As I write these lines, I can tell my  story is almost at an end. We have navigated for almost five days already. Thanks to both Princess and Cutter's efforts, I am fairly certain we will reach Marble City soon. Those I had asked at the coastal village said it would take between either two weeks to a month of travel in calm seas. Cutter traction and Princess constant magical wind have clearly cut short our travel time. I cannot thank them enough. Once we reach Marble City, we might finally be safe, we might finally find a way for all of us to return to our homes. I

I stop as Hound makes a growling sound. The boat is inside a dense fog, stopping our vision at barely a few meters ahead. I sometimes cannot even see Cutter's golden-green head. The massive haxorus gentry swims ahead of the boat, pulling us along. Behind me, I can hear the constant gentle whoosh of Princess constant Fairy Wind. Her control is as always, impeccable. The sail is taunt, but so hard as to risk a tear. The Florges, her grand collar of orange flowers shimmering with Fairy energy is as hard at work as Cutter. 

I return my attention to the growling Hound. The grey mightyena has its red on yellow eyes focused at the front. I look and then see it. In the distance, a flash. I squint, trying to make out anything through the dense white fog. Another flash, then another. They all happen along a line and seem to be going up. What is this? I turn back go down from the bow of our little boat. There I find the las three of my companions. All are pokemons. A bipedal blue jackal with spikes on his hands and torso open an eye upon sensing me approach. He gestures for silence and I wait for a few seconds. The aged lucario, Master, is leading Knight and Paladin in a meditation exercise to help them strengthen their powers. Knight, being a ceruledge, a night blue possessed knight armor with purple flaming eyes and purple blue swords for hands, also uses this to better harness his emotions. Paladin is a young looking gallade, he sits cross-legged next to the other two and a faint aura can be seen emanating from his entire body. His green, blade-like arms are brighter than the rest.

Master looks at his two pupils pleased and gets up. We both make our way back to the bow. I show him the flashes and he frowns at the sight. He closes his eyes and his respiration becomes longer. His eyes snap open and he recoils. A yelp escapes him. This is not a good news. I gulp and before I can try to ask him what he saw, a growl from Cutter gets my attention back to the front of the boat. We abruptly emerge from the fog, and behold Marble City.

Or at least we should have. The sight we are treated to is an apocalyptic one. Upon the horizon is a city of marble encompassing a large island. Its walls that had once been pure white are now grey with ash. The buildings, reminiscent of Greek architecture are all burning and the massive palace has large parts destroyed. It must have looked like a ziggurat once, with six towers high and pointed towers surrounding it, but only four of those remain now. As we watch, one suddenly shatters and crumbles silently. A large shiny layer encompasses the entire island, but some parts are fractured and other shimmer as beams of arcane nature impacts it. I can see large boats in the distance, their crimson sails telling me their allegiances. The crimson church, servants of the dark god Eziakophael. The very one that has dropped me in this hellish world. The same one that made pokemons a reality, just to see them suffer and weakened for his amusement. The reason we wanted to reach Marble City. The city that is now burning.

I am about to lose hope when I see Marble City's answers. For each five beams impacting the city shield, I can see one or two fired back from the walls. Master tells me he can see dozens of lives extinguished within the city walls each seconds. There might still be hope. Then that hope chatters along the city shield. The density of attacking beams thickens, but my eyes are drawn up. And what I see makes me go white. The sky, has turned a disturbing shade of red, and with an echoing bong, cracks starts to appear. Another crashing sound and the cracks widens. Once it rings for the final time, the sky shatters, revealing an endless void beyond a broken sky.

Then a red-black paw pulsing with purple-white energy grabs one side of the crack. Another follows soon and they slowly widen the crack, letting a draconic beast emerge from the void. It unfurl three pairs of wings. Energy courses through each of the bat-like wings. It gathers along the beast neck until it reaches its maw. The black-red dragon looks down and unleashes a beam of pure white light edged with purple. The island vanishes in a flash.

