Three days later, the team is now recuperating at a medical facility. The whole entire situation was awkward for them since they were here in London five years ago and never returned after the bombing. Still, it was pure providence that no one didn’t identify them.

Even the Nether Elite shutter at the events that happened in London five years ago. Someone who was in their minds sadistically evil. More sadistic than they are. And anyone who scares somebody like the Angel of Death is nothing to be trifled with.

Lying in her hospital bed, Ayeka made the best of it. She only suffered a separated shoulder, a collapsed lung, and two broken ribs. In her case, with her accelerated healing, she’ll be back on her feet in another two days. Three at the most to make sure.

Still emotionally exhausted, Ayeka couldn’t stop daydreaming about all the wreckage and chaos that conspired five years ago. She fantasized about the thick white smoke idling in the air and the people who are choking on it. The severely burnt bodies from the white phosphorus that were instantaneously mummified from the blast. She can still hear the screams and the wailing of crying children.

As she closes her eyes, she drifted off, sleeping in her bed. As she fell fast asleep, all she could hear was the sudden chanting of men echoing in her mind. Incoherently, she could never really understand what they were even chanting. In an instant, she jolted out of her bed, dripping in sweat, severely beaten with a broken back.

It appears Ayeka was dreaming about the loss she had suffered from Alastair. Even though at that time nobody knew where she was, someone else did. Someone was watching her the entire time. That person was none other than the Daemonic monarch himself, Endspiel.

Ayeka’s eyes were bloodshot, and she can barely see what was in front of her. Suffering from a severe concussion and broken bones, an average person would’ve died already from the injuries. Ayeka was made to handle such physical trauma. However, just like any other creature that lives and breathes and thinks for themselves, everyone has a breaking point, and Ayeka found hers at the hands of Alastair. Or was it even Alastair?

Her eyes tried to adjust to the surroundings around her. She knew somebody fetched her out of the water, but who. Who saved her? Who in their right mind would give her a second chance in life? She looks over to her left, only to see a shadowy figure. He was big and tall, wearing a hooded cloak with a golden skull mask covering his face. The same mask she could make out for herself due to her blurry vision.

Weakly and incoherently, Ayeka identifies the man and asks him a burning question, “Endspiel… W-why didn’t you… L-let me drown…”

Endspiel showing sportsmanship, answered sincerely, “Oh no, Junichi. I couldn’t let someone like you die. I couldn’t let you drown in the river of your sin. Not after you have found premature enlightenment. If I would’ve let you die… If I let the Beast kill you, then you wouldn’t have learned anything. No, this is just the first step that you find your true calling in life. Your real purpose in this world...”

Ayeka closed her eyes and accepted her fate. It was pointless to see what was in front of her face. Plus, she felt like the whole room was spinning, and she felt like vomiting. She lay down on the pillow to regain her senses as she spoke, “Where am I?”

“Sanctuary,” Endspiel proudly announces. “It is where the unbreakable has become broken. It is unquenchable that has become quenched. Is where the hungry become engorged.”

With that decadent diatribe, Endspiel rose out of the chair and faced the window as he continued to iterate, “When you look out the window, you and I see both two different images. You see nothing but chaos and ruin. However, I see a vast fertile field of opportunity and possibility. Your God has forsaken your soul. Your leaders have abandoned you. Your comrades are all dead or have turned against you. The media and humanity have cursed your names. Many others would have at least given up by now. But not you, Junichi.”

“I… I don’t…” Ayeka weekly responded as she drifts in and out of consciousness.

This made Endspiel giggle, “I’m eager and excited to see how you will redesign, rebuild, and reclaim yourself. That is the only reason why I couldn’t let him murder you. In the end, he needs you. He needs people like you to motivate him as a reminder. Even though you never really thought much of him and that was by design on his end, he purposely kept his true self hidden for a good reason.”

Endspiel then rests his hand on the window glass, mesmerized by the uncertain future in which was right in front of him. However, he wasn’t looking outside; he was watching the reflection back at him. He was looking at Ayeka who is still out of it, “I was there when the Beast had risen to his final form. He enjoyed himself that day; he destroyed your little friend. Even if you would try to become what you have failed to be, what then? Would you even try to become something else? Alternatively, are you that profound of your destiny that your masters have given you? You’re going to have to make that choice on your own.”

Ayeka shook her head slowly, trying to at least converse with the monarch, “But… What choice?”

Then, Endspiel faced Ayeka and gave a simple shoulder shrug, “You could have been anything you wanted to be, Junichi. You could have tried something different. Even after years of abuse or getting abused, you could have defected from Oleander Syndicate and done something positive with your life. You could have at least opened your heart and be in a relationship with someone. You thought this version of you was sufficient. Later realizing the social climate of evolution has passed you by.”

Endspiel walks towards Ayeka’s bedside as she terrified. Ayeka couldn’t make out what was going on, but she is still here the sudden clicking of Endspiel’s boots, “That is why I was always enamored with you all from the very beginning, Junichi. This world needs a new class and a new breed of evil to lead the way of the future. Unfortunately, you and your so-called friends were always obsolete. Even in your conception.”

Endspiel leaned in carefully, only being ten inches away from Ayeka space, “You were always built to break, dear. It was only a miracle for you and your companions to still be around for so long. However, you could always reinvent yourself. This world will now definitely evolve with or without you. If you decide to stay the same, you will be obsolete and would eventually die. Even if you choose to grow as well, and become whatever you decide you to want to be…”

Then, Endspiel gently rests his hand on Ayeka’s bloodied and bruised face as the wolf girl winced and whimpered.

With that simple parting gesture, Endspiel ends his diatribe, “Then maybe you will understand.”

And with that, Endspiel left the room, leaving Ayeka to either to be found or to die alone. Whichever comes first, would be Ayeka’s decision in her alone in the eyes of Endspiel.

Lying in that bed alone with her eyes closed, she really couldn’t think of anything anymore without feeling sudden remorse. She let everyone down. Everyone.