---
**Chapter Two: Wounds That Won't Heal**
Everything was covered in blood. My fingers... my chest... my mouth... my eyes... every part of me was bleeding that black, viscous fluid—I could no longer tell whether it was blood or something else entirely. This wasn't the death I knew; it was something crueler, more agonizing, like a stubborn life refusing to be extinguished despite all the wounds.
I try to breathe, but the air burns in my lungs like acid. Every muscle in my body aches, every bone groans under the weight of my sins. The pain is no longer confined to one place—it fills every atom of my being, as though I have become pain itself.
*"How many times will we repeat this scene?"* Her voice whispers in my ear again, that voice I know so well—Satella's voice. But this time, it's different, as though it's coming from inside my skull.
I scream. But no one hears me. The sound chokes in my throat before it can escape. The world around me is silent, as though time has frozen at this very moment. No change, no salvation—just me and this bloodied carcass that has become my body.
Blood... blood... blood... I can taste it in my mouth, smell it in my breath, see it every time I close my eyes. Is it my blood? Theirs? Or something else entirely? I don't know, and I don't think the answer would change anything.
Something cold slides down my face. Not a tear, not rain—perhaps the sweat of death. The world melts before my eyes, colors blending, shapes distorting. I try to scream, but no sound comes out. Just a faint tremble in my fingers, then in my heart, and then... silence.
When I opened my eyes again, I found myself somewhere else. A room with black walls that breathed. A ceiling of living flesh that pulsed. A floor of broken bones oozing black, viscous fluid. The stench of rot and death filled everything.
*"Where am I?"* A question with no answer. Or perhaps the wrong question. *"When am I?"* That's what I should have asked. How many times have I lived through this scene? How many versions of me have died here?
One step. The crack of bones beneath my feet. A second step. The walls exhale louder. I walk. I don't know where. I don't know why. I just walk because stopping means surrender. And surrender... is the ending I fear more than anything.
Then I heard it. That moan. Not just a whisper this time—the whimper of a child. A broken whimper. The whimper of a death left incomplete.
I started running. No thought. Just running. The hallway narrows, the walls close in, the ceiling lowers—as though the entire place is trying to crush me. Every step awakens a memory. Every corner hides a nightmare. Every shadow holds a face I once knew... and then killed.
Finally, I reached the room—the source of the whimpering. A single lamp dangled from the ceiling, casting a blood-red light over the scene.
She was there. Kneeling on the ground. Her dirty blond hair covered her face. Her small hands were buried in a pool of that black fluid. But she wasn't looking at me. She was whispering words I couldn't understand. Curses? Prayers? Or just the ramblings of a madwoman?
*"Rem..."* The name left my lips like a final breath.
I approached. Slowly. Carefully. As though afraid I might be wrong. But when she lifted her head, I saw her eyes. The same blue eyes. But they were hollow. Empty. As though someone had stolen her soul and left behind only the shell.
When her eyes met mine, I heard the voice. Not from her mouth—but from inside me. From the depths of my gut.
*"You took too long. The world died waiting for you."*
Then she smiled. A dead smile. Lifeless. Meaningless. And a moment later, she collapsed. Like a puppet with its strings cut. As though she had never been real to begin with. Just an illusion. Just a ghost.
But I knew the truth. This wasn't Rem. This wasn't the girl I once knew. This... was my punishment. A reflection of my sin. An image of what I had done to her in another life. In another death.
The hallway behind me began to collapse. The walls closed in. The air thickened. I was breathing the black fluid now. The taste of death in my mouth was like scorched iron.
Running? Useless. Escape? Impossible. Only one thing remained.
The laughter. Always the laughter. It came from everywhere and nowhere. It laughed because it knew. Knew I was powerless. Knew I would do the same thing all over again.
*"Echidna..."* I whispered.
She appeared suddenly. I don't know how. She was just there. White. Radiant. Painfully beautiful—a beauty that burned the eyes. She sat before me as though we were old friends.
*"Do you regret it?"* she asked in a voice soft as silk.
I wanted to say yes. I wanted to scream out all my sins. But I knew it would be a lie. I would do it all again. I would kill. I would betray. I would die.
I wanted to say no. But how could I, when every drop of blood in my body testified against me?
*"Why do you keep going?"* Her question pierced me like a knife.
