Ayame reaches the temple of The Watcher, an enigmatic being who holds the key to her fate. The Watcher presents Ayame with two choices: to sacrifice herself and end the prophecy, restoring balance to the world, or to break the cycle of rebirth and take on an entirely new form—one that could disrupt the fabric of life and death. But there's a shocking twist: The Watcher reveals that the curse was not forced upon her. It was Ayame, in one of her earliest lives, who chose this path for reasons she can no longer remember.