As her consciousness gradually sank, Shamhat opened her eyes.
"Where is this...?"
Her voice was filled with surprise and confusion.
She seemed... to have seen this place before.
When her spirit and will had been on the verge of collapse, only to suddenly receive the tiniest blessing, when she had fallen asleep beside the monster's body—
She had seen it at that time.
And now—
The divine maiden, who had no idea how she had arrived here, raised her head and looked at the thing floating in the void.
For some reason, she seemed to understand.
This was—
The space within this monster's mind.
"How empty."
With her head raised, her gaze did not rest on the golden object. Instead, she saw everything apart from it.
That was to say, emptiness.
This was a space containing nothing but that lock and that key.
Boundless and endless, filled with darkness and solitude.
After a brief sigh, Shamhat fixed her gaze once more upon the only things in this hollow space.
The golden lock and golden key.
Though it seemed there was something else there as well?
Filled with doubt, Shamhat began walking through the void, heading toward the lock and key.
Perhaps it was only an illusion, but Shamhat felt that the distance between herself and the lock and key seemed to be shorter than it had been the last time she came here—
She walked on, little by little closing the distance between herself and the lock and key.
But—
"Ah."
Shamhat opened her eyes.
It was already morning. A little dew had settled on her body, and birdsong rang by her ears.
Blinking, she raised her head and looked at the clay man's head, only to find that it had not moved at all.
Was that just now a