Elsez’s face burned as she mouthed silently, fumbling for words before finally stammering:
“Y-you’re not even scared right now? We’re trapped here, you know?”
“I was more afraid of waking up and finding you gone.”
Though his voice was calm, his eyes twisted slightly, as if brushing against painful memories from the past.
Elsez stared blankly at him, his arms still holding her tightly as if he had no intention of letting go, then asked:
“…Rashiel, aren’t you afraid of me?”
She remembered the overwhelming power she had once felt from Rezantia.
Rashiel must be sensing that same power from her now.
The memory returned—those fearful eyes staring at her before they were dragged into the rift, when she revealed the Demon Lord’s power.
But Rashiel’s answer was so matter-of-fact, as though her question made no sense at all.
“Am I supposed to be?”
Elsez had tried to save people even with the Demon Lord’s power.
Even at risk to herself, she had come to the Mage Tower to rescue him.
“Whatever power you carry, whatever form you take—you’re still you.”
Rashiel reached out and brushed her cheek.
As if to soothe her, wounded by others’ fearful gazes.
Elsez blinked at him, then let out a soft laugh.
Even when the entire world saw her as something terrifying, his unwavering gaze that saw only her was a comfort beyond words.
“Still, we can’t just sit around here. We need to find a way out.”
Elsez slipped from his arms and stood.
Rashiel, watching her with a hard expression, rose to his feet as well.
“And when we go back… what then?”
Elsez froze.
She knew exactly what he was asking.
Now that she had regained the Demon Lord’s full power, the moment they returned, everyone would treat her as the enemy.
Just like the stares she had seen before they were pulled into the rift.
Rashiel was asking how she planned to face that.
“…Well, we can’t just sit here forever. First, let’s figure out a way out. Then I’ll think about it.”
Rashiel’s lips parted as he watched her walk ahead, but he closed them without a word.
Instead, he stepped closer and took her hand.
Startled by the sudden touch, Elsez looked up at him.
“…You might be lost to me.”
His eyes, answering her unspoken question, looked oddly sorrowful.
Her heart softened at the sight, and she let him hold her hand.
“…Fine. Okay.”
Flustered, Elsez turned her gaze away.
But her thoughts were fixed entirely on their joined hands.
The coolness of his skin sent a strange shiver through her—awkward and yet strangely steadying.
Hand in hand, they began to explore the rift.
There was no floor, no ceiling, no path—just endless white space stretching on forever.
They walked and walked, until holding hands felt as natural as moving their own limbs.
How long had it been?
At last, Elsez spotted something out of place in the endless white.
‘…Monsters?’
All around—in the air, on the ground—were eggs and what seemed like newly hatched monsters and beasts.
“Are those… monsters?”
“Yeah. Ones someone dumped here.”
“Dumped? Not naturally formed?”
Until now, Elsez had thought monsters simply emerged from the rift itself.
But Rashiel’s answer completely contradicted her assumption.
“The rift is a void. Life can’t arise here on its own.”
“Then who dumped them?”
“Someone who wants evil to exist in the world.”
At his weighty words, Elsez immediately thought of the one person who fit that description.
“…Dike?”
Rashiel didn’t answer. But she didn’t need him to.
Grinding her teeth, Elsez pictured the culprit behind this impossible scheme.
Rashiel continued explaining.
“When these things grow up, the rift won’t be able to contain them. It’ll collapse under the mass and spit them out.”
That was what created the dimensional rifts in their world.
“When that happens, we’ll have a way out.”
“But won’t it take months for them to grow? And in the meantime, we’ve got no food.”
“You’ve seen it—the flow of time here isn’t the same as in our world.”
Even as they spoke, the monsters and beasts grew at a startling pace.
The alien mana of this dimension itself was fueling their growth.
Rashiel watched the sight and continued explaining.
“There’s no up or down here, and the concepts of past and future don’t apply. A day we spend here might be an hour outside, and conversely one minute here could be a month out there.”
In other words, bodies inside this place don’t get affected by time in the usual way.
“Then when we go back, couldn’t it be hundreds of years later or something?!”
Rashiel chuckled at Elsez’s imagination.
“That won’t happen. The rift remembers exactly the world and time zone we came from. That’s how it maintains the correct mass for that world.”
No matter how long they stayed here, when they exited they’d return to the time they originally came from.
“So the rift will open up to wherever we need to go. To match the mass of the world we lived in, to send us back to our original world.”
“How do you know so much? You didn’t know much about rifts until recently, right?”
“Before I went to the Empire I said I was going to get something. One reason was to view half of a forbidden book kept there. You asked me to look into rifts, remember?”
“Oh, right. That’s true.”
“If my guess is right, your soul should be able to return to the world you came from. A rift to the world you lived in will open before you.”
Elsez’s soul belonged to the present world.
So the rift would open a door leading to the world to which Elsez’s soul was tied.
‘I can go back to the real world I lived in?’
Hearing that, Elsez went blank.
She’d only ever vaguely imagined the possibility — she had never seriously thought she could actually return.
Rashiel watched her silently, hesitated for a moment, then spoke with difficulty.
“…When the rift to your world opens, go back to the world you lived in.”
If Elsez returned to Rashiel’s world, everyone there would turn hostile and try to kill her.
‘I want to keep you by my side even if I have to kill everyone in that world who hates you…’
But he would choose self-destruction rather than let her stay in his world under that fate.
Knowing that about her, he couldn’t ask her to remain in his world.
So instead—
“I’ll come find you.”
“……”
“Across dimensions, even if it takes years, as long as you’re alive.”
Elsez stared at Rashiel, stunned.
‘You might disappear on me.’
Only then did she understand why he’d held her hand with that sad expression.
‘Rashiel knew from the moment he first opened his eyes here.’
He knew a door back to her original world would open before them.
He even prepared to let her go.
“Then, we’ll meet again.”
Rashiel brushed Elsez’s cheek and smiled.
His lips forced a smile, but his eyes, holding her image, were sadly twisted.
Just then, a rift in the dimension opened, revealing a black space.
As if it were witnessing the two’s final farewell.
Elsez instinctively sensed that this rift led to the world Yuhana had lived in.
‘That rift is pulling me in.’
If she returned to her original world now, she wouldn’t have to face the people who’d be hostile to her.
She wouldn’t have to fight them, run from them, or hide to survive.
For now, Rashiel’s plan was the best option.
Elsez stared at the rift shrinking slowly, then, finally resolute, looked up at Rashiel.
“I’ll be waiting.”
“……Okay.”
Elsez let go of his hand and stepped toward the rift.
Rashiel reached out for her, but his hand stopped just short, unable to touch.
As Elsez reached into the rift, a familiar system window popped up before her eyes.
「Do you want to quit the main scenario? If you leave now you will not receive rewards.
YES/NO」
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