Saeyo was not pleased to find himself in the situation he was in, and neither was Bob.
The darkness that had previously allowed them to float had been completely erased from the world beneath the spot where their legs were. And instead… Instead, there was nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
The very definition of nothing.
The opposite of something.
Saeyo didn't know how to put this sight into words, but in the end, he didn't need to. Because even if he wanted to, he wouldn't have been able to. Although he could see what lay before him, he saw nothing. It was something he had never seen before, simply because he could not see it. It was not merely the absence of darkness, but…
The sight alone aroused a profound sense of fear within Saeyo's body. Human eyes were not meant to witness such a surreal sight.
The darkness, however, had not completely vanished. Everything, except for the spot beneath them, had still been swallowed up by it; and from this pure darkness, which still surrounded them, a deep yet compassionate voice spoke.
"I am..."
But Saeyo moved before the darkness had a chance to finish its sentence. Saeyo felt something pulling him downwards. Gravity returned to the world, and Saeyo could no longer continue living the dream of somehow being able to float.
Some Kyozas perhaps could have done so, but he — as difficult as it was for him — was not one of them; and perhaps he never would be...
He refused to give in to logic and accept becoming one with nothingness. So he turned towards Bob and struck him directly in the chest, which freed him from his shackles and sent him flying backwards.
Meanwhile, Saeyo realised that if he could not manage to escape the fate of coming into contact with nothingness, he could at least spare one person from it.
As he fell, the black dot above him, growing steadily smaller, assured him that there was nothing he could do about it.
Saeyo was weak. How he longed to be strong...
He remembered the countless times he'd been weak as a child. He never grasped the various topics covered in class straight away. Had it not been for the merge, he would have had no choice but to leave school with poor grades.
To be more precise, he wouldn't even have gotten a degree at all. One day, it all became too much for him, so he had no choice but to completely shut himself away from the outside world at home.
He hated that others were so much cleverer and stronger than he was. Yet it was this weakness that held him back from rising up; and he only realised that when it was already far too late.
In the end, the merge was his only way out after all.
'Was it a trap this Aquaixos set? Did he just want to lure us to our deaths?'
Despite the fact that he was already so far away, two final words did not escape his awareness:
'…I'm sorry.'
The last thing he thought of was his mother's face. She had always wanted to fulfil his every wish, even though the absence of a father made it considerably harder for her to do so for her only child. They were not rich, but what he had was more than some children could ever dream of.
His father's face, however… Saeyo had never seen it; and his mother had never been willing to provide him with even a single reason for this. But the reason might also have been that Saeyo wasn't really interested. He simply never asked about it.
That man had already run away before Saeyo was even born. He didn't even want to hold his own child in his arms.
However, the very moment he lost sight of his mother during the merge, Saeyo realised that he wanted to speak to her at least one last time; and he wanted to have a proper conversation with his father as well, for the first time...
He had so many questions to ask him...
Saeyo was furious; and deep down, he still held out hope that Bob would survive.
'I hope you'll get the chance to make your dreams come true. I know you'll manage it.'
The fall bruised Saeyo's entire body and left him covered in wounds; and he roared through clenched teeth:
"It hurts! Why do I deserve..."
But his voice faded away.
'...of all people, me! What sin did I commit in my previous life! What sin have I committed in this life!'
The blood dripping from his wounds vanished into thin air. Just like the tears that streamed down his face without interruption.
Everything about Saeyo began to burn like hell.
'My life… What's the point of it! Someone. Anyone! Just answer this question, please! Is there even a point? Was I only born to suffer this pain now?'
He slowly began to struggle to breathe as well.
'I don't want to die… I'm not ready for this. If I'm going to die, then let it be in peace. Please! I want to live! Can't anyone hear me?'
A person would have to be utterly desperate to scream in their mind and demand that someone give them an answer.
The arm he was looking at vanished, and without him even realising it, much more of his body disappeared.
His sense of smell had already vanished. At first he heard the sound of his fall, but then it ceased. The pain in his body faded away as his body gradually disappeared.
The last thing that remained were his eyes; until he could see nothing at all.
In the end, there was nothing left in the deep hole into which Saeyo had fallen.
However, his thoughts were unlike anything else. They were selfish, yet so understandable at the same time.
'I will survive. Even if I have to die first.'