The next instant, an exceedingly bizarre thing happened.
Time stopped. The entire world ground to a halt.
My sworn brother, sword poised on the verge of delivering the final blow. My master, fending off an entire army of thralls by herself. Neither of them moved so much as a muscle. Even the ceaseless cacophony of screams and destruction I had been hearing off in the distance was suddenly no more.
“What’s…happening?”
I alone was unaffected… Or so I thought at first.
But that black-hearted fiend, Night Walker, let out a rattling chuckle.
“Did you forget?” he said. “You are under the command of my ability.”
It was he who had done this. But as soon as I realized that fact, Night Walker rose to his feet…and in a bone-chilling display, produced a sword of his own, forged of his blood right then and there.
A shiver ran down my spine as I realized his intent.
“No! Stop it!”
“Gladly. Assuming you are willing to offer yourself in his place, that is.”
The bastard presented me the ultimate decision.
“I will now slowly slide my sword between Rheinhardt Crossline’s ribs. If you wish to stop me, you need only fire your gun. However, be warned that the moment you do, I shall separate your head from your shoulders.”
No sooner did he finish these words than he began making true on them. His crimson sword started sinking into Rheina’s flesh.
“Grh…! Y-you maniac!”
I drew my pistol and pointed it square at his head.
However.
“What’s the matter? Pull the trigger. You know you want to. It’s simple. One twitch of your finger, and I’ll be gone.”
He was right. One pull, and my dear friend’s life would be saved…and my own damned in its place.
“You can’t, can you? That’s so like you.”
I watched as the blade plunged into his flesh, slowly stealing away Rheina’s life.
“You only care about yourself, and to save your own skin you’ll gladly condemn others, even your dearest friend. That’s just who you are.”
I wanted to deny it. I needed to deny it.
With one pull of my finger, I could prove him wrong.
But fear consumed me, and I couldn’t do a thing about it.
“You never loved these two at all. You simply used them. Needed them. Any talk of protecting them or growing strong for them was merely a lie.”
I could sense it. My time was running thin. I needed to choose. Rheina. My friend. My dear, dear brother… Or me. With my life, he could be saved.
“Urh… Rrrraaaaaaaagh!”
With a yell, I pulled the trigger. The bang of gunpowder filled my ears.
However…my bullet did not strike the fiend’s head. Instead, it hit a nearby lamppost and disappeared.
“You see now. You cannot change who you are.”
The blade mercilessly advanced.
“Feel it. A remorse thrice-born. A maddening sickness.”
His mocking voice rang in my head. It was over. The bastard’s sword pierced Rheina’s heart, and all of a sudden, time began to flow once more.
“Gah…”
Rheina, stabbed through the heart, crumpled to the ground.
“No…”
My legs failed me, and I fell to my knees.
“This isn’t happening… It’s not true, it’s not true, it’s not true!”
I was so aghast, I just repeated the same words over and over, like a fool.
Then, as I weakly railed against my fate, Night Walker came over to me.
“Rheinhardt’s life was in your hands. Now they are stained with his blood.”
“Grh…! N-no! I didn’t…! I didn’t…!”
I couldn’t speak another word. What the bastard was saying was the undeniable truth.
“Yes, you did. You abandoned him. You selfishly abandoned your dearest friend.”
“Urgh…Urgh… Agh…”
My teeth rattled like chains. Seemingly enjoying my disgrace, the fiend smiled.
“You are cursed. Death will always follow you around. Just like it did in your last life, and the one prior to that as well.”
Then he raised his right hand overhead, like the executioner poised to deliver the final blow.
“Now, then. I hope this doesn’t happen a fourth time, but who can say?”
His hand fell, taking the shape of a blade. I couldn’t move. I was frozen in terror, able to do little more than tremble in fright.
However.
“Rooooaaaaaaaagh!”
A scream. A roar. From the mouth of my fallen brother, Rheina.
The next moment, I heard the sound of rending flesh.
Rheina had put his sword right through Night Walker’s heart.
“Guh…”
A splutter of blood. Crimson liquid fell from the killer’s lips.
But he did not fear his approaching death. In fact, he seemed to revel in it.
“Now, cursed one. This…is where the true tragedy begins.”
He melted away, bit by bit, until all that remained of the heinous killer was a rotting puddle on the ground.
