26 Chapter 23 - "Greed Crusade: The Promise for a Reunion" (2/2)

Priscilla's head had been crushed, she was sprawled on the floor, and her body had been left in a grotesque state. Priscilla's corpse was in such a terrible state, that Jens vomited on the ground.

Her long, orange hair was sprawled untidily across the floor. Both of her arms had been sliced off at the elbows, and Jens could not find a glimpse of them anywhere. A vast number of deep cuts had been carved onto her skin, and a large amount of blood was pooling out of them. The trail of blood had started from the back of the aisle, showing that it had been a long fought battle which had taken place across the room.

Still in shock, he looked slightly at his right, and that's where he found Otto…

Otto's eyes were gone and his limbs were cut off, or maybe even torn off. There was a huge hole in his head, a part of his face was gone, including his jaw.

He looked at the throne, and that's where he found Felt.

Felt's hair were pulled out of head. Her fingers were cut off and her face was deformed. Her legs were completely twisted and there was still blood streaming out of her head.

Jens looked closely, and noticed Nathan's head laying on the lap of Felt.

Just like that, everyone was dead.

He started to walk slowly and slowly. There was no trace of Aestas' body, nothing except for her scythe, and Jens assumed that she died and her body went into the scythe.

He looked at the main door, and that's where he found Regulus.

Lying in front of him was Regulus' severed body.

Regulus' body was severed from the right shoulder, to the left side, suffering a wound which Jens thinks is caused by a large blade or something sharp.

Yes, everyone was murdered except for Reinhard, who was the only one with no trace.

Jens then felt a small earthquake, he ran towards a window near the throne.

Jens was watching the bottom of the Castle gradually being engulfed by the shadows of Satella from the window, when suddenly, a white bird flew up and landed on the railing of the window. Jens gazed emotionlessly at it, breathing out as the bird flew into the Throne Hall. He slowly started to think about what just happened.

Everyone died, but Reinhard is gone. It couldn't be the case that it was Regulus who killed all of them, no… That's not a possibility. Reinhard van Astrea, the current Sword Saint should've been able to destroy Regulus with ease, or atleast make him flee, but who could've killed all of these people?

While sensing that the end was approaching, Jens feels a great weakness in his body, and sits down on the floor. He now understood the reason why Priscilla did that. If Aldebaran has the same ability as Jens, or something similar, then it means that Priscilla already knew it would be a failed loop.

Jens suddenly lifted his head up. There was someone behind him. It wasn't a bird, or a shadow.

The sign of a living being, someone was there. Jens stood up.

Jens : ”W-W–”

Jens trying to ask something in a very faint tone of voice but does not succeed.

He has no strength left witin him to even look back behind him. The person who stood behind him laughed, and spoke with a voice he heard before, but can't think of who it was.

??? : ”…Next, I believe in you, Hero.”

For a second, Jens heard a whooshing noise. Then his field of vision started to spin rapidly in front of him. The throne hall, the sky, the world… all of them were spinning in front of him. His body felt awfully light. He was flying up into the sky like a bird. And then he realized what had happened.

Someone had decapitated him.

Tragically… That's when, Jens, lost his life…

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He Returned by Death, and like that, he found himself in a dangerous situation.

Priscilla : ”LISTEN UP SHI–”

Jens : ”PRISCILA NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

He couldn't do anything. His lips called Priscilla's name because that was a natural reaction to avoid dangerous situations.

Just like that, he stopped Priscilla from telling people about Return by Death.

Priscilla : ”Hm… So it worked.”

Felt : ”What's going on all out of a sudden? What are you two whining about?”

Priscilla : ”It appears that I was right the whole time. That boy… Jens really is an interesting one.”

Jens : ”No… She didn't tell everyone about Return by Death because that loop was already a failed one. She told about Return by Death to see what would happened? But why? Why would she? There is no actual reason to do so.”

Jens : ”Priscilla, why?”

Priscilla : ”Hahahaha! There is no actual reason, except to make things more interesting. You saw your fate, didn't you? Now you know what you've to do. We need to win.”

She took her fan and hided her smug smile behind it.

The walls were slowly stopping to burn.

Regulus : ”I don't get devils like you. Come and fight me like you all mean it!”

Emilia : ”Jens! I have an idea!”

But then, Regulus swung his arm and fired a slash flying towards Emilia, however Jens threw a spear towards Emilia, teleporting to it and pushing Emilia away so she wouldn't get teared apart.

