'This time, I'll find a way! This time I'll keep them safe!'

His head caved in from the pressure of Envy's strike.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

'This time, I'll keep them safe!'

His heart burst to pieces while Rhea's did much the same. Lust stared at them with adoring eyes filled with curiosity.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

'I'll keep them safe!'

Explosions sounded in the distance, but Ryuji couldn't hear them. All he could hear was his breathing slow down as Sloth's hands disintegrated him from the inside.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

'I'll keep them safe.'

A red-haired man watched on as Ryuji drowned in sadness. Next to him, a girl with green eyes and black hair lay unmoving. Her expression was one of surprise and shock. His tears wouldn't stop flowing. He reached for the sword he dropped and swiftly plunged it into his own throat.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

'This time.'

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

'This time...'

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

'Please let this be the last time.'

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

'Why?'

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

'Why!?'

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

'What am I doing wrong!?'

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

'Let me out!'

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

'LET ME O U T!'

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

'What am I supposed to do...'

"Ryuji, where are we going!?"

His head snapped back after being lost in thought. This loop had followed the pattern of him failing, so he pretty much had given up on it. But even in a hopeless situation such as this, he couldn't bring himself to let his friends die. Even if he wanted to restart, he didn't want to be burdened with more unpleasant memories. Jessy clung to his hand, or more like Ryuji had gripped it so firmly that she didn't have a choice but to follow him.

"Ryuji, just where are you planning to go!? They're... they're dead!"

They continued to rush down a street. Ryuji didn't have a solid plan for where to go, but he knew staying there would lead to them all dying. So he ran. He ran in hopes that he'll stumble upon one of their weaknesses, or maybe Ryuji was running so that it could look like he was trying his best. Either way, running was all he was doing.

"Enough, Ryuji!"

Jessy pulled him to a stop in front of a familiar bar. Her cowboy accent had disappeared. He noticed that she tended to do this whenever she spoke frankly or talked from the bottom of her heart.

"We don't have time for this right now, Jessy! We need to go before they catch up!"

He tried to pull her along again, but she remained firm as if she was stuck to the ground itself. Pandemonium erupted around them as people rushed to shelters, but Ryuji could only focus on the grim face in front of him.

"You just don't get it, do you? Fine. I'll make you understand even if you hate me for it."

The voice that usually could only be chipper haunted him. The words shook, and the pain found in them was real. He didn't know what to do about it, so he just pretended to be oblivious.

"W-What do you mean? We need to go now!"

"I'm not going." She looked directly at him, eyes full of rage. "Listen to me well, Ryuji. You killed Rhea. You killed Marie, and you killed Dot."

Her accusatory finger wagged at him. Now it was his turn to be angry. His turn to be shocked. 'She just doesn't understand! She just doesn't get what I've been through to help everyone, to save everyone! She never will. If only she could. If only she could...' His internal monologue raged at the girl in front of him, but his logic kept his anger in check. "What do you mean?" He asked silently with glaring eyes. Almost daring her to prove him wrong.

"What do I mean? If you didn't try to protect Rhea, she wouldn't have had to save you! If you didn't try to take on Envy in Dot's place, then she wouldn't have had to get in the way for you! If you had just chosen to fight instead of run, Marie wouldn't have been hit in the back! Do you get it now!? You trying to protect us killed them!"

Her words hit hard. With every example, her voice raised a pitch, and her crimson face grew shades darker. Each sentence was a dagger forcing its way inside of him. The last one was a shot to his own heart. Deep inside, Ryuji knew, he knew that she was telling the truth. He unclutched his hand. The anger left him, leaving only regret and despair.

"But if I don't protect you, then how can I make sure you survive?"

A gentle hand cupped his cheek. He could feel her warmth, and that warmth comforted him deeply. "I'm much stronger than you think, leagues stronger than you. So at the very least, you would have to get way stronger to protect me." He closed his eyes, and tears fell. Her soft hand wiped a few of them away. "Ryuji, I'm going to pay you back now."

"Pay me back?"

He opened his eyes to see a sad smile that someone might make before you never see them again. "A year ago, I was at my dead end. On that cross, I saw no way out. It was a dark corridor with no exit. When I had given up on making it out of that darkness, you saved me. You risked your life and very nearly died. When I saw you sleeping in that bed, I swore to myself to protect you as long as I could for the deed you had done. The smile I showed to you later when I dedicated that promise was fake and hollow. But slowly and steadily, the smile I wore and the words I spoke stopped being lies!" Now it was her turn to have tears fall. They glittered through the air from the flames. "I had given up on being happy. I had given up on pursuing my dreams. But you, through your kindness and friendship, resurrected the old me that died in that field! So now, now that the whole world has forsaken us and given us a dead-end. I shall give my life so that you can break through. So that you can make it out!"

