The night drew closer, and the sun began to set on the ruins of an ancient temple. Near those ruins, three friends chatted away as they had been doing for the past several hours. In this calming twilight, Ryuji started a new conversation.

"You think we can move out tomorrow, or should we wait an extra day so we don't run into those Freiheit monsters?" He was seriously freaked out by the likelihood of them meeting the cultists and wanted to be as safe as possible.

"I am more than happy to sit around and do absolutely nothing all day tomorrow." Keith yawned while stretching and reminded Ryuji of a house cat he had once.

"Yeah, we know Keith. That's why I was more or less asking the adult among us what she thought."

"Hmmm, well, it couldn't hurt, but we can't stay any later than that. We need to get this job done and turn in our findings."

Ryuji thought he could see the dollar signs in the greedy woman's eyes. "I hear ya, I hear ya. After tomorrow we'll get everything packed up nice and early. I'll get the idiots to hop right on it."

"Speaking of the idiots, where the hell are they? Shouldn't take that long to get some firewood from the forest." Keith's voice had an edge of concern in it as he stared into the forest.

It had been about one hour since the stooges set out on their legendary expedition to bring back some quality tinder. As Keith had pointed out, the group usually took no longer than about thirty minutes to accomplish this chore.

Ryuji shared the same sentiment as Keith and wondered if they had maybe met someone from the cult on their trip into the forest.

"We need to go find them." Ryuji got up and started heading towards the forest.

A fat man known as Moe ran through the brush accompanied by his two brothers. Their faces were blanched. From head to toe, they were covered in cuts.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WA-" As Moe ran, he yelled out a question for their assailant. Before he could finish, a prismatic sword lodged itself into his skull, cutting off the inquiry.

The next moment Moe fell face-first into the ground. Blood sprawled onto the dirt, dyeing it a sickening red hue. His lifeless eyes looked up at Ryuji and struck fear into his heart. The other two stooges ran even faster than before and made it into the center of the camp.

"Thank you for your cooperation in helping me find this hovel." Sarcasm and pretentiousness ebbed from his words. The man exited the brush leading into the forest.

"A cultist! What the hell do you want?" Ryuji knew that he needed to buy time. Unlike the others, he always kept his katana close to him. So at the moment, he was the only one ready for an encounter. He stepped towards the assailant with his hand on the hilt of his sheathed sword.

"I'm no crazed maniac, and a true professional does not leak their client." He assumed a stance and noticed the weapon Ryuji was holding. "Hoh, a swordsman, huh? Then draw that sword and meet your end with some grace, unlike the worm over there." The man obviously egged on the shook Ryuji.

"What's your name?" Venomous spite leaked out from his voice as he prepared to avenge Moe.

"My name? Alician. Now then, Ten folds!" Ten prismatic swords materialized and followed the movements of Alician's sword. He then entered a stance and swung with vigor towards Ryuji.

The main blade was nowhere near close enough to strike him. Ryuji held firm and entered a low stance, ready to receive the launched swords.

"Zone."

Ryuji activated his skill, and by harnessing magical currents that moved through the air, his senses heightened. Think of it as extending a circle around yourself, and as soon as something enters it, you can approximate its speed and velocity.

Using this power, you would think Ryuji could counter the swords being launched. The fact of the matter was that just because you know where somethings coming and how fast doesn't mean that you're fast enough to deal with it.

"Iai draw!"

Ryuji drew upon his blade with lightning speed the second the swords crossed his imaginary circle. He cut through a few of the swords and deflected a couple more, but he wasn't fast enough to stop them all.

The edges gouged through his sides as he tried to evade, and blood began to pour vigorously from his wounds. Keeping his ground, Ryuji stood firm, but on the inside, he was screaming in terror. He knew that as he was now if Alician could up the count, he would be dead.

"Admirable, but it ends h-"

"Otaspora!"

"Damnit!"

