Dot leaned forward on the makeshift table with an eager expression.

"Got any threes?"

Queen examined her hand before answering.

"No, um...go fish?"

With a giant groan Dot drew a card off the top of the deck. Queen glanced at her before fidgeting and looking behind them. Near the entrance to a building, a giant mass of people sat close to each other with very little room between themselves. The inside looked very much the same as it was near holding capacity. The stadium they were watching over was filled to the brim with scared citizens. This area was chosen as a safe zone because of how far away it was from where the fighting would happen and the space it provided.

"What do ya look so concerned for, my busty friend?"

Dot asked a question while setting her feet up on the table.

"It's our job to protect these people, and all we're doing is playing a game. Shouldn't we be doing something else?"

Marie asked quietly with concern flashing through her eyes. A sigh escaped Dot's lips before she looked at Marie, her empty eyes piercing her.

"And do what exactly? What can we do here? Go on patrol? We have a bazillion adventurers doing that for us right now. Talk to the concerned citizens? If YOU want to go do that, then be my guest. I'll play solitaire or something."

Queen slammed her cards down on the table. "Even if that's all true, you didn't have to say it like that! Why should I have to go speak to them alone? You make it sound like none of this is your problem." Queen leaned closer to Dot's face and spoke lower. "You know what pisses me off about you? You always act like it's not your problem. Like you have no stake in any of this. Even now, you have the nerve to play a game while everyone is risking their lives!"

The lines on Dot's face grew rigid as her hands crumpled the cards in her hand. She spoke just loud enough to be heard, but the force of her speech was still plenty.

"Do you honestly think I want to be here? Do you think I don't want to run away from these people that don't mean a damn thing to me and make sure Ryu is okay? If he wasn't the one to give the order, then I wouldn't be here right now." Dot scoffed with a sidelong look. "You don't actually care about what I do anyway. The truth is that's how you feel about yourself, isn't it? You're upset because you're weak. I get it, but don't go taking it out on me, missy!"

Marie bore holes with her fiery gaze. The knuckles of her hand turning white from her grip. She was about to say something when the look on Dot's face changed. Dot shot out of her chair and rushed toward the open space.

"What's wrong?"

Marie followed and asked a question. Dot's hand shot up, calling for silence before pointing at a magic circle that inhabited the sky.

"This gonna get bumpy!" Dot shouted before taking the cards they were playing with and shuffling them. A fire burned in her right eye, and although the fire raged, it illuminated nothing as if light wasn't given off by its existence.

Marie stood by, speechless. She had only seen this eye of hers once. It was when she beat Caldwell, a man she had presumed invincible. 'Whatever spell that circle is completing must be dangerous.'

"And a hyup, and a hyup!" Cards began flying from Dot's hand as she dealt them into the air. As they traveled, the cards grew in size until they had become so large they could act as walls. After a few moments, the deck in Dot's hand had been fully dealt. The stadium, as well the area around it, was encased in a dome made of playing cards.

Marie continued to watch in silence until Dot had fully finished. With the task at hand done, she stared at her wall with a look of accomplishment.

"So, are we safe now?"

"We'll know in a second."

Marie's eyebrows rose. "A sec-"

Marie fell to the earth as it shook with bravado. Everything around her looked distorted. She didn't understand until she realized that her body was shaking so much that her vision couldn't adjust itself. She peered back, concerned that the stadium's foundation would give out. She sighed with relief when she saw the building was doing just fine.

"Hold on for dear life, kuudere! The bad part's coming!"

The shaking increased threefold. Marie felt her insides churn. No amount of intensity training could prepare her for this. Her thoughts turned off as her brain was being blended. She was pretty sure she had blacked out for a second before coming to. Her body had become numb from vibrations jostling her. Then everything slowly calmed down. The earth stopped bouncing up and down, and Marie's vision slowly came back to her. To her left, she could hear Dot panting hard.

"Are you alright?"

Dot turned, and for a second, Marie thought she had seen a red light in both of her eyes, but before she could check, the lights died out, and Dot collapsed to one knee.

"I'm fine... damn. The things I do for friends." Dot spat to the side and watched the cards around them slowly dissolve into dust. With a shit-eating grin, she smugly looked at Marie. "Aren't you glad we were playing games now?"

Before Queen could make a retort, her face went slack as she took in the city. "Oh..." That was all she could muster as the sight of destruction filled her eyes.

The entirety of the once-great city of Priscillaca, excluding the stadium, was in ruins. Barely any buildings stood, and the ones that did; did so on their last legs. The once beautiful canals were now full of rubbish and debris.

"Holy fuck..." Dot pointed her finger while her jaw was dropped to the ground. Marie followed it and had much the same reaction.