Master is the first to react. He calls out to Cutter and Paladin. Cutter turns around and start to mount the boat, rocking it dangerously. Princess descend from behind the sail and and gape at the sight that had been hidden from her up to this point. Knight also approach at the commotion and stops at the sight. He quickly orders Paladin and the gallade looks unsure, but a look toward where the island once stood steels his resolve. I realize then what I am looking at. A wall of white light. A rapidly approaching wall of white light. Paladin closes his eyes shut and energy starts to gather energy around itself. I can see the sea start to rise, we were far enough to have a few minutes before even the impact reached us, but they are quickly ticking out.

A wall of air almost capsizes the boat, only Cutter's weight allows us to keep afloat. I look at Paladin, almost ready to urgently tell him to hurry up. I know I should not, but it is hard to keep such reflexes in check in such a situation. Paladin opens his eyes and in a blink, we are above a beach. I don't have time to try and understand which one as the boat crashes down along with the water displaced with the large scale teleport. I hear a crack, I feel weightless for a few seconds and then I sand fills my mouth. I cough it out and look around. My vision  is blurry, but I manage to recognize where I am. One of the beach a few kilometers from the coastal village we visited and bought the boat from. Paladin must have tried to teleport us back there. I cough some more sand and right myself up. I almost fall back as the world starts spinning around myself. Shit, bad fall. I slowly check myself, no blood, just the impact then.

Before I can ask if anyone is hurt, I hear a thunderclap and the roar of a dozen voices. No! No. No. NO. NOT NOW!

In front of me, a few dozen meters away, the beach is gone, it is replaced by a portal with red-purple rims opening to a blasted red landscape, with purple peaks far in the background. And dozens of armored figures on the foreground. They immediately start charging, their crimson surcoats billowing in their charges. I scramble to my feet as the boat explodes behind me. Cutter roar out her own battle cry and a beam of orange flames shoots toward the the crimson knights. 

Transparent hexagonal plates appears before the first rank. The blast still penetrates, but the impact is clearly lessened. Instead of most of the first to third rank being reduced to smears on the sand and red floor beyond, only a couple of both first and second rank are hurt. Those only lightly so quickly regain their footing and resume their charges. Cutter knows where her advantages lies and quickly rushes past us. She is the first to reach melee. In seconds, some of the knights start to be broken. Yet only a part of the tide of bodies is stopped. They only have one goal, and that goal is me. Master is the second to rush onward, a blue bone materializing in his paws. Knight follow close by but quickly goes away from Master. His way of fighting often involves large scale destruction. Paladin eagerly accepts a ball of pollen from Princess and quickly get up to join the vanguard, rushing toward Knight's side. They have always worked well together. Her job done, Princess herself is about to go up and start to support her friends, but a large bolt of yellow-purple lighting hits her dead on. Her brun body fall back down. Only her spasms of pain body indicates that she survived the hit.

Hound suddenly takes my hand and tries to usher me toward the forest. They need to get me away. We cannot hold against that many of them. I nod to Hound and we start running. I know my friends, they'll make it out. We will all make it out. One last look back and I see a gentle green light surround Princess' body. She'll soon rejoin the fight. They are strong, and we can make it out.

I fall down. Pain and sheer coldness radiates from my left leg. What happened? I look down, and the sight is more than unpleasant. My left leg is skewered with shards of ice. I can even see the frost slowly eat away my skin. Fuck. My leg is done for. Hound has turned back and whines as he look at my leg.

"You know what to do" I rasps "Tell Princess to add the events missing. We will make it out. One day, we will make it out!"

Sadly, my injury has an unintended consequences. One that makes me scream in denial. Princess may be the main healer, but Paladin as some ways to help with injuries. He senses my pain and tries to extricate himself from the melee he finds himself in. The enemies, sensing his slight lack of focus upon the fight, start pushing harder. He deflects as many blades as he can, but there is always one too many. More and more he takes wounds upon his blade-arms, his torso and legs. He knows Princess will rise soon, but he can sense my pain growing steadily. She might be late. This though makes him slip up one too many time.  A blade finds his way to his neck, and although he manages to escape being beheaded, the blow still opens his throat. He chokes on the wound, surprise and pain making him fall on his knees. A second blow finishes him off and his head silently rolls on the ground.

