"...Finally woke up, Rito."
"Who are you?"
"Can't you tell? I am you."
"I...? Where... where are we?"
"I don't know. Maybe we're dead, or just unconscious. There are countless possibilities. But this is where we are: a dark place, just you and me, together."
"I can't stay here. I have to save them. The Complex Inferius has expanded."
"That wasn't the mindset we had when we went to destroy NeonyRain..."
"No, they didn't understand. We needed to do that to obtain their weapons, and Aurora came to interfere again."
"What did you expect to happen? Aurora is no longer your employee or your ally. After everything. After Brazilovia, do you think you'll be able to redeem yourself?"
"No... I..."
"Accept it once and for all, Rito! This world is on the brink of destruction! We are in this situation because of you! You can't decide whether you want to be the man who seeks power or the good guy who dies alongside the people. Make up your mind!"
"I wanted to be with them. Do you think I would have wanted to cause all that chaos? Countless people died, people I should have protected."
"Don't be a hypocrite now, Rito. Look at my face. Don't look away... Do you know what the truth is? Do you know what you really think?"
"Please, tell me..."
"It's that you can't count on anyone. And it's true. It's not just that idiot who adopted you after your mother sold you to the government, it's everyone. That imbecile couple is nowhere to be found when they should be here, protecting you. That redhead who joined you, what, about ten years ago? It's been a while. She was even useful, but became a depressive after the great Theatrical Assassin showed who he truly is. And of course, the very one who is now the cause of all this, because if it weren't for your poor choices, the two girls you adopted wouldn't be far from your arms and the world wouldn't have the Devil among humans. And Aurora, ah, Aurora, the only one who stood by your side, is no longer your shield either. You, Rito, are the only person capable of saving this world. So make your choice: be the good guy and join the weak, or be a real man and annihilate them to save your people."
"Wouldn't you be the Devil, then?"
"My God... you are the most foolish of all. We are the same person, but one version ends up overriding the other. Don't you understand? I'll say it one more time. Tell me who you want to be: the good man or the true hero? Say it. Say it! SAY IT! SAY IT!!!"
"Both!"
"...There is no way to be both. Not when you don't know the balance."
Rito leaps onto the other Rito. His hands grasp his throat, fingers sinking into the skin.
"If you won't choose, I will do it for us."
The inferior Rito groans, writhing beneath the other's dim gaze. A crack, and he stops moving. The fists are positioned at his sides. The breathing is slow. The heart does not beat fast. A smile curves at the corner of the lips as the darkness grows heavy all around.
Before everything is consumed.
And he awakens.
***
Blood splattered across the monitors. Bodies hanging from the internal structure. He opens his eyes slowly. The demons were frozen amid a ruined city. From the skies, a man with long hair, six arms, and eyes golden as leaves lands on the ground.
"Impressive."
His gaze fixes on the mechanical creature. He walks slowly, his worn garment dragging across the floor. With a punch, the glass shatters.
"Already pale? My God, just seeing the Devil makes you tremble?"
He sits before him, a wide smile tearing across his lips, and extends one of his hands.
"I have seen your deeds. We can make a deal, human: join me and you will govern the end of the world at my side. You are exactly who I need, the ideal vessel to become a Destroyer. Please, accept."
The smell emanating from the palms drew guttural sounds. He raises his gaze. The smile remains, hair flying through the air, and a shadowy presence that seemed to make his arm extend on its own.
"No..."
He pulls his arm back. Pulls again. There are no more hands. His breathing quickens. He looks up at Krythos, who only laughs.
"You'd better choose quickly. That woman who looks strangely like a robot is getting up, and I don't want to have to kill her alone. That wouldn't be fun."
Hearing that, he shifts his gaze to the distance.
One hand was resting against a tree.
He turns his gaze back to the Devil, grinding his teeth.
"You will protect my people from these demons."
"Didn't even ask nicely. I like humans like this, full of intentions."
The reddish hand, with long dark claws, grips the bloody stump.
At the touch, the skin rotted into a dark tissue, dissolving. The rot reached even the face, turning it ashen, until cracks formed in the skin and fell across the inner floor. His eyes sank into the shadowy pool formed from his own flesh.
"Good luck with the transformation, human."
Satan rises and moves away from the structure.
***
Far from there, Aurora leans against the trunk of a tree in the middle of the streets. She freezes upon seeing the silhouette approach with a wide smile.
"No... it can't be..."
She murmurs, turning her neck toward Carlos and Carolina, but finds nothing. When she turns back, the Devil is already before her, leaning over her.
