The world around Richard slowed—no, froze. Not a single breeze stirred the air. His own breath echoed like a void screaming back at him. He stood at the center of a spiraling ring of darkness, each strand representing a death he'd lived, and was now being forced to relive.
A voice—low, grating, unforgiving—spoke in his ear:
"Loop 1749. Time to feel it again."
And he felt it.
A blade seared through his spine, slower than time itself. Not a strike. A carve. As if every vertebrae was being studied, memorized, then shattered. Richard screamed—not because of the pain, but because he remembered. The look on Reio's face when he killed him that loop. Smug. Silent. Void of mercy.
He dropped to his knees, blood pouring from his mouth, eyes twitching with the weight of trauma stacked a thousand times over.
Then it reset.
"Loop 1750."
He was flung into a pool of acid. His skin melted cell by cell. He tried clawing his way out, but every step forward burned his muscles to ash. Floating in agony, he screamed names—Arielle, Elsa, Reio, even Aethonix. But no one came. Just silence.
Reset.
"Loop 1751."
Crucified in the sky. Birds of shadow pecked his eyes out, again, again, again. Every second stretched into years. He couldn't faint. He wasn't allowed to die. The pain was the only thing keeping him conscious.
Reset.
"Loop 1752."
He was locked in a coffin, buried alive. Dirt crushed the box as pressure increased. He tried to punch, but the coffin laughed at his resistance. He suffocated slowly. Not from lack of air—but from his own screams filling the tight box.
Reset.
"Loop 1753."
This one… he didn't die. Not physically. But emotionally?
He watched Arielle die again, again, again. Sometimes Reio killed her. Sometimes Dark. Sometimes Richard himself—possessed, manipulated, broken. Each time, she reached out to him, whispered, "Why didn't you save me…?"
His heart shattered a thousand different ways.
Reset.
"Loop 1754."
He was forced to watch everyone laugh at him. His struggles mocked. His failures glorified. As he sat bloodied, weak, breathing ragged, they clapped. They cheered. They celebrated his pain.
Reset.
"Loop 1755."
He couldn't move. Couldn't speak. Just lie there. Reio stepped forward and said:
"No one cares about you. Even your pain is useless."
The words stung deeper than any weapon.
Reset.
And it didn't stop.
Loop 1760… 1761… 1800… 1900… every single one worse than the last.
His bones learned new ways to snap. His heart learned new ways to shatter. His mind found new ways to break.
And yet…
Through all of it…
One thing stayed the same.
He never begged.
He never asked for help.
He endured.
Until Loop 2000…
His body was unrecognizable. Scars over scars. Pain beyond logic. But when the darkness whispered,
"Beg."
He looked up—bloodied, shaking, furious—and muttered,
"Is that all you got?"
"You wanted me to break. You should've known… I don't."
---
Loop 2001.
His lungs refused to breathe.
The air had become acid. The ground, spikes.
His skin was missing in places, memories stripped from him.
Voices whispered in every direction—Reio, Elsa, Arielle, even the Divine God.
All of them saying the same thing:
"You were born to lose."
But this time...
He didn't scream.
He didn't resist.
He stood still. Eyes empty. A smile, cracking through blood.
"Loop 2002."
A blade tore through his jaw.
He didn't flinch.
He laughed.
A low, broken laugh—like glass being crushed.
The voice hesitated.
"...Loop 2003."
They threw him into a storm of blades.
But he didn't feel it.
Pain became normal.
Death became silence.
The loops had become a melody. A sick, twisted symphony he could now predict.
"Loop 2050… 2100… 2200…"
Richard no longer screamed.
He whispered back.
"More. Give me more."
The system cracked.
The tormentors faltered.
Even the voice began to sound… unsure.
"...Why aren't you breaking?"
Richard's head tilted.
Eyes hollow, glowing faint red.
His body—burnt, snapped, torn—still moved.
Still walked.
Still breathed.
Then something changed.
"Loop 3000."
Instead of pain, he stood in a white room.
Nothingness.
He walked forward. Alone.
For the first time… no whispers.
No torture.
Just a door.
He opened it.
Boom.
A rush of ALL 3000 deaths flooded his brain in a single second. Every scream, every tear, every death. His eyes rolled back. His hands trembled.
Then they steadied.
He stepped through.
And he saw it—
Reio standing over Arielle.
His sword dug into her stomach.
Blood poured like a cursed river.
Arielle reached out weakly, her last breath forming Richard's name.
Time unfroze.
Richard didn't blink.
He didn't scream.
He moved.
In that second, he wasn't a boy.
He wasn't a warrior.
He wasn't even human.
He was the consequence of suffering.
He grabbed Reio's sword mid-strike.
SNAP.
The blade shattered in his hand like dry glass.
Reio turned.
"What the—"
BAM.
Richard's punch hit with the weight of 3000 deaths.
Not just physical… but emotional. Mental.
It shattered space.
Reio coughed blood, stunned.
But Richard wasn't done.
He whispered,
"I died. 3000 times. Felt it all. And now… You feel it."
He touched Reio's chest.
And all the pain, the loops, the nightmares—transferred into him.
Reio screamed.
A scream so brutal, the void itself recoiled.
Richard turned to Arielle, who was fading fast.
He caught her. Held her. For the first time in ages, a tear slipped out.
"I won't let your story end like mine did."
But before he could do anything more—
Boom.
A shadow exploded in front of him. A figure in a cloak.
Red eyes. Voice like thunder.
"You broke the system, Richard Filver. Welcome to the other side."
Everything shattered.