He let out a grin, finally vomiting his blood. It was the end of Yuuto's life.

What happened next is nothing. Every sense he had ceased to exist. His feelings of fear, death, wanting, and the pain had gone. All alone at the Dungeon without being able to help her, he died. Though there is one regret that he had. Yuuto didn't have a chance to see if Alice escaped that Dungeon but considering how powerful she is and her magic. His heart is somewhat at ease.

Although even with the trance, his eyes open on their own. His sight was filled with one color, white. He looked around and there was nothing without it. There was no shadow, no landmark, and even the horizon was seamless, infinitely expanding as far as his eyes could see. He moved his gaze to check it again, he was all alone with no one to tell what was happening.

"What is this place"

If this is what people say afterlife then it was not what he was expecting to be. Yuuto expects that someone with black robe and large scythe will welcome him and guide him in the door of reincarnation or to heaven.

`Where is that grim reaper I'm expecting. Is he doing his work properly, I'm dead here and I'm not seeing that guy. '

He put his hand on his chin and began thinking. Even with walking, the world is not even moving. As if he was trapped in a single point in place. If it could just remain like that and give him more time. In the moment, he felt sharp pain hitting his chest. Yuuto fell on the floor, with one of his knees supporting him.

His pain reverberated throughout his body. He looked at his chest. The pain was immense but he could see any wound. He was sure that is the pale where the manticore had hit him, but why is there no wound and if he is dead why is he still suffering. The questions could only keep piling in his mind.

"why why won't you let me rest. Why does this still hurts" he grunts.

Over and over again, he felt like he was being hammered and impaled by those large claws. Without being able to endure it, he shouted.

"AHHHHH!!! "

He wants to end it. in his pain, his knees lost their strength and he fell on the floor. He keeps screaming in his pain, rolling back and forth just to ease his unending pain even for a second. In his scream, he tasted iron in his mouth. At that moment he coughed out blood.

More of this and he would surely lose his sanity.

There was no fire, no otherworld beings that kept torturing him, no visible things that he could say that he was hurting him.

And.. Yet he was suffering. Upon death he expected that everything would end, but now his pain and suffering just escalated.

"What do you want to do with me, why are you making me suffer" he shouted.

There was no one beside him in that infinite empty space, he was just shouting in the air. He can think of anything only one word keeps repeating in his mind.

'why? '

Why are you making me suffer, why won't you let me die, why can't I see someone else, why didn't you trap me here, why save me from that manticore, why are you still letting me live…

Just let me rest…

His tears fall down from the corners of his eyes, having a single moment of silence. Yuuto heard distant footsteps. His head flick where the sound is coming.

There he saw a person, though with the far distance Yuuto is sure that she was walking towards him. Yet, her footsteps seem near and at the same time far away. Her figure was far like a dot and near as he was able to notice her. She felt real and at the same time mysterious, someone so mysterious that Yuuto stopped understanding what she truly is.

As the distance between him and her became closer, his mind finally gave what she looked like. She wore a lilac free-flowing dress with the strap being gold in color and her sleeves which cut from the armpit until the end of the sleeves was connected through the strap, just being able to cover the above of her arms. He raised his head trying to see the first person he found in this place. But he only found a blur, he didn't know if it was because of his pain, his tears, or the fatigue caused by his continuous screaming. Even without seeing her face, Yuuto felt happy that there was someone there. He was not alone with his pain and he can remain sane even for more minutes.

She looks at him with curiosity, tilting her head ever slightly due to his condition.

"Do you want to be saved?" she asks. There was no malice, just pure curiosity.

He coughed out blood once again. Does he want to be saved, the answer is already obvious. OF COURSE, HE WANTS TO BE SAVED.

"Do you want to be saved? " she asks him once again, this time she puts her open hands in front of Yuuto.

He felt no ulterior motive around. There was no miasma that can say she was a being that will harm. Instead, she was surrounded by this aura, that he felt safe around. Without hesitation, he grabbed her hands and tightly gripped them.

"yes… " he answered.

Everything turns dark.

The sunset orange-colored ray hit him in the eyes. His ears were filled with the sound of the cicadas chirping. Yuuto opened his eyes. To his surprise, he woke under the tree near the dungeon, with his bag and pickaxe just beside him.

"When did I arrive here?" he asks.

He closed his eyes for a moment and tried to remember what happened, narrating what happened to him with his fingers. "I got lost on the second floor of the dungeon, an adventurer with golden colored hair, Alice helped me to find the exit… then? " he hangs in his words.

No matter how he tries to remember it, nothing comes to his mind. The more he tried to pry it, he could only feel a headache. As he tried to look for that memory, Yuuto suddenly notice that he is surrounding is slowly getting,

"Shoot, If I don't come now 'that' person will only scold me " he shivers in his mind.

Putting to remember what happened to him in dungeon in the back of his mind, he swiftly grabbed his bag and pickaxe and began running. Trying to outrun the light before it began to vanish.

Unbeknownst to him though, that girl in lilac is watching his back. In the darkness brought by the twilight, her lips crack a dark smile.