From behind, a fireball the size of a watermelon careened through the air and impacted Alician on his side. An explosion of fire rang out, and a scorched black mark appeared on the upper torso of his armor.

"I see you need to learn some manners! Attacking someone out of the blue, how disgraceful."

"I suggest ya leave now."

Keith, along with Curley and Larry, strode up to Elizabeth, who had positioned herself in front of Ryuji. In his hands, Keith had gauntlets made of enchanted iron. Meanwhile, Curley and Larry held pikes at the ready.

"A pro doesn't leave until the job's finished. Thirty folds!"

"Tiger fist!"

A current of power swirled around Keith's left fist as he thrust it forward, sending out a fierce wave that destroyed a majority of the swords. The rest were sent flying in the opposite direction. The moment that Keith relaxed his muscles, Alician lunged forward at high speed and, with a flash, sliced off the left arm of Keith.

"I may rely on the fold, but I'm no slouch when it comes to swordplay either." His sinister tone turned into one of mockery as he looked down on the martial artist.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Keith's cries of pain echoed in the mind of Ryuji. As the others began facing off against the murderer, Ryuji's vision blurred, and his breathing became erratic.

"No...not again." As he stared at the geyser of blood flowing from the stump, his throat tightened. In his head, he couldn't help but think of past parties. It was happening again right in front of him; a place he could call his own was about to be wiped from existence.

"...Not my fault....."

His whispering voice trembled as his vision became even worse. The memory of a man he had once respected now had his intestines hanging out of his stomach. That had been the first person who had died in front of him.

"Not my fault." He gripped his head as if he could stop the memories by holding them back with his hands.

A woman he had once fancied, now with no face and charcoal singed hands. Her last moments were spent protecting him from a demon.

"Not my fault!" Tears streamed down his face, and snot dripped from his nose.

A lost child he had found on his daily outing. He was there one second, and the next, he was a bloodstain on the ground. How was he supposed to know about the giant nearby?

"My....fault." He fell upon the ground on his knees and sat there with a dead look upon his face.

More and more memories made their way to the surface, each more horrible than the last. Until he remembered something that had never happened to him.

A fiery night. People burning and the rest being cut to pieces. His own family being ripped apart and him hiding the whole time. He remembered a girl walking into his hiding space and the demons finding her. Drill-like headaches whirled his vision as the memories hurt his head. The more he remembered, the stronger his pain became. He could bear it no longer. As if to get away from the painful memories, he got up, turned around, and ran.

He ran, and ran, and ran.

He ran from his friends; He ran from his impending death; He ran from bad memories.

But no matter how far he ran, he still heard Keith's cries.

Eventually, he ran into what used to be a road leading into an estate on the ruins. The road was long and well paved with individual stones placed down. On the sides were rain gutters, so the street never flooded. Ryuji, not paying attention to his surroundings, came upon the road from the side and tripped on the rain gutter. His head plummeted face-first into the road, and his thoughts became fuzzy. He got up, but his head remained foggy. All he could think about was the-

--Blood

As blood poured from his grievous wounds, he began to waver and drop to one knee.

Where was he?

--Hot, hot, hot, hot.

Every single cut that sank into his body burned fiercely. His arms ached, and his legs felt much the same. His ears perked up to noises off in the distance. Metallic screeching and the sound of explosions peppered his ears. Then there was the screaming, was he in hell? He tried to ignore it the best he could as he hobbled along the ancient cobbled road. Whoever it was, he thought it was better them than him. But ignoring the cries of damned was easier said than done. And worried him more was the laughter accompanying it. Would they come after him next? He began to hobble faster, blood splattering onto the rocks as he did.

Then like the rain in the eye of a storm, all the noises abruptly stopped. Fear began to well in his chest as he knew whoever made those people scream would come for him next. His body shook, and his teeth chattered. A thud made him realize that he had stumbled over himself. New scratches were added to his collection of wounds. His breath was caught in his throat, and all he could do was continue to hyperventilate. He was so enamored by the trappings of his own mind that he didn't even notice someone had snuck up on him.

