He dreamed.

In his dream, Yuto was the king of a nation, a hero, a husband, and a father.

He did not know the name of the kingdom he ruled. He knew neither the faces nor the names of his wife and daughter.

One thing was clear, however: it was not a dream of unbroken happiness. In the dream, Yuto fought constantly and yearned for something.

What had he been fighting for?

Even that was hazy. But whenever a battle ended, there were things that welcomed him home.

Laughter.

Warm hands.

A small weight nestling into his arms.

He could not see their faces. Their voices were too muffled to make out. Yet that warmth alone was vivid. Yuto fought to protect it and survived so he could return to it.

He had been happy.

Surely, he must have been happy.

But at the end of the dream, the world turned red.

Songs of celebration became screams. Wineglasses shattered, and the kingdom's banners burned. The once-warm hand grew cold and fell limp against the floor, while the small weight that had nestled into his embrace receded into the distance in someone else's arms.

Yuto reached out, but could not touch them. He shouted something at the top of his lungs. The names most precious to him in all the world. But in the dream, even his own voice was muffled, and he could not tell what names he was calling.

A blond man stared at Yuto with a bloodstained sword in hand.

In the sky, the stars laughed.

They cackled and clapped, looking down on everything as it crumbled.

It had been amusing, they said. It had been fun.

So now, let it end.

"Hah...!"

Yuto opened his eyes.

His heart was racing, and his entire body was drenched in cold sweat. Gasping for breath, he glared into empty space.

An old ceiling came into view.

'A ceiling...?'

He slowly turned his head. Logs crackled in a fireplace, and it was still dark outside the window. He seemed to be in a cabin somewhere. He lay on an old straw-filled bed beneath a thick blanket.

'Why am I here?'

The things he had seen before losing consciousness. The cemetery he had emerged into after escaping the underground colosseum. The moon and stars in the night sky. And the screen announcing that he had completed the quest. The girl standing beyond the darkness.

'It wasn't... a dream.'

His heart thudded, beat after beat. Yuto laid a hand over his chest. He could vividly feel the lingering sensation of the “power” that had taken root in his body before he lost consciousness.

'The Void...?'

The reward he had received for the quest. Yuto searched his memories of that moment. He had definitely seen a screen saying that the Status and Void Skill functions had been unlocked.

The instant he recalled it, a pitch-black screen appeared before his eyes.

[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.

'What... is this...?'

This was his reward for the quest to escape the colosseum. For a moment, Yuto stared blankly at the screen labeled “Status Window.” Strangely, as he gazed at it, he found that he understood what the words meant.

'This makes no sense, but...'

Hesitantly, he focused his mind on the status window.

[Would you like to allocate points?]

New text appeared on the screen. Just as Yuto flinched and hesitated, the closed door burst open.

"You're awake."

The woman who entered wore a pitch-black eye patch and carried a paper bag. Despite having come in from outside, she was barefoot, without so much as a shoe, and held a liquor bottle in one hand. A black patch covered her left eye, perhaps because something was wrong with it, and her ears were longer than a human's. Yuto stared at her blankly for a moment.

"I know perfectly well that I am beautiful, but you'll embarrass me if you stare so."

The woman shrugged and strode inside. Yuto watched her with his mouth hanging open before finally managing to speak.

"Who... are you...?"

"Hmm. You might have started with a word of thanks, yet you go straight to demanding my name. What an ill-mannered boy."

With a soft chuckle, she dropped into a chair near the bed.

"Well, I am a kindly soul, so I would like to answer your question. But I have so many names, I hardly know which to choose... Hmm, yes. Better to make up a new one altogether. Child, you may call me 'Sariel' from now on."

"Sariel...?"

"Consider yourself honored. I invented it just now, for your sake."

The woman, Sariel, chuckled as she opened her liquor bottle and raised it to her lips. After taking a few swallows, she looked straight at Yuto and asked,

"Now, I have told you my name. It is your turn to tell me yours. What is your name, child?"

Yuto did not answer immediately. He remained silent for a moment. Sariel struck him as deeply suspicious: she had appeared out of nowhere, offered an alias without prompting, and made no attempt even to hide that it was an alias. Sensing the tension and suspicion in his gaze, she chuckled.

"Impudent little thing. I saved your life, and you won't even tell me your name?"

"You... saved me?"

Yuto faltered through the question, clutching his head. Only then did he remember. Right after the quest ended and the unknown power called the “Void” entered his body, that power had run wild in response to his surging emotions. He had been unable to control it; instead, it had been crushing him.

Sariel was the one who had appeared and subdued him. Gathering his confused thoughts, Yuto spoke.

"My name is... Yuto. Thank you for your help."