Jens luckily was able to dodge the shockwave himself.

Regulus : ”Fast, that's something I'm not used to of you Jens.”

Emilia : ”T-Thank you Jens. Now listen. I am part of Regulus' Kingdom. I have no idea how, but I have to leave his Kingdom so he cannot use Authority here. W-When he abducted me, I heard him talking about a girl being in his Kingdom, Melissa, it was. But now that she left, he used me to use his Authority. I have to leave his Kingdom!”

Nathan : ”If that's true, we need to kill Regulus way too many times.”

Priscilla : ”One Citizen of the Small Kingdom is worth around five lives. Aldebaran taught me that. But your theory is not true Nathan. We've to shred his heart into enough pieces so Emilia leaves his Kingdom.”

Regulus : ”The Blood Stained Bride, Priscilla, you aren't a stupid one, are you?”

Priscilla : ”Shut up already! LISTEN TO ME EVERYONE! USE ALL YOU GOT ON REGULUS RIGHT NOW!”

Just like that, another lightning strike flashes through Jens mind.

Just like that, he hears the same voice who killed him the previous time inside of his skull.

??? : ”Jens, my Hero… It's the tale of the Leo King… Gates. Citizens. Hearts.”

Jens : ”THE TALE OF THE LEO KING, NOW I REMEMBER! GO FOR THE LIMBS, THEN HIS HEAD, THEN HIS HEART! WE MUST CLOSE ALL GATES OF THE KINGDOM. THE POSSESSOR OF GREED ACTS LIKE A KINGDOM, BY CLOSING ALL GATES, HE BECOMES UNABLE TO HAVE CITIZENS INSIDE OF HIM!”

Everyone grouped together, Reinhard and Jens stood behind.

Felt, activated her Divine Protection and dashed forward, disappearing from everyone's field of vision. Creating a massive tornado, with Regulus in the middle, she appears behind Regulus and slashes his right arm off. Out of shock, Regulus coughed blood.

Priscilla started shining a bright yellow color and threw her Yang Sword, and successfully cut off Regulus' left arm. But that wasn't it, the sword made Regulus' whole body burn.

Nathan started summoning both Wind and Yang spirits and sat down on one knee. He pointed with one finger towards Regulus' left knee and started firing invisible bullets, he acted just like a sniper. The bullets were flying rapdily, and after only a few shots, his left leg went flying.

Otto, who was standing in the middle of the group, collected enough Earth Mana and created two pillars between his right leg. From his hand, he created a fist, which made the two pillars crush his right leg into a pool of blood.

Aestas' scythe became blue and she jumped into the air, she threw her scythe at Regulus and successfully cut off his head, in less than a second.

Emilia, dashed towards Regulus and pointed her hand at Regulus' heart, she closes her eyes and says only ”I'm sorry to do this, villain”. Then, a beam of Ice enters his body, which made the flames of Priscilla disappear and instead froze his whole body. Regulus turned around, looking angry at the group, trying to say words, but unable to because of having nearly no blood in his body.

Then, Jens and Reinhard dashed towards Regulus. Reinhard grabbed the Dragon Sword Reid, and Jens summoned the Blade of Eldia and both, breaking the ice, tearing Regulus apart, and destroying his heart.

Then suddenly, a yellow light leaves Emilia and goes back into the corpse of Regulus, which suddenly disappeared.

Jens : ”We did it…”

At last, Emilia ran into Jens arms and hugged him. He was exhausted, so he wanted to embrace her too, but when he heard the tears falling from Emilia's face, he stood paralyzed.

Emilia : ”Jens, thank you. Thank you so much. You saved me. The Witch Cult wanted to use me for something evil. I am not evil. I would never want to hurt anyone except for those who want to do something evil to the world.”

She let Jens go and looked at everyone.

Emilia : ”Thank you… Everyone. Seriously, Thank you!”

Reinhard : ”It's our duty to safe those in need. I'm happy that you're safe. But we are not finished yet. There are few battles still going on. We need to help those in need now. Emilia, Jens stay here for the time being. We'll go to the Conquest against Lust.”

Otto : ”Goodjob Jens!”

Aestas : ”This was… a great fight.”

Jens : ”N-No… not goodjob 'Jens'… We all did a good job! We won against Regulus Corneas… We didn't kill him, but we saved Emilia.”

Priscilla walked towards the door and opened it, leaving the throne hall without words.

