Prologue - Forever Sworn

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"As expected of you." (???)

The sight of debris, bullet holes, craters, and fires surrounded us as we stood in the middle of the town square.

It used to be quite the spectacle as one of the world's most famous touring spots, quite a shame that it came to this.

The buildings would proudly pierce the sky and the area would be bustling with life as people went about their daily business, trading and conversing. But now, there's nothing more than rubble, left abandoned to rust away into history.

"Haha, it was nothing compared to your handiwork."

I laughed, struggling to respond before giving a quick glance towards the confirmation of my body's condition.

My body was covered with an innumerable amount of wounds, my right arm was lost from the elbow down and it seems like I've lost sensation in my left foot as well.

I stopped inspecting my mangled body, struggling to raise my head to check on the others.

Seems like they're not doing any better.

Two men and two women clad in full body armor were standing at an equal distance across from each other, staring each other down.

Black Death, Iron Fang, Blood Rose, Ghost Blade, the best of the best special operatives from the four organizations that held complete control over the world were gathered into one place.

The woman who I responded to slowly collapsed onto one knee right before we all did the same.

"Kicking the bucket now Rose? Don't you have any shame?" (???)

A boy directly to my right proudly chuckled in pain as he tried to support himself with his shaking arms.

"Doesn't seem like you're doing any better Fang. I didn't know you so blatantly wanted to have a meeting with God. It's shameful to see how hard Death over there single-handedly kicked your ass."(???)

Directly to my left, a girl coolly retorted, slowly trying to move herself to sit.

“Oy! Don't give me that! He single-handedly kicked your ass as well! If you’re so full of yourself, why don't we go again?!?!” (Iron Fang)

The boy growled before struggling to get up.

"Now now children, we're all equals in this place, let's remember to respect each other and be polite." (Blood Rose)

Rose gently spoke as she observed the area around us.

I sighed and took the lead before it got out of hand, once they started, they would never stop,

"Alright, moving on, how'd everyone do?" (Black Death)

Sighing in return, Fang dejectedly sat and rubbed his stiff shoulders,

"Fenrir is no longer a concern." (Iron Fang)

Lightly laughing as Rose sat with her legs tucked underneath her before inspecting her wounds,

"Devillian won't be a problem." (Blood Rose)

Ghost slowly brushed off the dirt and soot from her dress,

"Matriarch has been dealt with." (Ghost Blade)

"And Arya has been taken care of as well, does everyone have the rings?" (Black Death)

We all struggled, retrieving the rings from wherever we stored them before placing them in front of us.

Each ring had special engravings on them with a unique gemstone adorned. From what we could see, the four gemstones were Sapphire, Ruby, Emerald, and Topaz. They had a strange gleam upon further inspection.

Everyone sighed in relief.

"With this....The world won't be as depressing, right?....." (Blood Rose)

Rose spoke with relief and a hint of happiness as she slowly turned to look at each and every one of us in admiration.

"Yeah...No more discrimination or fights for supremacy, children can play and laugh again without the need to be afraid of being drafted into the Great Wars and everyone will have an equal opportunity to fulfill their wishes...They won't ever have to deal with all of this ever again...Will this really work?.." (Ghost Blade)

Ghost nodded as her voice filled with doubt became evident.

"Haha, well that's the reality of it all........I believe it'll work, I trust in our Seniors." (Iron Fang)

Fang shook his head before staring at us with a strong look of determination in his eyes,

"No, I'm absolutely sure it'll work! It was pretty fun...I'm very happy that we finally got to pick a fight with the organizations after so much planning, they were the ones who have raised us after all. I wish I could relive that adrenaline rush...This is the least that we could do for the problems that we've caused." (Iron Fang)

Fang gave a bitter smile as he rested with his back onto the ground, staring at the sky with the bright, silvery moon in full view and with the stars gently blinking back at us.

"This will definitely work, we've all gathered enough information from our organizations and other sources when we decided, remember? Everyone can dream again, and everyone can strive to make them come true without the fear of being controlled behind the curtains. It's true that countless people have died because of us, but we did what we did for our countries back then, it was our job and our duty to do so in order to survive. There's nothing that we could do about it....We became stronger, and now we're using that strength for this day, right?...With this, we will have made amends to all of those people, or at least I hope so...Remember this moment, the proof that we were able to free ourselves from our shackles." (Black Death)

I tried my best to console them, but as expected, I don't really have any cheesy words to use and it turned into a lecture instead huh? Ahhh...My bad, my bad. With a smile, I made a move to sit down before taking another quick peek at everyone.

"Heh, I think that we're all probably going to go to hell after this though...Not looking forward to that...” (Black Death)

They laughed, bright smiles were painted all over their face, but it seems like something was still bothering them huh?....

