Damn it, not again…
As the ominous sounds of collapsing buildings reverberated in the distance, Dauma recoiled from the three Anti-Angel bullets in his body and hurriedly struggled to get a grip on the whole situation.
The initial shock of seeing the man he did not want to meet again had worn off, having now been replaced by the strong and urgent need to protect himself.
“Come on, devil!”
At the same time, his attacker continued to throw taunts and insults at him as he readied his weapon for another shot, this time aimed a little higher towards his head.
“Guh!”
He had to act now. However, the unbelievable pain from the bullets, the ones that he had still not gotten used to despite the fact that he had been shot multiple times already, had begun to eat into his mind and cause his movements to falter.
“BANG!”
“…tsk.”
However, despite his current condition, he managed to desperately create a small sword and hastily swat away the newly fired bullet before it reached his skull.
“Hah… hah…”
Even the motions he was making tired him out greatly as his inhuman body struggled to mend his injuries and protect him with created weapons at the same time.
Breathing heavily, he leaned against a nearby piece of rubble as the small sword quickly disappeared from his hand.
“Is that it?”
“BANG!”
“Guh!”
This time, it was a direct hit.
“…”
As blood gushed out of his head, he let go of his support and stumbled clumsily around like a drunk before falling to the ground.
“Hah… hah…”
He saw red as blood dripped from his forehead into his eyes, and his breathing had gotten more and more labored as even taking a new breath became challenging to him. His mind was a complete mess again as it worked to fix itself.
However, even despite the fact that he had already brought him down to his knees, Masse was not about to let this opportunity go to waste.
“Pathetic. And here I thought this was going to be a real fight.”
The fact that he had snuck up from behind and delivered a devious attack while his opponent was distracted did not seem to bother him in the slightest. In fact, he was instead more annoyed by the fact that his weapon had spent all its ammunition and was now empty.
Still, even an empty gun was good.
Flipping it around and gripping the muzzle tightly, he walked up to Dauma, and without any hesitation, he hit his head with the butt repeatedly, over and over again.
“Is that it? Is that it?”
He repeated his taunts as he continued to pistol-whip him.
“Ghk!”
Dauma choked and coughed up blood from his mouth as he was dealt blow after blow. His brain rattled and shook, his natural healing process being continuously interrupted by them, causing him to recover at a much slower pace.
Move.
Once his hand had gotten tired, Masse had nonchalantly thrown away the pistol and begun resorting to punching him instead, occasionally throwing in a few kicks for good measure.
He tried his best to block the blows, but all he could think to do now was to weakly put his arm in front of him, which was immediately batted away with another strong punch.
Why can’t I move away?
Could he not fight back because he had expended too much energy? Or was it something else? He was not quite sure as he continued to take on the relentless attacks.
However, despite his head jerking all over the place from the multiple impacts, he remained kneeling, never going down at all, a fact which seemed to be annoying Masse quite a fair bit as his attacks slowly became more wild and much stronger.
“Your kind…” he snarled, “your kind will never be forgiven. Not by the people who have been harmed. No matter what you do, you will always be a devil!”
I have to move.
“You’re a walking contradiction. You think you’re a hero when we all know you’re not. You should quit lying to yourself, devil!”
I need to.
“Come on, do something! Quit being such a half-ass and attack! You’re boring me!”
I must.
“… guess we’ll have to do this the hard way then.”
The blows ceased, and Dauma felt bloody fingers wrap around his throat, slowly applying more and more pressure and going tighter and tighter as his breaths became constricted.
“Fight me! Fight me, devil!”
His vision had begun to blur now, and his consciousness was fading away.
“FIGHT ME!!!!!!”
“…”
But he could no longer respond.
“… how disappointing…”
His limbs went limp as his mind faded one last time.
…
……
………….
“What are you doing?”
“You think you can just give up like that?”
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“Wake up.”
“WAKE UP!”
Dauma gasped for air as he opened his eyes again.
The cold atmosphere around him. The white ground he was sitting on. The dense tree line in the background. And the figure standing before him.
There was no mistaking where he was.
“Did I… die?”
His mind immediately jumped to the conclusion, but the figure shook their head and said otherwise.
“Not yet. You can’t die after all, remember?”
That was right.
Even if he was suffocated, beaten, or shot to hell and back, he would still survive, and as he remembered that fact, he soon began to relax.
“What… are you doing?”
“Waiting for him to be done. Once he’s tired, he’ll let go and I can go back.”
“… are you serious right now?”
“Yes.”
He could feel the figure’s horrified and disgusted mood as they angrily spat out their next order.
“You must kill him.”
“No.”
His reply was instantaneous.
“No?”
“I’m not killing anyone.”
“You seemed perfectly fine when you chopped off the gas mask person’s arm.”
“I did not kill him.”
The figure sighed in exasperation. For some reason, perhaps due to his mind’s present condition, they seemed to be more talkative and expressive this time around as far as he could tell.
“Ok, then another question. Why aren’t you going to kill him?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know???”
“Maybe I don’t want to hurt him.”
“… he shot you!”
“Probably for a good reason. I am a devil after all.”
As the figure opened and closed their mouth repeatedly in disbelief, he slowly stood up and shook the snow off his legs.
However, as soon as he did, the ground shook and a twinge of pain entered his skull.
“There. Don’t you see what is happening? He won’t stop, you know.” the figure remarked in exasperation.
“… I know.”
“Then, why aren’t you—"
“I will not, like I said.”
A prolonged silence passed before they scoffed in disgust.
“You’re hopeless. Maybe he was right after all.”
Another small tremor shook the ground, and by the time he recovered from the shock, they had completely disappeared, leaving him alone with his own thoughts once again.
