Transmigrated to a Dark Fantasy World of SSS-Rank: King of the Void-Chapter 50: The Decision [1]

"Go back home," the shadow whispered. "You must go back home." Its androgynous voice was monotone, almost bored. Its hair moved as if it had a life of its own, and the air around it seemed to crack and warp.

"Go back home? Why?" young Mitsuki asked innocently.

The shadow repeated the same words.

"You must go back home. Go back home."

A little frightened, the boy grabbed his handheld console and slowly stepped backward. He never took his eyes off the ethereal being, still afraid it might be dangerous. The older Mitsuki, on the other hand, suffered on the ground as he watched his younger self run away in fear.

He turned his gaze back to the shadowy figure and felt a chill.

’Is it looking at me?’

Yes—the shadow was looking at him. In fact, it approached him, crouching down to meet his eyes. Then, it spoke:

"Do you want to know who I am?"

Mitsuki fell silent.

"Tell me, Mitsuki. Do you want to know who I am?"

’The system...’ he thought—but it turned out to be something far more complicated.

In an instant, darkness swallowed the memory with a violent jolt that sent him flying through the void. The voices of his entire life echoed one after another like screams that tore through his ears. The next moment, he slammed face-first onto the rooftop of a building—a high school.

Pushing himself up on his hands, Mitsuki opened his eyes in horror as he realized where he was. There was something about this place that deeply disturbed him. Then, up there, right in front of him beyond the rooftop railings—where a pair of shoes stood next to a letter—the shadow looked at him over its shoulder and, as the ominous black mist consumed the memory, said:

"I am you."

Darkness swallowed the memory again. Like water without light, powerful currents dragged Mitsuki into another memory. He swallowed water, choking as he clutched his throat in search of air.

’Wha—?!’

Light suddenly returned. Mitsuki now stood in a long hallway with pale walls and dim yellow lighting from old lamps. Two photographs hung on either side, showing a small Mitsuki—around three years old—alongside two adults—a man and a woman—with blurred faces.

In front of him was a door—his old room. The door opened, revealing a dark interior. There, the shadow’s white eyes stared at him. The entity spoke:

"You are me."

The ground shattered like glass. Desperate, Mitsuki fell once more into the depths of darkness, hitting the ground on his back and losing his breath. He pushed himself up again, gasping, but purple flames instantly surrounded him, forming into adolescent human silhouettes that laughed endlessly while pointing at him. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Then, those white eyes opened in the lightless space, like two giant moons faintly glowing in the night sky. At the same time, the ethereal voice echoed:

"We are one and the same; two sides of the same coin."

Mysterious hands emerged from the darkness as the flames drifted away. Those hands grabbed Mitsuki by all his limbs, dragging him down into the strange black sludge that formed beneath his feet.

"Let me go! Let me go!" he shouted desperately. His face twisted with fear. "Why are you doing this to me?!"

The great eyes in the darkness shrank. Soon, the shadow appeared, walking with its hands behind its back.

"You don’t understand yet, but you will eventually. For now, you should already know what we are—the reason we came to this world."

"Ahhh! I don’t know! I don’t understand!"

The shadow shook its head. "Yes, you do. We are the Herald of the Nameless. Our mission is to destroy this world."

"No! No one tells me what to do!" Mitsuki protested. Part of his body still protruded from the black sludge. "It’s just a stupid prophecy! There’s no way I would—?!"

"There’s no way you would want to destroy the world? You’ve always been a hypocrite," it said. Then it vanished along with the distant whisper of its voice.

The water shifted softly.

Mitsuki stared into the void, breathing nervously.

But...

The shadow appeared right in front of him. Their faces were close—so close that Mitsuki could see how hollow the being was inside. Its eyes were nothing more than two holes that revealed the emptiness of its white-glowing ethereal body.

"Weren’t you the one who wished to destroy them all?"

"I don’t know what you’re talking about."

The shadow stepped back at Mitsuki’s response. It looked up at the nonexistent sky in silence and snapped its fingers.

"Let’s see if I can refresh your memory."

The hands dragged Mitsuki into the depths of the sludge. A second later, he crashed against a wall. Now he was sitting on the ground, covered in bruises and wounds, blood dripping from his split lip, and dried tears marking his lifeless expression.

The shadow appeared before him again—this time rising from the ground like a puddle of water. Now they were behind the school gym. In the distance, a few mocking laughs could be heard fading away.

"How many times did you go through the same thing? How many times were you trampled? How many times did you feel like a loser?"

’Shut up...’ Mitsuki whispered to himself. He clenched his teeth and looked away.

Tears fell.

Darkness swallowed the memory and replaced it with another. Mitsuki was covered in bandages, his school uniform was dirty, and he stood in front of his open locker. Inside, it was filled with trash, and some notebooks were torn apart. And what did Mitsuki do? He just stared at it with lifeless eyes. Dark circles framed his face with exhaustion and misery.

"How many times did you endure the same thing?"

’Shut up...’

"How many times did you wish to be stronger?"

’Please... shut up.’

The shadow approached him and covered his eyes with its hands. With dreadful calm, it whispered into his ear:

"How many times did you wish to kill them all?"

"SHUT UP!" Mitsuki shouted in an explosion of painful emotions. He ran again, fleeing through the hallways as he cried. "You don’t know anything! No one knows anything about me!" This time, his tears weren’t from sadness, but from anger and frustration.

However, the scene changed abruptly as darkness took over. Mitsuki returned to the rooftop and, as he ran, he fell into the void. The world slowed down for him, and up there, watching him in silence, the shadow said:

"I know everything because I am you. We are the Herald of the One Who Cannot Be Named."

A dull thud echoed.

Mitsuki fell.