As they walked a narrow path in the sunset, Inu opened her mouth to speak for the first time in days. "Do you want to hear a story, Liv?"

In an unusually soft voice, Liv asked, "Do you want to tell one?"

It struck Inu in the heart. He hadn't known if their last conversation when he cleaned her had brought them closer or further from each other. Even though Liv's voice was close, she had gone further.

'She's starting to see me like all the others,' Inu concluded. 'She told me about herself. She made herself vulnerable. I shouldn't keep myself in my shell.'

"When I was your age—"

"Oh, a story about young Aomon," Liv commented in her usual manner. Something felt unnatural.

"Yes, I suppose so. Young Aomon it is," Inu said with a faint smile. One that Liv couldn't see as she walked behind him. "I've always been the type of person who would get consumed by things. Things like you."

"I'm a thing to you?" Liv laughed. "You're not making yourself sound good."

Inu realized the error in his word choice. Once he would have rushed to correct himself in the face of the cold-blooded young woman who could be quite terrifying. This time he chuckled at his own mistake. Regardless of what Liv felt, Inu felt closer to her.

"I meant... something like your fate. The morality of your existence is ambiguous and I am drawn by it. Much like I was drawn by the world when I discovered my Intra. I had no specialty like other Bodies. I was adaptable. And my abilities were born of necessity. When attacked bluntly, I would be durable. When tried to pierce, I would be swift. When in need of strength, I would be strong. When broken down, I would heal. It meant I would never be the aggressor. A curse to a soldier. The greatest gift to a wanderer."

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

"Is this the story of your awakening?" Liv asked a little distress in her voice.

The term awakening likely made her remember her own. A day when her eyes activated, and while she didn't know the symbols, her powers were unable to be controlled. The day when her life ended.

But Inu's life had ended too. That could be her comfort as they trudged toward an unknown fate together.

"Yes, this is my awakening," Inu said and took a shuddering breath. "People wonder what is at the end of the world. They ask what they would find if they walked far enough. The edge? A drop so deep that if one were to fall, they'd be in hell. I asked the very same question. But I knew it was not hell I would find, for I had already seen it, and I knew it was not at the edge of the world. It was at the center."

"Infernum?"

"That isn't the real name of the capital."

"It is now. Nobody cares for its original name. You said it yourself, the place is hell, so why not just call it what it is? Infernum."

"Do you know how it got such a name?"

"The constant battle for the throne of Stratum. Where else but hell are the heads of nobles paraded around each year for another attempted coup?"

"Matter of fact, that is not where it comes from. You see, Stratum is a country built by winners. Our predecessors were successful thanks to their faith. They were real children of the Love and War Gods. But the people of Infernum forgot that long ago."

"Well, what point is there in believing if you see atrocities daily? For example, do you believe?"

"In the Love and War Gods? I'm not sure I believe in any god. They may exist, they may not. Nobody can prove anything."

"That hasn't stopped people from having their rigid opinions."

"Indeed. Common people think it true because it's appealing. Wise think it false because of a lack of evidence, but more so on the basis that it is what the common people believe to be true. And then there are rulers to whom religion is but a useful tool. It is quite ironic that the ruler's use of religion has made the populace name him as the devil."

"But they still obey."

"Yes, because not a man is unafraid in the face of the devil."

"The populace scares itself into obedience?" Liv laughed. "I never thought of that before."

"That is the unfortunate truth of things. I lived it once. In those days, however, I was a man of ambition."

"Are you not anymore? You're trying to change my mind about the world. Talk about ambition."

"No, but that person I was only cared for the external."

"So what happened then?"

"I died," Inu said and Liv went silent. Then Inu breathed in the fresh, shadowy air of the night before shuddering as his sweat turned cold. "And it was painful."