"But... but I don't want that! I want to continue living with you! I don't want you to die! I don't want you to disappear!"

His voice was breaking through the sobs, but he didn't care. He just wanted it to stop. He didn't want to live a life without her. He wanted them to all be together. He wanted to smile with them all. If Ryuji were okay with them being annihilated, he would have left the city a dozen loops ago.

"I know what I'm doing is selfish, but just like you don't want me to disappear, I don't want you to disappear either, Ryuji. So in the coming moments, if you move from that spot, I won't hesitate to debilitate you."

Ryuji walked a step forward. A bullet rebounded off the ground next to him and flew through the air, grazing his cheek. In front of him, Jessy's wild face stared him down while holding a smoking pistol.

"This situation doesn't make any sense. Two friends pitted against death turning on each other? That's not how a normal person would act, that's for sure."

"You shouldn't try to understand every little thing someone does, Wrathy. It's a wasted effort~."

Walking up the street were two figures. A red-haired man in white robes and a wobbly short girl with lilac hair that needed a brush.

"Where is that bastard at!?"

Ryuji yelled his question. He thought it was unlikely that Envy had given up on the chase. He was afraid that he was waiting in the shadows to end them as scummy as possible.

"Zelus is currently facing off against two young-looking adventurers. One had a scythe while the other seemed to be using his fists. I'm sure he will be here after dispatching them."

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"A scythe and fists? Are Rosey and Jong here?" Jessy seemed confused and then worried about their previous classmate's lives. Ryuji had full knowledge that they were indeed somewhere in the city. Still, he hadn't been able to find them, mostly because they seem to leave the bar before he got there.

"You're worried, but more than that, you're quite angry. Mostly at me, I suppose. I did kill your black haired friend, after all. I can see you getting ready to fire that at me, but if you can't get that anger under control, you'll never be able to hit me."

A grin drenched with malice dominated her small face. "Is that what you think? Heavens Gate." A symbol reminiscent of a vector with a purple background covered her left eye. With the same shit-eating grin, she fired a shot from her pistol, aiming it at the nearby building instead of her enemy.

"I cannot understand your decision t-" A bullet ripped through spacetime and lodged itself snugly into Furor's left eye. If it wasn't for the massive amount of mana protruding from his body, his entire head would have flown off. "I see."

Wasting no time, Wrath rushed towards Jessy, who cocked back her revolver. With her other hand, she aimed her automatic pistol.

"Rapido."

A hail of bullets erupted forth at astonishing speed. Enough shots were fired that even Ryuji with zone would have been caught by most of them. Wrath on the hand easily dodged and punched away any bullet that threatened to pierce him. He closed the distance in a matter of seconds. Then his uppercut smashed against her skull. With high velocity, she shot to the top of a nearby building before rebounding off the railing.

Wrath followed closely behind, leaping up the exterior of the building to meet her. She fired despite still being groggy. Again he managed to dodge or counter any bullets that flew his way. His fist cocked back, and with a wide swing, he went for a hook. The moment before it hit, she fired a blast to her right. The force of it brought her out of his range.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Shots comparable to a tank's cannon careened through spacetime before arriving at Wrath. Never slowing down, Wrath closed the distance while narrowly dodging. Shots barely missed and instead pierced the building. A creaking noise echoed as the building's supports fell. Still going, Wrath's punch reverberated the entire space around him.

"El Rathor."

His attack collided with her stomach as Jessy fell through the air. While gagging, she aimed one last time.

"Rapido."

Not a single bullet left the gun. Her body bounced off the ground, and Wrath landed in front of her.

"This is your end."

A malicious grin that could match a murderer's darkened Jessy's face. "Then this is going to be quite the surprise!"

A squadron's worth of bullets surrounded Wrath. He had nowhere to go as they started to regain their momentum. Yet, he seemed unfazed. "A normal person would lash out in the hopes that they could at least take out their killer." A massive amount of mana gathered in the short moments before her bullets reached. "Al Rathor." The bullets pierced his whole body, causing wells of blood to spring forth. His arm followed through. The entire block in front of him gained a new horizontal line.

"FUUUUCK!" Jessy clutched her left arm. The hand that used to be attached was now lying on the ground a few feet away. With her revolver, she fired a shot directly above her stump. The resulting bright light cauterized her arm.

