Inside Kotsutotsu, darkness stretched as far as the eye could see. Tempestuous winds surged endlessly like raging waves; no one knew where they came from, nor where they ended.
Looking out, this region seemed to have no end at all. From the outside, Kotsutotsu did not appear particularly vast, yet its interior was an entirely different space—an infinite one... If one could not find an exit, then even without being devoured, they would eventually die as time passed.
At that moment, deep within the infinite space, there was a nearly imperceptible speck of light weaving along the path of the storm. It was a faint flame, and within that flame was a person.
Yet endless decay seeped from this person, as though he were caught in a turbulent current of time—one moment in this era, the next transported into another.
With every passage through time, the decay around him grew stronger, like a massive tree nearing death. Its appearance might remain unchanged, its leaves still lush and green, but inside, it had already reached the end of its road!
"Hmm?"
The 'person' within the karmic flames slowly opened his eyes, letting out a confused murmur.
Where was this?
Who... was I?
What made time so terrifying was oblivion. As time passed, people gradually forgot past joys and past sorrows; they forgot old friends and old family...
Even if none of it was what the 'person' wanted, he could not resist it, because time could smooth away so many things.
Even if one did not wish to forget, before the passage of thousands upon thousands of years, anyone was so powerless against oblivion—even if that time had merely passed by unintentionally.
He drifted forward with the storm, not knowing how to resist. Yet the passage of time did not stop because