Tears dripped from his eyes to the pillow that he laid his head on as dim light entered through the window. As much as the light was comforting, it had a sense of deception to it. The world was ending today, anyway. He had much reason to be scared of and yet so enraged at the light that seemed to deceive him.

Lifting his head from the pillow, Janus threw his gaze to the door, hoping someone would be waiting for him there. Unfortunately, no one showed their face. After he sat up and set his feet on the ground, he stood up only for a second before his knees buckled. Had he really been in bed for so long?

Janus fell backwards onto his bed again while his cat, Alfador, purred and rubbed up against him.

"Where have you been, Alfador? You weren't there when I woke." Janus placed a hand on his cat's small head and pet its purple fur for a moment. Hisses filled his ears, and before he could pull his hand away from the cat, it disappeared.

Another deception crept up behind him without him even noticing it. Janus sighed deeply before attempting to stand up again. "Reality slips too fast away from me anymore," he whispered quietly to himself as he left the room.

Thinking he was too hopeful, he walked straight to the main room of the palace instead of checking his sister's room for her. She wouldn't be there; he knew it. She was at the Ocean Palace, along with his despicable mother. He wondered if he'd ever actually see her again. With that thought came despair, so he dismissed it immediately.

Janus avoided the people around him while making his way to the middle corridor to the gate of the Ocean Palace. The throne in the room was as bare as ever. The glowing gate in front of him shown bright and mighty, but to Janus, it seemed ominous and forbidding. Before he entered the gate, he swallowed hard and gripped the pendant that his sister gave him.

Reassured, he stepped into the gate and felt himself disappear.

Once Janus arrived inside the Ocean Palace seconds later, he was greeted by the sight of a magnificent door at the end of the hall.

He rushed to the door and opened it slowly, enjoying the creaking sounds it made as its hinges moved from one place to the other. The next room barely had a change in atmosphere. Vast and seemingly empty, the space had long, floating walkways and looming pillars. Behind those pillars were secrets that patiently waited for the right time to reveal themselves.

As Janus carefully made his way across the walkways, he noticed a slight scraping noise. He glanced in the direction of the scraping and saw a few flying creatures that eyed him down.

"Oh, mother, you even have monstrous beasts guarding this place? Truly, you've got the mind of a mad man." The trembling words escaped his mouth in short fragments that came after quick breaths.

Janus brought a hand up to his neck and felt for Schala's pendant. He softly smiled for a brief second before taking off to the exit on the other side of the room.

With his heart racing, Janus could only wonder how much more of this he would have to endure.

Unfortunately, all the rooms were exactly like the first. Monsters lined the walls and waited to attack. Eerie silence filled the Palace, and, most of all, himself, with fear.

The interminable hallways started to irritate him with every step he took.

Janus breathed in sharply and shouted, "This sure is a pain! How massive must this place be?"

After avoiding only the first fight before and barely surviving throughout his journey, Janus was fuming. Starting to cry, he sat down in the middle of the hallway and whispered, "This isn't how it was supposed to end..." Broken cries and cracks left his throat as he buried his head into his bleeding arms.

Getting up, he took two slow, deep breaths and trudged to the end of the hallway. "She has to be near here by now." The loud drones and screeches of the Mammon Machine entered his ears as he walked closer to the last room.

The grandest room was the most daunting of them all. Janus looked around and noticed it was different from the other rooms. There was so much more terror in this room, so much more unwanted noise.

At the end of the room, he saw Schala standing stationary with her arms weakly up to the Machine as their mother demanded she try harder.

Janus broke into a sprint before getting tired near the end. It was as if the Machine was draining his energy, but he wouldn't give up until he said goodbye.

"Schala!"

Schala glanced over to him for a moment before dropping her arms and turning to him, screaming, "No, Janus! Stay away!"

Janus panicked at the noise that was growing ever louder and the sorrow that was enveloping his heart. "B-but...!

The walls around them distorted until a massive creature appeared in front of them. The ground and sky became dizzying to look at as the room transformed into something no one could explain.

The Gurus stood where they did before the distortions, eyes widened at the sight of a creature that huge.

Janus watched silently as a black hole opened up above Melchior.

"It...It's a-!" He disappeared from Janus' view without another word.

Another hole appeared in front of Gaspar as he shouted, "A time gate!"

With that, he disappeared as well.

Janus stood like a statue with his eyes frozen on Schala for a few seconds before he heard Belthasar yell before disappearing into the gate too. "No!"

Janus shivered and looked to his right and left. He shook with every terrifying second that passed. His silent breaths turned into emanating shouts when a gate enclosed him.

"Schala!"

His eyes stung with tears as he heard one word in the darkness: "Janus!"