"Is that what caused this?"

"Whoever did that is a damn beast."

With the walls knocked down into piles of brick, Dot and Marie could see the fields on the outskirts, or at least they should have been able to. But the fields that were there moments ago were now gone. In their place was a hole that was miles in diameter and hundreds of feet deep. Everything outside the city, as far as the eye could see, was scorched black. The cloud of smoke and dust rising into the sky over the chasm was so great someone unfamiliar with the region might speculate that a volcano rested there.

Dot's face contorted as she had an epiphany. "Ryu..." She looked out to the destroyed city before turning back to Marie, who was still on the ground. "I'm going to find Ryu!"

Queen rose and stopped Dot with her hand. "What about our job?"

"My job just ended. There's no point in doing what Ryu says if he's dead!" With a pained expression, she yanked her arm out of Queen's grasp and started sprinting into the ruins.

Marie looked back at the horde of people who had fearful faces. Slowly she turned away and began running after Dot.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

"I owe you one, short stuff."

"I'm beginning... to regret.... saving you..."

Jessy spoke through frantic huffs. Meanwhile, Rosey lay on a pile of brick. She had blood trickling down her whole body from the final toss she was given.

A black imprint of scorched brick lay out in front of them, spreading from where Jessy stood. The barrel of Jessy's gun still had steam rising off it. When she turned it over, a gunk of hot metal fell to the ground as it dripped off the barrel. "Fuck! You owe me a new gun damn it!"

Jessy swiveled around to face the red girl and began yelling at her. Rosey looked off to the side, saying, 'Yeah, whatever.'

"Anyway, we need to find Jong and the Commander."

Rosey attempted to get off the ground, but her legs were shaking fiercely. As she was about to fall down, an equally shaky Jessy caught her.

"Well then, let's get going!"

"...thanks..."

"No problem!"

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Jong lay on the ground, head in his hands. His vision began going spotty. Everything around him was blurring and losing its color. He had managed to cover himself with portals before the debris flew at him, but he was already at his limit before. Now he had gone way beyond it. His body was crying out in pain. The bruises on his body ached.

"Rosey..."

He had never truly used all of his mana before. He was scared. The darkness surrounded him, and he fell into a deep dream.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Rhea limped over to the man lying on the ground. She leaned over and heard steady breathing. With a smile, she breathed a sigh of relief.

"If I hadn't been here to protect you, what would you have done?"

The sword saint sat down on a piece of cement next to her unconscious companion. She looked over him and took in all of his wounds.

"You fought hard, huh?" She turned her forlorn gaze over to the direction of the impact. "Both of you fought so hard..." A tear fell from her eyes. "Uncle Rory." The tears wouldn't stop, and never before was she so glad that her friend wasn't awake to see this.

"I need... to be strong. I can't look weak. I'm the strongest one. I have to..."

With no one to hear her sobs, Rhea cried into the night.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Darkness surrounded Ryuji. He was back in the void.

A place he would often go to in his dreams.

A place he would always forget.

His dreams seemed more vivid lately. He thought about why that might be and remembered what his love had told him last time.

"Maybe it has to do with all of the authorities that are in this city."

Ryuji remained silent both in body and mind.

"Huh?"

He talked again, and again he was confused. "Why can I talk now? I was just a puddle last time, but this time I feel more..."

"Human?"

The voice that he longed for graced his ears, although he didn't have any at the moment.

"My love!" Ryuji called out into the void and heard a giggle enter his mind in response. Ryuji swore that his heart was squeezing so hard he could have coughed up blood.

"You still say that you love me? You are so unpredictable. Truly, you are my ideal."

Ryuji hung on every word that escaped her lips and wished that just once he could see her figure. He wanted to hold her. To hug her. To kiss her. To do everything to her.

"Such embarrassing thoughts." Her tone was light as if she was relishing in the youthful vigor that Ryuji's love held. "So, what did you think of them?"

"Them?"

The voice laughed. "The sins of course. What did you think of them as people? What did you think of their morals? What did you think of their philosophy? What do you think of their answer?"

One after another, Ryuji was bombarded by questions that he couldn't really solve. All he could do was ask like a lost child and hope his goddess would explain it to him.

"Answer?"

"Held within each of their souls was an answer. Their answer to what humanity is, to what freedom is. Do you understand?"

Ryuji pondered in silence. He couldn't see her, but he could feel the eagerness in the air as he formulated a response.

"They were sick. Their ideas were demented, twisted. I could never accept any answer that they came up with. If I did, I don't think I could call myself human anymore."

"I agree." Her voice hardened. "Their answers were terrible. Their attitudes troublesome, and their actions unforgivable. But doesn't that just exemplify what's wrong with this world?"

