I stepped through the door to find myself in another short hall, with Mai, Saki and Nao all waiting for me.

“Sorry I’m late, girls. I got held up a little.”

“I’d worry more about the blood covering your entire face and outfit than I would about being late, Shin.”

Saki’s response made me look down at myself, noticing that I had bled a lot more than I had thought. My pure black magical girl outfit was now covered in red, as were my hands. Miraculously, my veil was completely clean.

“Yeah… I uh… I had a bit of an ordeal.”

Truth be told, my head was still throbbing a little. Even when holding back, that girl sure knows how to throw a punch. Or twenty.

“No shit. You sure you’re gonna be alright for this?”

“I’ll be fine. I’m pretty beat up, I won’t lie, but it’s nothing Nao won’t be able to fix. Besides, you guys aren’t looking much better yourselves.”

My comrades were all beaten up to various degrees of damage. Nao’s skin was scratched up and red, and her hair made it look like she had dived head-first into a tornado. Mai was bloodied and bruised, her face in particular being many different shades of purple.

Most notably, Saki was covered in new shallow scars, and her right hand had a blade-shaped hole in it. It appeared she had been stabbed through the hand, and Sunao’s healing had only managed to seal the wound, not reattach the skin and tissue, leaving a permanent hole. Compared to her, I felt like I had gotten off pretty lightly.

“I… didn’t mean physically. Your trial… it was Kei, right?”

My words got stuck in my throat at that question. Kagami’s breakdown was very much fresh in my mind, and recalling it directly like that wasn’t fun. Seeing her like that was tough. Even if she had wronged us in the past, I still felt like our friend was in there somewhere.

“Yeah… it was her. Kagami.” I could manage no more than that. By my tone and expression, they likely understood that I wasn’t planning to speak on that matter any more.

We had passed the three trials, and were at the doorstep of our goal, but that didn’t mean the journey here had been a breeze. We had been forced to take lives, fight foes that were strong enough to wipe us out, and face down our own reflections. And after all that, there it was in front of us: the door to the final boss room.

“How are you guys feeling about this?” I asked. “About facing down Baal? From everything we’ve heard, it sounds like we don’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell at beating him in a straight fight.”

“I’m just hoping beyond hope that it doesn’t come to that. He invited us to an audience, it stands to reason that he’s at least willing to hear us out and negotiate, right?” Replied Saki. That was my hope as well, but Mai shook her head solemnly.

“It’s possible, but I think there’s an explanation that’s more likely. He wants to recruit us.”

“Recruit us? What makes you say that?” I asked.

“Think about everything that’s happened so far. Every action the demons have taken up to this point have deliberately lead the four of us, and specifically the four of us with no others, to Baal’s doorstep. Not only that, they’ve actively made the effort to draw out new power from us and test our abilities. If they’re working directly under the orders of Baal Zebul, is it not likely that he set us on this path on purpose so we’d be strong and ready by the time we reached him?”

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I… hadn’t even really considered that possibility. I had been so focused on our objective I hadn’t stopped to think about Baal’s motive in inviting us here. But now that Mai explained her reasoning, I couldn’t help but agree. Laplace seemed genuinely curious about Mai’s power, but both the Director and Descartes made comments about Baal specifically testing if we’re strong enough… strong enough for what? Was he expecting us to fight heaven for him or something?

“W-we can’t know until we try. M-maybe he’s more up to negotiation than we think?” Said Sunao, trying to stay uncharacteristically optimistic in the face of our toughest trial yet. “B-besides, we’ve come this far, right? Th-there’s no point having second thoughts now.”

“Yeah, I’m with Nao on this,” said Saki. “We can’t know his intentions until we talk to him directly. There’s no point dilly dallying out here all day trying to guess, I think we should just go in and deal with the situation as it progresses.”

“Are you suicidal? That’s reckless, even for you, Saki,” I scolded.

“We could at least discuss how we’re gonna approach this before we go in,” added Mai, “since there’s a good chance we’re walking straight into our graves here.”

“You’re not.” I interjected sharply. “You won’t die today.”

“What do you mean ‘you’ won’t? You make it sound like yo-“ Mai’s eyes widened as she understood what I meant. “Shin, you can’t-“

“If my hand is forced, I’ll do it. What other choice do I have?”

“What are you guys talking about? What’s with the ominous conversation?” Asked Saki.

“Shin wants to use 「That Power」, the one he told us about before.”

“What?! Are you insane!?”

“It’s a last resort.”

“It’s lunacy! We don’t even know if it’ll work with just you!”

“If things go south and I don’t use it, we’re all dead. Just trust me to make the right decision. That’s all I ask.”

The other three fell silent, all with a grimace but nothing to say. It was clear they didn’t approve of my decision, but had no logical arguments to fight me with.

After a moment, Mai clasped my hands in hers.

“If you go, I go. We either leave together or we don’t leave at all.”

“Mai, you don’t hav-“

“I want to. I will not spend the rest of my life lamenting your fate. Besides, it’s more likely to work with both of us.”

“But I-“

“No buts. If you want me to trust your judgement, you have to trust mine in return. Together, or not at all. Got it?”

“…I understand.”

Even as a last resort, it was an idea I was not particularly okay with. 「That Power」was cruel, both to victim and user. I wanted as few people involved with it as possible. Which is why the next moment frustrated me even more.

“Nao and I are in too,” said Sakai, with Nao silently affirming with a confident nod at her side. “We got here as a team. We walk out as a team, or we don’t walk out at all. That’s the condition.”

“Guys, seriously, this is my burden to bear. I don’t wa-“

“-n’t to drag us down with you, I know. But you’re not dragging us down. We’re raising each other up. The four of us are bound by fate. Even in death, we won’t part.”

I sighed heavily. I knew as well as anyone in the world that my own stubbornness was second only to Saki’s. And as long as her resolve held firm, as would Sunao’s.

“Th-this is our fight as much as it is yours, Shin. Y-you can’t bear the burden on your own.”

All three of them were looking at me with firm gazes. I knew there was no way any of them would back down.

“Dammit… dammit all… fine. If that’s the way you all want, then we’re in this together, no matter how it ends. Alive or dead, we do not part.”

It was the outcome I was most desperately trying to avoid, but I couldn’t trample on their will. If this was what they decided, I had to honour it, as they would to me.

“If we’re all in agreement, I say we get the show on the road. We have no idea what’s waiting for us on the other side of that door, so there’s not much more planning we can even really do,” said Saki, turning her attention to the gargantuan door ahead of us.

“…fuck’s sake, I think you’re right. I hate going in without a plan, but there’s little we can even plan for.” Mai relented, and I unfortunately had to agree.

“Then everyone’s on the same page?” Saki looked around at us expectantly, to find mostly wary affirmation. None of us disagreed, but none of us were happy about it. “Alright then, Hussars. Let’s go save the planet.”