- When I realized, in a strange place, I was standing alone.

"Is that...?

I just woke up, and though I'm still vague in my head, I look around to explore.

What stood was a passage-like place.

The horizontal width is so good that the two adults line up beside each other, it has only been cramped.

The sun's light is far and wide in the sky, inhibited by high walls, a dim narrow alley, the phrase fits perfectly.

Crates and cardboard boxes are cluttered, garbage accumulates in the corners, and are dusty for a long time.

In an old outdoor machine, shuttered windows. Ladders for maintenance are rusty and worn out. If you look under your feet, a build-up of water dirty and blackened by mud. It seems that the wiring that peeled it out is crawling like a snake.

Well, where the hell am I?

Sure, Crave got rid of Arius, and I should have been held by Noah.

But I have no memory from it at all, and I can't even connect to this situation where I am now placed.

From there, it's impossible to get lost in this alley.

In the first place, it's different from the installations that color the stage.

What is placed is not the product of the world you were in, but all the product of the man's world.

It's something that could never be in the world.

I can't even think about it, so I walk out toward the light at the end of the alley in search of that answer.

I feel a glare because of the difference between the light and dark in the alley and the street, accompanied by a palm on my forehead to create a shade of Itachi's eyes.

Eventually, when his eyes got used to the brightness, there, he still had a familiar sight.

High rise buildings made of concrete and colorful lights.

The car runs through the road with engine noise, and on the viaduct you can see over there, the train runs with noise all over it.

If you look under your feet, there are tiled sidewalks and driveways filled with asphalt.

Definitely a man's world.

That means. Am I dreaming of being that man again?

Think about it that way, and when I photographed myself on the glass in the show window that was on the street, it wasn't that guy that was photographed there, it was Arcs Laceft.

"What the hell..."

If this is that dream, I should be that man.

Nonetheless, how is it that I am doing this here?

Without any idea what that is, as we are caricaturally on the sidewalk, we eventually plug into the intersection.

Many people stood at the intersection, waiting for the signal to turn blue.

That face doesn't... Shall we put it up, or are we just hiding in the shadows and not seeing? I don't know if I'm trying to peek in.

Eventually, when the signal turned blue, the faceless people began to walk along the white line drawn on the asphalt.

Guys, towards one flow. Salaries, housewives, students, whoever they are. As if it were going to be flushed down the river stream.

Following that flow, as I walked myself, I eventually reached a store.

It's a beautiful little cafe like any city.

The type that looks good in the store with glazing. The wallpaper is white, unified, bright and clean, and the chairs and tables are made of wood. With an open terrace, a small spill-over stand-up.

A peek at the terrace revealed that there was only one person in the seat with no face, with a clear appearance.

(Huh -?)

It was one girl.

When I was old, I was in my mid-teens. He has flowing black hair and his eyes glow blue as if he had put blue balls in them. My skin is white as fresh snow, my lips twinkle to a pale peach color, and I even remember the illusion of having an equally elaborate doll sitting there.

Somehow, but was it because of her mind that she felt like Swoo?

The outfit includes a white high neck jacket and black trousers. It's unified with some futuristic interesting outfit, but what concerns me would be the chains embellished everywhere in the body.

The more rubbing and hiccups I seem to make, the more I'm drooling out of my clothes.

From the side it also looks like it is tied, but in the chain tie and in the weight, it does not look like it is being held captive.

He seemed to have noticed himself over there, smiling at me.

"Go ahead, this way"

What the girl's mouth sounded like was a calm voice.

The sound of any clutter removed is so clear that it makes you remember the horror the other way around.

I walked into the store as recommended by her, and sat face to face, in a wooden chair.

"My name is Chain. Go ahead and get to know me, Arcs Laceft."

"Chain?"

"Yes."

- Chain.

The name is so famous that no one in the world knows it.

It is a paranormal being that the Chronicle traveled around the world to bring peace and tranquillity to the world with his sister, Wedge, in a time when the world was still in the midst of chaos, with one crack of the twin spirits appearing in the Second, [Spiritual Age].

