Darkness! Endless darkness.

Only darkness enveloped James's thoughts and mind for an unknown period of time. He couldn't hear, see, or feel anything, as if he was travelling through space. His mind drifted through an endless void.

"Sir!"

A faint voice reached his ears. It was a familiar voice, one that he had heard not too long ago.

"Sir!"

The voice once again called out. This time, with a lot more clarity.

James' mind slowly cleared up, and he opened his eyes. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw a devastatingly beautiful girl looking at him at nose length.

"Sir! Are you not feeling well?"

"... Rose?"

"Yes Sir, it's me."

James blinked a couple of times. Raising his head, he glanced around. Then, much to his surprise, he found himself inside his office on the 17th floor sitting on his usual chair & the laptop displaying something of Nightangel.

He couldn't quite remember what happened before that.

"Strange…" He muttered as he looked around the room.

"What's strange?" asked the assistant, tilting her head. Her long auburn hair gently fell on her shoulder.

James pointed towards the gigantic castle standing before the building, which was visible from the large room. "Did we have that before?"

"It's always been there"

"But..."

"The boss is calling you," said Rose, cutting him mid-sentence.

"Yeah." James proceeded to open the door & walked towards the office where the boss was & the assistant followed behind as the footsteps were heard closely.

But as he walked more, the sound slowly disappeared & James turned around to see the reason, but there was no one. Just an empty corridor with a light slowly blinking.

"What?" He frantically looked around and as soon as he turned back towards the office, he was suddenly inside the castle of Duke Esper, seeing the family happily dining.

First one to notice his presence was the girl with blonde hair & sapphire eyes who appeared confused.

"Who are you?"

"I...I..."

"What?" A very familiar voice was heard & soon a man with black hair & blue eyes tilted his head to see who the stranger was.

"No... No..." James' eyes widened as the man who was looking at him with a confused face was none other than Leonhart. He desperately touched his face, hands & soon he was sure he was back inside his own body.

He was James now & Leon was standing in front of him.

"Guards."

"Hey hey, listen to me..." shouted James, seeing the approaching guards.

As they restrained him from moving, Leon slowly came towards him.

"Who are you? & How did you get here?"

"I am... I am..." Just what he could explain to these people. And how in the world this man was standing before him?

"Speak! " shouted a guard, smacking James.

"Listen, just let me go, I will explain..."

"I think it's time to wake up." said someone standing in the corner in an eerie tone as everyone's focus shifted towards him.

He was wearing a full black coat & round hat carrying a black Gun like thing. His face was not visible as he casually approached the group. But no one said anything. They just watched.

And soon he was before James, pointing the gun at his head. The guards were holding him. Leon was standing there. But nobody did anything. It seemed like time itself had stopped.

"Good Night James!" said the man with an ominous voice devoid of any emotion.

"What..."

Bang!

James' eyes shot open, hearing the loud noise of truck honking. As he looked around to see where he was, he found himself lying on the roadside of an unknown highway with a bunch of vehicles passing by.

Just what was going on?

He frantically walked toward the road to stop someone, but his steps halted as he looked at an approaching white colored car.

The car passed by with the passengers looking at him with lifeless eyes & James realised who they were.

"Hey, hey, stop..."

Honk!

"NO...No..."

Screech! Screech!

"No...."

"Wake up, James." same voice, same tone, same coldness.

Bang!

James's eyes shot wide open once again. Now he was standing in the middle of a burning town. Corpses of dead men, women, & children were lying around everywhere. He could hear helpless cries of people.

Some were running to save their life, some were hiding in the darkness with their children, some were just sitting there accepting their fate.

Just where was he?

"You are in Elenor.'' said the same with the same ominous tone, carrying the same gun.

"What?"

"Look what you did?"

"No."

"Yes. You burned this city, you killed those people."

"No, it can't be."

"Yes, it is. This is the reality, James. This is the reality. You are walking on a path towards the inevitable end."

"NO, we were planning to fix the..."

"And this is the result."

"But..."

"No matter how you try, you can't."

"No, No..."

"I think we have talked far enough. It's time for you to wake up."

"What?"

Bang!

James woke up with a shout as his hoarse voice echoed through the large room. His breathing was erratic, eyes were teary, body was sweaty. Just like he was used to... It was not a new scene for him. But something was different. He was different.

He was inside his own body, which shouldn't be possible, as he had become Leon for a month by now.

James got up from his bed and went to the window to look at the garden or outside, but what he saw just frightened him beyond his wildest nightmares.

The same man wearing the same black coat which covered him from head to toe & the same round hat was waving at him standing in the middle of the garden.

Instantly, his eyes shot wide open, and he moved back as far away from the window as possible.

"You can't run away from me." said the man appearing before him in an instant.

"No."

Snap.

The man just snapped his fingers & suddenly they were in the garden, surrounded by the Duke's family & both James' deceased family. They were all looking at him with lifeless eyes.

"What is this? Why... Why you are doing this to me?" shouted James, looking at the stranger.

"Because you need to realize something." replied the man polishing his gun.

"What?"

"So tell me, James, who are you?"

"I am... I am... James. I am James."

"Sure. Then tell me, why are you here?"

"I am here to, I am here to..."

"Yes, yes, you are here to kill everyone."

"No, I am here to save everyone."

"Then tell me what you have done to save everyone?" asked the stranger in the same gloomy tone as before.

"I... We are planning to..."

"NO, you are not. You don't understand how severe the situation is. You don't understand how bad it is. All you are doing is just wasting time, which could have been better used by doing something meaningful."

James kept looking at the man with eyes full of fear. He couldn't understand what or how was this happening to him.

Was it a lucid dream?

Was he dead?

There were countless questions going inside James's head as he panicked more & more with each passing minute, but there was no one to answer.

"You proposed a plan & now we are going to act upon it. How sweet of you, little James. How sweet. But do you realize how helpless you are? You think this world is all a play thing. You talk about accepting it, but tell me what have you accepted? What have you done to change? Tell me James?"

"I... I..."

"Yes, you have done nothing. Cause you are nothing. You are the same piece of shit who killed his own parents. If you haven't thought about going to the match, then do you think all this could have happened?"

"NO... NO... It's not my fault..."

"Like I said, no matter how many times you try, you can't run away from me, James Macarthur. You can't."

"Just what are you?" screamed James with all his might. He couldn't understand how this guy was telling him the things he never wanted to hear, but knew these words were utterly true. He really held himself accounted for all the mistakes, but he soon got over it. Or was he?

"I am you. Always have been you." Replied the man, removing his jacket & hat. Then what came next was just anything but impossible. James was standing in front of James, but with a grim smile plastered on his face.

"I am the sins you have committed."

As those words sounded, chills ran down James' spine.

"... I am the consequence of your actions. It's you James, it's you. I am you & It's time for you to wake up."

"Don't, Please don't..."

"It's your fault..." said the man, pointing the gun towards Adeline's head, who suddenly came into life & started looking towards James with eyes full of fear.

Bang!

But it was too late. Before James could do anything, Adeline fell backwards with a thud.

"Nooooo!"

James's blood-curling scream rang out.

Not long after, the world started crumbling down.

However, right before the world could completely crumble, the same ominous voice travelled through his ears.

"…never forget…I am the one sin...you will never get rid of..."