"Hmm, so you aren't entirely without manners. But that is hardly enough thanks. Child, I even changed you out of those rags. Did you know that?"

Sariel snickered and raised the bottle to her lips again. At her words, Yuto lifted the blanket to check his clothes. The garments that had been filthy with blood and dirt had been replaced with clean ones. But before he could thank her for that, he started and felt frantically inside his clothes.

Flokiro's Evostone was gone. Watching his alarm, Sariel took something out.

"Looking for this?"

A red Evostone rested in Sariel's hand. It was Flokiro's. In the firelight, it gave off a soft red glow.

"I had a look because it intrigued me. I couldn't identify its species, you see. I considered pocketing it and playing innocent, but my pockets are quite full already."

"What... do you mean?"

"That underground place you crawled out of."

Sariel chuckled and tossed Flokiro's Evostone to him. Yuto hastily caught it in both hands.

"Not a living soul remained. The humans had become pools of blood, and the Evomon lay scattered about as Evostones. There was so much treasure left without an owner that I kindly became its new one."

"..."

"Surely you aren't about to claim ownership? You certainly don't look like the owner of that place. Finders keepers, as they say. If you wanted those things, you should have brought them out with you."

"Aren't you going to ask?" Yuto spoke up. "What happened in there, I mean."

"It wasn't your doing, of course. You couldn't possibly have done such a thing."

Sariel shrugged and lifted the bottle to her mouth.

"I can guess well enough. I sensed Crimson Ringmistress, that savage monster. The creatures in the colosseum must have died at her hands... while you survived on a whim of hers, I imagine."

As she spoke, Sariel took something else from inside her clothes. It was the invitation Crimson had given Yuto.

"The Arena of Blood. I hardly know whether to call you lucky or unlucky. You did survive that place in the end, but receiving this invitation means you caught that monster's eye. Child, one day you will go there and become her prey."

"..."

Without answering, Yuto chewed his lip. After taking back the invitation Sariel offered him, he staggered out of bed.

"Thank you... for helping me."

"Only words of thanks? I prefer something more tangible than words."

"I have nothing right now. Later... if I am ever able to repay your kindness, I will."

Yuto bowed his head, then tried to walk unsteadily past her. Watching him quietly, Sariel spoke.

"Where do you intend to go?"

"... I don't know."

"Ahaha! You mean to leave without even knowing where to go? Why? Do you think I am going to eat you?"

Chuckling, Sariel caught his wrist.

"Well, don't be in such a hurry. There is much I want to ask you... and perhaps I could even help you, don't you think?"

"I have nothing with which to repay your kindness."

"Perhaps you will later. I am not an impatient woman. You seem to find even moving difficult, so sit down for now."

Yuto's body sailed effortlessly toward the bed. Despite being flung through the air, he landed without any great impact. Bewildered by the strange sensation, he stared at Sariel.

"Let us talk first. Child, where did you come from? I am not asking for the obvious answer of the colosseum. Where were you before you came there?"

"I don't... know."

"You don't know?"

"No, I truly don't. I... have no memories from before the colosseum."

Sariel narrowed her eye at his answer. Setting down her bottle, she stroked her chin and studied him with a curious look.

"You don't seem to be lying. But child, this world is far too harsh to wander through without even your memories. Were you going to leave without so much as knowing that?"

"Perhaps my memories will return as I wander."

"Ahaha! How carefree and vague. Very well, I understand what you want. I shall take you along myself, so rest for the remainder of today."

"Pardon?"

Flustered, Yuto spoke as Sariel rose after making her unilateral declaration.

"What do you mean?"

"Hmm. I don't believe I said anything so difficult to understand. Shall I repeat myself? I said I would take you along. Until your memories return and you are capable enough not to die by the roadside."

"Why...?" Yuto asked, full of questions. "Why would you do that for me?"

"Because you owe me a debt, of course."

Speaking matter-of-factly, Sariel handed him the paper bag she had set on the floor. Inside were bread and a bottle of milk.

"If you died out there, I would only suffer a loss. But if I take you along and let you accrue more debts, you will have to repay me that much more someday. Well? Isn't that a wonderfully thrifty and clever idea?"

"..."

"I am merely a drunkard wandering without a destination, anyway. I was just beginning to feel lonely. There is no harm in keeping someone to talk to for a while."

"What do you want from me in return?"

Yuto's expression was tense as he asked. He did indeed owe Sariel for her kindness, but he could not understand why she would defer payment while offering him still more help now.

"Who knows? I shall think about that later."

Sariel merely smiled, offering no definite answer. Turning away, she stopped before leaving the room, placed a hand on the door, and looked back at him.

"Eat all of that. Drink the milk, too. At your age, you must eat plenty if you want to grow."

