While Gox had never returned, Fiffil and Akki did. They cooked a simple meal and carried it back to the dining Hall, where the survivors ate. Akira had yet to awaken again, but he was stable. The morale of the group was not. 

They wondered what they should do. Should they hunt down the killer, or wait for him to come to them. Vi wasn’t even convinced there was another person out there committing the murders, and still suspected the others. As only Akira has survived any of the attacks, but was unconscious, none of them had answers for what was going on. 

Liza and the spider servant Akki sat on the floor, playing a game of cards to pass the time. Tyrael sat at Akira’s side, tending to his wounds, and making sure he didn’t develop a fever. The three self away pieces sat at the main dining table, Beelzebub on his throne, the two women to his side. 

Try as they might, they couldn’t figure out this Game Board from within its walls. None of them had any memories from the time Beelzebub’s game had closed and this one began. They had all been plucked from a point before then. Even Vi had started on this board as if she was still from the previous Game before Beelzebub became the Master. 

Beelzebub and Vi had regained their proper memories due to how powerful they were, their souls burned too bright to be clouded for long. But Fiffil the goblin had started in this Board with the proper memories and awareness of the situation, but why? 

“I just wanted to walk under the sun, and now I’m stuck in this fucking dreary castle! Take me back to my mud covered cave, please!” exacerbated, Fiffil slammed her face into the oak table with a loud thud. 

A far cry from the adventure she had dreamed about, her life was nothing but confusing disasters. Even in Beelzebub’s game, which vaguely resembled what she had desired, nothing had gone as planned. Manipulated, used as a pawn, she was never free.

She didn’t know how, but she decided right then and there to destroy this game. She would claw her way to freedom, no matter what it took. Even if she became the demon lord themselves, she would free everyone from this twisted world of gods and games. 

The survivors had blocked the doors with the spare tables, preventing them from being opened even if one had the key. It allowed them some peace of mind, but in reality it was a wasted effort. The game would go on, nothing could prevent the slaughter from continuing except the Game Master themself. As if to tell them this, to show how pointless their struggle was, an arc of flame cut through the wooden door, then another. An x shape of flame sliced through the door and barricade, and a strong kick sent the broken wood careening through the banquet hall. 

“Really?! They’re just gonna do a frontal assault?!” Fiffil shouted, falling off her chair and scrambling to draw her rusty shortsword. 

“Fine by me… come at me, you absolute fool~” Vi cackled, her chaotic side showing through once again. Her cursed black flames swirled around her arms like two serpents. “Toy with the memories of my friends will you? I’ll tear your fucking guts out and strangle you with them!”

The hooded swordsman leapt into the room, his flaming blade slicing through the air. The red hot flames cut through the confused and stunned spider-woman Akki, cleaving her in half. The fairy Liza tried to fly away from the attack, but the sword’s flat side smashed her into the ground with a heavy sound. 

“Magic Arrow!” Tyrael, not caught off guard by the sudden attack, launched a spell from her longbow. A green glowing bolt of energy launched with incredible speed at the swordsman. He moved to cut down the arrow, but it swerved unnaturally and curved around his back. The arrow impacted the man’s shoulder, but he didn’t slow down. 

A volley of six more arrows followed, Tyrael rolling out of the way of the man’s wild swing. The arrows struck him, but they were a low damage spell, as the man continued his pursuit. His sword sliced through her bow, then he checked her with a shoulder charge. Tyrael fell against one of the tables, the wind knocked out of her lungs. 

He lunged forward with a stab, Tyrael unable to dodge out of the way in time. The blade would surely claim her life, but her eyes had yet to surrender. Placing her hands together in between them, a burst of lightning struck her assailant directly in the face. He howled in pain and stepped back, the hood over his face falling away as he clutched his burned face with his left hand. 

“T-That mark!” Fiffil exclaimed, seeing the playing card-like symbol carved into the back of his hand.

The man laughed, removing his hand from his face. A lightning bolt shaped scar ran across his skin, blood dripping from the wound, but his face was still recognizable to all present. Standing there, splattered in the blood of their comrades, was Siegfried, the legendary Cobalt Knight.

But wasn’t he the first body to turn up in this sick murder game? It was a confusing sight, giving everyone there some pause. That is, except for Vi. raising one hand, her magic swirled around her violently, and she launched a powerfully destructive magic towards the fight with no regard for Tyrael’s safety. 

“Abyss Inferno: The 9999 Hellfires of Chaos!” Her twisted, insane expression was a mixture of rage and pleasure as a massive blast of pitch black fire engulfed the room before her, swallowing both Siegfried and Tyrael. Tyrael screamed as the flames boiled the flesh from her bones in mere seconds, and then the room was silent. 

Siegfried burst out of the inferno, somehow not killed instantly by the spell. His body was severely burnt, but he refused to die. No matter how injured he became, he stayed standing. He slashed down at Vi, who narrowly avoided the blade’s killing edge. She slammed her palm into his side, a burst of her cursed flames erupting over him.

