POV: Calvin

My bloody hands shook as I tried to think of something.

"Stop, Calvin. You can't... save me," the woman in my arms said, clearly in pain.

"If I can stop the bleeding, you'll be able to recover with time in the preparation room," I said as I put pressure on the large gash on her waist.

"Stop it. Don't make things worse," she said, taking large pauses between words.

"What's wrong with you? Don't you want to survive?" I asked a little more aggressively than I had meant to.

She took my hand off of the wound, using up all the strength she had left. "Look. You won't be able to save me."

I grimaced after seeing the wound and looked away. "Shit!" I cursed and clenched my teeth.

I then buried my face in my hands, uncaring about the blood being smeared on my face. The pain in my heart and the feeling of tears flowing down my cheeks trumped all the pain coming from the injuries all over my body.

After a few moments that felt like an eternity, I felt a gentle touch.

"Don't cry, Calvin. You're so strong that all we were doing was holding you back. Without us weighing you down, I'm sure you'll get out of this place."

I took her hand into my grasp as I looked into her beautiful, teary eyes. She was trying to be strong, but I knew what she was actually feeling right now. I had seen that look multiple times before.

"I don't care about getting out of this place. I care about you. Without anybody by my side, getting out just means suffering in another place."

"You'll always have me by your side."

"I... I don't want it to be that way," I said, feeling my chest shrink as all the air rushed out with my words.

"I'm sorry. I don't want it to be that way either," she said, looking away from me, like she was ashamed of how she was desperately keeping herself alive in my memories. "Calvin, when you get out, could you make a grave for me?" she asked with a little cough after the sentence that sprayed some blood on my black clothes.

I paused and gathered myself before saying, "Of course."

"Can you make it on a hill under a tree? That's how my mom was buried."

"Yeah, I'll do that."

After hearing my response, she closed her eyes with a smile and whispered under her breath, "I love you."

Then her breathing went from faint to nothing.

A shiver ran down my spine, and my expression twisted as I tested her pulse. After I placed two of my fingers on her neck and pressed lightly where her carotid artery was, I felt nothing.

I then took my fingers off her neck, leaving some bloody fingerprints behind.

I stood up and looked around to see a giant's corpse surrounded by the corpses of my group members. My feet moved out of pure anger as I walked towards the giant's corpse, which was missing a leg and a head. The head was right beside the corpse, and its eyes were still open.

Seeing this, I gritted my teeth and put my hand to the side, after which one of my large black axes appeared in my hand. I then gathered some strength and swung it at the giant's head. The hit split the head into two, but I kept hitting it over and over again before the head was reduced to a bloody mush.

After my brief outburst, I continued walking down the path. My body ached all over, but I didn't mind. I wasn't sure if there were any more guardians ahead, but nevertheless, I moved forward without a plan and without fear.

The number of people I killed and let die continued to grow, and each time it did, I could feel the difference.

My footsteps weighed more, and the constant pressure increased, like all the people I had caused the deaths of were stacked on top of me, watching my every movement.

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I tightened my grip on my axes as I strode through the darkness, eager to see some light up ahead.

I was sick of this place. I had to get out as fast as possible. I had to survive and fulfill my promise. No matter how much suffering I would have to endure and how long it would take, I would get out of the Ruins.

***

It took a while, but eventually some light appeared in my vision. It seemed to be a large door in the distance that had a saturated color that separated it from the darkness.

I walked towards it for a few minutes, and even after I was a couple of hundred meters from it, there were no guardians in sight.

However, it could never be that easy. My exit wasn't going to be granted just like that. Immediately after I started to have hope of an easy exit, two giants entered my vision and stood like immovable objects, determined not to let me through.

I cracked my neck by violently moving my head from side to side before gritting my teeth and raising my axe.

'Fly,' I commanded my axes as I threw them in a crisscross pattern, the axe on my left going to the right and vice versa.

The axes flew straight to the sides at first, but then their trajectories started curving toward the giants.

I began running at them as they focused on the axes. I ran towards the one on the left, who was still occupied with analyzing the axe's trajectory, just like the one on the right. They knew they couldn't just move randomly, since I had shown them that I could change the trajectories. They were fairly intelligent creatures.

However, no axe was meant to hit the one on the left.

The one on the right was able to calculate the trajectory of the axe and ducked right when the axe was so close that the trajectory couldn't be changed to hit him without the power behind the blow disappearing.

Then the giant's head was severed from behind by the other axe I had thrown and hit the ground with a loud thump that caught the other giant's attention.

He was forced to direct his attention to me quickly afterward, as I launched myself at him. The giant tried to catch me as I flew through the air with sharp hand movements. I'm sure he would have succeeded, had his arm not been cut off right when he was about to reach me.

The axe that had severed the other giant's head was lying motionless on the ground, but the one that had been dodged had continued flying through the air and found its way to my hand while I was airborne, cutting the giant's hand off in the process.

There was surprise in the giant's eyes as it panicked just moments before I swung my axe into its skull with full force, splitting his head diagonally in two.

I proceeded to fly past the giant and heard a loud thump sound followed by the much louder sound of the giant collapsing onto the ground after I started to walk towards the door.

I called for my other axe as I walked, and it flew into my open hand. Once I made it to the door, I put both my axes in my left hand and pushed open the door, revealing a large white room.

I looked towards the dinner table, and my eyes went wide. There were two chairs. I thought there might be someone still alive in the darkness and looked back, but realized it was impossible and walked in, leaving the dark ruin behind and all my comrades along with it.

Then I looked around the room to see who I was there with, and after looking to my right, I saw a young man with disheveled black hair.

The young man seemed to notice my presence, wiping some blood off of his cheek before raising his head and gazing at me with his gray eyes that had a glowing red dot in the middle.

At that moment, I was reminded of the man's name and uttered it out loud with an uncertain voice, "Akir?"