With that, Sariel left the room. Yuto stared blankly at the closed door, then down at the bag she had left behind.

GROWL.

The sight of food brought a wave of hunger. It seemed quite some time had passed since he fought in the colosseum, used the mysterious power called the “Void,” and lost consciousness.

"..."

Yuto stroked Flokiro's Evostone in his hand and tried to make sense of his situation.

He had survived. That much was certain. Yuto alone had survived the colosseum. Even if it was only thanks to Crimson Ringmistress's whim, he had survived and escaped.

"Grr...!"

Yuto ground his teeth as he recalled Crimson's face. The faces of those who had died at a gesture, a whim of hers, flickered through his mind. Gaon and Rugil. The two who had shown him kindness. He knew nothing of them beyond their names, and now they had mingled with the soil of the colosseum without so much as leaving bodies behind.

'I will... avenge you.'

Revenge.

The word made his heart pound. The dream he had just had. Slowly, Yuto grew certain.

'There are things I need to avenge.'

The burning kingdom. The life lost before his eyes. The blond man. The stars' mocking laughter.

'This... isn't the future.'

Yuto clenched his fist tightly.

'This is the past. I... saw and experienced all of it. And I returned to the past...'

The things he had lost. The things he had to avenge.

He could not recall them clearly, but he was certain. He had returned to the past. This impossible thing had happened, probably, through the power of the “Void.”

'Status window...'

Yuto took the bread from the bag and chewed as he thought. The instant the thought formed, the “status window” appeared before his eyes. He continued thinking as he examined its entries one by one.

'One hundred remaining points. I can use these to strengthen myself.'

He glanced at Flokiro's Evostone in his other hand. Reviving an Evostone as an Evomon required an enormous amount of aether.

'Flokiro. I... know you. You probably knew me, too.'

Did that mean Flokiro had returned to the past with him? He did not know. He had never had a proper conversation with Flokiro. Even in the midst of a mindless frenzy, the fox had thrown himself into danger for Yuto.

'You did that for me before, too.'

The conviction was faint, but undeniable. Yuto gripped Flokiro's Evostone tightly.

'First, I should test the status window's power.'

He wanted to invest all his remaining points in aether, but after a moment's consideration, he allocated them.

'Thirty to Health, twenty to Strength, ten to Agility, and forty to Aether.'

He was still unsure how the Charisma stat worked, and it did not seem necessary right now. What he needed to determine was how much all those stats affected his body. Power surged through him. The hundred remaining points disappeared, and strength filled his body in proportion to his increased stats.

'I see...'

Quietly marveling, Yuto looked down at himself. The invested stats had taken effect immediately. A new vitality filled his entire body. He got out of bed and tried moving around.

His body felt light. When he threw a punch, the air burst with a pop. Slightly startled, he focused his mind.

He could feel “aether” within him. Gauging its volume, he marveled again. At the same time, he realized that the changes in him were not solely the status window's doing.

'I know how to wield aether.'

Aether was a power that permeated this world. All beings possessed it, but wielding it required extensive training. Yet Yuto was now doing so naturally.

'It's ingrained in my body, just like swordsmanship.'

He concentrated and drew forth his aether.

HISSS...!

Pitch-black light coiled around his fingertips. The “color” of that aether surprised him a little. This sort of color was unfamiliar. Yuto's aether had not “originally” been this color.

'Is this because of the Void, too?'

What was the Void? After pondering for a moment, Yuto turned his attention to the “Void Skills.”

Void Step LV1.

Void Touch LV1.

He focused on the skills and tried using them. First, Void Step. The moment he activated it and took a step, darkness rippled beneath his feet. Then his figure vanished as though erased from thin air, and he moved in the direction he was looking.

"...!"

It was not high-speed movement. Two points in space had connected, allowing him to move between them instantaneously. Marveling at the absurd ability, Yuto thought,

'It consumes an incredible amount of aether.'

Even with his aether greatly increased by his stat investment, using it was a strain. Next, he tried Void Touch.

CRACKLE!

A pitch-black hand surged up behind his back, rippling. It moved freely at his command. Yuto extended Void Touch toward the chair where Sariel had sat.

Void Touch approached without a sound, grasped the chair, and lifted it. He felt no weight at all. As he manipulated it, he thought,

'This consumes aether continuously, too.'

It was different from magic. This “power” felt like an authority bestowed by a constellation. At that realization, Yuto's eyes could not help but tremble slightly.

'Is the Void... a constellation?'

He did not know.

He knew he had returned to the past, but there was still far too much he did not know.

["Remember."]

["Who you are."]

["Why you had to return."]

The murmurs of the girl he had seen beyond the darkness drifted through his mind.

"... I'd like to know that myself."

Yuto murmured with a bitter smile.