You completed the game... but you did not win!

A few hours earlier...

/Aether?/

"Tsk, I've lost the connection again!" Aria spat, her voice dripping with frustration, as her eyes darted to the words that appeared before her:

[Congratulations on finishing the game~]

Aria barely reacted, her expression stone cold.

She had been through this torturous experience so many times that even the smallest spark of emotion had been snuffed out. If it hadn't been for Aether... she would have crumbled long ago. The memories, the pain, the mistakes—none of it had mattered until he gave her a reason to endure.

To survive!

To face everything she'd run from!

Aether... her Darling. The only one she needed.

He was the reason she accepted her regrets and mistakes, the only reason she could look back without shattering.

Without him, she'd have been nothing but a hollow shell, but because of him, she embraced everything—the darkness, the failures—all of it.