"What do you mean?"

"This world has been tainted by the gods who would ask you to pray to them. They restrict all that you do, but yet they can't intervene to help. All they do is hinder; all they do is take. They take our choices. They take our TRUE freedom."

Ryuji felt drawn into her passionate speech but felt stupid that all he could was repeat questions.

"True freedom?"

The voice didn't seem to mind and continued her rant. "True freedom is freedom without restrictions, without consequence. Where one has the right to do anything, to make anything, to become anything."

"What does that have to do with them?"

The voice seemed annoyed, and Ryuji was wondering if he had maybe messed up.

"Think about it. The sins were all once people. They were all just ordinary people. But in one way or another, the world abandoned them and left them with a choice. Suffer or take. In the end, what choice did they have? All they could choose was freedom. And so they took their authorities in a childish hope that it would grant them their wish, their freedom. But thanks to the gods, such a thing doesn't exist. Instead, all they received was a curse. A half promise. Freedom but at a price."

The voice stopped speaking, and a heavy air fell onto him. The void seemed a lot less cozy and a lot more suffocating.

"Their price..."

"A man who was given a death sentence. A disease that had no cure ailed him. He had only lived to be twenty, and in another year, he would be dead. In an attempt to prolong his life and to have fulfillment, he undertook the authority of gluttony. The power it granted saved his life by giving him more bodies to inhabit, and through these bodies, he could experience any life. His dream was in his hands; his happiness could be found! But he was never fulfilled; it was never enough. No matter what he did, he would always feel empty in the end. His price for being able to live was never finding his happiness."

Ryuji sat in silence listening to her stories. He could anger rising in her voice, but yet she kept on.

"A king loved by all but burdened with a kingdom on the very edge of the border. Under endless siege from neighbors and bandits alike, the king asked for aid from his allies, but they never answered. Feeling backed into a corner, he took up the mantle of greed. Using his power, he expelled every threat without fail. But when he came back from the battlefield, nobody knew him. He was a stranger, even to his wife and kids. Distraught, the man wandered aimlessly in his country for centuries, cutting down any that threatened the peace. To protect his family and country from everything, he became a phantom. A memory that was forgotten."

"A woman born disfigured but with a kind heart. She was a gentle soul and loved people dearly. She would spend hours holed up in her room reading books of love, and she would often fantasize what it would be like to have such a thing. But no matter what she did, any man she would get close to would find themselves a wife. Time and time again, she would be left behind without a chance. Constantly rejected, she reached out for her last hope. Using her gained ability, she could tell if people had true love in their hearts. But even after all that, and even after throwing her true body away for a perfect doll, she could not find her love. Unbeknownst to her, the price she had paid was that no one could truly love her."

"A boy born without functioning legs. He was resigned to a wheelchair for his entire childhood. His parents hated him for being born. His classmates bullied him for being different. The doctors and priests told him that there was no hope, and the heroes he looked up to berated him. A man came to him and changed his life. He had been given the ability to get back at those that wronged him, and swiftly, he did. But no matter how many skills he borrowed, deep down, he knew that he wasn't strong. He knew that his copies were weaker and that he was weaker."

"A noble's daughter born fifth in her line. Not expected to do anything, she lazed her days away, not even bothering to study or train. She was content with doing nothing, and if she wasn't doing that, then she was playing. Until her father was ousted by a rival noble. With no money and nowhere to go, she flitted from city to city, trying to find work. She found the easiest job she could do and let men have their way with her. But even that was exhausting, so she sought a different escape. With her authority, she hoped that she could find rest. Unfortunately, she had realized too late that she could not find her release. Her authority would not let her take her life."

"A woman that was subjected to horrors beyond comprehension. Years of imprisonment and torture without end. Upon meeting the devil, she signed her life away to end this world."

"And you already know about Wrath, so there's not much to tell you there."

Ryuji breathed in deeply. It had felt like he hadn't taken a breath the entire time she was speaking, like paying attention was the only thing his mind would allow him to do.

"Ryuji, I would like you to ingrain these stories into the depths of your heart. After all, from now on, their sins will carry on within you."

"What?"

"Do you not feel it? The darkness swirling within you. There's quite a lot of it now. I would wager that you don't even need to be near your no-eyed friend to remember the past worlds anymore. I hope the next time we speak, you're even more human."

Ryuji could feel himself being nudged awake. The dream would end, and he would forget her. He didn't want that; He hated that.

"Wait! At least tell me your name!"

He sounded like a lost child, but he didn't care.

"My name? You'll just forget this when you wake up... but alright."

Ryuji felt as though he was waiting on the edge of his seat when he heard her answer.

"My name is... Freiheit."