A crow flew in circles in the sky, intently watching the harrowing scene below.
A man holding a sword and a man falling victim to the sword.
"L... Lucas… Why does it have to be this way?"
With not enough strength remaining to hold his head up, Axel's gaze descended upon the merciless sword embedded in his chest—a cruel reminder of the betrayal that had brought him to this bleak moment. Crimson blood flowed from the wound, cascading down his body, forming a macabre pool of red upon the cold, unforgiving ground below.
Lucas brought his hand to Axel's chin and tilted his head up, meeting his eyes with an impassive expression. Lucas' stoic countenance soon revealed itself as a facade as a solitary tear formed and trailed down his cheek and fell to the ground.
Lucas spoke with a voice bereft of its usual playfulness:
"I apologize, Axel. We were left with no other option… If… if only those fiends hadn't planted that damned demonic seed in your soul, all of this could have been avoided."
Axel's vitality was ebbing away, causing him to become a mere marionette, attached to the string that was Lucas' sword lodged in his chest.
Axel wanted to reply, whether to forgive him or beg for survival, he didn't know. However, not a single sound escaped his lips other than an inarticulate gasp.
Lucas withdrew his sword and, in one fluid motion, caught Axel and gently lowered him to the moist dirt. A chill wind blew over Axel as if nature itself mourned his doomed fate—a fate he'd done nothing to deserve.
He didn't even have to strength to change his facial expression, but on the inside, he raged.
'Why did those two do it?! Why did they have to do this to me?! If you know you screwed up, then screw up alone! Why drag me down with you?! Was there really no turning back?! Why couldn't you two monsters just die once you knew you messed up?!'
Another man stepped into the corner of Axel's failing vision, interrupting his one-sided plea. It was a one-armed man he knew very well. The wickedness he exuded was palpable. The twisted sickle he held reflected his twisted nature. A dark miasma radiated from every pore of his body—a dark, disgusting purple that fit him all too well.
Axel screamed in his head.
'Bastard.'
The third man's voice filled the air, each syllable he spoke resonating with the weight of his malevolence. The man who just had to take Axel down with him.
"To witness the hero of humanity condemned as a monster… all because of my mistake..."
He paused for a second as if thinking, then continued:
"...It's truly interesting."
The third man began laughing while staring straight down at the ground.
'Bastard!'
Axel had an unquenchable desire to kill him, to unleash upon him the condemnation he so rightly deserved. Yet, his vocal cords betrayed him, refusing to yield any sound other than a sharp and painful gasp. His lungs had collapsed, and the only thing keeping him alive was the minuscule amount of soul power he used to forcefully pump his blood.
He wanted to, no, he needed to scream at him. To tell him how much he deserved to die. If he had been granted to power, he would have torn his throat out and murdered him ruthlessly in under a second…
'Screw it.'
"I… will kill… you"
Axel spoke weakly, having used the remnant of his waning power to momentarily repair his lungs and project his voice.
He had succumbed to his hatred and thrown away his only chance at life to curse at this wretched man. A curse that was as weightless as air. A curse which had no hope of ever coming to fruition. A promise of something impossible… Yet, it was a curse he threw at the cost of his life.
The bastard's maniacal laughter abruptly ceased, giving way to an eerie silence. He lifted his gaze from his palm and locked eyes with Axel, revealing a tear-stricken face. Tears that made no sense. Tears that should be reserved for the tormented, not the tormentor. Yet, they adorned his face. The face of the man whose refusal to accept reality and desperate clinging to a meaningless vow had tormented the entirety of humanity.
'I should've let him end his own pitiful existence. If only I hadn't let him teach me that saving someone could create a memory that outweighed being saved. If only I'd never saved him. If only I'd never saved him. If only I'd never saved him…'
What's done was done. There was no changing the past.
As Axel's consciousness faded, the bastard's voice resounded throughout the air, the voice of his closest comrade turned formidable enemy reaching Axel's ears one last time:
"I wish... I wish it were possible… my hero."
His soft-spoken words carried an unknowable sorrow that betrayed every action he had taken to that point.
From the cold ground, Axel watched as the two remaining men stood with their gazes fixed on each other as if Axel were never there. Both men's eyes were filled with tears and rage.
Axel wanted to cling to life for even a second longer, but his vision eventually faded until he could see nothing but memories. The image of that psychopath crying seared into the back of his eyelids.
At least now he could forget. No more need for saviors. No more need to save… he could finally forget.
Following his vision, the rest of his senses faded. After all his senses were gone, he felt as if he were falling. He was falling, falling, falling. As he fell, it felt as if he were losing a part of himself.
In the span of a second, visions of himself in a world with a purple sky fighting Spawn, Wretches, and other Forsaken flash through his mind. The last image he saw was his head being crushed in the disgusting maw of a Spawn with four horns. Then, the visions disappeared as quickly as they came and left him floating in an endless void.
His memories jumbled for a bit, then quieted down and corrected themselves.
Floating in this endless void, Axel couldn't hear, see, feel, or taste anything—he could only think and remember. Thoughts of what had gone wrong. Thoughts of what went right.
Lost in his thoughts, time became an enigma. It became impossible to tell how much time had passed. A minute became an hour, and an hour became a minute. Time as a concept eventually lost all meaning. Axel just drifted, forever waiting. He had no body, no feeling. He could only be described as a collection of thoughts—good thoughts and bad thoughts.
But the good thoughts ran out before long, and Axel surrendered to the emptiness that engulfed him.