Ryuji looked on across the street with a mixture of awe and terror. Seeing his friend overcome the enemy was inspiring but seeing her get hurt was also painful to watch. His eyes widened as he noticed that the lilac girl standing near him had disappeared. "Jessy!"

Without turning, Jessy fired a shot behind, evaporating a near translucent hand. "You sneaky fucker." She slowly rose to her feet. Her legs shook from the impacts she experienced, but the adrenaline was carrying her through.

"I was just trying to end it quickly~. But if we really must fight, then can I ask you one thing?"

"Fuck off."

Her hopeful smile caused Jessy to cringe. "I want you to kill me, please~."

"That I can do, you damn psychopath. Bang!" A bullet once again disappeared behind the fabric of reality before ending up next to its target. The girl standing still, however, didn't move to block it. Instead, a hand came seemingly out of nowhere to take the shot for her.

"These tricks are nice and all, but once you see something once, it doesn't really qualify as a trick anymore, does it?"

Jessy fired faster attempting to compensate for the loss of her hand, but the number of shots was noticeably smaller than before. Each bullet harmlessly sunk into the hands that now surrounded Sloth in a protective cocoon. From behind this wall, she snapped her fingers. Lightning arced off them in the direction of Jessy. The potency of the lightning was definitely rated above what a mere archwizard could pull off.

In response, Jessy pulled the trigger rapidly. The bullets, instead of flying forward, expanded their light and energy outward. The resulting shield blocked the lightning from reaching her.

"Let us go together!" As if she had been copied and pasted into existence, Sloth appeared in front of Jessy. Her hand reached out, and the faint trace of her authority could be seen extending from it.

"Equip." The revolver in her hand was replaced by a sawed-off shotgun that usually rested in her back holster. "Rapido!"

Sloth's eyes were wide open with surprise before settling into pleasure. Without a trace, she teleported away. Blinding light followed. Jessy's shotgun burst into pieces, and the destructive light show spread in every direction.

Sloth appeared in the air, then in front of Jessy, then behind her. Everywhere she went, she was in danger of being obliterated. Through it all, she noticed a tactical spot. With her teleportation, she went to the space in front of Jessy once more. A beam of light shaved off a good portion of her right side.

She rushed down Jessy without hesitation. A revolver appeared in Jessy's hands, and she pulled the trigger. Sloth immediately teleported a few feet to the side while still running. A bullet never left the chamber, but with the distance between Sloth and Jessy closing, there was no time for it to kill Sloth before she could Kill Jessy.

Sloth looked up into Jessy's eyes to see the final moments of the one who would kill her, only to see a smile. An unnatural light emanated from Jessy's left eye. Sloths head split open as a bullet traveled straight through it. The hand that threatened to tear apart anything went limp. Jessy dodged to the side to avoid the corpse that now fell towards the ground.

"Freak..." Jessy stumbled forward with a curtain of blood flowing from her left eye.

"Jessy!" Ryuji snapped out of his trance and ran across the street to his friend. He had already used his heal, but he still knew basic first aid.

"Stop!" Jessy showed him a face of fury, causing him to stop dead in his tracks. "The last one is coming. You can't be near me, or else you'll get hurt, understand!?" Ryuji nodded slowly, but Jessy was already looking forward. "Equip." The rifle she always lugged around appeared in her one hand. With great effort, she managed to pull the bolt back and prepare the gun.

"Is that for me?"

Zelus walked into view with red-stained black clothes. Both Jessy and Ryuji could guess that the blood did not belong to him. His smugness emanated even more potent as he looked upon the barley standing gunslinger. One-handed and one-eyed, she had lost half of what made her a gunslinger in the first place.

"I do feel bad for what I'm about to do, but I have to. You understand, right? You humiliated me, and just between us, I'm a little mad about it."

Zelus walked forward with his sacred dagger drawn. Jessy's rage was palpable as she struggled to keep the heavy rifle up with one arm. "Oh, final shot. Oh, light that clears the darkness. Oh, great power that resides within me, converge. Converge into one space! Gather! Gather! Gather! Compres and become the ultimate smiter."

"Is that like a prayer? I assure you those won't work on me in the slightest. Although it does feel rather rewarding for someone you're about to kill to offer themselves up to a higher power. Oh, I can see the future! I see you wallowing in despair as your god fails to do anything!"

