One Step Away

Falling.

You are falling.

The sensation of falling tugs at you, dragging your consciousness out of a pitch-black dream.

One drop, then two... a cool liquid lands on your forehead and tracks down your cheek.

You part your lips; a faint, salty tang spreads across your tongue. This is no rain.

As if washed clean by the moisture, the world around you sharpens into focus.

Your shout dies in your throat.

A clock ticks. Birdsong filters through a half-open window.

A lingering sense of suffocation makes you pat your chest. You sit up slowly, needing a moment to feel the weight of reality.

Ring, ring...

You silence the alarm, stand, and stretch.

You recall Doll's intrigued expression, and a chill runs down your scalp.

You gather your resolve and push open the door in the underground passage.

Before you can react, a blinding light swallows you whole.

The stench of blood stings your nostrils. Students scream and scatter before a writhing black monster. Everything feels identical to the day you received the Silver Key.

...The day Ramona was wounded.

Rain seeps into your clothes, bringing a cold shiver. For a moment, you feel a terrifying illusion:that the life you lived afterward was the dream, and you never left this disaster.

You stop in your tracks. Amidst the chaos, a familiar silhouette stands with her back to you, facing the wind.

She levels her rapier at "Emily", the girl who once introduced herself at the cemetery gates, now twisted beyond recognition.

Before you can issue a command, she moves.

"Tawil" remains standing, but no longer with the same composure.

Before you can react, she spreads her silver wings and lunges at Ramona.

Time seems to freeze.

You sprint with every ounce of strength and throw yourself in front of Ramona.

A silver rapier thrusts from behind, piercing your left shoulder.

The white monster stares directly at you.

It watches you silently with its faceless, pale form.

A feminine, indifferent face appears before you.

Tawil reaches out and lightly taps the Silver Key on your chest.

The Silver Key flashes in response.

The white six-winged monster, the scattering mud demons, the twisted shadows...

All of them dissolve into black water and vanish without a trace.

You hold the Silver Key to your chest and exhale slowly.

You cannot tell where her blindfolded eyes are looking. The dark fabric is damp, soaked with tears.

She draws a sharp breath and swallows the rest of her words.

The girl who was cold and emotionless a moment ago seems to have found her feelings. She trembles, approaching cautiously, and gently rests her head against your chest.

Tears fall on your wounded shoulder. Sharp pain weaves through your nerves. Your body trembles uncontrollably, but the warmth of her tears softens the blow.

She grips your hand as if you were the last kite string in a storm. She can do nothing but pray you do not vanish in the winds of time.

Passage Activation Count: 0

On the day of the Black Pool incident, Tawil lunged toward me and gently embraced my soul.

Then, the black tide began to surge.

I stretched out my hand as far as I could.

Just like in Yakutsk, if I could have held onto {Male=him,Female=her}, {Male=he,Female=she} could have saved us from despair in that storm.

Not to mention...

%player% is my friend.

{Male=He,Female=She} is... important.

The ancient black vortex swallowed {Male=him,Female=her}. I watched helplessly as the storm of the Black Pool scoured Mythag until nothing remained.

The Awakening Department's carefully kept Silver Cores dissolved into the dark waters.

Most Awakeners lost themselves to the madness, screaming, fainting, wailing, or laughing into the void.

Czort and William organized the final evacuation and sealed the mist barrier forever.

I was sealed alone within the Black Pool.

After an eternity in the dark, I found a solution buried within the knowledge Tawil had granted me.

A passage, a way to return and rewrite the tragedy. But neither I nor Tawil could foresee the consequences of such a choice.

It felt reckless to act purely for my own sake.

So I waited.

Until that day. Mr. Alistair, confined to his wheelchair, arrived at the edge of the pool, pushed by a battered, worn-out Doll.

I closed my eyes and felt power coursing through me. In the long silence, I had grown intimately familiar with this power. It brought a vitality I had long since forgotten.

Tearing pain drowned me. I remembered that afternoon. Did %player% suffer like this? Or was it even worse?

This tragedy will not happen again.

Passage Activation Count: 1

As Tawil lunged toward me, I pulled the Keeper back half a step.

Tawil said nothing. They simply raised Their hand and summoned the same storm as before.