However, there was no Testament Stone. The proof of his death was nowhere to be found.
“R-Rheina!”
I had more pressing concerns. I ran over to him and picked him up in my arms. What I saw shocked me to my very core. His eyes were becoming those of a fiend. His right was bloodred, while his left had turned a sapphire blue.
Those multicolored eyes he then turned on me and whispered into my breast.
“Hey, partner… Why didn’t you save me?”
He smiled as he said it.
“Did you think I wouldn’t notice?”
A deathly potent smile.
“I remember now. It was you.”
Tears fell from his right eye. Hate dwelled within his left.
“I’ll kill you for this…traitor.”
Before I could react, my right arm and left leg…were gone. My precious limbs vanished in the blink of an eye.
“Haha! Hahahahahaha! What the hell?! Such a horrible ecstasy! Such a sublime agony! Ahahahahahahaha!”
Rheina looked down at me as I squirmed, and a cruel smile spread across his lips. It was not a human smile…but nor was it a completely inhuman one.
“Ahh! Ahh! Ahh! This is so not fun! Live, partner, live!”
His contradictory words were laced with bloodthirsty innocence. As I watched in terror, he conjured an enormous pillar of ice above me.
I was doomed. I was sure of it. But just then…
“Leon!”
Master stood before me, using the heat of her Sacrament to melt the ice away.
“What are you doing, Master?! I’m so glad you’re in my way!”
Rheina’s attention turned to Master. In response, she drew her holy sword and said, “This…is my sin to bear.”
It was like a nail in my heart. Master must have seen everything, yet she wasn’t blaming me. She took everything upon herself.
“Mas…ter…!”
I reached out my hand. I could do nothing else before their battle began.
The two struggled, locked in mortal combat. And then…
“Hah!!”
“Ghh?!”
Master sliced open Rheina’s torso.
However, the cut was shallow. Perhaps she still harbored some doubt over fighting her own disciple. Rheina was not fatally wounded and was still able to turn and run.
“I won’t let you escape! I’ll finish you here!”
Her eyes filled with heartbreak and sorrow, Master nonetheless catapulted herself toward Rheina.
Then the two of them disappeared off into the city, leaving a trail of carnage in their wake.
“Urgh…agh…”
Somehow, I managed to erect myself on one leg, and wandered the streets doing all in my power not to trip and fall. As I followed their trail, I saw the consequences of my failure as plain as day.
“M-m-mommyyy…”
Something that was once a child feasted on the still-living remains of her mother.
“I…I—I—I…I love…playing football…”
Something that was once a boy kicked about the severed head of his elder brother.
“…What have I done?” I muttered to myself. This wasn’t the work of Night Walker; it was Rheina. It was he who painted this portrait of hell, but the one who allowed him to do so…was me.
“Master! Rheina!”
I called out their names. I searched around every corner. And then, at last, I found them.
Rheina was in the main square at the center of town.
“It’s…strange. Everything…makes me so mad…I can’t help it…”
He slaughtered everything he saw, be it human or fiend.
“…I…”
My friend, laughing amid the consequences of his mindless massacre. As I considered the fact my own weakness brought this about, I lost the strength to stand.
“Ah, partner. There you are.”
Rheina turned to see me lying on the floor.
“Run awa—stay right there! I don’t want—I’m going to kill you!”
He began running toward me, swords drawn.
I couldn’t move. I couldn’t bring myself to do anything.
Just then…
“Stop this, Rheina!”
It was her. Master. She jumped in front of me.
And in the next moment…Rheina’s blade sliced her clean in two.
“…Huh?”
The moment I made that pathetic sound, I heard a noise from Rheina’s lips as well.
“Master…”
Looking down at her remains, he laughed.
“Ha! Haha! Hahahahaha! You…! If only you…had come sooner! M-my sister…would… Haha! Haha! Hah! Hah… Ahh…ahh… Aah… AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
He was crying. Crying with all his heart. At last, one half of his emotions had taken over. The only look on his face was one of grief.
He unfurled his white wings and spoke to me.
“Hey, partner.”
He spoke those words I would never forget.
“Please.”
My vow. My promise. My curse. Engraved upon my soul.
“The next time we meet. I need you…to kill me.”