(Prologue) End of the Endless III

"Not so good to see you alive and well~"

The intruder muttered in an exaggerated tone of ridicule. His eye-catching tan skin seemed to glow a faint golden luster with the dungeon's flickering flames.

"Quit the chatter, why are you here?"

He frowned at Kaisellin's bland response.

"You don't seem surprised?"

"I know you too well to be." He couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva mixed with blood.

'You're someone who'd find me even in the deepest depths of the Abyss.'

"—What's the situation back in the kingdom?"

"Chaos. The military suffered quite a big blow. Surely even after a decade, it won't be the same as before. Especially now that the leaders have been overturned one by one."

"What of royal family?"

"The former king's execution has already commenced a few days ago. Even now, his head is still hanging up the city squares for all to see."

No words were uttered for a while. No one moved for a while. But even then, the deep malice within the figure's amethyst eyes were too evident to conceal.

"By the way, did you have to kill it?" The velvet-eyed figure scoffed as he silently trudged and lightly kicked the severed head like some children's rubber ball.

It squeaked, leaving a trail of white and red fluid as it rolled.

"He reeked of opium. Extreme hallucinogens. It reminded me of Vendalius—and he's noisy beyond my patience."

"...That's very much like you."

"When have I been anyone else aside from myself?"

"Who knows? Hiding our real selves was our only means to survive. Only the strong could savor privileges in a twistedly fanatical kingdom. Majority lost themselves completely in the process."

"They've long maddened and lost rational sentience. You're a primal example."

"Cannot deny that. You still speak with such detachment as if you weren't much affected by these horrors. I've always found myself terrified of that." He snickered in between his words, half self-deprecating, half amused.

"Terrified that I'm used to it? We all are, at some point. This world is wretched to begin with."

He shook his head slightly, clearing up the former's confusion.

"Terrified that I can't read the emotions behind your deadpan expression whenever you do such gruesome things without as much as batting an eye. You're not human, Kaisellin. Human virtues do not apply to you."

'He speaks as if he's human himself.'

"However, to disagree with what you previously mentioned..." He slowly paced towards Kaisellin teasingly, holding his dagger in a reverse grip.

"Having a few screws loose allowed me to come this far and live."

"...You call this living?" Kaisellin's brow twitched. His voice came out lower than intended, wavering. Shaking. As if it was meant to tell a thousand miserable stories.

The figure's amethyst eyes averted its intense gaze as he shrugged in a carefree gait.

"Well, my heart is beating, pumping blood just as I drenched others'. It's more than enough to say that my body is alive and functioning...I think I can manage."

"But what about you? Are you even still alive?" The intruder tapped at Kaisellin's chest, pointing at his heart.

His silver hair fluttered slightly, reflecting the orange embers of the underground torches. He couldn't answer.

He didn't know what to answer.

What, indeed, is living to a regressor's vocabulary?

What is living to an undying being?

"I'm unguarded. I'm defenseless. Surely, you're not here just to have a little chat after infiltrating this deep down in the Danalith dungeons?"

We're no longer allies.

"Surely." Without further warning, his dagger plunged through his shoulder. It was too deep that the tip penetrated through the back, and showed just how small and frail Kaisellin appeared.

The intruder tightly held him as if almost embracing his body, his breath warm against the Adonis's cold skin. Golden liquid dripped down Kaisellin's back, little droplets drenching the moist floor with more color.

However, Kaisellin was shocked. Not because he was stabbed by a ridiculously sharp dagger that penetrated through, but because it wasn't fatal enough to kill him instantly.

"...why?"

'Why didn't you go for the heart just as you have at the end of every regression?

We are no longer comrades.

We are no longer companions through life and death.

We are no longer bound by the geas.

So why aren't you killing this body?'

"I'm too tired of doing the same thing every single damn time. Back then, I couldn't think of anything else besides killing you for what you did, but now it's too...repetitive. Things occurring too often and too much lose its significance just as fast."

Kaisel's mouth parted, attempting to say something, yet it ended with only a visible quiver. Soon, his body felt heavy as his head slowly leaned into the amethyst-eyed intruder.

The intruder shifted his body slightly to support Kaisellin's unconscious state, then roughly pulled the chains binding his limbs.

He then lifted Kaisellin into a princess carry.

Glancing slightly right across the prison cell he exited from, he paused. Evander's eyes widened upon recognizing the intruder.

"Sir Antares..."

The boy who was called Antares, stared back at Evander with a cold expression. He then conjured an incorporeal wisp of red embers and used it to reach his pockets, taking out the keys he stole from one of the gatekeepers.

The keys were roughly tossed to the side, just within arm's reach of the prisoner. Evander stared at it for a few seconds before nodding.

"...Thank you."

"Don't. I'm not doing this for you. It's just that...there were still remnants of the geas' influence."

With that, he silently took the stairs back up as the flames rage above them without a care.