With the horrifyingly familiar scenery surrounding him, Fate immediately began to dig at the water with his trembling frame, desperately attempting to flee from what he believed would emerge next…

-...They’r-re...c-coming...COMING!!! Ha...ha...ha...hahahaha...the h-hands...THEY’LL DRAG ME DOWN!!!

Fate: “They’r-re…!!!”

Fate could barely hear the sounds of his own deranged screams and laughter, as visions of tormented and pained cries had completely overridden his mind, filling his every thought with images of an army of screaming, pitch-black limbs rising up to claim his soul!

He could feel every hair on his body stand up, their chilled stances fighting against the even colder water, as he dragged his body through the blackened sea…

-...T-this...it’s you, isn’t it…?!! 

His insane cries echoed throughout the water, carrying his melancholy and tormented tones out of his reach, as he continued to desperately trash against it…

-...That w-whole life...that torment...purposeless existence...and you k-keep dragging me back...giving me some hope that I’ll be able to i-improve myself...JUST SO THAT YOU CAN DASH THOSE HOPES AND BURY THEM WITH MY FIRST F***ING BODY, RIGHT?!!!

The entire sea rang with his cries…

-YOU WERE NEVER SATISFIED WITH MAKING ME SUFFER ONCE, WERE YOU?!! YOU DRAGGED ME BACK HERE JUST TO FINALLY END IT, DIDN’T YOU??!!!

Fate continued to ascend, as his emotions exploded to their peak…!

-ANSWER ME...WITCH!!!

[Shine!]

-Agh!!!

Suddenly, a bright light began to shine from above, piercing his tightly closed eyes and causing him to slowly and reluctantly pry his eyelids open, even as he continued to desperately swim upward, revealing the dim, hopeless, terrified blue eyes that soon met the strange radiance that bathed them in its gentle glow...

Fate: “...”

[Blub...Blub...Blub…]

Fate was hypnotized by the light, causing his body to slowly come to a stop, allowing him to begin drifting downward, and his terrified expression to slowly melt away with the gentle heat that pierced through the surface of the sea...

He no longer screamed, neither internally nor externally, as he aimlessly stared upward...

Fate expressionlessly stared at the warm glow from beyond the water’s surface that bathed his form and the form of the sea around him with a deep, orange glow, almost like a sunset, his worries melting away as his cold, shivering skin drank in its radiance…

-It’s...so warm up there...and cold down here...

However, this unexpected calm did not last for Fate, as his terrified expression returned and he quickly jolted up from his stillness, as he prepared to resume his hurried ‘climb,’ with his goal now seemingly in sight!

-G-got...distracted...b-but I gotta keep...huh?!

Fate’s eyes widened in terror and shock, as he suddenly felt an unknown force grip him, preventing his body from moving, as he continued to slowly descend!

Fate: “N-no...no...nooooooooo!!!!!”

He screamed in terror, as he used all of the remaining energy in his body to fight against this mysterious power, slowly dragging his vision towards the depths below, expecting his executioners to appear behind him…!

[Blub...blub...blub…]

But, to his further shock, nothing awaited his gaze! Not a single char-black limb rested on his body, which was still being oppressed by the foreign force, as it continued to sink further into the sea…

-They’re...c-can’t be...it’s some kind of trick!!!

Below him, the dark, black sea that he was terrifyingly familiar with had been inexplicably replaced by a  completely silent, calm, deep turquoise sea…

But, before he could question this being a vision caused by his dwindling sanity, a memory suddenly flashed through his mind, which caused him to give up his resistance and allow his body to return to its board-like, upwards-facing position…

…

Fate was completely silent, as the image of a blackened demon, raising its hand to strike inserted itself into the forefront of his thoughts…

He slowly looked around him, his dim eyes scanning every instance of the silent sea, whose depths he was gradually sinking further into, with a complicated, confused expression...

Fate: "A-am...I dead...?"

...