Felt : ”What's with her?”

Reinhard : ”That doesn't matter. We won. Felt, I recommand you to not go to the battle against Lust. Please, go to the main square and see if some people already returned.”

Felt : ”Aestas-san, would you go with me?”

Aestas : ”Alrightaa! Let's go!”

Aestas and Felt ran out of the throne hall.

Reinhard : ”Otto, Nathan, are you able to fight?”

Nathan : ”Count me in Reinhard!”

Otto : ”I think so. I still need to find Gluttony, I'm not done with him!”

Reinhard : ”Alright. Follow me!”

Reinhard, Otto and Nathan left the throne hall.

Jens collapsed on the ground and looked at the darkish blue sky.

Emilia sat down and looked at Jens.

Jens : ”I can't believe we did it. We won against the Sin Archbishop of Greed.”

Emilia : ”I can't believe it either! You did a great job Jens.”

Jens : ”I-I didn't do anything… When I fight, it feels like someone who I do not know possess me. But…. That one person feels very familiar…”

Emilia : ”I'm worried about you Jens… I'm scared of the future. I can't tell you how much it means to me…. that you saved me!”

Jens : ”E-Emilia… I already told you. I love you. You mean the world to me. No matter what will happen, I will do whatever it takes to save you. Even if it means burning in hell, drowning in oceans, freezing to death, I will safe you, because I love you.”

Emilia : ”I don't know what love is… Why am I so stupid… Everything what happened today was because of me. I was the one that got abducted me. People got injured because of me.”

She slowly started to tear up while looking at Jens.

Jens sat down instead of laying on his back.

Jens : ”No! That's not true! It's not your fault! It's nobodies fault that you got abducted. It's the damned witch cult that did this. Nobody can blame you. In fact, there is nobody to blame for this! You did a great job at remembering about the Kingdom thing.”

Emilia : ”Y-You're an amazing person Jens. I want to love you… I just don't know how.”

Jens : ”Like I said, there is no problem in that. I'll wait. Even if it takes ages, I'll wait for you to learn how to love me, but in the meantime, I'll try to teach you that… I love you!”

Emilia looks happy at Jens and jumps on him, hugging him, embracing him with her arms and willing to never let go.

Jens, the boy who was being hugged didn't want to push her away, even though he was injured, he was happy that he managed to defeat Greed with the team. But there are many questions left unanswered…

Suddenly, in a blink of an eye, Jens wakes up in a shadowy World.

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He stands in a beautiful field of grass and can't see the end.

He sees the black sky, but doesn't see the end.

In front of him, stands the woman… Satella.

Satella : ”Time… Time is ticking Jens. You've to kill me. He's after me. I wants me. He wants me to destroy the world. Please, kill me.”

Before, Jens could say a single world, he realized from who the voice was that killed him, it was indeed Satella's.

Jens : ”You beheaded me. Why?”

Satella : ”That wasn't me. That wasn't me. That wasn't me! That was Envy.”

Jens : ”A-Ahh… I see. Satella tell me. Who is the real enemy?”

Satella : ”Greed. The Washuu King. and…. That dangerous thing.”

Satella turns around, out of fear.

Jens grabs her shoulder and asks.

Satella : ”What dangerous thing, who are you talking about?”

Satella turns around, but her face is gone. All that is left of her face is a black, silhouette of her face and her eyes are filled with anger.

No, this couldn't be Satella. This was…

Witch of Envy : ”PANDORA! PANDORA! PANDORA! PANDORA! PANDORA! PANDORA! SOMEONE MUST KILL HER. SHE IS THE DEVIL OF THIS WORLD. SHE'LL DESTROY THIS WORLD AND CREATE A NEW GENERATION OF WITCHES! YOU MUST KILL HER! KILL HER TO SAVE ME! KILL HER TO SAVE EMILIA! KILL HER TO SAVE YOUR FRIENDS! KILL HER TO REGAIN YOUR MEMORIES! KILL HER FOR YOUR REAL POWERS! KILL HER TO SAVE LUGNICA! KILL HER TO BE FRIENDS AGAIN WITH THOSE THAT ARE FORGOTTEN! KILL HER TO RETURN THE FORGOTTEN ONES! KILL HER FOR LOVE! MY LOVE! YOU MUST LOVE ME! IF YOU DON'T KILL HER I CAN'T LOVE YOU! KILL HER! ALL FOR LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”