Jessy never stopped enchanting. A light that illuminated the night gathered around her barrel. "Gun magic number sixty-six! Kaliber!" Her gun shattered. The force caused Ryuji to lay flat on his back. Jessy got the brunt of it. Her broken body was stuck impacted into a nearby wall. Her chest caved in, and her remaining good arm was shattered.

"Impressive and everything, but you do realize that if you're going to put everything you have into an attack, you should probably make it faster than a snail." Approaching Zelus at a comfortable speed was a black mass. Its shape was constantly contorting in different directions, but for the most part, it was spherical.

Ryuji stood back up and prepared his sword. "...Don't." A pained and forced whisper came from the girl across the street. "You'll get hurt."

"Hurt? By this thing, you mean?" Zelus mockingly walked out of the way. The sphere noticeably changed course while speeding up. "Huh?" Zelus once again walked out of the way. Once again, the ball followed him, gaining more speed. "Port." His body disappeared before reappearing on a nearby roof.

"That won't work. Kaliber will follow you to your grave."

The ball snuck up behind him. He teleported again. Then again and again and again. No matter where he went. No matter how far he was. The ball was always there to meet him. All the while, Jessy stared at the scene with a devil's amount of malice. Ryuji looked on with skepticism. He didn't want to become hopeful and then have it be stolen away from him like so many times before.

"This thing! Why won't it leave me be!?" The look Zelus wore while running was much like a frightened child's. The ball slowly but surely was catching it up. It had gained quite a bit of speed since first being fired, and Zelus could run no more. Turning around on the street, he flashed his dagger. "Sky Piercer!" A vertical cut that was said to be able to part clouds flew off his blade. But in the face of the sphere, all it did was vanish. "But how?"

"Kaliber is a spell that takes minutes of prep and all of my mana. It then compresses it down into a ball of antimagic that follows the mana trail of its target. Slowly but surely, it catches up, and when the target makes contact or stops completely, it fires. Since it's made out of antimagic, no attack you could do would ever stop it." The ball erupted into a bright light. "NOW TURN TO DUST!"

A sight that was so bright even wearing eight layers of protective goggles would make you go blind exploded in front of them. In a matter of milliseconds, the one known as Envy turned to soot. Zelus wasn't the only causality. The other half of the city lay bare. If Ryuji had to describe it, he would use the word atomic disaster. No building remained. The ground was cracked and filled with molten rock. Steam rose into the air, making the clear night sky look overcast.

For a few seconds, Ryuji stared at the destruction. His hearing was long gone. He heard no ringing in his ears, only complete silence. He got up and walked over to the woman who was still impacted into the wall. "You did it... Jessy. I'll get over there and make it all better, I promise." His hearing slowly came back, and disturbingly enough, he heard screams and cries echoing throughout the city.

"Makes sense that last blast probably killed quite a few innocent people." Ryuji shook his head and ignored the dark implications. "Jessy, I'm going to move you, okay? ...Jessy?"

The figure in the wall wasn't moving. Her chest wasn't rising, and her eye was closed. He put his head to her chest and heard... nothing. Slowly Ryuji sat on the ground in front of his friend and drew his blade. It wasn't the first time he had done this and probably wasn't going to be his last.

"I'll see you soon."

The blade dangled in front of his throat but for some reason.

"I can't do it?"

No matter how much he struggled, he couldn't end his own life. Something was holding him back. It was as if by ending his life, he would trample over the feelings that Jessy had just displayed. By ending it, everything she had just done would be deemed pointless.

"I can help you."

Ryuji turned to see a familiar-looking pink cat. Her face was much more solemn and wholesome than the other times he had seen her. The tone in which she spoke made him think that she was being truthful for the first time.

"Help me how?"

He was quiet and childlike in his question as if he truly had no idea how Nynajo could get him out of this situation.

"I can understand what you're going through. I feel the complex emotions stirring inside of you. You want to die now that your friends are gone, but you feel that in doing so you will have betrayed your friend's final moments. I can send you to the next life."

Her kindness was overwhelming to Ryuji. For him, all she had ever been was superficial and nasty. So seeing her like this all of a sudden was creepy and disturbing for him. But even so, he wanted the way out she presented.

"I would like that very much, please."

She leaned down and put her forehead to his. "I pray that in your next life, you will find happiness."

"I promise next time I'll save them all!"

A fist emblazoned by the emotion of pity pierced his heart. The cries around him slowed down and faded. His vision disappeared, and his life ended. Yet the promise he made burned itself into his heart, and for the first time, Ryuji felt like he knew what he had to do.