---
š Chapter 7 ā Whereā¦?
I could feel it clearly now...
Only I was left.
That soul⦠had been consumed by that thing.
Now, I had nothing more to lose.
> "...So he's really gone."
I whispered.
No one answered. No voice replied.
The scythe trembled in my hand.
What�
It was as if it wanted to speak to me. But no sound came out.
Only a quiet vibration pulsed through its handle.
Suddenly, it slashed at the air on its ownā
A swirling portal opened before me.
I stepped through.
> "Where... is this place?"
A blinding white world. Empty. Still.
In the distance, someone was lying on a hammock, seemingly asleep.
Before I could react, a voice echoed behind me.
> "Hello, kid."
I turned.
A man dressed in white stood there, his face blurred like static.
Who⦠are you?
He just smiled. Slowly⦠he faded away.
Gone, like mist.
I looked down.
A letter lay at my feet.
> "Go live the way you want. I'll always be watching."
But... maybe it's already too late.
I moved forward.
An old house stood there, blanketed in thick dust.
I reached for the door, but it crumbled as I touched it.
Insideā
Only a single skeleton remained, untouched, forgotten.
Dust covered everything. The silence was suffocating.
This place⦠had been abandoned for far too long.
This⦠was once a home?
Memories flooded in.
This body once had someone.
A caretaker.
A man who protected it, nurtured itā
even knowing it was just a vessel... a test subject.
But he loved the boy like his own.
He waited.
Waited for a promise that was never fulfilled.
And now, he too⦠was gone.
Just like the world itself.
---