I don't know. Maybe because I don't know how to stop. Maybe because this is all I know. Maybe because... I'm afraid of what I'll find if I do.
She grabbed my head. Memories flowed like a black river. Every death. Every life. Every betrayal. Every face. Emilia. Rem. Beatrice. Roswaal. Satella. They were all there. All of them failed me. All of them, I failed.
*"You know the truth."* Echidna whispered in my ear. *"You were never meant to be loved."*
Something cold slithered through my veins. It wasn't pain. It was liberation. An absolute truth.
*"Let me show you."* She said, pushing something into my chest.
The explosion. The light. The pain. And then... vision.
Thousands of me. Millions. Countless copies. Each one dying in a way more gruesome than the last. Each one killing. Each one being killed. Each one betraying. Each one being betrayed.
And me... I could only watch. I am the one who kills. I am the one who is killed. I am the betrayer and the betrayed. The murderer and the victim.
When my sight returned, I was standing in the same hallway. But something was different. Footsteps behind me. Many. Slow. Deliberate.
I turned.
They were all there. But not as I knew them. Not human. Not alive. Just... mirrors. Shattered mirrors reflecting my fragments. Reflecting my deaths. Reflecting my truth.
*"Look closely."* The final voice spoke. *"This is what you are. This is what you will remain."*
Then the world collapsed. And darkness swallowed me... once again.
**[Continuation of the Expansion]**
This wasn't ordinary darkness. It was a living thing breathing in my lungs, growing in my gut, crawling beneath my skin. I felt my existence fading, atom by atom, yet my consciousness remained alive. This was my true curse—to be aware of everything, even my own annihilation.
*"Have you learned your lesson yet?"* Roswaal's voice this time. I didn't see him, but I knew he was there, watching from the shadows as he always did.
I tried to answer, but my tongue had turned to dust. All I could do was listen.
*"You are just a tool. A puppet. A thread in a larger tapestry."* His words nailed into me. *"And the more you resist, the tighter the noose around your neck becomes."*
He appeared suddenly before me, but it wasn't the Roswaal I knew. His face was a mask of blood, constantly forming and melting. *"Look around you. This is your fate. This is your truth."*
The place began to change. The walls opened to reveal scenes from a past I never lived. A childhood that wasn't mine. False memories planted in my mind. Everything I thought was real... was a lie.
*"Why?"* I whispered with the last remnants of my voice.
*"Because the truth would kill you."* He answered as his bloody face dissolved. *"And that's something we don't want... not yet."*
Then Satella appeared, but this time, she was different. Younger. More fragile. Like the child she had been before becoming a witch.
*"You did this to me."* She said, her eyes overflowing with black blood. *"You made me this way."*
I tried to deny it, but the memories came flooding back. Memories I didn't know I had. Encounters between us before everything. False promises. Mutual betrayals.
*"No..."* was all I could say.
*"Every death was a step in the dance."* She whispered as she melted into the dark. *"And you're still following the rhythm."*
Then I found myself standing in a pure white room. In the center, a bed. And on it... my body. But it was whole. Pure. As though untouched by harm.
*"This is what you could have been."* Echidna's voice came from all directions. *"If you hadn't chosen this path."*
I approached the bed. I couldn't resist the urge to touch that innocent face. But when my fingers brushed its forehead, its eyes snapped open.
*"Don't look back."* It said in my voice, but with a tone I'd never known. *"The monster you're searching for... is you."*
The body on the bed exploded into thousands of tiny pieces. Each piece was an image from my life. Each image was a lie. Each lie was a knife in my heart.
Then I heard the laughter again. Satella's laughter. But this time, it was different. It held something I'd never heard before... pity.
*"The game isn't over yet."* She whispered in my ear as the darkness swallowed me once more. *"And it never will be."*
I woke to the sound of my bones cracking. I didn't know if I had truly died or if this was the new life I had been waiting for. The air was thick, like molten iron filling my lungs. I tried to rise, but a cold hand gripped my shoulder, holding me down with crushing force.
*"Finally..."* A frigid whisper behind my ear.
I turned slowly to see two eyes like stars in a moonless night.
---
This translation preserves the dark, surreal, and introspective tone of the original text while adapting it naturally into English. Let me know if you'd like any refinements!