as she looked down at Yuto.

"How many people and creatures were there in all? More than a hundred, I think, and you're the only one left alive. How does it feel?"

"Ugh..."

Trembling all over, Yuto staggered to his feet. Don't. You'll die. His instincts warned him, but he ignored them. The emotions boiling inside him were too fierce to endure.

"Aaaaaah!"

Yuto charged at Crimson with a wild scream. There was no calculation, no judgment. The knowledge that the monster was in an entirely different league, that attacking her would only get him killed—all of it vanished.

Kill her. That impulse alone consumed him. He swung his sword with all his strength, aiming for Crimson's neck.

TICK.

Crimson caught the blade lightly between two fingers. The smile in her red eyes deepened. Yuto twisted the captured sword, but it did not budge. Immediately abandoning it, he lunged at Crimson barehanded.

His hand reached for her throat, only to cut uselessly through empty air. Crimson leaned back slightly, watching him with a giggle. The instant he lunged again, a hand closed around his throat too swiftly for him even to react.

"Ghk...!"

Her slender arm lifted him as though he were a toy. His throat constricted. His breath stopped, and red spread across his vision. Yuto seized Crimson's arm and thrashed, but it did not move an inch.

"Why are you so angry?" Crimson asked with a smile.

"You survived. I came to congratulate you on that. So why do you keep attacking me?"

"K..."

Yuto barely forced a voice from his constricted throat.

"Kill... I'll... kill you...!"

"Ahaha."

Crimson burst out laughing.

"And how are you going to kill me? You know I could snap your neck right now with just a little squeeze."

Yuto did not answer. His wide eyes glared at Crimson. Meeting his gaze, her smile deepened. There was no fear in those eyes, no pleading. Only murderous intent. The boy's life was in her hands, yet all he could think of was killing her, in utter earnest.

He would kill her.

Even if not now, even if not today, he would kill her someday without fail. That voiceless cry, that fierce intent to kill, pierced Crimson.

"Ahaha..."

Crimson's red eyes curved with delight.

"Good, good. I like that very much."

Crimson released him. Yuto fell to the ground, but even as he gasped and choked for air, he lunged straight at her again. As he tried to grab her leg, she kicked him in the head. She could have burst his head open with that blow, but chose not to.

Yuto tumbled across the ground. Still refusing to give up, he tried to charge again, but Crimson strode over and stamped down on his chest.

"Take this."

Looking down at Yuto, Crimson raised her hand. Red light gathered into a small card. She dropped it beside his face and whispered,

"An invitation to my arena."

Crimson bent down to look at him up close. His face contorted with rage and hatred, his eyes brimming with murderous intent. All of it sent a shiver of pleasure through her.

"You're dull as you are now, but I like those eyes. So... grow stronger and come find me. Don't forget that desire to kill me. Become strong enough to do it."

Her radiant smile, filled with genuine anticipation, burned itself into Yuto's retinas.

"I'll be waiting."

Crimson dissolved into red mist and vanished.

Yuto was left alone in the empty colosseum. Lying on the ground, he clenched his teeth.

He had been unable to do anything. Of course, he had known that would happen. However desperately he fought, as he was now he could not inflict even the smallest wound on the monster called Crimson Ringmistress.

'I will...'

Clutching the chest Crimson had trampled, Yuto rose.

'I will kill her. Without fail.'

It felt as though this was not the first time he had harbored such murderous intent. Today should have been his first encounter with Crimson, yet he felt a powerful sense of déjà vu. He knew Crimson. This was different from merely having heard her name. He knew her, hated her, and had wanted to kill her. No—he had actually killed her.

When Crimson had seized his throat and struck him down, memories had drifted through his mind. A burning arena. In its midst, a smiling face with a hand clamped around its throat. A woman who did not utter a single groan even as a sword pierced her chest, whose smile only grew brighter as she rejoiced in her own death.

'Am I seeing the future? Or... is all of this just my imagination?'

No matter how hard he thought, he could not tell. Clenching his teeth, Yuto turned his head. Bright red blood pooled throughout the colosseum. That was all Gaon and Rugil had left behind.

"Ngh...!"

He had known them for less than a week. They had no great memories together. But in this nightmare, far from attacking him, they had stepped forward to protect him. And what had he done? He had failed to protect them.

"I'll... avenge you."

That was the only vow he could make to the two dead boys. Only then did Yuto realize he knew nothing about Gaon and Rugil except their names. Biting his lip, he seized the invitation Crimson had left behind.

Flokiro.

When Evomon died, they returned to Evostones, and awakening an Evostone required a great deal of aether. Put another way, if he could replenish its aether, he could bring the Evomon back. Yuto staggered over and picked up Flokiro's Evostone. The pale red stone held a faint warmth.

"Flokiro..."

Yuto called that name. He did not know how he had learned it. But of this he was certain: this little stone had thrown itself into danger to protect him. It always had, time and time again. Gripping Flokiro's Evostone tightly, he turned.

The colosseum's walls were high, with no stairs leading up them. Yuto approached the spot where Evil's corpse had been. Beneath her clothes, stained with dirt and blood, lay a golden key. He took it first, then headed for the barred gate through which the gladiators had entered.

Evil's key did not match the shape of the gate's keyhole, but strangely, the lock opened by itself the instant he held it out. As befitted a key belonging to the colosseum's owner, it seemed able to open every door inside.

'First... get outside.'

Yuto walked with only that thought in mind.

There were no survivors.

The red light Crimson had unleashed had not killed only the gladiators in the colosseum. It had killed the jailers and slaves who had not been there as well. All of them. Blood and clothing littered the underground passages as proof. Ignoring them, Yuto moved on, opening doors with Evil's key.

