Several Days Ago · Kivotos Slums
"Over there! Chase them!" a voice shouted in the darkness.
Footsteps pounded, bullets whizzed past, striking nearby walls. Arius Squad, faces etched with panic, ran desperately.
"Leader, it's a dead end. We're being herded," Misaki warned.
"What?" Saori gasped.
"We were set up from the start," Hiyori said.
"It's over…" Atsuko whispered.
"Surrounded," Misaki added, noting enemies on all sides.
Walls at their backs, Arius students aimed from buildings, and the pursuing squad faced them. Outnumbered, the squad raised their guns, a futile gesture.
"Game over," Saori said.
"Ugh…" Hiyori whimpered.
"There's still a way," Saori declared.
"Leader, you mean… the Halo-Destroyer Bomb?" Misaki asked.
"It's time to use it," Saori confirmed.
Issued before the Eden Treaty, the Halo-Destroyer Bomb could kill Kivotos students—a trump card unused due to Mash's interference.
"I'll buy time. Misaki, Hiyori, get Atsuko out," Saori ordered.
"Saori…" Misaki hesitated.
Saori planned to self-destruct, taking out the Arius pursuers. The enemy, aware, kept their distance, creating a stalemate. Saori steeled herself to give the order to flee, but—
"She wants me, right?" Atsuko said.
"Yes," a voice confirmed.
"Atsuko-chan?" Hiyori gasped.
"I'll go to her. Let the others go," Atsuko said.
"Atsuko!?" Saori shouted, grabbing her arm.
"We can't escape anymore. This is the end," Atsuko said firmly.
"Atsuko!" Saori pleaded.
"Trinity, Gehenna, even Arius—they'll hunt us. There's no safe place in Kivotos. We'd hide forever, running until we die. I've drifted through life. At least let me choose my end," Atsuko said, her soft smile breaking Saori's heart.
That smile—Saori loved it. Despite any hardship, as long as Atsuko, her family, smiled, it was enough. Yet now…
"It's because you're weak, Saori," Beatrice's voice echoed.
"!" Saori flinched.
"Madam…" she muttered.
"Well done, Atsuko. I promise—if you return, I'll overlook your betrayal, in my name, Beatrice," the voice swore.
"Okay, a promise," Atsuko replied, relaxing.
Saori was paralyzed, unable to act as Beatrice's voice continued. "You can't move, can you? No will to resist. That's your limit, Saori."
"Madam…" Saori whispered.
"You should've relied on that man," Beatrice taunted.
"That's…" Saori faltered.
"Oh, you couldn't, after what you said," Beatrice sneered.
Arius Squad hadn't turned to Mash. Atsuko suggested it, but guilt held them back.
"Trying to kill Sensei… what a sinful act," Beatrice mocked.
"You ordered it! How dare you!" Misaki snapped.
"Misaki, since when could you speak to me like that? This plan was mercy, freeing him from a hollow life. How tragic he is," Beatrice said.
"Mercy? What do you know about Sensei!?" Misaki demanded.
"Everything—his world, his birth, the treatment he endured," Beatrice replied.
"His treatment…?" Saori echoed.
"Hehe," Beatrice laughed darkly, revealing Mash's curse—his fated existence.
"Mash Burnedead… in his world, everyone seeks his life."
"What?" Misaki gasped.
"Huh?" Hiyori stammered.
"What does that mean…?" Saori asked.
"He's not allowed to live," Beatrice clarified.
"Lies! That kind-hearted man who saved Azusa—why!?" Misaki shouted.
"His existence is a sin, a heretic marked for death," Beatrice said gleefully.
Arius Squad initially rejected the truth. Mash, so loved in Kivotos, couldn't be so despised. But they recalled his pained face from their words.
"Loved? Only in Kivotos. In his magic world, he's hunted, along with his family, if exposed," Beatrice said.
"If that's true…" Misaki faltered.
"Unlike your sheltered Kivotos, Mash lived in a merciless, frozen world, risking his only family. Yet what did you say to him?" Beatrice pressed.
Misaki and Saori froze, recalling their words:
"You, who knows no pain, can't save us."
"Loved by parents, raised in comfort, surrounded by affection—you can't understand us!"
"That's… not what I meant… I didn't know!" Misaki cried.
"You said it, Misaki—'makes my skin crawl, knowing nothing, bearing no burdens, feeling no pain.' But him? Hunted, chained, oppressed," Beatrice taunted.
"No… I didn't know…" Misaki sobbed, collapsing, clutching her head.
"Stop, Madam!" Hiyori pleaded.
"I said I'd overlook betrayal, not your treatment of Sensei," Beatrice said.
Saori, covering her ears, begged for mercy, but Beatrice's voice pierced her mind, forcing her to face her sins.
"You tried to kill him here too," Beatrice said.
Saori's mind flashed with her cruel words: "You, a blessed human, wouldn't understand!"
A man not blessed, raised in squalor, without parents or proper meals, in darkness's depths. His adoptive father was a rare stroke of luck; others would've abandoned him.
"You said we, who shouldn't exist, can't be understood by you!"
To a man unwanted by his world, Saori hurled those words, trying to take his life.
Her own pain mirrored his, yet she attacked the one who offered help.
"Aaah!" Saori screamed, collapsing, ears covered, crushed by guilt.
"Saori!" Hiyori cried. "Madam!"
"As expected, Innocent Zero. Mental torment trumps violence," Beatrice said, revealing an ancient forbidden spell amplifying guilt, unnamed but devastating, eroding the body.
"I… I…" Saori stammered.
"Ugh…" Misaki groaned.
"Stay strong!" Hiyori urged.
"Next, Hiyori. Apologize for your wrongs," Beatrice said, targeting her.
"No!" Hiyori gasped.
Saori, trembling, stood before Hiyori. "Stop…"
"Saori-san!" Hiyori exclaimed.
"Impressive, Saori. Such resilience despite your broken state. A final act of mercy," Beatrice said.
"Don't listen, Saori!" Hiyori shouted.
"Obey, or Atsuko and Hiyori suffer. As long as your body remains, the rest doesn't matter," Beatrice warned.
Saori couldn't resist, unwilling to let her family suffer her pain or bear her sins. She accepted Beatrice's terms.
"Injure Schale's Sensei deeply—erase him. Free him from a hopeless life. That's your only atonement, even at the cost of your life. Until then, I'll let those two go," Beatrice commanded.
"Uwaaah!" Saori screamed, collapsing.
Hiyori, hearing "let go," grabbed Misaki and fled.
"Wait! Pursue them!" an Arius soldier shouted.
"No need. Let them go, Saori," Beatrice said.
"Be a good parent in the end," she added.
Atsuko, powerless, watched the cruel scene, her heart consumed by emptiness.
(Sensei…) she prayed to Mash.
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