In the depths of the darkness, Ken stood. The fear that he felt was still there. He could still feel it.

"What is this place?" he asked, his eyes darting around, but all he could see was darkness. Then he heard a voice.

"Why are you here?"

It was quiet, like a whisper.

"Who was that?" Ken asked.

"You don’t belong here."

"Why are you here?"

"Outsider."

"Leave."

"Leave."

The voice got stronger and louder with every word it spoke. It rang in the ears of Ken like a loud bell slamming into the corners of the walls of his head.

"Who the hell are you?" Ken asked. He could feel cold sweat forming on his body. This was the first time in years that his body was reacting in fear. He hated the feeling. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to take a deep breath.

"Rather than be a voice that screams into my head, show me what you are," Ken said in a calm voice.

"You are an outsider. You do not belong here."

"Well, you dragged me here. I didn’t just choose to enter a dark void."

"You do not belong to this world. Outsider, destroyer, killer."

Only after it said those lines did Ken understand that this was not some simple issue. He frowned. "Who are you? Are you the voice of mana?" he asked.

"Leave us, bringer of death and chaos. Your presence will shatter the balance of everything. You will bring doom."

"Could you speak normally for one second and tell me what the heck you mean?" Ken said, his tone raising slightly. He was getting irritated at the moment.

’This is the voice of mana? The one that leads to souls turning into abominations? How did it get in contact with... wait, when I stabbed the core of the abomination, I was in direct contact with mana. That must have been the opportunity.’

Ken took another breath as he processed what had happened.

"What do you mean by I’ll bring doom?" he asked, wanting to know further. He hoped that the voice would give him something more than the parables that it was using.

"A soul forged in chaos can never bring good, only chaos. A soul imprinted with pride cannot bend until everyone bends.

Soul forged in chaos and pride, leave us. You do not belong."

"Soul forged in chaos and pride? Is that me?" Ken asked.

"You are fated to destroy. It is in who you are. You have broken the order of fate. All you can bring is the destruction of my world. Leave us."

Ken heard everything, and at this point he believed he was starting to understand it all.

"When you say I do not belong here, you mean I was never supposed to be sent here, right? I understand that, but those gods wanted to send me off to somewhere where I would have no recollection of my past self.

I could not allow that. I am Ken, and my pride does not allow me to change that, not even in a million years," Ken said.

"Your pride will be the death of many. Soul of chaos, soul of pride."

Ken took in a deep breath and let it out.

"You are telling me that if I do not leave your world, chaos will consume it, but your world is already suffering from..."

Before he could let those words out, he felt a different kind of force slam into him, and everything suddenly changed. He was no longer there but rather floating in a glowing expanse, and at the center of that expanse was a gigantic stream of glowing light that went from up to down into infinity.

This glowing light branched into many streams of smaller lights. Ken could feel an enormous amount of energy from that light, so much that it made his skin crawl.

"What is this place?" he could not help but ask.

"I had to bring you closer so that I could speak properly to you."

The voice was calm and feminine.

"You... you are the voice of mana?" Ken asked in astonishment, his eyes widening. It looked so magnificent and glorious. He could not understand why something of this nature could cause someone to turn into a hideous abomination.

"Indeed I am, and you are a soul born from chaos and pride.

Your presence has altered the course of things. I have been waiting for the opportunity to reach out to you, and one showed itself."

"Why would the voice that drives people mad and turns them into abominations want to talk to me? Do you want to drive me mad as well?" Ken asked.

"Normally, you would have fallen into the depths of madness already, but your soul, the pride in your soul, simply stops your soul from changing form. My words cannot drive you mad for the simple reason of your pride."

"Haha, sorry about that then, but that is who I am. If I allowed you to change something about me, I would cease to be who I am," he replied.

"I have never come across a human of your nature. Soul of chaos and pride. Your forced entry into this world is steering it off course.

Calamity and doom are what await us if you remain in this world, so please leave."

Ken heard what she said and then let out a soft smile, the type you had when you were faced with a massive decision yet already knew the answer.

"I’m sorry, I can’t do that. To do that, I would need to die and be born in some world where I have no control over my life. I am sorry, but that cannot happen.

Besides, there is a bet I have with some gods, and I have to win it."

He spoke with no remorse or feeling toward the possible thousands of people that this decision could affect. Ken knew this, but his pride could not allow the defeat of knowing he gave up and allowed himself to die.

He looked at the stream of light.

"How about I offer a solution?"