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Master and Hound join my cry of anguish as Paladin's headless body falls down. A massive explosion of fire clears a part of the battlefield as Knight rushes for his fallen camarade. I feel tears slowly welling on my face. Paladin had been the third to join us. He had always been a joyful being, and, if the situation had been different, would have become a happy peaceful traveler. Each hardships had pushed him to become better and stronger. And yet, here he is now, headless and cold.

Master rushes away. The Lucario is acutely aware that without him, Knight will not be able to hold our attackers alone. The Ceruledge wails at his closest friend’s death, exploding in another Lava Plume, washing away more attackers, yet leaving Paladin’s body and head unblemished. He rushes back toward the melee where Cutter is destroying all that dare stand before her.

Master joins them and I suddenly feel myself getting pulled away from the fight. Hound is trying to drag me away. Princess is finally picking herself up, but I can see the burns on her body. She is in a bad shape, but still starts to float my way. I can feel my consciousness wavering.

A bark, a Snarl and two knights in red fall to the ground behind me. A feeling of heat, then my hair starts to move and more bodies fall to the ground. Hound is fighting. This is bad. I can see Princess desperately trying to reach me. A blurry grey body passes over me and crashes into Princess. Hound fur is singed and flesh is blistering underneath. They got Hound. I am alone. I raise my hand toward them both, making a thumbs up gesture and trying to smile at them. This is not the first time I die, and this will sadly not be the last. A figure looms over me and a sword pierces my heart. I scream, or at least I try but what comes out is a wet gurgle. The world slowly fades until...

It stops. The world has turned to grey. No sound, no movement. Everything is stilled, yet my consiousness seems to keep fading. This is different. I do not remember any of my previous deaths, nor how many times I have died before meeting Hound. But some strange instinct is telling me: this is different.

“Well… Well… Well…” A whisper at first, but slowly, the voice becomes clearer "You are about done.” The voice continues in a mocking tone.

“Alas it will be your last.” Another voice, cold.

What? My last? Why would it be my last?

“We cannot answer this, but we might make it not be” A third voice, this one sounds predatory.

“We propose… a possibility…” The first voice returns

“A contract.” The cold voice continues

“At a price…” The third voice warns.

“A once in a lifetime opportunity” the first voice shouts “Or for you… once in your multiple lifetimes.”

“Take it, and the nightmare might end.” the third voice beckons

“Or it will make your current one barely the tamest of bad dreams.” The cold voice says.

I can do nothing. I cannot talk. Yet I-

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Knight cuts through blades of steel and armor of black iron alike, his purple blue fire blades part bodies before him. He can see Cutter up ahead fighting all that stands in her way. He will protect his benefactor. They will survive this new trial. He senses Master slowly getting closer. Then a figure, larger and with more ornate armor smacks him to the side. He tries to understand where it came from, but it was instant, almost like Paladin teleportation.

The thought of his fallen camarade deepens his already extensive grief further. Otherworldly energies leak from him and consume those closest to him. He tries to go after the ornate knight but Master rushes the newcomer. The other knights let what seems to be their superior take on the blue bipedal jackal.

Master intricately weaves forms of close quarter combat and tries to overwhelm his foe. Hardened Claws, Punches, his bone staff, he strikes again and again, but each time hexagons stop, mitigates or disperse his strength. His foe is also far more skilled than the rabble he had faced to this point. As he tries again and again to go past his foe’s defenses, he starts to take damage himself. A cut on his leg slows him, then a backhand reveals itself strong enough to bruise his paw’s bones. Then he feels his charge die. He cannot stop himself from freezing at the feeling. He felt it more than a dozen times, but it does not get easier.

