Dark.

When did it turn so dark? Where am I? Ahh... right—the barn. Mycen left me here... alone. How great of him, after I explained everything I didn't like. Maybe he did this on purpose. No, I'm sure he did. Quite sarcastic, or simply a bad comedian... that old man.

How many minutes have passed since then? I don't know. Didn't bother to count... maybe I should've had. Then again... perhaps I'll just get lost on the count somewhere in between.

Hmm... I can't hear anything. The last time I remember, I could listen to a discussion going on inside their home. Maybe they've already finished. I didn't even realize they'd finished. I wonder what they talked about. Did I fall asleep along the way? No... I doubt I could even sleep with this body.

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"Death would be a mercy..."

Who's there? Who said that? That voice sounded familiar... Who's voice was it again? I think it's... uhh... nah... Don't care anymore. Can't be bothered to think. Yes. I should be resting now.

Just like this.

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"Hand over the Blue Destiny."

Oh... this voice. You're the thug. From earlier. The one who went on my way when I tried to run out of the tent. You're stupid, you know? Very... stupid. You shouldn't have died like that. I guess...

Was it my fault that you died?

YES.

No... I don't think so.

YES.

It was an accident.

NO.

Stop this. You're already dead...

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"You're dead..."

This voice... the big thug. Right. The one who's eyeball popped out. You're also... stupid. Dying like that. You should've hidden, like your allies. What made you think they'll grant you a fair fight? When you're a thug yourself?

COWARDS!

No, you're just full of pride. Empty pride, that is.

FACE ME!

Just... stop. You're also already dead.

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"You lowly addict!"

Hell... You're the sly bastard. You hurt the boy. The one called... what was his name again? I forgot. Do I even know it in the first place? Nevertheless, I don't like you.

"This is for my brother."

I don't care. You've done something you shouldn't have.

"THE KID DIED BECAUSE OF YOUR FOOLISHNESS."

Shut up... You're the one who killed him.

"HOW DARE THIS UGLY MASK!"

Stop it! All of you! You're all already dead! But, the mask...

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Mask?

MASK!

Mask. Austin. Hill. God.

What the—

Mask. Mycen. Benefactor. Charon. Plunder. Runick. Black. Wolf.

Am I—

Mask. Drug. Blue. Death. List. Nolan. Help. Me.

Going—

Mask. Head. None. Monster. Devil. Mask!

Whatー

WHY THE MASK?!

I'm going insane...

GET ME OUT OF HERE!

DarkーI'm afraid of the dark.

"You have three months at best..."

Get these VOICES AWAY FROM ME!

"Farewell, friend."

Friend? NO!

"Hey, you two! Stop that!"

Argh... WHY—

"Let go of my sandwich, Adolph!"

Mom. Dad. Why am I—

"Death would be a mercy..."

Why am I still alive?

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"There's no time. Your purpose lies within these people. Become their benefactor. Help them. Lead them... to their freedom. Then you'll find what you truly seek at the end."

That's the voice. The god's voice. Speaking about my life—like a prophet. False prophet. False god.

To hell with this agreement. Why did you bring me here? Why did you rob me of my death? Why did you... why did you revive me?

"You revived... as an armor?"

This voiceーMycen? Is that you? Yes. I was revived, but I don't know how... or why. I'm already dead. No... I should've been dead.

"Just... stay alive..."

NO!

No... Not you too. I'm already done. Life is just too hard for me. I've suffered enough. Just... end me already, I beg of you.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Why did you kill the thug earlier?"

Why? I already told you... I don't want to be captured by them! Didn't you listen? They're all... thugs. I accidentally killed the first one. Yes, an accident. That's why I felt nothing. It was his fault. That's right. But the second one... I killed him. Because he'll capture me. Yes. Because I'm afraid of being captured. I don't want to be captured. I don't... No... That's not it.

Why did I kill the second one?

Even though he was alone. Even though I know I can't be hurt. Why? Was it because of Austin? Who is Austin? Don't know, but it made me angry. Yes... I was angry. Was I angry? I don't know. I don't care. But, something told me that I had to kill him. Not because I was afraid to be captured. Was I really afraid to be captured? Why did I run away? Why did I stop? Why did I fight back? The thugs, in a sense, were just helping me. To die.

But...

I didn't die. I can't die.

"Benefactor?"

That's right. Something told me I can get what I seek if I become your benefactor. That I might die if I become your benefactor.

But, I don't even know what that is. I don't even know all of you people. I was told to help you, even though I was completely clueless about what to do. I don't even know if I could do it, nor if I'll do it for real. I wasn't even sure why I still followed you after the battle, no—after everything.

