Shade couldn't help but smile, a wave of relief washing over him.

This go around was fucked beyond all repair, spewing the truth to Ryder was the easiest way to get this over with.

He'd likely be called crazy and left to rot, or if the flame had affected him enough it'd be a quick end.

The one regret he did have about leaving this time was the kid, she'd probably fair well enough with the group but he couldn't be certain... at the very least Lily would take care of her, she was too kind for her own good.

He'd just have to find her and save her again in the next loop, though checking that new spot would be a pain in the ass-

"Alright, tell me more about it then." Ryder said before sitting on the ground. "I imagine it's a long story though."

"...are you kidding?! you believed it, just like that?!" Shade snapped, now more confused than ever before. No matter how many loops he'd been through before Ryder had never acted like this... this was WAY too different for his liking. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Let's just say that's not the weirdest thing that's happened... and while I probably won't understand it I haven't understood a lot of things." Ryder sighs a bit and crosses his arms. "The Darkness, The Dreams of that Kid, Creation, Melding... it all makes no sense to me, in reality I've just been going with the flow, doing what feels right in the moment."

Shade could only stare at Ryder completely dumbfounded.

How? How was this the same man who'd grown to be Raime's rival in the past? It made no sense... was that idiot just fumbling around in the dark the entire time?

He had to have been... only Shade knew the truth of the world after all, only with the help of this damned curse has he been able to understand Velstan better than any outsider.

All this time, the big bad swordsman of freedom was just as lost as everyone else...

"So, how did you end up like this? If you aren't pulling my leg that is." Ryder asks calmly, trying not to agitate Shade further.

"Priscilla." Shade started, only stopping momentarily to try and figure out the right way to describe her. "She's known by many names in the history of this world, though only in hushed whispers... supposedly she's something even the Divine can't classify."

The memory began to flood back to Shade as he thought about it, the first moment he'd met Priscilla and what led to it.

It'd been his first life, the one where he'd stuck around with Aranea and the others as they made their way through the world. They had made it as far as Resovult when he found the item that changed everything. A simple necklace with a dark blue gem that seemed deeper than the depths of the ocean.

It didn't give a single stat boost or change anything about combat but Shade kept it just in case it turned out to be a key item for something. Yet the longer he held onto the more the world seemed to change around him.

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The game already felt "alive" but the world seemed to become more and more realistic with each passing day, like he was losing touch with reality. The NPCs seemed to acknowledge him as one of their own, not as an outlander like the rest of the Players.

Then came the paranoia... the little shadows dancing along the walls and voices he could barely hear, like whispers on the wind that faded away when he tried to focus on them. Though he was certain someone or something was whispering something to him- words of danger, power, promise, yet they remained out of reach.

It wasn't until the raid of The Dark Lord that he knew something was terribly wrong with the necklace he found. For each person that died he gained more and more power, and each time he died he'd revive while losing a fraction of the power.

So he fought, and fought, and fought, until every soldier around him and every creature lay dead on the ground. By the time he made it to The Dark Lord he saw Aranea there, dead on the ground, her weapon cleanly split in two.

Before he could even react a pit of darkness opened under him, swallowing Shade whole and dropping him into an endless abyss.

Time seemed to be nonexistent as he fell endlessly, each second losing another life that the necklace had accumulated. That was until the very last life had been snuffed out and he reached the bottom.

Once at the bottom there was a lack of anything.

No Light.

No Dark.

No Cold.

No Heat.

No Pain.

No Life.

It was all just a void.

Something he couldn't wrap his head around.

Then a voice spoke to him from behind.

"It's a shame the story had to end so soon... it was just getting good too." a woman's voice, soft but disappointed, as if she'd just finished reading a story that'd ended all too abruptly.

A chilling hand finds its way to his shoulder, it was slender and paler than he knew any person could be.

"Though it seems like a hound has found his way to my domain, now how did that happen?"

Another hand on his other shoulder now, they firmly held him place as he began to shake in fear. He dared not look up at the person speaking to him but a name echoed in his mind now. Priscilla.

"Dear Hound, don't you wish to see this story through to its completion? no matter how mired and confusing it gets?"

All he could do was slowly nod, scared of what would happen if he refused.

A small laugh escaped Priscilla before she cupped his chin and slowly tilted his head back, revealing her form to him.

"Then become my shade and seek the end of this tale, only when you've seen this through will you truly be free."

The darkness of her eyes engulfed his mind, draining all thought until nothing remained.

Then the second life began.