"Why did you run away like that, Ryuji!?" A concerned and angry voice came from behind him. Ryuji jumped out of his skin and put his hand on the weapon sheathed at his hip. Silence overtook Ryuji as he genuinely could not recognize this woman who very obviously knew him.

She was a beautiful girl, the kind you would often pass by on the street and decide that you need to turn around and take one extra look before they disappeared. She was slightly shorter than the average person. She wore a blue silk shirt and light blue pants. Her hair, which was tied up in a bun, had a pretty green color. Although it was hard to make out with all the dirt and blood caked into it. In her left hand rested a cheap wand with some engravings that Ryuji couldn't understand.

The concern on her face quickly dissolved, leaving only anger. "Why are you looking at me like that? It's me, Elizabeth, remember?"

'...Familiar.'

An epiphany overcame Ryuji as the memories suddenly flooded back in. This girl, along with some other people, had been adventuring with him recently. How could he have forgotten this simple fact? It bugged the hell out of him. He decided that he may have concussed himself, or maybe it was just the lack of blood flow to his brain.

"Hey, what the hell is going on, Elizabeth? Where is everyone else?"

Elizabeth bit her lip hard enough to draw blood. Tears flowed from her tightly shut eyes, and Ryuji put two and two together.

"No.....those screams....they couldn't have been...….right?"

Elizabeth remained silent for a while. Just as she was about to open her mouth, a sword flung through the air, narrowly missing their heads and embedding itself into the ground behind them.

"So this is where you were hiding, huh? Do you feel no shame in leaving your friends to die like that?"

A cocky voice that made Ryuji's skin crawl emanated from down the path. Elizabeth stood up and gripped her wand, pointing it at the assailant, who was now directly in front.

He was an eccentric man wearing a red cape and gleaming knight armor underneath. His head was exposed so you could see his sneering face and short parted hair. Although his hair was white, he looked to be no older than 20. That being said, Ryuji couldn't be too sure of his actual age, considering how this world worked. In his left hand rested a single bastard sword whose edge had a few droplets of blood still clinging to it.

With her arm outstretched as if she was protecting Ryuji, she spoke. "Ryuji, stand up and fight! Or else we're not making it out of this."

"Admirable indeed, but a little too late. If you were going to run away, you should have done so while you had the chance!" The murderer's eyes were full of amusement as if he was getting off on the misfortune he had laid upon them.

'So Familiar.'

Before Ryuji could lift his tattered body up, the man had readied his sword. It glowed a brilliant prismatic color as layers of mana poured off of it.

"Fifty folds!"

As he shouted his incantation, fifty prismatic swords, much like the one embedded behind, Ryuji appeared around his outstretched sword. With a single swing of his blade, the copies flung forward as if they were arrows, shot from a bow.

"Tarkis!"

Without a second of hesitation, Ryuji pushed his body and leaped away from his partner. A boom sounded behind him kicking up dust and dirt. With horror in his eyes, Ryuji turned around to see. The explosion wiped away most of the blades, but a scant few still made it through, and those swords now found themselves lodged in her gut and lungs. As red stained her blue clothes, she fell backward and began vomiting crimson. Ryuji rushed over to her, prepping his miracle, but a flurry of thirty swords came at him before he could make it. Caught off guard, Ryuji could only defend himself from about ten before the rest sliced apart his body.

New nicks and gashes appeared on his arms, legs, and stomach. They quickly filled with blood, which overflowed and spilled along the ground.

"uji...." A voice that was so soft, he could barely hear it.

Ryuji turned and looked Elizabeth in her glassy eyes. She offered one last bit of knowledge as her life faded from her body. This final sentence marked the moment Ryuji became the sole survivor for the third time. Her words that would weigh on his mind were the last thing he wanted to hear.

"Y..re...go...d.....p....rson."