The sky was turning darker and darker. But not because of the upcoming night, but of the endless slew of fires, birthing up and casting forth a cloud of thick smog. He stood in the center of a destroyed city alone, without a word said or a single move made. Just a soul standing among the many others who had fallen before him from a brutal battle, gazing up and trying to find a singular ray of light to escape the gray clouds edging forward to cover all that was left of the blue sky. He did not know why everything looked so oddly familiar.
The buildings he thought he once knew now turned to rubble and the faces from his nightmares burned to an indistinguishable black. The indomitable rage, sadness, despair, and regret, all of these feelings are so familiar, yet he was unable to explain anything that was happening. His existence and the familiarities he sees to him were all a mystery.
Snapping out of his initial shock, he spoke but few words to his ever-growing nightmare.
"What the hell is this? What's going on?!", he looked at his surroundings.
He muttered to himself, no answer was received. And all but every word and every sentence were accompanied by the ever-growing flow of tears rolling down his eyes. He didn't know where he was and he didn't know all the faces that were driven through the mud, but at the same time, like losing a dear friend and home, an overwhelming sense of dread and sadness filled his heart.
Before he could turn the drops into a stream of tears coming down his eyes, a figure that stood out as the most familiar and most feared of those up until this point rose from the rubble and the ashes. He could not see the face behind the female silhouette, but he most definitely knew one thing and one thing only about her. He hated her to the point that even surpasses his hatred for himself. A mix of feelings, trying to lay the guilt of what was happening around him on her, but being unable to as he felt like it'd be unfair. The female figure pulled up her arm, lance at hand, and pointed it directly at him.
"Welcome back.", she said to him, "I hope you remember it, I hope you remember all of this.", her glare pierced through his soul, "Hmph. What am I saying? You're too selfish to even do so!"
With a thrust of her arm and her body's entire weight behind a single move, she hurdled her lance at him. The impact was enough to turn the boulders and entire parts of the collapsed buildings into dust, with the lance landing right beside him, his will to fight and push was already beginning to get blown away with the ashes as he bore witness to her strength. He quickly turned his rising feelings of fear into actions, grabbing the lance she threw towards him straight back, only for her to be easily able to grab the edge of the lance back, with utmost ease.
"Who are you?! What am I doing here?", he found his last bits of courage to face her.
"Shouldn't it be obvious?", she pinned her lance down, opening her arms wide as if she showcased the hellscape behind her, "I'm the one who's going to kill you and you're here to suffer." she swiftly answered all of his questions back, "All these sacrifices for nothing. All those hopes carried by you for absolutely nothing. That's exactly what you are. You're nothing. And suffering or not, dead or alive, no one would care anymore."
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He gazed at her with fear as she approached him. Long black hair and red eyes. Strong posture and a look on that face of hers that would make even the most powerful, brave warrior crumble, that expression betraying both killing intent and the fact that she had nothing more to lose. Aside from some cloth on her body, she wore partial armor, shattered and broken from battle. She flipped the edge of her lance and once again grabbed it from its handle, before jumping directly at him, pinning him against the ground and stepping on his chest, locking him into position. No longer was she playing with her food. For him at this point, he wished for this all to be over.
"Honestly, I knew this was all you had to give. Even after all those who said you had something so dangerous in you, the amount of effort put into saving your life and turning it for the better...how could you? How could you let everyone down?! Those who broke free of the echo chamber and spoke that harshly were right! You godforsaken failure!"
She spoke in the same aggressive manner against him as he dared not do to her. Their history was unknown to him and known by her. Yet that didn't stop him from gaining a mutual feeling of hatred and loath at her. Be it the constant torture she was constantly abusing him with, the unfairness of suffering without even knowing the reason...he couldn't help but fear her, freezing in her quake every time their eyes met. She was in control and would use that control to ensure that he would never be able to do anything but unjustifiably suffer. He was unable to make a single move again, the mere sight of the monstrous girl above him. The background of the break of dawn behind her had him paralyzed and unable to move, as he slowly grabbed her spear with both hands and raised it above his chest.
"Return to your miserable existence. As with every god, deity, and powerful being, there will always be one stronger. Burn in hell!"
Using all her strength, not giving him another chance to speak, she drove her lance directly through his chest, breaking through the bones and soft flesh until she reached to, and through, the very back, creating cracks in the ground underneath him as she mercilessly increased her force more and more.
A rapidly expanding pool of blood surged from below, his eyes starting to let life go to the skies above, painting the dirt of the cracked, white marble road he rested on. A luxury, as his death meant he wouldn't need to suffer, fear, or hurt anymore, rather than finally put his tormented body to rest as he drifted into a dark slumber. A gruesome scene coming to an end, he could catch a glimpse of how it all went down as he felt lightly ascending to the light above as if he detached both from his body and reality. Was it over? It was. Or rather, it was going to be. All he could do was watch as a mere transient through his mind.
He gasped quickly like he was used to, waking himself up in a quiet, sunlit room, inside a house that looked to be in the middle of what looked like a grassy field. It was over for now, as he wouldn't have to live his nightmares, at least not before he had to eventually close his eyes again. He didn't even react much to the way he was forced to wake up. But why would he? By now, it was nothing but normality in his daily life. His eyes now wide open, he greeted the world as always. Unapproachable, cold, and with the same expression of nihilism he had by now permanently scarred his face with. After all, no matter the pain, reliving something only makes you used to it.