Heavy steps echoed off the stairs as Ryuji slumped his way down. He had taken a little longer than usual to make it. For this reason, Rhea was present at the table, eagerly watching the card game unfold. It was painfully obvious from her expression that she wanted to join in but had no way of asking.

"So you're finally up, huh pardner?" Jessy laid down another card before looking at the man of the hour. "Whoa. What happened to you? You look like hell."

Ryuji slowly pulled out a chair and sat next to Jessy. "I'd say that just about sums it up, actually. I've been through hell."

"Hell? You've been sleeping for the last fourteen hours. What kind of hell could you have experienced?"

Queen laid into him, which wasn't a new feeling. In fact, Ryuji was kind of happy he was getting this treatment. He had just recently killed them all. It might have been an accident, but its weight still bore on his mind. Rhea, across the table from him, looked concerned about the sad smile he wore.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Are ya havin another freakout session, Ryu? What has been going on with you lately? Even I can get worried, ya know."

Rhea softly asked Ryuji. Dot, per her normal self, simply got to the root of the matter with zero tact.

"I have a suggestion."

Ryuji quietly spoke. He waited for confirmation to continue, which Rhea asserted with a nod.

"I say we leave this city straight away and just start our journey. The person we're meeting with hasn't shown up. It's four in the afternoon already. This guy obviously doesn't give a damn about what you want to talk about, so we might as well just get on without him!"

Ryuji's eyes screamed desperation. A shakiness in his voice put his long time teammates on edge. But to Rhea, it was already apparent what was wrong. She had heard a voice like that before and knew it well. After all, it was exactly what she sounded like five years ago.

"Ryuji, I need you to tell me the truth. What has shaken you so? Why do you look like you're on the verge of tears? Please tell me..."

At the sound of her quiet plea, he bit his lip hard enough to draw blood. The expression on his face was enough for anyone to tell just how shattered he was.

"I... don't think-"

"Tell me. Please."

A silence swept the room, and Ryuji buckled under it. His fist slammed on the table, making a few cracks form along the surface of it.

"The sins will attack this city today."

"The sins!?"

Marie responded to the news with a shrill cry. Jessy had much the same reaction. Rhea's soft face remained the same as ever. Even with the news that could spell her demise, she remained unshaken. The same could be said for Dot, who instead laughed at the news.

"The sins! What a stroke of bad luck. Wait, is this your curse, Ryu? Now that would make a lot of sense. Don't worry though we'll just pound em, right guys?"

"Did you mean to say sins plural? You couldn't have, right? That was just a mistake, right?"

Dot paraded Ryuji's fears on full display. Meanwhile, Jessy freaked out. Ryuji firmly responded to her fears as his deaths could affirm the terror they inspire.

"Four of them are here, and in a few hours, the city will burn. If we don't leave, we'll burn along with it!"

"Or we could leave, that works too!"

"How can you be so sure, Hero? You haven't even left your room since last night!"

With Queen's impossible to answer question Ryuji felt silent while the other three continued to talk. Rhea watched in silence while they argued amongst themselves, taking in the situation.

"I believe him."

Rhea's voice for the first time boomed. The other three stopped talking and looked over at the picture of strength sitting across from them.

"If he was lying, he wouldn't be so scared. Ryuji's knees are quite literally buckling. Just one look at him is enough to know that, at the very least, he thinks that what he said is true. So, I will stay here and face them. You all may leave if you wish."

"You can't..."

Ryuji's breathing sounded ragged. His face was even more haggard than before. Tears threatened to fall from his damp eyes. He continued even though he knew there was no way she was going to listen. He knew but still.

"You can't possibly win. There's zero chance. Zero chance! Please just reconsider, will you? I don't want you to... die. I don't want anyone to die."

The dam broke, and his tears dripped onto the table below. Rhea stood from her seat and walked over to the man. His face was buried into his arms as if to hide the sad sight from the girl he respected.