He slashed horizontally towards her, his blade slicing her pale arm, but in that moment she grabbed the blade with her other hand, knocking it out of his grasp. Fiffil stood on, completely terrified of the fight before her. It was beyond anything she had faced before, he was too monstrous a foe for her to bring down!

But he was about to kill Vi, and as much as she hated to admit it, she didn’t want that to happen! Vi was broken and hardly sane anymore, but she had seen her past, felt it like she lived it. Vi’s tragic life mirrored her own, just a scared, weak girl who wanted to be free and happy.

Siegfried punched Vi in the face, slamming her to the cold stone floor. His fists lashed out again and again, bloodying her pretty and youthful face with each blow. She had used most of her limited power in that first spell, and was now helpless against him. Eventually, she stopped moving, seeming to have fallen unconscious for a moment, and Siegfried turned on Fiffil. 

“The king’s daughter… heh, what a poetic way to end things.” He laughed, not a shred of kindness in his voice. “Come on girl, do you have the same fire your old man did?”

Scared to die, even if she had died before, Fiffil charged at him with a weak shout. She stabbed her shortsword into his chest, but he only laughed, a backhand punch knocking her to the ground. He pulled the blade out, his blood dripping from the edge as he slowly walked towards her.

“This power… the ability to stave off death… My patron gave me such a great gift for this final battle.” He smiled, a sick and twisted smile devoid of empathy. “Well, this game has been fun, but it’s time I ended things.” 

“Incindra!” Fiffil called out in desperation, having once wielded the blade herself. Within this game board Siegfried was the owner of the blade, but she called the name instinctively. The sword spun through the air, clashing with the blade in Siegfried’s hand as he moved to take the goblin’s life. 

Fiffil caught the sword in her reverse grip style, leaping up with a spinning upward move she had once called Roulette Slash. The flame sword bit into its former master’s flesh, tearing through it in a whirlwind of fire and steel. He staggered backwards, still standing despite his lethal damage. 

“Double Down!” As Fiffil fell through the air from the momentum of her attack, she brought the sword down in a heavy slam, the sword cut through his unarmored head and body, cleavign like a guillotine through his flesh. 

The two halves of the swordsman slid apart, falling opposite directions in a horrific splatter of gore. Fiffil panted heavily, dropping the magic sword and falling to her knees. She was covered in the blood and entrails of the man before her, but she was dazed and unaware of that fact, only her adrenaline allowed her to pull off that attack.

“Congratulations, I didn’t expect to see you all brute force your way through this mystery game, but it seems like you pulled it off.” Beelzebub slowly clapped, having not stood up during the entirety of that fight. “Though I’m not sure what the point of this all was.”

And then a silver sword lopped off his head. The blade was translucent, an ethereal ghost blade. 

Standing behind Beelzebub’s throne, Akira slowly walked past the deceased demon lord, a swarm of silver ghost swords behind him.

“Aki...ra?” Fiffil looked up at the man, unable to come up with any other words but his name. He walked over to the unconscious Vi, a sword appearing above her head at his command. “Why? Finding the Game Master was meant to end the killing?!”

“I only told you that as a misdirection, it distracted you three long enough to reach this point.” he replied coldly, staring down at Vi’s still body. Over one hundred swords pierced the unconscious woman’s body, turning her into a human pin cushion.

“W-Why?! Wasn’t Siegfried the killer in this game?!”

“Well, he did most of the killing, yes.” Akira replied, turning to face Fiffil. “That’s what I told him to do, as my pawn.”

“I don’t understand… Why are you doing this?! This sick game was created by you? You even let your own friends die?!” she asked, her voice shaking.

“Gox and Tyrael were my party members, but they were assigned to me, they weren’t my friends.” Akira, whose death in the first game was premature, never learned that they did in fact like him, he only remembered how they tolerated his existence. “They never liked me, so I have no reason to save them, besides… they’re only pieces.” 

“Why..?”

“Because I woke up, back in my world, in the hospital! I survived the accident that made Vi bring me here, but my body was permanently damaged! It would have been better if I had just died, rather than be the crippled kid everybody knew tried to commit suicide!” he screamed, his body shaking violently. “And I had the memories of this game! No matter what I did I could never forget it, everyone thought I was crazy, brain damaged from the accident… but I knew it was real. I spent decades… studying every occult text I could, desperate to find a way back here. But when I finally succeeded… there was nothing there, an empty void!”

Akira walked over to Beelzebub’s throne, throwing the corpse to the floor and taking a seat on the ornate chair. The spectral swords continued to float around him, like an impenetrable barrier. 

“And now, after watching you idiots tear each other apart, my revenge is complete… not!” He laughed sadistically, pointing a finger towards Fiffil. One of his swords shot out, impaling her through the chest. “Within this space, I can toy with you all as much as I want, you’re all just my playthings!”

Again, she was helpless to change anything.