CRASSSH!
My entire body felt numb from how tired I was. I could barely register the pain signals that my body was sending out as I crashed through multiple floors of the magic academy.
I could feel the steel, wood, and other materials from the walls and floor scratching against me and ripping my clothes apart.
My body was filled with the sensation of being pricked hundreds of times over by needles.
Maybe it was because my senses were numb and distorted, but I fell for what felt like forever, the constant stream of items that hit me and tore up my body never seeming to stop.
I could feel faint surges of pain as my arms and legs struck against different objects.
Finally, my descent was stopped as I crashed into the stage of the massive auditorium where the welcome ceremony had been held.
I lay on the ground, breathing heavily. Blood dripped from my body, leaking from the numerous cuts and scratches and onto the dented ground.
From above me, debris constantly fell from the hole that I had fallen through, striking me in the face and all along my body relentlessly.
My entire being felt numb. My arms and legs ached, and I was suffering from a throbbing headache.
I had used too much mana trying to get that domain technique to work, and my brain was currently paying the price.
SMASH!
As I lay down on the ground, unable to move my body, I heard the sound of something crashing down through the ceiling and mashing into the stage a few feet away from me.
A rain of rubble and debris began, pelting me and opening up even more cuts on my body. At some point, the javelin that had pierced through my chest vanished, leaving only a hole the size of a baseball that was leaking blood.
I painfully turned my head to the side to see another crater that had been created in the stage.
Squinting my eyes, I could sense the mana coming from it, and I knew it was Pride.
There was a massive ring of blood that surrounded him.
"AUgh! aahhh. Aahhh." I could hear the sound of him shouting out in pain before silence descended over the empty auditorium.
"Ahhhhh...."
"Arghhhhh....."
The only sound being that of our pained and labored breaths, we both simultaneously attempted to stand on our feet.
Feeling out the ground, I frantically searched for my sword, but I couldn't find it.
As I attempted to drag myself to my feet, the pain in my body worsened significantly.
Suddenly, the numbness that had once consumed me faded, and now my pain receptors were firing on all cylinders.
Every movement that I made didn't just ache; it burned. It hurt so badly that with each movement of a joint, each shift of a muscle, I let out a little squeal of pain, and the tears that had been building up in my eyes threatened to spill.
Finally, I managed to pull myself to my feet, shaky as they were.
I stared across from me at Pride, who was standing hunched over, with blood spilling from the diagonal slash along his torso in gallons.
His once impeccable white suit, flawless skin, and perfectly well-kept white hair were now all dirtied and disheveled. Covered in blood, dirt, and grime.
The White Knight of Pride, who had once stood above anybody and everybody else, had been cut down.
He now stood on the same level as those he once viewed as trash.
His eyes were filled with pain, regret, and disgust.
But most of all, he was angry.
On shaky legs, he took a step forward. His shoes squished and squelched as he stepped through blood and debris.
"You don't understand half of it. You were an intruder who just happened to gain her favor." His voice shook from rage as he spoke, and with every step that he took, it seemed like he would explode.
"You dared to act so conceited."
I watched Pride with wide eyes, pretending to listen to what he said as I charged up another magic sequence. One final sequence to end this battle.
"A lack of respect. A lack of concern. A lack of realization. You don't know the true implications behind your actions; you barely know anything about everything, and yet you still had the guile to act the way you did!"
Pride's voice rose in volume as his steps became more erratic and frantic. He would be on me in only a few more seconds.
"And I had mercy! I showed mercy! You know why? Because she asked me to! She expressed her love for you, and I made it my mission to seek you out! And you spit in the face of all of that! All of it! The sacrifice from all my comrades! Are you going to take responsibility for their deaths!? Are you going to take responsibility for everything that you fucked over?"
However, I couldn't remain silent after what I just heard. "Sacrifice of your comrades? You couldn't give less of a shit."
Pride stopped in his tracks. He stared at me with shock before rearing his head back and beginning to laugh.