"I do not know what you saw that burdens you, but I will still fight. And I promise you that I will not die."

Her hand reassuringly squeezed his shoulder. Ryuji jerked, but his shoulder stayed firmly in place thanks to the herculean grip.

"Get the hell off of me!"

Her hand only gripped tighter.

"I'm okay with you running away from the fight. After all, it's your life, but are you okay with it!?"

His hands struggled to rip off the monster in front of him. The touch was sickening and only reminded him of something he experienced not too long ago. The others watched in silence at the struggle.

"Are you really okay with giving up before the fights even begun? Are you okay with leaving lives to fate, all so you can secure your own? Are you really okay with being so weak in the mind that you can't handle getting hurt!?"

"I said get the hell off of me!"

"If you want that so bad, then why don't you fight for it? You have the gall to say I can't win. You have the gall to tell me to run away! A mere coward who won't stand and fight has no right to tell me to run for my own safety!"

A punch landed square with her nose. A pop noise echoed throughout the now quiet house. A single line of red drizzled out of her nose, and a fire lit in her eyes. The air felt alive as it shifted with the weight of her mana pushing him down. The look in his eyes wavered as the monster in front of him showed her true strength.

"So you can fight back. But even so, the look in your eyes hasn't changed."

With the same hand that wouldn't release his shoulder, she hoisted him up and tossed him through the wall. After rolling a few feet, his body came to a stop in the side lawn. A fist that could slice the air planted itself elbow deep into the ground next to his face.

"Trust me when I say this. If you give in to fear now, then you will regret this day for the rest of your life."

In the newly formed hole in the wall, two girls slowly eased off their triggers, while the third unclenched her fist. Ryuji, pinned under Rhea, attempted to look at anything but the woman lording over him.

"What would you know about fear? If I had even half the strength you do, I wouldn't be in this mess!"

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Ryuji's eyes bore holes into her. Rhea, on the other hand, looked at Ryuji with a combination of pity and disappointment.

"You're strong, Ryuji. You're diligent and hardworking. Not just anyone can randomly stroll into the adventurers' academy and be a part of the number two group. And even grandmaster swordsman have trouble making one or two unique sword skills. You've created dozens! No Ryuji, you're anything but weak. It's your flimsy mind that renders you useless."

His eyes wavered and were on the verge of tears once again.

"T-That's... easy for you to say."

His words teetered out, and the scorn that was dripping from them a few moments ago was nonexistent. Rhea removed her arm from the ground and released Ryuji from her pin. She turned to face the city with a look of determination. Her hand stroked the skull on the hilt of her blade.

"Of course, it's easy for me to say. It's hard to find your own good points and easy to find your flaws. The brain hopelessly gravitates towards negativity, especially when in regards to one's own self. Tragedy is usually the only way to jolt yourself out of that thinking. Through tragedy, we have epiphanies that change our lives but only when it's already too late. It was only my hope that I could spare you from that fate and spur the epiphany before it was too late for you. I'm sorry."

"You should really apologize to me!"

A voice that Ryuji deeply wanted to forget sounded from the lawn. A man in a black coat with a similar hat walked forward. His hand rested on a sheathed dagger. His green hair matched the eyes he had if you overlooked how bloodshot they were.

"So you came."

Rhea drew her blade and entered the stance he had seen multiple times now. Zelus did much the same with his dagger.

"Of course I did. You were practically begging me to come put you in your place with that massive showing of mana!"

"Are you watching Ryuji? This is how the Sword Saint fights!"

An extreme whirlwind of blade strikes ensued. The lawn began to deteriorate into a barren wasteland from the impacts and scars. To an outsider, it might seem like they were evenly matched, but Ryuji knew the truth. When it looked like he would lose, Envy was going to employ a trick and win.

"Hunt Fenrir!"

"Crash!"

"Crash!"