I looked at my bloodied hand. This was an inevitable situation for each and every one of us. Reality slowly started to sink into each and every one of us as we sat in this gloomy atmosphere

At that moment, a switch went off in our heads, switching ourselves from battle mode to our normal, unrestricted selves.

Tears started to drift down Ghost's face as she desperately looked towards us.

"I don't want to lose any of you! I want to be together with all of you..I-I don't want to be in a place where all of you aren't in it! I want to spend more time with all of you! I want to laugh with all of you more! I want to talk to all of you more!...I...I..." (Ghost Blade)

Her words broke off as she started to gently sob.

"I agree with Sis, is there really no other way?......I also really don't think that it'd be too fun without any of you...We already experienced too much together to just leave things like this...Right?.." (Iron Fang)

Fang painfully got back up into a sitting position as he similarly stared at us, sadness and bitterness could be seen all over his face.

Silence lingered in the air for a while as the reality of all of this was fully exposed.

Born and raised as orphans, we who never were given a chance to experience a parent's love. The governments of each organization chose us by chance. No one cared for us, and every single hour under our respective organization's care was agonizing for us. Isolated, far away from the warmth of humanity.

We were forced to go through countless experiments and years of training to become what we are today. We took care of ourselves, we had to fight in order to survive in a world where results were everything. Anyone who couldn't meet their quota was disposed of. With the fear of losing our right to live hovering over us for every second of our lives, we worked hard, shedding tears and blood, until we eventually rose to the top.

We've proven the world to be hardened veterans and experts in this occupation. We finally earned ourselves a name when we had none, we have stolen countless lives with our dirtied hands but how has it come to this? How did cold-blooded killers come to care for one another?

It was by simple coincidence, pure luck.

Operations that were given to us by our countries led to our encounters many times, especially during operations of high interest between our organizations.

We started off as eternally sworn enemies. Harbingers that devastated the world, the very evil beings that threatened our respective countries. We all thought we were heroes, the ones who would protect and unify our countries, but over a couple of chance life-changing events and realizations, that led us to understand and grow closer to each other.

The dream of having a chance where we didn't have to kill, where we could live normally, where we could have people to actually rely upon without paranoia lingering over us. A chance to defy Fate. Our experiences, our beliefs and our stories were one in the same, someone who was like yourself, wouldn't you be curious of an impossibility?

"I..I also...." (Blood Rose)

Tears streamed down Rose's face as she struggled with her words.

Haha well, that's surprising, Rose is usually the cheerful and energetic person of the group, this is completely unlike her...Oh?...

I suddenly felt cool drops of a substance on my left hand.

...Well, that's embarrassing, I guess I'm the same as well huh?... Do we really have to continue with this?...

"Ah......." (Black Death)

I shook my head. There's no turning back, we have to continue. For our sakes and the sake of the people. I hardened my tone,

"It's a bit late to turn back now...It can't be helped, our organizations left a massive, crippling scar within the world and it won't fully heal until there's absolutely no trace of them left. Do you really want others to continue in this endless cycle?.... To do what we had to do?..."(Black Death)

After secretly wiping my face, deeply engraving each and everyone's faces into my heart and mind, I forcefully stared at the others, trying to get my message across.

We're all that's left, we've left too high of a profile to maintain quiet lives in this world. It's our duty to tie up any loose strings and to wrap this all up with a fancy bow. There can't be a single error or chance of failure in our operation. That's how we were trained. This was inevitable...

But they were also all that I had left...

Time seemed to stop as we all embraced the heavy silence that enveloped us. Unspoken words were exchanged between us, we all understood what was going to happen next and we all understood our feelings for each other. Nonstop tears flowed down from our faces, we were grown men and women who were in our early and late twenties, this was a sorry sight...We had definitely experienced a lot, but it could also be said that we hadn't experienced too much either when it came to living normal lives...The experiences that we just recently had with each other held a very special place in our hearts.

".....I love all of you." (Ghost Blade)

"I love all of you more!" (Iron Fang)

"No! I love all of you the most!" (Blood Rose)

I chuckled while remembering once again at how they all loved to bicker with one another, it was heartwarming to see this again...

Will this really be the last time?....

I shook my head at the thought, clearing my mind and grinned,

"Don't forget me! I also love all of you!" (Black Death)

Grimly steeling myself, I switched back to a more serious tone as I noticed the ground starting to tremble,

"Is everyone ready?..." (Black Death)

Everyone reluctantly nodded in response as their expressions suddenly turned serious.

"Alright...I will begin then..." (Black Death)

There's another reason as to why we couldn't choose to live quiet lives in this world.

