Earth-20XX

  Before all these loops, this mayhem, destruction, and despair, there was once a home, a home for all those innocent and guilty. A broken family once resided on this earth, broken, yes, but they still marched forwards helping each other in their times of need. That was all until before The Game began.

  The Stars—being bored—decided they wanted entertainment. Finding Earth, a green and blue planet filled to the brim with all kinds of souls—innocent, guilty, greedy, and selfless, they all agreed it had the ability to fulfill their needs, to rid themselves of their boredom, finally experiencing a different emotion, a different feeling in an eternity. Having expectations, The Stars started the first Game as a welcoming gift and surprise for all mortal beings.

  Many years passed, many loops were born. This world, long abandoned by the gods, and the souls of those who once lived, only The Stars and the existence of two corpses—only walking this barren world for their purpose they forged themselves—reside on this world crumbled by the desire for entertainment.

  Click—Click—Click

  The sound of two different clock’s hands turning in quick succession sing out—as the scenario begins—to the only two beings left alive.

  「 The Stars gather around each other. 」

  「 Some Stars pass around buckets of popcorn. 」

  「 Countless Stars start cheering for both sides. 」

  「 The Final Scenario has begun again. 」

  「 Final Scenario- “The Fall Of The Crown”

  Long has the day your sister was killed passed.

  You, betrayed, and forsaken, have finally found your brother, The Emperor.

  The day has arrived for the chance to avenge your sister, family, friends, and those who once lived.

  Enter The Emperor’s Chamber, free yourself of The Game, and quench the boredom The Stars have experienced for an eternity.

  Reward: Freedom

  Penalty: Death 」

  「 Final Scenario- “A Job Not-Quite Done”

  Long has the day you embraced your jealousy, greed, and selfishness.

  You, having killed your brother’s sister, have finally reached the top of the world, you have become The Emperor.

  Having found you, he walks to you, no longer your bother.

  Finish the job, free yourself of The Game, and quench the boredom The Stars have experienced for an eternity.

  Reward: Freedom

  Penalty: Death 」

  Stood in front of the gigantic double doors with his eyes closed, Kurushimi Katsuyuki—Katsu—re-reads the scenario’s information given to him mentally. Re-reading it around a thousand times, he finally accepts it. After spending an eternity forcefully looping, himself, and The Emperor over and over for trillions of times, he finally accepts the fact that this will be his last one. Not even The Stars were aware of their countless loops, the years they’ve spent in their own “game”, they may be powerful but they are not all-seeing.

  A loop is generally around 5 years, on the surface that may seem like a small amount of time for a world ending disaster, but he spent that many years in every loop trying to save his sister, trying to save his family…trying to change, The Emperor, saving his brother.

  But he has not changed one bit, at least, that’s what he thought.

  Having lost all hope, he opens his eyes, looking up to the doors ahead of him, the gigantic double doors spayed and smeared in blood, sword marks, scorch marks, and massive holes in the shape of fists covering the doors. Gently, he places both hands on the doors pushing them in.

  He squints his eyes as beams of blinding light pass through the cracks as he opens the doors. Passing through to the chamber, He slowly opens his eyes, glancing up and seeing the interior of the chamber, a red and gold interior, gigantic pillars holding up the entire structure, ashes of corpses everywhere the eye can see, blood sprayed everywhere—on the walls, floor, and somehow, the ceiling—cracks and holes on every surface, and a gigantic hole in the ceiling behind the throne, opening up to the outside, and The Emperor on his throne, looking down at him with a lamenting grin on his face, his pale white skin, white hair, and blue eyes contrasting the red and gold interior around them.

  Letting out a small exhale, The Emperor grabs the hilt of his longsword, standing up and looking toward the opposite end of the chamber, spotting a figure slowly approaching—the distance between us getting smaller and smaller by the second, getting closer, the figure comes to a halt in front of the steps before the throne in silence.

  Moments passed before it decides to speak up.

  “Do you remember how many times we’ve done this?” It raises its right hand—their palm facing up the sky—feeling the wind from the gaping hole in the ceiling on their fingertips.

  “…Nope, not really.” The Emperor turns around and faces the opening in the ceiling.

  “I lost count around one hundred trillion.” It forms a fist with their hand, letting it drop to their side.

