129 Labyrinth of the Abyss (1/2)

What hurt Reed the most was the sight of the bakery, his former home. He couldn't bear to look at her anymore around the hundred-thousandth loop. She was the opposite of everything he had come to love about her.

If he told her to sit, she'd sit for him. If he told her to stand, she'd stand for him. There wasn't anything she wouldn't do. He completely stripped her of everything that made her who she had once been.

What lay inside of the bakery was no longer the woman he had once loved. The mindless animal in his former home was but a shadow of a person. There was nothing for him there. Nothing to be gained from living with that puppet aside from misery.

So, Reed left. What point was there in clinging onto something that was already gone?

Without a connection to the world, Reed slowly began to grow detached from the former obstructions that once bound him to that which could be considered… superficial — the values, morals, and feelings imposed upon him by the world.

The stone heart had whispered to him that there was another path he could take, but that the road he would have to take would not be easy.

With nowhere else to go, Reed started to dig into his mind. He started for a way out… within himself. Reed delved deep into the labyrinth of his own self with the stone heart's assistance.

He left the world and as a result, a shambling mess of a person had been left behind in the wake of his departure. What had remained was simply the most primitive part of himself — his instincts and impulses.

The Nameless Vagrant was just that — Reed's desire to survive and flourish in the face whatever danger may befall him. In Reed's absence, it had taken over his body and endured in his stead for the longest time.

It was a spit in his face, who had intended to 'reeducate' Reed against his will. He'd been left alone with the bumbling, frightened idiot that was the Nameless Vagrant ever since Reed had descended into depths of his mind in search of…

His source of will. What drove him to live and willed him to continue struggling against the unfair cruelties of life.

Reed could either accept his control and become a living proxy for him or… redefine himself on his own terms. The stone heart had given Reed a chance to decide his own destiny if he so wished for it.

…Not for free, of course. Reed would have to work for his freedom if he wanted it.

The stone heart had made Reed fight against what he had tried to run away from — his demons.

…They had both been chasing Reed for the longest in the depths of the enormous labyrinth that he had constructed to keep them sealed. Their furious screams of rage echoed across the pitch-black maze and made the ground beneath his feet tremble in fear.

Goddammit…! Those two never fucking tire, do they? Fuck's sake!

Reed channeled Anima and clenched his fists in preparation.

I need to reach the end, once and for all! I can't afford to get caught up in this cat-and-mouse game anymore!

\”REED!\”

\”BOY!\”

He hated the fact that they looked exactly like their real-life counterparts. Had they looked like hideous caricatures of them, it would not have been so difficult to kill them.

Reed hated himself for that.

His demons charged at him ferociously and began their combined assault. One of them conjured a flood of flame and the other one a storm of razor-sharp hail.

They were a nightmare to deal with together. Reed had never seen such coordination before. It made him doubt whether he was actually in his own mind whenever he saw the ingenious strategies his demons had come up with to kill him.

W-Why the fuck is it that I'm at my most creative when I'm trying to kill myself…?!!

Reed summoned his aegis and blocked their attacks. Unfortunately, that'd cost him precious time. In the short gap — a few seconds — he had taken time to defend himself, one of them had closed the distance between themselves and him.

Her long, golden-brown hair momentarily grazed his left arm… and severed it clean off. Reed's left arm flew in a spectacular arc across the air until it landed on the floor with a resounding splat.

\”AAAAAAGGGGHH!! FUCK!! Y-YOU MOTHERFU…!\”

Reed desperately channeled Anima into his legs and jumped backward with all his might as he clutched onto his left shoulder.