His foe takes advantage of Master’s stop and cuts one of his arms. The Lucario screams in pain but it quickly shuts down, a second stroke cutting part of his neck. As he falls he sends a single message to all of his disciples and friends still fighting.

RUN!

The word echoes in Knight’s head. But he does not hear it. He is dead. His benefactor is dead again. Flames cover his armor, the sand starts to turn to glass as the temperature rises. Failure. A single word is at the forefront of Knight’s mind. Failure. He let go of his restraint. No more. He lost too much. With an otherworldly cry of both anguish and wrath that freezes all those closest to him, he charges the lines of knights.

RUN!

Cutter hears the words, looks back for a second and sees the weak friend laying on the ground. He sees the fairy weeping as the dark hyena howls in anguish. He died? Again? She curses, we failed again. A sharp pain makes her yelp. What- An ax blade with a red edge falls on the ground. 

The knights around her stop as she slowly brings her small arm to the right side of her face. It’s gone. Her right tusk is gone. she looks back down on the floor, at the fallen ax blade, too large to be from the knights. She slowly reaches for it, but one of the knights manages to move and rushes toward her. He steps on the tusk on his way.

Cutter loses all senses. All she sees is red.

RUN!

Princess always liked to act like a damsel, she would stay further back during fights, peppering any who dared challenge her with long distance attacks. She had rarely been hit, let alone hurt. Yet here she is now, the bouquet of orange flowers surrounding her head is almost completely burnt, her slender white arms and stem-like legs are singed, and she has just taken a fully grown Mightyena to her face. 

When the words echoes in her head, she realizes the situation is far more dire than her dainty predicament. Two of her friends are dead. Her savior is dead. His most faithful has a burnt stomach and might have worse injuries within. One of the- The crazed roar of Cutter makes her correct her thoughts. The two remaining friends that are still healthy have gone mad with anger, grief and anguish. The bluish lights of Dragon pulses are matched by  pillars of fires powerful enough for her to feel their heat.

She goes to gently pick up the wounded mightyena, but he growls and point to the savior's journal. A quick pulse of psychic power brings it to her. She picks up Hound and quickly floats away. Now that the savior is dead, the knight simply harass rather than truly target her. They are also more occupied by the two maddened pokemons still fighting. As she hold the journal close to her, she knows it is no over. The savior will return, as he always has before. She will return to the start, and they will look for a way to escape this hellish world together once more. She does not need Hound to tell her to add what the savior has not written in his journal. This journal is the savior's memories. The memories of his multiple lives. She will make sure it has all that he experience in it.

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Far beyond time and space, in a place filled with blue and gray fog, three figures stand above a body of flesh and metal. Above it, a small cyan flame, flickers. It looks incomplete, almost as if bites had been taken out of it.

Each figures works on different parts.

“Obviously we don’t make it too easy. He will think we are cheating otherwise.” The mocking voice starts, breaking the silence

“It does not mean he will remain weak, brother.” The cold voice answers

“With what you are giving him, I sure hope.” The predatory voice continues

“He will need allies, love ” The cold voice asks, warmth almost seeping in his tone

“He will have them. I am sure. But from me, he will get, I believe, his greatest. That shall be my gift.” The predatory voice answers.

A capsule appears, within which a strange creature starts to grow in a fetal position.

“He will not have any of our power, that is for sure. But he will be able to wield many arcane powers. That shall be my gift.”

Lines of colors slowly layer themselves within the body of flesh and metal.

"He will need knowledge of the world he will face, knowledge that will slowly help him construct himself. That shall be my gift."

Deep blue light fill the missing part of the cyan flame, and once it is full it descend within the body.

“His body is finished. it will give him all the tools he needs to become stronger and able to defend himself from all that should attack him.”

“And within it will be the guide to help him survive and thrive. It shall be…”

“Our…”

“Gift.”

The humanoid body vanishes.

“Now go and win us a bet kiddo!”

A smack is heard, followed by an expletive and laughter