Passage Activation Count: 2

When Doll ordered me and the Keeper to flee, we did not argue.

We escaped through the back gate of the graveyard, crossing the thin mist barrier into the dark, silent woods.

The world opened up before us, the bustling streets of Londinium, filled with ordinary people living their happy, mundane lives.

But the happiness was brief.

A thick, black shadow overtook us from behind.

This time, the destruction I witnessed was a thousand times worse.

People laughing on the street suddenly froze. The black mud swallowed their feet, erasing their very existence.

They tried to move but collapsed into the invisible mire.

They vanished entirely.

Passage Activation Count: 3

I hid the existence of the clock tower and the Black Pool. I convinced the Keeper to leave the campus alone while I faced Tawil by myself.

Without the Keeper's command or the support of my friends, I failed to even reach the pool. I was cut down by other Awakeners who had lost control.

Passage Activation Count: 4

Passage Activation Count: 5

...

Passage Activation Count: @3

How many times has it been? I asked myself.

Do I have to watch the world... watch %player% die again?

If {Male=he,Female=she} is destined to die as a Keeper no matter what I do, then I will ensure {Male=he,Female=she} never becomes one.

So I concealed {Male=his,Female=her} abilities and left {Male=him,Female=her} in Yakutsk. I didn't care if I had to walk this path alone, as long as {Male=he,Female=she} lived.

That time, I didn't even make it out of the graveyard.

You sit by the edge of the Black Pool. As Ramona bandage your wounds, she recounts her agony in a hollow, steady voice.

Eventually, I began to hone my combat skills.

My only remaining chance was to strike when the anomaly began, to pierce Tawil's core the moment they revealed their true form.

I had to be fast. Faster than anything.

Fast enough to leave Lotan stunned, fast enough to strike before Doll could speak, fast enough to catch Tawil off guard.

Everyone I met became a target to sharpen my blade. On this path, I no longer recognized anyone as a companion.

I stopped speaking to the Keeper. I focused only on perfecting that single, Predetermined Strike.

That day, Tawil reached out to me.

Following a thousand-times-honed instinct, I thrust my blade with everything I had at the flash within Tawil's chest.

Metal clashed with a deafening ring. My wrist vibrated with the force of the impact.

Tawil's form shattered into silver ash.

No Keeper stood behind me.

Only a hand, sinking into a black vortex.

That day, I leapt into the Black Pool.

And for a brief moment, I caught a glimpse of a future that did not belong to me.

Tawil remained standing, though Their composure had fractured.

Before anyone else could react, They spreaded Their silver wings and lunged at Ramona, at the other version of me.

Time seemed to freeze.

The Keeper sprinted forward, throwing {Male=himself,Female=herself} in front of my counterpart.

That was when the realization hit me.

The future of the world is not mine to choose or change.

I was only one step away. A gap I could never close.

You look at this "Ramona" in front of you, at a loss for words.

She carried too much. She suffered too much. Her expression remains cold, but she moves her hands gently as she bandages your wounds.

The scene of the Black Pool fades like a photograph losing its color. The outline of the Awakening Device faintly reveals itself where Tawil once stood.

The Artificial Domain gradually dissipates. You sit before the Awakening Device, watching Ramona on the recliner.

You see with surprise that she still wears the blindfold belonging to the other "Ramona."

A familiar voice startles you. You turn to find Doll standing behind you, casually sipping tea.

Doll glances at the other "Ramona," visibly restraining her curiosity as she explains.

Seeing Doll prepare to request an experiment, you quickly change the subject.

Doll's voice trails off as she sinks into her thoughts. "Ramona" smiles at you.

You watch helplessly as Doll enters another mental brainstorm. "Ramona" gently touches your hand.

You hesitate, but you cannot find the words to ask her to stay.

She remains silent for a long time. She draws a deep breath and speaks with feigned indifference.

Leaving you with those words, she sits back in the recliner and closes her eyes. Her breathing gradually steadies.

You know that the one who awakens next will be the wise, detached assistant you know so well.

And that cold, masked girl returns to the Black Pool in another dimension, staring up at the boundless, pitch-black sky.

She waits for a call from a distant dimension.