Mitsuo’s ears begin to capture his surroundings, as his body tries to regain consciousness while laying on the floor. A constant and pulsating hum besieges him, resonating infinitely, like he was in outer space. He hears a choir of anguished voices in the distance, followed by a vast echo that harmonizes with the hum. He can barely open his eyes, but he’s still too dazed to realize what’s happening, so they automatically close again. The voices inside him are still present, but they aren’t as painful as before, instead, they seem to unify with the choir of voices that surround him.

A soothing breeze continually passes through his body, tensing his muscles but refreshing his lungs, allowing him to breathe normally and helping to gradually regain his senses. The ambient is cold. Very, very cold. Not cold enough to freeze him, but cold enough to give him goosebumps all over his body.

Mitsuo tries to open his eyes again, and manages to keep them open for a few seconds. He looks up and sees an uncountable number of little green lights in movement. Some of them are following a pattern, some of them move in a straight line, and some of them are motionless. As he starts to comprehend that what he’s seeing isn’t normal, he again thinks that this is all a fucked-up dream. He closes his eyes and tries to go back to sleep, but he’s unable to do so.

Suddenly, the voices inside of him begin to mourn louder, making him feel very uncomfortable. The hum begins to pulsate faster and faster, the voices from within him commence to scream in grief, full of anger, desperation and fear. Mitsuo starts feeling all of their sorrow too. He begins to twist in pain, side to side, stomping on the floor and screaming to the top of his lungs.

Out of nowhere, a corrupted voice speaks to Mitsuo:

“It is time now. Rise.”

The voice sounded like several people were talking at the same time, like a choir of out of tune demons. It’s tone was calm and apathetic, almost like a sad machine. The phrase resonated in the ambient, repeating itself several times until it faded into nothing. Mitsuo opened his eyes but saw no-one. He was still twisting in pain, feeling like a thousand needles puncturing him at the same time.

“You are running out of time now. You can still save him. You can still save everybody.”

“WHO ARE YOU?!” -Mitsuo asked, screaming in stress.

“I am you. We are you.” -The voice replied.

“What do you mean ‘We are you’? Who is this? What is this place?! WHERE AM I?!” -Mitsuo desperately asked questions, but the voice didn’t address them.

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“It is time now. Watch.”

Suddenly, every single voice went silent and he was relieved from his pain. He stopped moving and opened his eyes widely.

Mitsuo sat on the floor, looked around and saw an endless mist of dark purple clouds. In between them, a few figures of green light materialized in the distance. He looked up, and saw more clearly than ever, how the lights on top of him were actually footsteps. People walking, running, standing, sprinting.

He stood up and started walking forward slowly, odd enough, because he felt that there was no direction. The place was so immense that it made walking pointless. Fear began to feed off him, so he vigorously screamed, without making any echo.

“HELLO? HELLO?! TALK TO ME! I WANT TO LEAVE!”

Mitsuo looked at his right hand, which started to glow bright like a green neon light. The ring was still on his finger, so again, he tried to remove it.

The instant he touches the ring, it begins to absorb everything around him. The dark clouds, the energy figures, the cold breeze, the voices, everything, from every direction.

“How is it possible for such a small ring to withhold so much within it? This can’t be right. This is not normal.” -He thought.

A bright, sharp sound reproduces from the ring, echoing through the ambient. The sound is so loud that it provokes an acute ringing in Mitsuo’s ears.

“It is time now. The Soul Ring is satiated. Touch it again with your thumb.” -The voice spoke again slowly.

He touches the ring with his right thumb -as the voice said- and everything stops. The whole place goes back to normal; The mist is back in place, the dark clouds are forming, the cold breeze is passing by and the energy figures are materializing again.

The ring stops emitting light and becomes darker, almost like the color of a treetop.

“It is time now. Choose.” -The voice said.

“Choose what?! WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!” -Mitsuo asked desperately.

All of the sudden, a gigantic group of human-like figures appear around him. They emanate green light, but not as bright as the ones above him. Mitsuo looked around, fulfilled with fear and uncertainty. Behind him were the two women from the bus stop. Right next to them, the two men who came to aid. In front of him, the paramedics. To his left, Jirou. All of those who he killed were surrounding him, looking at him directly into his eyes and following him with their sight, showing no emotions.

“Ascend a thousand. Preserve. Drown a million. Renounce.” -The voice said.

"Ascend? Preserve? What are you talking about?!" -He asked desperately.

The Voice's words were clear, but Mitsuo didn't want to understand them. Deep down below, he knew what the voice was implying, but he was in denial. He just couldn't bear to live with all this blood on his hands. He chose not to believe.

After a brief silence, the voice spoke again:

"Time."

As the last echo was heard, the ring lighted up again, and the light ray opened portals both in the sky and the ground. Mitsuo started screaming again, suffering the strength of the ring.

He can barely hear himself, since the ring made an abominable noise.

A sudden force pushed Mitsuo away at an extreme speed, flying up backwards into the air. As he was displaced, the light ray emitting from the ring was tearing up everything in its path like it was nothing.

Mitsuo passed out again from the shock.

That's the last thing he remembered before waking up on an island. The only thing he could see in the distance was dead bodies that once belonged to living animals laying on the floor.

As he realized what he had done, Mitsuo looked at his left and red a white sign that said:

"Welcome to the Nightingale Island."