The four combatants fell across the sky.

Chris kept his eyes on Tayte during the flight. The lack of gravity wasn’t enough to pause her insatiable desire for bloodshed.

And bloodshed was precisely what she got. Her now expert-level control of the Kamaitachi’s wind powers helped glide her closer to Domingos and land a gashing slice just below the base of his neck—she was clearly going for the head.

The attack beat the speed of Domingos’ extra flesh armoring. After the blood sprayed out, he kicked Tayte away with a double kick, making the two divert in opposite directions.

Chris and Takato summoned their Relics at the same time and used their abilities to near their targets.

The discharge of lighting Takato released from his Relic had him tilt in Domingos’ direction; they were on their way onto the rails of the helix that looped around Godzilla.

As Chris speed dashed toward Tayte, since she was a prime enemy of ‘keeping anything simple,’ she attacked with a wind slash that he blocked but caused him to flip over and drop his shield. He hit the front teeth of the giant lizard’s massive, plastic maw and gripped the tip of its lower jaw on his way down.

Looking down at the deathly view and seeing his feet dangle in the open air, his heart plunged into his stomach.

He spotted Takato and Domingos resting on top of the rails of the helix in back-breaking positions. And then that crazed laughter arose.

He looked up, trying to shift his focus away from his straining arm muscle, and focused on Tayte as she stared down from the top of the life-sized lizard monster with a smile on her face as she swayed her scythe side to side.

“Tayte! I know you’re not in the mood to listen, and you’re going through some crap right now!” Chris shouted. “But we need to do the plan! Okay! We need—!”

“Okay,” she said.

Chris’s expression went blank, and he dangled silently for a couple of seconds. “What?” he said dispiritedly.

“Let’s do the plan.”

Chris swore a couple of blood vessels in his brain ruptured after hearing what she had just said. “You’re on board? Just like that? Then what was all that crap about? Why did you….” he had to stop himself, or else his arm would’ve broken off by the time he’d be done ranting. All he could do was sigh and summon his Relic yet again.

He got a glimpse of Domingos and Takato at it again, fighting on top of the helix rails. When he looked up, Tayte was already undergoing her part of the plan they discussed back at the Mercury Hotel.

The agent of chaos spun on Godzilla’s head while holding onto the end of her scythe’s pole. In seconds, her body disappeared inside the white winds of a tornado that rose high into the sky, alerting the news helicopter to flee.

Chris let go of Godzilla’s teeth. “Amazi-go!” he commanded, shot upwards, and was pulled in by the tornado’s orbit.

As it grew wider and meaner, Chris kept his eyes closed as he rode the edge of the windstorm, ascending higher and higher while gripping his shield for dear life. “Amazi-go!” He commanded his Relic once again and moved around the destructive vortex at a much more vomit-inducing speed; the water that streamed from the end of his shield’s tail blasted away in every direction.

He could feel the queasy burn of vomit rising in his throat, making it all prickly, and his head panging as if his brain was bouncing off the inner walls of his skull (which was a legit possibility he let himself believe). Unfortunately, there was more to do. He shouted the Relic’s speed dash command repeatedly, reaching even more insane speeds as Tayte didn’t hold back on increasing the intensity of the tornado.

Breathing became a real struggle, and he found himself flexing every muscle in his body as he stared at the back of his eyelids. He saw splashes of color, light and dark flashes, and, not surprisingly, swirling patterns. It was like being inside a human centrifuge.

“Tamasha la Maji!” was the following command he gave his Relic and the plan’s next step.

His body became water. Giant droplets that split in various directions. Turning the windstorm into a rainstorm.

When the special move ended and the rapid motions finally eased up, Chris opened his eyes, noting that it was the fifth time having a freefall since the Trials began.

It was now raining and remnants of the windstorm danced around the night sky, dotting white swirls against the dark blue airspace. He was high up, but Chris didn’t care to look down and estimate by how high. As he fell he felt something eerie.

Peace.

He felt like a piece of paper lost in a rainstorm. Everything around him was hectic, and yet, he was serene and drifted easily.

Troubling thoughts came to visit him, but they didn’t deter him like usual. He let it come and pondered on it with no stress.

When did I become okay with taking away a life? He could rationalize firing a bullet through Ayo’s throat as a noble action all he wanted. However, fundamentally, it was still murder and didn’t affect him as much as it should’ve.

All he wanted was to become a treasure hunter like his uncle. While living such a precarious life, it was necessary to take such measures, he reminded himself. He wondered how many lives his uncle must’ve taken. Did he remember the face of every single person he killed?

