Still, I could not move. When I finally took a step, it was far too late. The arrow ended my friend’s life, and Elise dropped to her knees. Before we could recover, our foe caught up to us, and we were captured.
…A short while later, he came. The venerable Archbishop Macbeth. Perhaps it was just to see us tied up. He stroked his long white beard and furrowed his wrinkled brow.
“I thought I said to capture them all alive?”
“Yes, sire… However, one of them was exceedingly troublesome, and so…”
Macbeth gave a deploring sigh.
“This is not enough,” he said, appearing to lose interest in us. His shoulders slumped, and he turned to leave. The man, his minion, called after him.
“What should I do with these two?”
Macbeth did not break stride to answer. “Teach them a lesson… Spare them no reprieve.”
And then, our seven days of torture began. All of Macbeth’s crimes were pinned on us. We were painted as monsters and punished.
The Martyrs had a ceremony they used to deal with agents of corruption like us. To ensure that our hearts would be blackened, and we would end up in hell. They would hand us over to the beasts. A people living in the levels beneath the city. They looked human, but their hearts were anything but.
For seven days, they treated Elise and I like their playthings.
And afterward, our day of execution arrived.
We were dragged out into the town square in the center of Regtelia Town.
“A fitting end for ungrateful villains like you.”
“Serves you right, ya bastards!”
The crowd slung insults and stones. Among them, the very same innocents we had fought to protect. I was tied to a post and left to await my fate. I averted my gaze from the horrible ends of my beloved friends below me.
Isaac’s body had been left in the street to rot. The townspeople had been free to defile it as they saw fit, tearing his clothes and flesh.
And Elise…
“Ah… Ugh… Ahhh…”
She was broken. Completely broken. Such was the treatment we had received at the hands of those who lived beneath. Her pretty blonde hair had been torn out. Half of her teeth were missing, pulled for the enjoyment of our captors. Her basic human dignity had been sullied. And then, she was fed to ravenous wolves while still alive.
“Why…?”
It was agonizing to even speak. But I had to.
Why had this happened? Why had God chosen this for us? And why…hadn’t I done something when I had the choice?
“We shall now commence the burning of the villain Labresca Vidyasson.”
The speaker cast his torch onto the pile of kindling at my feet, and the pyre swiftly became a roaring blaze. The pain I felt as the flesh melted off my bones was nothing compared to the pain in my heart. My last, dying sentiment was…
“Isaac…”
If I had sacrificed myself back then, Isaac would still be alive. The two of them would have been able to escape. They would have saved the town, and lived happily in my stead.
That was the fate I should have chosen. I was a coward. I shied from virtue at the last moment, and for that, I hated myself. That was the moment everything fell apart.
“I was wrong… I was wrong…”
The tears fell from my eyes as I voiced my final sentiments.
Back then, it should have been me.
It should have been me that died, and not him.
The memory ended. A few seconds passed. Leon clenched his fists with a heavy heart.
“It’s like looking in a mirror,” he muttered.
It should have been me. It was the same thing Leon had been thinking for the past four years. They shared a sin, one no amount of regret could erase. And so Leon knew…
“…I will defeat him. He can be beaten. I know he can.”
Alice trusted the ghoul, and listened carefully without a word. Rayne, on the other hand, piped up.
“I’d love to agree,” she said, “but…how? How can a being like that be defeated?”
Leon answered without hesitation. He explained his thoughts, as well as how he planned to save the lost soul. After Rayne finished listening, she said, “…I see. Well, it’s certainly convincing enough to stake my life on.”
“It’s settled, then. All that’s left is to put the plan into action.”
With that, Leon slowly turned and walked away.
And so, the time came to confront the Ifrit. Leon stood atop a clock tower, looking over the town, and engaged the mechanism that caused the bell to toll. Its chimes rang out, signaling the start of battle.
Meanwhile, down in the streets, Alice opened her mouth and yelled.
“Waaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!”
Her voice attracted fiends, drawn to the noise.
“Wh…wh…white…”
“Wh-wh…wh-wh-wh…wh-wh-wh-wh…”
A crowd of Black Fangs began closing in. Alice tried not to let their rapidly approaching forms throw her off as she led them through the streets. Right up to that restaurant in the main square, the White Cloud Inn, whereupon she launched herself through the glass window and into the building.
A few seconds later, the Ifrit let out a wail of anger and charged over.
“That’s got his attention,” Leon noted. “Even after becoming a fiend, he still wants to protect his memories… Or maybe that’s exactly why he’s so obsessed.”
Bound by the shackles of his past, the Ifrit swung his sword like a gale. His deadly attack instantly liquefied many of the Black Fangs.
“DEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAATHHH!”
“…I guess it’s time.”
Leon rang the bell once more, signaling for Alice to retreat…and for Rayne to take the stage.
“Wraaaaaaaagh!”
The fiends immediately began descending on her. She stood at another of the Ifrit’s memorable locations.
“DEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAATHHH!”
Leon didn’t exactly feel happy tearing down the Ifrit’s reminders of the past, but it had to be done. He needed the fiend to run out of Source. No matter how mighty it seemed now, the giant would lose its inhuman powers once the wellspring of holy energy ran dry. After all, it was once a human, and that fact would never change.
And soon came the moment that proved that fact beyond all doubt.
“DEAA—?!”
His weapons, the mementos of his fallen friends, crafted from jet-black flame. They vanished. For a moment, the colossus didn’t seem to know how to react.
“Ahh… Ahhh… AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!”
It wailed in lamentation. Leon understood its feelings very well.
“My holy sword is a reminder of my old friends. If I lost it, I think I’d feel the same way.”
Leon knew its sadness, and the fate they both shared, but that didn’t stop him. He climbed up onto the railing, leaped into the air—and flew. Channeling the Source into his mechanical leg, he released a burst of superheated propellant that temporarily launched him upward before gravity took over and directed him down toward the sympathetic soul standing in the middle of the street.