What Does Death Look Like? If I had no idea before, now I can say it: death is just emptiness. I could no longer feel my body. There was no smell, no touch, no sound. Nothing. Even the concept of time seemed nonexistent in this place. To keep myself from losing my mind, I started counting the seconds. One day had passed )_24€52. 172,800... 259,200... Is this what an unborn child feels in the womb? 604,798... 604,799... 604,800 seconds. After a week, only my consciousness told me I still existed. 2,591,999... 2,592,000 seconds. A month later, it started to deteriorate—slowly, insidiously. I had to fight to hold on. What would happen if I let go? I feared the answer. 31,536,000... 31,536,001... 31,537,862 seconds. Just as madness threatened to consume me, my memories started to unravel before my eyes. It was strange, watching myself as if I were observing a movie of my own life. Is this what I looked like as a newborn? The baby next to me... That’s Iris, isn’t it? A doctor hands us to a woman with long violet hair and sapphire eyes. The spitting image of Iris. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Could she be... our mother? She holds us gently in her arms. There’s a man beside her. He looks so much like me... Could he be my father? He’s tall, imposing, but his features remain blurred. I had come to believe we were born in a lab. Are they still alive... or already dead? Maybe one day, I’ll want to find out. I see myself at the orphanage, two years old. I have to admit... I was kind of cute. I don’t want to see it. I promised to forget. I scream, but no sound comes out. I have no voice. Worse, I can’t even hear my own thoughts. I feel nothing. Do I even exist anymore? Memories keep flashing before my eyes. Oh, this scene... My first meeting with Lucy. We were so reckless back then. Then another memory—my first mission under Victor. That old man always seemed untrustworthy to me. Another one. The promise we made that night. I wonder... what powers will we gain after the Awakening? They say no resonance is ever useless. Only the user is. Just thinking about it makes me eager to beat those bastards to a pulp—those so-called Executors and those damn Calamities. Next time, I won’t be the one running with my tail between my legs into the sewers. Oh yes, I’ll make them pay for ruining my peaceful life. It’s strange, watching myself die. 94,608,001... 94,608,002... I just keep reliving my life over and over. How much longer must I endure this? "Do you wish for it to end?" Yes. This silence... I never want to feel it again. "Do you desire rest?" "I can grant you rest. Just say the words, and I will give you peace." What’s the price? Take your fake charity and shove it. "There is no price. I will give you a life—loving parents, siblings, friends, wealth, power. All you have to do is want it." "Why? I am you, and you are me. Isn’t this what we’ve always desired? I can give it to us. All you have to do is say, ’I want it.’ In exchange, I only need your soul." My thoughts... I can’t reach them anymore. What a strange feeling. You are me? What does that mean? And if, instead of giving you my soul, I took yours? "I have no soul. I am you. Or rather, we are one—your soul and I." "Oh, is that how you see me? It doesn’t matter." "What do you desire most? What is the wish I cannot grant? Give me your soul, and I will offer it to you." What do you think you know about me? "Absolutely everything. Nothing about you is hidden from me. You want to change the world, to rewrite its rules." "I can give it to you." "What I want, what I desire—I’ll take it with my own hands." "Oh... Is that so? Do you think you can?" "Do you think you’re worthy?" I will make you mine. You will be a weapon I wield to achieve my goals. For that, nothing is simpler. All I have to do is say... I promise you, we’re going to have so much fun. "If you survive... maybe I’ll reconsider."