"Hrm..."

" "

"Tch."

" "

"You still there?" I bit my tongue.

"Yep, still holding on." Elegy replied.

" "

Dammit, I can't take it anymore! This beast, or whatever the hell it is! It's been breathing down my neck for what feels like hours! The air is thick and suffocating, my body is unbearably cold, and the audible hallucinations have almost tricked me into opening my Eyes a handful of times. Yes, the White Monster has the ability to mimic others' voices, beckoning us to open our Eyes and check. This is also how it managed to snag Hate...

"We can't go on like this..." Elegy's voice grunted.

"I already know the answer, but just in case—That was the White Monster just now, right?"

"No, it's me." He replied, "I'm not saying we should give up, but we need to try something other than just waiting. This is obviously not doing anything."

Wait, that was actually Elegy? Hmm, I suppose just sitting around with our Eyes closed while it pesters us endlessly certainly isn't amounting to much, but what other choice do we have? In theory, if we wait long enough without opening our Eyes, we should hopefully make it to the next cycle reset. Theoretically, that could be one of, if not the only way to retain our memories as we transition to the next cycle. Now more than ever, patience is a virtue.

"I got a plan." He suggested, "I'm reaching my hand out, can you hold it?"

"That's..." I furrowed my brows, "Please put your hand up higher."

"Here?"

"Nope. Gah, geez!" I tightly grabbed his hand so he would stop squeezing unsavory places, "There, what now?"

"Your hand's pretty cold." He joked, "Don't tell me I'm holding the White Monster by mistake?"

"We're all cold, dumbass." I pouted, still a bit peeved over him feeling up my ass, "What now? Whoa!"

He got up. We were sitting on the cloudy floor, but now we're both standing up. What's he planning...?

"If I remember correctly, and do correct me if I'm wrong on this." He pointed with the hand he held mine in, "The direction we were headed to was that way."

"...Yes?" I asked as he began to slowly walk in said direction.

"Might as well get a headstart, then." He trudged along carefully, "Make sure not to let go. It'll be a real pain to find each other if that happened."

"W-Wait, hold on." I refused to move from my spot, "We're effectively blind, you know that. What if we're wrong on this and we end up going in a completely different direction?"

"Not like we're under a time limit anymore, now that we have a way to escape the White Monster." He chuckled, "So long as we keep our Eyes closed during the reset period, we can effectively keep our memories from hereon indefinitely."

Yes, but... Elegy, have you already forgotten about Hate? What the hell, so are we really just gonna leave him here? The entire reason I'm going on this journey with you two is to help him revive, so without him...

"...You're worried about him, huh?" Elegy solemnly promised, "Don't worry, once we find those two seraphim friends of yours, we can just ask them to find and take him to us. Right now though, I'd like it if we tried running away from the White Monster."

"I dislike this plan." I shook my head.

"I'm not going alone." He said, "I need someone to keep me company so that I don't fall asleep by accident."

"Right, our Eyes have been closed the entire time." I remembered, "It's actually surprising how we didn't fall asleep on our own."

"Wait, don't tell me..." He sounded worried, "What if the reset only comes when everyone goes to sleep?"

"What ever happened to optimism?" I smirked.

"Migu, what if..." His anxious grasp got tighter, "What if we'll have to continue the rest of this journey blind?"

"Hey, calm down now..."

"No, because!" He was panicking by now, "Our entire plan revolves around meeting up with the two seraphim so they can help us, but how the hell are we ever gonna find them if we can't even open our Eyes to see!?"

"Elegy, deep breaths!" I yelled.

"You expect me to be calm about this!?" He violently shook me up by the shoulders, "Dammit, who's to say they're not asleep already!? The White Monster could very well have eaten them too!"

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

He's panicking. It's one thing if it was just that—Annoying, but he's roping me into his tantrum as well. I'm being shaken up and down, left and right, and now that I've seen just what kind of acrobatic feats he's capable of from his surprise attack on the guard, I'm actually quite scared myself. He might not mean to harm me, but I'm trying my best not to accidentally open my Eyes from the whiplash.

"S-Stop!" I grabbed him by the forearms, pushing him away.

"...Grab my hand again." He said without hesitation, "Sorry."

"Hrm... You really need to work on those emotions." I reached my hand out, only for him to grab me and yank me forwards, "H-Hey, I said I'm not leaving Hate here!"

"Migu, let's go." He quietly pleaded, "The White Monster... If there's even a 1% chance that we can run away from it and not feel like crap, the please—Let's take it."

"Elegy..."

"Look, at this point I'm not even asking for the plan here." He truthfully admitted, "I'm doing this for my sanity. This mist is hard to breathe in, the White Monster's presence is making me hear things I don't wanna hear... It's making me go crazy. Just a short walk, anywhere will do. Then we can go back to get Hate once the reset happens."

"...Okay." I nodded, "Lead the way."

----------------------------------------

***

----------------------------------------

As we walked through the now barren wasteland that once was the wondrous Heaven of legend, I caught myself constantly tripping up on the fallen bodies on the ground. They weren't dead, just asleep, but Gods did they feel like they were. It felt... sickening, almost. And what's worse, the cold mist around us was still present no matter how far we went.