Throughout the journey, he said, he has defeated monsters at times, calmed disasters at times, and led people.

For this reason, it must appear in picture books and fairy tales, and faith in them is also severe.

"I didn't expect such amazing things to come out of my dreams."

"Sure, this is a dream, but it's not just a dream"

"Then what the hell is this?

"Right. Shall I say that the sharing of thoughts that took the shape of dreams...... This is not a vague, ambiguous place that you humans see, but a universal mind space."

"Something suddenly made me look like an SF."

"Still, you'll see. I got his memory and experience, you would."

"Him...? ――

Fished by the characters of dreams lying on their sides by a fence, they move their necks.

What was there was a wooden round table and two chairs set on a sunny terrace seat.

And I did see a man who looked familiar.

That's the guy. One young man who lived in that world and died halfway down the road.

Clear brains and excellent motor nerves. It is precisely the brilliant gift of two or three things from heaven, that it not only leads to reading, but also to martial arts.

Everyone expected me to do that, but in spite of that, I lost that life.

Now my girlfriend and I, we're having a bland talk, and she's smiling calmly.

Exactly the pinnacle of happiness. Those words suit me well.

This would be an act right after the engagement.

The voices you hear are filled with hope and happiness. But I can't be calm listening to that. "What about the ceremony?" "How much do people call it?" I guess I remember the unpleasant sadness in that bouncing number of voices because I know one end of it.

With such thoughts, a shadow suddenly falls on their faces. Its expression became invisible as if it were a character in a book of chopped paintings, and eventually became the same as that of people walking around in clutter.

From the chain, a handkerchief is gently offered.

When he did that, he realized he was in tears.

"- Tsugaya. After that, what happened?

"You won't need to know that. It just makes me sad."

"... well, maybe so"

Yeah, maybe that's true. If you hear she's in mourning, you'll still feel sorry for her, and vice versa, even if she finds a new lover, I guess that makes her sad.

I'm not him. It wasn't him, but it was him. Maybe that's the only reason my heart leans on grief.

After I feel calm, I approach the core.

"I just named you Chain, after all, you know?

"Yep. As you think, I'm that chain"

After all, she seems to be the spirit-chain of the twin spirits, one crack of the two spirits.

No way, really, I never dreamed it would come out in front of me like this.

"When that happens, uh, I figured it might be better to be properly worded or something?

"No, you can stay like this. I think it's easier for you to talk."

"Uh... well, I'm very afraid so."

"Yes."

That's what I said, Chain smiling at me. Seeing her face like that just makes me look a little bit familiar, one deceptive cough.

Immediately, move on to the question.

"Uh... in short, this is the same thing we're talking about in real life, right?

"Yes. That's right. Oh, I can talk to you in that world, too. Now that we're a little far away from seeing each other, this is how we take the form of in our dreams."

I mean, does she exist in reality?

In the world of men, God and the Spirit are the only beings that appear in the story, but in that world such things are also normal. Even though I am also a person in this world, I think that's just fantasy etc... because I am too poisoned by the world of men?

"What the hell, are you doing this?

"There's one thing I'd like you to do."

"Please ask me..."

"Yes. Before this, some of the matters depicted in Kraki's prophecy become real. I want you to stop it."

"To? what?

"That's all I have to do."

That's what Chain says, he tries to close the story.

But the story was too sudden.

"Yes, no... no, no! Just give me a minute!

"You don't have to rush, do you? This is still a long way off, so there's plenty of time."

"That's not what I'm talking about!

"I know exactly what you mean. So you're clapping too hard and not swallowing the story properly."

"If you know..."

Chain, on the other hand, laughs softly "hehe".

Do you like mischief other than this spirit?

"Excuse me, but if you don't, we're in trouble, too."

"I know what you're trying to say, but first, why me? There are other people who are right for you, aren't there? Until it's not me, is it?

"No, Arcs Laceft, I'm asking you because it's you"

Chain says so with his own hands. Where the hell is the source of that basis?

I have no idea...... not at all.

"... is that because this has something to do with it?

That's what I say, look around. If there's a reason, this is the only way. I remember when I went after a man's life, that is, I chose myself because I had the knowledge of the man's world.

