Izumi continued walking toward the violet light.
It hovered far ahead, faint but steady, like a promise that refused to explain itself. Each step he took felt different now. Not lighter, not heavier just certain. His breathing was even. His thoughts, for once, did not scatter at every sound the Void made.
He noticed it gradually.
In his past life, he could barely look people in the eye without his heart pounding like it was trying to escape his chest. A simple conversation could leave his hands shaking, his thoughts tangling into useless knots. He had learned to lower his gaze, to shrink himself, to disappear before anyone could decide whether he was worth noticing.
But now—
He had stood before a terrifying monster.He had watched it circle him.And he had not flinched.
The realization settled into him slowly, like warmth spreading through cold limbs.
I didn't panic, he thought.I didn't run.
He hadn't even felt fear not the way he used to. No racing thoughts. No tightening chest. Just stillness.
A quiet pride stirred within him.
"If I can stand calmly in front of something like that," he murmured to the darkness, "why would I ever shiver in front of another human?"
The thought surprised him. And for the first time in a long while, it made him smile.
As he walked, memories from his past life surfaced again but this time, they didn't hurt. Conversations replayed themselves in his mind, moments he had stumbled through or escaped from too quickly. He imagined answering differently. Speaking clearly. Meeting someone's eyes without lowering his own.
I could have said that, I should have said this.
One by one, he rewrote those moments not as regrets, but as practice. The strange thing was how it made him feel.
Happy.
Not loudly. Not overwhelmingly. Just a soft, unfamiliar sense of ease, like discovering a quiet room inside himself he hadn't known existed. The Void, for all its darkness, had stripped away something heavy from him something that had followed him all his life—Fear.
Even as that thought settled, Izumi did not let his guard down.
The Void was not kind. It was simply indifferent.
He kept his eyes moving, scanning the darkness around him. His steps were careful, measured. He placed his feet deliberately, avoiding uneven ground, listening for any sound that didn't belong to him. He had no desire to encounter another monster no wish to test whether his calm would hold a second time.
He moved like a mild wind, neither rushing nor stopping. Slow enough to notice changes. Fast enough to keep moving forward.
The mist around him drifted lazily now, no longer clutching at his ankles. Occasionally, it parted to reveal fragments of the ground smooth stone, shallow depressions, faint traces of something long erased. The Void felt… aware of him.
Not watching, Not judging.
Simply allowing.
Izumi glanced again at the faint mark on his forearm. The thin line remained unchanged, dim but visible even in complete darkness. It did not glow. It did not hurt. It was simply there.
"So this is what it means to merge with the Void", he thought."Not power. Not dominance. Just… belonging."
The violet light ahead pulsed softly, as if responding to his thoughts.
He adjusted his direction slightly, ensuring he stayed aligned with it. The light had misled him before shifted, folded, tested him. He did not trust it fully, but it was still the only guide he had.
Step by step, he followed.
Time passed strangely. It always did here. Minutes felt like moments, moments stretched into something larger. But Izumi did not feel rushed. The urge to flee, to escape, to reach the end of something any end had faded. For once, he was simply moving.
Then—
The violet light flickered.
Izumi stopped, His eyes narrowed slightly as he focused on it. The glow wavered, its edges blurring like ink dropped into water. The steady pulse stuttered once, twice.
"Hey," he muttered under his breath.
The light dimmed.
It didn't fade slowly, nor drift away into the distance. One moment it was there, steady and familiar and the next, it folded inward, collapsing into itself like a breath being taken back. Then it was gone.
No glow remained. No trace lingered.