"Th... th... wh... what..."
His eyes widened bit by bit, indescribable horror steadily deepening within them. Looking at the Sage of Six Paths before him, Chiba slowly took a step back, then another, a disbelieving murmur slipping from his lips.
It seemed the sight before him had left him unable to react.
"Now, you should understand."
At that moment, the Sage of Six Paths, who had pulled open the left side of his robe, looked at Chiba's clearly stunned expression. A strange look crossed his face, but his voice remained imposing.
"Th... what happened? How did it end up like this?"
Hearing the Sage of Six Paths' words, Chiba's gaze did not shift in the slightest. He continued staring fixedly at the opened lapel, but took a deep breath to steady his shocked emotions.
With that deep breath, the indescribable horror on his face faded somewhat.
Yet, although it had faded slightly, that rigid, stunned expression seemed etched onto his face. It could only grow fainter; it could not disappear.
What happened? What could have caused something like this?
What information is hidden in this... Just how insane is this world? At that moment, an extremely ominous premonition faintly rose in his heart, as though something unimaginable was about to slowly reveal itself before him from beneath the Sage of Six Paths' astonishing left lapel.
At that very moment, beneath the left lapel that had so shocked him, around that black hole that seemed like nothingness, a faint, soft, warm flame-colored glow slowly ignited at its edges. Like flames erupting, it circled toward the hollow center, then finally vanished within the void.
Beneath the Sage of Six Paths' pulled-open left lapel, where his heart should have been, was a hole.
That was right.
At this moment, beneath the opened lapel