"I can play a little. God allows it, I just can't go too far."
As he raises his hand, the Pillar of Knowledge tries to pull back, but feels her legs trapped. Dark stains rise across her body, wrapping her in a grip.
The fist comes down in a vertical cut, and blood splatters across Aurora's face.
Then a punch sends the Devil crashing into a crumbling building.
Trembling, Carolina slides her right hand along the spear. Carlos spits blood, wipes his fist across his face, and meets Aurora's gaze.
"Face Rito. Leave Krythos to us... and protect Gyne and Morgana."
Carolina nods. In an instant, Aurora crouches and flies to where she last saw them.
Upon spotting Gyne and Morgana lying down, she grabs them and launches further away, turning her head back. Countless demons were advancing toward the pair, and the diabolical laughter echoed, causing distorted sounds in her auditory system.
After setting them down on the bank of a river, a device emerges from her robotic palm. Her voice comes out slowly.
"Whoever wakes up first protects the other with their life."
The device falls between the two, and a five-meter field expands into a translucent bluish wall. She then moves toward the battlefield, toward the machine. But her face is grabbed and slammed into the ground.
"I still have time for you!"
A dark hand wraps around her in midair and, with a punch, she flies toward the forest, broken in two.
"So fragile... now it's your turn."
Carolina wastes no time. She uses her wooden wings to advance on Satan, cutting demons in half along the way, and prepares a kick at his face.
Carlos, seeing Krythos clench his fists, runs at great speed and delivers a punch to his stomach. The kick strikes him in sequence.
When Krythos rises, smiling, an unrelenting exchange of blows begins.
***
In the distance, amid unconsciousness, Rito wakes up once more in that dark place. He looks around. There is nothing left.
"I killed you. So, did you merge with me, or did I simply destroy a part of myself?"
He walks. With each step, his shoulders draw inward. Looking toward the "end," a reddish light blinds his eyes. He keeps walking.
At a certain point, his body gives out. He falls to the ground and buries his fingers in the darkness to keep dragging himself forward.
The voices arrive alongside the images, emerging beside him.
"My son, this world does not want a weak man. So stop crying and learn to be a man. Or you will die trying."
"I'm... I'm sorry. I failed you. I couldn't raise you, love you... this man will take care of you. I... I hope."
"I am not your daughter. I was the daughter of ordinary parents. Of an ordinary love. That was taken from me. So don't tell me you understand me, you never would...! I'm... I'm sorry. All of this is too much for me. Please, help me become better, but don't do to me what they did."
With his face buried in the dark, there was only trembling.
"Father..."
As he tried to stand, he pressed his hands against his knees. He coughed, leaning his shoulders against invisible walls.
"Mother..."
And then he looked toward the red. A mechanical structure, a core, pulsing like a heart.
"Aurora..."
Upon touching the sphere, he pressed his forehead against it. His breathing was labored, his legs trembling.
He inserted his fingers into the structure. Blood ran from his mouth. He withdrew them, pressed his hands to his chest, and inserted them again.
Pulling.
The reddish liquid poured out of everything.
From his nails. From his eyes. From his mouth.
His vision began to darken.
But the steadiness remained.
"If I was ever a mistake significant enough to be sold. If I was a disappointing son. Or if I was not the father you deserved... there is no longer any chance to fix that. Not alive. Not as a man."
Upon tearing it out, the orb entered his chest. His heart accelerated, his eyes closed in tears that washed away the blood. The groan that made him cough, the breath unable to enter. Rito felt the darkness not only grow heavy, but saw the veins of his arm become threads and his skin harden...
The darkness was becoming his.
Him.
His true self.
"Goodbye..."
...
"...Aurora."
One eye opens.
It was not the human.
It was the eagle.
***
With a robotic cry, Satan laughed, holding the pair by their faces.
"Impressive. I have never created a Mechanical Destroyer."
He slammed them into the ground.
In the forest, Aurora sees the colossal structure rise, face her, and fly into the sky.
Her legs return to her waist. She steadies herself and leaps into flight.
Taking one last look at the destroyed city, she turned away.
"Don't die."
Then, before him, Aurora raises her chin, hair swept across her face.
"How did it come to this? That... that doesn't matter."
She watches him circle and climb above her.
"You will die today, Rito Zen Heng."
In a dive, the eagle descends with a sound that cut through the wind. And Aurora rose, a dark energy forming in the palm of her hand.
Then, there was contact.