I wasn't thinking straight... or did I even think to begin with? I even salvaged that camp, thinking the materials were the help that you all seek. That you needed all of those things. Three days might have been enough to pass the time, testing if it was the help all of you wanted... Testing if that contract would be fulfilled... Testing if that effort was the key to my freedom. My death.

The entire time I stripped what was left of the camp, I was frustrated... furious... yes, I was angry. Why do I have to work again? Why do I have to struggle again? Why do I have to do things in life again... right after when I just ended everything...?

But I still did what I was told. I told you who I am. Told you my story, and the only thing I want. I did, even if I was just a stranger here. A stranger to all of you. Someone who's all ignorant of this world and incompetent in... in my whole life.

IGNORANT? INCOMPETENT?

Someone full of flowery words and empty promises. Someone who can only rely upon justifications made of nothing but... lies.

NO, I ALSO TOLD THEM MY TRUTH.

Lies...

TRUTH!

But, I did lie. That I was willing to be their benefactor. That I'll be sure to give help to them. I might also not wish to do all of those things in the contract. I didn't believe nor think that I could fulfill those requests.

Now that I think about it, that's just a hassle. Why should I still exert effort just to die? That's unfair, moreover, I should not be doing all of this in the first place. I don't want to. YesーI didn't want to. But...

Why did I still do it? Why did I still make some effort? Iー

"You're full of contradictions."

Argh... shut up!

You don't know me! I even don't know myself. I stopped caring altogether. Because if I did, I'd feel like I'd finally lose myself. I wanted to end it while I was still me, the one believing that ending it all would be alright. And I did it once! But now, I'm here again...

Still alive.

I've begun to become afraid.

NOT!

Who's afraid? I'm afraid? Who said that I was afraid? And afraid of what? Of death? Afraid to die, but still want to die? What was that?

The biggest hypocrite, the lowest liar.

Somehow, I find those words more comforting than dying while... asking myself if my death was... a true one. What is a true death anyway? Was it like the death of the stupid thug? The prideless thug? Or the one who took his revenge? I don't know. Kinda wish they could've told me. But the dead cannot speak. Yes... They can'tーexcept me.

When did it become so complicated? Again, I couldn't understand anything. In the end, I still couldn't understand myselfーthis may be the only fact that I could, and would, understand.

Ahh, I'm drowning in my thoughts again... Are these all my thoughts to begin with? Might be... or might be not. Maybe this is why I'm afraid of being captured. Of why I'm always crying in my room. Did I cry? Why did I cry? Don't know... Can't remember... But I did cry... A lot.

"Death would be a mercy."

Ahh... I see. That was my voice. Why did I say that again? I don't remember. Maybe, I didn't really know why. But, somehow... it puts me at ease knowing I was the one who said that. Death...

What are you?

This is as far as I can hold. I'll be counting on you, Niche. Adolph.

...

"ーey! Ar... good? I told... do any... stupid. Take off that helmet now before Barth sees us!"

Adolph's consciousness flickered back to life. His head swam with a haze, the remnants of an unfamiliar experience that he couldn't recall. But a certain heavy feeling lingered—sadness and lethargy. Had he fallen asleep? No... He did not have any idea. He didn't, but the question gnawed at him. What happened?

"Hey! Don't slack off, come on."

A voice, coarse and unfamiliar, broke through his fuzzy-headed state. Someone was calling out to him. Don't slack off it said, but Adolph wouldn't care about it. However, he was aware that the cool blades of grass beneath cushioned his body. Only the soft hues of the dusk sky above painted his current view.

"We need to move, benefactor."

Another voice pierced the air, visibly audible. It called out to another oneーsomeone whom they referred to as the benefactor. With curiosity piqued, Adolph wondered who could that be.

"I am talking to you, Adolph."

Surprised, Adolph wasn't expecting the voice to respond to his silent query. As if it had plucked the thought directly from his mind. It was unnerving, the way the voice read his thoughts like an open book.

Resurrection, Soul-Binding Of The Damned

The voice then started spouting some... absurd things. A soul and... resurrection?

WHOMP.

Suddenly, Adolph felt light. The feeling of lightness enveloped him as if something within him had vanished. Sensation returned to his body in a rush. The strange feeling of liberation to your senses was... something else. It was an experience where one's simple words may fail to elaborate. It was a sensation akin to waking from the clutches of severe sleep paralysis, but more mysterious... and unclear.