Chris couldn’t remember anything about the first person he killed when he started his grave-robbing career. Was it a man? A woman? A child? He had no idea.

He wondered if Death liked him for contributing to sending souls over to him and keeping him at work.

Then he felt the touch of Death on his shoulder. He looked over to his side, and it wore the face of a Japanese-Norwegian girl. Laughing maniacally, soaking wet with her wavy steel-gray, whitening hair blowing upwards in the air.

Chris’s lip quivered as he looked back at Tayte and then came out a chuckle.

They do say laughter is contagious…

Chris learned that fact firsthand. Insane laughter came bursting out of him.

He laughed alongside his companion. There they were, a pair of splintered minds having a blast as they fell towards their death with their heads aimed downward, no parachute, no safety net, and Chris didn’t care, nor did he immediately force his brain to come up with a plan.

Tayte grabbed him by the collar with both hands.

Chris gazed back at her, struck by her beauty and how undeniably attracted he was to her. Her sleepy gray eyes, her voluminous whitening steel gray hair, her sunken cheeks that somehow blended perfectly with all her other mixed race features.

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He seized the moment (a rather odd moment at that) and wrapped his arms behind her waist.

They moved in sync and locked lips.

Even while having difficulty breathing, Chris endured the tightening in his chest and slipped his tongue into her mouth, and she responded. As they stimulated each other’s lips and tongues, they began to spin slowly during their descent.

Tayte’s wet hands caressed his cheeks as his hands explored her lower back. They began laughing again, but then, for just a moment, something about her deranged expression sobered Chris up, and he pushed her away in a panic. She spun away and continued laughing.

Domingos appeared behind her and wrapped his giant hands around her neck, choking her.

“Isithupha!”

Chris looked around and found Takato skydiving while holding up his oversized, supercharged ax over him.

The plan was underway. Back at the Mercury Hotel, Chris explained how they have a perfect mix of Relics that could get past Domingos’ extra layers of skin. If they can get his skin wet, the resistance against Takato’s electricity will weaken, and the wetness will make Domingos’ skin infinitely more conductive.

Chris swam toward Tayte, but she didn’t need help; she broke free of the brute’s grip by stabbing his eyes with her fingers.

Domingos screamed as he put his hands over his eyes. He was wide open. Even if he could cover himself with more fat, it was raining, so he would be increasing the severity of electrocution.

“Now!” Chris shouted over at Takato.

Takato jetted toward Domingos, releasing a reverberating shock wave through the air. The two fell towards the amusement park ground in the form of an electrically-charged comet.

“Kamaitachi!” Tayte pulled the Relic out of her chest and flung it downwards. She glided over to Chris, grabbed him by the arm, and pulled him close. “Hang on!” she said.

As the amusement park lights grew brighter and closer, Chris saw the spinning scythe halt its descent just before it hit the ground. Still, it continued gyrating, blowing gusts of wind right up at them.

The scythe worked as a vertical wind tunnel, slowly easing up the closer they got to the ground.

Chris gave Tayte a look she ignored. She was doing all of this with just her mind. He wondered if the more control she had of her Relic, the more her mental state would deteriorate.

The scythe stopped spinning when they were just inches away from the ground and landed safely.

Tayte was still hyper, twirling and jumping up and down in the rain. “We need to do that again!”

Chris watched her move drunkenly for a while and then a green lightning bolt zipped down from the clouds and struck the ground a couple of feet away.

Tayte ran in its direction.

As Chris caught up to Tayte, they stopped before the crater with the mortal enemies deep in its center.

Domingos was unrecognizable. He was utterly fried. His burnt skin was melting off his bone like wax. His bloodshot eyeballs bulged out of his skull eye sockets. Still, he maintained that big, twisted smile of his.

And as for Takato, maybe it was a cruel form of punishment from the universe, but somehow during his final attack and great crash, his single-bladed ax flipped around in his hand and lodged deep into where shoulder met neck. The impact crushed most of his body and left him to lay on his back, facing the rain while gurgling in his blood.

Their bodies began to crumple like pottery, and soon they became ash swept away by the winds.

Chris realized he had never seen what Domingos’ Relic looked like. He didn’t even know what form it took. How it worked and transformed people into nuppeppos. Or even what he sacrificed. What penalty was he suffering throughout the fight? Indeed, he was a master strategist and a genius in battle. Taking plenty of secrets with him to the grave.

