"Hnngghhhaaaa!!!!"

"-?! Inaho?! Curse you!! CURSE YOUUU!! You bastarddddd! What are you doing to her?! Make it stop!"

Lestia shrieked, as the voice projected itself from the back of her head.

"B-big Brother...?! Wh-what is happening to me?!"

Inaho looked at her hands restlessly. One by one, her fingers began to disintegrate.

With a pained look on her face, she began to turn into a string of numbers and words of Parvula, the name of this world.

"Nooo!!! NOOOOO!!! LET GO! LET ME GO!!!"

"...Hikari...?"

As if trying to deepen her sadness, the little Inaho noticed Lestia before she completely faded away from her memory.

"..." White felt a surge of intensifying guilt entering him when he had realized what he was doing.

He was taking away the remainder of Lestia's happy expectations of a false memory implanted in her head, just like him before. He started to believe that his hypocritical way of saving someone was just something he did for his personal satisfication.

As White looked at Lestia falling apart by the second, he started... to reconsider his actions.

...Was it... worth it after all...? ...Am... I wrong... ...?

"Ahh... ahhhhh.... a...."

Lestia lost all strength in her body, as her shoulders sunk down. Her widened eyes became unsteady upon realization that Inaho had disappeared in this place.

"N...no... no... no... I don't want this... I don't want this. I don't want this. I don't want this. I don't want this. I don't want this. I don't want this-

Losing her final stand that supported her lingering traces of humanity, Lestia was finally broken.

Her voice became visibly silent, as her head dropped down while still being restrained by the illusionary arms of the Parasite Shadows.

Kuro, noticing that she was no longer putting up a fight, immediately dispersed the images of the Parasite Shadows and walked back towards the cave walls obscured by shadows.

This was now White's turn, and he would just observe in the background.

Lestia dropped onto the ground, motionless. It was as if she no longer felt the will to even stand up on her own.

The silence was deafening. The loss of the little girl, Mizutani Inaho, was enough to crush the hearts of the two who were currently facing each other.

White had experienced Lestia's memories, so he shared her feelings of sorrow.

In an attempt to console the woman, he avoided eye contact with the mentally incapacitated woman and tried to say something...

"...I'm... I'm sorry..."

"... ... ...K...m..."

"...Wha...what...?"

"Kill... me..."

"..."

"You heard me, right? ...I want to die."

"I... ah... uh... ..."

White could not help but return to stammering. He was not used to talking to people, much less women. How would he even have the capability to deal with people on an emotional level...?

He had matured through the instigation of the presence known as Kuro, by raising his levels of distrust and acceptance of ill will. But he was a far cry away from completely moving on from his introverted behavior.

It had been ingrained in him as a curse, ever since his parents passed away. The various misfortunate incidents just stacked on top of each other continuously during his age of mental growth, forever hindering his development as a proper person in society. It would take a longer time for him to recover from his past.

"I'll... I'll get you up, take my han-"

"...-After all this...?"

"E...eh? I just thought-"

"-YOU CAN RESTRAIN ME DON'T YOU?! THEN WHY WAIT?! KILL ME! END MY SUFFERING! DID YOU NOT HEAR WHAT I SAID?! I DON'T WANT TO LIVE ANYMORE! KILL ME! KILL ME-"

But Kuro instantly stepped in immediately, annoyed by Lestia's cries to lose her life. He had originally intended to leave it up to White, but it was clear that he was just making it worse.

"-Don't yell, woman."

"?! You, why don't you two end it already?! Do you like to see me like this?! Huhh?!!"

"-Woman, ...do you know what you are anymore? Look at yourself. Did you know how many times you've been punctured with holes through those arms?"

"I... ..."

"You can't die anymore, because you are an immortal monster."

"!!! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UUUPPPPP!!!"

Lestia could not cover her ears like normal people to block out the sound because she was a slime. She perceived sound differently with Slime Sense.

...So she tried to drown out the truth by overpowering Kuro's statement. But Kuro just continued talking over her, uncaring if her walls were breaking down with every word he spoke.

"..."

White, realizing how inexperienced he was, fell to his knees as he watched on without helping either side. He thought he had already steeled himself for all these, but in the end he could not shake off his own past. He was ultimately a pacifist with a righteous sense of justice.

...A boy who just wanted to help someone.

How did it turn out like this...?

"It's too late, there's no turning back. Memories falsified in someone's head, do not exist in this place. If she disappeared like that, then that only means one thing. The hapiness you sought, did not have a happy ending. That woman... Inaho was it?

...She has already died hasn't she...?"

"Noooo!!! I can't hear you! I can't hear you! I can't hear you!!!"

"... Why are humans so in denial. Well, seems like it's almost time.

...If you don't want to hear it from me, ...hear it from her."

"... ...H...er...?"

Still shaken, Lestia looked up in confusion. There was no traces of tears on her face, because she was incapable of crying or perform any normal human-like reactions.

White opened his mouth lightly as he got up from his knees.

"...Y-yes. I wanted... you... to meet with... that person.

The Administrator of this world. A goddess. ...She can help you."

As he said that, an inorganic voice resounded throughout the cave.

A familiar voice of the System, which all three of them had heard of before.

In the center of the cave, a portal appeared. It seemed to be some sort of spatial disturbance, attempting to transport something over in this place. Although it was technically impossible, because this was not a physical place. It was an image in the Field of Memories.

...But there was one person who stood above the rules in this world.

...Administrator called.

...Coordinates confirmed.

...Avatar creating.

-Completed.

Following the System's messages, a sarcophagus appeared from the portal. When it had taken its form completely, the tear in space slowly disappeared as if it had never existed in the first place.

As the three looked towards the presence of the addition of such a peculiar object, the sarcophagus suddenly creaked open. A long yawn could be heard amidst the creaking.

When the figure had finally stepped out of its 'container', it finally said a few words.

"Aahhh... aahhh... Really... this place is so cramped..."

It was Ruler, the little girl who called herself a goddess. She was now dressed in some kind of skintight spandex, with streaks of cyan flowing through it like some kind of mechanical suit for an android.

Stretching a few times for a full minute, no one else broke that silence.

Finally, she was done. After looking at Lestia and White with slightly raised eyebrows, she eventually turned towards Kuro leaning against the cave walls.

"...This was your condition?"