Chapter 21: That Which Slumbers in the Depths

The past, while retaining its stimulus as a phantom, regains the light and movement of life to become the present.

— Charles Baudelaire

...be... ...bel...

Someone is calling.

A voice calls out to someone from the opposite shore of a milky-white mist.

...bell...

Whose name is that?

In the drifting haze, a silhouette blurs, fades, and reappears.

The shadow takes the shape of a human male.

He calls out from the deep mist of a slumbering, hollow forest.

...bell...

Who is he calling?

But oddly enough, upon hearing that name, the cold depths of my chest grow faintly warm.

Why is that? It feels pleasant.

Who is calling?

The figure beyond the mist reaches out a hand.

Guided by the call, I reach out to that hand─────

"...bell. Are you awake?"

I slightly open my heavy eyelids and hear a voice whispering right beside me.

The embers of the firewood pop and crackle gently, casting a dim, crimson glow that quietly illuminates the man's thoughtful features.

Wearing robes that are stained, smudged, and frayed in places, a man and a girl huddle close together to keep warm.

They sit in a corner of the ruins—the decayed remnants of what must have once been a massive city.

It will still be a little while before dawn, and the surroundings remain dim.

"...You seemed to be having a nightmare. Are you alright?"

The man, bearing a cross-shaped scar between his brows, looks worriedly at the slender girl leaning against his chest; a girl whose appearance deviates far too much from that of a human.

"...I'm okay. Thank you for worrying, Werner."

The girl, having returned from the far side of a shallow sleep, resembles humanity's natural enemy—the terrifying biological threat known as an Aragami—far more than she does a human.

The light of the burning firewood reflects in the girl's purplish-red eyes.

She gazes at the flickering, smoldering crimson flames.

I had that dream again.

The exact same dream of confronting a deformed, captive girl inside a cage.

We are talking about something, but whenever I wake up, I only ever have the vaguest recollection of it.

I feel a nostalgic emotion, a sense of familiarity that I had left behind in the distant past.

And with every time I see the dream, it gradually becomes clearer and more vivid.

But I can't help feeling incredibly anxious.

Someday, that girl will be released from the cage.

What will happen when she is?

It feels as if I will no longer be myself...

The uncontrollable, raging urge to destroy everything that occasionally wells up inside me.

The ravenous, almost greedy starvation that makes me want to Devour and consume every single thing in existence.

I might surrender my body and soul entirely to those urges...

I can't shake that feeling.

That is why, to distract myself from this gloomy sentiment, I bury myself in Werner's chest and press myself tightly against him.

Werner gives a somewhat troubled, wry smile, but he gently holds me close as I nuzzle up to him like a cat.

It's warm.

Doing this makes me feel incredibly safe.

Werner is here by my side.

With just that, I am────

The girl in my arms stirs, pressing herself closer to me.

As I wrap my arms around her and draw her into my embrace, the pained expression she wore just moments ago seems to be replaced by a sense of relief and tranquility.

It seems she caught a glimpse of a nightmare again.

bell—lately, she has been suffering from these nightmares quite frequently.

Though she herself doesn't seem to remember much of the dreams' contents.

She also throws up her meals often. Perhaps she realizes that she has devoured humans. However, her enduring, pleading gaze of profound sorrow stirs my heart endlessly.

Faced with her in such a state, what should I—what must I—do?

I feel her peaceful breathing against my skin.

She possesses a beauty and dignity akin to a goddess, yet at the same time retains the innocent, age-appropriate femininity of a child.

On the flip side, she bears an ominous, Aragami-like majesty that is almost painful to look at.

This contradiction bewilders me before it even makes me fearful, only serving to heighten my frustration.

Sensing bell's instability... the darkness slumbering inside her...

It is the other her; the one who appeared during our previous battle against the golden Vajra and the Balfa Mata.

A tyrannical girl who embodies overwhelming power, unparalleled unreasonableness, conflict, and calamity.

She is the other bell...

Why were they born as Aragami? Why did they have to become Aragami...?

Why must they bear such a cruel fate?

What is the underlying reason behind it all?

In the first place, what do I even truly know about her? The current me has no way of understanding.

Even so, this ephemeral, vague girl I hold in my arms, I will─────

Far beyond the horizon of the ruins buried in rubble, the first signs of dawn began to show.

"...Dawn, huh."

My words will surely only serve as a temporary comfort.

Even if we were to connect our bodies, the result would be the same; we would only end up trapped by a sense of guilt.

A guilt akin to breaking a precious promise.

Holding the slumbering girl, I reached out my free hand, spreading my five fingers toward the rising sun.

The crimson-dyed sunlight.

We are heading toward a Fenrir research facility that supposedly existed in the past—though I have no way of knowing if it is still there now.

I can only hope it provides some clue to a solution.

Searching for the answer to an unseen question...