The Witch looked at her familiar, who had gained an emotionless expression that was similar to hers, save for anger in his eyes, which he couldn’t seem bothered to hide. Fate turned his attention to the creature at his side, a frown spreading across his lips as he basked in its grotesque form, along with the arm that was still logged in his skull.

???: “So…~ Did you enjoy your trip to the past, being forced to listen to their preaching and wishes for a new world while you suffered under her…”

Fate raised one of his arms, pushing his finger into the creature’s exposed golden eye, but being met with a rubbery texture that didn’t seem at all irritated by the sudden contact, much to Fate’s displeasure.

???: “Try it all you want, but it’s not going to change anything!~ I’m practically impervious to…!”

Suddenly, the creature found the Witch’s crystalline staff shoved into its abdomen, creating a circle of raging purple flames around the newly formed hole! The creature’s eye, bulged on one side as it turned to look at the Witch, while Fate’s finger continued to vigorously poke it.

The Witch, with an irritated frown on her face, raised her hand, indicating for the eccentric horror to leave her presence as her staff began to glow with an indigo light, causing a ring of radiant mana to once again begin the construction of her gate spell.

She then turned her gaze back to Fate, a contemplative look coming over her as she bent her neck towards him and stared deeply into his eyes, while her eyes began to glow…

However, after a few moments of silence, while the creature aggressively scratched at the flames and staff in his gut, the Witch frowned, sighing slightly as the glow in her eyes faded and she shook her head.

Witch of Fate: “So he just as it said, it brought you back to that moment, to your demise at the hands of my sister’s followers...those you knew.”

Fate nodded, while his hand lowered to his side and his frown receded…

Several emotions flickered through her eyes as the Witch looked upon him, disgust, anger, and sorrow, with more rising to the surface as he gazed upon her…

Witch of Fate: “Did you gain anything by going back?”

Fate gazed down at the ground as the Witch questioned him, without a hint of the playful tones she had spoken to him in years ago and with which she had written to him, nor did she utilize the cold tones as she had with the creature, but with some genuine curiosity…
...
Fate thought about what he had seen, what the creature had spoken to him as he laid there dying, how the people he had once known had acted like manic beasts as they chased him, the betrayals he suffered, the connections he’d lost…

-My dad, my brothers, my friends...my best friend...

His mind thought of the system that called out to him in the vision, reminding him that he was slowly breaking…

He thought of his experiences in this world...rejected, discarded, abused, nearly made into a target for someone else’s practice…

-What has this all been about...why does any of this matter? Did me coming to this world really...have any...real purpose to it?

What allowed him to suffer so? What cruel fate would subject him time and again to torment, when he had seemingly done nothing wrong? Who had caused these things to happen?

-Some moon goddess...people I knew that became sheep at the drop of a hat...and her...

He thought about the Witch of Fate. He thought about how she had summoned him to fight for her, without providing any incentive beyond revenge and not giving him a choice. How she had left him to the devices of his vicious zealot of a mother, to his isolation, to his fate. How she had merely watched all that time, without doing anything to save him…

-Even if she hates her siblings...the gods, what does she gain by summoning me and making me suffer, enjoyment..?

Fate thought about all that he had learned thus far, thinking about how he could learn the truth...

...
???: “Can I chime in here?~ Also...can you maybe remove this big crystal rod from my chest, I don’t like being penetrated and this thing itches like a b*tch!”

The Witch turned her gaze towards the creature, not batting an eye as she slowly dragged her staff from the creature’s chest, grinding the black residue from the end of it…

Fate still wouldn’t raise his head to look at her, but she could feel his hatred and despair running off of him in waves as the creature in the corner of her vision spawned multiple evil grins that appeared in strange places all across its body.

???: “Thanks for doing exactly what I wanted, now I’m just gonna...BLOW UP THE GATE AGA…!!!~”

The creature stretched its arm at a frightening speed, towards the portal, but was suddenly reunited with the staff, that stabbed through its eye! The creature keeled over, writhing in agony on the floor as copious amounts of black blood began to spew from the hole!

Fate: “Hey…”
Fate spoke quietly, with his head still facing towards the ground, causing the Witch to turn her attention to him, while simultaneously burning away the black blood that clung to her staff with disgust…

Witch of Fate: “Yes, my little familiar...?”

The black clouds above drifted and the darkened waves crashed against the platform’s base at a steady pace as Fate spoke, making it seem as though the world was slowing down…

Fate: “...Did you help her...the moon goddess I mean...?

The world crawled to a halt as the question left Fate's lips...

...