Just like before, it was eccentric and crazed.
"They were useless to the very end. Claiming to be worthy of her love and yet dying in such a pathetic manner!" He was smiling, looking up into the sky, as if he was seeing something.
However, the only thing that I saw when I looked up was a hole in the ceiling, in which a sliver of sunlight was peeking through.
The small ray of light shined down on Pride, and Pride stretched his hands out, basking in it.
"But it goes to show that in the end it was always me. I was always the one who was truly deserving of her love and her words. No one else but me!"
Pride's smile suddenly vanished, and he was screaming once again. "I was the one who orchestrated this whole thing! I was the one who trapped the headmaster! I was the one who found and recruited Envy! I was the one who met with Prometheus and formed the alliance between us and the Pythons! It was me who was responsible for the invasion! I was the one who honored her every wish! I was the one responsible for it all! It was me! ME! ME! ME! ME! ME! ME! ME! ME! ME! ME! ME! ME! ME! ME! ME! ME! ME! MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
Spit and blood flew from Pride's mouth as he screamed at the very top of his lungs. I looked at him with a blank expression, and in my mind, the only thing I could think was
"How pitiful."
I said the words aloud, and Pride's expression faltered. It shifted from one of shock to confusion, back to unbridled rage as he finally processed what I just said.
"You... you insolent fuck!" He dashed forward, and I sidestepped out of the way, causing him to nearly take a tumble off of the stage.
He wheeled around insanely quickly as he stared at me in anger.
"You're letting that bitch whisper into your ear, aren't you?"
I stared at him with a confused expression.
Pride laughed. "You're listening to every last word she says, aren't you? Don't let that useless whore shift your mental. Don't let her make you think you're any better than you are!"
In horror, I realized that Pride had to have been talking about ■■■■■. Ho-. No, if what Greed was saying had any meaning whatsoever, then it's that their entire plan was to somehow transfer ■■■■■'s soul into me. But for what reason?
Wiping the shocked look off my face, I said, "What do you know about her?" I asked.
Pride shook his head. "I'm under no obligation to answer your questions!" He lunged at me once more, and I tried to dodge, but I felt my leg give out from under me.
He tackled me, smashing me into the ground with him.
"Ackk!" I exclaimed in pain as I felt metal and sharp debris pierce my back.
Pride leaned in close, baring his teeth at me like some sort of wild animal. "All you need to know is that you shouldn't buy any of ■■■■■'s words. Don't let her words get to you. Don't let her words convince you that you're anything more than a tool. Because that's all you are. A weapon. Something to be used and discarded when everything's over!"
I felt a deep chill throughout my body as Pride hurled those words at me. Pride began to laugh once again. Pinned under him and not having enough strength to break free, I could only watch.
Internally, I could feel my body beginning to collapse.
The hole in my chest was still leaking blood. It ran so deep I could see the beating of my own heart.
"Yes! That's right! I'm the only one that she truly loves. Her care for you is the same as the concern you would have over a useful tool! I'm the only one that she loves! Because I'm the only one who matters! I'm the only one who... I'm the one who did everything. Just like they wanted. I made myself useful! I proved my worth, and she took me on and placed me above all of you useless fucks! No one else can get anything done around here! It's only ME!"
At some point, in the middle of Pride's conceited rambling, he had begun to slow down, as if he was remembering something. His eyes clouded over, and tears began to stream down his face. It was only a brief moment, though, as he returned to his conceited shouts not even a second later.
However, tears were still flowing from his eyes.
The tears flowed down his face before dripping onto mine.
At some point, Pride had grabbed me by the neck. He was strangling me. I didn't have any strength left. My focus had been shattered, so the magic sequence I had been preparing simply misfired, causing lightning to envelop us harmlessly.
My vision was going black around the edges, and I was losing the strength in all my limbs.
My senses began to dull as my body began to become numb.