As he walked underground, he felt that sense of déjà vu again. This had happened before. He had lost everything, survived alone... and walked beneath the earth. He almost thought he could hear whispers from very far away.

[Starting Quest: Escape this place.]

[Reward: ???]

A screen flickered at the edge of his vision. Things had not gone according to his plan, but in the end, Yuto had gained the means to escape the colosseum.

'If I escape this place... will I learn something?'

At the end of the underground passage was a staircase leading up. Swallowing hard, Yuto climbed it.

An iron door stood at the top. When he opened it with Evil's key, a gust of cold wind struck his face.

Outside, it was night. The air was cold and clear, nothing like the stale underground air. Without realizing it, Yuto drew a deep breath. The chilly night air seeped into lungs stained with blood and dust.

He stared outside in a daze. Gravestones stood in rows. A cemetery on the outskirts of the city. Hundreds of headstones lined up silently beneath the moonlight, and the door he had emerged through was the back entrance of an old charnel house in one corner.

'A cemetery...'

Beneath the resting place of the dead, the living had struggled to kill one another. The thought felt like a vicious mockery.

No, perhaps it was fitting. Those who had died below would never have so much as a gravestone. Gaon, Rugil, Jackie, and all the others whose names he did not know, who had not even left corpses behind—the underground colosseum connected to this cemetery was itself their tomb.

Clenching his teeth, Yuto stepped forward.

One step.

The instant his foot left the charnel house's shadow and touched the cemetery soil—

BZZT.

[Quest complete.]

[Reward: ???]

A pitch-black screen appeared before his eyes. The text, concealed behind question marks from the beginning, warped with static. The entire screen shuddered as if it would shatter. Then the question marks broke apart, revealing new words within.

[Reward: the Void (Void)]

The Void.

The instant those words appeared, something throbbed powerfully in the center of Yuto's chest. It was not his heart beating. Somewhere deeper than his heart, at what could only be called the foundation of his existence, something was awakening.

"Ghk...?!"

Yuto clutched his chest and dropped to his knees. Pitch-black darkness rose from its center, leaking out like smoke and winding around his body.

Cold, dark, and unfathomably deep. It was a power unlike anything else in this world.

'What is this...?'

It felt as though his entire heart had frozen, then burst into flame again, as though his very existence was being torn apart and remade. Pain like every drop of blood in his body being replaced with something black. Static crackled in his ears, strange noise that seemed not to belong to this world. Through the gaps in that noise, Yuto heard a voice.

["—Remember."]

It was a girl's thin voice.

["Who you are."]

His vision went black. He could no longer see the moonlight, the starlight, or the gravestones. Only pitch-black darkness stretched endlessly before him. Beyond that darkness stood a girl with jet-black hair. Her black eyes gazed at Yuto.

["Why you had to return."]

Who are you? The question never became a voice, only echoed inside him. His heart pounded, beat after beat, mingling with the girl's voice. In a field of vision occupied by nothing but darkness and the girl, a new screen appeared.

[Status function unlocked.]

[Void Skill function unlocked.]

[Status Window.]

Level: 1

Health: 10

Aether: 10

Strength: 10

Agility: 10

Charisma: 10

Remaining Points: 100

Void Skills:

Void Step: LV1.

Void Touch: LV1.

His heart pounded, beat after beat.

Beyond the screen that had abruptly appeared, the darkness warped with static. It split apart, and scenes that were not reality flashed past.

A burning kingdom. A collapsing castle. A blond man holding a sword drenched in blood. A woman lying dead before him. A girl slumped on the floor, bursting into tears. An Evomon knight charging with a howl. Walking underground, spilling blood onto the floor, finally collapsing—and a pitch-black tentacle driven into his chest.

'This is...'

Yuto desperately reached toward those scenes, but though they seemed about to return to him, they would not. Though they seemed within reach, he could not touch them. Every image spreading through the darkness shattered and scattered into static.

'Are these... my memories?'

Emotions seethed. A fierce urge to destroy something, to kill, surged inside him. Rage, hatred, murderous intent. Those emotions filled him completely.

The thinning darkness was sucked into Yuto's body. In terrible pain, he fell forward onto the ground and clutched his chest.

CRACK...!

Something broke inside him. Then the darkness that had been drawn into him became two hands, surging from his back like wings. They grasped at the air as though trying to seize the sky and crush it.

His consciousness grew distant. He had escaped the colosseum, yet the questions never ended. Amid his mental turmoil, the darkness ran wild. The black hands moved of their own accord, yearning to seize and crush something, while beneath them Yuto struggled to hold his collapsing mind together.

"Hmm."

Someone approached him.

It was a woman wearing a black blindfold, her long ears unlike a human's. Approaching barefoot, she lowered the liquor bottle from her lips and stared at Yuto. But he could neither notice her gaze nor lift his head. This enormous power that had entered him would not obey.

"Hey, boy."

The woman secured her bottle at her waist and approached with light steps.

"You seem to be in trouble. Shall I lend you a hand?"

He could not even answer. All Yuto could do was grit his teeth and desperately suppress the power and impulses threatening to run wild, the fierce emotions that had followed his memories. At his silence, the woman shrugged.

"Hmm, no answer. Then I'll do as I please."

The woman strode toward him. At that instant, a black hand rising from Yuto lunged at her. She gave a faint laugh and moved her hand.

BANG!

A casual sweep of the back of her hand tore the darkness to shreds.

"Boy, you..."

Her hand reached his chest through the torn darkness.

"...owe me a debt."

The rampaging darkness went dormant in an instant and returned inside Yuto. At the same time, his consciousness cut out. Hoisting his limp body over her shoulder, the woman murmured,

"The Void."

She narrowed her eyes and tilted her head.

"Fate truly is inscrutable."

Yuto did not hear those words.