Darkness poured into the office from outside the room. The oil lamp placed on the workbench seemed to be the only island in the endless darkness. It stands to reason that both Cheese and Hill are accustomed to the dark, and they can restrain their emotions well in a lightless environment. However, when facing the corridor outside the house, fear still gently embraced them from behind.

The mage unconsciously stepped back, the demon corpse on the ground nearly tripping him up, and by the time he hastily touched the edge of the workbench, Ciel had already made his way from the hallway to the side of the table. Cheese's pupils dilated unconsciously, and his body trembled slightly, and he could only maintain his standing posture by making sure he was within the range of the light. If the lights go out at this time, I'm afraid the mage will just curl up in the darkness.

Fear, the most unique of all emotions. You know, whether it's anger, pain, chagrin, or happiness, these emotions can't make people lose the ability to act and think, even in extreme circumstances. But fear can, when the invisible hand touches your throat, no one can move even a finger of yourself, and even if you are the wisest person in the world, fear can make you think like an idiot.

In the eyes of Cheese at this time, the darkness outside the light has long been more than just a lack of light. In places where the naked eye can't see clearly, there is only something as thick as oil, something unknowable, unfathomable, and indestructible. These things snooped outside the light, looking at the two in the lamplight, with unadorned viciousness. Evil, the word popping into Cheese's mind, was so apt to describe those things.

The sound of his companion "clucked" the mage, and as he ordered his already stiff neck muscles to turn his head behind him, Cheese saw that Hill was already clasping his hands around his neck, kneeling on the edge of the table like a drowning man, making a terrible sound from his throat. The mage reached out to help his companion up, but as he did, he saw a large amount of red liquid oozing from under the female doctor's mask, and the smell of the liquid was even more pungent than the blood of demons.

"Help... I—" Ciel's voice became the straw that broke the camel's back, and Cheese's spirit finally broke down as the female doctor lay on the ground and raised her head frantically clutching her mask to the mage for help. The mage didn't pay attention to his companion, and at this moment, he seemed to have forgotten what was outside the light, and he rushed out of the range of the light and began to run in the direction of the exit in his memory. The lights behind him dimmed at a breakneck pace, and soon, they disappeared.

Cheese ran, and he ran with his head down. Since birth, the mage had never run so hard, but the instinct in his head told him to run, not to stop, because when he stopped, death would come. As the mage ran through the darkness, the runes on his body resurfaced and began to tremble violently, as if they could shatter at any moment.

"Whew...... "......Eventually, Cheese stopped, his legs limp from running too much, and he fell to his knees, surrounded by endless shadows. There was no sparkle in the mage's eyes, and in this darkness, even the most powerful magic could not help those who were deeply trapped in it, not to mention whether the current cheese could remember that he was a spellcaster.

A hand, a hand that could not see any details, gently stroked the cheese's face. The mage's lowered head was lifted up by this hand, but somehow, the hand reaching out of the darkness did not make Cheese feel uncomfortable, but a familiar feeling came from this hand. Cheese's head was raised, but it was still an impenetrable darkness in front of his eyes, and even if there was anything, it would be hidden in the darkness.

"It's pathetic. A gentle voice rang out from the darkness. The language mage had never heard of the voice, but somehow he found that he could understand what the other person meant. At the same time, Cheese also found that the clothes on his body had disappeared at some point, and a huge amount of runes were neatly arranged on his body, exuding a magical light. The hand brushed over the mage's body, as if trying to wipe the runes off his body.

"Those guys are like pawns, and they have this kind of thing drawn on them. The voice spoke again after realizing that he couldn't erase the runes from Cheese's body. Cheese felt as if he had touched something on his forehead, but he didn't know what it was, but instinct told him it might be someone else's forehead.

The mage relaxed, his body and mind relaxed. Now the darkness was no longer terrible to him, and it even made Cheese feel as reassuring as a baby in its mother's womb. Something in the darkness embraced him, and the mage felt the other's body soft as velvet. At this moment, from the depths of darkness came the sound of disharmony with this tranquility, the sound of rain.

"Can't you just let us be alone for a little longer?" said the voice holding the cheese, revealing a slight displeasure.

"No, you can't. Another voice, cold, sad.

"You're always so unpleasant. ”

"......" did not answer, only the sound of rain gradually approaching.

"I know this kid has your stuff, but that doesn't mean he's yours too, you know?"

"You're the one who wants to take him for yourself. ”

"......" This time it was the turn of the voice holding the cheese to be silent.

"Let him go, he doesn't belong here. ”

"Who said so, are you blind, he belongs here!" the voice holding the cheese seemed to be enraged, and the voice became high-pitched.

"Maybe one day, he'll be one of us. But now, he doesn't belong here, let him go. The voice in the rain said, and this voice seemed to be always the same tone compared to the other.

"You and everyone else, you're just using him like a pawn! A tool that you use and discard! Why do you want me to let him go back! Can't you see how painful this child is, confined to this pathetic body, bound by ridiculous ideas, chasing false truths......

"Enough. The voice in the rain interrupted the other party's words rudely, and the majestic rain enveloped Cheese's body. In the midst of the heavy rain, the mage stood up in a daze.

"Let him choose. ”

Cheese stood up like a thoughtless walking corpse, walking aimlessly in the dark. Fear can no longer control him, but the current mage can't think clearly. He knew he was going back, but he didn't know where he was going back, or for what purpose. Memories flowed through his mind like flowing water, and even the trivial details that had been forgotten were reproduced in Cheese's mind at this time.

"I... Cheese muttered, he didn't know what he was talking about, but his feet began to steady, and now the mage was no longer hobbling, and some kind of force supported him to move slowly.

"Go back. When the mage uttered the word in its entirety, the darkness vanished, and everything that surrounded him vanished. Cheese stared blankly at the hallway outside the door, illuminated by the lens, dim, but not invisible.

"What's wrong with you?" asked Ciel, who was standing behind Cheese, and it seemed to her that the mage didn't move after interrupting the demon's summoning as he pushed the door open.

Cheese shook his head, and his memory stayed on pushing the door open. But he always felt as if he had forgotten something. After a moment, the mage gave up remembering.

"It's okay, let's go. Be careful, something that just closed the door may still be there. With that, he walked out of the office.