Above us, the sunlight that had been shining through the hole had shrunk.
I couldn't see it anymore.
"That's right... It's me... The best... Has always been m-…"
I could hear Pride speaking; however, I kept fading in and out of consciousness, so his words were broken up.
In that moment, right before I completely lost consciousness, I felt a wave of heat, along with a bright light.
I blinked, and when my eyes opened once more, the situation had changed completely.
Pride's eyes were wide. His mouth was agape. The strength in his grasp around my neck faded in an instant.
And then I saw the hole in his chest.
Poking through it was the ray of sunlight that now shone down on the hole in my own chest.
I could see Pride's mouth blabbering as he desperately tried to form words. Blood began to drip from the side of his mouth.
After a few moments of silence, he finally managed to get out.
"W-why? I—I don't want to. I don't want to die...."
And then his body fell to the ground, limp, right next to me.
I didn't turn around to look. I was too hurt and too tired.
My body was turning cold. I was dying.
The only part of my body that remained warm was my heart, which the sun was shining down on. The small ray of sunshine poked through the hole in my chest and spread its warmth down to my heart, which was desperately beating, trying to fight against the dying of the rest of my body.
I couldn't feel anything else but the warmth inside my chest slowly fading away.
Everything that I wanted to think in that moment had boiled down to two words.
I'm sorry.
It was an apology that I dedicated to myself, to Kami, to Yuki, to my mom, to Hikaru, and to everyone. One final apology for everything that I had failed to do.
I had spent all my life thinking I didn't deserve to love and thinking that I was just hurting everyone around me. I had spent it wrapped up in the chains of my own mind and my father's words.
And now, when I had finally broken free from it all, I would die.
A thought broke through the fog that had begun to settle in my mind.
I don't want to die.
It was a useless plea, but that didn't change what I felt at all. I didn't want to die right now. I wanted to live.
I had to apologize to Hikaru for breaking my promise.
I still had to see if Kami was okay. I had to check on her. Not for my mission, but because I wanted to. I still needed to get up and go do the things that I said I would with her when we were kids.
I still hadn't achieved my goal of being completely free.
I still had to find the answer to Masayoshi's question.
I still had to see if Yuri was alive and kicking, no matter how much animosity we may have had.
I had to check on Suijin, make sure she hadn't actually overworked herself into the ground after the bet we made.
I still wanted to have fun with Erika. With Nova. With Leo, Aqua, Masayoshi, all of them.
I had so much I wanted to do.
I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die.
Fear gripped me as I felt the rest of my body beginning to turn cold.
And then I saw her, once again.
White hair. Blue eyes. A blue ribbon in her hair.
Her dress billowed even though there was no wind.
She crouched down next to me, looking into my eyes.
"Raiden." Her voice was smooth; it felt like I recognized it from somewhere.
It was her. The Witch of Vainglory had finally made her appearance in front of me.
"Do you want to die?"
She asked the question as her eyes analyzed my body. The blood, the wounds.
Mustering all of the strength that I could, I reached out my hand.
"No."
She grabbed my hand. Her fingers were soft.
"Will you do anything to live?"
"Yes." I replied without hesitation.
"But don't you hate me? Will you really take my hand even if it means you get to live?
She was right. She was the enemy. It was she who was responsible for everything.
However, there was a part of me that was indescribably drawn to her. It wasn't logical. There was just a part of me that wanted to take her hand.
Her voice sounded familiar.
Her presence was comforting.
I couldn't explain it, but it felt like I recognized her. Like I knew her.
"I want to live. I want to keep living. I want to reach freedom...."
The witch smiled. "At all costs?"
"No matter what."
She then leaned down and placed our foreheads together. There was a satisfied expression on her face.
Our lips touched for a brief moment, and then she pulled back.
"The contract has been sealed."
My heart swelled with warmth, and it traveled throughout my entire body.
And then I began to lose consciousness.
"It's all in your hands, Light of the heavens."