--Blood

As blood poured from his grievous wounds, he began to waver and drop to one knee.

Where was he?

--Hot, hot, hot, hot.

Every single cut that sank into his body burned fiercely. His arms ached, and his legs felt much the same. His ears perked up to noises off in the distance. Metallic screeching and the sound of explosions peppered his ears. Then there was the screaming, was he in hell? He tried to ignore it the best he could as he hobbled along the ancient cobbled road. Whoever it was, he thought it was better them than him. But ignoring the cries of damned was easier said than done. And worried him more was the laughter accompanying it. Would they come after him next? He began to hobble faster, blood splattering onto the rocks as he did.

Then like the rain in the eye of a storm, all the noises abruptly stopped. Fear began to well in his chest as he knew whoever made those people scream would come for him next. His body shook, and his teeth chattered. A thud made him realize that he had stumbled over himself. New scratches were added to his collection of wounds. His breath was caught in his throat, and all he could do was continue to hyperventilate. He was so enamored by the trappings of his own mind that he didn't even notice someone had snuck up on him.

"Why did you run away like that, Ryuji!?" A concerned and angry voice came from behind him. Ryuji jumped out of his skin and put his hand on the weapon sheathed at his hip. Silence overtook Ryuji as he genuinely could not recognize this woman who very obviously knew him.

She was a beautiful girl, the kind you would often pass by on the street and decide that you need to turn around and take one extra look before they disappeared. She was slightly shorter than the average person. She wore a blue silk shirt and light blue pants. Her hair, which was tied up in a bun, had a pretty green color. Although it was hard to make out with all the dirt and blood caked into it. In her left hand rested a cheap wand with some engravings that Ryuji couldn't understand.

The concern on her face quickly dissolved, leaving only anger. "Why are you looking at me like that? It's me, Elizabeth, remember?"

An epiphany overcame Ryuji as the memories suddenly flooded back in. This girl, along with some other people, had been adventuring with him recently. How could he have forgotten this simple fact? It bugged the hell out of him. He decided that he may have concussed himself, or maybe it was just the lack of blood flow to his brain.

"Hey, what the hell is going on, Elizabeth? Where is everyone else?"

Elizabeth bit her lip hard enough to draw blood. Tears flowed from her tightly shut eyes, and Ryuji put two and two together.

"No.....those screams....they couldn't have been...….right?"

Elizabeth remained silent for a while. Just as she was about to open her mouth, a sword flung through the air, narrowly missing their heads and embedding itself into the ground behind them.

"So this is where you were hiding, huh? Do you feel no shame in leaving your friends to die like that?"

A cocky voice that made Ryuji's skin crawl emanated from down the path. Elizabeth stood up and gripped her wand, pointing it at the assailant, who was now directly in front.

He was an eccentric man wearing a red cape and gleaming knight armor underneath. His head was exposed so you could see his sneering face and short parted hair. Although his hair was white, he looked to be no older than 20. That being said, Ryuji couldn't be too sure of his actual age, considering how this world worked. In his left hand rested a single bastard sword whose edge had a few droplets of blood still clinging to it.

With her arm outstretched as if she was protecting Ryuji, she spoke. "Ryuji, stand up and fight! Or else we're not making it out of this."

"Admirable indeed, but a little too late. If you were going to run away, you should have done so while you had the chance!" The murderer's eyes were full of amusement as if he was getting off on the misfortune he had laid upon them.

Before Ryuji could lift his tattered body, the man had readied his sword. It glowed a brilliant prismatic color as layers of mana poured off of it.

"Fifty folds!"

As he shouted his incantation, fifty prismatic swords, much like the one embedded behind, Ryuji appeared around his outstretched sword. With a single swing of his blade, the copies flung forward as if they were arrows, shot from a bow.

"Tarkis!"

Elizabeth, still positioned in front of Ryuji, attempted to shield them by casting a single spell. Light enveloped her wand, and the air began to heat. In the next moment, just as the swords were reaching their destination, a brilliant light shone. Accompanying this was an earsplitting bang. His body felt hotter than ever before, and then, he felt nothing.

Blinded and deaf, Ryuji couldn't tell if he was alive or not. Surrounding him was darkness so deep it made no difference whether he had his eyes open or not. Then for a moment in that solitary abyss, he thought he saw a face and a familiar-looking one at that.

It was strange, it felt familiar to him, but it also felt very vague at the same time. Like if you were just looking at the outline of a famous person without any defining features present.

"Did I die again?"

His meaningless question was only met by silence. The outline didn't move, nor did it speak. As he attempted to strain his vision and get a better look, the face blurred even more and twisted like the bad reception of a staticky old TV.

"Surely this must be my imagination, right?"

All he could see was the fickle image, but as the static got worse, he could make out a mouth. It seemed to be saying something. In the void, he couldn't hear anything. Not the stranger's voice or his own, so after what felt like hours, he stopped paying attention altogether. Just as he did, a brilliant light shone through blinding Ryuji. As he covered his eyes, he felt something push his body to the side. When he looked, nothing was there, but he could still feel his body being jostled. Then it all made sense to him.

"Oh, so I'm asleep, and this is all a bad dream, huh? Must be one of those Vivid dreams you hear about."

As he slowly began to regain consciousness, Ryuji had decided to just forget this bad dream entirely. It's not like he wasn't used to having terrible nightmares about the past and what might happen in the future, but just as he was about to do that, he heard something. It sounded far and distant near the evaporating figure of static. It only spoke a single broken word.

"F-

-R-

-E-

-E"

It was a voice that he hadn't heard in fifteen years.