He remembered the floodgates opening. Rage and anger. Sadness and guilt. Hopelessness. All differeions, a, at that time, they spread through his soul, body, and mind like a synized inferno. Their birength filled him with infinite power, yet one he couldn't even reach.

  He remembered the monsters ing, their howls ringing in his ears. Where one fell, two more always arrived to take its pce, their limitless fury g against his own. Somehow, they still lost, their sughtered bodies dropping to the ground in tens.

  He remembered fighting with abandon, ung of his own pain as long as the enemy met their end. He shrugged off all injuries, ughing like a maniac as he devoured one corpse after another. Pain didn't matter if he couldn't be bothered to feel it.

  He remembered the inferno of emotions slowly departing just as the sun began to peek through the stormy clouds. Yet, despite the fullness in his soul, the empty hole inside him grew with each sed, taking away his power, his will to live. Even his enemies fled, leaving him alone uhe sundered sky.

  And that was how Leo awoke from the haze of the final stage of Ruthless Efficy. He sat kneeling in the middle of a sea of bodies and dust. Blood coated every possible surface, even his body, while each breath filled his nostrils with the same metallic stench.

  His entire being throbbed with pain, yearning for respite, for anything to ease its torment. He would have loved to give it just that, but somehow, he had survived the impossible. He fought an army and lived, even if it left him ay husk without the will to tinue.

  Why... His blurry gaze slowly swept across the battlefield before it settled on his bloody hands. Why am I alive? How...

  By all means, he should have died. He had spent the st of his power t Adam into his soul, leaving him with just enough strength to stay awake for a few more seds. Even Nyx uood this was the end of their short journey, and though close to activating, Ruthless Efficy shouldn't have been able to save him from the horde of Nightmares.

  A, it did.

  The ability transformed Leo into a on e and bloodlust, fuelled by unending hunger. It ed him, taking the reigns of his body while making him an unwilling passenger who still had to fight a different battle in his head.

  A battle against all the feelings he had pushed away.

  A battle he had lost.

  There was just too much to face. His emotions, failures, and dead family. It all overwhelmed him, never giving him a ce to breathe as he drowned i of despair. A, even when he accepted his fate, his rage and bloodlust never gave up, fighting till the bitter end.

  So the failure lives on, eh? He chuckled bitterly, hanging down his head. Guess dy luck isn't doh me yet. I probably should be happ-

  Leo gasped, air leaving his lungs as a mass of shadows struck his chest, knog him down to the ground. He coughed, blurry vision clearing as he looked up, bright violet eyes meeting his own.

  "Nyx," he muttered, reag for the feline's snout. "Seems eveh didn't want me..."

  'Leo!' She shouted, giving him a long lick that almost ripped off half his face. 'I... I thought you were dead... The li silent, and then the Nightmares went inside...'

  "I know," he looked away, sitting up. "Somehow, I even failed at dying. That's got to be a record or something."

  The feline snarled, spping him with her tail. Leo crumpled, the blood and pieonsters squelg beh him.

  'Stop this damned self-pity party already!' She hissed, pig him up and throwing him across the battlefield. 'You're not a failure! You did everything you could, more than anyone could’ve asked of you. Some odds are just impossible to beat. Grieve if you must, but don't you dare to give up again. Or have you already fotten about the child that now sleeps inside your soul?'

  Holding his side, Leo grimaced as he climbed to his feet. Nyx was right, at least to some extent. He couldn't let this sed, or maybe third, ce at life slip through his fingers, not after everything he had gohrough. However, he always had trouble leaving the past behind and doubted it would be any different this time.

  Grieve if you must. He repeated, looking to where ReachHope's headquarters oood. Yeah... I think I will do just that.

  Even as dozens of notifications tried to force themselves into his vision, he ighem, letting his feet carry him forward. Nyx joined him within a moment, her gaze burning a hole in his head.

  'Leo? What's going on?' She asked, her voice softening once more. 'Did I hit you too hard? Five me, but I 't let you tinue like this.'

  He shook his head. "No... You are right. Every single word you said was true..." He shrugged. "All my life, whenever something bad happened, I have always bmed myself or pined about the unfairness of it all. That's just how I am, a pile of ivity shaped into a human form... well, not even human anymore."

  Still tinuing onward, Leo sighed. "Even if I don't want to accept it, this definitely won't be the st time I lose someone close to me. This world is too fucked up for everyoo get a happy ending." He looked at Nyx, giving her a weak, broken smile. "So yeah, I know; I o ge. Put the past behind me and leave it there... Otherwise, I will always be my own worst enemy. Adapt or die, eh?"

  The feline averted her gaze. 'Does it mean you’re okay now?'

  "Far from it." He stopped, the ruins of ReachHope's headquarters lying before him. "But I will get there. Like someone once said, time heals all wounds. I just have to do what I said. Let the past go."

  'I will help you as much as I ,' Nyx whispered, still refusing to look at him. 'When our bo silent, I really thought you... that you died. I don't want to feel that void ever again. I hate it.'

  Leo drew in a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment. "I 't promise you something simir won't happen again. Life is far too uable, as we've just seen." Seeing the feline slump, he pressed on, "I make you a different promise though. I will never give up again like I did today. Hope that's enough for now."

  'It has to.'

  "Yeah... I guess so," he muttered, patting her side. "e, there is o thing I must do before I leave this p the past."

  With that said, Leo jumped onto the rubble, slowly maneuveriween what remained of the building that once gave him hope. Now, only pieces of broken walls remained, with bloody body parts scattered everywhere. Vetilim also put down roots all around, already g this pce for the Void.

  How did it all happen so fast? How did the building even colpse? He didn't know, but he had some ideas. Nyx could probably firm them if he asked.

  Not now. He shook his head, still trying to find the right spot. Later.

  'What are you looking for?' Nyx asked, her voice as soft as velvet.

  "Ava."

  The feline didn't try to say more after that. She just nodded and followed behind, givihe space he needed so much. He would have to thaer for that.

  "Here," he paused near a half-colpsed wall. "It must be here."

  That was all Nyx o know before she moved to help him, pig up pieces of debris, oer ahey struggled, their strength still far beyond doing stuff like this without breaking a sweat. Leo's half-dead state also didn't give him much to work with.

  heless, they tinued until a body revealed itself, crushed almost beynition.

  Leo swallowed hard, attempting to ighe guilt gnawing on his soul. The past was in the past. Nothing could ge that, no matter how much he wao.

  It wasn't my fault. I tried my best. He repeated those words like a mantra as he picked up Ava's corpse. It wasn't my fault. I tried my best.

  In silehey left the ruins behind, heading straight for the forest. It didn't take long until they reached a familiar clearing, where he id the body down.

  "Help me out, okay? I don't think I have enough strength left for this," he motioo the patch of grass before him.

  Nyx didn't pin or question his as. She just nodded and moved forward, her tails soon joining him in their ask.

  Within miheir work was finished, leaving a deep, human-sized hole in the pce he had marked before. Together, they lowered Ava's body ihe pit and slowly covered the grave with the same dirt they dug out.

  Leo didn't move afterward. Couldn't move. His form remained frozen, staring bnkly ahead. Nyx, though, didn't have such a problem. She nudged him and poiowards the setting sun.

  'We o move soon,' she whispered gently. 'You 't risk fag Nightmares again. Not today.'

  "I know." He agreed, givihe same broken smile. "Just please give me a moment. Okay?"

  Nyx nodded a him aloh the grave. It was time to say goodbyes.

  Chaos65