A deep groove was directly below each and every one of us. During our confrontations, we skillfully managed to end our fights with each person positioned in front of a different groove. Maybe it was an unconscious reaction for efficiency while we were fighting, but no one had to waste extra movement to reposition themselves to one, I guess it was the least that we could do for each other.

While we were talking, our pools of blood slowly filled the grooves to the brim and the ground started to tremble in reaction to that as altars slowly started to rise from each of the grooves.

I wore the ring on my left ring finger, stood up, and rested my hand on the altar.

Everyone simultaneously did the same.

"With the will of the Ancients, I offer my body, my soul and my will to our dance." (Black Death)

A cool sensation spread throughout my body as a blue beam of light gently cascaded from my hand towards the center of the four altars.

"The Earth shall blaze and roar, the Light shall fade and mumble, the Darkness shall rage and howl, but let our dreams be known." (Blood Rose)

A red beam of light that seemed just about ready to engulf Rose burst from the ring and connected with the blue beam of light, creating a circle of fire around the center.

"Let our people dream and laugh again, let the lands dance and thrive in renewal, let the skies smile and expand boundlessly with joy." (Iron Fang)

A green beam of light widely spread throughout the ground from the ring as if there were living tendrils of flora before connecting towards the center.

"Smite all evil, ignite all wills, let all evil be forgotten and let all good be enshrined for time immemorial, and turn the world once more, an era unknown, a place unseen, forever told." (Ghost Blade)

A yellow beam of light proudly shot through the ring and brightly lit the whole area around us.

""""With our wishes heard, our rites completed and our sacrifices made, let the four once divided become one. By the will of the Ancients, we implore you, [Exodus]!""""

As we invoked the final piece of the ritual, an otherworldly light suddenly exploded from the center where the beams of light connected, quickly expanding and coming to life.

A figure slowly began to shape and form until we saw the figure of a blindfolded woman with an otherworldly beauty adorned with ginger hair, a set of pure white wings, scales in her left hand and a longsword in her right to compliment it. She had quite a resemblance to Lady Justice in our world.

"Your wish has been heard, with your will becoming mine, and your hopes embodying my own, our agreement shall be upheld as I offer you my oath of fealty. May you rest knowing that you will forever be memorialized as heroes." (Lady Justice)

She gently nodded with a smile as we noticed the sky splitting open. Celestial beings similar to Lady Justice suddenly dropped into our world and lined up behind her, bowing towards us in respect before shooting back up into the air and flying towards the corners of the Earth.

I immediately started coughing out blood just as the ritual completed, collapsing onto the floor as energy drained from my body.

Yes...The ritual would've forcefully ended our lives, whether we've wished for it or not.

So we fought each other as representatives of our organizations, for one last time.

Multiple thuds rang out throughout the town square, I quickly glanced at the sources of the sounds.

Ah... Seems like they're starting to deal with the backlash as well.

Everyone was collapsed onto the ground with blood leaking from their mouths as they gasped for air, but everyone was also brightly smiling, as though as if a weight had been lifted from their shoulders.

"Ah...what a relief...It really did work.....Huh?...."(Ghost Blade)

"I told ya so.......Sis!...." (Iron Fang)

"We can finally.....rest easy now...right?...Haha I'm so glad!..." (Blood Rose)

"Yeah...We finally did it haha....We accomplished our dream...." (Black Death)

..Did we really accomplish our dream?...

I weakly struggled to turn my head to look at the fallen figures of the ones that I held dearly, the people who I had learned how to love and how to laugh with...The people who I am willing to lay down my life for, the people who supported me and gave me a taste of happiness, something that I never thought I had deserved...A family that I thought I could never have...Was this really what we wished for?...

We all laid there in silence as we stared at the sky, the figures of winged beings zipping to and fro in the moonlit night as it enveloped our sorry figures.

"I want to...Meet all of you again.....Someday........." (Black Death)

Why did it have to be so painful to just talk?... My eyesight started to dim as I spoke out in a barely audible tone, earnestly trying to reach out to them with my voice.

I don't know if they can hear me, but please.......Just reach them, just this once!

Let me be selfish, just this once!

A momentary pause that felt like ages hovered in the air.

I sighed in relief as a weak laughter came in response.

"Haha...I...Do too.....We'll...meet again.....Someday...Even if I have to...Come back..." (Blood Rose)

"I'll follow.....You anywhere...Big Bro..." (Iron Fang)

"I'll.....Try my hardest.....To find all of you...." (Ghost Blade)

"It's a.....Promise then..." (Black Death)

We chose to sacrifice our dreams for the sake of others.

We've lost everything...But at this very moment, I can't help but feel happy. That's quite strange now, isn't it?

I weakly smiled as the world faded into a gentle darkness with that last thought.