"Hey. What the—what were those black smoke... dust—No, what are you even wearing now?" The coarse voice crackled with confusion. Bewildered, even.

Adolph raised his hands before him, noting the familiar armor from the night of his reincarnation. Strange. Hadn't he been just a head when Mycen left him last night?

Adolph sprang upright, sitting up where he lay. His eyes widened. Shocked. From there, Adolph saw... everything.

The air was thick with the acrid smell of burnt wood and fabric. Adolph couldn't smell it, but eyes alone let him see the thickness of such smoke. The humble yet sturdy hovel he once encountered now stood just as an aftermath of utter destruction.

Its walls were stained with soot and ash, blackened by the flames that had raged through it. The clay roof that survived for years was now felled. Ravaged, to say the least. Large sections of the said roof collapsed in, revealing the charred beams beneath. The thin stone chimney that once stood tall and bellowed hot puffs of smoke now was just a darkened, crumbling spire.

Silent... and cold.

The devastation was even more apparent inside of the hovel. The once cozy interior was gutted; the wooden pieces of furniture were reduced to smoldering piles of debris. Scorch marks covered whatever walls were left standing on the inside while the remnants of a fire still smoldered in the hearth around the kitchen. It was a fire that cast an eerie, flickering light of despair over the entire area.

The barn, adjacent to the hovel, had not fared any better. It was now just a skeletal structure of blackened beams, with the roof entirely caved in. The hay and feed that once filled its pen to the brim were reduced to ashes on the ground, likewise to the stacks of firewood it stored.

Ashes and fire. An absolute destruction.

On the front lawn, a group of people feasted on something over a fire they'd built near the well. Their laughter echoed like that of drunken animals, one even stripping and dancing foolishly in the center of them all. Their euphoric smiles brought contrast to the sorry sight of Mycen's property.

Adolph stood still and silent as he took in the situation. "Are you good?" the rough-sounding voice beside him asked.

It belonged to a man clad in black overalls. His fat frame strained against a familiar fine leather vest that clearly didn't fit him well. His belt was a veritable arsenal of tools and accessories: cutters, wires, keys, a pair of sheathed daggers on each side, and a waist bag—a thief's typical loadout.

Behind him stood a cart Adolph recognized immediately. It carried tons of white sacks bulging at the seams. The cart also held household tools on one side. There were rolls of cloth and leather, as well as assorted boxes filled with a bewildering array of contents. The randomness just kept on coming. There were vegetables—farm produce, smoked meat, bottles of alcohol... fishing gear, gardening tools... hatchets, machetes... then a long axe.

Adolph realized what they were. His gaze returned to the vest the man before him wore. Now, he was sure of it. It was Charon's vest.

These people were all lowly thieves. The hovel must have been looted dry, ransacked of valuables, and stripped bare and desecrated. Everything... from the cupboards and shelves must have been emptied. Their contents were either stolen or scattered across the floor, now mixed with ash and rubble underneath the hovel's remains.

"Where are the people living in here?" Adolph asked the man. The man then frowned deeply, as if something had angered him.

"Don't tell me the alcohol here already got to you? You said it yourself to use them as chairs on the campfire before burning them all!... Wait, you? Uhh... Who are you again?"

Adolph's gaze immediately darted toward what the thieves used as seats around the campfire.

Bodies. Dead bodies.

They were corpses of young men. To his horror, Adolph could recognize the faces of the bodies lying still and bleeding on the ground. Runick... List... and lastly—Charon.

"It's a damn waste, really. This place was perfect to take over—situated in a great place to boot. If those three hadn't killed some of us at the start and angered Barth, we would have spared them all, even the house! Getting heated up when they're clearly outnumbered."

Adolph was wholly silent staring at the three as the thief kept on yapping their crimes. "Well, those other three we've captured will do. They'll fetch a hefty price—perhaps a bonus will soon come on our hands, buddy." The thief tapped Adolph's shoulder as he finished elaborating his story. Exhilarated... His face was filled with expectations at the prospect of the blood money he would soon receive.

But Adolph didn't care about that. The fact that everything he first met on the day he got on this world got torn into pieces in front of his eyes—all while he was unconscious and helpless, again... That fact bothered him so much. So much, yes.

"Fuck..."

At that moment, something has died inside of Adolph. That something was then replaced by another thing—something hotter and boiling. Loathe? Anger? Aye, he was sad... and furious. His mask will never show these emotions, but his hands would like to disagree.

"Hey, what did you get my dagger for? Hey—ACK!"

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The wolf, again, hungered for blood.