A drifting, endless sea stretched in all directions, empty of life, devoid of even the seaborn monsters.
Vanitas was all alone underneath the open sky, his gaze fixed upward as the stars reflected across the dark waters and, in turn, his amethyst eyes.
He was lost in thought, unable to pull himself away from that final image.
Karina.
The way her body had broken apart, dissolving into nothing but scattered particles, replayed in his mind no matter how many times he tried to push it aside.
"…Karina."
Just how many times was he going to lose her?
It was difficult to put into words what Karina Maeril meant to him.
She was the first relationship he had built without relying on Vanitas Astrea's status and inherited connections. It had been something he constructed himself and chose to maintain.
Because of that, he had watched her more closely than the others, wary of the countless death flags that surrounded him, making sure she would never become one of them.
