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Moving with a tight hold on the girl’s hand, he had to walk carefully as his sense of balance was challenged by the fact he could see where he was going or watch his own step.

Suddenly, something began rumbling; the ground vibrated beneath his boots as he glanced around, though it was a futile act.

Something is coming…? He thought.

“Emilio!…I hear something,” Melisande told him.

“I know, but what is it?…” He replied.

Though there was no real way to discern anything by appearance, and no time to wait around as the rumbling became clear as footsteps with a distorted howl sounding out from behind the two.

“–Crap! Let’s go!” He said.

“Where?!” Melisande asked.

“It doesn’t matter! Just move!” He yelled.

Melisande squeezed his hand as an anchor while running blindly through the void while the howls filled the chasm of darkness with its volume of horror.

As he glanced back in a vain attempt to see their pursuer, he found nothing again before–

THWAM.

–Straight into a solid object, he slammed into, stunned by the impact before holding the size of his head.

The sudden stop made Melisande bump into his back as she winced, “Ah–why’d you stop?!”

He didn’t answer as he was puzzled by what he had just run into, looking forward before running his hands against the solid surface.

Wait…is this a door?! He realized.

“I found a door!” He yelled.

“What?–Open it! Hurry! It’s coming-!” Melisande told him.

There was no need for her to tell him as the howls were continuing to close in, but he couldn’t see the handle belonging to the door, forcing him to run his hands along its surface blindly in an attempt to find it.

“Hurry, Emilio!” Melisande called out again as the howls were closer than ever.

C’mon…C’mon!–Gotcha! He thought.

Finding the metal handle, he quickly turned it, revealing a door obscured by enigmatic fog before jumping in, towing Melisande in behind him by her hand.

“Wah–!” Melisande let out from the sudden yank.

Just as they both fell through the door, the deprivation of senses was gone as a new scenery surrounded them.

He looked around, blinking slowly as he found himself standing on what looked like snow-white sand, “Huh?”

Melisande brushed herself off before standing beside him, taking in the new appearance of the incomplete world.

The world was deprived of life; the ground was covered in a white sheet of chalk, as if bleached by something that encompassed every inch of the unknown land.

It only took him a moment to place what he was looking at into his mind, recalling such scenery.

This is…this is what I saw in those visions when I was affected by the ‘Soul Strain’–the bleached world, he thought.

This realization deprived him of words as he looked on in terror that such a space actually existed, though its true nature was something he didn’t quite understand.

Melisande seemed to notice his fear as she looked up at him with a concerned look in her emerald eyes, “Emilio? Is everything alright?”

It took a moment for him to snap back into reality before looking at the girl, “Y-yeah. I’m fine. Let’s keep moving…looks like the door is just over there.”

Fortunately, the door was close by and in plain sight; a bleached door waiting in the middle of the dried-out, desecrated field, overlooked by hollow mountains in the silent world.

There was an unsettling nature to the bleached world; the sky was purely white like vanilla, devoid of clouds and absent of a sun. Silence inhabited the stretch of nothingness, yet it felt as though something was always watching.

“I just wish I could go back home…” Melisande commented.

“I’m feeling the same way right about now,” he muttered in agreement.

An odd smell persisted on the surface of the desolate reality; it resembled chlorine, being almost acidic to his nose as he breathed it in.

“Eek–!” Melisande let out.

The reaction from the girl immediately made him draw his sword and move to her aid, though as he looked to where she was facing, he saw what caused the reaction.

It was the shape of a person with their features hazy by the nature of the salt-like crystallizations that made up the figure.

A statue…? He thought.

The statuesque figure was standing upright with their arms held up as if desperately reaching out for something with their mouth agape, as if silently screaming out.

Upon a closer look, he realized it was far too real for that, “…It’s a person.”

“A person?…” Melisande said.

“I don’t know what happened, but I’m not hoping to find out. Come on,” he said, moving on.

While traversing the abnormal stretch of land, more bleached humans were found, and even some bleached elves, demi-humans, and dwarves. Whatever it was, it seemed not to be something that affected the Unending Nightmare of Larundog.

