The white dimension I had landed in left no room for excuses.
It was obvious that only one person was behind this.
A person? Perhaps I was too kind in my wording. Witches do not belong to the number of "people". By definition.
Would this game really end without even starting?
I did not know what was worse, the absurdity or the premonition that the absurdity was only beginning. And, as if on purpose, just when thoughts were only beginning to swarm in my head, she appeared.
— And once again, welcome to my abode!
Fifth-rate theatricality. A voice as if from some festival of madness.
— So, how do you like my performance? You don't have to say, your face says it all! Agha-gha-hah!
It was that kind of laugh, where even a mirror would be ashamed to reflect it. As if she truly enjoyed what was happening.
But can one rejoice in murders? Animals kill without awareness. People with it. And what then are witches?
The feeling after such an act is pain. And if there is no pain, then what is it?
— This guy seems to have frozen from my mere presence. Can it be that you fear me so much... ykh-khykh.
— What an interesting spectacle awaits me! I place great hopes on you in our confrontation.
As if she was casting me for a role in a play where the main props are corpses.
— Enough of meaningless reasoning!
— I am the witch of this blessed island Ryujima, and my name is Mariana! On this wonderful performance, I declare our first game open!
First? After all she had already done? That wasn't even a game yet?
— The game... Open?
— What are you talking about! You just killed all the other participants and even the servants, spared none of them, and you talk about opening some game?
— So, for you, these recent events weren't even a game?
— You are mistaken, Aragi…
— This is only the beginning of my great game! The beginning does not have such interesting moments, unlike those that will happen in the middle or the end!
— Just the thought of it brings me pleasure, yes… Right now I am excited by our game!
So this is what a woman looks like who has lost everything except the desire to pretend that she has lost nothing. A game, you say? A beginning, you say? Disgusting.
— Why are you doing all this? What do you want to achieve?
— I will never believe someone who so indifferently scatters all this cruelty under the pretext that it is just interesting and brings pleasure!
— Kh… What a boring guy…
If I ever become so annoying, please, shoot me on the second day. At least out of respect.
— Any other reason, for me, a witch, is not needed! If anyone else were in my place, your question might have made sense, but not in this case.
— Think with your stupid head, what could an almighty witch, who is sealed forever on this damned island, want!
Sealed. Not dead. Not disappeared. Just sealed. Like a doll in a box.
— For ones like me, boredom is the worst enemy, which I fight all my life. Standing above life and death, I cannot even die.
— And therefore I decided to create this game, where several people will be chosen as its participants to fight for the fulfillment of any cherished desire or an answer!
— But only the one who remains alive last by the end of the sixth night will achieve this reward.
Alive. Until the sixth night. Meaning everything else is casualty statistics.
— Even so, that is no reason to scatter the lives of those who were already dead.
— Why did you choose them specifically for your game?
— I don't have an exact answer to this question, but I will say this, it all depends on my blessing.
— Blessing?
— It's like playing cards, the card you draw as your trump, it becomes it.
So, randomness? Ruthless, like everything about her.
So, they just became trumps in her game. Drew one and play. Lucky? Death. Unlucky? Still death.
— Why did I survive? Shouldn't I have become just another corpse in the library, like all the other players?
— Maybe, consider it your luck.
Oh, yes. Great luck, to be the last one left on the set of a horror movie.
— What is this place? That world looked as if it had just shattered into countless pieces and dissolved into emptiness.
— You are right, that world no longer exists, it was nothing more than a fragment among all these infinite similar ones.
The flying fragments were fragments of worlds? So we are literally in the archives of an abandoned reality?
— Why did you destroy that world? Isn't the game designed to last 6 nights? Not even two days have passed.
— Correct, only it has already ended! — uttered the witch.
At that moment, everything fell into place.
The killer managed to destroy everyone… in two nights. Even less.
Results of the second night:
Yahweh
— The second to arrive on the island.
Status: Killed on the second day in the library.
Cause of death: Head and chest cavity shot through.
Hov
— The third to arrive on the island.
Status: Killed on the second day in the library.
Cause of death: Head and chest cavity shot through.
Tiamut
— The fourth to arrive on the island.
Status: Killed on the second day in the library.
Cause of death: Head shot through.
Kamiki
— The sixth additional participant.
Status: Killed on the second day in the library.
Cause of death: Head and chest cavity shot through.
— That leaves only… !
— Now do you understand?
— This is the beginning of the true game! So let your collapse begin, Aragi-i-i!!
The witch's counterattack begins.
But what about Aragi's counterattack?
Will I be able to at least try to repel it?