Turning his gaze to ask, Cheyne just said, "That's one of the reasons," and said nothing more.

Understand that pursuing doesn't seem to answer me, and return to the route of the story.

"You mean change the outcome of the prophecy, but is that something you can do?

"It's not something you can't do. The description of Kraki's prophecy is like an indicator, a guide, so to speak. This should be repeated for a long time, and the results change each time. Naturally, there have been a number of things that have been changed by our efforts."

Apparently. If the Spirit says it's not impossible, it must be something you can do.

"What do you say?

"... then if you tell me to do it, you can't not not do it"

The Spirit told me that directly. I'm not a believer myself, but as one of the people who lives in this world, I can't do anything I don't know.

But...

"I have something to do."

"Between them, please."

"I don't know what to say..."

I wish I could do something between them, but it's not hard to imagine that it's not trivial first than the Spirit is moving in this way.

"What about its contents at the heart?

"That's not what I'm supposed to talk about"

"He said it wasn't something to talk about... you have to tell me, you don't know what to do, do you? Will the Demon King and the Dollars be resurrected at the end of the century, or will even a foolish monster emerge, or will there emerge a strange presence of the head that is beyond human control, coming out of the Spirit Age?"

The first thing imaginable in the story of having to stop… is a great catastrophe or disaster.

The most likely of these is the presence of four demon kings in the Sixth Century Book [Demon King at the End of the Century]. In the later years of the Magic Instructors' ground song, in a time of narrowness with modern times, they are monsters with mighty powers that tried to destroy the world.

If there is any of these resurrections, then naturally there should also be a description in [the prophecy of Kraki].

And then so do the demons that come from the curse.

It is said that this is the direct factor that swept away the magical civilization in the days of the Magic Instructors' ground song.

Magic technology was used everywhere at the time, and many curses (suso) were created because of it, but as a result demonic storms erupted around the world, and a presence called susonokami emerged.

Demons and susonokami continue to increase rapidly, oppressing people's living areas. Eventually, until the emergence of the Demon King, many things were said to have been lost.

Moreover, the monsters spoken of in the Spirit Age are apart from these things again.

A giant demon that is said to drink up the sea.

The queen of crystals about trapping people who like them in crystals.

Brisket soldiers with no heart that the devil created them.

A big first monster, turning the seer into black iron.

A knight without a neck who fought many times with Knight Fromm of the Inn.

When this happens, it becomes something in an area that is already beyond people's control.

I wanted you to tell me more about the area, but the spirits don't even bite.

"We only want you to read it yourself, make your own decisions, and stop it."

"Can't you help me?

"The times when the Spirit must take the initiative and solve the difficulties are already over"

"Hmmm......"

That's not to say irresponsible...... She's been protecting this world since long before she was born. If you have already finished your role, thank you and complain as long as you can.

Even so,

"It would be tough if I did something."

Those words come out with your mouth shut.

I can't teach.

I can't help you.

Isn't it a lot more difficult to ask yourself to be already full of things just about yourself?

Did Cheyne read it to me?

"Right. Now, let me tell you one good thing."

"What's that?

"Find Emerald."

"Get an emerald?

"That's right. When you find it, one more thing will open your way"

"Ha...?

That being said, I can't pin it. When you find Emerald, what the hell does that mean when it opens the way? It shouldn't be that difficult on this world's civilizational level, such as getting one gem, and what the hell does Emerald do to clear his way in the first place? I don't know this.

"It's okay. If you get it, you'll see."

"You can't tell me more about that, either?

When asked, Chain nodded again.

"That's all I have to do. Thank you, Arcs Laceft."

"Well, if you tell me to do it, I'll only try as hard as I can"

"That's enough now. So..."

It was just after Chain said that.

"Ugh..."

Suddenly, something like drowsiness strikes me. How is drowsiness despite being in a dream? So is this a sign of awakening?

But when the consciousness fell, it reached my ear.

"- Instructor Arcs Laceft. If I may, I will not connect you with a good encounter."

It was such a worthy celebration for a sarcastic spirit to say.

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