Chapter 3: Tragedy
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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 freaks?" 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, turning 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.

He was an eccentric 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, in this world, looks were not a very good gauge for determining one's age. In his left hand rested a single bastard sword.

"Why are you doing this!" 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 forward towards the man with his hand on the hilt of the sheathed sword.

"A 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. He had also seen that the attack didn't extend his range whatsoever. Ryuji held firm and entered a low stance, ready to receive the blades.

"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 though was that just because you know where somethings coming and how fast doesn't mean that you yourself are 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 swords gouged through his sides as he tried to evade, and blood began to pour vigorously from his wounds.

"Admirable, but it ends h-"

"Otaspora!"

"Goddamnit!"

From behind Ryuji, 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 walked up beside Elizabeth, who had positioned herself in front of the wounded 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 jobs 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, and 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, flashes of past tragedies made their way to the front of his mind.

"...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.

"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.

"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.

"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 burned alive 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. The memories hurt his head. The more he remembered, the stronger his pain became. 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 one of his wounds ached and burned with an intensity beyond imagination. The fact that he was even conscious was a miracle in itself.

Noises could be heard near him. Metallic screeching and the sound of explosions. Accompanied by screams that would make hell seem like a nice place. Orchestrating it all was what sounded like a single man who was the sole proprietor of a terrifying laugh. The screams seemed to change owners, but he could tell that they were all the screams of men.

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. He shook and whimpered; he was so enamored by the trappings of his own mind that he didn't even notice that someone had snuck upon him.

"What are you doing here, Ryuji!?" A concerned voice came from behind him, causing Ryuji to jump 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.

'Familiar.'

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 silky shirt, and her pants were also blue but a lighter variety and they seemed to be a tight fit. Her hair which was tied up in a bun had a pretty green color. Although you wouldn't be able to tell that now as her hair was covered in dirt and what looked like blood. In her left hand rested a simple and cheap wand with some engravings that Ryuji couldn't understand.

The girl quickly turned to anger at the amnesiac in front of her. "Why are you looking at me like that? It's me, Elizabeth remember?"

An epiphany overcame Ryuji as he remembered that 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.

Ryuji attempted to get a bearing on their current situation. "Hey, what the hell is going on, Elizabeth? Where is everyone else?"

Tears began to fill her eyes, and Ryuji put two and two together.

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

Elizabeth remained silent for a while. As she began to open her mouth and speak, a sword was flung through the air, and embedded itself in a pillar behind where they were sitting.

"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.

'So familiar.'

Elizabeth stood up and gripped her wand. She pointed it at the assailant, who was now directly in front of where the two were kneeling.

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 in this world looks were not a very good gauge for determining one's age. In his left hand rested a single bastard sword. The 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 was getting off on the misfortune he had laid upon them.

Before Ryuji could lift his tattered body up The man had readied his sword. It glowed a brilliant prismatic color.

"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 prismatic copies flung forward as if they were arrows shot from a bow. They flew through the air aimed directly at the duo.

'This time it'll be different!' Ryuji used all of his strength to leap away from the impending doom. In his haste, he forgot to worry about Elizabeth who was now looking at him with shocked eyes. She focused back on the blades coming her way.

"Tarkis!"

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 blood. Ryuji rushed over to her and began prepping his healing spell, 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.

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

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