The figures continued to inch closer to the Otherworlder. It was a sight similar to the one he had seen just a few days back. When he had been clenching the bars of the cells in the palace, just like this. The Otherworlder found it so similar that the two scenes might have even overlapped, but it was impossible.

That knight who he could never even learn the name of, the one who had given up her life to save him. He had already forgotten her face.

The dark figures continually inched closer to the Otherworlder. That was all they were. They weren’t friends or foes, they were not patrons or opposers, they were not people. Just some figures that haunted him in all the reflections he ever saw of himself. That was all they were.

“Uh, t-there’s no keyhole in this...” Liesl’s inquisitive voice was muffled down in the Otherworlder’s mind as if she was falling deeper and deeper into an ocean of nothingness. “It’s impossible. Did this have some special mechanism too...” Her words got slower and quieter each second before being cut off completely.

One of the figures reached right behind him and slowly wrapped its arms around his neck. As if it were real, he could feel the sensation of the slender arms sliding down his shoulders and slowly hugging his chest from behind. The face of the figure rested on the Otherworlder’s shoulders.

The Otherworlder sharply closed his eyes and turned his head away. He kept his eyes firmly shut for a few seconds, taking in a few deep breaths. He sighed and opened his eyes again. The Otherworlder had a wry smile on his face as he turned to face Eilhard behind the bars.

“No,” he said.

“W-what... what do you mean...? Liesl can’t cut these bars open with her spells, so please...”

The Otherworlder pushed up on his knees and stood back up. He tore his eyes away from the cell and turned back to the tunnel. Everyone else could only watch as the Otherworlder walked towards it with unhesitating steps.

Right before getting into the tunnel, the Otherworlder stopped for a few seconds, his back still turned away from the Sanguine Snakes.

“It’s at your home, right? I’ll take it myself.”

His cold words snapped them out of their trance. Liesl instinctively reached out to grab the Otherworlder’s hand, but he shook it off and stepped ahead, walking right into the tunnel he had come from.

“Hey... HEY! Sir Iatra! Please, help us out of here! Please!”

Only the sound of the Otherworlder’s constant footsteps answered back to their wails.

“Sir Iatra!! IATRA FORS!!”

┈ ┈ ┈ ⋞ ⟨ ⏣ ⟩ ⋟ ┈ ┈ ┈

The Otherworlder closed his eyes and continued walking ahead in the tunnel. He clenched his fists and his teeth as he walked ahead without missing a step. He could feel his breaths becoming heavier each time he heard Eilhard and Liesl’s desperate shouts.

No matter how hard she tried, a specialized wizard like her could not bring out the malleability similar to that of a mage like himself.

The sounds of screams soon dwindled and the Otherworlder’s steps grew faster. From a constant walk to a brisk rush, then to a jog. The Otherworlder closed his eyes and broke into a sprint ahead.

With no direction, without even looking at his path, the Otherworlder just ran ahead. Sweat trickled from his head and a subtle pain spread through his sides as the Otherworlder continued to run. It was by some absurd luck that he had continued running without coming across a single enemy.

It got increasingly harder to breathe as the Otherworlder’s pace fell to that of a walk. The pressure from the vigorous shaking got to the Otherworlder’s coat as a loud rip sounded out.

The hammer that he had pocketed fell through his coat alongside all the coins in his pockets.

The Otherworlder let out heavy breaths as he stopped and turned back to the ground, the crinkling coins bouncing around.

He didn’t even realize when he had exited the tunnels and reached a pavement in the original sewers right next to a channel of water.

He continued exhaling loudly as the Otherworlder mindlessly bent down and picked up the coins.

One by one, he picked the coins and clutched them in his hand before turning to the other one.

Another thud sounded out when the Otherworlder tripped on his feet and fell to the ground. The coins in his hand all rolled away in all directions, most of them tripping over the edge of the pavement and falling into the channels of sewage water.

The Otherworlder huffed out loud with his arms sprawled out next to him on the floor.

Was it the lack of mana and stamina from all those spells? Maybe the exhaustion of being in a tense situation for hours on end had finally caught up. Or maybe he had taken a cube of sugar too less in his coffee today. The Otherworlder just couldn’t figure out why he had fallen down.

His sight flickered as he blinked a few times. As his eyes cleared up, he could see a coin standing straight between his fingers. It hadn’t fallen on any side, it just stood there, shimmering brightly.

The Otherworlder couldn’t summon the energy to move. As he stared at the shiny coin, he could again see his reflection gazing right back at him from within.

The same dark figure was right behind him again, running its hands through the Otherworlder’s shoulders and down to his chest.

Yet, for some reason, he couldn’t feel much of it.

His focus remained on the coin, as if the world around it had frozen in time.

“Since when have you been such a coward?”

The Otherworlder spoke out, his eyes still stuck on the coin.

“How many times have you failed already? The ones you killed, the ones you watched die, all their lives, all their responsibility, it lies solely on you.”

His hand moved again, rising from the ground and wrapping around the coin. The Otherworlder pushed against the ground with his other hand, slowly lifting his body from the ground.

“You... you don’t have to choose. You should...”

His knees came closer and helped push him off the ground. With a grunt, the Otherworlder finally lifted his body back up.

“... Just flip a coin, Otherworlder.”

A clang sounded in the air. A coin soared up, flipping back and forth as it formed a beautiful arc back down. Midway through, a hand came in and snatched it away.

The Otherworlder brought his clenched fist in front of him and opened it up. A smirk spread across his face as he clenched it back and put it away.

Once again, the Otherworlder broke into a run. This time, on his way back.