"Waaah! Isn't the breeze nice?!"
"As nice as you can call a dirt-filled canyon."
"Why do you always have to do that? Can I be at peace for one moment without you burping on my rainbow?"
"If your peace relies on delusion, then what else should I do? You're welcome."
I knew Whitney and Jìngxī were gearing up for another round of insults, so I felt compelled to interrupt.
"Say, I read somewhere that this used to be one of the deepest canyons on Earth. Is that true?"
"Really? I didn't know that. It just feels like a somewhat deep path to me."
"Literally how? You're the only one from this country. It got partially buried after a catastrophe some time ago."
"See? There you go again!"
They went at it anyway. Frankly, it was right then, and there that I decided to leave them to their flirting, or at least, that's what I liked to call it.
Considering Dylan rarely bothered to jump in, it was safe to say he'd learned that lesson long before I did. And to be perfectly honest, the times they fought were usually the most cheerful periods we had before that thing showed up.
"Rita, you said they'd show up behind us in two minutes, but you never told us how you knew that."
Dylan asked as we walked a little farther ahead of the other two.
The shadow-raptors we were assigned to hunt weren't usually pack creatures, but for reasons that would soon make themselves clear, a large number of them would target us and attack in a wave.
Only I had this knowledge. But whenever I tried to explain why–
"I'm not Rita. My name is Blue, and I know because none of this is real!"
"…"
"…"
"Rita, you said they'd show up behind us in a minute, but you never told us how you knew that."
–It was like their minds reset, and they'd act as if I'd never said a word.
Every time it happened, all I could do was groan and change my answer.
"Because the range of my senses bloomed recently."
"That can happen? Amazing, Rita!"
"Well, congratulations, Leader."
I blinked at the two behind us, "Oh? You two are done already? How sad."
"I don't like it when you put it like that," Jìngxī complained.
"Like what?"
"You know what I mean."
"What are you two talking about?"
""Nothing.""
The raptors did show up eventually, but despite their numbers, they didn't cause much trouble.
Even without considering that my crimson blades are tailor-made for hunting, I'm already well beyond the level of an academy student at this point, with or without Red.
Cutting them down alone would have been easy enough, but I had help.
Dylan's authority had the ability to densify anything he wished, and he had a peculiar way of using it.
By solidifying the air around his body, he turned himself into the perfect shield, allowing the rest of us to focus on thinning their numbers.
Jìngxī's was even more impressive to watch. He was an artifact user, wielding a puzzle cube that could force any target within a designated square area to twist and fold in the same way it did.
As for Whitney, she was supposedly a support type, but I couldn't tell what her ability actually was, and she never explained it.
The only thing I ever saw her use was specialized weapons provided by the academy.
Since we finished earlier than expected, the others assumed the remaining time would be spent camping and waiting for the return transport that evening.
I, however, had other plans.
After they'd had enough time to rest, I pushed them to keep moving, using the excuse that I could sense something amiss.
It took a while to fully convince them, since we'd be heading farther away from the checkpoint, but eventually they agreed to a temporary vacation from the premises.
So we pressed deeper into the canyon, still encountering a few raptors along the way.
I wanted them to treat the situation with the same urgency I felt, but that would have meant putting them into a state of panic, something I couldn't afford at the moment.
Still, I figured we'd bought ourselves about an hour before it found us.
"Rita… tell me what's really going on."
Whitney asked me after a while, and there was nothing I could say beyond what I already had.
"You've been acting like everything's fine, but I know something's wrong. You shouldn't keep your troubles to yourself, you know? We're a team, after all."
In the end, I sighed and gave up.
"You make it so difficult to stay composed."
I still couldn't tell her the full truth, but I wanted, at the very least, to believe I could trust them to understand just how dire things were about to become.
But just as I was about to explain, as best I could, we heard a loud crack beside us and turned toward it.
Unlike the others, what flooded my soul in that moment more than the horror of the sight was utter confusion.
It had Dylan's entire torso clamped in its jaws, yet its eyes remained fixed on me all the while.
"H… how?"
By appearance alone, it resembled a stereotypical dinosaur, like something a child might draw from memory. Its joints rattled unnaturally, as though it were nothing more than a loose assembly of ligaments forced together into a creature suited for killing.
"Dylan…"
Whitney fell to her knees as we heard his defenses finally give way in its grip, and watched as a pool of blood formed beneath its chin.
What set my heart racing most wasn't just the sight, it was how it had managed to reach us so early, despite my certainty that we'd moved far beyond where it should have appeared.
What's more, it knew to target Dylan first. And it already understood that I was the greatest threat.
The implications of that realization terrified me.
"Jìngxī, Whitney, get ready to… Hey! Snap out of it!"
They were frozen.
It wasn't what I'd expected. If anything, I'd hoped we might be able to put up a better fight this time around, but I'd forgotten one crucial detail.
They were still academy students. They'd never been forced to endure something as jarring as watching a comrade be brutally killed, nor had they ever stood before a creature radiating such an overwhelming presence.
If I had to guess why I alone was spared that suffocating fear, it was probably because I'd already met Tzuri, the black dragon in the cavern.
Even so, without their help, I stood no chance.
It barreled through my crimson blades as if they were nothing, slashing me aside simply to clear its path.
Then it crushed Jìngxī beneath its foot before his trembling hands could even attempt to activate his artifact.
I survived the slash from its claws thanks only to the scales of my uniform, but I knew Whitney wouldn't be so fortunate. I forced myself back to my feet and rushed to her side.
It charged straight at her. I tried to outrun it, but when I looked at Whitney, she was raising her hand, pointing at me, and mouthing something.
