The trip back to the treehouse didn’t end up being as exciting as John had hoped, mainly because the snake meat made it impossible to fly very fast. But he didn’t mind.

The hunting trip had given him everything he could have wanted, so asking for anything else would be greedy.

Only one thing was bothering him, and that was Rain. He saw no way of figuring out what was bothering her, and none of his theories made much sense.

Serah was wrapped around his back and leaning her head against his. She had gotten even braver. But she wasn’t talking much.

“Hey, Serah?” John asked carefully.

“Mmh?”

“... Can you promise me Rain will be okay? It’s really weighing on me.”

Serah remained silent, but John let it linger, hoping it would convince her to talk. He disliked that she didn’t reply right away.

Eventually, she sighed in resignation. “... I can promise you she will survive. Is that good enough?”

“Of course not! What I’m worried about is her mental state, not her survivability.”

“... Okay. Don’t take this the wrong way, but there’s nothing you can do to help right now. Does that help?”

“You know it doesn’t. How long does ‘right now’ last?”

“... I’m not sure. I hope it’s not too long. You’ll have a chance to help her in the future, but it won’t be easy.”

John had resigned himself to not knowing certain things, but her words were driving him crazy.

‘How could you know so much? Are you from the future? But then, why would it be so goddamn important to keep things secret?’

“You’re not making this easy on me,” he said in a low tone.

“Don’t use promises against me, then. You know where my heart lies. Isn’t that enough?”

“... You know where mine is as well, but there are others I care about. I’m not joking when I say Rain feels like a sister to me.”

“I know… I know…”

They were nearing the tree now and could see a lit bonfire in the distance. Judging by the light, they seemed to have made it more prominent than usual.

“Heh, they never doubted us, it seems.”

But Serah was quiet. Then she lurched forward and dropped all the meat they were carryng, staring at the fire ahead.

“It’s not a bonfire! John, hurry!”

There was a desperation in her voice he had never heard before, and she didn’t have to ask twice. Larang used all its speed to send them forward, narrowly dodging the winding trees.

A rumbling sound surrounded them from below, reminding John of some horrible close calls in his past. It sounded like the ground was falling.

‘What the fuck is going on?!’

“Please no, please no, please no,” he heard Serah mumbling, praying desperately for something not to pass.

Soon, it became clear that the treehouse itself was on fire, sending plumes of flames toward the sky. And soon after that, they arrived.

Unlike what John had expected, there was no destruction or signs of combat. But there were lifeless bodies lying on the ground. Dennis, Carver, Ralf, and Isabelle. Lifeless, but with no signs of injury.

The only one standing was a girl with antlers, with her face buried in her hands.

Serah let out a heartwrenching scream, throwing herself off John’s back and landing on the ground with a stumble. “No! Rain, already?! You promised!”

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Through the palms of her hands, Rain whimpered, “Rain wasn’t strong enough to wait! Rain tried! But every moment…”

Serah stared at the tree on fire, then at John. Tears were falling from her eyes, and every emotion she had suppressed seemed to come to the surface.

“I w– I wish we had more time, John! I don’t know anymore… Please… Please come find me!”

John was in shock. Larang was no longer carrying him through the air, and he was kneeling on the ground. “... What? You’re right there.”

The scene was simply incomprehensible to him. Rain couldn’t have done this, right? She wouldn’t, even if she could, which she couldn’t. His senses were simply malfunctioning.

Only when Serah started shaking him did he regain some of his faculties. He stared at her, waiting for her to explain everything.

But Serah seemed almost as out of it as he was. So many emotions colored her face at once: fear, grief, concern, and love. Probably many more he simply couldn’t see. “John! You will be fine! You will get past this! So, please! Please find me again!”

She embraced him tightly, and then he did the same. His grip slowly increased in strength. “I’ve already found you. You’re right here. And you won’t go anywhere.”

But Serah shook her head, replying with a strained voice. “... Nothing can stop her.”

Hearing her say that, John looked at Rain. She was still covering her face, but her hair started acting strange, like it was gently swirling in water. Then, her antlers began glowing brighter and brighter until they were completely white.

The rumbling of the ground intensified, and even the dim light of the fake sun started reacting, slowly fading away.

John realized something he could have pieced together long ago if his emotions hadn’t blinded him.

“... You’re the tyrant…”

His grip on Serah loosened, letting her plant a gentle kiss on his cheek. He looked at her, understanding that he could not keep her close if Rain wanted to take her away.

She moved away from him, smiling through the tears.

“Goodbye, John. I’ll wait forever if I have to.”

As he watched her walk toward Rain, something clicked in John’s mind. He might never see Serah again if he let her go now.

“Rain, what the hell do you think you’re doing?! This is why you brought us here?! This entire trip was… You were just using me to find her?! Don’t you dare!”

Rain didn’t respond. She turned away from him, and then both girls started floating upward with the burning tree in the background. She hadn’t even spared him a glance, like she didn’t care at all.

The sense of betrayal was overwhelming.

“RAAAAIN!! LOOK AT ME!!” John roared, feeling rage start to consume his rationality. But he saw no use for being rational right now. What he needed was the rage to carry out his plan.

When she still didn’t respond, that was all he needed. A hundred black spheres appeared out of thin air, blocking the space between them. Another three sets of five spheres flying in a pentagonal shape appeard on the sides, with a single sphere in the center of each.

Larang was already in John’s hand, mid-swing, about to hit a gaseous sphere he had created next to him. It rocketed off with the doubled essence and the full force John could muster, hitting another sphere in the wall perfectly center, transferring all the energy, and sending it straight toward Rain.

But that one was just a distraction. Without looking at the result, John made the liquid spheres flying in a circle turn toward the middle and hit the center sphere perfectly in sync—like a black flower.

The combined energy of all the spheres were transferred to the sphere in the middle, sending it forward with more power than the first one. And all three circles did this simultaneously, making it a triple attack.

More than half of his essence was already spent. But this was still just a distraction.

The force of the combined attacks created a shockwave, strong enough to destroy all the empty spheres John had made and revealing the scene again.

Rain was still facing the other way while Serah was floating below her, wrapped in some sort of forcefield. She looked away from them like she didn’t want to see what would happen.

John, on the other hand, was swinging Larang overhead and into the black shield stuck in the dirt in front of him. Everything else had been a smokescreen, allowing him to make this attack.

He didn’t care anymore.

‘I have seen you terrified exactly once, Rain. When I first found this black essence. The essence of death.’

The instant the shield was hit, it teleported right above Rain’s head, heading downward fast.

But before it could touch her, it disintegrated, like it had never existed in the first place.

Rain turned around sharply, making her hair hide parts of her face. But what could be seen was mortifying.

Shock, betrayal, sadness, pain, and confusion, all turned up to ten. Bloodshot eyes that were wide open, a thousand tears that shimmered in the flames, and teeth stained with blood from her lips.

It painted a picture of suffering so vividly that John nearly lost track of his goal—but just nearly.

“WHAT RIGHT DO YOU HAVE TO LOOK SO SAD!?! FUCK Y–!!”

With a single wave of a finger, John stopped completely. Despite all the essence floating through him, he could not move a single muscle. But he was screaming internally.

Rain’s gaze lingered on him before she turned away forcefully. Then she extended a hand to Serah, letting her float up next to her.

Sunlight somehow fell on them both at that moment, causing them all to look up.

The planet was collapsing around them. Entire countries' worth of land was crumbling away from the inverted sphere and spilling out into space, allowing the light from the planet's original sun to shine through.

The planet wouldn’t last much longer.