When Lux opened his eyes, he found himself surrounded by darkness.

It was pitch black, completely devoid of any color. Even as a Half-Elf, who had the ability to see in the dark, Lux found himself unable to see anything.

He couldn’t see his hands. He couldn’t see his body. He couldn’t see whether there was anything in front of him. When he tried to shout, no sound came out of his lips.

It was at that moment that the ear-numbing sound of silence started to make his ears start ringing.

He covered his ears, but the ringing didn’t stop.

No matter how much he shouted with everything he had, his voice seemed to have ceased to exist.

For the first time after being reborn, Lux felt truly and utterly helpless. It was as if he had fallen into a bottomless pit, doomed to stay there for eternity.

Suddenly, he felt something touch the side of his face. His first reaction was to scream in fear and ask for help, but since he could not let out any sound, all he could do was shudder as if all his strength left his body.

His breathing grew ragged, and he was starting to undergo a panic attack.

However, just as Lux was about to fall completely into despair, he heard a soft and soothing voice enter his ears.

“Don’t be afraid. I won’t hurt you.”

A pair of delicate hands were wrapped around his body, pulling him close until he felt his face touching something soft and warm.

He then felt a hand lightly pat his head, as if assuring him that there was nothing to be afraid of.

“I don’t know how you ended up here,” the voice said softly. “But I’m here. You are not alone.”

The words of comfort and assurance made Lux regain his composure as he allowed himself to be embraced by someone, who was slowly and surely starting to materialize in front of him.

“Do you feel better now?” the voice asked.

Within that dark place, a young lady with long, pink hair and green eyes smiled at him. She was wearing what seemed to be a ceremonial priestess dress, similar to what Cai wore, except her dress was more revealing, showing a lot of skin and highlighting her seductive and innocent charm.

A moment later, Lux noticed the chains that bound her wrists and legs, allowing her to only move within a certain distance.

“Can you tell me your name?” Although the young lady had noticed Lux’s staring at her chains, she pretended not to notice and simply asked his name.

“Lux,” Lux answered. “My name is Lux.”

Lux paused after saying his name because he had finally regained the voice he thought he had already lost.

“Lux…,” the pink-haired lady muttered. “While I’m not completely sure, I believe that this name means Light.”

Lux nodded his head to agree with the young lady’s words. His name did mean Light, and he wondered how that young lady knew it.

“How ironic,” the young lady said sadly. “In this dark place where I am imprisoned, the first person I’ve seen in several years is a person whose name means Light. Are the Gods perhaps playing a prank on me?”

Lux looked at the beautiful lady, who seemed to be around his age, as she muttered something while looking in the distance.

“I’m sorry, it has been a while since I had guests, so I forgot my manners.” the pink-haired young lady smiled. “My name is Aurora, and it means dawn. Do you know what dawn is? It’s hard to know when dawn is coming because we are deep into the earth. According to my mother, dawn is the time before the first rays of the sun appear on the horizon.

“I don’t know what a sun is, but I believe that it can be found on the surface world. According to the books I read, it is very bright and lights up the entire world. Perhaps my mother named me Aurora so that I would be able to see that light…”

Aurora paused before closing her eyes.

“Aurora also has a different meaning,” Lux said as he looked at Aurora’s sad smile. “In my world, Aurora also means colorful lights that dance in the night sky. It is very beautiful to behold, and from what I can see, you are just as beautiful as those colorful dancing lights in the sky.”

The pink-haired girl raised her head to look at Lux in surprise. However, that surprise didn’t last long, and a bitter smile appeared on her face.

“My name also means light?”

“In a way, yes.”

Aurora then closed her eyes before lowering her head.

“I guess it’s time for you to go, Lux,” Aurora said in a tone that reeked of sadness.

The Half-Elf didn’t understand what the pink-haired beauty was talking about, but it didn’t take long for him to notice that his body had started to glow faintly.

“I don’t know if this is just a dream or if I am having one of those fantasies, but I’m glad that I met you, Lux,” Aurora stated as she reached out to hold Lux’s hand. “But even if all of this disappears when I wake up, to have been able to talk to someone after many years is a blessing.

“Lux, I have a favor to ask. Can you think of me from time to time? That way at least, someone will know that I existed. This place… is very lonely, you see. But I will keep our meeting in my memory.”

Lux’s body was slowly becoming transparent, as he felt a strong force pulling him toward another place. However, he fought it with every fiber of his being, wanting to stay a little longer and know more about the sad girl, bound by chains and all alone in the darkness.

“Where is this place?” Lux asked as he resisted the strong pull that was tugging at his body. “I will come find you!”

Aurora laughed bitterly as he looked at the desperate Half-Elf whose body had almost completely become transparent.

“You will come for me?” Aurora asked. “Even if you do, you can’t free me from this place. The only thing I will bring you is misfortune.”

“I don’t care,” Lux replied. “I will make no promises, but just tell me where you are. If there is an opportunity, I will come to find you.”

“Lux, please, don’t make promises you can’t keep. Don’t give me false hope.”

“Just answer my question. Please!”

Aurora slowly reached out to wrap her arms around the disappearing Half-Elf before whispering something in his ear.

“Agartha,” Aurora whispered. “Goodbye, Lux. I wish that you will live your life to the fullest.”

Just as she finished saying those words, the Half-Elf completely disappeared, leaving her all alone once again in a place surrounded by complete and utter darkness.

————–

“Aurora!”

“Aurora? Who’s that? Your lover?”

“Pa!”

Gaap and Eiko looked at the Half-Elf, who was lying on the bed with his right hand raised upwards as if trying to reach out for something.

Lux immediately propped himself up from the bed and looked at his surroundings.

He was no longer in that dark and lonely place, but his heart felt heavy as if he had left it behind with the pink-haired lady, whose tears were streaming down the side of her face before he disappeared.

Seeing that Lux seemed to be confused, Gaap decided to give him a glass of water, so that he could regain his calm.

“You’ve been sleeping for three days straight,” Gaap explained. “How do you feel?”

“My body feels as heavy as lead,” Lux replied before drinking the cup of water given to him by his Master.

Gaap then asked Lux a few more questions, and the Half-Elf answered them absentmindedly. He could still feel Aurora’s warmth in his body and wondered if everything that he saw was just a dream.

‘There’s only one way to find out,’ Lux thought as he stared at the empty cup of water in his hands. ‘Agartha… the answer lies in Agartha.’

Lux still had many things to do, but he vowed in his heart that after he had tied up all the loose ends that needed to be taken care of, he would travel to the Kingdom of Agartha, which was located thousands of meters under the ground, near the core of Elysium.

If that sad and pitiful girl was really trapped somewhere in that dark place, he would free her from the chains that shackled her and let her see the dawn, which represented the meaning of her name.