The bleached door was reached, standing in the middle of the all-white, salt-layered field. Surprisingly, nothing harmful was found, but he still didn’t want to stick around any longer.

“Alright…next up,” he mumbled, opening the door.

, Just as he opened the door, it blew open from a powerful wind, immediately sucking both of them in.

“Wah!” He yelled out.

“Aaaah–!!” Melisande screamed out.

As Emilio was sucked through the other side of the door, his sense of everything was completely flipped on its head as he found himself falling downward as opposed to the normal angle at which he initially crossed through, passing by wooden beams as he came close to hitting them.

It was unlike any other space as the doorway dropped them from the tippity-top of a reality, causing both of them to rapidly fall through the network of wooden beams.

What is this place…?! He questioned.

It was impossible to discern mid fall as all he could see were the wooden beams while not being able to yet see the ground.

“Waaaaah-!” Melisande was still screaming.

Turning around with his back facing the ground far below, he found his hair being pulled in the winds while looking up towards Melisande, equipping his staff in his hand and extending it towards her.

“Grab on…!” He yelled out.

Melisande tried reaching towards the tip of the wooden catalyst, but it was just out of reach. Even gritting her teeth as her silver locks of hair flowed in the falling wind, she still couldn’t grasp it.

Pushing himself upward with a small burst of wind at his back, Emilio circumvented the minuscule space between them, allowing Melisande to grab on before he pulled her close.

Without any question, he held the girl in one of his arms, holding her close as a small blush came over her cheeks even in the intense descent.

“I’ll break our fall–! Just trust me!” He yelled out, having to speak louder than the wind that filled his ears.

“R-right!” Melisande obliged.

The ground floor of the unknown space amongst the incomplete worlds finally revealed itself; it was a small room of stained-yellow, carpeted floors and walls with faded, yellow wallpaper.

Not much past it could be seen through the existence of the wooden poles obscuring their vision.

All he could focus on was timing the burst of wind at the proper moment, reaching closer and closer as Melisande shut her eyes tightly in anticipation before–

FWOOSH.

He unleashed the stopgap of wind, resetting their momentum before they fell with only a slight impact.

“Puh!” He exhaled sharply as Melisande landed directly on top of him.

For a moment, they both caught their breath before the silver-haired girl of his age looked up, blinking at him a few times as if perplexed by their position before suddenly jumping off and scooting away with a blush.

“I–err, thanks…” Melisande said, bashfully twirling her hair.

He slowly sat up, exhaling, “Yeah, no problem.”

As he looked around, he found them sitting in a small, compact room with carpet floors and walls that resembled modern wallpaper in their design.

“How weird…I’ve never seen a room like this,” Melisande remarked.

For him, it wasn’t particularly odd, but it was weird in the fact that its design existed in the scope of Aracius, a world steeped in medieval creation.

It carried with it a slightly stale, moldy smell before he brought himself to his feet with Melisande doing the same. The exit to the room, of course, wasn’t bridged by a door, but simply an entrance to what looked like more of the same architecture.

Perhaps what stood out the most was one thing that confirmed the modern aspects of the incomplete reality: fluorescent lights that were embedded in the ceiling, giving off a constant hum.

“Hmm? Some sort of light runes?” Melisande said when looking up at the lights.

“Err, yeah…” He replied.

As he prepared to head deeper into the depths of the unknown, office-like reality, he was stopped by Melisande–

“Hey!” Melisande said from directly behind him

Her sudden way of calling out to him made him jump as he turned out, putting a finger to his lips, “Keep it down, would you? We don’t know what’s lurking here.”

“Ah, my bad–but, wait! That’s what I wanted to talk about,” Melisande told him.

“What?”

“If we’re going to run into more enemies, I should be able to fight, too. It can’t just be you protecting me,” Melisande said.

For a moment, he didn’t understand what she was referring to, almost thinking she was asking to use his sword, but the short-in-stature, but fiery, silver-haired girl clarified:

“Teach me how to use magic! It doesn’t have to be anything complex, but just good enough to help you fight with,” Melisande asked.