And... after my death, Kim...
Will I still be your friend?"
He was gone.
No farewell.
No waiting for an answer.
And what use is an answer... if the one who asked the question no longer exists?
Nir... why didn't you wait for the reply?
Then, Kim understood.
Nir already knew the answer entirely.
Kim went mad.
Not the madness of screaming.
But the silent madness... the kind that doesn't know what to do when someone dies before your eyes.
And he... this wasn't his first time.
He was just...
A failure.
"Failure... failure... failure... failure... failure... failure... failure."
The laughter of the souls within him echoed: Hahaha... Hahaha...
Between his hands... there was no body.
There was only ash.
He looked at it, staring: "Nir?"
"Where... where are you?"
Baith approached, trying to pull him back to reality.
Kim said in a broken voice: "Baith... what is this ash? Nir was here... where is he?"
He let out a desperate laugh: "He went to sleep, didn't he? I'll find him... at home."
He surged forward.
Baith ran after him: "Kim, come back! Kim! Nir is dead! He's dead, my friend! Please come back! Nooooo!"
Kim stopped abruptly.
He said with a terrifying calmness: "I know... but no matter what happened... I always found him at home."
He arrived.
Baith used an incantation, trying to stop him: "Have you lost your mind?! The dead do not return!"
Kim did not hear.
Then—he pulled his dagger from the void.
Baith screamed: "Hey! Hey! Kim! Kim! No, no, no! Wait!"
He was running fast. "Kim, wait! What are you doing?! Nooooo! Kim, wait, you fool! Noooooooooooo!"
Then...
He severed his own head.
—
The body fell. His head lay beside it. Kim had beheaded himself.
Baith shrieked: "My God! Why? Why did you do this?!"
But the truth was more gruesome:
Crying is not water.
Crying is a hemorrhage.
A bleeding of the heart... exiting through the eyes.
—
You will not be created twice... except in a world of fantasy.
And you will not be cursed twice... except in this cursed world.
And everything you hate today... you will do tomorrow.
This was what he feared.
He knew he would die one day.
But he never imagined that the darkness within him would truly take his body as its own.
Power is meaningless... like currency whose value doesn't drop with time, but diminishes when held by a fool.
And Kim... was one of them.
—
In his final moment of consciousness, Kim spoke within his mind:
"Nir..."
"You truly are..."
His voice trailed off.
Then he finished:
"You truly are... my friend."
"Even after your death."