Skill after skill was deployed against each other. Even though the attacks were massive, neither one showed any sign of slowing down. After almost any skill Rhea would employ, Envy would soon after use the same skill. Ryuji was beginning to make sense of this pattern. In the pit of his stomach, a thing called hope began to blossom. This feeling welled up to the point that he couldn't hold back anymore.

"Get him, Rhea!"

His shout brought a look of disdain upon Envy's face. Then slowly, a smile crept onto his mask. Without breaking eye contact from Ryuji, he uttered a skill. "Margra."

A stock of intense mana pooled into his mouth, and a beam fired.

"Bang!"

A single bullet careened into his cheek and out the other, causing his beam to dissipate. At the hole in the wall, Jessy smirked while holding a smoking revolver.

"Did you forget about us?"

His face that screamed hatred beyond pure malice looked into the eyes of Jessy. But before anything could come out of it, a sword swung towards his head. With grace and agility, Envy dodged the fatal swipe before getting ripped by another shot. A hail of bullets flew his way. Before they reached him, he vanished into thin air and reappeared tens of feet away.

"Photon Razor!"

Waiting for him at the spot was Rhea, with a skill that surpassed sound. With nowhere near enough time to react, Zelus silently let himself be chopped into thirty separate segments. His body fell to the earth while his legendary dagger skitted across the ground. Silence followed as the blood dripped off her sword and onto the scarred earth.

"He's dead?"

Ryuji stood baffled. The man he thought was nigh unstoppable was put down in the matter of a few minutes, and no one was even hurt. Rhea looked back at him with a smug smile that gave off a "guess you were wrong, huh?" vibe.

"One down. Three to go!"

Ryuji smiled through tears. But something seemed off to him. A sound that wasn't there before filled his ears, the sound of pages flittering in the wind. Rhea and the others perked up as someone approached. A woman wearing the most boring clothes imaginable walked through the lawn, stepping over the chunks of a once fearsome monster. Her blonde hair was long and wavy. The right side of her face was covered by it, but her grey left eye was very much still visible as it scrutinized the body before her. Her left hand held a thick black-bound book that looked even bigger than an encyclopedia.

"I was willing to let you have your fun, but you go and die on me in the matter of a few minutes. I told you your twisted personality would get you killed one day."

Her voice was sweet and feminine but had an edge to it that could only be attained through suffering. The tone in which she spoke made it hard to tell whether she was mocking the deceased or genuinely grieving.

"Who are you?"

Ignoring Rhea's question, the woman stared at Ryuji with a look of curiosity. She flung the book she held into the air flipping over before she caught. She continued to redo this routine as if it was some nervous tick or habit.

"I am Alicia Hybris, the prideful sinner. I have come to make sure what unfolds is in alignment with what it needs to be. Just to make sure, I suppose one final look over can't hurt."

Her hand caught the book and flipped it open. A deranged smile formed as her eyes viciously scanned the page at a brisk speed. Her pupils dilated, and the corners of her eyes bled forcefully. Her head suddenly jerked to the side with insane speed. A poked out sword appeared next to her neck. Rhea's near-fatal blow was dodged by a woman not even paying attention. The shock of it all made the hope Ryuji felt earlier feel more like a delusion.

"I see! I see! So it hasn't changed. Well, then time to go to work, I suppose!"

"What do you people want!"

Rhea pulled back her sword and readied it once more. Hybris stood unfazed by the saint's presence. She closed the book once more before putting it away in a satchel that rested on her behind. Her crazed smile persisted and was now directed at the crimson lady in front of her.

"In a word, we want destruction. If you want to go a little deeper than that, you can say that he just wanted a roundabout way of getting back at people. Me? I want revenge. You could call it an obsession of mine. But what do I want in the current moment? You lot dead and that boy to watch!"

Rhea lashed out once more with her sword, this time faster than before. Still, with relative ease, the blonde woman dodged the strike. Her smug sneer made Rhea's blood boil while making Ryuji's freeze.