Then its jaws closed around her, ending her before I could reach.
"Waaah! Isn't the breeze nice?!"
"As nice as you can call a dirt-filled canyon."
"Why do you always have to do that? Can I just be at peace for one moment without you burping on my rainbow?"
"If your peace comes only with delusion, then what else should I do? You're welcome."
Thus began my fourth attempt.
…
"Rita, are you okay?"
At the very least, I managed to confirm my fears.
That creature was responsible for the swarm of raptors that attacked us, and it had clearly been monitoring us for a long while. Possibly since the moment we entered the canyon.
Unfortunately, the window of time I have only extends from this moment onward, so I can't truly confirm or deny that suspicion.
Still, I was able to determine the nature of its existence.
The Captain once explained that the greatest difference between Shadowbeasts and living organisms, aside from the kind of matter they're composed of, is that Shadowbeasts are creatures whose existences are fundamentally illogical.
The reasons could be that they require no discernible energy, conform to no internal or external order, or can even be inconsistent with the amount of mass comprising their form at any given moment.
Even if I'm not as well-versed in the laws of physics as Red, I know animals.
And that creature's nature screamed Shadowbeast, even if I couldn't sense its dark matter.
"Rita?"
Its jaws extended all the way to the back of its head, leaving barely any room for the kind of musculature that should have been capable of shattering Dylan's barriers.
It also moved far too fast and expended far too much energy for something of its size. Yet it wasn't attacking us as prey, it was hunting for the kill, which is what Shadowbeasts primarily do.
However, the one thing I couldn't understand was why I couldn't sense it at all, unlike the raptors.
In the end, I concluded that it might have been composed of the same substance that Whitney and the others currently were.
"Rita?!"
"Sorry… sorry. What is it?"
"What's going on with you? First, you run off on us, and now you won't answer."
I finally responded to them, but I'd be lying if I said I hadn't been ignoring them on purpose.
After going through the events that ended each cycle, it had started becoming nauseating to look at their faces or even hear their calm voices.
I still wasn't able to dehumanize them, even with the knowledge that they weren't real and that their deaths weren't permanent.
It hurt every time I came back, just as much as the first. And I want to believe that's a good thing, since I'd need to prioritize their lives if I'm going to figure out how to escape this zone.
Because I believe the only way out would most likely reveal itself if I could keep these three alive past that creature's attack.
I hadn't had this clarity the first time around.
I had no memory of how I got there or what I'd been doing beforehand.
The last thing I remembered was trying to help Rita pack her hair to make fun of… er… take inspiration from the Captain.
The next thing I knew, I was standing in a canyon, surrounded by three others, all speaking to me as if nothing were out of place.
Strangest of all, they kept calling me Rita, treating me as someone they'd always known, yet the memories they seemed to have of me directly contradicted the name they used.
My interests, tendencies, and dislikes remained consistent, but they had no memory of me ever having a twin or of my true birthplace being Umbra rather than Osaka.
Still, I felt fine playing along until I was given even the slightest clue as to why I was there. At the very least, I was completely certain that everything that had happened on Hortusole was real.
The first evidence was that even though I wasn't wearing my uniform within the barrier, I had left its vessel in my pocket. And sure enough, when I reached in, that familiar hexagonal trinket was still there.
Secondly, though this one was harder to explain, the Captain's A.D.A. was also somehow in my pocket. It was damaged and unresponsive, but it was there.
That was enough proof for me to accept that this was still reality, and that I was trapped within some kind of illusion.
Out of simple curiosity, I followed along with three of Rita's former squadmates, helping them hunt the Shadow Raptors we encountered in the canyon while learning more about them.
Rita never spoke about her past, so I saw this as an opportunity to strengthen the bond between us. If I understood the people she cared about, I might come to understand Rita herself a little better.
The problem came shortly after we returned to the checkpoint to wait for the evening transport.
The moment I let my guard down, I heard a sharp crack nearby and immediately leapt away from where I'd been standing.
What emerged was a dangerous creature that would have torn off most of my body if not for Dylan instantly forming a barrier around me. Which lasted long enough for me to register the threat and evade it.
The creature wasted no time, resuming its assault with relentless ferocity.
It was undeniably powerful, yet we managed to hold our ground, if only barely.
Jìngxī's mastery wasn't enough to break or damage it, but it was sufficient to pin it down for brief moments while I attempted, again and again, to pierce it wherever I could.
In the end, we failed to inflict any real harm before it removed both Dylan and Jìngxī from the equation.
After witnessing that, my body hesitated without my conscious consent, and that fleeting pause was all it took for me to be too late to prevent what followed for Whitney as well.
And yet, with how consistently that sequence of events repeated across all three attempts, I couldn't shake the feeling that the order wasn't coincidental in the slightest.
At the beginning of this attempt, I'll admit I lost my composure.
I charged headlong toward the direction I knew the Shadowbeast always emerged from, hoping to draw its attention solely onto myself.
Evidently, I wasn't thinking clearly. I failed to consider that it could simply attack them first before coming for me.
I convinced myself that removing them from the equation was the best way to ensure the cycle remained intact.
However, I didn't make it very far before I came to an abrupt halt.
What awaited me at the edge of the zone was a void.
A void where both sky and ground simply ceased.
It was so dark that I hesitated to even refer to it as black.
Nothing was within it, and nothing emerged from it.
It felt as though the place that did not exist before me marked the very end of the world itself.
The only thing I knew with absolute certainty was that I didn't want to touch it. If it consumed me, something unspeakably horrible would surely follow.
And so, once again, I found myself back at option zero.