He no longer reminisced about what once was, but instead questioned:
'Why? Why? Why? Why, WHY! Why did people betray?! Why did I suffer?! Why couldn't I forget?! Why was I the one who died?! Why couldn't this all be a dream?! Why would nobody answer my questions?! Something had to be listening to my mind, right?! So answer me, goddamnit! Why? Why did my consciousness have to remain… If you're going to take everything from me, take everything. Don't leave me with memories. I'm dead, so let me rest… I beg. Please, just let me forget.'
His plea fell on deaf ears.
Everything was unfair. It was all so unfair. The gods bestowed hope upon them only to limit their power out of fear. They had selfishly abandoned and doomed Axel and all of humanity.
'Shit'
It was all bullshit.
Axel wanted to change it all. Stop them from ever finding that damned book, stop them from ever forming that damned cult, stop them from infecting him…
'Damn it… damn it all.'
If only those two had never existed, humanity would have stood a chance against the Forsaken. Ruby, Ryon, Shen Xiao, Bamber, Olivia, Connor, Scarlett, Jarlock, Cali, Julia, Tevon, Valentino, Aldin …Leora… and so, so many more wouldn't have had to die.
Axel begged into the void without a voice:
'Just… Someone, something! Please fucking tell me—'
"Why!"
Axel shouted. Something he'd forgotten he knew how to do.
Axel felt a rhythmic heartbeat. The sound echoed on repeat in his head over and over, the thumping steadily increasing. Before he could even begin to procss the sudden return of his hearing an onslaught of blinding light fractured the void, assaulting his eyes with its brilliance.
Axel recoiled and covered his eyes with hands that seemed to spawn from nowhere. When he finally adjusted to the light and opened his eyes, he instantly recognized the arm he held up to block the light. It was his own. Furthermore, he knew exactly where he was. How could he forget? It was the place where this damn shitfest started after all.
A wave a soul sickness took hold of his body, but he was accustomed to it, so it quickly vanished.
"Huh?"
Axel accidentally expressed his confusion aloud.
Looking around, he confirmed it. He was truly back where he and the others were first summoned to the trials. There was no mistaking it—with his perfect memory, there was no way he was wrong.
Axel took a long inhale, then an exhale while slowly gathering his bearings. Then he started to laugh.
"Ha…heh-hehehe-ahahahahaha. I see."
It seemed to Axel that his earnest desire to redo everything had prompted this dream, a false reality created by his perfect memory. Just another damned vision forced onto him by tainted memories.
Axel clutched at the dirt, took a clump of soil in his hand, and mushed it together, letting the grains separate and float helplessly back to the ground.
Axel thought to himself:
'But still… even if this was just a fabricated reality, I could do it all over again. I could do what I wanted to do. I could set things right. While this reality was just an illusion, I could do things my way and create the future I wanted. I could also maybe settle my heart and finally rest in peace…'
One thing was for sure. Even if fake, Axel could finally have his revenge. He could fulfill his promise. Yes! He could end it all before they even learned of the wretched book! He could save everyone.
'I can save… you…'
First, Axel needed to formulate a plan of operations. But, no matter how much he tried, no intricate thoughts seeped into his mind. Though intricate thoughts weren't needed right now. The only two thoughts he needed were 'find them' and 'convince everyone to stay here.'
He wanted to cry and rage, but now wasn't the time. He must find them. He wouldn't kill them yet; there was a time and place for everything, but he just needed to take note of them.
Then, he'd convince everyone to stay put because that damned false angel was gonna forget to give them the Relic… humans make errors after all.
Blue lights began to rain down from the sky, and after each light cleared, a new person appeared. Axel searched desperately, waiting for the target of all his suffering to appear. As he searched, he tried to ignore the panicked faces of the freshly summoned, but some faces he caught reminded him of their gruesome deaths he once witnessed.
He pushed passed these terrible memories and continued his search. One after another, more and more blue lights shot down, revealing more new arrivals. Then, he spotted the heinous bastard.
"There you are, you son of a..."
[Interference in memory detected. Skill
A dazzling blue screen interrupted Axel's thoughts. He hated this screen. He especially hated the rugged male voice that announced this in his head. It was a screen and voice that tormented him with how much he relied on them.
But in all the years Axel had dealt with the screen, nothing like this had ever happened.
[Skill
Axel began pleading with the screen.
'Huh? Wait. No. This wasn't fair. Stop!'
'Why?!'
'This was a fake reality!? Why was my own mind rebelling against me?!'
'No… no it couldn't be!'
'Don't tell me! Was this all real?!'
'Stop!'
Axel had wanted to forget everything before, but not now! Now that he could do something good with his cursed memory!
Axel raged in his head:
'Screw you, you damned false gods! Having my memories would only benefit you! So why rip them from me?! You damned beings made no sense! Just let me become the savior you wanted me to be so badly!'
Tears began to stream down Axel's face as he dropped to his knees and begged:
"Please, just one of you gods, goddesses, demons, or whatever, have pity on me. Don't let this tragedy happen again… why condemn me to this fate!"
It felt as if a screwdriver was being run through his skull. He wanted to double over in pain, but as much as he wanted to grovel, he couldn't. He must not forget. If it so happened it was his fate to forget and walk the same bloodied path, he would refuse it! He would refuse it by any means necessary!
Axel jammed his finger into the grass, but sensed he didn't have the time to carve out the message he needed to relay. Panicking, he picked up a nearby sharp stone and jammed it into his arm, causing a stinging pain to shoot through his body. But the pain was negligible compared to the future that awaited him if he failed to send the message.
He shakily began his engraving but barely managed a crude message before another window popped up, clouding his vision.
[Skill
[Fragments recovered: 0/10]
'No! Please! Just another second!'
'NOOOOOO! Noooooo... no?'
'Where the hell am I?'