In a pitch-black darkness that never ended, something akin to a gate that looked like Ω lay as if a natural part of the absolute darkness.
It was as if this golden gate was absorbing the never-ending darkness.
And within this mysterious dimension were pieces of scattered consciousnesses trying to come together and form complete consciousness.
‘This….Euak…’
‘Noa…I am…sword…’
‘Flower…Lily…Almond…’
‘I…am…Almond? Milk…’
‘Amond milk…suger…you…’
‘Mother…?’
The scattered consciousness indeed belonged to Almond, and this dimension was none other than the random phenomenon his consciousness got sent into upon using his first Insight Stone.
It had been six hours, but Almond’s consciousness still wasn’t together.
He was in a state where his sense of existence was flickering.
And after six hours of continuous struggle, he finally managed to put some pieces together as he least found his name.
The person known as Almond Crowshade formed as he remembered the face of his mother that he saw when he was barely two years old.
He could never remember it, but when he saw it just now, he knew it was his mother and the words she spoke before entering the Labyrinth that he couldn’t understand at that time, but now, as they rang, he understood.
As his consciousness pieces rejoined, a deeply buried memory, as if unearthed from his very soul, played.
A woman with exact eyes as his—beautiful golden almond as if a topaz crystal in the eyes itself—she was smiling with trembling lips, her tears falling, yet her eyes full of love and hope towards him.
The notification was there, a strange one with unrecognizable words—strange symbolic, runic letters.
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He couldn’t recognize it.
“My s-son…” her eyes trembled as they poured out more tears, her voice shaky. “I am truly sorry….your mother is a coward….I-I can’t accept this devil’s hand for you…I am a bad mother…”
“Sorry…I am a bad mother who can’t protect you…I am choosing to accept death instead of accepting this deal…I wanted to s-see you grow up, play with you…really, I wanted to do a lot of things…I can do that if I accept this, b-but this bad mother loves your father too much to accept this….”
“I’m sorry…I can’t live as someone else’s…Sorry, my son…”
Her sobbing increased briefly, but she tried to calm herself, her teary eyes filling with love towards Almond.
“But you will not become like me. N-Never.”
“Don’t ever give up, Almond, and l-live long,” her hand caressed Almond’s cheeks as she wiped away her tears and Almond’s as well.
“If you ever come to know about the reason for choosing my death…will you forgive me?”
Shaking her head, she lovingly smiled as her tears stopped, her face looked as if glowing, radiating warmth that made baby Almond stop crying, reaching out to her as if he could feel his mother was going away.
“Mama…Maamaa.”
“Almond, my son…live strong and never give up on yourself…I hope you live to your fullest.”
Almond saw another person beside her, a rather fat woman who was also crying as she took baby Almond from his mother.
‘What is this…I thought she died in the Labyrinth…what’s going on?’
Almond focused on the notification, but he couldn’t grasp it as it was in strange language.
‘What is it?!’
Almond’s mother looked at the hologram notification as her finger reached out to a red-colored option with an unrecognizable letter on it.
‘Wait! What did you reject, mother? What devil’s hand?!’ Almond had a feeling he might never see this scene again, and he wanted to know!
Who the hell took his parents away?! He wanted to know!
‘That notification….wait, mother!’ Almond saw her hand pressing it, but at the last moment, he heard a whisper, and some letters changed into English.
[Devil Rosseramon #$%#….]
‘Devil Rosseramon…’ Almond’s mind reverberated the name as darkness overtook him, but he gathered his sense of self and consciousness together.
His eyes laid upon the golden Ω gate, and he suddenly felt nothingness, the connections with his thoughts ceasing, but only for a brief moment as he regained himself.
‘What the fuck is this?’ Almond thought, not daring to focus on the phenomenon ahead. When he sensed it, that gate appeared so close to him that he felt like less than an ant in front of its size, and it was about to swallow him.
But when he didn’t focus on it, the same golden Ω gate appeared far away, still, suspending in the pitch-black darkness.
‘Omega of the Horizon…’ Almond remembered what he heard when he used the Insight Stone. ‘So I didn’t get sand and waves phenomenon dimension, but got this…’
‘Clearly, this is something way above my level,’ Almond opened his senses again and looked at the symbol directly, the scenery changing instantly as he appeared infinitely close to it.
Almond looked at it, and it appeared like a maw, ready to devour him to his entirety.
An irresistible and overwhelming fear infused him as he backed again, closing his senses.
‘What kind of crazy phenomenon this Insight Stone gave me? Omega of the Horizon…wtf…’ Almond was dumbfounded.
The moment his mind avatar arrived here, it was shattered. Almond knew only his will kept him together, his stubbornness never to give up.
Otherwise, he would have automatically broken out of the Insight Stone, wasting it.
But he stayed here, got his mind shattered, and found a hazy memory but a clear name—Devil Rosseramon.
‘Mother…’ Almond didn’t think he could feel something like this—a desire to know about his parents that was killed long ago.
All he knew was that his parents died when the Labyrinth arrived.
‘I thought I wouldn’t remember, but I guess I can,’ Almond thought, and the vivid memory played again.
‘The woman who took me from my mother must have died as well…but the orphanage where I grew up never knew my parents’ name. According to Grandma Sophie, she only knew my name because of a nametag…’
‘Mother….father…’ Almond’s will set ablaze as a new ardent desire grew in him.
‘Labyrinth descended, but my parents didn’t die like others…’
Almond decided and promised himself.
‘Devil Rosseramon, whoever you are, you are the one responsible for my mother’s death! I will find you, and find my parent’s names from your mouth, and erase you!’
Almond opened his eyes as he looked at the golden Ω gate, his complete focus pouring into it as his perception changed again, appearing right in front of Omega of the Horizon.
‘To get one step closer, I’ll have to grasp this phenomenon, even if not completely, I must benefit and progress in some way,’ Almond’s determined drove into this phenomenon as the overwhelming fear of complete death, as if his existence, its memories, and meaning would cease to exist.
He automatically lost his focus as if his deepest instincts ran away from it, not daring to sense the golden Ω gate further.
However…
‘Eighteen hours.’
Alomnd’s will grew stubborn. His focus aimed at it again!
But his fear drove away his entire existence again, the deepest survival instincts that suppressed his will!
It wanted to defeat him!
He resisted!
And…his consciousness scattered away, as the fear drove his mind to self-destruct!
But this time, he rejoined within ten seconds, his consciousness complete, his will roaring!
‘Fuck you!’
‘Whatever you are, you will never defeat me!’
Giving up was not an option!
Whatever fear that even brought out a reaction of absolute survival from the deepest instincts of his soul itself…he was going to overcome it!