Fate felt his ears begin to itch as his eyes widened in disbelief. He thought that he must have surely misheard the strange shapeshifter…

Fate: “I’m sorry...what?!”

The creature ground its teeth as it barked at him with ferocity...

???: “YOUR EGO, I AM PART OF YOUR PERSONALITY, YOUR SELF!!!”

Witch of Fate: “I would say that it was part of your former personality, but then you probably aren’t going to give me the time of day to…”

[Boom!]

Just as the expressionless face of the Witch began to emerge from the veil of lightning, the clouds unleashed a massive pillar of flames, swallowing the Witch as well as the black sea below her! Fate, however, despite giving a snicker in her direction, didn’t seem too enthused.

He turned his attention back to the creature, again, attempting to comprehend what he had just heard….

-Former?! It was part of my personality?! Did I have a split personality for my entire life and just not know about it?! Wait...no...that’s definitely impossible, I’m sure I would have found some sign of its existence if it did exist! Plus…

Fate embarrassedly thought back to when he was a teenager, desperate scouring the internet and various books on psychology in order to figure out how to develop split personality disorder, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck as he did so.

???: “Focus, j*ckass, I am not a split personality you managed to develop with online hypnosis videos and skimming through sh*tty books on the mind, split personalities, and…ugh...emotions until you got bored, I am a part of you, you, YOU!!!”

Fate covered his ears as the creature yelled at him, still reeling at this stunning revelation. The nightmarish creature who had attacked him, tortured him with his own memories, and had been trying to manipulate him was a part of himself? What could this mean?

Fate: “So when you say, me…”

The creature ceased its growling, sticking its deformed thumb into its mouth while blowing on it, which somehow resulted in the regeneration of one of its eyes! Fate stared at it, bewildered, thinking that it was almost as if a character from an old cartoon had appeared before him.

The creature now stared at him with a dull look in its eye…

???: “Don’t pretend to be a dunce, douche canoe. Question, do I look like you used to?”

Fate: “Yes?”

???: “Have I already proven that I have access to your memories and that I already know everything about that time?”

Fate felt a little irritated at the impromptu questionnaire, but attempted to keep a straight face.

Fate: “You’ve proven the first thing, but you haven’t said or shown me anything about the time before I got killed.”

???: “My goal in bringing you here was to show you those memories in order to break you, why would I want to make you look into a past that’s only going to make you depressed, instead of insane? Speaking of which, what level of 『Mental Corruption』 are you at right now, you don’t seem very...touched in the head?”

Fate: “First of all, I’m already a crybaby as is, so good call on that. Secondly, the level of my craziness is none of your damn business. And finally, don’t use the word ‘touched’ it just makes me think back to all the times I got hounded by mom and dad…”

The creature groaned in frustration…

???: “Fine, but the point is that I’m not just a nightmare monkey that lives inside of your brain, I’m not a plant by the Witch, I’m not a split personality that you created so that you could talk to it, and I am definitely, absolutely, horrifyingly REAL!!! Do you understand?!”

Fate: “Fine, fine, yes I get it! Just shut up, ok?!”

Suddenly, an indigo light illuminated the platform that they stood on, bathing both of them in its strange, bluish radiance…

The Witch of Fate, along with the fully-formed gate behind her, floated into the air slowly, looking down upon the simple mortals below…

Witch of Fate: “Are you quite finished? While this little spat has been...entertaining to say the least, I’m afraid that as your counterpart has already stated, Fate, I’m in the material realm on an important errand, and don’t currently have the flexibility in my schedule to stick around longer…”

However, as if to cut her off, a black chain shot from Fate’s chest, piercing into the Witch! The creature looked on with a smirk as both Fate and her stared at him, puzzled…

From thin air, wrapped within the middle of the chain was the spectral blue journal that the creature had already utilized as bait, earlier. 

???: “So, with all the chaff out of the way, how about we get started with our final event?!~ Witch, since you’re so keen on getting out of my hair, I won’t stop you, but…!~”

It plucked the tightly bound chain like a chord on a guitar…

???: “I’m making it interesting!~ So, Fate, you’ll try to yank the chain, and by extension the journal, and if you manage to do it, you win and will be let out of here with the Witch no longer restraining your emotions 24/7!~”

Fate stared, confused, yet angry at the Witch, who in turn, stared back at him with her signature emotionless gaze…

???: “And, Witchy, if you win, I’ll make sure that this one follows your orders to the letter, till the day I eventually fade away!~”

...