"How about we make it interesting? You're the Sword Saint, right? You're gifted from birth with near-perfect swordplay and the skills to match. In that case, you must be extremely fast, yes? Then how about this? I'll stand completely still, and I'll let you get off one attack before I counter back. Think you can hit me!?"

Rhea eyed the woman before her. She sensed no lies in that statement. A welling of power that Ryuji had never experienced before unfolded before him. Mana congregated into the blade, and her arms in waves so dense that they became visible to the naked eye. Light expanded across the blade, and the visage of a dragon eating itself became crystal clear. Meanwhile, Hybris watched on with no sign of making a move. Her face becoming more and more sinister by the minute.

"Ouroboros!"

She lunged forward with great enough speed to split the ground. Her sword whizzed through the air fast enough to catch it aflame. Then again, and again, her sword flashed, leaving behind a trail that was quickly overshadowed by a new one. Without stopping and without hesitation, the Reaper made cuts that could render anything it touched destroyed. The onlookers saw none of these actions. For them, all that could be seen was fire and blurring motions that would make one sick. They could also see that even with the onslaught that could rival a god of death, the woman she was striking at had not moved a single step. With speed that made it seem like she was standing still, she maneuvered her way out of every strike without it so much as grazing her and without moving her planted feet.

"You know this is technically one attack I suppose, but haven't you been swinging a little too much? I mean, look at you. You look terrible. This kind of thing can't be good for your health. Oh, I get it. It's a move that never ends, huh. In that case, let me help you out."

With a single hand, she stopped the sword that could catch air aflame and cut through anything. Her bare hand held the edge firmly. Rhea struggled to pull away but found that she couldn't. The mana she used faded away as the skill failed, thanks to Hyrbis's intervention. With her sneer intact, she let go of the blade, causing the still pulling Rhea to fly back a bit.

"Your kidding, right? Your joking... right?" Ryuji watched in horror at the display of pure power from yet another psycho he wished he had never met.

Rhea gained her bearings and moved to launch another assault. "True strike!"

In the blink of an eye, Hybris moved within a few centimeters of Rhea before whispering into her ear.

"I said I would let you have one attack, and then I'd counter. To see your best attack be refuted by a bare hand and then still have the gall to attack again. You are so very-"

Blood flew through the air. The legendary sword clanged off the ground. Without any sound, without any notice, the world's strongest swordsmen became a pile of dismembered parts.

"-PRIDEFUL!"

Her face erupted into ecstasy as she gazed into the pile of mincemeat that used to be Rhea. She leered at the dagger in her hand with affection. The dagger was as regular as the kind you could find in a thrift store. Yet even so in her hands, it had become a weapon of mass destruction. Her good time was interrupted by a stream of bullets. Without any problem, she dodged them all.

"Again, huh?" Ryuji lamented before crawling into a ball on the ground and accepting his fate. It was too late for him to run, and if Rhea had been ended so easily, then they stood no chance.

"Wow, it took you no time at all to give up. You've got like zero pride, my friend!"

When he opened his eyes to the voice, he found a tall blonde woman standing over top of him. He frantically turned to look around and saw what remained of his friends. Each one cut up into unrecognizable remains. With strained red eyes, he looked on as his heart cracked. A small laugh exited his mouth. As he looked on, his laugh grew in volume. The rancorous sound grew and grew until his face hurt from the laughter, but yet he laughed on.

"Gone crazy, huh? Not all that surprising I would say, but hey, I won't kill you, so that's a bonus, right?"

The woman kneeled to face the madman. Her words went in one ear and out the other as his laugh droned on. Hybris's gaze spelled boredom as she slowly stood up and walked off. As she did, she looked back once more at the scene.

"Whatever you do is up to you. My job here is done." Her hand slowly caressed the worn bind of her book. "And with this, I'm one step closer to my dream."

She stepped onto the street and walked away, leaving the clown of fate to his self depreciative spectacle.