  Moments of silence pass, both of them remembering the number of times they’ve crosses blades—taken each other’s lives, and how many years they’ve spent in the hell they made filled with their own blood, and despair. From average civilians to soldiers, to generals, to kings, to emperors, all these titles, and more gained and stolen from each other, fighting over pathetic reasons compared to what this world had been through.

  The Emperor lets out a heavy, shaky sigh, remembering what—who started all of this.

  “So many years wasted.” The Emperor says as his eyes fill with pain, regret.

  “All because of you.” They shoot back bluntly.

  “…Yeah.” The Emperor’s eyes dulling, slowly coming to the realization of it all.

  Glancing back down at the steps towards the figure, he sees, him, staring at him, his eyes once filled with rage, hate, now just filled with pain, despair, and regret, a walking corpse, restarting this earth over and over for one single purpose, to make The Emperor suffer for what he’s done. He continues looking at him—filling his soul with despair. Unable to look at him, he closes his eyes—tilting his head down at the ground—regretting his actions unlike ever before.

  It feels weird regretting, agonizing over my actions. I never regretted anything, I just kept attempting to kill him, trying in every loop, over and over until it all felt like a blur in my memories, all I do remember are those first one hundred thousand loops. Maybe I’ve come to hate the person I’ve become. The Emperor thinks to himself, lamenting, agenizing over what he’s done.

  “You should’ve killed me too that day.” Katsu loudly exclaimed

  Hearing those words come from him now, from someone who he once knew as his brother, hurt more than he could ever know.

  “You’re right.” The Emperor moves his foot back, lifting his longsword—readying it in front of him—as he looks up towards him. If I also killed you that day, I wouldn’t have to suffer like this, but now, that doesn’t matter, I won’t fight for pathetic, and selfish reasons, I’ll just be saving you from this hell, as I accept this for my own. He decides to uphold his twisted beliefs, thinking that this will be an act of mercy for him.

  Seeing The Emperor’s actions Katsu dashes back, readying his greatsword above him—the tip pointing away from The Emperor. The wind picks up as silence surrounds them, both waiting for the other to make a move.

  Moments pass, at inhumane speeds, they both make a move—Katsu takes a step back as The Emperor launches himself down the steps before the throne, dashing in—Katsu swings his sword down from above him in front of him as The Emperor closes in. His slash just almost reaches him, The Emperor—using his talent over fire—thrusts his body to the side, avoiding the slash and counter attacking to his side as his feet touch the ground. Katsu takes another step back—twirling his sword above him—and turning to his side as he slashes down to in the same motion. Having planted his feet just in the middle of counter attacking, The Emperor takes a step forward, shifting his sword to his right side—lifting it above him, angling it—redirecting Katsu’s strike away from him, dashing backwards Katsu rotates his sword onto his side—the tip pointing at The Emperor. Being in range of Katsu’s thrust, The Emperor twirls his sword from above him—swinging down towards his side—deflecting his thrust, using the momentum of The Emperor’s swing, Katsu twirls his sword, bringing it above him, and slashing down at him, being too far and in perfect range for Katsu, he’s unable to react to the speed of the swing as Katsu cuts into him.

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  Briefly losing consciousness, The Emperor loosens his grip on his sword, dropping it as he tumbles forwards. Taking a step back, Katsu twirls his sword while bringing it above him. The Emperor cauterizes his wound, propelling himself and his longword forwards, grabbing it as he closes in on Katsu. Having gotten closer, The Emperor thrusts his sword forwards into him. Katsu—using his talent over space—lets The Emperor’s sword pass right into him as he swings down from above. With feet planted on the ground, The Emperor dashes and propels himself away from the Katsu—gaining distance from him—barely escaping his swing as he tumbles onto his knees.

  Gasping for air, breathing heavily, The Emperor gets on one knee—cursing at himself—trying to pass away the pain of the massive wound he cauterized across his chest. Looking towards Katsu, he sees him looking down at him, his greatsword above him—ready to strike down in an instant.

  Having experienced Katsu’s talent an immeasurable number of times, he knows how Katsu works with his talent, he predicts his surroundings, he senses every miniscule thing, from it just being simple teleportation, to managing to manipulate body parts, organs, and tissue, to eventually managing to manipulate specific cells, atoms, and even energy itself. Katsu—when they were still brothers, explained that, he visualizes everything existing on an x-y-z grid, and that all that exists, has a position.

