"Wait... So it's all a nightmare, Master?"

"Always has been, Marisa."

"Why...? I don't get it. Why didn't I wake up? The pain I felt here..."

"That book you stole in the real world trapped you here. It exists to punish curious magicians, and they must make a journey through it. Once the host of the nightmare is gone then the night would end... And it will truly do once you are killed by the one bound to this world."

"And that's..."

"Yes. I am bound to this world, I made a contract with a deity. One that's appearance is incomprehensible to the human mind and logic. The colors... The colors out of space itself blanketed the deity. Now let me ask you this again, Marisa. Will you let me, your master, end your life out of mercy?"

Tears begin to fall out of my eyes, and I hugged Master tightly.

She is surprised, and she wrapped her hands around my body, hugging me back.

"But Master! Doesn't it mean that I'll forget everything!? Even meeting you here...? I... I lost you once, Master! You're the only person I've seen as a mother to me!"

"Marisa..."

"Just... Why!? Why does it have to come into this!?"

I cried onto her dress. She shushed me down, and memories of my childhood flashed in my mind. Where I tried to learn magic and accidentally hurt myself and cried, it was Master that calmed me down. She would hug me, heal me from the pain.

I remembered the times where we played together, trained in magic together, slept together, everything ever since she picked me up after my father disowned me.

I let go of the hug, and she asked me again.

"I know how you feel, Marisa. But one must not stay in a nightmare, you belong there in your Gensokyo. Now let me ask you one final time, Marisa. Will you let me end your suffering?"

"Please, there has to be another way..."

"It has to be this way, Marisa. Remember this, you will forget everything that happened here in the nightmare... But I will always remain in your good heart. Well, it is kind of ironic considering what I am."

I sniffed. Afterwards, I shook my head in refusal after giving it a thought.

"No, I am not ending my life to leave you here, Master."

"Hehehehe~ My oh my... What was it, Marisa? The Journey? The Blood? Or The Horrible Dream? It doesn't matter."

Slowly, Master rose from her seat, and reaches out for her crescent moon scepter.

"It is up to the Magus' helper to clean up after these sorts of messes..."

The scepter glimmered in moonlight, before a menacing voice speaks, "Tonight, Mima joins the ritual."

I threw my broom-spear which she sidestepped, and it got stuck onto a tree. Afterwards she ran towards me with the scepter with the intention to plunge my flesh with it. I took a step backward and pulled out Roukanken.

The both of us clashed with our weapons, my blade hits the shaft of her scepter that she used to block my attacks, while I deflected her own attacks using the blunt side of the Roukanken.

"Please Marisa, let me free you from this suffering. This is the mercy I'm going to offer."

"I am sorry, Master. I choose my own way now, like how you told me... Before you disappeared!"

I struck down the blade, breaking Master's scepter into two halves. Afterwards, she pulled out an exact replica of the Mini-Hakkero to shoot out several star shaped danmaku. One of them hits my hand, causing it to drop the blade to the ground out of pain.

Blood begins to seep out of the wound, and Master came in closer with one of the broken halves of her scepter, the one with the sharp crescent.

"Now die for me, Marisa."

In a flash, I used my left hand to quickly draw out my Mini-Hakkero, and shot her point-blank just before she plunged the crescent into me.

"...What?"

"Now you are freed, Master."

With a charged shot, I fired out Master Spark using the Mini-Hakkero, engulfing Master in the blast. As she fades away in the light, I heard her shouting my name for the final time.

"Farewell, Master."

I knelt down in exhaustion before I felt my entire body froze. I turned my gaze to the moon, to see a humanoid creature bathed with an unknown color that shines brightly. I find myself unable to move, mesmerized by the creature.

The creature landed down in front of me, and I stood up to walk towards it. It then closed her distance to my body, it's arms wrapping around my entire form and everything went into a bright light of unknown color.

"Oh Good Magus... It is time for the journey to begin again."

Alice said, as she knelt down next to a wheelchair. Seated on top of it, is a blonde haired magician, her eyes are lifeless as she stared at the house in front of her. It is no longer in flames, and everything is reset. The next person who opens that tome will fall into the nightmare, and face the horrible journey in front of them.

Another End (Relieving Your Master)