"Elegy, this isn't working..." I weakly uttered.

"No, it is." He replied with a resolute tone, "We just need to keep going."

"For how long?"

"Until the Monster gets the hint and leaves us be."

He's determined, I'll give him that. But I don't understand why he's doing all this. Is he seriously just that bored of waiting? Must he always be on his feet, moving in whichever direction he deems fit for the occasion, just so long as he's not standing in one place? Hmph, I can understand that reasoning to a degree, but it's just not okay if it means leaving Hate all alone, eaten by the White Monster or not.

"Hey, I think it's getting easier to breathe!" His voice sounded excited for what felt like the first time in hours.

"Blergh!" I gagged with all my might as I tried breathing in a heavier dose of air, "You liar! Are you trying to make me puke my guts out here!?"

"I never said it was okay to breathe like normal." He sighed, "Just that it's showing signs of getting easier."

I wish you coulda' told me that sooner... Ugh, my Eyes are all watery now because I gagged while keeping them shut. Ugh, it's only gotten more difficult thanks to this. Dammit, Elegy...

"Question." I noticed, "How long has it been since you heard an audible hallucination from it?"

"The White Monster?" He said with a question mark at the end, "Now that you mention it—It has been a while since I heard it trying to throw me off with your voice. Maybe it has something to do with us holding hands?"

"So since we're this close to each other, it can't believably trick us into listening to it." I shrugged, "Maybe you're right. But still, so long as the air around us is cold and quiet, I ain't opening my Eyes."

"Yeah, same here." He agreed, "We can never be too sure."

Still trudging along decidedly, only but one thought occupied my mind throughout the entire walk—When's everyone waking up? I assume that when they do, it'll be safe to open our Eyes again, but when exactly will this moment arrive? We've been waiting an incredibly long amount of time now, and yet the White Monster still refuses to leave. Maybe Elegy's earlier hypothesis is right—Possibly, the White Monster will only leave once it is made sure everyone is sound asleep...

"Hey, you think the White Monster affects the Gods too?" I chuckled just thinking about it, "Heh, now that'd be a sight!"

"..."

"...E-Elegy?" I raised an Eyebrow.

"......."

"Elegy!"

He's still walking, leading the way for me to follow him, but he's gone dead silent. Doesn't even sound like he's breathing honestly. Don't tell me he's... s-sleepwalking!? Wait, how could that even work? So if I wake him up, does he retain his memories or not? Hold on, I tried waking Hate up earlier and he didn't budge, so is Elegy also...?

"Elegy!" I shouted directly in his ear.

"What!?" He answered back, scaring me so much my Eyelids twitched, "Geez, don't scare me like that!"

"Same goes for you, bonehead!" I angrily chewed him out, "Why'd you go so silent all of a sudden!? I thought you got eaten!"

"Shhh!" He put his finger up to my lips.

"Mph!" I heard him out, "What is it?"

Slowly but surely, the now silent atmosphere around us had begun to revive itself. People were waking up, asking each other where they were and what had happened. Some even approached us, asking us why we were holding hands, why our Eyes were closed, etc... Did we... make it?

"Phew, the air's also gotten warm and happy again." Elegy chuckled, letting go of my hand as a sign that there's nothing to be afraid of anymore, "We did it!"

"Wooo~!" The audience of angels around us cheered, "What did you do, though!"

"We beat the White Monster!" He shouted back to them.

"...What's that~!?" They cheered back confusedly.

"A chump, that's what it is!" He celebrated, prompting them to applaud us for our achievement.

Those guys... Heh, they have no clue what we just went through. But I guess that's fine, so long as they're supportive. Right, this is the next cycle, and no one but us remembers what had happened in the previous one. We've learned one of, if not the most important pieces of information of all with this victory. The White Monster can be escaped...

"Eleg-" I opened my Eyes, only to see a floating goat skull peering back at me in the endless void of mist, "N-No...!?"

The beast, from the very start, it... It dealt with Elegy ages ago. I see now, it was never Elegy's idea to get up and start walking... Nor was it his hand that guided me here. It imitated his voice to make me trust it, and lured me into a false sense of security when it imitated the thousands of voices of angels just waking up for the next cycle. I didn't win one over the White Monster. I never even stood a chance.

"My face..." I felt it contort to the same boney structure as that of the Monster's own, "Don't... Don't you dare...! think... this is...! the end!"

The Monster, having facilitated its victory in full, mocked my very being by waving the same hand I had held for hours now, as if to bid farewell to my current memories. My Vision grew dim, then went pitch black. This was goodbye to all of my accumulated knowledge. My... progress...

"Ugh, my head." I looked around, "Yellowish room, White body. Cheh, guess that whole thing about Heaven and the saws wasn't a dream after all... Eh, wait!?"

Rushing to the mirror on the other side of the room, I quickly turned around to see it.

"Golden spine..." I gulped, "D-Definitely not a dream..."