  The only flaw to him? Katsu, is no god, he can’t rotate anything he wants to manipulate, and to do his insanely crazy abilities, he has to be in contact with the thing he wants to manipulate—except when teleporting an entire living being, as that takes the least effort. His predictions aren’t all seeing, his senses aren’t all powerful, he maybe superhuman in those aspects, but he’s still human when taking his speed, durability, and strength into account. The Emperor, still on one knee, spits blood to his side. Remembering who his opponent is, he realizes his biggest weakness is speed, and he, himself, is one with it.

  Seeing Katsu’s stance, The Emperor realizes what he’s doing in an instant. Simultaneously, they both use their talents, Katsu uses his talent to teleport The Emperor—putting The Emperor in front of him—as he swings down, The Emperor propels himself sideways at immeasurable speeds, narrowly avoiding Katsu’s slash, The Emperor lands vertically on a gigantic pillar in the chamber, keeping the momentum of the actions just performed, he propels himself towards Katsu, slashing towards his side. Taking a step forwards, Katsu narrowly avoids The Emperor’s slash.

  Not slowing down his momentum, The Emperor, landing near the steps before the throne, uses his eyes as a reference point, shooting out concentrated beams of fire towards Katsu’s left side—burning his own eyes, and experiencing extreme pain as he loses his vision. Having lost his vision, The Emperor’s other senses rapidly increase in sensitivity to account for his vision. Just as the beams make contact, The Emperor propels himself, flying towards Katsu. Redirecting them, Katsu makes them shoot from the point of contact—his left side—to his right side.

  While preoccupying Katsu with his beams, The Emperor flies in, putting his sword to his side, and thrusting forwards making contact. With the tip of The Emperor’s sword making contact with Katsu, he teleports him in front of him, The Emperor—noticing this change in position, cancels his beams, twisting his body, and propelling the thick part of his sword—just above the crossguard—as he moves, his sword reaching insane speeds.

  Too fast for Katsu to react, The Emperor’s sword manages to leave a decent cut on his abdomen. Flinching from the pain, The Emperor takes advantage, keeping his momentum and increasing his speed even more, landing another decent cut on Katsu’s arms.

  With his speed increasing, The Emperor acts against it, propelling his entire body in the opposite direction its moving in—shattering his bones, and tearing his muscles from the sudden and intense explosion. Twirling his sword, he moves it to his side, propelling it forwards—essentially thrusting without using his muscles. Re-gaining his composure after being cut twice, Katsu manipulates The Emperor’s sword to pass right through him, swinging up—from his lowered stance—in the same moment.

  The Emperor—with broken bones, and torn muscles from his own actions, is unable to act upon what he senses, getting cut deeply from his chest to his shoulder as he propels his entire body backwards. Keeping their momentum, both his sword, and him fly backwards, The Emperor on his back, and his sword farther past him. Exhausted, and unable to focus from the massive loss of blood, and the strain he has put on his body, The Emperor starts sluggishly crawling towards his longsword, leaving a trail of blood behind him.

  Witnessing this, Katsu releases a hand from his greatsword—letting it drop to his side, dragging it, leaving sparks, and a thin mark, as he slowly walks towards The Emperor.

  Lying face down on the floor, struggling to breathe, The Emperor crawls closer to his sword as Katsu slowly walks towards him in silence. The feeling of guilt, regret, and despair well up inside him, knowing how many times at least they’ve done this shatters his heart, knowing that no matter how many times he tries, he will never be able to free Katsu, not because Katsu’s too strong, not because he himself is weak, but because even in hell, Katsu won’t let me rest for what he’s done.

  Just before reaching his sword, Katsu walks up next to him—kicking him on his side, and turning him over while he coughs up blood.

  He stares silently into The Emperor’s eyes before speaking.

  “I hope you remember, she also looked up to you, she always did.” Katsu mumbled quietly, just enough that he could be heard.

  The Emperor see his face, his eyes, they’re filled with hope, giving him a weird feeling, over all that has happened, all he remembers is his silent rage, hate, and disappointment towards him, he has never shown a face like this, except for that day, the day his sister was born. The weird feeling intensifies, seeing his face full of hope gives him this unnatural sensation, like they’ve finally reached the end.

  He was right, though not knowing this in the present, he would learn of that fact in the future.

  Katsu plunges his sword deep into The Emperor’s chest, information filled his brain one last time before—what he thought was another loop, took place.