“…I’m not wrong,” he spoke out loud, despite having no one around to hear him anymore.
It did not matter to him at all. As long as he waited, he knew it would all be over soon.
“…no.”
However, despite his nonchalance, a small voice spoke up from the back of his mind. Much to his surprise, it came from himself, even though he was completely sure he had already made his choice.
“No, no, no…”
This was not right. Not right at all.
The thought swirled in his mind even as he tried to dismiss it.
Why though?
Why did it not feel right?
As long as he was alive by the end, it would all be fine, wouldn’t it?
His story wouldn’t end, and he could still continue.
So, what exactly was wrong with his current plan?
Was it the fact that Masse’s actions were going completely unpunished?
No, he couldn’t care less about him at all.
In the end, he would eventually get his due punishment after all.
Then, if his plan of enduring the pain wasn’t wrong, then what was this feeling of disappointment he was experiencing right now?
“If you hesitate, you die.”
For some reason, a quote had popped into his mind, even though he did not know where he had heard it from before. Dwelling on it did not make much sense to him in his current condition either.
“Die? I won’t die.”
That fact was true.
“… even if I hesitate, I won’t die.”
And yet…
Another thought soon come out after that determined admission.
“Wait…”
Even if he wouldn’t be able to die, what about those who would?
“…”
He had begun walking in circles, but he stopped as soon as he realized it.
Those who would?
“…”
Suddenly, the quote that was seemingly useless to him changed. With its new change in place, it now made perfect sense why he had thought of that.
“That’s right…
He had to go back.
“If I hesitate…”
He had to fight.
“… everyone else will die.”
**********************
A strong gust of wind blew past Masse, just barely missing him. Shortly after that, it was followed up by a loud crash behind him.
“Huh?”
Just a few seconds ago, he had held the devil’s throat in his hands. He had absolute power over him.
But now, he felt nothing. He had completely disappeared from his grasp.
All that he held were two bloody stumps.
“Ah…”
His mind began to unravel as he looked at his detached hands lying on the ground in a bloody heap, burnt and useless.
The situation had moved much quicker than he had expected, and as the cold reality of what he had done slowly set in, his body began to shudder.
“Crack.”
He heard the sound of crumbling rocks behind him. Despite fully knowing what he was about to face, he slowly turned around.
“Haaaaaaa…”
He could hear a long and deep exhale as Dauma walked out from the pile of rocks he had crashed into earlier, carrying a brand-new burning sword in his hand.
Behind him, all the rocks were on fire, with the crimson flames illuminating his eyes and casting an ominous backdrop as he slowly approached him, one step at a time.
“Ha… ha… ha…”
The general laughed again, but this time it wasn’t an expression of joy. Rather, it was one of fear.
When he had unleashed the angel-killing weapon, he had felt liberated, free, able to do whatever he pleased with his newfound high.
However, as he watched him get closer and closer, he could only feel cramped and stuck, like a mouse being cornered by a cat.
What had he done? The question that he never thought he would ask resounded in his mind with each new step.
“You wanted me to be a devil,” he heard a distorted, barely human voice echo out of the monstrous being, “wasn’t that what you wanted?”
“… I…”
Despite everything that he was about to face, he noticed something different from what he saw earlier, and regardless of whether it was on purpose or his involuntary response to try and buy some time, he shakily pointed it out.
“Your horns… they’re longer…”
It was a completely trivial observation compared to the hard pain he was about to experience, but for a short moment after he said it, the devil stopped and looked up before quickly shaking it off and continuing his slow walk towards him.
“Ah… ah!”
He was now fully panicking as he turned, his quick movement destabilizing him and making him fall to the ground as he desperately attempted to move his body forward in the absence of his hands.
“Ahhhhhhhh!”
He let out increasingly distressed cries as the rubble below him crumbled under his weight, and he tumbled down a small hill that ended near the hole he had emerged from, slamming his face down into the ground and breaking his nose in the process.
“What do you have to say now?”
With a bloodied face, he could not even speak properly anymore with his teeth involuntarily and violently chattering on their own. All he could do now at this point was to mumble and cry pathetically as he watched his inevitable fate catch up to him at last.
“Answer me!”
As he felt himself getting picked up by a strong clawed hand and thrown back onto the ground with immense force, and as the massive devil towered over him, he used his last words to plead for his life.
“Please… I’m unarmed… don’t kill me…”
“…”
He saw him hesitate again, but it was only for another quick moment once again, and he knew he would not get another as the sword was slowly raised above his head.
“No, no, wai—”
The devil struck.
Once, then twice, then some more.
Again and again.
Over and over and over and over and over and over.
The sword rained strikes down on every organ, every piece, every corner of the body, even after the mind had already died.
Blood sprayed in all directions, with some even splattering all over his own body, but he still did not stop.
He continued stabbing the limp man until he was satisfied.
“Haaaaaaaaaa…”
Once he was done, he let out another deep exhale as he stood up and looked at his handiwork.
All that was left was a charred husk of bones and bits of skin as everything else was burnt up with the sword flames.
“…”
There was no denying the truth of what had happened. There was also no going back from what he did now.
“I…”
He tilted his head up and closed his eyes in an attempt to calm down, but he knew that that was of no use to him.
“If I have to be one…”
The violent and ruthless onslaught of an unarmed man. Even though it had horribly backfired on him, Masse had still achieved what he set out to prove in the first place even after his death.
A being who would be selfish for his own gain. A creature bred purely to deliver cruelty to those who deserved it, even if they would beg for mercy or forgiveness. A truly terrifying beast of violence.
“I will be a devil.”