“……Stop.”
No, perhaps it was a plea.
“Stop, stop…… It is over now. Over! What more do you think you can do?!”
I traced my memories. When I had floundered in despair, I met Gilford within the unconscious realm. And I crossed swords with ‘my past self.’
Back then, an inexplicable impatience had consumed me.
Why?
“There is no chance of victory! The difference in skill is obvious! Have you not seen enough already?!”
Only now did I understand.
I had been frightened. Frightened by the novice who had risked his life merely to defeat one Demonic Human at the orphanage.
What had terrified me so?
I stood here again, not as the ‘future’ that had despaired, collapsed, and imprisoned itself, but as the ‘past.’
I exhaled. The end of my run lay before me. Why had I been so anxious that day when I merely…