The Fall
Fall. 41. Fall. I was falling endlessly, plummeting toward somewhere at an incredible speed. Whether it was a sea of stars or a pitch-black canvas, whether I was sinking into the depths of a black ocean or tumbling through a hole in a black star-sea, I fell again and again into a void where no light, no sound, nothing at all could be seen or felt. I plunged straight into the pupils of my own eyes—into that space where dozens of spheres, whether pupils or irises, kept shrinking and expanding.
After what felt like several hours of falling, a wave of nausea twisted my stomach so violently that I nearly vomited everything inside me. Then—thud—my body suddenly fixed itself in place, suspended in a weightless void. Clutching my stomach and throat with both hands, I groaned in pain.
“…Ugh…”
In that pitch-black space, I began to notice dozens, hundreds of stars in the far distance—too far to judge—being destroyed and reborn over and over. “Hah… hah…” Just as I managed to calm my churning stomach and flailed to steady my floating body, I froze.
“……”
Among the countless stars stretching endlessly, a shape was slowly emerging. “What… the hell is that…?” Golden threads of light gathered together, forming a humanoid silhouette. Startled, I tried to back away, but the more I tried to assess the situation from a distance, the closer the golden figure seemed to draw. Against my will, I was being pulled toward it. I glanced around, then fixed my gaze completely on the light.
“……”
Soon I realized what the golden figure was. “……That’s…” It was me. The same expression, the same appearance, the same face, floating there as if a thin mirror stood between us. Wrapped in golden light, the me beyond the mirror reached out toward it, mirroring my every movement.
Startled, I reached out to touch the mirror. Shhh—the moment my fingertips met its surface, my hand was sucked inside, drawing me closer to the reflection. “W-what—?!” Panicking, I tried to pull back, but just as I was about to be completely pulled through—
Dozens of new eyes began to open all over the body of my reflection within the golden light. “……Hic……!!?” The grotesque sight sent a chill down my spine. I flinched, but the multi-eyed reflection inside the mirror began to act differently from me.
“I’ve been waiting for you.”
The voice spoke directly into my mind without moving its lips. A splitting headache surged through me; I furrowed my brow and turned my head away. Yet—
“Are you confused?”
“You’re caught up in unnecessary emotions.”
The dozens of eyes on the other side of the mirror blinked at uneven intervals. Slowly, it began pulling my arm deeper into the mirror. “Ugh… ugh……!” Clutching my head, I was dragged further in until I was completely swallowed by the reflection.
“Further conversation seems pointless.”
“So go and see for yourself.”
“What I discovered first—what I wanted to show you.”
“That place which still stands at a crossroads———”
The presence released me, drifting away into the depths beyond the mirror. Its alien voice faded with the distance. My position reversed with the entity; I began sinking deeper and deeper. Slowly, leisurely, it reached out toward me, pushing me away. A sensation of falling at tremendous speed returned. Shhh—a chilling wind whipped past my ears, followed by boom—
“Aaaagh——!!”
I crashed into somewhere at an impossible speed. “Hah, hah……!” I had landed on the ground, yet it didn’t feel like an impact. The strange sensation left me disoriented. It was as if I had fallen from higher than the clouds, but my body felt perfectly at ease, as though I had always been lying there. I couldn’t reconcile the feeling with reality.
But—“Hic… hnn……” Confirming my body was unharmed, I slowly sat up and realized the surroundings were a dense forest. My clothes and form hadn’t changed. Where was this place? Why had I fallen here? I had clearly been in contact with the Transcendent deep within the Demon King’s Castle, then drifted through a sea of stars before being pulled into an unknown space.
“……”
Did that being send me here on purpose? For what reason? My mind reeling, I looked around. “……Hah……” All I could see were countless trees shrouded in thick fog so dense it was impossible to see even a step ahead. The mist completely veiled everything between the trunks, making it hard to breathe.
“……”
I tried to stand, clutching my dizzy head. Then—“……” A strange stench began wafting from somewhere. I turned, searching for its source. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew that in nature, things giving off such rot weren’t usually that dangerous. Once I roughly pinpointed the direction, I began walking toward it, step by step.
“……”
I didn’t know whether that being had thrown me here intentionally or if something else had interfered. “Jemma……” If it was something Jemma had desperately wanted to show me despite her own pain, there had to be a reason. I knew that much. Tap, tap—I walked forward to find out what awaited me.
Even though only the sickening stench of decay filled this isolated space, why did it feel as if this place could give me answers? Just as I had desperately wished for Jemma, just as she had desperately wished for me. A vague feeling, like a breeze, told me that here—somehow, here—I might find what I sought. I didn’t know where this was, what existed here, or why I had been brought here. But to find out, I kept walking. Tap—as if the powerless me was taking a step toward becoming the ideal king Jemma wanted, as if the ignorant me could move forward into the unknown to become that person. Because she had given me courage. They had always given me courage.
“……”
As the outside gradually brightened and shapes grew clearer, I quickened my pace toward the emerging scenery. “……This is—” I finally saw it. “That can’t be……” The end of the path I had walked with baseless hope through the distant fog was, as always, “……This can’t be happening.” Despair. “Why……?” The clear scene that emerged from the fog was a world in ruins. “……How……?” Countless human corpses lay rotting, being devoured by insects. It was as if the entire world had turned into the Demon Realm—desolate and barren. Yet not a single demon was in sight.