POV: Akir

I exhaled heavily in exhaustion before grabbing Adam's unconscious body and beginning to walk towards the illuminated square.

Fortunately, the square wasn't far from where the fight had finished, so it didn't take me too long to lazily drag Adam's body along with myself to the stairs, where I picked him up completely and walked up. After getting into the square, I dropped Adam and sat down.

I relaxed for just a second before remembering something, restricting Adam's movements, and putting my dagger against his throat. Never could be too cautious in such a situation.

I turned my head to gaze at the statue of the creator once more. It was a real piece of art, but now that I was looking at it from this close, it seemed much less great than it had initially seemed.

The robes he wore were actually pretty simple, and the aura of the statue somehow seemed foggy and eerily familiar.

'Oh.' My eyes opened wide but went back to normal quickly, and a stern expression appeared on my face. 'I see.'

It was like that time. No, those times. The riots I had started. Back then, I probably had a similar aura. The people had probably looked at me like some great figure who was there to give them an opportunity of a lifetime, but if they had looked closer, they'd have seen what I was seeing at this exact moment. A man hiding behind a mirage of greatness to escape from all the deep negativity within. It turned out that an almighty man like the Creator was truly just a man full of despair.

'A life that begins with despair often ends with despair,' I thought, recalling the statue of the woman holding the faceless baby.

With a deep exhalation, I turned back to face the rest of the hall, my face relaxing as I looked around the wondrous structure.

The architecture was magnificent, but all I could think about was getting to see what was beyond all the walls.

I wanted to fall asleep on a tree branch on a nice, sunny day without any fear of what might happen if I closed my eyes.

'What if you don't make it? What if you're wrong?' such questions crossed my mind, and I looked down at the unconscious Adam. 'Kill him. Make sure you survive. He would've done the same to you. He admitted it. He deserves it, so just kill him. Do it!'

I held my breath, my jaw tightened, my eyelids grew further apart, and my pupils grew smaller as I directed my gaze at my dagger, which was slowly moving closer and closer to Adam's throat. Then I drew breath once more, relaxed, and reasoned with myself.

"No, you don't need to. Your theory is correct. Based on what Amelia told you, this is what the Creator would do."

'What if she lied? What if her hatred twisted her thoughts and made her tell you things that weren't truthful.'

"But the instructions were too vague. If we really had to kill each other, wouldn't the instructions state that outright?"

'But...'

"Aghh, stop it. Just shut up!"

'You may be right. You don't necessarily need to kill him, but you want to, right?

"I don't. I don't want to kill anyone anymore," I said, my own voice feeling almost foreign.

'Is that really your truth?'

The memory of my father's face came to mind, and at the same moment there was a sound of stone being broken. Multiple cracks appeared on the opposite side of the structure and started spreading like wildfire, making bits and pieces of walls and pillars fall to the ground and break further apart.

Then there was a message.

[Time remaining: 60 seconds.]

I took a moment to swallow dryly before answering the earlier question, "That's right. It is my truth. My father and every other person who has caused me to suffer are already dead in my mind. Those people are irrelevant now and only serve to weigh me down. That's why I have no hatred for anyone. I just want to live my life in peace. From this day on, I will give up all the poison within my mind and be free to live in a way I think is right, even if that means my death."

[Time remaining: 30 seconds.]

The first large piece of stone got loose and smashed into the ground, sending debris flying everywhere.

'Hah, then just die,' the voice said spitefully, a deep anger buried within every single word.

At that moment, tens of similarly sized boulders fell and crashed much like the one before them, and a booming sound resounded in the structure that was gradually collapsing in my direction. However, I remained calm and collected.

"I will if that is my fate," I concluded, and the voice finally disappeared.

[Time remaining: 20 seconds.]

As I looked at the structure collapsing and debris starting to fly dangerously close to me, I chuckled as I realized something that had been in the back of my mind all this time.

'For a while there, I completely forgot this thing was even underground, since we never actually moved up and the scenery changed so rapidly. Thanks, Amelia, for being as abstruse as possible. Nothing at the top, huh?'

[Time remaining: 10 seconds.]

I didn't know what this world had to offer, but I trusted Amelia to be correct. If I kept living like I had until this point, I would stay in my miserable condition for the rest of my life.

For so long, I thought there was something outside myself—some otherworldly, undefined goal that would save me from my suffering—and was always wondering why it eluded me so thoroughly. I guess it did so because such a thing didn't exist. There was no freedom or happiness waiting for me once I got out. What I took with me to the top was all I would have when I was there.

That's why I was no longer afraid.

[Time remaining: 5 seconds.]

