POV: Nitsuo / Mirror Soul (Illusion Sequence)
Date: Day after they come to Narshia
Location: Narshia Town (Count's mansion)
---
The party had ended.
Laughter still echoed in the hall like ripples on quiet water.
Anna smiled again. Leander teased her like old times.
Alice watched in silence, content.
Cerene drank sparingly. Lily sat close.
Riya hummed. Elric made warm stew.
Even Gideon cracked a smile.
It was, by all accounts, peaceful.
But peace has a price.
And mine came that night.
---
I stepped out into the quiet courtyard alone.
Moonlight spilled across the marble stones.
> "Sometimes," I whispered,
"I wonder if the moon watches back."
A faint breeze answered.
Then—
A sting in my neck.
A cold breath.
Darkness.
And then—
---
Entry Unknown
Location: Somewhere between death and memory
Date: …Forgotten
Then a whisper came. Soft as breath on glass.
> "This soul is quite unique... let's see how far you can hold."
And the world fractured.
---
I died.
Once.
Then again.
Then again.
I tried to keep count. I swore I would.
To stay sane. To know which version of me survived.
I reached fifty.
Fifty deaths.
Fifty lives.
Fifty failures.
And then…
…I forgot the number.
The ink ran dry. The pages repeated themselves.
My hands bled from writing the same thing.
> "This time, I'll save them."
But I didn't.
---
They made me watch.
Riya, crushed beneath the tower she tried to hold alone.
Gideon, pierced by a blade he couldn't block.
Elric, twisted, begging for a mercy no one gave.
Leander, smiling even as they dragged him into the dark.
Anna, eyes wide, trembling—"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—"
before she burned herself alive.
Alice, impaled.
Lily—
She died last.
She always died last.
So I would break.
---
Each world was the same.
Or worse.
Sometimes I was the hero.
Most times, the monster.
Sometimes I betrayed them.
Sometimes they betrayed me.
Sometimes… I begged.
Sometimes… I laughed.
But every time—
> "You are not strong enough to protect what you love."
"Not this world. Not the next. Not ever."
And they killed me.
Again.
And again.
---
I tried to end it.
I jumped into fire.
I shattered my core.
I begged the illusion to stop.
But the Mirror wouldn't let me go.
Time snapped me back.
> "Try again, ?????? ???tician. Make your move."
And the world burned.
---
Somewhere around the hundredth death, I stopped hoping.
Somewhere past the hundred-fiftieth, I stopped speaking.
But I still wrote.
> "Journal Entry, Who-Cares Anymore:"
"They all died."
"It was my fault."
"Try again."
"I remember less each time."
"But not their faces."
"Never their faces."
---
They say death is the final mercy.
They lied.
Living is the slow poison.
Remembering is the blade.
Hope is the executioner.
I'm still here.
Still writing.
I don't know if I'm ?????? anymore.
But somewhere—deep down—
a part of me still holds the pen.
> "I will never let this happen again."
Not in this world.
Not in any other.
---
And as the loop began again,
I looked to the sky one last time.
But the light was gone.
> "Is… moon already forget about me?"
— ???