  「Countless Stars are grateful for your performance.」

  「Multiple Stars applaud you one last time.」

  The Emperor—for the first time in an eternity, sheds tears. Reaching up to him, coughing up blood as he tries and speak to Katsu—he feels his sword twist inside him, his senses dull, the twisting of the greatsword kills him instantly—The Emperor’s arm drops to the ground, the warm feeling of his own blood quickly turning into shivering emptiness, his eyes slowly loosing their light once more.

  Click—Click—Click

  The sound of a clock’s hands turning in quick succession sing out—as the scenario ends—to the only being left alive.

  「 The Final Scenario has ended. 」

  「 Congratulations! You are the first ever being to have succeeded in completing The Final Scenario. 」

  Katsu stands over the corpse he once knew as his brother, exhausted, hurt, and in despair. Looking back on how The Emperor acted in him final moments, and the beginning of their encounter—Katsu realizes, after all these loops, after all the time he spent trying, that they weren’t for nothing, he had changed—even if just a bit—he had the possibility of becoming someone better.

  Falling onto his knees, Katsu places a hand on The Emperor’s corpse—feeling all that makes up his existence, eventually reaching his soul. “Opening” his eyes, he witnesses both his own soul, and The Emperor’s floating among the void—the plane between everything, where nothing can exist, except for those who manage to shatter the boundary needed to enter it—something even the gods cannot do.

  Unlike before—taking both their souls, and weaving them through time to start a loop—he only takes The Emperor’s soul, weaving his through time and space itself—putting immense strain and pain on his own mind and soul. After he finishes weaving it, he gently lets go, letting the strings of time and space decide his fate, and giving The Emperor—his brother, have a chance to be someone new, someone better, wherever that may be.

  Click—Click—Click

  The sound of a clock’s hands turning in quite succession bring Katsu back into his mortal shell.

  「 The Stars are grateful towards you, applauding you on your performance. 」

  Now alone, Katsu, shuts his eyes—hanging his head down, tears slowly flowing down his face.

  「 Calculating your reward… 」

  He sits there, lamenting on all he’s experienced, struggles, hardships, and even wholesome moments.

  「 The Stars start standing up from their seats, waving as they leave the screening. 」

  A smile slowly creeps onto his face—a smile of despair—as he realizes, he’s all alone. He starts laughing manically—from a low chuckle to a full-on breakdown, his feeling overwhelming him sending him down a spiral of insanity, the only human alive—from what he knows—left to drown in his own misery.

  Why? Why did you do it? Why did it have to be her, of all people? Katsu thinks to himself, clenching his chest, slowly collapsing over his brother’s corpse. She loved you. She was your family too… He slams a fist against the chest of his brother’s corpse, wishing he could have spent more time with them, as family.

  「 Calculation complete! Presenting your reward. 」

  「 Reward: Freedom

  The Stars, in agreement, and satisfied, has decided to go along with The Game, leaving Earth alone forever.

  As a gift, and thanks to you, they have all decide to leave The Game with you, rotting with you until death. 」

  Katsu—standing up, walks towards the steps before the throne, laying there, laughing, drowning in his insanity.

  Time passes by, his laughter slowly subsiding.

  Laying there for what seems like hours, he simply shuts his eyes, faintly hearing the voices of his family.

  “Take care of your new baby sister for me, okay?” He hears his mother faintly speaking to him.

  “We can’t kill them! They’re human too! We have to be better than them!” His sister exclaims to him, bringing a grim expression to Katsu’s face.

  “Big brother, what are you going to be in the future?” His sister—now younger—asks him innocently. “You should be a hero! Like the ones in the mangas!” She excitedly adds, bringing a faint smile to Katsu’s face.

  Reminiscing on all the moments he’s had with his dear sister, Katsu lays there.

  Finally a thought comes across his mind.

  Maybe I could try the whole hero thing she said. He thought, gently opening his eyes, blinded by the sunlight coming from the gaping hole in the ceiling.

  He’s always wanted a purpose. For all he could remember, he always wanted to never exist, always feeling left out, unnecessary, and ignored. He felt this way because his mother—although she loved him—could never seem her son the same way ever again after what her father had done to her, causing everlasting consequences to Katsu. That was until his baby sister was born. He had a reason live, exist, he had a purpose.

  Time passed, slowly Katsu forgot his desire to never exist, that desire turning into one for a purpose, a purpose—not to live for other, but of his own. He's always wanted this for a long time, he’s wanted a purpose of his own, but to gain it like this, it’s not the way he would’ve wanted this to play out.

  Finally sitting up, he decides to act on his wishes.

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