Chris felt respect for brute.

However, he didn’t know what to think about Takato and decided it wasn’t worth it.

Chris spun on his heel and walked away from the crater.

Then came an ambush, he was forced back by a pull on his wrist, and lips were planted onto his.

He pushed Tayte away. “What are you doing?”

“Oh, so now you aren’t into it?” Tayte said as she swayed side to side.

“My head was all spinny and the adrenaline… I don’t know! Ugh! There are two dead guys over there who just died gruesomely—”

“So what do you want to mourn over them? They were both monsters.”

“That’s not the point. It’s just that… seeing death doesn’t exactly put me into the romantic mood, y’know?” Chris sighed, realizing that they were going to have to talk about it and reach a conclusion. He studied Tayte, and his heart told him something.

He chose to ignore it. “I’d say to not take this the wrong way, but there’s no point in that, so I’m just going to say it,” Chris started. “There’s no way I could ever be in a relationship with someone like you.”

Tayte’s loopiness went away, and she reverted to her emotionless demeanor. It was like watching a balloon deflate. “Who said anything about a relationship?” she asked.

“Why did you kiss me then?”

Tayte stayed silent.

Chris scoffed. “The adrenaline, huh?”

“You just said that it was the same for you.”

Chris looked back at the crater. “Why did you do that at the beginning? Telling Takato to give up his Relic and send me flying with that tornado?”

“To confuse Domingos, so we could execute the plan with his guard down. He’d have no idea if we’re even working together, and as you can see, it worked.”

“The plan would’ve worked perfectly fine! You didn’t have to do all that!” Chris shouted. “You didn’t have to add all those unnecessary steps!”

Tayte shrugged, which had Chris flare his nostrils.

“There’s so much more to this than chasing after that next adrenaline rush,” Chris said, “it’s like you’re just looking for a way to die.”

Tayte remained silent as it stopped raining.

“Is your own life really that worthless to you?” Chris asked as he stepped back, almost like she was infected with an incurable, contagious disease.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of if I lose it,” Tayte answered. “Nothing happens.”

Chris’s eyes widened. “Wow, even throughout these trials, you still believe that, but alright, let’s assume that it’s true. How does that not terrify you?”

“‘Nothing’ isn’t scary. If there were something that followed, then sure, but ‘nothing’ will never be scarier than ‘something.’”

Chris shook his head. “No, that’s wrong. A man with nothing to lose is way scarier than a man who has something to lose. Having no path in life is scarier than being on the wrong one. Having no goals, no dreams, no ambition. I can’t think of anything scarier than that. No, Tayte. ‘Nothing’ will always be scarier than ‘something.’ You look at my fear of death as just simply cowardice, but let me tell you something, my fear of death marks my reason to live.

“I don’t want to die and face what comes next because I have a life worth living for, so yeah, I’m happy to be afraid of it! I value my life, and there’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s better than what you’re living like. A life like that is no life at all. It’s not living. It’s just existing. It’s a sad existence.”

Tayte looked away, held her hands before her, and squeezed her wrist.

“Sorry… I didn’t mean to.” Chris said.

Her eyes went back to him, but her expression remained stolid. “Don’t say sorry just because you didn’t like my reaction. You meant it and strongly believe it. No forced apology will change the way you feel.”

“You’re right….” Chris admitted. “I feel bad for you.”

“Me, too.”

“I’ve turned you into a monster… or maybe you always were… or maybe it was just inside you… and I was the moron who let it out.” Chris lowered his head. “Maybe it’s irresponsible of me to just walk away from this mess I made, but I can’t keep watching you get worse. I can’t keep enabling this! I don’t know what else to do but walk away. You have a death wish and I can’t be the one to make it come true.”

“What does that mean?” Tayte asked.

“It means that this is over, Tayte.” Chris slipped his hands into his jacket pockets. “We’re done.”

No reaction from Tayte. As usual. Maybe he was just making excuses to cover up the real reason he wanted to keep his distance from her—he was afraid of becoming as crazy as her.

If he continued with her on this deathly journey, letting his mind warp further by the time they encounter Mayumi and Adisa, it could be revealed that the four have much in common with the fascination of death. All of them may get together in some 4-way relationship, forming a quad.

Chris shook the bizarre thought out of his head. “You can use Ryder for the rest of the trip. You know how to get to the remaining Checkpoints, so… good luck. Maybe I’ll die before I get to the last Checkpoint, so in case we never see each other again… goodbye, and I’m sorry.”

He walked away.