As I sat in the square, I felt absolutely nothing negative. I was at peace with my choice. I was doing what I thought was right. I would no longer hold onto an indifference towards the lives of others. I wouldn't allow myself to turn back into that thing. Even if I had to bear all the pain the world threw at me, I would allow myself to feel it so that I could reach the happiness I was seeking.

[Time remaining: 1 second.]

I was going to leave this moment exactly as irrationally and hopefully as I wanted to. This may be my last moment, but it was also the first time I was glad I was the way I was. I was doing what nobody expected me to, and that was precious to me.

[Time has run out.]

At the moment when a huge boulder fell from the roof directly on top of me, I was happy, and no one could take that away. And even when the light around the square faded away and the boulder fell on me, I had no regrets.

It was a good place to die.

However, for some reason, I didn't die. I felt nothing. Everything simply turned pitch black except for me, Adam, and my dagger, which was shining with red light.

"Eh?" My mouth opened in confusion.

All kinds of horrible thoughts went through my head in the seconds it took for me to look around and discover a pure white, ethereal door far behind me.

My eyes opened wider, and I raised my eyebrows slightly as a shiver ran down my spine. I unsummoned my dagger and stood up, lowering Adam's body to the ground gently before starting to head towards the door in the distance.

My steps were stable, as if falling would mean my death. My hands shook more and more with each step, and I couldn't feel anything, as my whole body had gone numb already. It was so silent.

That was until a sound came from behind, and before I looked back, my right leg was cut off.

"Graaah!" I shouted as the pain signals traveled from my leg to my brain in an instant.

The pain somehow felt much more intense than anything I had ever felt before. I didn't have time to think about how that was possible when Adam jumped on top of me as I was lying with my back against the ground.

"Wait! Wait!" I yelled repeatedly, sweat starting to drip off of my forehead as I focused on stopping the bleeding with my healing. "Look! We made it! There's no need to fight. My theory was correct."

Adam shifted his animalistic, aggressive gaze from me to the door-shaped white thing, and immediately afterward fell back with furrowed brows and confusion in his eyes.

After a long pause, he opened his mouth. "Why am I alive?"

I gave a relieved sigh before answering, "Let's get out of this place first. I'll answer your questions later."

My foot hadn't healed yet, but I was eager to make it out of this place as fast as possible, even if I had to hop my way out.

After I stood up, Adam shook his head and came to help me walk, even though he was badly injured as well and seemed to have a hard time using his right leg. He came to stand beside me before putting my right arm over his shoulders.

"Can't you answer while we walk?" Adam asked with an annoyed tone.

I sighed before gathering my thoughts for a second and answering, "I just wanted to. I told you back there that I would like to try being a good person, right?"

Adam pursed his lips at my answer before exhaling through his nose and saying, "Didn't I tell you that it's not worth anything? Besides, it doesn't fit our natures to be kind."

"It's worth just as much as your life is worth. And I think you should change your outlook on your personality a little. Your genetics don't completely decide your life. You may have gotten bad experiences from trying to be a kind person, but that doesn't mean you should just abandon it completely and become a monster like..." I stopped my sentence abruptly and just exhaled, signaling that I was done talking.

Adam snorted at my words and looked away. "You're surprisingly good at preaching stuff you know nothing about."

"You're right. I know nothing," I said, looking down at my feet, or more specifically, my foot. "However, from this moment onwards, I intend to live the way that I think is right and learn to endure the pains that come with it. And even if nothing good comes from it, I won't allow myself to turn into a monster as a consequence and make everyone else bear my pains."

"Talk all you want. I won't believe until I see it."

"Just look at yourself and my foot. There you have my first kind act and the first pain I've had to endure because of it," I said as we arrived in front of the white door. "Even so, I don't regret it at all."

Adam sighed and gave me a defeated look before gesturing for me to open the door.

Then both of us shifted our gazes to the door, and I reached out my left hand, pushing the door open. Right after it opened, we didn't dwell on the moment for too long and stepped out into a cool and humid environment.

I immediately started looking at our surroundings after the door disappeared.

There was a dark forest in the distance, and the clouds above were of a slightly dark gray color, but I didn't pay any attention to that. My gaze was strictly on the horizon, which was dyed a bright orange color by the sun that sent rays of light down at us and illuminated the tips of the otherwise dark green blades of grass that had some water droplets on them.

My foot had healed enough that I could now put some weight on it instead of hopping forward, only using my left foot.

And as we walked with no particular direction or plan in mind, my face twisted, and I felt streaks of something warm flow down my cheeks, the volume increasing with every moment.

Adam, who was stoic at the sight and was seemingly worried about the future, turned to me, his expression turning into one of shock and confusion as he asked, "Why are you crying?"

Tears flooded from my eyes as I sniffed before answering with my gaze fixed on the horizon, "The sunrise. It's so beautiful."